Mr. Tong Qingbing, a master of literary theory, defined them as follows in the book "A Course of Literary Theory": Artistic conception is the realm and mood expressed by literary works through image description, and it is also the aesthetic imagination space of the image of scene blending and virtual reality in lyric works and its induction and development. Image is a typical art, which aims at expressing philosophical thoughts, takes symbolism or absurdity as its basic characteristics, and achieves the ideal state of human beings. According to this definition, we can draw the following points: First, image is a typical image to express meaning, a subjective image, and it is perceptual and concrete; Artistic conception is a kind of realm and artistic conception, which is expressed or induced by images and needs to be understood and abstracted. Secondly, images or the combination of images constitute artistic conception, and images are the means or ways to constitute artistic conception. It takes imagination to grasp both correctly.
There are two main situations in which images constitute artistic conception:
First, an image constitutes an artistic conception. For example, Wang Mian's Mo Mei: "The trees near my home in Xiyan Lake are covered with faint ink marks. Don't praise the good color, just leave the air full of dried Kun. " There is only one image in the poem-Mo Mei. But this plum is not the plum in nature, but the plum in the author's heart, a plum with ink color and personality. After careful tasting, we can feel that there is an artistic realm in the poem, which is unrestrained, maverick and comfortable. This realm is formed through this plum tree, which is the unique artistic conception of this poem. Generally speaking, most poems describing objects are like this.
Secondly, the combination of images forms artistic conception, that is, multiple images form a picture of life and form a whole artistic conception. For example, Li Bai's "Farewell to Meng Haoran on the way to Yangzhou": "An old friend said goodbye to the West Yellow Crane Tower, and fireworks went down to Yangzhou in March. Lonely sails overlook the blue sky, but I can see the Yangtze River flowing in the sky. " This poem is composed of a series of individual images-Yellow Crane Tower, fireworks, solitary sails, the Yangtze River and so on. -and it has become a realistic picture, with feelings hidden in the scenery. Although it is not lyrical, it shows more profound feelings in the scenery. The poem does not directly express the attachment to friends, but the image of a poet who disappears through a lonely sail. The river is long and he loses something by the river. On the surface, this poem is about scenery, but actually every sentence is lyrical, which arouses readers' endless aesthetic imagination and forms a meaningful artistic conception of this poem. From the above two examples, we can find that images are inseparable from artistic conception. Without the artistic conception of the whole poem, "Mei" has lost its unique meaning in the poem, and "Lonely Sail" has nothing to do with leaving feelings as soon as possible.
Of course, not all image combinations can constitute artistic conception. For example, Bai Pu's "Qiu Si" says: "The sunset in the lonely village, the old trees in the west of Western jackdaw smoke, and a little flying gull shadow. Green mountains and green waters, white grass, green leaves and yellow flowers. " * * * The juxtaposition of 12 images, although also vividly presents gorgeous autumn pictures, is not full of profound emotions. Without the natural integration of "emotion and scenery" and "emotion and reason", it is impossible to form an "aesthetic space" that "induces" people's imagination, and it is certainly difficult to impress people without artistic conception.