As far as the information we can see now is concerned, historians' accounts are relatively early. Sima Qian's Biography of Qu Yuan Jia Sheng is not only a biography of Qu Yuan and Jia Yi, but also involves poets such as Song Yu, Le Tang and Jing Ke before Jia Yi, which is a preliminary description of the development of literature. Later, Ban Gu (Eastern Han Dynasty) briefly described the development process of historian's writings before Sima Qian's Historical Records in Han Shu's Biography. Shen Yue in the Qi and Liang Dynasties reviewed the development of poetry from the Southern Dynasties to the Song Dynasty in Song Xie Shu Lingyun Biography, which can be said to be a more detailed exposition of the history of poetry. (Southern Song Dynasty) Ye Fan wrote the Book of the Later Han Dynasty and initiated the Biography of Wen Yuan, which combined the biographies of 22 people with their literary achievements and arranged them in chronological order, providing clues for the development of literature. Since then, most official biographies about Wen Yuan or Wen Yi have followed the style of the Book of the Later Han Dynasty. In terms of bibliography, Ban Gu wrote Han Shu Literature and Art Annals on the basis of Liu Xin's seven views, among which A Brief Comment on Poetry and Fu has a preliminary description of the development of poetry and fu. Since then, some bibliographic works, such as Sui Shu Jing Ji Zhi, Old Tang Shu Jing Ji Zhi, and New Tang Shuyi Wen Zhi, have mostly inherited the tradition of Han Shu's Literature and Art Zhi, and at the same time have made textual research on the origin and development of bibliography. (Qing) The fantasy cloud summarizes the general contents of Sikuquanshu, which can be regarded as a master of this kind of books. In terms of poetry criticism, the following 20 articles in Liu Xie's Wen Xin Diao Long discuss the formation process of various styles, and the time series also has wonderful discussions on the development of literature. (Liang) Zhong Rong's "Preface to Poetry" has made a quite detailed discussion on the development of literature. Since then, there have also been discussions on the development of poetry in some poetry talks, ci talks, and books such as Chronology of Poetry and Chronology of Ci.
In addition, Zheng Xuan's Preface to Poetry of the Eastern Han Dynasty traces the origin of poetry, lists the relationship between political changes and poetry in Zhou Wenwang, Zhou Wuwang, Zhou Chengwang, wangyi, wangyi, Li Wang and Wang You, and describes the development of poetry in detail from a political perspective. In the Western Jin Dynasty, Zhi Yu's On the Separation of Articles discussed the development of literature from a new perspective of stylistic evolution. (Tang) Bai Juyi's Jiu Zhao Yuan Qu summarized the development of poetry since "Poetry" and "Sao". Li Qingzhao's On Ci (Song Dynasty) traces the development of Ci. (Yuan) The new Biography of Talented Talents in Tang Dynasty is a biography of 398 poets in Tang Dynasty, with occasional annotations, from which we can see the evolution of the development of Tang poetry. (Ming) The inscription of the Collection of Famous Writers in the Han, Wei and Six Dynasties compiled by Zhang Pu outlines the development of literature in the Han, Wei and Six Dynasties. (Qing) Qian's Biography of Poems in Past Dynasties commented on more than 600 poets in Ming Dynasty/kloc-0. The Complete Poems of the Tang Dynasty compiled by the Qing Dynasty briefly introduced the poets in the Tang Dynasty one by one, from which we can see the clues of the development of the poems in the Tang Dynasty.
There is no doubt that these works are what we should learn from when writing the history of literature today. However, none of these can be regarded as a systematic and complete exposition of the development process of literature, so they are not specialized works on the history of literature, let alone an established independent discipline of literary history. China scholars' literary works appeared at the beginning of the 20th century under the influence of foreign countries. It is generally believed that the lecture on the History of China Literature written by Lin Chuanjia in the Capital University Hall is the original work. Xie Wuliang's History of China Literature, Hu Shi's History of Vernacular Literature, Zheng Zhenduo's Illustrated History of China Literature, Sister Liu's History of China Literature, the Literature Research Institute of China Academy of Sciences' History of China Literature and You Guoen's History of Chinese Literature represent the achievements that literary works can achieve in the 20th century, 30th, 1950s and 1960s respectively. Wang Guowei's History of Drama in Song and Yuan Dynasties and Lu Xun's History of Novels in China are the earliest and most influential works in the history of separatist literature.
It can be said that the history of literature became an independent subject after entering the 20th century, especially after the 1920s and 1930s. However, the understanding of this subject is different, so the writing of literary history is also very different. As long as serious academic research has its own characteristics due to different understandings and writing methods, it can enrich and improve the subject of literary history from different aspects. Even now or in the future, there cannot be only one kind of understanding, one kind of mode and one kind of writing, but only a hundred schools of thought contend and a hundred flowers blossom.
So, how do we understand the history of literature? We believe that the history of literature is one of the achievements of human culture.
This is the most unpretentious and straightforward answer, which means that literary history is literary history, and literary history works should describe the evolution of literature itself in a broad cultural background. It includes the following meanings:
To study literature as literature, literary works should be based on literature and attach importance to the artistic and infectious characteristics and aesthetic value of literature. Of course, the value of literature depends largely on its function of reflecting reality, which is no problem, but how is this function realized? It is realized by using language as a tool and arousing the aesthetic feeling of the receiver. The breadth and depth of reality reflected by some literary works may not exceed the records in history books. If Du Fu's poems, known as "the history of poetry", are compared with Tang Shu and Zi Tong Zhi Jian, and compared with similar records in Bai Juyi's Selling Charcoal Weng and A Record of Shunzong, it is not difficult to understand this point. But the latter can't replace the former, because the former is literature, which has aesthetic value and can infect readers more. Of course, we can also use poetry to prove history and use ancient literary works as materials to study ancient society, so as to obtain valuable results, but this is not the study of literary history, and literary works must pay attention to the characteristics of literature itself.
Focusing on literary creation, this paper expounds the development of literature. There are several levels in the study of literary history. The outermost layer is the social, political and economic background of literary creation. Background research is very important, and it is an essential key to deeply explain literary creation. However, the study of social, political and economic background obviously cannot be the core content of literary history works, and literary history cannot be written as a diagram of social development history. The second level is the subject of literary creation, that is, the writer, including the writer's life, thoughts and mentality. We should pay full attention to the study of writers, but the study of writers is not the core content of literary history works, and the history of literature cannot be written as the integration of writers' comments and biographies. Biography of Wen Yuan and Biography of Literature and Art in the official history are not literary history in the modern sense. The third level is literary works, which is the core content of literary history. Because literary creation is ultimately embodied in literary works, there is no literature without works, and there is no literary history. In other words, the core content of literary works is to explain the evolution of literary works, and the first two levels are all around this core.
Literary creation is closely related to literary theory, literary criticism and literary appreciation. Literary theory guides literary creation, and literary criticism and appreciation are readers' reactions after literary creation is completed. The history of literary development is a history in which literary creation, literary theory, literary criticism and literary appreciation are promoted together. This does not mean that many literary theories, literary criticisms and literary appreciation should be added to literary history works. Today, the history of literary theory criticism has become an independent discipline, and it is even more unnecessary to write a history of literature. We just emphasize that writing the history of literature should pay attention to the development and evolution of literary thoughts, explain literary creation with literary thoughts, pay attention to the acceptance of literature, and guide readers to appreciate literary works correctly.
There are also literary media closely related to literary creation. There were far fewer literary media in ancient times than today, only oral legends, word copying, printing and publishing, rap performances and so on, but all of them were enough to attract our attention. Literary works rely on the media to play the role of readers. Different media have different requirements for literary creation, and creation has to adapt to or even accommodate these requirements. To some extent, the situation of literary creation depends on the media. From oral communication to writing and copying, to printing and publishing, the creative changes caused by the change of media deserve attention. The conciseness of literary works in the pre-Qin and Han dynasties has nothing to do with the complexity of words. The influence of the singing style of Tang and Song Ci on the creation is obvious. After the invention of printing, a large number of documents have been widely circulated for a long time, which has had an important impact on the formation of literati writers and the characteristics of learning as poetry in the Song Dynasty. The influence of the art of speaking in Song and Yuan Dynasties on novel creation, as well as the influence of the performance mode of traditional operas in Song and Yuan Dynasties on script creation can not be ignored. The influence of media on creation and the changes it brings should be recorded in the history of literature.
In a word, literary creation is the main body of literary history, literary theory, literary criticism and literary appreciation are one wing of literary history, and literary media is the other. The so-called literary standard emphasizes the subject of literary creation and its two wings.
In a sense, the history of literature belongs to the category of historiography, and writing the history of literature should have a historical way of thinking. Since works in the history of literature are "history", we should break through the past mode of simply arranging writers' works in chronological order, pay attention to the context of "history" and clearly describe the process of inheritance and change. Since literary works are "history", they must rely on description, and the usual evaluative language should be changed into descriptive language. Evaluation language focuses on qualitative analysis, while descriptive language focuses on explaining situations, phenomena, tendencies, styles, genres and characteristics, explaining the gains and losses of creation and their reasons, and explaining the causes and consequences of literary development and change. Description and evaluation are not only two different language habits, but also two different ways of thinking. Description does not exclude evaluation, but naturally includes evaluation. Since literary works are "history", we should seek the law of "history" and not be satisfied with the list of facts. But the law exists in the connection of literary facts, which is a natural conclusion, not a label attached from the outside.
We not only do not exclude but also attach great importance to the cross-study of literary history and other related disciplines, and examine literature from a broad perspective of culturology. The evolution of literature is closely related to the evolution of the whole culture. Ancient writers are often historians, philosophers, calligraphers and painters, and their works are often permeated with profound cultural connotations. Therefore, with the help of the achievements of philosophy, archaeology, sociology, religion, art, psychology and other neighboring disciplines and their methods, it will bring a new look to the study of literary history and make breakthrough progress in interdisciplinary. For example, pre-Qin poetry can not be separated from primitive witchcraft, song and dance; The study of China literature in the two dynasties had a great relationship with the exclusive position of Confucianism. The study of literature in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties cannot but pay attention to metaphysics and Buddhism. The study of Tang poetry can not but pay attention to the music and painting of Tang dynasty; The study of Song poetry cannot but pay attention to Neo-Confucianism and Zen Buddhism. The stage, figures, brick carvings and murals preserved in Shanxi, which reflect the performances of Jin and Yuan operas, are important materials for studying Jin and Yuan literature. The new social environment and cultural atmosphere brought about by the social and economic changes in the middle of Ming Dynasty can not be ignored in the study of literary development at that time. All these show how important a broad cultural vision is for the study of literary history! With the perspective of culturology, the study of literary history can be deepened.
The existence of literary history is objective, and the description of literary history should be close to the truth of literary history. But to what extent can literary history works be done? This is really a big problem. Because the materials of literary history had the subjective color of the recorder in the recording process at that time and were lost in the circulation process, it is impossible for people who are writing literary history to fully see them; In addition, writers choose different materials from different angles, and their viewpoints, methods and expressions are personalized, so it is almost impossible to describe the history of literature purely and objectively, and there will always be some subjectivity. If this subjectivity refers to the author's personality and rigorous innovation, such subjectivity is exactly what we need. If this subjectivity refers to similar viewpoints and methods of an era and some characteristics of the era due to different information, there is nothing wrong with it. The history of literature written by our contemporary people is not only written by contemporary people, but also written for contemporary people, so it must be contemporary. This kind of contemporariness is manifested as: contemporary value judgment, contemporary aesthetic taste and concern for contemporary literary creation. If we study the history of ancient literature, we can learn from the past and pay attention to contemporary literary creation, so the written history of literature is more meaningful for contemporary literary creation. Contemporary works on the history of literature are more easily noticed by later generations because they reflect the thoughts of contemporary people. But in any case, subjectivity must not be regarded as a synonym for arbitrariness and bossiness.
To write the history of China literature, we should draw lessons from foreign literary theories, but we must base ourselves on the reality of China literature, and we should not mechanically copy foreign fashionable theories as a formula to explain China literature. Researchers who are interested in the history of China literature should integrate Chinese and foreign, traditional and modern literary theories, proceed from the reality of China literature, analyze specific problems, and expound the history of China literature with a realistic attitude, instead of setting a framework first and then filling it with materials suitable for this framework.
The compilation of literary history is the basic work of writing literary history. The so-called compilation of literary history includes bibliography, edition, collation, textual research of writers' lives, identification of works and retrieval of historical materials. , is a kind of textual research for the purpose of identifying and sorting out materials. This is an indispensable basic work in writing the history of literature. Without this foundation, the reliability of the materials on which the history of literature is based is much worse, but strictly speaking, the compilation of the history of literature is not completely equal to the history of literature. Focusing on the division of disciplines, in order to promote the development of disciplines, a branch discipline should be established outside the history of literature, that is, the study of historical materials of literary history; But as far as scholars are concerned, both historical discussion and textual research of historical materials should be taken into account, and it is difficult to do a good job in the study of literary history without knowing historical materials at all.