Confucius' aesthetic thought of literary reception
Source: Appreciation of Masterpieces and Literary Studies
The "resentment" of "Poetry can be resentful", and The Analects of Confucius quoted Kong Anguo as saying: "Complaint pricks politics." This explanation points out the main content of resentment, but it is not comprehensive. Everyone has a variety of emotions, such as joys and sorrows, which are both positive and negative. If these negative emotions are not relieved for a long time, they will go to extremes. Confucius advocates that poetry can express the resentment, melancholy and sadness of the subject, and thinks that "resentment" is normal and should not be concealed and suppressed. Many works in The Book of Songs are used by the author to express resentment. At the same time, by reading these works, readers can dispel their inner anxiety, depression, melancholy and sadness, and their mentality will gradually become peaceful, and finally achieve the harmonious existence of reading individuals and social groups. In other words, through "poetry can complain", readers can get psychological comfort and promote peace.
From the above, we can see that the literary enlightenment value and cognitive value emphasized by Confucius are a potential characteristic of literature, and its realization must depend on readers, that is to say, all kinds of values of literature can only be realized in readers. The realization of "enjoying the scenery and complaining" needs readers as the main body, the goal of social harmony and chaos control must also take readers as the intermediary bridge, and the relationship between literature and political diplomacy must be realized on the premise of readers' practical ability. Therefore, in a sense, Confucius' poetics and Confucius' exposition of literature are based on readers' acceptance of poetry rather than on the poet's creation, and ultimately they must all rely on caring for people and building their hearts, and readers must directly participate in the creation of literary value.
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Once the pluralistic value of literature is realized, it will be transformed into pluralistic effect. Literary effect is the expression of the realization of literary value, which is realized by readers in a certain individual way in a specific social relationship. According to abrams's viewpoint of "four elements of literature", literature exists in the form of four links: the world, the author, the works and the readers. Before individuals start reading, everyone's reading activities have actually been brought into the framework of social activities in advance, and their specific vision of reading expectation has been formed. The Analects of Confucius has recorded some conversations between Confucius and his disciples many times, from which we can see some thoughts of Confucius in this regard.
zi gong said, "what about being poor without flattery and being rich without arrogance?" Confucius said, "Yes; If you are not poor, you will be happy, and those who are rich and good at gifts will also be. " Zi Gong said, "The Poem Cloud says,' If it is as incisive as discussion, if it is as polished as grinding', what does it mean?" Confucius said, "If you give me a gift, you can tell me that the Book of Poetry is over." (The Analects of Confucius Learn)
Zi Xia asked, "I'm clever with smiles and beautiful eyes, but I always thought it was gorgeous." What is also? Confucius said, "Draw hindsight." Say, "After the ceremony?" Confucius said, "Those who give are also businessmen! I can only talk about "Poetry". " (The Analects of Confucius Eight Essays)
The poem "Wei Feng Qi 'ao" was originally intended to praise the virtue of Wei Wugong, and Zi Gong quoted the poem "Be as incisive as a cudgel, be as polished as a mill" to express his understanding of "poverty without flattery, wealth without arrogance". The poem in "Wei Feng Shuo Ren" was originally intended to write about the beauty of Zhuang Jiang, the wife of Wei Zhuanggong. Confucius told Zigong with "painting afterwards", and Zixia further associated it with whether the ceremony started after benevolence. It's not that Confucius and his disciples didn't know the original intention of these poems, but that they adopted the acceptance method of "taking things out of context and taking what they want", emphasizing the reader's own creativity in reading activities and giving full play to the reader's positive initiative. In the Spring and Autumn Period, this kind of out-of-context acceptance mode of "people have no definite poem and poems have no definite reference" will lead to the situation that the interpretation is far from the text and form the difference in literary acceptance. On the surface, it seems that the way of taking words out of context is arbitrary. In fact, it must follow the principle of "songs and poems must be of the same kind", which means that the ancient poems sung must conform to their own wishes, identities and occasions at that time, and they must be included in the barriers of the convergence of the times, groups and classes, so that the individual differences of readers are limited by certain conditions. Poems written on plateau in the 16th year of Zuo Zhuan Xiang Gong and poems written by Bo You in the 27th year of Zuo Zhuan Xiang Gong all ran into a bad start because they violated this principle, which shows that in order to be "poetry must be the same", it is necessary to have certain conditions to accept the subject. In fact, the words "beginning to be possible and saying" Yi "in the above two paragraphs imply the conditions that the subject must have: First, the subject's rich imagination. We know that the artistic image of literary works can not exist outside the reading subject, but can only be presented in the form of the spiritual world of the subject gradually under the stimulation and guidance of the reading subject receiving the language and text information of the work. As mentioned earlier, although Zi Gong's understanding of Wei Feng Qi 'ao and Zixia's understanding of Wei Feng Shuo 'ren did not meet the original intention of the poem, it cannot be said that he was not inspired by the original poem and developed rich imagination, so he was highly appreciated by Confucius, and even thought that Zixia inspired himself. This way of thinking, which attaches importance to readers' dynamic role, has methodological significance of reception theory. Another example is the "Xing" of "Xing Guan Qun Fen" mentioned above. Kong Anguo's explanation is: "Xing, citing analogy", which means that it is extended from the content described in the poem and associated with similar things. It aims to know, explain and evaluate the unknown things in the same kind of things on the basis of the characteristics of known things, which means that readers should give full play to their imagination in the process of reading, "tell the past and know the coming", and readers should learn to make analogies and associations by analogy. Confucius emphasized that the ultimate goal of this method is to make political and ethical explanations of poems, so as to enhance readers' spiritual world and achieve the completion of readers' personality. In other words, this psychological activity of association is not an aesthetic feeling, nor an artistic association, but an extension of political ethics. For example, "Guanju" uses color as a metaphor for ceremony ". How can color be associated with ceremony? In Confucius' view, it is because they are all connected with human feelings and necessary for human beings. Through the understanding of ceremony and its characteristics, we can achieve the goal of correctly understanding and handling "color". This requires that the recipient must have certain social and political concepts and moral cultivation as the premise to develop rich imagination, which is the second condition that the recipient must have. For example,
Confucius said, "Is it enough that the female is Nan Zhou or Zhaonan?" People are not for "Nan Zhou" and "Calling South", but they are still standing on the wall? " (The Analects of Confucius, Yang Huo)
Nan Zhou and Zhaonan reflect the spirit of Zhou Gong and Zhao Gong, and they are the most pure parts of the National Style. Confucius wants his son to learn them, and what he values is to achieve etiquette through the study of poems. Bo Yu must have certain social, political, ethical and moral concepts to understand his father's words. This idea is further strengthened by the viewpoints of "without learning poetry, there is nothing to say" and "without learning poetry, there is nothing to stand for" in the Analects of Confucius Ji Shi. Another example is Confucius' emphasis in The Analects of Confucius Zi Lu: "Recite 3 poems; Grant it to politics, not up to it; Make it all around, not exclusively right; Although there are many, do you think? " As well as The Analects of Confucius in Yang Huo, The Poem "You are the father, and you are the ruler" all show Confucius' political stance and social effect on the poem, and attach importance to the social effect of literature, which is also the starting point and destination of western reception theory. To understand this, the recipient must have certain social, political, ethical and moral concepts, so as to bring poetry into his ideal path of social ethics and etiquette education.
In this way, we can see that Confucius believes that to truly understand literature, the subject of acceptance, that is, the reader, must have certain literacy, so as to give full play to his subjective initiative in the process of literary acceptance, make the potential meaning of the text structure concrete into reality, and finally realize the social effect of the work. Confucius had 3, disciples and 7 sages, but only Zi Gong and Zi Xia were able to "tell those who know from the past" and express the meaning beyond the poem and were praised by Confucius. This shows that it is difficult to do this.
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From the perspective of reading acceptance, on the one hand, the subject of reading acceptance should give full play to his imagination, on the other hand, he should deeply grasp the emotional connotation contained in the artistic image of the work, so that the reader's subjective emotion and the emotional connotation contained in the artistic image of the work can interact, and finally the work and the reader can meet and communicate spiritually, and the subject of reading acceptance can have a real aesthetic feeling. In other words, emotional factors play a fundamental role in communicating the subject and works of reading acceptance and making reading a spiritual exchange and dialogue between the two sides. Therefore, Confucius attached great importance to the connotation of romance in the book of songs in his acceptance and evaluation. For example, the 14th Jane's "On Temperament" in Confucius' Poetics said: "Every voice is believed out of emotion, and then it is also thick." It points out the appeal of emotional factors in poetry to readers. Another example is the 11 th Jane, "Guan Yu's grace, then it is beneficial." "Guanju" expresses a man's yearning for a lady, and the word "Yi" conveys the subtle feelings of two of a kind contained in the poem, precisely because of the deep feelings of Yue. Another example is the 16 th Jane's worry about "Green Clothes", thinking about old friends; The love of "Yanyan" is unique. " In The Green Clothes, Zhuang Jiang lost his position because of his concubine's tyranny, so he missed the ancient gentleman who was determined to honor and despise. The word "worry" showed the emotion contained in the poem. Yan Yan is about Zhuang Jiang being forced to bid farewell to his close friend when he is weak. An "independence" brings out Zhuang Jiang's lonely feelings. Others, such as the 18 bamboo slips "Mu Da Du is full of joy", and so on. When Confucius commented on poetry, he paid attention to the appeal of poetry to people, which is also evident. Confucius advocated the emotional expression in poetry as an important content, which is a manifestation of the concept of emotional acceptance. Of course, in the view of Confucius, the emotion in poetry should be based on "mourning without hurting, joy without lewdness", that is, "thinking without evil" In other words, this kind of feeling must conform to the righteous and elegant Confucian spirit of benevolence and righteousness. For example, the twenty-second Jane said, "The dove says,' If its meaning is ambiguous, my heart will be bound to knot.' I believe it." ; "If you have feelings, although you are not a Sri Lankan, you believe it, but you don't believe it, and you have beautiful feelings." It is precisely because the lyrical master of "The Dove" showed his true inner feelings that Confucius believed it to be true and beautiful. Another example is the fourteenth Jane's "On Temperament", which says: "All voices are believed out of feelings, and then their hearts are also thick." It can be seen that Confucius believes that only poems with the feelings of propriety and music, such as benevolence, righteousness, courtesy, wisdom and faith, can infect readers. At the same time, however, Confucius did not absolutize the spirit of benevolence and righteousness in his emotional evaluation of poetry, but integrated etiquette and music with reason. For example, he said "Guan Ju": "color" and "metaphor in ceremony", which on the one hand affirmed the love behavior of young men and women, on the other hand, he expressed his appreciation for their ability to control their love at the level of lovesickness and express it with the help of such elegant forms of ceremony and music as "playing the lute and playing the drum". Another example is the 22 nd essay on Chen Feng Wan Qiu, which says, "I am beautiful when I am in love and die." What Confucius appreciates is that the lyric hero not only has feelings, but also can bury this feeling in his heart and turn it into an affectionate swan song.
In his acceptance evaluation of The Book of Songs, Confucius not only paid attention to the appeal of the emotional factors of the poem to readers, but also paid great attention to explaining the readers' acceptance of enlightenment. "Enlightenment" is a Zen term. Zen people express the nature of "enlightenment" in this way: "Charm seeks from words, and enlightened people feel from the heart." Therefore, readers' acceptance of "enlightenment" actually emphasizes that readers should experience and comprehend the inner feelings contained in poetry works from their inner feelings. The 21st simple cloud in Confucius' Poetics:
Confucius said, "Wanqiu is my goodness, I like it, I believe it, and Wen Wang is my beauty."
"My goodness" highlights Confucius' praise when he read Wanqiu. "I like it" is the natural expression of Confucius' joy when he read "Yi Zi". "I believe in it" is a heartfelt expression of Confucius' admiration when he read "The Dove"; "My beauty" is the carefree flow of aesthetic perception in my heart when reading poetry. Here, Confucius emphasizes that the inner emotion of the receiver and the inner emotional factors conveyed by the receiving object have a deep agreement, thus making the subject enter a realm of being suddenly enlightened, understanding and pleasing to the eye, which has certain aesthetic implications and embodies the factors of grasping the work from the perspective of aesthetic acceptance.
Fund Project: Research Project of Humanities and Social Sciences in Colleges and Universities of Jiangxi Province (WX77)
About the author: Fu Yiqiong (1971-), associate professor of College of Literature, Jiangxi Normal University of Science and Technology, mainly studying China ancient literature and ancient literary theory.
① Fu Daobin. Comments on Poems Outside The Poems —— Historical Criticism and Interpretation of Ancient Poetics [M]. Harbin: Heilongjiang Education Press, 1993.27.
② Wang Xiuchen. The Ritual Attribute of The Poems and the Occurrence of Its Dissemination and Acceptance Mechanism [M]. On the Northern Series, 26(1).14.
References:
[1] Ma Chengyuan. Chu Zhushu of Warring States in Shanghai Museum [M]. Shanghai: Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, 21.
[2] Fang Yurun. The Book of Songs was original [M]. Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1986. 198.
[4] Fu Daobin. Comments on Poems Outside The Poems-Historical Criticism and Interpretation of Ancient Poetics [M]. Harbin: Heilongjiang Education Press, 1993.
[5] Wang Xiuchen. Ritual attribute of The Poems and the occurrence of its dissemination and acceptance mechanism [M]. Northern Essays, 26.