In the history of ancient literary criticism in China, Confucian literary theory was China's earliest literary thought. Its content mainly focuses on the fundamental nature of literature, the social function and role of literature, the relationship between content and form of literature, the principles and methods of literary criticism and so on. And its representatives are Confucius and later Mencius and Xunzi.
Poetry 300 occupies an important position in the source of China literature history, and Confucius also belongs to Poetry 300. Under the guidance of the core idea of "poetry teaching", Confucius attached great importance to poetry-based literature, and put forward a series of famous literary theory criticism viewpoints, such as "innocent thinking", "post-painting", "speaking with words" and "harmony is precious".
Confucius said: In a word, Poem 300 said: Think naively. ("for politics"). This is Confucius' theory of "thinking without evil", which can be understood as "returning to righteousness", that is, having the meaning of righteousness and ceremony. What kind of poems are good after Confucius' general comment on Three Hundred Poems? That is the standard of good poetry. Confucius' standard of "thinking innocence" is mainly aimed at the content, and the content of poetry should conform to the political thought, ethics and aesthetic standards of Confucius or Confucianism. The related artistic standard is that emotional expression should conform to the beauty of "neutralization" and the golden mean.
Another important literary thought of Confucius is the discussion of the content and form of poetry, that is, the famous theory that "words have substance" and "harmony is precious" Confucius said: It's just words. (Wei Linggong). The content of the theory of "words" mainly includes: first, words can express meaning, which Confucius affirmed, that is, words can do their best. Secondly, words are just words, that is to say, literary works can express the content of the works in accurate language, and there is no need to make decorations unrelated to the content. Of course, Confucius did not completely deny the necessity of modification, but only emphasized the accurate expression of language and opposed modification.
Confucius said: quality is better than literature, and literature is better than quality. Gentle, then a gentleman. (Yongye). Confucius' original intention was to discuss the moral cultivation of a gentleman. Later generations were deeply inspired and extended to the standard of literary criticism, which had great influence. Quality, that is, simplicity, refers to people's inner moral quality; Literature, that is, literary talent, generally refers to people's external decorations. If a person is "better in quality than literature", it is a lack of literary ornaments and vulgar; But if "literature is better than quality" means the lack of moral cultivation, it will be flashy. Therefore, Confucius believes that "gentleness" is the real gentleman. From the perspective of literary theory, the relationship between literature and quality is also the relationship between the form and content of literary works. "Tenderness" requires the unity of form and content, artistry and ideology of literary works.
Confucius said: What is this child's poem? Poetry can be appreciated, observed, grouped and resented. Your father, the king of distant affairs, knows the names of birds and beasts better. (Yang Huo) Of course, this is the most important literary theory of Confucius, that is, the theory of "enjoying the scenery and complaining". It is Confucius' high generalization of the social function and artistic value of poetry. "Xing": that is, poetry has the spiritual function of inspiring and infecting people and can arouse people's association; "view": that is, poetry has the cognitive function of examining social reality and can see the ups and downs of the world; "Group": that is, poetry has the educational function of mutual influence and improvement, which can make people exchange feelings, achieve harmony and unite; "Anger": that is, poetry has the ironic function of interfering with reality and criticizing bad political and social atmosphere, which is similar to the "news supervision by public opinion" mentioned today. Here, Confucius made a comprehensive and summative exposition on the social function of literature.
The theory of "observing words and feelings" fully affirmed the aesthetic function, cognitive function, educational function and even knowledge learning function of literature, which was very positive and progressive at that time and was a research achievement of literary theory with high value. Confucius' theory of "Guan Xing Qun Fen" is the source of realistic literary criticism theory, which has a very positive impact on later realistic literary criticism theory and realistic literary creation.
And so on, Confucius' literary thought especially emphasizes the connection between "literature" and "morality". The so-called "a virtuous man must have a word" and "Three Hundred Poems" are a collection of literary works, but in the eyes of Confucius, they have become ethical textbooks, and he has ethicized literary works. This is the main feature of Confucius' literary thought, and it is also the main feature of Confucian literary thought. Confucius also attached great importance to the social function of literature in his literary thought, and tried to infiltrate the highest moral standards such as benevolence, righteousness and propriety in Confucianism into his literary thought, so as to give full play to the social role of literature in serving politics and ethics.
Confucius' literary theory focuses on poetry and attaches great importance to the beauty of "neutralization", which is the reflection of the golden mean in Confucius' philosophical thought in literary thought. His theory of "unity of beauty and goodness" and "perfection to beauty" is also based on this.
As the first great thinker and educator in history, Confucius also expressed his concept of "Wen" in his exposition, which is mainly seen in his exposition of 300 Poems. Although these Analects are recorded in the form of quotations, they do reflect Confucius' various thoughts on "literature", which have greatly influenced the face of China's Confucian literary theory and have been deeply rooted in China's traditional culture. Confucius attached importance to "civilizing" with poetry, advocated elegance, and despised popular literature. Later, China's novels, operas and other popular literature works were often difficult to be elegant. China's literature generally followed a "golden mean" in history, which was ultimately influenced by Confucius' literary view.