Words are superficial.
Wang Guowei's evaluation of Ci in the Southern Song Dynasty was quite low. Except for Xin Qiji, who is called "the dragon of ci", he is critical of other ci writers, even totally negating them. After this view was put forward, it caused a lot of controversy and was considered by many scholars to be emotional and biased. The main criterion for Wang Guowei to make this judgment is whether the "realm" of words is high or low. In fact, what is hidden behind his "prejudice" is his persistence in China's traditional culture and his cultural choice. When we discuss Wang Guowei's ci theory from the cultural level, we can further deepen our understanding of this master of Chinese studies.
Wang Guowei said this when commenting on several poets in the Southern Song Dynasty:
Meixi, Mengchuang, Tian Yu, Caochuang and Xilu have different words, but they are all superficial. Although times have made it, its talents are limited. It's hard to get rid of Zhou Ding and Bao Kangxuan.
For Shi Dazu, Wang, Zhang Qian, Chen and others, Wang Guowei thinks that their writings have one thing in common-superficiality, which is caused by the social atmosphere in the Southern Song Dynasty and because their literary talent is really limited. Close people abandon real people and praise these mediocre talents, which makes Wang Guowei puzzled.
The gap between Zhou Ding and Kang Xuan
The sentence "Abandoning Zhou Ding Baokangxuan" comes from Jia Yi's Mourning Qu Yuan: "Alas, it was born at an inopportune time. ..... I abandoned Zhou Ding, and Baokang was embarrassed. " Zhou Ding is a heavy weapon of the country, and Kangzan is just a hip flask with low value.
Wang Guowei's feelings are caused by his proximity to the Southern Song Ci. Poets such as Shi Dazu, Zhang Qian, Chen in the Southern Song Dynasty are just mediocrities like Kang Xuan, and poets in the Northern Song Dynasty are just the same talented people. It's really hard to understand that close people actually have reversed their values and worship those superficial people.
Wang Guowei's "superficiality" should mean that they are all pursuing formal beauty, and they are very similar in so-called "sustenance", lacking personalized emotional expression, so that these works are different in appearance but surprisingly consistent in content. The typology of Ci in the Southern Song Dynasty is indeed a prominent phenomenon, so why? Analyzing the reasons, Wang Guowei thinks there are roughly two points:
First of all, the Southern Song Dynasty is no longer a prosperous era of ci poetry, and these people are unable to resist the law of the decline of ci poetry. Secondly, the poets of the Southern Song Dynasty, represented by Shi Dazu and Wu Wenying, have poor creative ability and limited talent, so they can't transcend the limitations of style from the personal level. The combination of times and personal factors led to the overall decline of Ci in the Southern Song Dynasty.
The most important thing in Wang Guowei's comments is "artistic conception". The objective external world and the state of mind composed of emotions, emotions, joys and sorrows are two indispensable parts of the realm, both external and internal. Then, why did the poets in the Southern Song Dynasty lose their "realm"?
On the "Realm" of Song Dynasty
Wang Guowei sees China's traditional culture and its influence on literature in this way. In Qu Zi's Literary Spirit, he said:
Before the Spring and Autumn Period in China, moral and political thoughts can be divided into two schools: imperial school and non-imperial school. The former advocates Yao, Shun, Yu, Tang, Wen and Wu, while the latter calls him a quiet gentleman who learns from the ancient times. ) or entrusted to the ancient emperors. The former is close to the ancient school, and the latter is also the ancient school. The former is the best, and the latter is the civilian. The former is a member of WTO, and the latter is a recluse (not a real recluse, who knows that the end of his teachings can't be carried out in the world, and so can the recluse. ) that's right. The former is hot and the latter is cold. The former is from the state, while the latter is from the individual. The former is greater than Confucius and Mozi, while the latter is greater than Laozi. (Laozi and the Chu people, after Confucius, greeted Confucius with two people, saying that they saw Wang's "An Examination of Laozi in Shu Studies". Therefore, the former was sent by the north and the latter was sent by the south. The theories of these two factions are often antagonistic, but they cannot be reconciled. First of all, we can learn about the relationship between Confucius and the interpreter, Chang Ju, the interpreter and He Fu. All schools after the Warring States period are directly derived from these two schools, or a mixture of these two schools. Therefore, although it is called China's inherent thought, it is nothing more than both, also.
After making such an evaluation of the two schools, Wang Guowei further pointed out the literary differences between the two schools: poetry is unique to the northern school, while the southern school only uses prose as a literary form. This is because "poetry is the Tao, which describes life, and life is not an isolated life, but also exists in family, country and society." After joining the WTO, the Northern School should "persevere and be strong, hold on to its adaptation ideal and contend with the society at that time", and accumulate rich themes and emotional accumulation for poetry creation by virtue of its profound experience of real life. The ideal of the Southern School is seclusion. "Southerners know the impossibility of practice, because they are better at thinking than implementing, so they seek comfort from their ideals." .
Wang Guowei praised Qu Yuan as a representative poet who combined "the imagination of southerners" with "the feelings of northerners". This integration of North and South cultures made Qu Yuan the most dazzling star in pre-Qin literature and set a new benchmark for later literature. Xin Qiji's combination of the enthusiasm of the northern faction for joining the WTO and the magnificent imagination of the southern faction is equally great. The only Jiaxuan in the Southern Song Dynasty shows Wang Guowei's admiration for him.
Most poets in the Southern Song Dynasty pursued elegance, while Xin Qiji inherited Su Shi's boldness. Xin Qiji wrote many excellent works, and he is a master of the uninhibited school. In his works, we can see the changes of the times and feel his patriotic enthusiasm and the melancholy of serving the country. Wang Guowei's ci theory pays attention to culture and spirit, which Shi Dazu and others lack.