REPRESENTATION AND TREATMENT OF ILLNESS IN LU ZHAOLIN'S LITERATURE

Abstract

Referring to the therapeutic effect of literary writing on illness, Lu Zhao-lin, a renowned poet in the early Tang, is a typical and persuasive case. Lu had both illness and disease during his life, and his ways of self-healing through literary writing are diverse. By analyzing the literary works while he was ill, it is concluded that Lu had employed three methods of therapy through literature: first, to escape the pain of being neglected by recording his appreciation of the landscape; to compensate for the lack of reality by creating an image of the “perfect self”; and finally, to pour out his emotion through self-narration of his disease and illness in the form of a story. Why are the literary therapy measures by Lu Zhao-lin variable and complex? Does his suicide mean the failure of his therapy? This thesis sets out to discuss the reasons, contents, and influence of treatment of illness in Lu Zhao-lin’s literature.