How to understand Mencius' theory of "knowing the world and opposing one's will with one's will"?

"Going against one's heart" and "realizing the world" are two important concepts in Mencius' literary theory, which are the basic methods of literary criticism in later generations. People usually use these two methods at the same time in literary criticism, so what is the internal relationship between them? Wang Guowei, a close friend, once discussed the concepts of "opposing one's will with one's will" and "knowing others and discussing the world". He said: "Yes, Mencius is also a poet, saying,' Poets don't harm words with words, and they don't harm their ambitions with words. To go against one's will is to get. "Gu garment is against me and yearns for the ancients. How can I get what I want without losing the ambition of the ancients? This technique, Mencius also said:' praise his poems, read his books, I don't know who he is. How can it be? It is based on its world. "So, if people know their people in the world and go against their will, there will be fewer people who can't interpret ancient poems. [8] Mr. Wang Guowei regards "knowing people and discussing the world" as the basis and purpose of "knowing people and discussing the world", and obtains the true meaning of the text in the interaction between them. People use the method of "knowing people and discussing the world" to rebuild the author's background and humanity, and then summarize the author's "ambition" with "opposing the will with the will". If we only pay attention to "knowing people and discussing the world" and everything is like positivism, then it is likely to ignore the literariness of the works; If we only attach importance to "opposing will with will" and regard our own "will" as arbitrary, it is likely to lead to speculation about the author's "will". As a method of reading and interpreting poetry, no matter how people understand it, there will be some shortcomings. Only by learning from each other's strong points in practical operation and comprehensive application can we truly achieve the true meaning of poetry. The time of Chinese civilization is rich, and the classical literary theory is also brilliant. These two concepts put forward by Mencius have brought great help to future generations to interpret poetry, but they have also caused great controversy because of the concepts themselves. In the face of these disputes, modern scholars should look at the problem from a broader perspective, instead of going to extremes and obsessing over some words in order to realize the compatibility between "knowing people and discussing the world" and "opposing one's will with one's will" Source: Xijiang Literature and Art