Different from the influential Ci-Hua at that time, Ci-Hua on Earth put forward the theory of "realm". The theory of "realm" is the core of "Tales on Earth", which dominates other arguments, is the context of the book and communicates with hundred schools of thought.
Wang Guowei regards it not only as a creative principle, but also as a critical standard, judging the evolution of poetry, evaluating the gains and losses of poets, the quality of works and the quality of words, all from the "realm". Therefore, the theory of "realm" is not only the starting point of Wang Guowei's literary criticism, but also the general destination of his literary thoughts. There are mainly Zhejiang School and Changzhou School in Qing Dynasty. Zhepai Ci is committed to correcting the weakness of Ci in the late Ming Dynasty, advocating the spirit of purity, learning from the Ci of Jiang Kui and Zhang Yan in the Southern Song Dynasty, and unwilling to approach the Ci writers in the Northern Song Dynasty, instead of learning from Qin Guan and Huang Tingjian, only learning from Zhang Yan. Its obscurity is that the subject is empty and superficial, and the subject is gentle and delicate. As a result, Changzhou Ci School began to correct the abuses of Zhejiang School, advocating deep beauty and good agreement, calm and mellow, taking conception as the foundation, giving full play to its meaning, advocating proper sustenance and praising Zhou Bangyan's frivolity. This really makes the theory of ci a big step forward. On the other hand, Wang Guowei's "Human Thorn" broke through the barriers between Zhejiang School and Changzhou School, overcame their disadvantages and got further development. The ethereal and gentleness of Zhejiang poets led to their thinness, delicacy and unreality. Wang Guowei's theory of realm advocates non-separation to correct the disadvantages of Zhejiang Ci. He emphasized the description of scenery, true feelings and the necessity of real writing. This is really a Zhejiang word that hits the nail on the head As for Changzhou Ci School, he opposed the saying that all words should have sustenance, and thought that words with sustenance were not good words.
He pointed out: "If we say" Eight Sounds of Ganzhou "written by Tuntian and" Water Tune Songs "written by Dongpo, then those works that have been popular for ages occupy a high position, and we can't talk about them in the usual tone." He also quoted words such as Niu Qiao, and was called "a strange man who specializes in love stories". In his view, writing love stories and scenery are good words, as long as they are true and have a realm. This view is conducive to correcting the narrow view that Changzhou Ci School tends to pursue sustenance.
On the theory of Ci, Wang Guowei put forward the theory of realm, arguing that Ci should be written in a true and natural way, with style, weather and charm, which undoubtedly broke through the framework of Zhejiang Ci and Changzhou Ci, removed their disadvantages and made Ci more comprehensive. At the same time, these views are also helpful to literary creation. On the one hand, Ren Jian Hua Ci surpassed the categories of Zhejiang School and Changzhou School, and his aesthetic view was influenced by Schopenhauer, on the other hand, he made a breakthrough. Wang Guowei's "realm without me" and "seeing things by things" directly inherited Schopenhauer's philosophy. And his "poet" is also childlike. "So, being born in the palace and growing up in the hands of women is the weakness of the late master as a gentleman and the strength of the poet." "Subjective poet, don't read more." The shallower you are, the truer your temperament is, and so is Li Houzhu. This stems from Schopenhauer's genius theory. However, the thorns on the earth have not fallen into such a situation and cannot extricate themselves.
Wang Guowei distinguished two realms. Unlike Schopenhauer, he did not belittle the realm of ordinary people. On the contrary, he attached great importance to it. He believes that "people are so deeply involved and people are so extensive in the world." On the one hand, Wang Guowei emphasized that "subjective poets don't need to read more about the world" and on the other hand, he emphasized that "objective poets don't need to read more about the world." This is different from Schopenhauer's emphasis on genius. In addition, Schopenhauer emphasized intelligence and Wang Guowei emphasized emotion. "Those who can describe the scenery and express their true feelings are called the realm."
On the relationship between the poet and reality, Wang Guowei advocated: "The poet can write the life of the universe because he must be inside, outside and inside; Outside it, we can see it. If you enter it, you will be angry; " Unexpectedly, it is so high. ""Poets must despise foreign things, so they can command romantic life with slaves and attach importance to foreign things, so they can enjoy flowers and birds. "This clearly shows the simple materialist factors and dialectical wisdom.
Theoretically, what the "realm" requires is exactly the same as the artistic law of reflecting reality with images; Internal and external training; We should not only despise foreign things, but also attach importance to them, which is consistent with the writer's creative requirements of going deep into life and surpassing life.
Wang Guowei's theory of "realm" specifically and clearly reveals the inherent special contradiction of artistic realm and explains the essential characteristics of literature and art, which is a new contribution compared with predecessors. In the history of literary criticism, it is paranoid to emphasize only "expressing ambition" and "expressing emotion"; The argument that only pays attention to images and pictures is paranoia at the other end. Wang Fuzhi's viewpoint of "scene interaction" and Ye Xie's viewpoint of "form depends on emotion, and emotion is attached to shape" in the early Qing Dynasty laid the foundation for the elaboration of realm theory, but after all, Wang Guowei clearly and systematically expounded the relationship between "scene" and "emotion" in the artistic realm, and consciously "explored its source" to complete the elaboration of realm theory. Wang Guowei believes that the scenery is infinite and the feelings are infinite. The "realm" is essentially composed of two elements: "scenery" and "emotion". However, both objective "scenery" and subjective "emotion" are the results of "outlook"-people's spiritual activities. The special contradiction and diversified unity of opposites between "emotion" and "scenery" have formed rich and colorful literary and artistic works.
According to Wang Guowei's view of literature and art, he divided various artistic realms into three basic forms: the superior, the vague meaning and realm; Second, win by the environment; Still win meaningfully. Wang Guowei scientifically analyzed the relationship between "scenery" and "emotion" and various phenomena, and put forward the issues of "creation" and "writing", "ideal" and "realism" for the first time in the history of China's literary criticism. Creating a World is the author's display of "creative talent", giving full play to his imagination, so that everything is driven away by me, which is romantic. "Scenery" is the author's flamboyant talent, he can be tactful about things, "he can have fun with flowers and birds", and he attaches great importance to objective truth, which is the basic feature of realistic creation method. Wang Guowei also pointed out that "idealism" and "realism" are often combined to form a new creative method. However, the artistic realm created by this method cannot be categorically defined as "idealism" or "realism". In this realm, "it is difficult to distinguish between the two, because the realm created by great poets must conform to nature, and the realm written must also be adjacent to the ideal." "Nature and ideal are integrated in one furnace, and" scenery "and" emotion "are integrated. Wang Guowei believes that this is a first-class artistic realm, and only great poets can create this realm of "muddy artistic conception". Wang Guowei further argued that there must be a trade-off between literary and artistic creation and the injection of subjective ideals; Fiction or ideal is always inseparable from objective matter and basic laws. Therefore, the combination of "ideal" and "reality" has sufficient objective basis. The combination of realism and romanticism also has its objective possibility. Wang Guowei's point of view can be described as thorough and incisive. " The created environment must conform to nature ",although" the fictional environment must be based on nature, and its structure must follow the laws of nature. "At that time, it was an outstanding artistic opinion.
Wang Guowei also pointed out that the image (realm) written in Ci, whether sketched or created by the author's comprehensive impression, is not a purely objective and indifferent description of things, but runs through the author's ideal, that is, it is selected and arranged according to the author's views and feelings. This further shows that images in literature and art are subjective reflections of objective things in the author's mind. Of course, Wang Guowei did not explicitly and specifically discuss this point.
Wang Guowei was the last important aesthetic and literary thinker in modern China. He was the first to try to integrate western aesthetics and literary theory into China's traditional aesthetics and literary theory and form a new aesthetic and literary theory system. In a sense, he not only combined China's classical aesthetics and literary theory, but also initiated China's modern aesthetics and literary theory. In the history of China's aesthetics and literary thought, he is a bridge from ancient times to modern times, and plays the role of connecting the past with the future and opening up the future.