Traditional Culture Encyclopedia - Traditional customs - Information on the educational function of mountains and rivers to people.

Information on the educational function of mountains and rivers to people.

Green Landscape: Integrating Man and Nature

In the history of China civilization, the spiritual orientation of "harmony between man and nature" expressed the profound connotation of China traditional culture. Throughout the traditional aesthetics, it is not difficult to find that when people are close to and communicate with nature, they need to use a medium to convey their unique state of mind in the blend of subjective and objective images, and this ocean has produced a form of expression that fully reflects the internal spirit of China traditional culture in the field of vision-landscape painting.

China's aesthetic values of ancient art are closely related to philosophy and ethics from the very beginning. It has been pointed out that China's ancient aesthetics began with the study of social beauty, which is quite reasonable. In the artistic concept of the pre-Qin period, there was a clear lack of separate appreciation and evaluation of natural beauty. People think that the beauty of natural beauty lies in the positive personality spirit in a certain moral and ethical sense contained in the natural object, and the viewer can attach and associate some personality beauty and moral beauty contained and symbolized by it from the object, thus making the aesthetic subject feel beautiful. That is to say, in the aesthetic concept of that period, people's aesthetic evaluation of aesthetic objects is not to extract the natural aesthetic attributes of natural objects, but to extract the ethical moral beauty shown in them. The theory of "Bide", which originated in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, is an important natural beauty ethics. The examples of appreciating natural beauty recorded in relevant materials in this period are mostly "morality", which shows that the ethical consideration of natural images is the main aesthetic way in this period, which has had a great influence on the aesthetic thoughts and artistic concepts of later generations and has become one of the remarkable characteristics of China's classical aesthetics.

The basic connotation of "theory of virtue" is to compare the characteristics of natural aesthetic objects with some spiritual character of human beings and understand some moral personality expressed by natural objects. For example, the article "Guanzi Shuidi" said: "The husband's water is weak and clear, and he is good at sprinkling people's evil and benevolent; See it as black and white, yes; Quantity is impossible until it is full, and it is also right; Only no flow, until peace, righteousness also; Everyone struggles upwards, but he struggles downwards. Humble, the room of the Tao, the instrument of the king. " Here, Guanzi, starting from the natural attribute of water, shows the qualities that a gentleman should have, such as benevolence, precision, righteousness and inferiority, and then raises "inferiority" to the height of political ethics, and thinks that being good at humility is the performance of king knowledge. Guan Zi's aesthetic view of water essentially shows his aesthetic view of a gentleman's beautiful personality, and it is the political and ethical connotation of the natural aesthetic view of "Bide" to symbolize and compare a certain personality spirit with the external characteristics of things. Confucius also talked a lot about the theory of "virtue", and because of his special position, he had a great influence on the concept of later generations. It is recorded in Xunzi Faxing that Confucius replied: "A gentleman is richer than jade, so it is better for him to be richer than the people. Warm and gentle, benevolent; Chestnut and therefore, know also; Firm and unyielding, righteous words; Cheap but not embarrassing, ok; Brave and unyielding; See both defects and suitability, love also; Deduct it, its voice is clear and far-reaching, it stops and stops, resigns. So although there are precious carvings, they are not like jade seals. The poem says,' A gentleman is as warm as jade'. This is also called. Confucius promoted the natural attribute of jade ethically here, and then attributed the virtue of a gentleman to the ethical attribute of "being gentle as jade" in order to advocate the "gentle" personality ideal pursued by Confucianism.

The theory of "Bide" in pre-Qin art aesthetics focuses on the relationship between man and nature, and endows the natural attributes of things with the social and ideological attributes expected by the viewers, which shows the theoretical significance that people can intuitively perceive themselves from the natural beauty. In this sense, the aesthetic view of "Bide" and the aesthetic view of the unity of truth, goodness and beauty laid down in the pre-Qin period have reached the same ideological trend. From the two passages quoted by Guan Zhong and Confucius, it is not difficult to see that the aesthetic way of "Bide" is "virtue" from the natural object, that is, benevolence, righteousness, knowledge and sincerity belong to the ideological and behavioral attributes of a good personality, so the aesthetics of "Bide" is the aesthetics of "goodness". Aesthetic subject abides by the ethical significance of personality spirit (goodness) to the nature of aesthetic object (truth), so as to obtain aesthetic pleasure (beauty) and achieve the harmonious unity of truth, goodness and beauty. In this perfect and self-sufficient moral realm, the aesthetic subject has gained the promotion of political and ethical personality and realized the aesthetic feeling of lofty moral spirit.

The natural aesthetic view of "Bide" is not only the dominant aesthetic concept in the pre-Qin period, but also forms the conscious tradition of China's ancient literary creation and literary theory. Throughout the history of literature, the view of nature in various periods is generally influenced by the theory of moral virtue, and natural objects are regarded as the carrier of the author's personality ideal to express and praise moral feelings in a certain political and ethical sense. It is precisely because of this aesthetic concept that a large number of works describing natural landscapes or chanting natural objects in the history of literature have surpassed the natural beauty itself and gained the aesthetic value of ethical spirit. For example, in many of Qu Yuan's works, Bede's writing style is often adopted, which endows natural objects such as thunder and lightning, vegetation, fish and insects with human will and emotion, showing some moral and ethical significance. Wang Yi, a literary critic in the Eastern Han Dynasty, commented on Li Sao and said: "Good birds speak a hundred herbs to match loyalty; Compare bad birds with smelly things; Spiritual beauty, in order to compare with jun; Fu Fei's wife is a good example; Yi Long is monogamous to be a gentleman; Floating clouds are neon, thinking of villains. His words are Wen Ya, and his meaning is hearty. " [1] It is pointed out that the objective objects depicted in Qu Yuan's works are all image carriers with certain personality spirit and moral attributes, and the significance of metaphor lies in political and religious ethics. Eight Chapters of Yongzhou is a famous landscape travel note of Liu Zongyuan in Tang Dynasty. With its vivid and concise words and poetic pictures, it shows the freshness and beauty of natural landscapes. Authors often describe beautiful and strange hills, ponds, streams and rocks that have been "over-exploited" to express their feelings of being driven and abandoned by customers. The experience of Qiutan is like the experience of expelling guests, and the beauty of Qiutan just shows the inner beauty of expelling guests. It is with the help of "virtue" that the author regards natural objects as his companions, from which he obtains the feeling of personality spirit and the comfort of life experience. From this point of view, the aesthetic concept of "Bide" has had a direct impact on the creative techniques of China ancient literature, such as expressing one's will through things, which has become a common aesthetic way for ancient writers to shoot natural beauty. The essence of this way of observation is that the aesthetic subject does not take the natural aesthetic characteristics of objective objects as the purpose of appreciation, but regards them as human spiritual mimicry, from which he can figure out some social, political and ethical significance.

In China's ancient literary theory, the political and religious ethical orientation of literary aesthetics is also directly reflected in the relationship between aesthetic values and political and religious values. If the aesthetic style of "Bide" reflects the political and ethical attributes in the literary and artistic tendency, then theoretical propositions such as "remonstrating the main text", "writing with Ming Dow" and "speaking warmly and appropriately" directly establish emotional pairs in ideology. Throughout the development of ancient literary thoughts, we can see that the concept of taking politics and religion as the center directly dominates and dominates the concept of artistic aesthetics. Whenever the aesthetic and artistic concept rises or has an independent trend, the ethical concept of politics and religion will regulate and clean it with a solemn face, making it in a subordinate position. For example, the literary criticism in the early Tang Dynasty affirmed the aesthetic function of literature when evaluating the literature of the previous generation, so that the works of Ji Zhi in the Southern Dynasty, Wang Zhuan Lun and Xie Lingyun, Jiang Yan, and Wang Zhuan in the Qi and Liang Dynasties all showed admiration. This is highlighted in their criticism of Liang He. "Preface to Literature" says: "Since Datong, Liang has been lacking in elegance, getting better and doing something unconventional. Wen Jian, to the east, began his lewdness; Xu Ling and Yu Xin parted ways. Its meaning is shallow and complicated, its text is hidden and colorful, its words are light and dangerous, and its feelings are sad. Listen to Yanling and cover the voice of national subjugation! " It is the unanimous view of literary critics in the early Tang Dynasty to comment on Liang and his transcendence, arbitrariness, concealment and criticism like this. From this, we can understand that the literary critics in the early Tang Dynasty recognized the beauty of art without violating the political and religious ethics of literature, and once literature entered the mire of aestheticism, they would withdraw their only warmth into it, and even show the taste of screaming.

It is not a theoretical expression of a certain historical stage to standardize the concept of artistic aesthetics with political and religious ethics. Since Confucius put forward the standard of "poetry is innocent" and the idea of "interpretation" in the pre-Qin period, it has become the same theoretical standard inherited by literary critics in different historical backgrounds, and people often expound the connotation of this theory from different angles. For example, the establishment of Xunzi's theories of Ming Dow, Sanctification and Jing Zong, the political and moral requirement of "expressing feelings only in courtesy and righteousness" put forward in Preface to Shi Mao, Wang Tong's orthodoxy of "upholding Tao and helping righteousness", Bai Juyi's practical and utilitarian proposition of "discussing things by words" and Wang Yucheng's literary function view of "preaching and dispelling doubts". Under the guidance of this artistic concept, people always extract moral and ethical spirit from aesthetic objects as the essence of beauty in the aesthetic appreciation of artistic works. Huang, a native of the Qing Dynasty, summed up the aesthetics of traditional Chinese opera works in three words, saying that "it can impress people", even if people have the emotional effect of "if they are happy, they want to sing and dance, if they are sad, they want to cry and complain, and if they are angry, they want to kill them". He thinks that China traditional opera can move people's hearts because its "strength" depends on the word "fun". Where does fun come from? Huang further elaborated: "All languages are not boring and touching. Interest is not only found in poetry and wine, but also in sentient beings, such as sages and heroes. Loyalty, filial piety, honesty and chastity are nothing more than fun. " [2] It can be seen that Huang finally put the foothold of artistic aesthetics on the value orientation that conforms to the spirit of morality and ethics. This view of Huang reflects the basic attitude of ancient literary critics towards artistic beauty. It can be said that China's traditional aesthetic view of art has such a strong moral attribute: people look at works of art from the perspective of political ethics and learn the spiritual character of political ethics from works of art, so that literary aesthetic activities always reflect the outstanding value orientation of political ethics.

Second, the ethical significance of religious values

The religious content contained in China's ancient literature and the religious values embodied in theoretical criticism, in terms of their essential attributes, ultimately point not to the divine world, but to the ethical enlightenment significance of human beings and society. In the ancient society where worship of gods prevailed, art was once regarded as a bridge to understand the secrets of the world and explore the nature of the universe. People regard art as a means to express religious ideas. In the interwoven atmosphere of art and religion, people sing and dance to entertain the gods, thus putting themselves under the protection of the gods, gaining the power of heaven in the spiritual world, and thus gaining greater ability to conquer nature in the real world. The religious concept in ancient social literature obviously has realistic utilitarian value requirements, which is manifested in people's subjective intention to seek their own essential strength in the religious atmosphere and lend their own value to supernatural forces to realize it. For example, it is said that it is a wax word of Yi (Shennong), which is a message with primitive religious color. It uses a "spell" to instruct nature to obey its own wishes: "A man should carry his home, water should go to his valley, insects should not do it, and vegetation should go to his home." [3] Liu Xie's article Wen Xin Diao Meng said that this article was written for the sacrifice of "Ba Shen", just like the so-called "Lotus Long Buried in South Temple, everywhere" in Shun's Old Ci, which is a prayer to express the aspiration of benefiting the people. In ancient society, people respected and worshipped the four seasons, the sun, the moon and the stars, mountains and rivers. Everyone has a clear practical and utilitarian purpose, so Liu Xie said: "Heaven and earth are positioned, and rituals are all over the gods. Six cases have passed, and the third is salty, sweet and rainy, and it is raw millet, which is admired by Zhao Min and is a good news. " "Ge Zhidong" in Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals and Ancient Music describes the primitive religious activity ceremony that combines song and dance with music: "Three people fuck the ox's tail and sing eight songs: one is to carry the people, the other is to broadcast birds, the third is to plant trees and grass, the fourth is to fight for food, the fifth is to respect heaven, the sixth is to achieve imperial merit, the seventh is to rely on virtue, and the eighth is the extreme of all things." From the "eight questions" of the song, it reflects the productive labor content of hunting, grazing and farming in society at that time, as well as people's attention to natural weather and soil fertility. In this primitive religious song and dance, singing and performance are labor life. The purpose of presenting labor life to the gods is to obtain more labor income by the power of the gods, which has obvious practical utilitarian purpose.

In the long feudal society of ancient China, religious consciousness always occupied the main position of people's spirit, so it must be clearly reflected in literature. "Yi copula" says: "Yi is in harmony with heaven and earth, so it can be the way of tomorrow. Looking up at astronomy and looking down at geography is the reason why you know the secret. It was against the end, so I knew the statement of life and death. The essence is things, and wandering souls are changes. Just know the situation of ghosts and gods. " As one of the Confucian classics, Zhouyi provides the theoretical basis for ancient literary theory that literature originates from Tao, which is a law with will and can dominate the orderly operation of all things in nature. When discussing the ultimate source of literature and art, literary critics in later generations always attribute it to "the way of heaven and earth" or "the spirit of reason", such as the so-called "poetry is the heart of heaven and earth" in Poem Weft with Fog. The article "Wen Xin Diao Long The Original Road" says: "The essence of humanity originates from Tai Chi, living in seclusion and praising the gods, putting the image first", all of which spread the theory of literary genesis with religious color. The literary and religious values of later generations are different from the simple worship of gods or the expectation of some material interests in ancient times. With the gradual enrichment and improvement of social ideology, the religious values of literature are gradually combined with another major concept that occupies people's spiritual world-the concept of politics and religion. The combination of theocracy and kingship is manifested in literature, that is, the integration of religious value and political education value of literature. As Xu Zhenqing said in "Talking about Art Record", "It is about the same as this ancient poem." In the ancient literary criticism theory, the religious value of literature and the role of political ethics are the two oldest and most authoritative concepts. When these two concepts are combined, the religious function of literature will make the political and ethical power of literature more deeply rooted in people's hearts and realize the highest social value of "harmony between man and nature". The ancients attached great importance to the emotional communication between man and god, and various art forms, including literature, were the intermediary of the communication between man and god. Therefore, in terms of theoretical concepts, it emphasizes the value of being only god and inferior to people in literature. However, if we further analyze the relationship between religious value and political and religious value in ancient literary axiology, we can realize that the value pursuit of "harmony between man and nature" is actually to realize the social and political purpose of "harmony between man and nature" with the help of God. Religious ideas are not the ultimate direction here. The religious function of literature is consistent with the moral satire function of ethics. With the infiltration of religious thoughts, the political and ethical values of literature can be realized to a greater extent. It can be said that the literary function theory of "harmony between man and nature" is actually the intersection of the religious value of literature and the political and religious values. At this juncture, the religious value of literature points to the social, political and ethical education, and the religious attribute has also been brought into the track of politics and religion.

"Music" says: "Musicians are the sum of heaven and earth; Ceremony is the order of heaven and earth. Harmony, so everything is transformed; Order, then everything is different. Joy comes from nature, and courtesy comes from the ground. Excessive restraint is chaotic, and excessive behavior is violent. Heaven and earth are bright, and then coke. " The author of Yue Ji regards heaven and earth as the master by will, and takes rites and music as the inevitable expression of harmony and order between heaven and earth, which shows the idea of realizing the ruling order through the will of heaven and earth. At the beginning of Zhi Yu's On the Separation of Articles in the Jin Dynasty, the function of the article was summarized as follows: "The author therefore proclaimed the image from top to bottom and made clear the matter of human relations. Everything is in order to examine the suitability of everything. " Here, critics also take the law of heaven and earth as the writing criterion of the article, and their value orientation is attributed to "the narration of human relations in Ming Dynasty". Liu Xie said at the beginning of Wen Xin Diao Long The Original Road: "The essence of human beings comes from Taiji." It is believed that literature is the embodiment of "divine rationality", so it can play the role of "praising God". However, Liu Xie further argued that literature does not express the "heavenly principles" itself, but is embodied in the form of "proclaiming saints and creating canons, and Wang Su's calligraphy and instruction". Because the sage "teaches by discipline and learns from heaven", he has created a classic that will never be published. Therefore, when people write articles, "Jing Zong" is also the "true scripture" after such a deduction. Liu Xie appropriately incorporated the role of literature in "praising the gods" into the value orientation of Confucian literary views, such as Ming Dow, sanctifying saints and keeping scriptures. In ancient literary theory, many people used religious color to explain the function of literature, but they did not simply deduce the religious value of literature to the significance of social, political and ethical education. Fang Xiaoru in Ming Dynasty put the religion of literature together with political and religious values, which made his theory more concise and clear. He said in Preface to Poems of Willow that there are 300 poems. "Its transformation can make people change their morality and practice hard, and its effect is to exhaust the gods and stop the country." It is believed that the involvement of the religious value of literature can make literature play a greater social role than mere political preaching.

Ancient traditional poetics is a vague theoretical deduction of the religious value of literature, which seems very important, but it is difficult to see its concrete effect. In contrast, in the novel theory after Wei and Jin Dynasties, the religious value of literature became tangible and more effective in society. Because in the novels after Wei, Jin and Tang Dynasties, people often use the supernatural power of the spiritual world to realize the ideal of helping the weak and eliminating the strong, punish evil and promote good in social real life, interfere with reality with religious ideas, realize the purpose of social and political education with religious will, and even play a role that real politics can't do. Therefore, in the theoretical criticism of novels and dramas, people can also understand and reveal the theoretical significance of this creative tendency and regard it as a form of expression of literary and political education values. The mysterious stories recorded in the novels of strange tales in Wei and Jin Dynasties are told by the author with a sincere attitude as real stories on earth, and the purpose of writing is to "invent Shinto without fraud". [4] The theme effect of this kind of works is to convey the causal knowledge of ghosts and gods, with emphasis on "causal knowledge", which is a concrete means to punish and persuade people. Therefore, mystery novels are mostly covered with a layer of religious cloak, wrapped in ethical standards or the content of being a man. As far as the ideological value of mystery novels is concerned, it uses the appeal and deterrence of the underworld to guide the world to regard the secular life of moral cultivation as a bridge to heaven, thus playing a role in moral and ethical education for the people's livelihood.

Tang legends's novels are closer to the secular life, but the plot of ghosts and gods is often used to convey the meaning of the author's promotion of good and suppression of evil. Tang legends writer Shen Jiji wrote at the end of Ren Zhuan: "Hehe! Love for foreign bodies is also humane! In case of violence, people will die, although women are inferior nowadays. I'm sorry that Zheng Sheng is not an elegant person, but he likes his colors and doesn't ask for his feelings. For those who have profound knowledge, he will surely get a glimpse of the theory of change. When observing the gods, he will write the beauty of the article and convey his wonderful feelings, not just enjoying the wind. " Li Gongzuo, a writer who was later than Shen Jiji, advocated the "beauty" and "persuasion" of novels more clearly. Li Gongzuo also said in Xie Xiaoe's Biography: "I prepared the details of the past and invented the hidden text, which is hidden but invisible. Knowing the good and not remembering it is not the meaning of the Spring and Autumn Period, but it is handed down from generation to generation to make it beautiful. " Mr. Lu Xun's evaluation of the creation purpose of Tang legends is "talking about luck and punishing persuasion" [5] tang legends's works often satirize the world with supernatural plots in order to satirize and persuade the world. This also formed a tradition in the later works of Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio, as Wu Cheng'en said in the preface to Ding Yuzhi: "Although the title is strange, the cover is not exclusive to ghosts, and the times vary from person to person, it is also slightly enlightening." The theoretical significance of Wu Cheng'en's views here is not limited to strange novels, but also applies to other works that reflect religious ideas. Enlightening with religious contents such as "explaining differences" and "strangeness" is a direct expression of the universal political and ethical significance embodied in the religious values of ancient literature.

Third, the role of cognitive value in observing the wind and observing politics.

Literature is a reflection of social life. As a realistic existence of ideology, it has the cognitive value of making people reflect on society and nature. The cognitive function of ancient literary theory to literature is generally expressed by "view". Yang Huo's "considerable poetry" in The Analects of Confucius, "observing the interests of his people" by Mozi Fei Shangming and "observing his ambition and knowing his virtue" by Shilu's "Spring and Autumn Yin Chu" are all about the cognitive function of literature. The reflection of literature on life should be a comprehensive view in many aspects, including the reality of social life, nature and human beings themselves. The cognitive function of literature mentioned in ancient literary theory basically does not involve the scientific cognition of objective things and people's actual understanding of themselves, but focuses on folk customs and people's feelings, aims at "observing the wind" and "gathering politics" and abides by political ethics. The value of literature itself in understanding the material world is almost ignored, and the "view" is unilaterally classified as the value direction of political education, and a series of customs are derived from it to know the gains and losses. One of the fundamental reasons for this theoretical bias is that the ancient literary axiology overemphasizes the role of political ethics, while excluding other objects in the field of literary knowledge, and highlights the need for literature to pay attention to social and political life.

Cognition, first of all, is a function and a carrier of cognitive value. Its significance lies not in understanding itself, but in transforming its contents into certain practical effects and realizing the value it contains. Therefore, our analysis of cognitive values first depends on what we know, and then how to understand it. In China's ancient literary concept, there was a problem of political and ethical choice of the object of knowledge, that is, he was paranoid about things with social and ethical significance, but generally lacked understanding of the natural attributes of objective things. Mainly manifested in the political treatment of the gains and losses of the imperial government, ethical observation of the thickness of folk customs, reflecting the real situation of social customs, thus providing cognitive materials for the political actions of the dynasty, and its value lies in becoming a tool for rulers to govern the country. The Book of Rites says: "In February of this year, I was on an inspection tour in the east ... and I ordered Chen Shi, a surname, to observe the folk customs." In ancient times, there were some similar documents, all of which praised the subjective folk customs of ancient wise kings in order to examine the wise measures of the king's administration gains and losses. The critics of ancient literature clearly realized that the reason why literature can truly reflect people's customs and even govern the country lies in "the way of voice is connected with politics" For example, "Lu's Spring and Autumn Righteousness" says: "It is not too much to be happy, and it is also harmonious. Therefore, the vocal music that governs the world is peaceful in politics; The voice of troubled times is angry, and its politics is also good; The voice of national subjugation is sad, and its political risk is also. All music is related to politics, and those who change customs are also. " It can be seen that ancient literary critics have realized that literature, as a medium to understand people's feelings and assist the royal government, is of great use in examining the gains and losses of politics and religion, making up for the current situation, changing customs, and so on. Therefore, Ban Gu, as a historian, made such a general explanation for this ancient system of collecting poems: "In ancient times, there were officials who collected poems, so you respected customs, knew gains and losses, and taught yourself to be right." [6] Not only that, under the political system of the ancient kings, Chen Shi once became a solemn political move in the court of the dynasty in order to observe the folk customs and assist the kings. "On Mandarin and Zhou Yu" said: "So the emperor listened to politics, so that his ministers offered poems, songs, books, admonitions, poems and recitations to his disciples ... Then the king considered what to do and did not refute it." This is really a vivid picture of ideal and enlightened politics, which has been widely praised by later scholars. "Doing things without contradiction" is the ultimate goal of literary cognitive value, that is to say, the content of observing style and managing capital contained in literature can be transformed into the correct policy of governing the country and the cognitive value of literature can be truly realized.

In the values of China's ancient literature, the value orientation of political ethics is not only manifested in the choice of political ethics for the object of knowledge, but also in the handling of any object of knowledge, mainly from the perspective of political ethics, so as to extract the values in the sense of political ethics. For example, Zuo Si's "Sandu Fu" in the Western Jin Dynasty has a hidden purpose of showing off talent. He conceived for ten years, describing mountains, rivers, scenery and folk customs in a realistic way. There is a cloud in the sequence: "I have thought of copying two copies and giving three copies. Its mountains, rivers and cities are historical maps, its birds, animals and plants are textual research, and its folk songs and dances have their own customs, not their old ones. " This shows that Zuo Si intends to regard his Fu as a kind of natural history book and thinks it has the cognitive value of "knowing the names of birds and beasts". But Zuo Si seems unwilling to define the value of his works in this sense. In the same preface, he summed up the significance of his works: "Poetry has six meanings, and the second is fu:' The poet's fu is beautiful and principled." Ban Gu said,' The giver also writes ancient poems.' The late king chose to observe the local wind direction. See' bamboo', then know the production of Di Wei qi ao; See' Kiki House' and you will know that it is Qin Ye Xirong's house. So, I can actually distinguish eight directions. "This shows that Zuo Si is still heavy-minded, raising the value of the work to the taste of Zuo Zheng. Therefore, in Huangfu Mi's preface, it is called quoting the ancient people's criterion to explain the value of the "three blessings": "I take what the King of New Zealand has taught me and take admonition as the top priority. "This is not only the revelation of the cognitive value of a work of Sandu Fu, but also a standard for ancient literary theory to recognize the cognitive value of literature-a distinctive political and ethical orientation.

In the theory of ancient literary criticism, the cognitive value of literature is a very important theoretical system. The fundamental reason why it has been emphasized and valued is that this theoretical concept transforms the value of literature into political value through the observation of social conditions. From the pre-Qin period, through the Preface to Shi Mao, Hanshu, the New Yuefu Movement in the Middle Tang Dynasty and Yuan Bai, and the ancient prose movement in the Tang and Song Dynasties, until the novel theory of Ming and Qing Dynasties emphasized the cognitive function of "learning from later generations", completed the political and ethical function of "admonishing and punishing the police", formed the cognitive function of "observing the wind" in China's ancient literary theory, and realized politicization.

As mentioned above, the author analyzes the ideological orientation of political ethics in literature from three aspects: aesthetic value, religious value and cognitive value, aiming at explaining that in the theoretical system of China's ancient literary value, not only the discussion on political ethics education occupies a major position, but also political and religious ethics, as the main concept of literary value, permeates various theoretical systems, forming a practical value orientation. In addition to the above three issues, other theoretical propositions of ancient literary values also show the same ideological attributes at different levels. For example, the educational values of ancient literature directly regard "education" as "enlightenment", which itself embodies the values of politics, morality and enlightenment. As the saying goes, "gentle and honest, poetry teaches." If you are far away, you will learn from books. Be broad and easy to be good, and teach it with joy. Quiet and reserved, easy to teach. Gong Jian Zhuang Jing, Li Jiao also. [7] The Confucian tradition of "poetry teaching" represents the main idea of the educational value of ancient literature, and also embodies the value orientation of the integration of politics and religion. Another example is China's ancient theory of "immortal articles", which reveals the immortal life value of literature. In this value concept, on what basis is literature passed on to future generations? The ancients had two answers. One kind thinks that the artistic beauty of literary works is the carrier of later fame. With the charm of art itself, a writer's literary name can be brought into eternal time and space to be immortal. However, this view not only fails to occupy a dominant position in theoretical criticism, on the contrary, its aesthetic tendency of emphasizing form over content often becomes the object of criticism. Therefore, in the concept of "immortal articles", the Confucian outlook on life of "three immortals" who actively joined the WTO is generally regarded as the literary value orientation, while the value of "making statements" is based on the values of "establishing morality" and "making contributions", and the article cause is regarded as making contributions in the spiritual field. This is just like Huan Fan's "On the Preface of Politicians" said: "The critics of husband's works and books want to explain the meaning of the road, the holy religion and the judgment, and do their best to remember whether it is derogatory or not, thinking that the law was feasible at that time, and later generations can repair it ... The Fautu is famous for hundreds of generations. After a thousand years, the readers will benefit and the readers will feel it. "Huan Fan's remarks here are not aimed at literature, but his understanding of" immortal articles "is similar to literature. In his view, the works handed down to later generations must show the ideological content of "explaining the road and the holy religion", and what is immortal in the article is the political significance and moral spirit of the works, not the artistic form. From this point of view, the value of "making a statement" generally emphasized in ancient literary theories also shows a distinct political and ethical spirit.

In a word, the political and ethical characteristics of China's ancient literary values are not only directly reflected in the theoretical exposition of "poetic education" and "orthodox education", but also run through various theoretical propositions of literary values as the essential attribute of China's ancient ethical culture, forming an implicit or explicit ideological orientation, which generally shows the political and ethical characteristics of ancient literary values.