How to portray the characters in the novel successfully is the most glorious and prestigious part of Jin Shengtan's novel narrative theory, and it is also the most controversial part in the critics. If someone thinks that the connotation of Jin Shengtan's "personality" embodies the characteristics of "typical personality", it means that he has mastered the artistic dialectics of * * * and individuality, and general and special [1]; Some people also think that "in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, China's personality theory showed the trend of coexistence of personality type theory and personality theory, and the latter gradually replaced the former." Among them, "Jin Shengtan's personality theory is fuller, deeper and more complete." [2] Someone proudly said that Jin Shengtan's personality theory was two centuries earlier than Hegel and belinsky [3] (p. 562)! In my opinion, this interpretation of "China" by "West" means applying the typical theory of western realism to explain China's ancient novel theory, which greatly ignores and obscures the "heterogeneity" of China's ancient novel theory.
The word "character" was first seen in Li's poem "Presenting Zhang and Picking Up the Legacy" in Tang Dynasty: "Officials are noble and noble, and their character is lonely and rare." Later appeared in the novel, mainly referring to a person's temper. For example, in Chapter 23 of Water Margin, Ximen Qing said that Wu Dalang was a breadwinner, and that "people who make money have good character". The real application of "characters" as a novel theory category in literary criticism began with Jin Shengtan. When Jin Shengtan read The Handwritten Book of the Fifth Scholar, he defined the successful characterization as the center of the novel art, that is, the main measure to measure the artistic achievement of the novel: "Don't read the book again, and then have a rest. I just can't get enough of the unique Water Margin. It is nothing more than writing 180 personality for him "; "Water Margin writes 180 characters, which is really 180." So, what is the connotation of Jin's so-called "character"? "preface to the water margin" said: "the 180 people described in the water margin have their own temperament, their own temperament, their own shapes and their own voices." It can be seen that "personality" includes a person's temperament, temperament, appearance and voice. Among them, "temperament" refers to the mind, heart and state of mind of the character, "temperament" refers to the natural endowment of the character, "shape" refers to the portrait and behavior state of the character, and "sound" refers to the speech and expression of the character when he speaks. "Temperament" and "temperament" are internal factors that form character, while "shape" and "sound" are external factors that embody character. They all mark the unique spiritual characteristics that distinguish the characters from others and constitute the unique character of the characters. Before Jin Shengtan, Rong Yutang's "Water Margin" said that the characters created by the author "are wonderful throughout the ages, and they are all different from each other, such as Lu, jy, Ruan, Shi Xiu, Hu and Liu Tang. , are very keen, have their own style, their own scenes, their own mentor, their own identity, not completely different. The "style", "family background", "identity" and "scenery" here mainly focus on the external form of the characters (age, status, occupation, etc. ); However, Jin Shengtan's "temperament", "temperament", "shape" and "sound" directly grasp the characters' thoughts and stable psychological characteristics, and his theory is obviously much deeper and more complete than the former. Jin Shengtan also pointed out that similar psychological characteristics are different in the performance of specific characters, and they must be carefully distinguished among the similar psychological characteristics of different characters: "The Water Margin is only written in a rude way, so there are many ways to write it. For example, Ruda's rudeness is impatience, Shi Jin's rudeness is the arrogance of teenagers, Li Kui jy's rudeness is rudeness, Song Wu's rudeness is the freedom of heroes, Ruan Xiaoer's rudeness is grief and indignation, and Jiao Ting's rudeness is bad temper. " (Reading the calligraphy of the fifth gifted scholar) Jin Shengtan talked about the vulgarity of six words in one breath, but the focus of the analysis was the different deep psychological reasons behind it. Obviously, Jin Shengtan's "personality" summarizes the psychological characteristics of people's stable attitude towards the surrounding world and habitual behavior as individuals. This is also the basic meaning of the Chinese character "Zi".
Hegel's so-called "character" originated from the Greek word "kharakter" (meaning recorded things, engraved marks). Zhu Guangqian made a footnote when he translated the section "Characters" in the first volume of Aesthetics: "Charakter in the original text is literally just a" character ",while western literary works generally use this word to refer to" characters "or" roles ". [4](P300) This meaning is not found in the Chinese character "Zi". Hegel clearly defined "character": "God (referring to" cosmic power "-the guide note) has become human emotion, and the emotion in a specific state of activity is the character. Therefore, personality is the real center of ideal artistic expression. "It can be seen that Hegel's' personality' is a complete personality integrated by' universal power' differentiated from' absolute idea', and its specific content is' emotion'. The typical meaning of "personality" is that it represents universal spiritual strength. Hegel pointed out that the beauty of art lies in describing such a "character". In Hegel's aesthetics, "typical" is also called "ideal", which is "the reality selected from a lot of accidental things", that is, "the reality that conforms to the essence of the idea and is now a concrete image". What he called typicalization is "alienation from concept to perceptual things" [4](P 14), which is a process of conceptualization or spiritualization. Obviously, Hegel defined "character" from the external relationship-the relationship between thought and spiritual society developed into a "conflict" in a certain historical stage. What he emphasized was individualized and spiritual rationality, and human nature must be subordinate to rationality. From Hegel's concept of personality, we can deduce the meaning of personality, that is, "universal power" is the development purpose of "goodness" and "absolute idea" that must conform to rationality, which is manifested as "eternal religious and ethical relationship" [4](P279). What he requires is the unity of individuality and * * *. The essence is the unity of historical truth and eternal beauty. Jin Shengtan defines "personality" from psychological connotation, emphasizing the vividness and individuality of personality, which is mainly a kind of psychological realism. Therefore, he attaches importance to the expression of human nature and the spontaneity of behavior, that is, the interest of "innocence" and the voice of a child, and reason is subordinate to nature.
Jin Shengtan's character is the unity of psychology and ethics.
Jin Shengtan's personality theory defines "personality" from the psychological connotation and emphasizes the vividness and individuality of personality. It is a kind of psychological realism and is related to the theory of the relationship between form and spirit in China's ancient aesthetic thought. In fact, critics of novels, including Jin Shengtan, pay the most attention to the relationship between form and spirit, rather than the relationship between * * * and personality, universality and particularity. Fiction critics often criticize "chemical pen", "picturesque spirit" and "what they see and hear", or criticize "picturesque", "vivid" and "vivid", or simply criticize the word "painting". The so-called "chemical engineering" is to be able to write people or things with both form and spirit and "pursue the soul"; Its opposite is "painter", that is, only the similarities of people or things are written, but not the spirit of people or things. Obviously, they were inspired by the theory of "vivid" painting. "Vivid portrait" comes from Liu Yiqing's "Shi Shuo Xin Yu Joey", in which the person painted by Gu Kaizhi "still doesn't make the finishing point for several years. When people asked him why, Gu said,' Four-body beauty has nothing to do with beauty. A vivid portrayal is being blocked. In addition to "vivid portrayal", Gu Kaizhi also put forward the aesthetic proposition of "Simiao". The former emphasizes not sticking to form, not seeking the fidelity of form, and advocates expressing the infinite charm of characters in limited forms; The latter emphasizes the free use of imagination, transcending limited images, and grasping the inner charm of the object, that is, capturing the unique interest of the characters, expressing the vitality of the natural landscape and the motive force of inner life. Gu Kaizhi's creative theory with both form and spirit, which is mainly expressive, and Hao Jing, a painter of the Five Dynasties, both emphasize that works of art should convey the inner life and spiritual essence of the object. "Vividness" later became a deep-rooted traditional concept in China's painting art. After the aesthetic principle of "vividness" was put forward in the Six Dynasties, the dialectical combination of "likeness" and "spirit likeness" was emphasized in the development of China's ancient literary creation practice and literary thought, or "vividness" became the mainstream. In theory, Lu Ji of Jin Dynasty (26 1-303) put forward that "heaven and earth are caged in form, and everything is frustrated in pen", emphasizing "poor form". Liu Xie (465-520) of Liang Dynasty put forward the idea of "seeing its image and conveying its weight" and advocated "imitating its object and taking its heart", that is, expressing the spirit and essence of things. Tang Sikongtu put forward the principle of "similarity" in poetry, emphasizing that artistic description should focus on depicting the inner spiritual essence of the creative object, rather than sticking to the form. The Song Dynasty's Cang Hua takes "forgetting myself" as the highest realm of poetry, such as "the antelope hangs on the horn, there is no trace to be found" and "the words are incoherent, and the meaning is endless". Su Shi deeply analyzed the vivid characteristics of art in "Pure Cause Academy Album" and put forward "paradigm" and "common sense", that is, the problem of similarity in form and spirit. Taking words and bamboo that can be painted as examples, he pointed out that only by being "reasonable" can you write freely and vividly. Su Shi's so-called "paradigm" and "common sense" and Wang Fuzhi's "physical state" and "physics" in Jiang Zhai Shi Hua, the latter is also called "Li Shen", that is, expressive works can obtain the inner spiritual essence of things. It is intended to show that the key to vivid works lies in vividly reflecting the essential characteristics of things.
The aesthetic principle of "vivid" has also been used for reference by many critics of novels and operas and applied to the theoretical criticism of characterization. As Zhao Lingzhi of the Northern Song Dynasty pointed out, the reason why Cui Yingying in Hui Zhen Ji can "get carried away like a lifetime ago" lies in the vivid description of the characters' demeanor and anger, that is, the state of "everyone likes her" [5](P57). Liu Chenweng, the founder of novel criticism, repeatedly called his characters' language "extreme mode", "wind-induced" and "intentional" when commenting on Shi Shuo Xin Yu, which gave people an artistic feeling of "seeing the truth more and more" [5](P75). In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the theory of form and spirit was integrated into the theoretical criticism of novels, and people took whether it was vivid or not as the basic standard to measure the artistic achievements of novels. For example, Hu Yinglin pointed out that the Water Margin "is full of human feelings without embellishment", which is "full of thoughts" in addition to narration (P437); Daokun Wang, the foreign minister of Tiandu, said that the Water Margin "looks like a good history but a good painting, with subtle distance and meticulous work" [7](P 189). Rong Yutang's "Water Margin" earlier analyzed and evaluated the novel's achievements in this respect with the aesthetic concept of both form and spirit: "The reason why the Water Margin ends with heaven and earth lies in the vivid feelings, lively laughter and eternal life of its characters; Praise Shi Naian as a "wonderful hand of vivid portrayal". Jin Shengtan inherited the previous views and made his own unique understanding of "vivid portrayal". The first four sentences of Du Fu's poem "Painting the Eagle" say: "It's different to practice wind and frost and the eagle draws pictures. I am thinking of a sly rabbit, and there seems to be sadness in my eyes. " Jin Shengtan criticized the cloud: "It is only common to draw an eagle. Others will ignore it, and Mr. Wang's uniqueness lies in that he only uses three words to write elements of wind and frost, which is simply awesome. If you first make a chalk book to draw an eagle, you can have these five words without using words and paying attention. Three or four is to explain unique paintings and unique characters. The world keeps telling vivid pictures and the husband tells vivid pictures are two different things. Only in this way, the main sentence is vivid, and the eye-catching sentence is a portrayal. Vividness should be seen from a distance, and portrayal should be seen from a close distance. I don't know how to add three hairs to my cheeks. " When reading Jinsheng, "vivid portrayal" should be interpreted as "two interpretations": "Portrait" is an external expression and partial, so "it should be revealed in close examination"; "Vividness" is the inner life, personality and soul of the inner object, which is holistic, so "look from a distance". Here, Jin Shengtan actually pointed out that the description of exterior, reality, part and whole must be intuitive; Moreover, "portrayal" and "vividness" must be coordinated and unified, and cannot be separated or isolated. Otherwise, "I don't know how to add three hairs to my cheeks." These basic principles of "vivid" are actually the core of characterization in novels.
Around the vivid depiction, Jin Shengtan made a comprehensive and in-depth study and analysis of the "Hua Bi" in Water Margin, and summed up many specific artistic expressions such as "sketching", "contrasting color dyeing", "painting on the back", "baking clouds to hold the moon" and "dyeing leaves with flowers". These aspects have been discussed a lot, so I won't repeat them here.
Second, "vivid" and China's traditional way of thinking
China's novel critics, represented by Jin Shengtan, all associate the aesthetic orientation of characterization with the relationship between form and spirit in China's ancient aesthetic thought. However, the phenomena and essence, individuality and * * *, particularity and generality in European typical theories have nothing to do with the context of China's ancient novels. Then, why do the characterization theories of Chinese and western novels embark on different development models? We intend to discuss this issue from the differences between Chinese and western traditional thinking.
We know that the way of thinking is an important part of culture. When a nation creates a culture, it forms a corresponding way of thinking. China's traditional thinking has many influences on novel creation. From the perspective of cultural and literary comparison, it is mainly perceptual monism that affects the characterization of China's ancient novels. Many scholars found that "being" and "nothing" are two very important concepts when studying the epistemological differences between China and the West [8](P62-92). In a word, "existence" is a basis for westerners to know the world. When westerners pursue the universe ontology, they value existence rather than nothingness, and value existence rather than nothingness. Parmenides, an ancient Greek philosopher, first put forward the concept of existence, and Aristotle later put forward the concept of matter, which determined the development direction of western culture. Later, western philosophers put forward a series of concepts such as atom, particle, list and atom. , as well as mental formulas, ideas, logic, God, transcendental forms, etc. , basically not beyond the category of "be" and "be". In China's ancient philosophy, the four most important concepts are Tao, nothingness, reason and qi. In the eyes of the ancients, the world is in the Tao, and the world is only the product of the change of the Tao. I ching said: "Tao has changed, so it is said;" Wait, so it's a thing. " "Nothing" is the characteristic and existing way of "Tao". Laozi said: "Tao can be Tao, but not surprising"; "Tao is a thing, but it is just a dream. It's embarrassing, and elephants. Hey, there's something in it. "Although Tao is invisible, it is not everywhere. The circulation of "Tao" is called "Qi", and "Reason" is the law followed by the formation and change of "Tao". It is between the concepts of "being" and "nothing" that Chinese and western philosophers describe two different worlds to us: "a material universe, a gas universe; The opposition between entity and void, and the coexistence of virtual and real. This is the fundamental difference between the Chinese and Western cultural cosmic models that permeate all aspects, and it is also two completely different ways of looking at the world. " [9](P2 1) In the eyes of westerners, the world is a definite and recognizable "being" and "being", and people are obviously separated from nature, body and spirit, and matter and consciousness. The world can only be known if it is certain, and it can be divided into known and unknown, which has aroused the great enthusiasm of westerners to know the world. This is not only reflected in natural science, but also in various art categories, but the latter focuses on the understanding of social life. In the eyes of ancient China people, the world is uncertain, everything is born in Tao, and people are also a part of Tao. "Tao" goes on and on, and everything comes into being, and then returns to Tao. In the Song Dynasty, Zhang Zai described this change as "Qi": "Too empty and invisible, the body of qi that gathers and disperses is the guest shape of change." [10] (p7) Since the origin of the world is vanity, everything in the world is endless and colorful, so they are uncertain and cannot be grasped. What matters is its function. In the concept of "harmony between man and nature", people's understanding of Tao is not to study and examine it as an object, but to face their own introspection. As long as we know ourselves, surpass ourselves and are not obscured by the ego, we can enter the realm of "harmony between man and nature". Confucianism's "participation in heaven and earth", "everything is prepared for me, and I am sincere and happy" and Taoism's "heaven and earth coexist with me, and everything is one with me" all talk about this truth. Therefore, "traditional thinking is characterized by the combination of cognition and emotion, and knowledge, emotion and intention are in a state of indifference, in which emotional factors play an important role." This makes traditional thinking with strong emotional color and makes thinking develop in the direction determined by subjective emotional needs. "[ 1 1](P29)
The rational logical thinking mode in the west is mainly manifested in the dualistic cognitive mode in narrative literature creation. Western philosophers have long shown great distrust of the real phenomenon world and have been actively looking for the hidden essence behind life. For example, Plato thought that phenomena were illusory, thus artificially creating an orderly ideological world. Aristotle inherited Plato's dichotomy between reality and essence. In Aristotle's view, poetry is more philosophical than history, because it describes something universal: "The so-called universality refers to what a certain kind of people will say and do under certain circumstances according to the law of possibility or inevitability-this is the purpose of poetry" [12](P28-29). Mr. Zhu Guangqian pointed out: "Aristotle not only affirmed the authenticity of art, but also affirmed that art is more real than the phenomenal world. Art imitates not only the appearance (phenomenon) of the real world that Plato said, but the inevitability and universality of the real world, that is, its inherent essence and law. This basic idea is a red line running through poetics "; "... his intention to compare poetry with history is clear, that is, poetry should not only imitate accidental phenomena, but should reveal the essence and law of phenomena and see inevitability and universality in the deeds of characters. This is the unity of universality and particularity. This is the most subtle meaning of' typical character'. [13](P72, P73) Obviously, this is still a variant of the phenomenon and essential dualism on the characters. Since then, western literary theory has been discussing this aspect endlessly. Horace of ancient Rome suggested that poets "pay attention to the habits of people of different ages and give appropriate decorations to people of different personalities and ages" when creating; "We must always unswervingly match the age and characteristics properly.
Then, how can a novelist grasp the internal principle of things and create a character with both form and spirit? Jin Shengtan pointed out that the characterization must be the result of the writer's "affinity" and "personality". Jin Shengtan said in Preface III of Water Margin: "No article in the world has the right to water margin; No gentleman in the world has the right to be Mr. Shi Naian "; "Shi Naian United as one, one hundred and eight people are wonderful, no one else. Ten years later, it is a matter of time. It is not difficult to write a million people. " The so-called "style of things" is to infer the principle of things. Specifically, characterization in novel creation is to observe, experience, analyze and study social life and characters for a long time, and then we can master the "style of things", that is, to master the ins and outs of human physics and the development law of things. On the premise of long-term "heavy objects", Jin Shengtan emphasized the method of "understanding things" with "loyalty" and "forgiveness" as the core: "The method of heavy objects takes loyalty and forgiveness as the door. What is loyalty? The world is born by fate, so loyalty doesn't have to be learned. The world is natural, so don't be unfaithful. Or loyal, loyal eyes, so my opinion is loyalty; Zhong Zhong, Zhong Er, so I heard there was no infidelity. If I am loyal, people are loyal, thieves are loyal, and dogs and mice are not loyal. The so-called forgiveness. Husband can then do his duty as a human being, and he can praise education and ascend to heaven. " "My emotions, nature is sincere outward, this is called loyalty. People who know their family, their country and their world are naturally sincere, outward and mean forgiveness. " (Comment No.42 reply) It is called "doing my best" to conduct sincere and frank self-examination, self-observation and self-analysis on one's secret psychology, so as to reveal one's real situation. Everything shows its essence according to its own reasons and conditions, just as everyone has a different personality and destiny, which is formed according to its own reasons and conditions. This is called perfection. The so-called "loyalty" is both "dedication" and "dedication". The key to the transformation from "do your best" to "do your best" and "do your best" lies in "forgiveness", that is, put yourself in the shoes and imagine the object described in the novel creation. From "case" to "case", it is a process of grasping the reasons, conditions and inevitable relations of people and things, and then pushing the nature of other things by its own nature.
How to understand and grasp the "principle" of human physics; If the theory of "loyalty and forgiveness" is discussed from the novelist's point of view, then the theory of "karma" is born from the character's point of view, which is about how characters are formed and developed in the novelist's mind. "Cause" refers to the basis of the production or decay of things, "karma" refers to the conditions that contribute to the results, and "law" is a material or spiritual phenomenon produced by the combination of karma. Jin Shengtan commented in the fifty-fifth chapter of Water Margin: "The so-called karma is inseparable. ..... The article also starts from karma, that is, resistance to stagnation and nothing. "That is to say, a novelist can write heroes, adulterers, adulterers, thieves and other characters, not because he must be a hero, adulterer, adulterer and thief himself, but because he has deep karma, that is, he has mastered the karma and fate that constitute the psychology and behavior of these characters. In a word, in the interaction of karma, Therefore, although a writer has nothing to do with every object, he can stand on them, design, arrange and drive them away according to human nature, and point to his own creative purpose. This is what is summed up in the preface to the Water Margin III: "Loyalty and forgiveness are the struggles of all things; Life and life, cutting the knife ruler of the world. Shi Naian's left hand is like a bucket, and his right hand is like a knife ruler, but he still tells the temperament, temperament, shape and voice of 180 people. It's still too young to try. " Particularity and difference are the basic laws of everything ("measuring everything"); Many different reasons and conditions combine to create everything, which is the fundamental law of creating a vast and diverse world ("knife and ruler cut the world").
It can be seen that "karma begets law", "personality" and "loyalty and forgiveness" are trinity. The writer probes into the origin of human nature from karma, and then obtains real experience by simulating introspection on the occurrence conditions of the characters ("pro-exploration"), and the perceptual truth is transformed into psychological truth, which becomes the personality connotation of the characters' "character" ". In this way, the shaping of characters in the novel has become a unified process of transcending aesthetic photos and integrating aesthetic experience.
What Jin Shengtan said above accords with the intuitive thinking mode of China's traditional phenomenological monism and reveals the psychological law of novel creation, which is quite oriental.