Research on the Changes in Yang Xiong(揚雄)’s Creative Ideas

This paper analyzes the changes in Yang Xiong’s creative consciousness, focusing on zhu pin fu(逐貧賦), jie chao(解嘲), ju qin mei xin(劇秦美新). He regarded satire as the ideal of literature. In other words, Yang Xiong, who valued the political and social functions of literature, stopped writing due to frustration with the overall achievement of fame and the failure of the satirical function. His consciousness as shown in zhu pin fu(逐貧賦) shows his anxiety about the ideal Confucian values of fame and contentment in poverty. In jie chao(解嘲), he sees the error of the traditional perception of scholars based on this idea of 立功and seeks a way out. The path that Yang Xiong sought was to devote himself to writing. In ju qin mei xin(劇秦美新), Yang Xiong’s own anxiety about poverty, desire for wealth, the fact that he was a colleague of Wang Mang(王莽) and Liu Xin(劉歆), his closeness to the classical studies, and his fear of execution further enhanced the sentences’ heavy beauty and light satire, leading to an aesthetic close to flattery. This kind of aesthetic is specifically expressed in ju qin mei xin, and it can be said that it is what shows the creative consciousness of aesthetics.