With time as its sequence and questions as its outline, The History of Literary Thoughts in the Song and Yuan Dynasties divides the development of literary thoughts in the Song and Yuan Dynasties into several stages, selects the literary thoughts of the representative figures who can lead the creation style and aesthetic trend of the era for analysis and makes an in-depth investigation of the works that can reflect their creation ideas. With poems on paintings, critique poems about calligraphy and prefaces and postscripts on paintings and calligraphy works in the Song and Yuan Dynasties as the entry points, it adopts semantic analysis method to interpret in detail the emotional experience and artistic purport behind the poems and articles and make a theoretical explanation of some literary and artistic propositions and categories that link up the poetics and the art of calligraphy and painting, and comprehensively shows the aesthetic consciousness and literary and artistic form in the Song and Yuan Dynasties.
