What is Plato's literary essence?

Plato's literary thought can be divided into three aspects: essence theory and axiology creation theory: 1. His literary essence theory is based on a rather idealistic "theoretical style". In the tenth volume of Plato's Republic, it is mentioned: "Since Homer, all poets are just imitators. Whether they imitate virtue or all the subjects they write, they just get images and never grasp the truth. " Plato believes that "every miscellaneous individual thing has its own theoretical basis". Take the bed as an example, there are three kinds of beds: one is the "natural bed" created by God, that is, the principle of bed and the "real entity of bed"; The second is the "personal bed" made by craftsmen according to the bed principle, "not a real entity, just something close to the real entity"; Third, the "image of the bed" drawn by the painter imitating the shape of the bed is "separated from the real entity by three layers". In a word, the essence of literature and art is imitation.

Imitation "only gets the image, but never grasps the truth", so "imitation is just a matter, not a serious matter". 2. His literary theory of value has extremely utilitarian ethical characteristics. Plato attached importance to the social function of literature and art, and demanded that literature and art "can not only cause pleasure, but also have an effect on the country and life", that is, it is meaningful to build a "just" city-state and cultivate a "just" personality. Based on this, he criticized the blasphemy and uglification of heroes in ancient Greek literature and art. "The most serious problem is lying"; The second is to destroy reason and nourish lust, which is "poison to the audience's mind". Therefore, he wants to expel poetry from utopia unless it "can really educate and benefit people." 3. His theory of literary and artistic creation is a kind of "inspiration theory" with religious mysticism. Plato believes that literary creation depends not on skill, but on inspiration. He mentioned in Ian: "All brilliant poets, whether epic or lyric, did not make their beautiful poems by skill, but because they were inspired and attached by divine power." The so-called "inspiration" is the divine power driven by the poetic god. The creative process is that the poet's spirit is attached to the poet's mind, which makes him get rich creative inspiration, and the poet's mind is aroused, so he "loses his autonomy and falls into ecstasy" and "speaks for God" in ignorance. His "inspiration theory" describes the irrational state in the process of creation, which has a far-reaching impact on later generations.