Abstract: The literary theory of “continuity and change” (tong bian) in The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons (Wen Xin Diao Long) by LIU Xie is more than straight applying the concept of “continuity and change” from The Book of Changes (Zhou Yi). According to the Book of Changes, “change” is naturally reasonable and provides the condition for “continuity”, and the latter is the result of the former. In LIU Xie's view, however, “new change” in literary was featured with the exotic, shocking and frivolous expressions since the Southern Dynasties, which led to the serious problem of “inconsistence between content and expression”, so this kind of “change” in literary was worthy of reflection and criticism. The unique thinking and connotation of LIU Xie's “continuity and change” lies in constraining the disadvantages of “new change” in expression by inheriting conventional form of classics rather than promoting this so-called “change”, and in considering “continuity” as the premise of the “change” and intuiting the “continuity” of conventional form, rather than the result of “change”. In The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons, LIU Xie applied the traditional theory of “continuity and change” into an overall literary structure, and suggested constraining the novelty and change by norm and continuity. He creatively reconstructed the meaning structure and connotation of “continuity and change” and interpreted it as “intuiting and adapting”, deriving from the meaning of “change for continuity” (bian er tong zhi) in The Book of Changes.

Key words: The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons (Wen Xin Diao Long), “continuity and change” (tong bian) , conventional form, recurrent trend, meaning conversion