put it simply in modern words. Xing, that is to say, poetry has the function of inspiring people's spirit, which can arouse people's association; View, that is to say, poetry can play a role in observing social reality and can see the ups and downs of the world; Group, that is to say, poetry can make people exchange feelings, achieve harmony and unite people; Resentment means that poetry can interfere with reality and criticize the dark society and bad politics.
Confucius' theory of "enjoying the scenery and complaining" is the source of realistic literary criticism theory, which has a very positive impact on later realistic literary criticism theory and realistic literary creation.
Zhuangzi's works are as follows:
(1) The theory of "nature sounds" and "heavenly music"
comes from three articles, namely, The Theory of Everything, Heaven and Heaven. "Lai": the sound coming from a hole, which is a concept that Zhuangzi expressed his musical understanding. Zhuangzi divided the sound into three levels, namely, "people come", the sound made by musical instruments; "Ground rustling", the sound made by the wind advocating the holes in nature; "Scorpio" is a completely spontaneous and naturally generated sound without relying on any external force. "Man Lai" depends on human operation to make sounds. Different people, even if they operate the same musical instrument, make different sounds. Moreover, the positive or negative evaluation of these sounds is also formed by people's judgments. Of course, different people's judgments are different. Therefore, Zhuangzi believes that "Man Lai" and its evaluation are the most unreliable. The "ground sound" is blown by the wind. The wind does not have the heart of being kind and virtuous, and it is relatively fair and equitable. The shape and sound of the noise depends on the shape and position of the mouth. However, the noise depends on the "anger" of the wind, and it can't completely and completely reveal the beauty of the sound. "Scorpio" is not restricted by any external force, and everyone knows how to sing, and can express their will freely, completely and comfortably. From the above description, we can see that Zhuangzi is not talking about aesthetics, but about social politics. He believes that people's will is unreliable, and all the norms formulated by people can't accurately express the requirements of people, but can only express the requirements of some people who are even distorted; Constrained nature can't express the requirements of nature, but only that part of it; Only objects that are not controlled by any conditions can fully understand the object itself. Therefore, don't try to control any object, which will only make society worse. This is "inaction"; Don't imply to any external object, but let yourself develop at will. This is "no self".
Of course, the above social and political ideal model is very desirable, but when it comes to specific and trivial content, Zhuangzi will be at a loss. This is what he called "Tianle". In "Heaven", he said, "He who is in harmony with heaven is called heavenly joy." In Tian Yun, he spoke highly of the "Pleasure of Xianchi" played by the Yellow Emperor in the "Field of Dongting": "You can't hear its sound, but you can't see its shape, which is full of heaven and earth and wrapped in six poles." He can't understand this absolutely mysterious object.
Zhuangzi's theory of "heavenly music" and "heavenly music" has great inspiration for later generations' aesthetic thoughts. For example, abandoning the concept of artificial carving, the concept of emptiness and blank, the concept of natural color, the concept of freehand brushwork, and so on, partly comes from Zhuangzi's tips.
(2) "Words fail to convey the meaning" and "smug forgetting words"
"smug forgetting words" is Zhuangzi's view on the relationship between words and meaning (that is, language and thinking). Zhuangzi? The article "foreign things" says: "The person who is a beggar is so caught in the fish that he forgets it; The hoofer is so in the rabbit, he gets the rabbit and forgets the hoof; The speaker cares so much that he forgets to say it with pride. " Put forward the so-called "smug forgetting words" theory. In Zhuangzi's view, words can't fully express meaning, that is, words can't fully express meaning. He said: "What is precious in language means meaning. Those who follow the meaning can't be explained in words. " (Heaven) Zhuangzi emphasized the limitations of language and pointed out that it is impossible to fully express people's complex thinking content. This understanding conforms to the actual situation of people's cognitive practice to a certain extent, but it also has the limitations of stars. However, Zhuangzi's theory of "smug and forgetting words" based on words' incompleteness has a far-reaching influence on literary and artistic creation. Literary works demand implication and aftertaste, and often demand more with less, and pursue "meaning beyond the taste" and "implication". Zhuangzi's theory of "forgetting words with pride" just reveals the mystery of the relationship between words and meaning in literary creation. This had a great influence on literary theory and literary criticism. It was directly introduced into literary theory after Wei and Jin Dynasties, which formed the tradition that China ancient literature paid attention to "meaning beyond words" and laid a theoretical foundation for the emergence and development of the theory of artistic conception.
(3) The theory of "emptiness and quietness"
The theory of "emptiness and quietness" is China's ancient theory about creative conception. "Virtual quietness" was first put forward by Laozi in the Tao Te Ching, and Zhuangzi greatly developed Laozi's theory of "virtual quietness", believing that it is a mental state that must be possessed when entering the realm of Tao. The Great Master said, "To fall off one's limbs, to be smart, to leave one's form to know, is the same as Datong. This is called sitting and forgetting." Zhuangzi's "sit and forget" is "virtual silence", which is to make people forget all existence, forget their own existence, abandon all knowledge and reach the realm of unity with Tao.
Zhuangzi believes that emptiness and quietness can only be achieved on the basis of "abandoning learning and wisdom". However, only when emptiness and quietness are achieved can we have the most comprehensive and profound understanding of the objective world, freely take aesthetic photos, be the most vigorous in artistic creativity, and create works that are completely consistent with nature's nature.
Zhuangzi's theory of "emptiness and quietness" has a great influence on later generations, and later generations of writers and literary theorists are more or less influenced by Zhuangzi's theory of "emptiness and quietness".
(4) the theory of materialization
Zhuangzi's theory of materialization is related to his theory of emptiness and quietness. Zhuangzi believes that "virtual quietness" is the way and method to know Tao, and it is a mental state that must be possessed when entering the realm of Tao. As far as the creative subject is concerned, it is necessary to have a "virtual and quiet" mental state, which is the key to whether or not to create natural art. From the relationship between the subject and the object of creation. It must reach the state of materialization. What is materialization? In Zhuangzi's view, after entering a state of virtual quietness, people will forget everything, even themselves, and will no longer be bound and limited by their own sensory organs, thus achieving a "great understanding". As a creator, it seems that the subject person no longer exists, and the subject's "nature" (heaven) and the object's "nature" (heaven) are combined into one, which is the realm of materialization, which is called "combining heaven with heaven". The creation in such a state is naturally completely consistent with the nature.