China's ancient literary theory itself is a spiritual product, and it is people's conscious reflection and summary of literary phenomena. If China's ancient literary theory is regarded as a branch of China culture and its spiritual value is a complete system, then it involves the deep spiritual noumenon of China's ancient literary theory and is the soul of China's ancient literary theory. The core of China culture is the values of life, which is reflected in the emphasis on ethics and spiritual beliefs. Metaphysical refers to the Tao, while physical refers to the device. Tao is metaphysical spiritual value, while metaphysics refers to concrete application. The technical level is regarded as the category of device, and the relationship between Tao and device is very clear. The more excellent a literary theorist is, the stronger this consciousness becomes. In China's ancient literary theory, those tangible categories and concepts are based on this value theory. Conceptual theory, technical theory and axiology are completely indistinguishable and mutually infiltrated, which can be said to be an important symbol of the difference between China's ancient literary theory and western literary theory. China's traditional culture, including China's ancient literary theory, is essentially a kind of axiology culture, which pays attention to the guiding role of spiritual implication and the construction of humanistic consciousness.
Literary theory is the embodiment of people's self-consciousness. People can approach and spy from various angles. Methodologically, there is a kind of research and appreciation from literature; There is also an intuition based on China's traditional "Zhuangzi Xuan Jian", and a grasp of ecstasy, as well as the understanding that Zen is not based on words, but directly points to the heart. The latter is more conducive to the construction of the spiritual value of literary theory. Philosophical thinking from the perspective of anthropology, although it doesn't talk about literary phenomena, even seems to be anti-literature, but because it starts from the depth of life worries, it touches on the spiritual value theory of literature as a human study, that is, the foundation of human existence, human spiritual pain and liberation. Therefore, its influence and contribution to China's ancient literary theory can better grasp the essence of literary theory, that is, literary theory is a metaphysical humanistic implication. Without metaphysical spiritual value, this literary theory is not a literary theory in a strict sense, but a writing textbook and document arrangement. In the history of China, it had a direct and great influence on the spiritual value and implication of China's ancient literary theory, which is obvious to all. However, these ideological figures, such as Laozi, Zhuangzi and Zen, seem not to talk about literature and art, and even oppose American literature. However, because their thoughts touched on the deep problems of human civilization and alienation of human nature, as well as the problems of life freedom and ideological emancipation, their influence on China's ancient literary theory was far more profound than some specific poetic styles and techniques. This is both an indisputable fact and a thought-provoking question. Therefore, judging from the cultural soil of the birth and development of China's ancient literary theory, China's ancient literary theory is closer to philosophical literary theory than literary literary literary theory in terms of its spiritual value characteristics and attributes. Literary criticism is its superficial metaphysical device and philosophical criticism is its deep spiritual mystery. Philosophical literary theory is the soul of China's ancient literary theory because it contains the essence of China's ancient culture, that is, treating literary activities with profound humanistic spirit and feelings, thinking about literary problems, and responding to the problems of life and spiritual liberation faced by literature in a specific era. The literary theories in the pre-Qin, Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties and the middle and late Ming Dynasty are unique in the history of ancient literary theories in China, which is based on this humanistic thought and spiritual implication.
The generation of the spiritual value of China's ancient literary theory is the primitive mentality of China ancient people to get along with heaven and earth and hope to get along with nature in order to survive and develop. The mentality of our ancestors towards nature is complicated. They have affinity for nature, because nature is their source of food and clothing, and at the same time they are afraid of frequent disasters in nature. This deep anxiety complex is prompted by survival instinct. Understanding the essence of the object from the perspective of life is the basic starting point of China's ancient culture and the fulcrum of constructing its spiritual values. Some people call the rationality of China people practical rationality and practical rationality, which is also the reason. The thinking that nature and man are not divided and things and me are integrated makes the spiritual values of ancient people in China have strong pantheism characteristics. This kind of spiritual values coincides with people's aesthetic mentality. The ancient ancestors of China formed the cultural characteristics of the mixed spirit and phenomenon world from a very early age. Ancient people in China believed that spirit was a form of primitive vitality and the basis of universal existence of the universe. It is called spirit because it clears the air and flies in the sky. People's spiritual knowledge is the gift of clearing the air. Taking the spirit as the existence of the whole world, including human beings, this way of thinking obviously has the characteristics of primitive thinking. However, it has its thought-provoking place. Laozi, Zhuangzi and later thinkers all saw the generalization and non-subjectivity of spiritual value, which was realized in the realm of aesthetic and literary freedom. Therefore, in Zhuangzi, spiritual freedom, transcending subject and object, and the unity of things and me are mostly manifested in concrete fables and other figurative metaphors.
The spiritual value in China's ancient literary theory is based on the special way people feel spiritual value. Ancient philosophers in China advocated that spiritual activities should be integrated into experience rather than speculation. The spirit of experience rather than speculation is consistent with the values of China people's naturalized spirit. The concept of poetic wisdom can well explain the experience mode of the integration of subject and object in ancient China, which is aesthetic in nature, not speculative. China's traditional culture regards aesthetics and literature and art as a bridge between heaven and man, and aesthetics and literary creation permeate the experience of harmony between heaven and man rather than the knowledge of contemplation. This aesthetic experience is a combination of emotion and cognition, which is different from religion and has religious transcendence consciousness. Western philosophy is characterized by cognitive or transcendental religious world, both of which are characterized by the dichotomy of subject and object. The value of life in the West is based on the opposition and struggle between man and nature, while China's ancient aesthetics and philosophy advocated that the value of man should be based on the unity of man and nature. This determines that China culture can solve the spiritual belief problem without religion; The western culture, which is divided into subject and object, relies on religion to communicate the physical world and the phenomenal world, and personality relies on the illusion of religious spirit to achieve unity and harmony. China's traditional aesthetics, like religion, has the function of communicating phenomena and entities. Cai Yuanpei's theory of substituting aesthetic education for religion in modern times is also based on his understanding of China's cultural characteristics. These basic spiritual values of China culture, such as respect for virtue, harmony between man and nature, and vigorous independence, are all expressed through experience. This determines that the highest spiritual realm of China ancient culture is aesthetics rather than religion.
Consistent with this cultural psychology of treating spiritual grasp based on emotional experience, it is the way of thinking of China's ancient literary theory, and it also reflects the national cultural psychological characteristics of our ancestors' objectification rather than abstract spiritual problems. The ancients in China never advocated separating spirit from concreteness. On the contrary, they think that the categories involving spiritual noumenon and concrete things, such as being and not, being and ending, being and being, are the unity of opposites. This can be clearly seen from the earliest "distinction between words and meanings". Later theories of imagery and artistic conception are generally based on this phenomenology of spirit, drawing on Buddhist theory appropriately. It laid the aesthetic principle of creation in China's ancient literary theory and aesthetics, and it was also the basic yardstick for China's ancient literary theory to deal with spiritual and image problems.
Humanization and personification of the spiritual value of China's ancient literary theory is another important feature of China's ancient literary theory. Due to the specific living environment and lifestyle of the Chinese nation, its religious spirit is less, and its national spirit is cheerful and secular. "Being happy while being know life" in Zhouyi typically expresses China people's mentality of being happy while being know life and content with the status quo. Therefore, from this outlook on life, their understanding of the spirit is directly related to their carefree and happy understanding of life. They will also seek liberation in the most difficult times, instead of seeking transcendence in religious spirit. In the history of China, although the Buddhist spirit in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties promoted the development of intellectuals' spirit and literature and art, from the perspective of the history of the whole Chinese nation, it was only a short time and did not represent the whole concept of life of the Chinese nation. Based on this cultural psychology, the spiritual values of China's ancient literary theory are close to real life and pay attention to the communication between personality realm and aesthetic spirit. Although this kind of spiritual values has its positive effects, its shortcomings are also obvious. The spirit of literature and art is often too secular, and religious transcendence can make up for this defect.
The spirit of China's ancient literary theory is consistent with the whole cultural spirit of China. Showing the continuity of cultural tradition. Historically, whenever Chinese culture breaks down, as a cultural inheritor, it shows a strong sense of hardship. This spirit of hardship is the driving force to push forward the spirit of China's ancient literary theory. Judging from the formation and development of China's ancient literary criticism, China's ancient literary critics are first and foremost thinkers full of humanistic anxiety. They often stand at the forefront of the times and the peak of their lives to investigate literary phenomena, respond to the severe problems in the construction of literature and culture, and construct their own literary thoughts and aesthetic theories. The rise of China's modern literary theory was accompanied by the enlightenment trend of thought at that time. It is not only influenced by the western enlightenment theory, but also inherits and transforms the spiritual value of China's ancient literary theory. A large number of masters such as Liang Qichao, Lu Xun, Wang Guowei, Zong Baihua and Zhu Guangqian emerged. Their successful practice also shows that the vitality of China's ancient literary theory has not been exhausted, and even in modern society, its spiritual value can be activated and play its great role. Therefore, to explore the spiritual value of China's ancient literary theory, we should not only reveal the spiritual core of China's ancient literary theory through careful research, but also identify and judge the spiritual orientation of ancient literary theory according to the needs of building socialist literary theory today, so as to get rid of the rough and extract the essence for our use.