Male and female are the earliest categories in China's philosophy. The concepts of "masculinity" and "femininity" in philosophy gradually penetrated into China's ancient literary theory. Cao Pi was the first to use Yin and Yang to divide the style. He said in "Dian Lun Thesis" that "literature is dominated by qi, which is clear and turbid, but not strong." The so-called essence, that is, pure and just spirit, corresponds to masculinity; The so-called turbid gas, that is, burning soft gas, corresponds to femininity.
In fact, Cao Pi initiated the literature of later generations with the beauty of masculinity and femininity here, but he did not involve the problem of value judgment, nor did he praise or criticize the combination of rigidity and softness. Liu Xie used the concepts of "rigidity" and "softness" to discuss the genre and style of the article in the article "Wen Xin Diao Long Shi Ding".
Yao Nai's greatest contribution to China's ancient literary criticism is the presentation of masculine beauty and feminine beauty. Yao Nai clearly divided the beauty of writing into two types: masculine beauty and feminine beauty for the first time in his famous literary work "Fu Lu Xuan Shu Fei". The words we can associate with "masculine beauty" are: vigorous, energetic, pious, conquering, majestic, magnificent, upright, honest and so on; We can think of the words "feminine beauty" as implicit, generous, obedient, static, euphemistic, introverted and so on.
In this regard, Yao Nai has his own intuitive and incisive exposition:
"Naiwen way of heaven and earth, Yin and Yang just and soft. Scholars are elites of heaven and earth, and yin and yang are also rigid and soft. Only the sage's words can unify the meeting of two qi, but it is biased. But the things contained in Yi, Shi, Shu and The Analects of Confucius can also be divided into soft and hard. It's time for him to tell you that his body suits him, too. Handed down from the philosopher, is a man without literary prejudice. Those who get the beauty of masculinity are eloquent, as long as the wind comes out of the valley, the mountains are high and the cliffs are steep, and the water is majestic. Its light is like the sun, like fire, like gold and iron; It is also for people, for example, relying on the sky to be far-sighted, for example, facing the people as a king, for example, fighting side by side with thousands of warriors. Those who gain from feminine beauty, their writings are like the day when the sun rises, like the breeze, like the clouds, like the clouds, like the winding stream in the secluded forest, like decay, like overflow, like the glow of pearls and jade, like the sound of swans. It is also a sigh, a deep thought, a warmth and a sadness for people. It is the temperament and shape of a writer to observe his writing and satirize his voice. "
Another famous literary theory related to this is the words in the preface of Yao Nai's Yu Hai Shi Chao:
"I have tasted the source of the article, which is based on heaven and earth. The way of heaven and earth, the way of yin and yang, is just a combination of rigidity and softness. With the essence of yin and yang, you can think of the beauty of the article. Yin and Yang are rigid and soft, but they should not be neglected. One of them will die, the rigid one will be strong and violent, and the soft one will be decadent and reclusive, so it has nothing to do with the writer. However, the ancient gentleman is called the most famous article. Although he has both functions, he can't be impartial. What is the reason? The way of heaven and earth, the combination of body, of course, is used when winning by surprise. It is used in heaven and earth, positive and negative, rigid and tight and soft, and it is also true for people. Magnificent and straightforward writing will be more expensive than deep and gentle writing. It is not easy to get a talent who has a deep understanding of Xu Wan. However, it is particularly rare to care about the talents in the world. There are many poets in ancient and modern times, and there are many people who are good at poetry, and they can be called outstanding talents, which have been ignored for thousands of years. What? It's hard to get.
Combining the two texts, Yao Nai's theory mainly involves three levels: one is a concise summary of the two aesthetic categories of "masculine" and "feminine"; Secondly, the combination of "masculine" and "feminine" aesthetic style features with people embodies the traditional style of China, that is, the concept of people. Thirdly, it emphasizes the combination of "masculine" and "feminine" aesthetic styles and the way of heaven and earth, which embodies China's traditional thought of the integration of heaven and man. Yao Nai pointed out in the Preface to the Poems of Deng Zhuotang: "Scholars are also artists. The combination of Tao and art, and the unity of man and nature are the best in literature. "
In the preface of Notes on Yu Hai's Poems, "vigorous and vigorous" refers to "masculine" and "gentle and sincere" refers to "feminine", while "the use of heaven and earth is also sunny and cloudy, and it is also rigid and tight and soft", and "those who are especially rare must care about the talents in the world. There are many poets in ancient and modern times, many people who are good at poetry, outstanding enough to be called heroes, and several people have been ignorant for more than a thousand years. " From these discussions, it is not difficult to see that Yao Nai prefers masculine beauty to feminine beauty. Of course, "masculine beauty" and "feminine beauty" are relative and interactive. There is yin in yang and yang in yin, and there is no difference between the two kinds of beauty. In fact, Yao Nai thinks that the most ideal article is both rigid and flexible, impartial, but to this extent.
Of course, "the beauty of masculinity" is only the aesthetic tendency of Yao Nai's theory, but in his creative practice, Yao Nai unconsciously tends to be feminine for various reasons.
In fact, when discussing the theory of masculine and feminine style, Yao Nai didn't think he revealed his complicated characteristics of "conservatism" and "contradiction". On the one hand, he thinks that the intermediate product of combining rigidity with softness cannot be regarded as real artistic beauty. This statement is biased. In fact, artistic styles are varied, ranging from masculine to feminine. Literary works that are neither rigid nor soft, neither yin nor yang, both rigid and soft, but also yin and yang are also artistic beauty, that is, the beauty of "dilution" and the beauty of "neutralization". On the other hand, Yao Nai is also pursuing the "ultimate spirit" with both masculinity and femininity. This can be reflected from the fact that Yao Nai's highest standard to measure ancient prose is "plain and natural". This beauty of neutralization. This is also the ideal realm that Yao Nai is committed to pursuing.
In his Preface, Yao Nai said that ... the eight masters said: spirit, reason, qi, taste, form, rhyme, sound and color. Spirit, reason, qi and taste are the essence of literature; Grid, rhythm, sound and color are also rough. However, if you give up its roughness, then the elite will also be ignorant. For the ancients, scholars must first see its roughness, see its essence in the middle, and finally resist its essence and keep it rough. The essence of "extreme restraint" here refers to "spirit, reason, qi and taste", and the realm of "elegance" achieved after "restraint" is "plain and natural".