Steps in researching the history of Chinese literary criticism
Mr. Gu Yisheng began to focus on the study of the history of Chinese literary criticism around 1960, when the 55th grade students of the Chinese Department of Fudan University collectively compiled For a "History of Chinese Literary Criticism", Mr. Gu Yisheng was assigned to participate in it from beginning to end, from agreeing on the style, dividing the work and writing, to repeatedly revising the entire manuscript, which was quite time-consuming and laborious. During this period, a trend of students compiling books emerged in colleges and universities across the country, which put great pressure on professors and authorities. This was exactly the result that upper-level encouragers hoped to see. Due to policy adjustments and subsequent changes in the situation, this "History of Chinese Literary Criticism" was not published after the proofs were drawn up. Although this manuscript is influenced by "Left" ideas and mechanical thinking patterns, and simply divides the camps in the history of literary criticism based on materialism and idealism, formalism and anti-formalism, it has many shortcomings, but it is not without its merits. Not only that , some aspects are worthy of attention. For example, in terms of style, the manuscript is divided into seven parts: the first part is about the pre-Qin and Han Dynasties, the second part is about the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, the third part is about the Sui, Tang and Five Dynasties, the fourth part is about the Song and Yuan Dynasties, the fifth part is about the Ming and Qing Dynasties (Part 1. According to the Ming Dynasty part), the sixth part is Part Ming and Qing dynasties (Part 2. According to Qing dynasty), Part 7 Modern times. Each editor first uses an "Introduction" to summarize the general idea, and then describes each critic's views in chapters and sections and comments on them. Such a stylistic framework was still generally adopted in the three-volume "History of Chinese Literary Criticism" edited by Liu Dajie, Wang Yunxi and Gu Yisheng. In terms of specific discussion, there are also places that can be highlighted. For example, he pointed out that Mencius' "using one's will to counter one's will" is a "method of reading", which means that readers "explore the author's 'will' according to their own 'will'". This is compared with the previous "subjective experience" and "holds the weight of hundreds of years." There are various sayings about understanding "meaning" as the meaning of the reader, which is expressed more concisely and clearly. Although it is limited by understanding, it may also bring problems to the reader's reading and understanding. It was impossible to make a proper evaluation of the new creative role at that time, but today, if we look back at its grasp of the essence of Mencius's point of view from the perspective of accepting the history of literary criticism, we can still feel something new. These show that it is necessary and possible to properly classify and analyze literary history works written collectively by students at that time (some with the participation of teachers, or with the input of some teachers) from the perspective of academic history. In Mr. Gu Yisheng's academic career, this experience obviously has special significance. He himself said that in the "dismal management", he "experienced a training, which is useless"[3]. Perhaps what is more important to him personally is that it launched an academic path with the study of the history of ancient Chinese literary criticism as its main direction.
The second stage of Mr. Gu Yisheng's study of the history of criticism was the compilation of the three-volume "History of Chinese Literary Criticism". In the early 1960s, the Ministry of Education organized experts to compile liberal arts textbooks for colleges and universities. Among them, "History of Chinese Literary Criticism" was edited by Professor Liu Dajie. As the main editor, Mr. Gu Yisheng wrote the poetry criticism and word theory sections from Song to modern times. The draft was written when the "Cultural Revolution" happened and the work was forced to stop. Only the first volume of the book, covering Pre-Qin to the Five Dynasties, was published in 1964, and the rest was missing. After the end of the "Cultural Revolution", developing education and prospering academics became top priorities. Therefore, the first and second volumes of "History of Chinese Literary Criticism" were rewritten based on the old manuscript. Since Professor Liu Dajie had passed away, the work was edited by Wang Yunxi and Gu Yisheng. It was all published in 1985. There were more than 20 years between the two publications. This work has become a witness to a vicissitudes of history in our country. Of course, the long period of time also gave the author time to think over the problem repeatedly and calmly. The social ideology, cultural and academic environment has undergone tremendous changes and has become normal, which has also provided the author with an opportunity to develop a more scientific understanding of ancient literary criticism and theory. The three-volume "History of Chinese Literary Criticism" is complete and systematic in content, fair in evaluation and contains new insights, easy to understand and highly readable. The part written by Mr. Gu Yisheng is the highlight of the middle and second volumes. He has discovered a lot of poetry and word theory materials, is very skillful in reviewing and organizing, and has a lot of knowledge of circumlocution and right and wrong. Among them, there is little arrangement of modern traditional literary theory. There are similar achievements of predecessors that can be used as reference, and the contribution to the creation is particularly valuable.
Although the "Left" literary theory that has been popular in China for a long time has inevitably left some traces in this work, the main stance reflected by the author is to pursue academicism and consciously contradict the one-sided society including ultra-left literary theory. Keeping a proper distance between consciousness and fashionable ideas, this writing spirit runs through the entire writing, making the book achieve high academic value and withstand the test of time. As a college liberal arts textbook, the proportions of the first and middle volumes of the three-volume "History of Chinese Literary Criticism" are relatively harmonious. The second volume has a lot of expansion in the early and mid-Qing Dynasty and modern times, because this volume was mainly written during the Reform period. After opening up, the scientific research environment and academic atmosphere are conducive to authors to fully explore research topics, and there are better conditions for publishing. This actually shows the necessity and possibility of compiling a general history of criticism with a larger capacity.
At this stage, Mr. Gu Yisheng also participated in the new editing work of "Selected Chinese Literary Essays of Ancient Dynasties" edited by Mr. Guo Shaoyu. This book was first published in 1964 and had a great influence on the teaching of the history of literary criticism in colleges and universities. In the late 1970s, Mr. Guo presided over the revision. In the revised version of "Selected Chinese Literary Essays of the Past Dynasties", Mr. Gu Yisheng was mainly responsible for the editing work of the Sui, Tang, Five Dynasties, Song, Jin, Yuan and part of the modern period, and participated in reading the full draft of the selected literary essays.
The third stage of Mr. Gu Yisheng's research on the history of criticism was when he and Professor Wang Yunxi *** co-edited the seven-volume "General History of Chinese Literary Criticism", and wrote the pre-Qin part of "Pre-Qin and Han Volume" and "The General History of Chinese Literary Criticism". "Song, Jin, and Yuan Volumes" contains the poetry and prose of the Northern Song Dynasty and the Ci studies of the Two Song Dynasties. General History is a key topic in philosophy and social sciences during the “Sixth Five-Year Plan” of the country. It took thirteen years from the establishment of the project in 1983 to the completion and publication of all seven volumes in 1996. The two editors-in-chief’s expectation for the General History of Chinese Literary Criticism is to “strive to comprehensively sort out the development process of literary criticism in various historical stages, conduct scientific evaluations of critics and treatises that have made great achievements, and strive to discover new materials. , to demonstrate the richness and brilliant achievements of Chinese literary theory criticism, to summarize its experiences and lessons, to provide reference and reference for theoretical research and creation of literature and art, and to serve the academic culture of the prosperous new era." [4] Because the author is living in the era of reform and opening up, At the time of ideological emancipation, the barriers to forbidden areas in the past have been broken down, the spirit of scientific academic exploration has regenerated, and the research environment has improved. Therefore, compared with the three-volume "History of Chinese Literary Criticism", the General History has a better understanding of both material excavation and theory. In terms of elaboration, there has been great progress and development. The pre-Qin literary criticism written by Mr. Gu Yisheng has a very systematic summary of the Confucian and Taoist views on literature and art. They can be roughly classified into the human nature art view and the nature art view. The two schools of thought struggled with each other and each revealed the basics of literature and art. qualitative, irreplaceable. He also believed that the understanding of the embryonic state of literature and art in the Pre-Qin period was also reflected in the works of various schools of thought, including Legalist works in the extreme form of banning literature and art. Therefore, he extensively searched for all kinds of classics in the Pre-Qin period. , centralized sorting, and summarized the essence of each paper. When it comes to historical works on the emergence of pre-Qin literature and art in China, Gu Ju should be regarded as the most detailed one. The part related to the literary criticism of the Song Dynasty written by Mr. Gu Yisheng has many new discoveries compared with the previous three volumes, and also reflects the author's new thinking and experience. The most significant point is that the overall assessment of the contribution of literary criticism in relevant historical periods has been adjusted and greatly improved, and more attention has been paid to discovering the positive value of critics' literary theories, such as the re-understanding of Li Qingzhao's "Ci Lun", that is, It's a notable example. This not only reflects the re-recognition of the "essence and dross" theory, but also further eliminates the one-sided influence of the past "content and form" theory.
At the turn of the century, Professor Wang Yunxi and Professor Gu Yisheng presided over the comprehensive revision of the original three-volume "History of Chinese Literary Criticism" and completed the writing of the two-volume "New Edition of the History of Chinese Literary Criticism". Published by Fudan University Press in 2001. The new edition mainly absorbs the research results of "A General History of Chinese Literary Criticism" and also incorporates some of the authors' new understandings and experiences. Mr. Gu Yisheng wrote and revised the content of the traditional literary criticism of the Song and Ming dynasties. His views and comments on some issues are more careful, and he has a more comprehensive and accurate grasp of the relationship between critics and the intricate intersection of different theoretical perspectives. . This work is a new endeavor for Mr. Gu in the history of Chinese literary criticism after he completed editing and writing a general history.
Positively interpretive research style
When talking with Mr. Gu Yisheng, you can feel his sincere love for the broad and rich ideological and cultural heritage of the motherland. This emotion is reflected in In his research on the history of ancient literary criticism, he formed a scholarly characteristic characterized by positive interpretation.
In modern China, especially after the May 4th Movement, the intellectual community’s understanding of the cultural traditions of the past thousands of years has undergone major changes. The positive side is that by learning from others and the present from the past, we realize the backwardness of ancient Chinese ideological and cultural traditions, thereby seeking changes and accelerating the modernization process of ideological concepts. However, in this process, tradition is often ridiculed or even scorned as an obstacle to the creation of new era fashions or as a fetter to the pursuit of modernization. This has resulted in a lack of understanding of ancient Chinese ideological and cultural traditions, including literature and literary criticism. A common result of over-exaggeration of negativity. Examine tradition with a critical eye and draw negative conclusions through deduction. This situation occurs in different eras and stages. When people are affected by it for a long time, their minds can easily become numb and insensitive to tradition, and they gradually identify with some specious negative interpretations of tradition. Mr. Gu Yisheng expressed concern about this:
For example, some commentators may say that there is a lack of democratic consciousness and humanistic spirit in ancient Chinese thought. The Confucian "gold mean" and Taoist "inaction" thoughts have led to the Chinese people not pursuing progress and pioneering. , without struggle and competition, resulting in social stagnation and backwardness. It may be said that the content of Qu Yuan's works mainly focuses on the concepts of clan, country, and loyalty to the emperor, which is not enough to be called patriotism. It is also quite problematic whether this excellent tradition exists in our country's classical literature. There is also a saying that Chinese culture is rooted in the Yellow River Basin and the Loess Plateau, so it is called yellow civilization, which is characterized by conservatism and isolation; Western culture originates from the ocean, so it is called blue civilization, which is characterized by enterprising and pioneering... When I read these remarks, I was shocked at first. I felt that there were such problems in our traditional culture that deserved re-examination and in-depth thinking. Then I became suspicious and found that some of these remarks were flashy and unethical. After thinking twice, I couldn't help but wonder. worry. [5]
The tradition of Chinese literary criticism is also often questioned negatively, which is roughly similar to the situation in which Chinese ideological and cultural traditions are belittled. What Mr. Gu said above also includes concerns about the history and current situation of literary criticism history research. He said: "I think it is debatable that some belittle our ancient Chinese literary theory as being unsystematic or lacking the spirit of democracy, freedom and humanity." [6]
This is similar to the stance and attitude of some of the above-mentioned studies. Significantly different, Mr. Gu mainly expounded the traditional meaning and value of ancient thought and culture (including literary criticism) from a positive perspective. He said in "Pre-Qin Literary Criticism: Introduction":
When this editor introduces each school, most of them basically have a positive attitude, although there is mutual negation between them. ...The principle of "absorbing the best and criticizing the dross" should be implemented from beginning to end, but it fails to make judgments everywhere. Not all the essence and dregs of ancient books are clearly distinguishable, and the most important thing lies in the readers' complacency. If the essence is rigid, it may become a dogma; if the dross is used wisely, it can turn decay into magic. [7]
Adhering to a "positive attitude" means adhering to a positive interpretation of ancient thought, culture and literary criticism, and a positive attitude of introduction and evaluation, which is different from rashly criticizing or denying. It is true that the pre-Qin scholars who founded various schools of thought often showed an unfettered spirit. After the Qin and Han dynasties, the strengthening of feudal autocracy weakened the independent and free spirit of intellectuals. Therefore, the ideological and cultural heritage left behind by the two different historical stages has considerable value. The situation of literary criticism heritage in a broad sense is slightly similar, so the degree of positive interpretation and positive evaluation of it has also been adjusted. However, in the face of the rich heritage of thousands of years of ideological culture and literary criticism, with a "positive attitude" "The basic stance of actively interpreting it is clear and prominent in Mr. Gu Yisheng's scholarship. After Mr. Gu has obtained a more reasonable and satisfactory conclusion on a problem he has studied for a long time, he will be happy to give up or partially modify his previous conclusion. When this happens, it often means that he is actively interpreting and positively evaluating ancient human literature. New progress has been made in thought and critical theory.
As a general principle, "absorb the essence and criticize the dregs" is generally recognized and accepted by people. However, when it comes to value judgments on the essence and dregs of ancient thought, culture, and literary criticism, we have also learned many lessons and taken many detours. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, For a long time, the negative consequences caused by the exaggeration of the so-called dross became more serious. It was only at a stage after the liberation of the mind that this situation was consciously reflected and changed. When the older generation of scholars revised their old works after the founding of the People's Republic of China, they often highlighted their criticism of the "dross" of the ancients. In the 1980s and 1990s, when some scholars revised their works of the 1950s and 1960s, they often emphasized their criticism of the "dross" of the ancients. Instead, we pay more attention to the "essence" of the ancient theories and make some corrections to the criticism of dross and inappropriate arguments. This reflects the above-mentioned changes in the academic ecological background and situation in our country. Mr. Gu Yisheng is deeply touched by this, so he is very cautious in identifying the essence and dross in traditional thought, culture, and literary criticism. He does not easily judge as dross some propositions or theories that seem to be inconsistent with modern people's principles but are actually complex in connotation. , this has become a thinking habit that he has developed for a long time. In a sense, it can also be said that it is the crystallization of his life experience and the speculative wisdom he gained after observing and familiarizing himself with the ups and downs of the world and the vast world. I have written an article before and said: Mr. Gu "is not influenced by the trend of the moment, does not adhere to all stereotypes, and shows a transcendent sobriety and consciousness in the academic spirit." "It embodies the scholar's conscience and fairness." [8] It mainly refers to his suspicion and rejection of all kinds of bad theories at that time, and his insistence on independent thinking and independent judgment as a scholar.
It is precisely with the attitude of positive interpretation and positive evaluation that Mr. Gu Yisheng often observes and thinks about problems from a new perspective in his history of Chinese literary criticism, and establishes opinions that are different from current opinions. This is especially true for "Pre-Qin Literary Criticism" is its representative. For example, for Confucian literary theory, it focuses on summarizing its many-faceted achievements and revealing the innovative significance of its advocating ancient slogans. For Taoism's seemingly negative view on literature and art, which actually contains subtle and profound insights, he spares no effort in elucidating new meanings. Even though the Legalists rejected or even banned the literary works of other schools, they still pointed out their special insights into the writing methods and acceptance psychology of expository essays, thus giving them a place in the history of pre-Qin literary criticism. The existence of such a writing attitude can also be seen through the analysis of some specific views. For example, he pointed out that the boundaries set by Confucius for "thinking without evil" are actually quite broad. "Innocence" refers to the harmonious beauty of poetry and is the embodiment of the thoughts of "benevolence and propriety", which were proposed at that time. In fact, it is a kind of historical progress, so the original teachings of Confucius cannot be simply evaluated with the narrow understanding of "innocence" in later generations.
Mr. Gu believes that from the Xia Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty, the autocratic monarchy lasted for four thousand years, but the democratic spirit and humanistic ideas shone brightly in the history of thought, literature and literary criticism. Therefore, he attaches great importance to discovering, summarizing and affirming this long-standing tradition, including Laozi, Confucius and Mencius, Mo Zhai, Yang Zhu, Tao Yuanming, Li Bai, Han Yu, Liu Zongyuan, Su Shi, all the way to Gong Zizhen and others, and elucidating their thoughts , the essence of literature and literary theory. He also attaches great importance to the heretical spirit in the history of ancient literary criticism, viewing it as an important supplement and enrichment to China's excellent ideological culture and literary criticism tradition, such as his discussion and praise of Liao Yan, a critic in the early Qing Dynasty.
These all reflect Mr. Gu Yisheng's conscious modern consciousness. When he studies the history of Chinese literary criticism, he neither interprets the past by the past nor the present, but based on a reasonable and reasonable understanding of tradition and modernity. Grasp the whole, deeply explore and comprehensively organize the original meanings in traditional literary theory that are in line with modern spirit and consciousness from the front, and make positive interpretations, so that the study of the history of literary criticism can not only show the modern significance of traditional literary theory, but also It also enables the modern literary spirit and consciousness to look back at the endless traditional blood flowing in it. Of course, positive interpretation and positive evaluation do not mean giving up being picky about "inferior materials" in traditional thought, culture and literary criticism. In fact, Mr. Gu also worked hard in this regard. However, compared with contemporary people's research on the history of literary criticism, his predecessors A characteristic that shows a more significant academic personality, and in terms of the development of the discipline of literary criticism and history, this point should also be more constructive.
Some thoughts on the study of the history of literary criticism
Mr. Gu Yisheng has a deep personal understanding and understanding of this subject through long-term concentration on the history of Chinese literary criticism. He is as follows Several thoughts are worth mentioning for introduction.
1. The history of Chinese literary criticism "is a subject with comprehensive and cross-cutting significance." This not only means that the study of the history of literary criticism should be closely combined with the study of the actual literary creation, that is, the history of literature, but also that it should be placed in a broader ideological, cultural and artistic background, and through their intricate production** * Careful combing of the existing and interactive relationships, and reasonable comparisons between ancient and modern, Chinese and foreign, to reveal the true meaning and truth of ancient humanistic literary criticism and theory, and grasp the context of its historical development. He said: “In order to understand the development of literary theory criticism in the past dynasties, it is necessary to connect it with the history of literary development in each period, music, painting, calligraphy and other arts, philosophical trends, and political and social backgrounds, and compare it with relevant modern and foreign academic cultures. "[9] Some important literary theoretical concepts, categories, terms, etc. proposed and used by the ancients are very closely related to the unity of many ideological and artistic categories, such as Qi, spirit, rhyme, scene, character, literary quality, etc., all of which are In this way, the original meaning cannot be explained clearly without referring to examples of their use in other categories. And if it cannot be reasonably compared or analyzed with current domestic and foreign literary and artistic theories, it is difficult to fully highlight the ancient literary It will also be very difficult to discuss the national character and contemporary nature of China. Therefore, isolated research may not only result in half the result with half the effort, but may even fail to discover the "mysterious pearls" of literary theory and return empty-handed. Mr. Gu is familiar with pre-Qin philosophy, ancient social history and academic history. When he was a graduate student with his mentor Professor Zhu Dongrun in his early years, he wrote papers such as "The Ideological Content of Li Yishan's Poems" and "Han Yu's Shangqi and the Relationship between Korean and Parallel Prose". and the manuscript of "Liu Zongyuan". His academic interests were mainly in the works of writers. Later, he participated in the compilation of the college liberal arts textbook "Selected Chinese Literary Works of the Past Dynasties" edited by Mr. Zhu Dongrun. He edited and wrote "The Essence of Song Ci" and "Selected Prose of Han Yu" etc., are quite proficient in literary works and literary history, and are versatile, good at calligraphy, painting, and poetry creation. This enabled him to engage in the study of ancient literary criticism with ease and ease, and each time he had a unique, intimate understanding and accurate summary. Faced with the history of literary criticism, a comprehensive interdisciplinary subject, in terms of research methods, Mr. Gu Yisheng emphasized that we should absorb both traditional simple methods and recent and modern scientific theories and methods, so that both can be used by me. He said: “We need to draw on the experience of textual exegesis and textual research from traditional Pu studies, and use modern and modern scientific theories and research methods to conduct extensive material collection, systematic sorting, and multi-angle and multi-level criticism.” [10] For those who are interested in the subject. For those who study the history of Chinese literary criticism, it puts forward very high requirements.
2. In comparative research, the basic existence of "same phase" of human beings cannot be ignored. Comparative research is one of the many research methods in the history of literary criticism. For a long time, researchers have used this method consciously or unconsciously, explicitly or implicitly, and it is even more popular now. Mr. Gu Yisheng is very concerned about this and often thinks about it. He deeply disagrees with the practice of artificially strengthening the differences or "abnormalities" between ancient and modern times, China and foreign countries through so-called comparative research, thereby eliciting some specious lessons and imposing them on others. He wrote an article stating: "In recent years, there has been a gratifying scene comparing Chinese and Western literary views in the field of literary theory and history research, which is eye-opening. However, some commentators believe that traditional Chinese literary theory advocates 'conveying the truth', while the West focuses on the liberation of individuality. Clearly divided, and then added to the elegance; based on what I heard and heard, I have some doubts." He then said that there was also a flash of respect for individuality in ancient Chinese thought, and there was also a saying in Western literary theory that was similar to "writing to convey the Tao." For example, he said: "Literature is a study of humanities. Although the races and customs of the East and West are different, we are all human beings. Although their literary and artistic concepts are vastly different, there must be many heroes who have the same views." [11] It is affirmed that different countries The literature and literary thoughts of nations of different races and different cultural traditions have both differences and similarities, and homosexuality is the basic aspect. This is especially true for the similarities and differences between ancient people and modern people. Based on this fact, comparative research on the history of literary criticism in ancient and modern China and abroad should take into account both similarities and differences. If there are no similarities, how can there be differences? If we separate from the basic similarities between the two and just study the differences in isolation, the conclusions drawn cannot be comprehensive, and therefore cannot be scientific. There is no doubt that the study of dissimilarity is of great significance in comparative research. However, the study of similarity is also a necessary part of comparative research, and whether it is research on differences or similarities, they should not be separated from each other. Losing dependence means that the other party no longer exists.
Can Mr. Gu Yisheng's opinions be used as a reference by today's researchers engaged in comparative studies of literature and literary thought?
3. The history of literary criticism should pay attention to the study of weak links. In the past, due to the limitations of research atmosphere and conditions, the discussion of the history of literary criticism was often limited to the period before the Tang Dynasty, while the research on the period after the Song Dynasty gradually declined. Although this phenomenon has changed since then, this phenomenon still exists. In the early 1980s, Mr. Gu Yisheng mentioned the systematic compilation of the history of Chinese literary criticism. To this end, more attention should be paid to the study of literary theory after the Song Dynasty. He said in the article "An Overview of the Research on Ancient Literary Theory": "Our current research on ancient literary theory seems to have a tendency to focus on the period before the Tang Dynasty. In fact, there are more abundant materials in the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties. This does not mean that the research on literary theory before the Tang Dynasty has been refined. However, there should be more room for maneuver in the study of literary theory after the Song Dynasty. If the works of representative literary critics of the past dynasties can be comprehensively reviewed one by one,... this will create a good foundation for the preparation of a systematic history of literary criticism. conditions." Mr. Gu also holds similar views on the study of literary history. He wrote a preface to Japan's Mr. Sato Ichiro's "On Chinese Articles" and pointed out the characteristics of this work: "It focuses on the evaluation of ancient texts after the Tang and Song Dynasties, especially the texts from the Ming and Qing Dynasties to modern times and modern times, and powerfully enriches the history of literature with his profound pen. Weak links in the research, such as the chapters on Wang Yangming, Dai Mingshi, and Zeng Guofan, even fill the gaps." He expressed his appreciation for the above characteristics. These all reflect Mr. Gu Yisheng's focus on the study of literary history and literary criticism. Strengthening research on weak links is consistent with improving the overall research level. In recent years, the status of research on weak links in the history of literary criticism has improved, but it is still an area with great potential, so Mr. Gu’s reminder can still inspire us.
(Wu Guoping)