In addition to the significance of ethical principles, the theory of gentleness and gentleness is sometimes extended to artistic principles in later generations, such as the theory of gentleness and gentleness put forward by Kuang Zhouyi in HSBC Thorn. The theory of "softness and thickness" in the theory of ci requires that ci should be subtle and slightly tortuous in artistic expression; The content should be profound and profound, neither clamoring for perversity nor plain and straightforward. This is undoubtedly of positive significance. Although the theory of gentleness as an artistic principle is ultimately based on the ethical principle of gentleness and tenderness.
As a concentrated expression of the teaching function of poetry, gentleness and gentleness are true in terms of people's words and deeds, temperament and affection, and moral cultivation. It mainly refers to people's gentle goodwill, honest and generous character, gentle and peaceful temperament and calm and profound customs and habits cultivated by poetry. Although gentleness and gentleness are the temperament keynote with universality or universal significance, they are not the whole connotation of temperament and poetry teaching, and should complement each other with other elements of human mind to avoid the deviation of "stupidity". "The Book of Rites" recognizes that gentleness and honesty may be biased, so it emphasizes that "gentleness and honesty are not stupid", which is a very profound insight. Many theorists in later generations ignored the "not stupid" side when criticizing the "gentle" teaching of poetry, which led to misunderstanding.
Fundamentally speaking, "not stupid" means having wisdom, wisdom and insight. According to Wang Fuzhi's annotation, it can be said that not being stupid means that people can distinguish between true and false, good and evil, beauty and ugliness, and right and wrong. There is a saying in Xunzi's Cultivation: Yes, no, no is knowledge, no, no is stupidity. The general idea of this passage is that it is not stupid to distinguish right from wrong. Explaining that "Chai is also a fool" in Advanced Analects of Confucius, Zhu said: Fools have rich knowledge. It can be seen that people are not stupid when they are gentle and sincere and have rich knowledge or wisdom.
Gentle and honest is a neutral tone, not a one-dimensional regulation of human temperament, nor does it hinder the diversified presentation of other factors in temperament. Tender, tender, is the sum of feelings, is the strength of feelings. The sum of feelings focuses on the external mental outlook, and the firmness of feelings focuses on the internal personality.
Confucius put forward "gentle and honest" poetry teaching from his philosophy of the mean, and advocated "the beauty of neutralization" in literature. "Gentle and honest" has become the aesthetic standard. First of all, it requires moderate feelings. The so-called "happiness without lewdness, sadness without injury" and "only expression with courtesy" are restrained by courtesy. Secondly, the requirements are implicit. As explained by Confucius, the "gentle and honest" poetry teaching has the characteristics of "not afraid of sarcasm, not referring to cutting things", which requires poets to use metaphor in their creation to form a tactful and implicit artistic style in order to mobilize readers' imagination for aesthetic re-creation. This also promoted the development of Bi Xing's artistic method. This can show that "gentle and honest" poetry teaching has a beneficial impact on promoting the development of artistic expression methods.
However, gentle and honest poetry teaching also has its negative effects.
The purpose of "poetry" teaching is to teach people to express their opinions on the advantages and disadvantages of the country on the premise of "gentleness and gentleness" and to be loyal to the monarch as much as possible. "Poetry" requires poetry to create an artistic image of "complaining without anger" and gentleness and obedience. So as to teach the people with poetry and transform the people with poetry. Taking the rest of the poet as an additive causes the poet's docile character, which in turn affects the whole society. Make feudal rulers do whatever they want on the stage of power. As an ethical principle of poetry, the teaching intention of "gentle and honest" poetry is very obvious.
This is also the reason why "gentle" came into being in the Han Dynasty and has long been the program of feudal literary and artistic creation, and it is the inevitable product of feudal autocratic politics. In the Han dynasty, the monarchical power and theocracy were unified, and the scholars lost their independent personality and had to be attached to the feudal monarch. Zheng Xuan said, "When it comes to courtesy, you respect your officials and humble yourself. Your way is strict, and my way is smooth. Therefore, few remonstrators are lazy and unreasonable. Pretending poets laugh at their evil by praising their beauty. " ("Six Arts") Therefore, between beauty and thorn, remonstrance and ridicule, Chinese Confucianism only publicizes the former, not mentioning the latter. It can be said that this poetics requires poets to limit their emotions to the psychological range that despots can bear, not to go beyond feudal ethics, not to show their talents, and not to blame the monarch. Therefore, from the Han Dynasty, "gentleness and gentleness" not only became the law of poetry creation, but also became the norm of feudal autocracy for literati temperament and personality.
From the perspective of poetry creation, it fetters the poet's thoughts, so that poetry can not fully expose and criticize the feudal dark rule, but can fully carry forward democratic thoughts. From the perspective of poetry theory, as a norm, it also seriously fetters many literary critics. Not to mention some orthodox feudal guardians, who use this norm to strongly deny some democratic progressive poems, are some progressive theorists, such as Wang Fuzhi and others. In his poetry criticism, there are also many wrong patients who deny progressive poems because of their relatives' poetry teaching, such as denying Du Fu and Bai Juyi's poems according to the principle of gentleness and gentleness.
Being gentle and honest, as a traditional Confucian poetry teaching, had a great influence in China's long-term feudal society. On the one hand, within the ruling class of feudal society, it is reasonable to use this kind of poetry teaching to adjust the relationship between class members. On the other hand, because it stipulates that criticism must be "gentle and sincere", emphasizes "stop at propriety and righteousness" and "remonstrate the main text", only allows euphemistic persuasion of "complaining without anger" and does not allow sharp exposure of criticism, it often plays a negative role in a class-antagonistic society.
Some famous literary critics in ancient times, such as Liu Xie, paid great attention to the beneficial factors of developing "gentleness and gentleness" from the artistic aspect. He put forward that "poetry is the main expression of ambition, and exegesis is the same as books.
The wind is cutting, the algae is eloquent, and the tenderness is chanting, so it is the most attached. It emphasizes the characteristics of "gentle and honest" poetry teaching in artistic expression and advocates that poetry should be implicit. This can show that "gentle and honest" poetry teaching has a beneficial impact on promoting the development of artistic expression methods.
Confucius' gentle and sincere poetry teaching has both positive and negative aspects. We should look at it dialectically and learn from it.