Abstract

It has been agreed among scholars of Chinese poetics that the meanings of Li Yi-shan's untitled poems are ambiguous and controversial. Traditional scholars have the tendency to interpret this group of poems as Li's allegorical works in which he hides his relationship with his mentor Lin-hu Tao. What the traditional interpreters miss is the lyric significance of these poems. They become the Li's poetic autobiography.

This author, unsatisfied with the traditional readings, tries to apply theories of reception aesthetics and readers' response to re-evaluate Li's untitled poems. He feels that the conflicting readings of the untitled poems are due to the incomplete instructions in the text, which is full of gaps or blanks or indeterminacies and must be filled by the reader.

Keywords: Li Yi-shan, untitled poems, hermeneutics, reception aesthetics, readers' response.