Explanation of using one's own thoughts to infer other people's thoughts.
Source "Mencius · Wan Zhang 1": "Therefore, those who talk about "Poetry" do not use words to harm their words; To use words to harm one's will; to use one's will to go against one's will is to gain it."
To use one's will to go against one's will
A method of literary criticism proposed by Mencius* in the middle of the Warring States Period. "The Book of Songs·Xiaoya" ·Beishan" written in: "Zhi Beishan, pick up its berries. Together with the scholars, we work day and night. The king's affairs are busy, and I worry about my parents. Under the sky, is it the king's land; on the shore of the land, is it the king's land? Ministers and officials are not all equal, so I am dedicated to being the only virtuous person." Xianqiu Meng did not start from the overall meaning of the whole poem, but quoted it out of context: ""Poetry" says: 'Under the whole world, is it the land of the king; is it the shore of the land? "Since Shun is the emperor, how dare you ask Gushen, who is not a minister?" He thinks that since Shun has become the emperor, and his father Gushen is not his subject, isn't it the same as in the "Book of Songs"? Are the meanings of these sentences contradictory? Mencius criticized him and said: "It is a poem, but it is not a right thing to say. You are too busy with the king's affairs and cannot support your parents." "Beishan" is about the poet's dissatisfaction with the uneven work and rest. Emotional, if we only understand it literally like Xian Qiumeng did, then in "The Book of Songs·Yunhan", "There are more people in Zhou Dynasty, and there are no children left behind," shouldn't we understand it as "No people left in Zhou Dynasty"? Why? Therefore, Mencius told him: "Therefore, those who talk about poetry should not use words to harm their words, nor use words to harm their aspirations; use their thoughts to go against their aspirations, in order to gain it." Mencius emphasized that the understanding of poetry cannot only be based on the superficial meaning of the words. Look, you must start from the basic idea of ??the whole poem to understand the meaning of the words. The "Ni" in "Yiyi Ni Zhi" means "to cater to, figure out", and "Zhi" refers to the purpose and intention of the poet in writing the poem. For "Ni" There have always been two different views on the understanding of "meaning". One is that "meaning" refers to the poet's meaning. For example, Zhao Qi in the Han Dynasty said in his annotation to "Mencius": "Zhi, the poet wants to do what he wants. Yi, the scholar "Human feelings are not far away. If you use your own will and go against the poet's will, you can get it." Zhu Xi said in "Annotations to the Four Books": "If you use your own will to go against the author's will, you can get it." ." They all emphasized that reading poets must comprehensively understand the meaning of the poems. Only with a correct understanding can the author's aspirations be understood. The other believes that "meaning" refers to the meaning that exists objectively in the poems, such as Wu Qi in the Qing Dynasty In "Selected Poems of the Six Dynasties and the Origin of Poems", it is said: "Confucian scholars in the Han and Song Dynasties regarded the word "Yi Zhi" as belonging to the ancients, and their meanings were their own. I am not an ancient, but I said it with my own ideas. I am wiser than the Mongols (referring to Xianqiu). Meng) has many opinions. Those who don’t know the thoughts of the ancients use their will as a guide, and travel with their will. There may be a direction or no direction. Wherever the intention goes, that is where the will is. Therefore, we seek the ancients’ ideas based on their intentions. The ambition is to discuss poetry with poetry, just like using people to govern others. That is to say, if you are discussing it with poetry, you cannot support your parents. This is the ambition. It is said all over the world, and it is also in the literature. "Is it the king's business, I am the only one who can work hard", its meaning That is, the words are harmful, but the meaning is harmless, so this meaning is used to contradict it, and the purpose is to raise relatives." Wu Qi's explanation is in line with the characteristics of literary creation and is relatively scientific. According to his understanding, then "Using one's own will to oppose one's will" is indeed a good way to objectively analyze poetry. However, Mencius' original intention may still be to use one's own will to oppose the poet's will. This can be seen from his own literary criticism practice. In "Liang Hui" In his interpretations of "Gongliu", "Mian", "Lingtai", "Owl", "Xi Gong" and other chapters in "The Book of Songs", etc. The purpose is to seek the characteristics of the poet's ambition. In fact, readers always have their own opinions and understandings of poetry, and it is impossible to completely agree with the author. If one's own opinion is based on an objective analysis of the work, , just like Mencius' understanding of "Beishan", it can be consistent with the objective meaning of the poem. If one's own meaning is based on prejudice and subjective guessing, it will distort the original meaning of the poem, just like Mencius's understanding of "Gong Liu" 》 and other chapters have the same explanation. Therefore, in order to correctly understand the meaning of "Yi" in "Yi Yi Ni Zhi", we should combine the scientific aspects of the two different understandings in history to make it a truly scientific one. Methods of literary criticism.