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"The World Losing Symbols: Poetry, Experience and Rhetoric" takes modern Chinese poetry as the entry point and "symbol" as the narrative object, tracing the ancient origin of "symbol", its development process as a social practice, and its "metamorphosis" in modern society. The author intends to point out that "symbol" is not only a means of literary rhetoric and ritual expression, but also a way for human beings to experience the world and recognize themselves. In the period of contemporary Chinese literature, the existence and disappearance of "symbols" represents the changes in society, literature and living conditions; the rewriting of "symbols" also means the rewriting of human beings' own culture and meaning of survival.

This book puts aside the investigation and combing of abstract aesthetic categories such as aesthetics, beauty, sense of beauty, and art. Instead, it explores major issues related to aesthetics and life based on rich life phenomena and cultural phenomena and starting from the aesthetic feeling.

Geng Zhangchun has been mainly engaged in poetics, narrative theory and contemporary literary criticism since the early 1980s. He is the author of "Metaphor" (1993), "The Observer's Illusion" (1995), "Narrative Aesthetics - Exploring an Encyclopedic Novel" (2002), and "A World Lost in Symbols" (2008). He has written various essays such as "Pain" (1993), "The Land of Words and Memories" (1995), "Divinations on the Sand" (2008), etc. There are also social ideological essays and poetry writing. Won the Critic of the Year Award at the 7th Chinese Literature Media Awards. He is currently a professor at the School of Humanities and Communication of Hainan University, a distinguished professor at Henan University, and a doctoral supervisor.

Geng Zhangchun has been mainly engaged in poetics, narrative theory and contemporary literary criticism since the early 1980s. He is the author of "Metaphor" (1993), "The Observer's Illusion" (1995), "Narrative Aesthetics - Exploring an Encyclopedic Novel" (2002), and "A World Lost in Symbols" (2008). He has written various essays such as "Pain" (1993), "The Land of Words and Memories" (1995), "Divinations on the Sand" (2008), etc. There are also social ideological essays and poetry writing. Won the Critic of the Year Award at the 7th Chinese Literature Media Awards. He is currently a professor at the School of Humanities and Communication of Hainan University, a distinguished professor at Henan University, and a doctoral supervisor.