This supplement to volume 20 of Prism is the first installment of a four-part project, with roughly concurrent publication in Chinese and English. The works in this project, which include Chinese monographs by Prism’s editor Zong-qi Cai, cover Chinese theories of literature, literary creation, interpretation, and aesthetic judgment. This supplement, specifically, covers topics that include the inadequate presence of China’s literary theory and literary creation in English-language scholarship; an analytical and analytical-reconstructive approach to Six Dynasties comprehensive theories that pieces together isolated comments made by multiple authors over different times into a “theoretic collage” the philosophical foundations laid by pre-Qin and Han-Wei thinkers for the subsequent rise of literary creation the burgeoning impact of Buddhist thought on the theory of artistic creation; and a reflection on and comparison of the distinctive features of major Chinese theories of literary creation to their Western counterparts.

Zong-qi Cai is Professor of East Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.