Keywords: Interpretation of Confucius and Mencius' Aesthetic Thought
In the history of Confucianism, Mencius has a special role and position. After the death of Confucius, Ceng Zi, a disciple of Confucius, and Zisi, a grandson, successively assumed the heavy responsibility of inheriting and spreading Confucianism. If we say that Confucius consolidated a whole concept system under the patriarchal clan system with the confidence of "Who else" in his time, then we can also say that from the Spring and Autumn Period to the Warring States Period, with the change and development of social system, Confucianism also needs to adapt to the needs of the development of the times and establish a new interpretation system. Mencius in the Warring States Period undertook the important task of developing Confucianism in the history of Confucianism.
Mencius inherited and developed Confucianism, based on the characteristics of the times, made a new interpretation of Confucius' thought, and tried to improve the spiritual character of Confucianism on the premise of basically following Confucius' exposition, so as to develop the theory founded by Confucius and keep Confucianism alive forever. He boasted that "everything is ready for me, but it is sincere and fun" ("Mencius is dedicated", the following is only the title). From the perspective of human being as the subject of life and the meaning of human existence, he strengthened the ideological connotation of Confucius' theory of benevolence and made it an ideal belief with survival value. Therefore, although there are many differences between his theory and Confucius' thought, there are internal relations that cannot be ignored, which objectively enrich, develop and deepen Confucius' theoretical views. This paper focuses on Mencius' inheritance and creative development of Confucius' aesthetic thought in order to inspire others.
From Confucius' Interpretation of Poetry to Mencius' Interpretation of Poetry
In the Confucian tradition, The Book of Songs is an important literary classic. According to legend, Confucius once compiled the Book of Songs. "Historical Records Confucius Family" said: "On Confucius, there are more than 3,000 poems, which can be applied to etiquette ... 350 poems are string songs, in order to combine the voices of Shao, Wu and Ya. Rites and music can be described from now on, in order to prepare for kingliness and become six arts. " He takes The Book of Songs as a teaching material to cultivate students' personal accomplishment.
Taking the Book of Songs as a teaching material, students are required to learn and understand, which shows that Confucius attaches great importance to the role of the Book of Songs in social and political life. Generally speaking, later scholars put Confucius's "Three Hundred Poems" in one sentence, saying "Think innocently." "(The Analects of Confucius is a government) is a program of Confucius on poetry, but the understanding of this sentence is actually different. Kuang Yaming, a close friend, said that "thinking innocently" originally meant that in the poem "A Truffle Tour", the herdsmen cried out to tell the horses not to run around ("thinking innocently" is a function word, shouting, "evil" is oblique, meaning "Ouch! "Don't run around! ) Metaphor is decent. " [1] and understanding "innocence" as "honesty in thoughts and feelings" can only be regarded as that later scholars used their own ideas to explain that Confucius' words were in line with their own ideas, so I won't discuss them here. In the Analects of Confucius, there are many places devoted to this poem, which can be divided into two situations: one is to comprehensively discuss its social, political and educational functions; The other is the understanding and elaboration of specific verses in the poem.
Confucius attached great importance to the role of The Book of Songs in social and political fields. It can almost be said that he regarded the Book of Songs as the foundation of life. Confucius said:' Prosperity lies in poetry, courtesy lies in ceremony, and success lies in joy. "("The Analects of Confucius Taber ") He believes that learning poetry is the necessary or prerequisite for a person to become a benevolent gentleman. From the beginning of learning poetry (that is, "Xing"), we can further learn "Reason" and "Music". He said to the students, "Boy! What's Mo Xue's poem? Poetry can be aroused, observed, grouped and resented. Your father is a thing, and your father is a distant thing; Learn more about the names of birds, animals and plants. " (The Analects of Confucius Yang Huo) is an exposition of the specific function of learning poetry. Zhu's explanation of "Xing" is "having an ambition", and it is also explained from the inspiration, induction and edification of "Poetry" on people's correct and healthy emotions and thoughts. He also educated his son like this: "Chen Kang asked Yu Boyu,' Does the son have a different opinion? Yes:' Not yet. When you taste independence, carp often goes beyond the court. Say,' How about learning poetry? Yes:' Not yet. If you don't learn this poem, there is nothing to say. Carp retired to study poetry. "(The Analects of Confucius Jishi) He also said to his son," Is it enough for a woman to be Nan Zhou or Zhao Nan? People don't support "Nan Zhou" and "Appeal to the South", but they still stand on the wall! " (The Analects of Confucius, Yang Huo) Confucius educated students and his son for the purpose of maintaining "rites". In his view, using the poems in the Book of Songs to restrain himself and regulate his behavior is "nothing to say without learning poetry" as far as his personal cultivation is concerned, that is, he can be well-founded when participating in social and political activities, which shows that he conforms to it. The experience and principles provided by studying poetry can be used as the basis for decision-making in political activities, thus increasing one's administrative experience and improving one's administrative ability. Otherwise, "recite 300 poems, teach them to be political, and fail to meet the standards; Make it everywhere, not just right; Although a lot, what do you think? " Therefore, in Confucius' theory, the value of The Book of Songs is very specific: "Your father is your father, and your father is far away." In other words, he regarded the poems in The Book of Songs as the norms of Ren's teaching and etiquette, and made them play an active role in a wide range of social life.
Based on this principle, Confucius can interpret many poems in The Book of Songs as the thoughts of "courtesy" and "benevolence", and he will appreciate those students who can draw inferences from others. "Zi Gong said,' How about being poor without flattery and being rich without arrogance?' Confucius said,' Yes, if you are not poor, you will be happy, and if you are rich, you will be polite.' Zi Gong said,' The Book of Songs says,' If it is as incisive as a probe, if it is as polished as a mill', what does it mean?' Confucius said,' if you give it to me, I can tell you that the book of songs has been finished, tell the past and know who will come.' "Learning the Analects of Confucius") "Xia Zi asked:" I am smart and smile, looking forward to it. I always thought it was gorgeous. "What else can it be? Confucius said, "Draw hindsight." Say, "After the ceremony?" Confucius said,' if you do it to people, you can negotiate, and then you can talk to poetry!' In the eyes of ordinary people, "incisive as a probe, polished as a mill" and "smart as a smile, beautiful as a hope, gorgeous as a dream" are just descriptions of extremely common daily life phenomena, but in the eyes of Confucius, they all have a strong color of "courtesy" and "benevolence", while his.
This principle and method of interpreting poetry can be the theoretical premise of Confucianism. On the premise of Confucius' thought of benevolence and with the help of materials in poems, they deduced two ubiquitous concepts of "ritual" and "benevolence", which strengthened their omnipresence. However, Confucius' scattered interpretation of poetry is only improvisation, and sometimes it is inevitable that it is far-fetched. For example, from Zigong's "poor but not flattering, rich but not arrogant" to "happy but not poor, rich and polite", and then to the "incisive and incisive" in poetry, where is the connection? According to my understanding, Confucius explained the harmonious relationship between people from the principle of "courtesy is the most important, harmony is the most precious, and Wang Zhidao is the most beautiful first" (The Analects of Confucius), and "incisive and incisive" is just a way to achieve this "harmonious" state. In the eyes of ordinary people, this method of interpreting poetry is really strange, but it also has its reasonable side.
It is Mencius who saw the flash of Confucian poetics from Confucius' words and phrases, and promoted it to a general aesthetic principle to be deduced and summarized, forming an important poetic theory. Now we are not sure whether Mencius saw the essence of Confucianism from the insights of Zi Gong and Xia Zi, because he once said: "Those who are near speak, those who are far away refer to it;" Those who keep their promises and give them are also good people. The words of a gentleman can't be saved. " However, Zi Gong and Xia Zi's understanding of this poem shows that they have the extraordinary wisdom of "being close to Zhu Zhechi, being close to ink is black" and "keeping promises and acting according to results". They can all get a deep understanding of "courtesy" and "benevolence" from the extremely superficial things described in the poem, and then understand the great and profound things contained in it.
Mencius made this theoretical summary of Confucius' method of interpreting poetry:
Xian said, "If Shun doesn't listen to Yao, I'll take it myself." "Poetry" says:' All over the world, is it the land of kings? Isn't leading the land a king? "Since Shun is the son of heaven, why don't you ask him if he is a minister?" Yue: "It's poetry, not that. This is for the king's career, not for adoptive parents. Say:' This is not a matter for the king, only I can do it'. Therefore, poets do not harm their words with words, nor do they harm their aspirations with words; This is against your will. " ("On Zhang Wan")
In Mencius' view, the understanding of poetry can't stay at the literal meaning. According to every word in the poem, we hope to understand the text mechanically, thus destroying the meaning of the poem. Instead, we need to explore the true meaning of poetry with our own understanding and sentiment in order to grasp the meaning that the poet wants to express. This kind of understanding and feeling of people who read and interpret poems is based on their own understanding, that is, Zhu said in the annotation of Mencius: "It is possible to get the author's ambition by your own will."
Mencius put forward this theoretical proposition based on Confucius' practice of interpreting the Book of Songs, which actually contains a basic principle of modern hermeneutics. Heidegger put forward a "pre-structure" understanding theory: "Interpreting a thing as a thing essentially works by having it first, seeing it first and mastering it first. Interpretation is never an unconditional grasp of what is given first. ..... The first' well-documented' thing is just the self-evident and indisputable preconceived idea of the interpreter, which is given in advance as something that has been' set' with the explanation. In other words, it is given in advance, first seen, first mastered. " [2] As far as Zi Gong and Xia Zi's understanding of the poem is concerned, they are all given from the "pre-structure" of "ceremony" and "benevolence", and they are based on the Confucian theory of "ceremony" and "benevolence". As for their conclusion, it can be seen as the mutual integration of the specific vision of the poem (that is, "ambition") and the specific vision of the poet (that is, "meaning").
Mencius' theory of "opposing one's will with one's will" has special significance in the development of Confucian aesthetic thought. He did not simply explain the essence of poetry from the perspective of artistic appreciation of poetry, but understood the principles and methods of Confucius' interpretation of poetry as an educational means, and used poetry as an educational material to strengthen people's understanding of Confucius' "courtesy" and "benevolence", which showed the omnipresence of that kind of ideological education function.
In fact, Mencius' interpretation of this poem is very similar to that of Confucius. For example, in a conversation with Gong Sunchou, he discussed his understanding of Xiaoya Xiao Ye:
Gong Sunchou asked, "Gao Zi said that Brother Xiao is a villain's poem." Mencius said, "Why do you say it?" Say, "Complain." He said: "As solid as gold, high is poetry! There are people here, and the more people bow and shoot, the more they talk about it; Without him, it is also sparse. His brother closed his bow, shot out, and cried. Without him, there is sadness. The resentment of "little brother" is also a kiss; Kiss, Renya. Being a good husband is a poem! " ("Gao Zi Shang")
According to legend, the poem "Xiaoya Xiaoya" was written by the teacher of Yi Jiu, the abandoned prince of Zhou Youwang, to express Yi Jiu's sadness and resentment. Mencius saw "pro" (loving pro) from the resentment of September 19th. Since it is loving pro, it is the expression of "benevolence". Why is the resentment of September 19 out of love for relatives? This is incomprehensible to us today, but from the point of view of Confucius' "benevolence", it is because I resent my father Zhou Youwang's behavior that does not conform to the "ceremony" system, and it is out of love for my father and the king that I express this resentment. Isn't Mencius also trying to figure out ("reverse") the author's "ambition" in a roundabout way?