Qian Zhongshu (1910-1998) is a Chinese character. Famous scholars and writers. People from Wuxi, Jiangsu. 1933 graduated from Tsinghua University Foreign Languages Department, 1935 went to Oxford University to study English literature. Later, he went to Paris University to study French literature. After returning to China, he was a professor of Foreign Languages Department of National Southwest Associated University, director of English Department of Kunming National Normal University, professor of Foreign Languages Department of Shanghai Jinan University and editor-in-chief of Foreign Languages Department of Central Library. After liberation, he was appointed as a professor of Tsinghua University Foreign Languages Department. 65438-0953 was transferred to the Institute of Literature of China Academy of Sciences as a researcher and a member of the Department of Philosophy and Social Sciences. In the new period, he served as a researcher at the Institute of Literature of China Academy of Social Sciences, vice president of China Academy of Social Sciences, and invited consultant of the institute. He also served as a member of the Sixth China People's Political Consultative Conference and the Standing Committee of the Seventh and Eighth China People's Political Consultative Conference.
Mr. Qian is knowledgeable, versatile and fluent in foreign languages. He studied both Chinese and western cultures and made outstanding achievements in literary creation and academic research.
Before liberation, he published a collection of essays, China 16, 17 and18th century English Literature written on the edge of life, a collection of short stories, Man, Beasts and Ghosts, a novel Fortress Besieged and a review of literary theory and poetry. Among them, Fortress Besieged has a unique achievement, which has been translated into many languages and published abroad. Mr. Lu concentrated on the study of the West, and his views were incisive and original. After liberation, Selected Notes on Song Poems, Guan Cone Compilation (five-volume edition), Seven Biographies and Huai Ju Shi Cun were published. He also participated in the foreign language translation of Selected Works of Mao Zedong and presided over the compilation of the Tang and Song Dynasties of the History of China Literature. His Notes on Selected Poems of Song Dynasty is quite insightful in selecting and annotating poems, and also accurately expounds some regular problems in Chinese and foreign poetics. On the other hand, Guan Zhuan Bian is an academic work on Zhouyi Justice, Shi Mao Justice, Zuo Zhuan Justice, Historical Notes, Lao Bi Zhu, Liezi Zhang Zhan Zhuan, Jiao Shi, Chu Ci Hong Xing Ancestral, Taiping Guang Ji and all the ancient three dynasties, Qin and Han Dynasties.
Qian Zhongshu's scholarship is characterized by his mastery of Chinese and Western cultures, his mastery of ancient and modern times, his integration of knowledge from various disciplines, and his exploration of subtle details, which makes him unique in contemporary academic circles. Because of its achievements in many aspects, it is known as a master of culture.
Over the past 60 years, Qian Zhongshu has devoted himself to the study of humanities and social sciences, indifferent to fame and fortune, willing to be lonely, diligent in research and writing, and won a good reputation at home and abroad. He has made outstanding contributions to the country and the nation, trained several generations of scholars, and is a valuable asset of China.
(Excerpted from Qian Zhongshu's "The Magic Mirror and the Cone of the Tube-Reaching the Peak", Jincheng Press, 1999)
Second, the basic characteristics of China literature (Zhou Yang, Liu Zaifu)
In addition to the stability and unity of China literature formed due to China's social and historical process, China's ancient literary movement formed some characteristics different from foreign literature, especially western literature, due to its own language characteristics and the influence of China's philosophical and ethical thoughts.
Chinese is one of the oldest languages in the world. If literature is the art of language, then Chinese and Chinese characters, as symbols of China, have more obvious and unique expressive power. The characteristics of China literature today are closely related to those of Chinese.
Chinese has several basic characteristics: ① It is mainly ideographic. In phonology and ideographic system, Chinese characters belong to ideographic system. Generally speaking, the beginning of each word is pictographic and belongs to the ideographic writing system. In the long historical process, many national languages have expressed sounds, but Chinese characters still generally maintain the basic characteristics of ideographic writing system. Judging from the composition of Chinese characters, namely "Six Books", except for some phonetic components in the three ways of borrowing, turning and sounding, pictographic characters, indicating characters and knowing words are all ideographic. (2) a single word with a single meaning. Chinese characters are square. Except for a few conjunctions, each word has an independent meaning and can be flexibly combined with form and meaning. ③ One word and one sound. Chinese characters are syllabic characters, not phonemic characters. The smallest language unit that Chinese characters can be divided into in form is syllable, so a Chinese character is also a syllable. ④ Monosyllabic words are abundant. There are a large number of monosyllabic words in Chinese, especially in ancient Chinese. Chinese characters are a word and a sound, so the so-called monosyllabic word means that a single word is a word; Then, meaning, shape and syllable become a flexible organization. ⑤ Distinguish the "four tones". "Four tones" are four tones in Chinese. In ancient times, it was divided into leveling, ascending, going and entering. Modern times are divided into flat, rising, rising and falling tones. "Four tones" is a unique way to distinguish different words and their meanings with tones in Chinese. ⑥ Separation of language and writing. In the development of Chinese, there is a unique phenomenon called "the pure written language of classical Chinese", which is far from the language used in daily communication. In other words, Chinese speakers need to know "classical Chinese" and have special training besides literacy. This situation remained until the emergence of "vernacular".
The characteristics of the above six aspects play an inestimable role in the formation and construction of China literature, which includes the following aspects:
First, it is easy to cause specific images. Chinese characters have ideographic characteristics, and their own arrangement can sometimes cause specific "images". In the development of China literature, it is also used consciously, such as Fu and Parallel Prose, and a large number of homographs are used. Although this is not without the disease of accumulation, it can also be seen that the symbolic ideographic characteristics of Chinese characters constitute a unique aesthetic effect in literature. This phenomenon is also manifested in other works, and Da Fu is only its extreme and concentrated expression.
Secondly, because Chinese characters are generally single words, with one word and one sound, the syllable changes of China's poems have a set of unique rules, resulting in neat and symmetrical formal beauty in appearance. China's ancient poems can be said to be the most rigorous poems in the world.
Third, Chinese has four tones. Before Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, although there were examples of harmonious collocation of four tones, they were still unconscious. After Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, poets consciously used the particularity of Chinese and paid attention to the arrangement of words and sounds. "To make GongYu disguised, should be low and high. There is a floating sound in front, so you must cut it at the back. " In a simple sentence, the rhyme is different, and in two sentences, the weight is different "(Shen Yue's Biography of Song Xie Shu Lingyun), so modern poetry (five-character rhyme, quatrains, seven-character rhyme, quatrains), ci, Sanqu and other poetry genres came into being and dominated the poetry world for thousands of years. These poetic genres make full use of the change of four tones, resulting in distinct rhythm and cadence artistic effect.
4. Classical Chinese, a special written language, can be separated from daily language for a long time and maintain its position as an official language, which is itself a great miracle in the history of language. This special phenomenon affects literature, which runs on two different tracks. Although the literature of all nationalities in the world also runs in two tracks, there are great differences in content and form, and China literature has to bear the brunt. By comparing the ancient vernacular novels and classical Chinese prose since the Song and Yuan Dynasties, we can see the difference between the two kinds of literature.
Literature is not equal to philology, and the conditions provided by language and writing are only part of the aesthetic characteristics of literature. A nation's literature is a set of value system, including its mode of production, lifestyle, geographical environment, cultural background, psychological quality, people's feelings and customs, as well as its aesthetic experience and ideals. Therefore, China literature is China literature, not only because Chinese has its own characteristics, but also because it has its own unique literary concept system. This concept system is dominated by China's traditional ideology, and its ideological origin should undoubtedly be traced back to the Confucian school founded by Confucius. With this Confucian school as the main body and skeleton, the Chinese nation has shaped its own national character and cultural psychological structure. When investigating the formation of China's literary ideas, we can think about them if we grasp the clues of the formation and development of orthodox ideas. The orthodoxy of literature was determined from Xunzi, who emphasized the status of a saint: "A saint is also a saint, and Tao is also in charge. The way of human feelings is that a hundred Wang Zhidao is, and so is the way of poetry and music. " (Xunzi's Confucian effect) This laid the foundation of "the original way, the pursuit of saints and the study of Confucian classics" in the history of literary criticism. As Dong Zhongshu, a great scholar in Han Dynasty, put forward the idea of "ousting a hundred schools of thought and respecting Confucianism alone", which was accepted by Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty, Confucianism became the ruling thought and orthodox concept of feudal society, and was further confirmed in literary criticism. In Liu Xie's works, "The Original Way, Pursuing the Sage and Keeping the Classics" is divided into three chapters, with only one essence: Taoism is the guiding ideology of literature, Taoism is the way of saints, and Classics is the words of saints. Confucian orthodoxy dominates literary orthodoxy, and after Han Yu went to Neo-Confucianism and Mind Studies in Song and Ming Dynasties, its trend became more and more intense. As "saints" Confucius and "sub-saints" Mencius, the Confucianism they represented mainly influenced China's national character, cultural thought and cultural character in the following aspects. First, the idea of joining the WTO centered on "self-cultivation, keeping the family in order, governing the country and leveling the world" (Book of Rites University); Secondly, it is a moral concept based on "benevolence, righteousness, courtesy, wisdom and faith"; Third, it is the ethical concept of "heaven, earth, monarch, relatives and teachers" in order; Fourthly, it is the doctrine of the mean philosophy with "forbearance" (Analects of Confucius) as the norm.
Under the domination of this ruling ideology, the theory of literary function based on poetry has become the most important literary concept. China's literature tends to be political and ethical in content. On the one hand, the statements of "national cause" and "filial piety, kindness and beauty education" have definitely improved the status of literature; On the one hand, literature is inappropriately regarded as a vassal of politics, and the tendency of preaching has always been regarded as an unobjectionable tendency. The encounter between monarch and minister, the joys and sorrows of people's livelihood, the rise and fall of officials, the success or failure of war, the rise and fall of the country, the ups and downs of life, the disorder of laws and regulations, and the opposition of ethics have always been the main theme of China literature, whether it is poetry, prose, novels or operas. Confucianism's philosophy of entering the WTO and its enlightenment concept have brought political enthusiasm, enterprising spirit and sense of social mission to China literature, but at the same time, they have also restrained the release of self-lust, the formation of free personality and the exploration of self-consciousness, especially the concept of "Heaven destroys human desire" in Neo-Confucianism, which has cast a layer of rationalism on literature.
Parallel to the above content characteristics is the aesthetic pursuit of "golden mean". China's literature emphasizes the beauty of neutralization, which means "happiness without lewdness, sorrow without injury", and generally does not over-express emotions. Compared with western poetry, China's old poems are generally introverted and have endless implications. In China's poetry, the so-called "romance" is still "classical" compared with western poetry; In China's poetry, the so-called frankness is implicit compared with western poetry. Through this comparison, we can see the rationalism color contained in "the beauty of neutralization"
In the history of China's thought, the ideological systems of Confucianism and Taoism are complementary, and Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism often meet. In feudal society, if Confucianism is the main line of China's ideological history, Taoism and Buddhism are the other two important sub-lines. As the crystallization of national psychology, Confucianism and Taoism have the same side, such as the values of pursuing physical and mental harmony and the structural system centered on "the highest way of life", which has influenced the overall style of China literature. However, the differences and opposites between Confucianism and Taoism have influenced China literature in different ways. If Confucianism is the dignified theme played by the keys, then Taoism and Buddhism are light chords from time to time. Among Taoism and Buddhism, Taoism, represented by Zhuangzi, has a greater and far-reaching relationship with aesthetics and art. The Analects of Confucius said: "A country knows when it has a way, but it is foolish when it has no way. Its knowledge is available, and it is stupid. " (The Analects of Confucius, Gongye Chang) This contains the idea that "speed is the speed, goodness is the world, and poverty is the world" advocated by Mencius. Later, Confucianism inherited the spirit of goodness at the same time, while Taoism developed the spirit of no goodness. Among China literati, the ideas of actively entering the WTO and passively avoiding the world are often intertwined, one after another, which is also very distinct in literary works. If "being good at the world" and "being alone" are the complementary life trends of ancient literati, then elegy, generosity and cynicism have become common psychological states and artistic concepts of ancient literati. Of course, "above the rivers and seas, living under Wei Que" is still the dominant psychological set of those "poor" and sometimes independent intellectuals. If Xunzi emphasizes that "there is no falsehood, then naturally it cannot be self-beautiful"; Then Zhuangzi emphasized that "there is great beauty in heaven and earth without saying anything". The former emphasizes the artificial production and external utility of art, while the latter highlights the naturalness, that is, the independence of beauty and art. If the former often fetters, damages and destroys art and aesthetics because of its narrow and practical utilitarian framework, then the latter just gives this framework and fetters a strong impact and negation.
It should be noted that Laozi's and Zhuangzi's thoughts have influenced China's literary form in two aspects: First, the viewpoint of "Loud as sound, elephant invisible" (Chapter 40 of Laozi) reveals the dialectics of "emptiness" and "reality", "nothingness" and "existence" in art, and points out that "something is created out of nothing". It has an inestimable influence on the formation of subtle and refined artistic expression characteristics of China literature and art. China literature attaches great importance to virtual realism, static writing and dynamic writing, or dynamic writing and static writing, and is good at creating the artistic realm of "silence is better than sound". For example, Song Yu wrote that the beauty of beauty "is too long to increase one point, too short to decrease one point; The powder is too white, and Zhu Shi is too red. "There is no true description of the beauty's height and skin color, but it makes people feel unspeakable beauty. China literati don't like direct detail description, but leave the space of artistic feeling and artistic imagination for readers to taste, ponder and think, and pursue those unspeakable "big voices" and "elephants"-the ultimate beauty. Two, "big system does not cut" ("Lao Zi" chapter 28) and "Tao is natural" ("Lao Zi" chapter 25). From the perspective of expression, it is "the sound is as loud as the sound, and the elephant is invisible", which reveals the mystery that art is rare but refined and out of thin air. On the other hand, the dialectical relationship between "being" and "not being" in art is grasped by "making great efforts without cutting" and "Tao is natural." "Not cutting" means emphasizing the integrity of nature and the simplicity, simplicity and simplicity of nature. The supreme and metaphysical Tao comes from the metaphysics of "law", and what is emphasized here is a kind of "natural" beauty. Therefore, artists in China have always combined hard skill training with the unskilled realm of not revealing the traces of knives and axes. "It seems to be the most extraordinary, but it is easy to achieve, but it is difficult." This is a portrayal of the artistic realm that most China writers have been pursuing all their lives, and it is also a portrayal of their artistic path. Due to the influence of the above two aspects, compared with western literature, China literature is generally straightforward, while China literature likes euphemistic twists and turns, implicit and deep; Western literature tends to be profound and broad, while China literature tends to be witty and subtle; Western literature is still a thousand miles extravagant talk, while China literature is still condensed by Wan Li. Of course, the artistic phenomenon itself is always more vital than its abstract generalization. We also know that Chinese and western literature have similarities in poetry and literature, while western literature is euphemistic, implicit, implicit and concise. China literature is also direct, profound and extravagant, which is by no means inevitable, and can be divided into the unreachable shore. However, the difference in the general tendency of aesthetic ideals is also an objective fact.
According to the different aesthetic relationship between art and the real world, some people divide art into performance and reproduction. Reproduction art strives to objectively and accurately reflect the real world by means of perception and cognition, so that the reproduction of the real world is consistent and coincident with the image of art; The art of expression is to break the normal combination inherent in the realistic representation and recombine it according to the subjective will in the way of spiritual projection. But art cannot and has no intention to be equal to the real world; At the same time, no matter how art is combined, it is impossible to completely eliminate the appearance of the real world. From this point of view, no artist can be purely expressive or purely reproducible, but can only concentrate on expression or reproduction. There is expression in the art of expression and expression in the art of expression. The difference between performance and performance is only the difference in concept. This conceptual division also helps us to understand the characteristics of China literature from different angles. Generally speaking, China's literature tends to be expressive, which can be seen from the choice of genre and creative methods.
First of all, in genre, China literature tends to be lyrical, and narrative literature rises late and is not developed. The Book of Songs is the earliest collection of ancient poems, which contains most lyric poems and only a few narrative poems. In addition, except for a few excellent chapters, most narrative poems are clumsy and immature, while lyric poems are mature and sophisticated, with many excellent works. Except for some ethnic minorities, China has never produced a large epic. Almost at the same time that the Book of Songs was produced in China, Homer's epics Heriat and Odyssey were produced in ancient Greece, and Ramayana and Mahabharata were also produced in India. In the whole history of poetry, China's lyric poetry is a magnificent scenery, but narrative poetry is always not prosperous enough. China's novels, as a kind of dismissive "short stories", didn't improve until Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, but they really had novel consciousness-not as the reality that actually happened, but as the "verisimilitude" and "truth" of fiction. The appearance of novels was even postponed until the Ming Dynasty. China's drama literature is not only late, but also full of strong lyricism, which is close to the pattern of lyric poetry. The hypothetical virtual expression of China's operas is more popular with some expressionist dramatists (such as Brecht).
Secondly, in terms of creative methods, China literature emphasizes freehand brushwork rather than realism. For example, the themes in classical poetry, such as sightseeing, visiting places of interest and visiting historical sites, can be treated as narrative or descriptive works, but in many poems, they are often replaced by artistic means such as symbols, hints, metaphors and lyricism, which blurs the line of sight at first sight. For example, Chen Ziang wrote on the tower of Youzhou: "Where was the past before me? Behind me, where are the future generations? I think of heaven and earth, there is no limit, there is no end, I am alone, my tears fall. " The specific description of Youzhou ancient platform is not mentioned at all, which is the regret of life, the outward projection of soul and the generation of thought. Ancient poetry often advocates the so-called "scene blending", but in fact it mainly relies on scenery to express feelings, focusing on expressing and venting repressed feelings. Before and after the Anshi Rebellion in Tang Dynasty, Du Fu wrote a series of poems with the poet's keenness and uncontrollable anxiety. Among them, poems with strong documentary features such as Mourning for the Head of a General, Mourning for Chen Tao, Three Officials, Three Farewells and the Northern Expedition were once called "the History of Poetry". This just shows that this kind of documentary works as historical evidence is relatively rare in the history of China literature. Yang Shen, a critic of the Ming Dynasty, held a completely different view on The History of Poetry: "Song people called it The History of Poetry because Du Zimei could track current events with rhyme. Alas, the opinions of Song people are not enough to discuss poetry. ..... The implication of Du Fu's poems is too much for poets to learn. As for current affairs, it is an embarrassment, but it is a ride, and Song people think it is a treasure. He also wrote the word "history of poetry" to mislead future generations. If his poems can have both history and events, Shangshu and Chunqiu can be combined into one. Today's vulgar songs, the songs of Najia, have both yin and yang, which is called' poetry and easy'. " (Sheng 'an Collection 137) Whether Yang Sheng 'an's evaluation of Du Fu's poems is accurate or not, his views on documentary works are obviously very representative. In the theory of Chinese painting, he thinks that "painting is similar to seeing children's neighbors" (Su Shi's language), criticizes the idea of painting according to the focus perspective, and ridicules Li Cheng's "painting on the eaves"; There is a similar tendency in literary theory. Opposing the view that "poetry must be poetry, and those who don't know it must know it" is a more consistent view.
China's ancient literary criticism has formed its own system in its own development, with a whole set of categories different from those in the West. These categories are summarized according to the characteristics of the development of China literature. Their appearance in turn standardized and influenced the aesthetic ideal and demand of literature, thus standardized and influenced the track of literary development. The category of China's ancient literary theory is very distinctive. They are not mysterious, but subtle. It is often analogized for understanding, and it is not easy to fall into words, such as qi, body, rhyme, taste, spirit, body, texture, style and artistic conception. After continuous evolution and improvement, the connotations of these categories are increasingly enriched and gradually cross each other, forming a network and system, which is different from the western aesthetic categories such as tragedy, comedy, sublime, funny, humorous and typical. The category of China's ancient literary theory shows certain polysemy, but it pays more attention to the harmony between subject and object.
After the May 4th Movement, these general characteristics of China literature have changed obviously. For example, because novels and dramas are valued in modern literature, they no longer show the characteristics that lyricism is superior to narration and expressiveness is more than reproducibility. The ideological trend of the whole literature has changed more obviously, and the dominant position of Confucianism in ancient literature has been replaced by modern democracy and socialist ideological trend. In addition, due to the external influence, many new categories and concepts have appeared in literary theory, and the language structure has also undergone tremendous changes, which have made China literature form the characteristics of new national literature.