The Formation and Evolution of the Theories of the Relation between <i>Qing</i> 情 and <i>Jing</i> 景 in Classical Chinese Poetics

Abstract This article examines the relation between qing (feeling) and jing (scene) in traditional Chinese poetics. Early theories, dating to the late Six Dynasties period, mainly focused on the genesis of poetry through the mind's excitement by external elements. From the Tang to the Ming, critical attention shifted to the fusion of feeling and scene as the basis of poetic composition and structure, a shift that cemented the feeling-scene fusion as a central concept in Chinese poetics. Qing critical discourse on the concept was further enriched by new themes and perspectives. This article concludes with a cross-cultural comparison, drawing on eighteenth-century English criticism's treatment of the relation between description of nature and expression of human sentiments in the pastoral and topographical poetry.