It is divided into poetic theory, poetic method theory and poet theory. Main points: 1. Principles of classical poetics. Horace is the founder of classicism. The so-called classicism refers to the idea that Roman literature and art should be studied like ancient Greek literature and art, taking ancient Greek literature and art as a model. Later, in the17th century, boileau and others in France advocated that French literature and art should be on an equal footing with ancient Greek and Roman literature and art, which was called neoclassicism in the history of western literature. (1) Reference principle. This is the first principle in Horace's classical poetics, that is, learning from ancient Greek literature as a model. "Please try to understand the ancient Greek classics day and night." He thought that learning to write poetry "should play with Greek examples day and night" and highly praised Homer's epic and Aeschylus's tragedy. Aristotle emphasized that literature and art imitate life. On this basis, he put forward the principle that literature and art imitate classicism. For example, first of all, he proposed to use classical themes to draw creative themes from Greek epics and tragicomedy. Secondly, we should follow the practices of the ancients in dealing with themes. The rhythm of poetry should also follow the rhythm of ancient Greek poetry, and epics should be as good at cutting and layout as Homer's. However, he did not ask Roman writers to follow in the footsteps of Greek writers, because his purpose was to mold the military greatness and nobility of the upper class of Roman slave owners and create glorious art worthy of the Roman Empire. In terms of subject matter and language, both inheritance and innovation are needed. (2) The principle of conformity in artistic creation. Horace believes that correct judgment is manifested in the principle of "combination" in artistic creation. This principle of "combination" is a specific rule he established for artistic creation from content to form. The principle of "combination" mainly refers to artistic harmony, appropriateness, naturalness, rationality, audience psychology and artistic principles. Originated from the historical and aesthetic traditions of ancient Greece. Horace's parataxis principle originates from the poetic aesthetic tradition of ancient Greece, and its theoretical basis is Plato's "organic unity theory" and Aristotle's tragic art should become an organic whole. The social root of the principle of harmony is the embodiment of the life and will of Roman nobles and their aesthetic ideals. The so-called "combination" means to be coordinated, appropriate and just right in art, which makes people feel reasonable and impeccable. It includes formal requirements and content requirements. Specifically, there are the following points: First, the structure should be uneven and flawless, and it should be harmonious in content, formal skills and overall effect. He believes that narrative should conform to the theme, and different poetic styles have different narrative and expression methods. "The theme of comedy cannot be expressed by tragic lines; The theme of tragedy cannot be expressed in everyday poems suitable for comedy. A sad face should be accompanied by sad words, and anger should be accompanied by threatening words. He believes that not only the plot layout of epic should be like this, but also tragedy should be like this. We should also pay attention to what kind of plot is suitable for performance and what kind of plot is not suitable for performance, only suitable for narrative. If the actor's performance and narrative are combined, the reality is uneven and there is no flaw. It is important to think that individual details are true, but what is more important is the overall effect, which requires the coordination of all details, especially the main details. Secondly, the characters should be self-consistent, conform to the types and characteristics. A. the character's personality should be consistent with his age; To reproduce the characters in ancient works, it is necessary to describe the well-known personality characteristics, which requires that the characters described "must be consistent and not contradictory from beginning to end." "To describe the characters in ancient Greek themes, we must write well-known personality characteristics. To write Achilles, we must write about his impatience, ruthlessness, meanness, how to refuse legal constraints, and how to resort to force everywhere. Medea's fierceness; Wandering in Io; Orestes's sorrow. If you create characters, you must pay attention to consistency and not contradict yourself. Personality should conform to the characteristics of the times and the universal characteristics of people of all ages. Characters' language and lines should conform to their identity, nationality, region and professional characteristics. The principle that "you must pay attention to the fact that young people and old people have their own ways of hiding, and ensure that your manners are commensurate with various personalities and ages" constitutes his "personality theory", which is stereotyped and typed in essence. (type theory, the traditional figure, type theory, the same figure) What he asked to describe was the type of figures divided by age and temperament, which was inherited and developed by neoclassicism in17th century and had a bad influence on western literature. It was not until the artistic theories of Kant, Hegel and Goethe appeared that this type theory was broken. B. the language of the characters should conform to the personal identity and experience. He not only asked writers to write different languages of people with different identities, but also asked the words and expressions of the characters' languages to be coordinated with the expressions of the characters. Thirdly, there must be noble content and elegant form. His principle of "combination" requires it to conform to the mentality and artistic taste of Roman slave owners and nobles, rather than "the hobby of uneducated plowmen", so literature and art must be noble and elegant. In his view, noble literature and art must show the great cause of noble people, which requires literature and art to show the performance and morality of noble slave owners at all times and in all countries. In artistic form, we should make great efforts in the arrangement and arrangement of plots, especially in the use of language, distinguish what is vulgar and what is elegant, and write novels with harmonious rhythm. His demand for nobility was developed from neoclassicism, which had an important influence on the division between elegance and vulgarity in literature and art. Rational tendency Horace's view on the essence of artistic activities mainly inherits Aristotle's view. He talks about poetry, not fanaticism. He admits that this is a gifted component of human genius, and emphasizes hard study and training. He regards art as an imitation of human life, not an imperial edict. It is believed that "judgment is the beginning and source of writing success." "This judgment refers to the artist's thinking ability, that is, the artist's ability to correctly judge what to write and how to write. This judgment comes from thought, morality and knowledge." If a person knows what his responsibility is to his country and friends, how to love his father, brothers and guests, what the duties of elders and judges are, and what the role of generals sent to the battlefield is, then he must also know how to write these characters reasonably. "This rationality refers to the rationality of the slave owner class. Its value lies in further expounding that literary and artistic creation is a rational activity, which has a very important relationship with the writer's ideological depth, moral tendency, knowledge and experience. Inspire future generations to understand the characteristics of artistic judgment, which is a comprehensive judgment including cognitive judgment, moral judgment and aesthetic judgment, and is an ability to feel, compare and identify specific things. It reveals the important role of the creative subject. " To succeed in writing, judgment is the beginning and the source. "This sentence became the creed of French neoclassicism in17th century. However, they demanded that the writer's personal judgment be replaced by feudal rational judgment, which made neoclassicism tend to be rigid. Reason and Combination by Horace is the earliest source of "content and form", which marks the earliest origin of the concept of "form" corresponding to content in modern aesthetics and literary theory. Horace believes that to write a poem well, we must first know what to write and what to write, what not to write and what not to write; In other words, a competent writer should first be able to make a correct judgment and reflection on the object and content to be expressed by art, which is "rationality". The so-called "combination" is translated into "appropriateness", "appropriateness", "stable work", "appropriateness" and "just right", which is Horace's requirement for art form and embodies the elegant and square artistic principles of classicism, such as language matching identity, personality matching age, character matching tradition and so on. If the former concept is based on the concept of world monism, then rationality and combination are a new category of dualism. The emergence of this new category is closely related to the conflict between Hellenization and Hellenization in the ideological and cultural circles at that time, and the contradiction between money worship and aesthetic pursuit, which will inevitably lead to the emergence of aesthetic dualism concepts such as spirit and body, religion and music, goodness and beauty, pragmatism and formalism. 3. The function of art: the principle of "entertainment" There were three schools of thought about the social function of poetry in the Hellenistic period: one school was the Stoic school (also known as the Stoic school), which believed that life should abandon pleasure and indifference, so it emphasized the content and educational purpose of poetry; One school is Epicurus (also known as hedonism), which advocates that life should pursue personal happiness and tranquility, so it emphasizes the entertainment of poetry and the attraction of beautiful words; The third school is Aristotle (also known as Walking School or Free and unfettered School). They insist that content and form are equally important, and the educational function and pleasure and entertainment function of poetry cannot be neglected. Horace can be said to be a descendant of this school. First of all, he expounded the role of literature and art in early human society, and pointed out that ancient poetry taught people to "distinguish between public and private, respect and blasphemy, prohibit fornication, formulate husband and wife etiquette, and establish a country." "Poetry is a teacher who moves from ignorance to civilization. Horace noticed the characteristics and laws of literature and art imitating reality earlier, and put forward the theory of "entertaining": he proposed that "the poet's wish should be to give people benefits and fun, and what he wrote should give people pleasure and help life." "entertaining, can not only convince the reader, but also let him fondle admiringly, so as to meet expectations. "Give advice to readers and make them like it. Learn "entertainment". This paper puts forward the dual purpose and effect of art and realizes the educational purpose through emotional action. " It not only brings happiness to readers, but also has lessons worth learning. " The ideological content of exhortation should be expressed through certain artistic means. The organic combination of ideology, artistry and emotion. While enjoying art, literature and art must undertake the mission of education. "Entertainment" summarizes the particularity of art reflecting social life; Attaching importance to the role of art education has formed a utilitarian view of art in later generations. His theory of "entertaining through education" reveals the relationship between the aesthetic function and cognitive function of literature and art, and also implies that literary creation can be formulated and conceptualized. This is obvious in the later French neoclassicism. Horace was the founder of Roman classicism, which enriched and developed the literary thought of ancient Greece. According to his own creative experience, he put forward insightful views on the present situation of Roman literature and art, and his poetic art laid the theoretical foundation of classicism. His view of literature and art is realistic, and his affirmation of the social function of imitating reality and art influenced writers and literary critics during the Renaissance and Enlightenment.