All the problems in the study of artistic conception are here: the artistic conception we are talking about has nothing to do with the concept of artistic conception used by the ancients before the 20th century, but is at most related to Wang Guowei's concept of "realm". All contemporary scholars' interpretation of artistic conception is just doing such a job: putting their abstract understanding of classical poetry and even all the aesthetic characteristics of classical art into a historical term-"artistic conception". And interpret it as the internal connotation of the concept of artistic conception. In this respect, it is more representative. For example, Ye Lang said that artistic conception is the most metaphysical image type, which "transcends concrete and limited images, events and scenes, and enters infinite time and space, that is, the so-called' thinking through the ages', so as to gain a philosophical feeling and understanding of the whole life, history and universe". The effort of "life in this philosophical sense" is of course valuable in the sense of theoretical construction, but it is lacking in terms of the establishment of the concept.
I totally agree with Ye Lang that "image" is regarded as an artistic noumenon in China's traditional aesthetics. In my opinion, all modern people's interpretations of the aesthetic connotation of artistic conception should actually be devoted to the category of "image". In fact, image is the most basic aesthetic feature of China's classical poetry and even art, and the concept and theory of "image" is the core category of China's classical aesthetics and poetics. Before the 20th century, "artistic conception" was just a term equivalent to the concept of "text" in contemporary literary theory. In the third series of Studies on China's Poetry, I want to talk about this problem briefly, but the more I write, the more I feel that this problem can't be explained clearly in a few words, and the space of written talk is limited, so I have to write a more substantial article.
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The problem should also start with the definition of artistic conception. In the article Object, Language, Image and Artistic Conception (Literature Review, No.3, 2002), I redefine image and artistic conception as follows:
Image is a self-sufficient image structure of poetry, which is processed by one or more images through the author's emotion and consciousness, and is an integral part of poetry text.
Artistic conception is a complete and self-sufficient summoning article.
I have explained the nature of artistic conception in the article, and I would like to add that artistic conception and this article are completely similar in self-sufficiency: the self-sufficiency of this article constitutes Hirsch's "meaning" (different from meaning), while the self-sufficiency of artistic conception constitutes what people usually call "poetry". The only difference is that writing is an abstract concept, while artistic conception is a concrete concept. This is one of the differences between Chinese and western poetics. People's spiritual world is interlinked, and so is their artistic experience. The difference often lies in the different expressions. The conceptual system of western poetics is abstract in logic, while the conceptual system of eastern poetics is intuitive in metaphor, but their references are the same. The correspondence between artistic conception and this article is an example. Revealing the consistency of the two will make the concept of artistic conception a poetic category that communicates with contemporary literary theories and gain universal instrumental significance.
After the paper was published, two scholars, Tao and Han Jingtai, thought that I paid too much attention to the definition of stipulation and neglected the understanding of historical significance, that is, I only paid attention to the general interpretation and ignored the special interpretation, so I published the article "On the Images and Artistic Conception of China's Poetics" (No.2, 2003). I think the difference between us lies in our different positions in discussing problems: I am discussing the artistic conception as a critical concept, while they are discussing the artistic conception category as an aesthetic concept. They thought I ignored the historical significance of artistic conception, but I didn't notice it. It is precisely because of their "universal" interpretation that China's poetic art should first meet the needs of corresponding theoretical interpretation. First of all, we should adapt to the principle of "historical experience of China's poetic art" and try our best to communicate with traditional usage. I have cited several examples of critics' use of "artistic conception" in the Qing Dynasty, which have already illustrated this point. Contrary to their claims, the connotation of "artistic conception" is only modern people's general understanding of the aesthetic characteristics of classical poetry and the meaning given to the word "artistic conception". In fact, they didn't provide any materials.
It can be seen that there is a weak link in the study of "keywords" in academic circles, that is, there are still shortcomings in sorting out the clues of academic history. Although many papers specifically trace the origin of the theory of artistic conception, the focus is often on the internal relationship between the concept of artistic conception and traditional poetics rather than the etymology and evolution of the concept of artistic conception itself, and the formal establishment of the concept of artistic conception has not been seriously investigated, so that all interpreters have not taken the concept of artistic conception into account when discussing its various characteristics and meanings.
The word "artistic conception" was originally a combination of "meaning" and "environment", and finally it was closely separated. Its etymology can be traced back to Sun Guangxian's Preface to the Collection of White Lotus at the end of the Tang Dynasty: "The commentator came to Tang as a monk, while the Zen master Guan Xiu was a man with strong backbone, and his realm was very different, and he was almost invincible." The "backbone" and "realm" here are wonderful in ancient and modern times, but they are solitary, so we have to disagree. "[3]639 The" artistic conception "here seems to be a term that cannot be said to be closely combined. "The beauty of poetry lies in the harmony of artistic conception, but it is really delicious" in Zhu Chengjue's Poems on Stories in the Jade Hall in Ming Dynasty, which is usually regarded as the earliest use case of "artistic conception" by academic circles, but it is actually "true". The touch of the realm is nothing more than poetic material. "[4] Volume 4 However, in the works of poetic theorists in the Qing Dynasty," artistic conception "has gradually merged into a word, which only refers to different people, regardless of connotation or extension. Summarizing the use cases of "artistic conception" in the poetics of Qing Dynasty, I can roughly divide them into six categories:
(1) Zhao Qingxi's Taicheng Road is entitled "Xiaoman returns to Gaoting Small Port for 10 days, and the artistic conception is deep", and Huang's "I don't know how to say it when I wake up, but I don't know how to say it" is also true. "[5]37 Yang Tingzhi also said:" Those who take it straight are all true, and their artistic conception is not far-reaching. "[6] 1 14.
(2) Mao Qiling's Poems on Xihe said in Volume VI that the last chapter of the poem given to him by Shen Sheren "directly endowed him with a different artistic conception at that time" [7], and Gong Xianzeng's Poems on Zhai Zhai said in Volume VI that "when you are slightly drunk, you can have a good look at it for half an hour", which is lingering and the most memorable [8], and here "artistic conception".
(3) Chen Lian's poems in the early Qing Dynasty "The journey of scholars also seeks poetry, but the artistic conception rate is not suitable." [9] The "artistic conception" here refers to the poem "The truth rate of love is born of artistic conception" in Volume III of Yun Ge's Poetics.
(4) Wu Zhizhen's "Introduction to Ying Kui Fa" said: "Set the poems of 600 to 700 years as one category, and observe the development of its artistic conception and the day of interesting life. What is meant by "those who take it by surprise change into new things" [10] Huang Sheng's "Poetry" Volume II says that "all poets are called works". "If you want to chase the ancients, you should be familiar with the poems of the ancients, seeking elegance, artistic conception and charm. The "artistic conception" here is comparable to the charm of reason and interest, and should refer to the emotional content in poetry.
(5) He Shang's Poems on the Wine Garden talks about Lu You's poems, which are "only a few in general, not far in artistic conception, but good at writing the scenery in front of him, and the syllables are audible" [1 1] Volume 1, 45 1, Wei called "Gaizhe Poetry School",)
(6) Shen Deqian's "Talking about Poetry" volume: "Zhonglian should change its artistic conception by focusing on the virtual reality and flowing water." Comment on Lu Lun's Back Pool of Tixingshan Temple in the second volume of Joy's A Brief Introduction to Dali Poetry: "The artistic conception of transferring lotus is good." Volume six comments on Liu's "Seeing Huangfu Ranzheng Wind on Autumn Night"
The above materials (1) to (4) are connected with other words or occasionally used instead of other words, which is related to the extended meaning of "Jing". Only the "artistic conception" in (5) and (6) belongs to poetic terminology. They show that by the middle of the Qing Dynasty, the concept of "artistic conception" had gradually been fixed in the sense of taking context with meaning. Taking context with meaning generally refers to the use of writers' talents. That is to say, although Shen Deqian and Joey also refer to the local usage of works, on more occasions, "artistic conception" refers to the overall impression conveyed by works and is used as a higher unit concept in the evaluation of works. For example, Joey commented on Liu Changqing's Tomb of the Wandering Mother in the volume of Dali Poems: "The artistic conception is transcendent, and this topic is a masterpiece." Volume II comments on Lu Lun's poems: "Lu Yunyan's artistic conception is not far away, and he does nothing. The artistic conception is leisurely and the calendar is of high quality. " Volume four comments on Li Duan's "Yuan Zan Shan Ju": "The forging is fresh and the artistic conception is far away." The same volume comments on Geng's Autumn Day: "The artistic conception of Geng's collected poems is slightly flat, and the voice is getting thinner, but the feelings revealed are no less than those of Lu Yunyan." Joey is a Shen Deqian and style poet, and he is very concerned about the internal composition of his works. It's not surprising that we read such words in Zhang Xuecheng's Discrimination of Papers: "If the husband dies, the wood is the west of Western jackdaw, which is the metaphor of Jingguang. You can specify a chapter to comment on the artistic conception of a paragraph, but you can't use it as a rule to judge a group of articles. " Although this is a paper, "artistic conception" refers to the overall feeling and impression of the work, but it is similar to the usage of poetry criticism.
In the process of the formation and popularization of the concept of "artistic conception", one person's role can not be ignored, that is, Ji Yun, an important figure in the history of literary criticism in Qing Dynasty. In Ji Xiaolan's poetry criticism, "artistic conception" is a frequently used term. He used the word "artistic conception" many times when commenting on Sui Dynasty, such as commenting on Yellow Crane Tower: "This poem is out of reach. The artistic conception is more than enough. " Comment on Huang Tingjian's "Boarding Express Pavilion": "The last six sentences are extremely wide." Comment on Chen's "Climbing Yueyang Tower": "The artistic conception is grand and deep, which is almost equal to Lao Du." Volume four comments on Liu Zongyuan's "Going to Liuzhou Tower to Send Zhang Tingfeng to Four States": "The artistic conception is wide and neat, and the four States are taken backwards." Volume six comments on Wei's "To My Friends and Harmony" also have artistic conception. "Volume 12 Comment on Du Fu's Autumn Night:" The pen and ink are clear and the artistic conception is extremely wide. "Volume XIII comments on Liu Yuxi's" Getting Up Early ":"The first four sentences are ejected at one breath, and the artistic conception is very high. The strength lies in the first two sentences. "Volume 14 comments on Xu Hun's Xiao Fayin crossing the Yangtze River to send a message to Cui Han's second ancestor": "The use of five laws is better than seven laws, and the artistic conception is ultimately shallow. However, it is not as artistic as the last one. Volume 17 comments on Chen's "In the Rain": "This poem is close to Du Fu and has a profound artistic conception. "Comment on Yan Shu's" Faud Yu Qiu ":"Although the sentence is too eye-catching, the meaning of Qiu Lin's abdominal illness is hard to get rid of, and Wan Li's west wind is long and the mood is good. "Comment on Chen's" Don't thank Begonia after Rain ":"The artistic conception is deep and broad. "However, it is not as ancient and profound." Comment on "Izayoi Moonlight" Since August 14, Guiwei: "Pure gas wins, and the artistic conception is also broad." Volume 23 comments on Meng Haoran's Return to Zhong Nanshan: "The end of the sentence is also called predecessors, and the artistic conception is wonderful." Comment on Lin Bu's Looking at the Lake Building: "The first four sentences are very artistic." Volume 24 Comments on Zhang Zirong's "Send Meng Liugui" So, in the final analysis, it is not a comparison between Mencius and Mencius. "Volume 25 comments on Huang Tingjian's" The Palace of Falling Stars ":"This kind of artistic conception is unique in the valley. "Volume 29 comments on Wang Anshi's Ge Xi Tie:" The old man is healthy and stable, and his artistic conception is extraordinary. "Volume 30 comments on Song Qi's" Yin moved from the moat ":"The style is strong and the artistic conception is broad. "Six sentences have deep artistic conception and can write difficult scenes." Volume 43 comments on Jia Dao's sending to Chaozhou, North Korea: "Broad artistic conception and high-definition syllables." These "artistic conception" use cases all focus on conception and context, but they are slightly different when referring to the part and the whole. It is worth noting that Ji Xiaolan's General Catalogue of Sikuquanshu often uses "artistic conception" to discuss poetry, which seems to reflect him. 159 Volume Summary of Zhuzhou Collection says that Wu Xian's poems are all in a bad mood, while the same volume Summary of East Tang Collection says that Yuan Shuoyou's "five or seven words are old, so his style is fresh and his artistic conception is developed", 16 1 Volume Summary of Meishan says that Jiang Teli has a wide artistic conception./kloc 168' s Summary of Northland Collection praised Xu Shu's poems as "green and abrupt, and the artistic conception is often gloomy", 169' s Cuiping Collection called Zhang Yining's "five-character classical artistic conception is pure and easy", and17/kloc-0' s Luo Qinshun's "artistic conception is slightly fair". And so on. All the books have been used "artistic conception" for 24 times, all of which are in the collection department. Its usage is basically the same as Ying Kui, which is recognized by Ji. People naturally think of their relationship with Ji Xiaolan. With the publication of the General Catalogue of Sikuquanshu as the King James Version, the word "artistic conception", which frequently appears in the collection department, is bound to be widely circulated and deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.