This chapter mainly discusses the origin of literature (that is, essentialism-the occurrence of literary activities).
In Preface, Liu Xie talked about the key part of literary theory, calling it "the hub of literature". (Gai Wenxin's work, based on the Tao, is a saint, a body, a weft, and a Sao; The hub of the text is also extremely turbid. ) The original road is one of the hubs.
According to my understanding, the first article should refer to literature in a broad sense, referring to the literary talent of all things, rather than simply referring to the humanities. So it says here that literature coexists with heaven and earth. The reason for this view will be explained later. The first half of the latter sentence is about astronomy. The world is mysterious and yellow, the sky is round, the sun and the moon are round, and the night is beautiful. The second half speaks the local language, and the mountains and rivers are intertwined, which also has its literary talent. So it proves that literature and heaven and earth coexist. Where there is heaven and earth, there is yin and yang, which is the "two instrument students" in the article. After the birth of heaven and earth, the cohesion of human spirit produced people. Therefore, Zhouyi puts forward the view that heaven, Tao and man are the three talents of heaven, earth and man. Then began to explain the humanities. With people, there is people's heart, with people's heart, there is language, and with language, there is humanity. This is a natural truth.
The whole parallel prose in the second paragraph is actually equivalent to demonstrating the rationality of humanity from the side. Its central sentence is the last sentence: the husband knows everything, but has nothing to say. These careless and ignorant things between heaven and earth are full of article colors that express the way of heaven and earth, or "form and text" or "sound and text" Then, as the only thoughtful person in the world, how can there be no articles? This is a rhetorical question.
Here we begin to talk about the origin of human beings in detail. Liu Xie believes that the source of human nature is Taiji, and the earliest explanation of Taiji is Zhouyi. The Book of Changes was first created by Fuxi, and later interpreted as sixty-four hexagrams by Zhou Wenwang. Finally, Confucius compiled ten notes. It is called "Ten Wings". So "the Zhongni wing is the end"
Therefore, The Book of Changes is divided into two parts, one is the classic, mainly the Book of Changes interpreted by Zhou Wenwang; The other is a biography, which is said to be Ten Wings written by Confucius. In Ten Wings, basically all the articles are about analyzing the whole classics or sixty hexagrams, and only the one in classical Chinese is dedicated to explaining the two hexagrams of Gankun in Yi Zhuan, so it is called Gankun, which is unique.
There are so many hexagrams in the Book of Changes that only two hexagrams, Gankun, have special biographies and are named after "classical Chinese". Liu Xie explained that "the speaker is also the heart of heaven and earth!" . Dry hanging is a celestial phenomenon, while Kun hanging is a terrestrial phenomenon. Explaining Gan Kun in classical Chinese is to explain the relationship between human nature and heaven and earth, and to express that the heart of heaven and earth is literature. Confucius quoted Zhuang's note in the Book of Changes: "Wen refers to Wen Shi, which is so great that it is regarded as classical Chinese." It is also similar to Liu Xie's point of view. In the last two sentences, I think what he said is the initial expression of human nature, represented by He Tu and Luo Shu. He thinks these are all determined by theology, which I think can be understood as what he said in the first paragraph.
This article mainly tells the history of the development of China culture.
Inspired by bird tracks, Cang Xie invented words instead of knotting notes, and then recorded the deeds of Yan Emperor Shennong and You Emperor Fuxi (the book of Fuxi, Shennong and Huangdi, called "Three Graves"), which can be interpreted as ancient books. Although they are the original embodiment of humanity, they are very old and difficult to trace back. Therefore, the author thinks that the articles that start to shine should start from Tang Yao and Yu Shun. Take the article in Shangshu Yu Shu as an example. Then from the Xia Dynasty to the Shang and Zhou Dynasties (Wen Sheng's quality, Sheng Yangping, competent? ), influenced by the Book of Songs, good articles are constantly born. After Wang Wen was arrested, he immediately played Zhouyi, which was implicit. Zhou Gongdan founded the Book of Rites and compiled the Book of Songs. Then Liu Xie praised Confucius' literary creation in very emotional language.
The last paragraph should be a theoretical summary and sublimation of the whole article, in which Wang Su mentioned Confucius. The core content is that "the sage hangs down the text when the Tao is smooth, and the sage is in Ming Dow because of the text". The previous examples show that Tao is displayed through the media of saints, and saints use articles to clarify Tao. It can be seen here that Liu Xie's view of literary origin is mysterious and can be said to be the creation theory of saints. Moreover, it emphasizes the utility of words, pays attention to the use of words to carry Tao, and points out that words have the function of educating people.
Finally, discuss several issues:
First, about "Wen"
Although the characters in Wen Xin Diao Long are a word, they should be divided into broad sense and narrow sense. As far as the first paragraph is concerned, the virtue of literature is also great, and the "literature" in it should include astronomy, geography and humanities, generally referring to the ornamentation of everything. In the third paragraph, when talking about the elements of human nature, this article should specifically refer to human nature.
Second, "primitive" in a primitive way.
Speaking of the original way, we can easily associate it with Han Yu's original way, but I think Han Yu's original way is different from Liu Xie's original way. Han Yu's original Taoism is to explore the origin of Taoism, restore the ancient road and respect Confucianism. Liu Xie's "The Original Essay" discusses the origin of words and puts forward the view that words are based on Tao, so the original in Liu Xie's article should not mean the origin, but the meaning similar to the origin, so the original Tao is interpreted as the origin of Tao.
Third, about "Tao"
The meaning of "Tao" in the original Tao has always been a controversial issue in the Dragon Cave. There are many theories in academic circles, including: (1) Confucianism and Taoism, (2) the way of nature, (3) the law of nature and objective laws, (4) Buddhism and Taoism, (5) the coexistence of "the way of nature" and "Confucianism and Taoism", (6) an abstract concept or absolute spirit of objective idealism and so on. I won't say what this Tao is here, on the one hand, because there have been many discussions and studies on this issue in academic circles, and on the other hand, because Liu Xie's explanation of Tao is not very clear, and even Lu Xun said that "you can't try", which makes it more difficult for me to understand what he said. Therefore, I want to talk about what I think this view of "Tao" should include or what literary trends of thought have influenced it.
First of all, from the original pottery articles, although the article expounds its own views, it often quotes the language in the Book of Changes to build its own theoretical framework, including the description of Tao, and also refers to ancient books, without the original words. For example:
Husband mysterious yellow, from Zhouyi Classical Chinese. The husband is mysterious and yellow, and heaven and earth are mixed. Heaven is mysterious and Rehmannia glutinosa.
Observing astronomy with extreme changes and learning humanities with changes means observing astronomy with changes in time and observing humanities with changes in the Book of Changes. "
Including the last paragraph, directly quote "those who fiddle with the world to save words" to illustrate the role of words.
Therefore, Liu Xie's point of view will be influenced by Zhouyi, which is a classic recognized by both Taoism and Confucianism, so Liu Xie's theory of literary essence will also be influenced by Confucianism and Taoism.
The most obvious is Confucianism. Aside from the original way, Liu Xie told two dreams he had had in Preface of Wen Xin Diao Long. One is to climb Xiangyun, and the other is to travel south with Confucius and ritual vessels. Whether these two dreams are true or not, they all express the positive tradition of Confucianism's contribution to the World Trade Organization. He himself put forward that "poverty is good, and attainment is good", so he is still Confucian. As the original saying goes, "Confucius inherits sages, shines on sages and integrates the Six Classics", and respects Confucius and worships the Six Classics. In the final "praise", it is also mentioned that the text should carry the Tao and show benevolence and filial piety. It embodies filial piety and benevolence, so this Tao must have Confucian humanity.
The other is Taoism. However, this is not obvious in the article. When discussing the origin of human beings, it is said that there is no show in doing things, that the humanistic element is Tai Chi, and finally it is mentioned that divination asks numbers. But I think Liu Xie's Taoist thought is more reflected in his view of nature. Confucianism emphasizes social ethics, while Taoism emphasizes the essence and origin of nature. Therefore, when Liu Xie put forward the literary view of harmony between man and nature, he inevitably adopted the Taoist view of nature in terms of heaven.
In addition, I don't think it is obvious about the embodiment of Buddhism in Liu Xie's primitive Taoism. Although Liu Xie lived in the Southern Dynasty, where the three religions were in parallel, and Liu Xie also examined the scriptures in Ding Lin Temple, I think his Buddhist thoughts may be more reflected in the book "On Elimination" (a Buddhist paper), which has little to do with "Wen Xin Diao Long".
Finally, on the whole, Wen Xin Diao Long Yuan Dao raised Wen to a macro perspective, not only limited to humanities, but also involved astronomy and geography, and talked about the enlightenment and origin of Wen. When talking about the origin of writing, he combined it with philosophy and put forward his own views on writing articles from the perspective of philosophy and aesthetics. Although his view on the origin of literature is composed of the creation theory of saints, which is mysterious and emphasizes that man is the condensation of heaven and earth, I think we should look at the problem from a historical perspective. Liu Xie had his historical limitations at that time. Moreover, he wrote "Wen Xin Diao Long" in order to further respect the classics and bring the literary trend of thought that was too pursuing novelty and beauty at that time and far from the original intention of literature into the right track.