明代區域文學發展興盛，公安與竟陵兩派於晚葉時特意持楚幟而興，並以此排擊擬古流弊。文學史對此現象多直指受到陽明心學與李贄等人的影響，但這並無法解釋興起者為何是「楚風」而非它者。故本文以地域特性為視角，探討這股「楚風」的興起與發展，及時人的容受與反響。首先細繹公安與竟陵兩派的「楚風」論，並指出二者殊異處：公安派強調楚人尚「真」與「獨至」，崇尚自然與無拘怨傷的本色展現，旨在廓清擬古；竟陵派為改革公安末流之弊，轉以「奇情孤詣」與「偏至奇絕」凸顯自我，俾使流派長久經營。其次，透過梳理明代相關文獻，我們得以瞭解，在時人眼中，楚人富於才情、氣峻而詣獨造，每每能引領文風之變革，因此「楚風」之興乃勢之所趨。文末則以閩人曹學佺為例，探討他域者對於楚風的評價。曹氏主張「怨」乃諸情之一，倡議結合「情志」與「才厚」，為這股崇尚真情但過於直露的楚風，指引新的改革方向，亦反映時人對於文學創作趨向的省察與修正。晚明「楚風」之興乃明人長期被桎梏於形式格調下的一種反撥，並強調文學創作應回歸以抒發個人本真情志為要旨。

During the Ming dynasty, regional literature prospered. The Gongan School (Gongan pai 公安派) and the Jingling School (Jingling pai 竟陵派) rose up with purpose, holding the banner of Chu 楚 and opposing the problems of imitation found in the Revivalist School (Fugu pai 復古派). Most scholars of literary history directly pointed to the influence that Yangming xinxue 陽明心學, Li Zhi 李贄 and others had on this phenomenon. However, such positions cannot adequately explain why the proponents of these schools promulgated and identified with the “Chu Spirit” (Chufeng 楚風). This article adopts a regional perspective in its examination of the rise and development of the “Chu Spirit” and how people accepted and responded to it. First, we analyze the different conceptions of the “Chu Spirit” advanced in the Gongan and Jingling schools. The Gongan School emphasized that the people of Chu were “truthful” and “unique”, they praised naturalness and remaining unconstrained by resentment and sadness. The Jingling School reformed the Gongan School’s followers’ decadence, turning to “odd feelings and loneliness” (qiqing guyi 奇情孤詣) and “extreme uniqueness” (pianzhi qijue 偏至奇絕) to highlight the self and enable the school to operate for a lengthy period. Second, through an analysis of the relevant literature, we can see that Ming literati viewed Chu people as talented, bold, and innovative. The “Chu Spirit” was thought to frequently lead to major changes in writing style and thus the rise of the Chu style can be viewed as the result of this trend. At the end of the article, we take Cao Xuequan 曹學佺 from Fujian 福建 as an example to discuss how other regions evaluated the “Chu Spirit.” Cao maintained that resentment (yuan 怨) was an emotion, and he recommended combining “the emotional will”(qingzhi 情志) with “plentiful talent” (caihou 才厚) to guide the new direction of this “Chu Spirit.” Cao’s position reflects how the people of the time examined and revised trends tied to literary creation. The rise of the “Chu Spirit” in the late Ming dynasty was a reaction against the rigid form of creation, and emphasized that literary creation should returned to expressing the original true emotions of the individual as the main purpose.