A Trial Analysis of "Knowledge of the World" and Literary Criticism(2)

An Experimental Analysis of "Knowing the People and Discerning the World" and Literary Criticism

Although "Knowing the People and Discerning the World" exists as a kind of critical spirit or meta-critical methodology, it has undergone different evolutions and developments in different periods. It has undergone different evolutions and developments at different times, but its basic connotation is still very clear. Generally speaking, it can be analyzed from the two levels of "knowing people" and "discussing the world".

"Knowing people" means studying, understanding, and comprehending the poet or author of the poem. The word "man" here has a double meaning. First, as a social person, his life experience, social encounters, ideological origins, family history, etc.; Second, as an individual person, especially the creator of art, its specific subjective conditions, such as personality, temperament, artistic cultivation, aesthetic interest, creative talent, and so on.

"On the world" in the "world" also has a composite connotation, which points to the poet's life in time and space of the unity, that is, a certain period of time, a certain range of nature and society. The coverage of society alone is already quite broad, such as the rise and fall of the economy, political governance, and even the rules and regulations, cultural trends, customs and habits, and so on.

From the general principle of literature, "knowing people" involves the relationship between the author and the work in the four elements of literature, that is, the relationship between the creative subject and the work of art. The former constrains and regulates the work to a certain extent, so the study of the person and his or her affairs has become an indispensable part of the understanding of the work. "Discussing the world" is related to the "world" of the four elements, and it is to study the relationship between the work and the world - the connection between the time when the work was produced and the social soil. According to the existing literary theory of literature is a reflection of social life, works and a certain era of social life must exist in contact, either directly or indirectly, either obvious or hidden. For example, the style of Chu Rhetoric is influenced by the free speech and wantonness of the Warring States period, which is characterized by the rise of the sons of Zhou and the horizontal discussion of the scholars; and the formation of the Jian'an style, which is characterized by the deep and long strokes of the pen and the many airs of the terrain, is closely related to the society at that time, which was characterized by the accumulation of the world and chaos, and the decline of the popular grievances. Since the author's life and experience can help the interpreter to understand the influence of the times and society on him; and from this influence, the style and meaning of the work can be examined and analyzed, the study of which, even if it does not become the key to understanding the work or the only way to understand the work, will at least be a powerful guide to the work of the people to explore the realm. For example, Ruan Ji's poem "Wing Huai" has always been regarded as obscure and difficult to understand, and Zhong Rong summarized it in a single sentence: "The purpose of the poem is profoundly liberal, and it is difficult to return to the interest", and later on, there were similar views: "Although the aim is to stab and ridicule, the text is much hidden and evasive, and it is difficult to measure the feelings of the next hundred generations." (Song Dynasty, Yan Yanzhi, "Notes on the Poem of Singing Wisdom") If one "knows the people and discusses the world", and understands the context of the poem and the poet's dissatisfaction with Sima's regime, it will help one to comprehend the deep sadness hidden in the poem. As Zhang Xuecheng said, "If you don't know the world of the ancients, you can't talk about their words. If you know the world, but do not know where the ancients were, you cannot talk about their writing." Therefore, the validity of "knowing the people and discussing the world" is based on a certain theoretical basis.

However, more importantly, from the above analysis, it is not difficult to see that the reason why the traditional Chinese criticism has an irreplaceable role, in fact, with the traditional Chinese literary concepts and the characteristics of literature itself are inseparable. On the one hand, the traditional Chinese literary conception of "literature as the way of the world" is y rooted in people's hearts, and since "literature" must have loaded and conveyed "the way", it is necessary to decipher and reveal "the way" to people. Since "literature" carries and conveys "Tao", it is naturally the unshirkable responsibility of criticism to decipher and reveal "Tao". "Man" and "the world" have thus become the most important basis for the understanding of "Tao". In addition, the concept of "poetry and history" in Chinese literature has a long history, and Mencius himself was the first to mention "poetry" and "history" together: "The king's traces went out and the Poetry died, and when the Poetry died, then the Poetry died. Poetry died and then the Spring and Autumn Annals were made" ("Mengzi - Li Lou"), and from him onwards, "poetry by history" and "history by poetry" abound in Chinese culture. Therefore, in a sense, "to know the world" in the history of criticism often also plays a corrective "poetry for technology" bias, to ensure that the profound connotation of the poetry of the communication and performance, and not reduced to the game of words.

On the other hand, from the point of view of the characteristics of Chinese literature itself, poetry is the main body of classical Chinese literature, the characteristics of poetry creation has become the main characteristics of classical Chinese literature, one of the manifestations of this characteristic in the rhetorical level, the level of the aesthetic method and the level of the method of literary creation*** with the same emphasis on the comparison of the rise and the citation of the incident, and so on, and finally to achieve the effect of the words and meaning endless. Therefore, classical Chinese works, mainly poems, are mostly short and profound. Poetry in a large number of such borrowing other things, the actual expression of their own feelings of the method, only on the surface of the text is difficult to get the meaning of the poem, the need for readers in the reading of the decipherment, as a "person" of the poet's own situation, and as a "world" of the times and social conditions naturally become a reliable basis, or at least effective. The poet's own situation as a "person" and the social situation of the time as a "world" naturally become a reliable basis, or at least an effective way of introduction. For example, the Preface to Mao Poetry begins with the words "Guan Ju, the Virtue of the Consort." It seems too far-fetched to link Guan Ju with the virtue of the consort, but where does this association come from? If you take into account the interpretation of the poem "to know the people of the world" principle, the music of "Guan Ju" was played in the room of the consort, the sound and harmony, so the symbol of the consort's virtues that is not completely empty cave, subjective speculation. Modern Mr. Wen Yiduo's study of the Classic of Poetry, also put forward a shocking new understanding: "The State Wind" in all the words of the fish, are both sexes called each other's degree of language, none of the actual reference to the fish", "Poetry" said fish, mostly as a symbol of sex, so men and women every fish metaphor for the other. " Mr. Wen Yiduo's explanation. Mr. Wen Yiduo this solution.

It is from the perspective of the "world", examined many "barbaric era" national customs in the "fish" symbolism and the conclusion reached. If this is true, it confirms once again that "to know the people is to know the world" is really effective in criticism. Therefore, "to know the people of the world" actually provides two perspectives for the interpretation and explanation of the text, and the reason why it occupies an important place in ancient Chinese literary criticism, especially poetry criticism, lies in the fact that it has been tried and tested in the practice of criticism, and has the effectiveness of practice.

Because of this, to this day, in the classroom teaching of Chinese literature, the introduction of relevant background knowledge has become an indispensable procedure; in published literary works, relevant materials about the authors and their creations are also provided in the form of annotations or preface; even modern people, who have been y influenced by the Western literary theories, have to carefully collect cultural knowledge outside the text in the course of their literary comprehension and criticism, otherwise it is almost impossible to move forward on the path of literary interpretation. Otherwise, it is almost impossible to move forward on the road of literary interpretation. This is the first time that we have seen the influence of the "knowledge of the world".

Although the principle of "knowing the people and the world" still has its rational basis in modern literary theory, and although it has played an important role in the practice of Chinese literary criticism, and although modern criticism can still find closely related to this principle, such as sociological criticism, cultural criticism, psychological criticism, and so on, the principle of "knowing the people and the world" is still a very important one, and it is a very important one. However, it is not a universal key to criticism, and it inevitably has its own theoretical limitations, especially in the twentieth century, when new literary theories and perspectives have emerged, which have challenged and challenged it more than ever before.

If we exclude the cases in the history of literary criticism in which the "knowledge of people and the world" has been distorted to the extreme, and in which "people" and "the world" have been proved under the guise of catching shadows, or even fabricating out of thin air, we can see that the essence of the theory has been contrary to the principles of literary theory and literary theory. The reason for this is that the essence of it has departed from the spirit of "knowing people and the world", and it cannot be imposed on the head of "knowing people and the world". But even so, there is no need to cover up the limited nature of the "know people, know the world" in literary criticism.