Ye Xie, the author of "Yuan Shi", was born in Wujiang, Jiangsu Province and was a Jinshi in the ninth year of Emperor Kangxi's reign in the Qing Dynasty. In his later years, he lived in Hengshan and was called Mr. Hengshan.
Ye Xie's "Original Poems" and Liu Xie's "Wen Xin Diao Long" are famous for their systematicness and completeness. His poetic theory work "Original Poetry" is of great significance and has far-reaching influence.
In terms of content, "Yuan Shi" mainly involves theory of origin, theory of positive change, theory of creation, theory of development, and theory of criticism.
In terms of value, Ye Xie gave targeted criticisms of the restoration claims of the Seven Masters before and after the Ming Dynasty and the repetition of ancient practices of the Gong'an School and the Jingling School, and systematically and demonstratively explained his point of view. In "Original Poems", each "discussion" has unique and shining insights.
As far as the poet's subjectivity is concerned, Ye Xie put forward the four words of "talent, courage, knowledge, and strength", which include not only the poet's external talents and talents, but also the requirements for the poet's hidden ability. . Among the four, "knowledge" refers to the creative subject's selective identification and appreciation of objective objects based on the accumulation of extensive knowledge. "Knowledge" is the first, plays a key supporting role, and is directly related to The objective world is connected by "reasons, things, and emotions" and becomes a bridge between subject and object.
Among the four subjective elements of "talent, courage, knowledge, and strength", "talent" and "strength" are the poet's external abilities and talents, which are mainly the embodiment of the poet's natural ability. High and low.
Its definition in "Original Poems" is explained through its relationship with the other three items.
The article says: "If the four are complete, but the talent is only seen from the outside, everyone will call it talent; but they don't know that their talent cannot be based on nothing and they can see it alone. Those who are sorry to God will see that their talent is insufficient. , everyone says that talent is an apology and cannot be forced.”
Ye Xie pointed out that among the four items, “talent” is the only one that is external and can be directly felt by the world. "Behind this, that is to say, "'Knowledge comes first', 'Knowledge comes first', 'Knowledge brings courage', 'Courage breeds talent', 'Strength can carry it' - only by being able to discern, dare to express, be able to express, and dare to persevere can we See "all-round talent".
Therefore, in "Yuan Shi", the author does not focus on the isolated discussion of "talent", but explains it in its relationship with the other three elements. , to unearth the mysterious things behind the innate "talent"
From this, we can see the relationship between the four "talent, courage, knowledge, and strength": first, they complement each other; One cannot exist without the other.
What Ye Xie mentions is a "mutually beneficial" whole. "If you only apologize, you will not be worthy of being an author."
The two talents are manifest, and the other three are hidden. The third one is the foundation. If there is no awareness, the three will have no support. And the third one is objective. "Principles, things, and emotions" are directly connected and play a vital role in his creation theory.
Ye Xie used the original poem to name the book because "a poem must have a source and a flow." This spirit runs through the whole book. "The source must be traced back to the source, and the source must be traced back to the end." The whole book runs through this spirit.
Although predecessors have also discussed the terms talent, courage, knowledge, and strength respectively. , but it is Ye Xie's theoretical creation based on summarizing previous views to fully propose the four as a set of categories, clearly explain their respective connotations, and comprehensively discuss the relationship between the four. p>
"However, we only know that the principles that can be expressed and held are principles, but we suppress the principles that cannot be expressed in words and are the ultimate principles? Do you only know that there is such a thing and it is a thing, but you know that there is nothing that is a thing and that is what all things come from? It can be expressed in words, everyone can express it, and it can be found in the words of poets! Everyone can describe the things that can be conquered, and it is up to the poet to describe them! There must be unspeakable reasons and unspeakable things, and when encountered in the surface of tacit imagery, both reasons and things are more brilliant than the former. ”
Ye Xie pointed out that the foundation of poetry can be summarized by reason, matter, and emotion in terms of the objective things being expressed.
The so-called “reason” refers to The inherent laws of the occurrence and development of things and objects.
The so-called "things" refer to objective phenomena that can be directly felt by people's sensory organs. > The so-called "emotion" refers to the specific situation and form of objective things.
Here we analyze the unique writing objects of poetry, which means that what enters poetic works is often difficult to find in daily life. Reasons, things, or things that ordinary people cannot express.
Although they sometimes do not conform to daily rules, they are consistent with the reality of emotions.
This involves the relationship between reasons, things and emotions. . Reasons, things, and emotions exist in the things themselves, "they are everywhere, and they are everywhere." Therefore, poetry should not be regarded as just lyrical, but feelings should be separated from things and reasons. The poet's The ability, the characteristic of poetry, lies in writing "principles that cannot be said, things that cannot be seen, and feelings that cannot be expressed."
This is a very noteworthy point in Ye Xie’s creative theory. In the past, it was analyzed more from the perspective of image thinking. From the perspective of authenticity, it is closer to Ye Xie’s meaning and can better reflect its theoretical value.