In the history of Chinese culture, there is a super master of literary theory - Liu Xian, Liu Xian's writing of "Wenxin Carving Dragon" is 15 centuries away from us, but his book is still wonderful, accessible and atmospheric to read today. It is "big and thoughtful", permanent and universal, and its theory is still valid today.
Western culture, including modern Western literary theory, naturally has many wonderful places that we can use; If Chinese scholars look back at the tradition when they take the Western Classics, they can discover the richness of the tradition. Here I want to use the viewpoint of "Wenxin Carving Dragon" to analyze a modern **: Qian Zhongshu's "Siege of the City", so as to illustrate the eternal value of China's ancient literary theory.
I think that by citing the relevant theories of ancient China, we can "interpret the present with the past" and "interpret the Chinese with the middle" to analyze and comment on "The Siege". Written 1500 years ago, "Wenxin Carving Dragon", there are more than 30 kinds of styles of commentary, but there is no one called **. However, literature is literature, and no matter what kind of genre it is, there are common points of content and technique; Therefore, we can criticize with theories that are not criticism. The narrator of "The Siege" tells the story and likes to directly intervene in ** to make arguments, often with heated discussions, and many fragments are simply the same as essays in prose, so "The Siege" is also known as an essay**. I think that the "essays" described in the "Essays" chapter of "Wenxin Carving Dragon" are just borrowed to describe the stylistic characteristics of scholars like "The Siege of the City".
The essay begins with a clear and righteous statement: "The son of wisdom, the man of liberal arts, overflows with words, and his words are full of energy; The garden is confined to the literature, so the day is new. The text here hits directly at the "key" of scholars' prose and scholars' **. Dongfang Shuo and Yang Xiong have two "essays" that are the objects of Liu Xian's examples, and we can use these two essays as "touchstones" to see if modern scholars' essays and scholars** have similar gold content as "essays". (This article is about scholars, so the scholar's prose part is not listed.) ）
The first six sentences of the essay are, in modern style: "A person who is intelligent, professional, erudite and elegant, his writing is full of algae, and his rhetoric is full of talent; By harnessing the sentiments of the texts, they are able to innovate and express different styles day by day. ”
The "Bo" of "Boya" in the quotation is erudition, which means the same as "arguing and carving all things, wisdom and the universe" in "Wenxin Carving the Dragon and Zhuzi", that is, arguing about all things in heaven and earth, and being knowledgeable. The "algae" of "algae overflowing in words" is algae collection, which is the same as the literary collection mentioned in "Wenxin Carving Dragon: Sentiment"; As for "new and special", it is synonymous with the innovation of "Wenxin Carving Dragon: Change".
Wenxin Carving Dragon analyzes more than 30 genres, and has special requirements for the author of "essays", that is, the author is "the son of wisdom and art, and the person of liberal arts". According to the historical records, there should be no doubt that they have wisdom and skill, and their liberal arts should be undoubted. The author of "The Siege of the City" we are going to talk about is a scholar and a "son of wisdom and art, a man of liberal arts". The following is a brief introduction to the two "essays" commented by Liu Xian: Dongfang Shuo's "Answering Guests" and Yang Xiong's "Solving Mockery".
Dongfang Shuo was outstanding in learning, recommended himself to the Son of Heaven, but he was not of great use, and his heart was indignant, so he wrote "Difficult to Answer Guests" to vent his complaints. This article is full of spirit, rich examples, surging discussions, and flying style; Sentences from classics such as the Book of Songs are quoted extensively. Irony and metaphors are common, such as mocking the ignorant with "looking at the sky with a tube and speculating on the sea". Yang Xiong wrote "Explanation of Mockery", and its many dictionaries have made modern commentators spend a lot of time. In the text, there are better metaphors and witty words. Use metaphors, such as "guest" to compliment Yangxiong, "eyes like stars, tongue like lightning". Yang Xiong "explained" that he could not get the "ridicule" of honor: "The guest wants Zhu Danwu hub, but he doesn't know that he will be the red family if he falls"; It means "You just want me to stain my car red (to show dignity), and you don't know that if you stumble, your family will be stained with blood." In addition to the "ridicule" of good readers, they also found that "hub" and "clan" rhyme. When discussing the "Solution", Liu Xian, in particular, pointed out that it is "mixed with humor". "Answer" and "Solution" are the landmark works of Liu Xian's "essays".
At the beginning of the essay, "The son of wisdom, the man of liberal arts, overflows with words, and the words are full of energy; I extracted, reorganized, and enriched its key words to become three four-character phrases of "erudite and elegant", "brilliant rhetoric" and "witty", which were used to summarize the scholar's ** characteristics of "The Siege". Due to space limitations, I will only cite a few fragments. The story of "The Siege" is familiar to many readers and needs not be repeated.
It is said that a group of Chinese who studied in Europe "learned" and returned to China and played mahjong on a long-distance cruise ship. Qian Zhongshu, the ** narrator of the Tongue Lotus, said: "Playing cards not only has the flavor of hometown, but also suits the trend of the century. This is irony, the syntax belongs to the puppet, and the use of puppet sentences is a manifestation of literary brilliance. On the cruise ship, a Miss Bao was scantily dressed, and someone saw her and called her "truth"; Recall that the truth is naked, so it is amended to "partial truth." Metaphors are used here (metaphors are also one end of the literary spectrum). "Correction" and "truth" were the fashionable words of the year, and it is "witty" that is used here, implicitly ironic.
The protagonist Fang Hong gradually bought a doctoral diploma before returning to China, "This diploma seems to have the function of the leaves on the lower bodies of Adam and Eve, which can cover up shame and ugliness; A small piece of paper can cover up a person's emptiness, ugliness, and stupidity. "The parable is here again. The seller is an Irishman, and the narrator, Qian Zhongshu, seizes the opportunity to ridicule the Irishman, saying that he has no savings: "Legend has it that the real estate of the Irishman is milk and ass. (I can't help but argue that it is fortunate that the irony here is not a particular Irishman, and if it were, that person would probably accuse Qian of defamation.) Liu Xian's "Explanation of Mockery" is "mixed with scherzo", and the "scherzo" of "Siege" is almost every page. The following is a quote from the dinner scene in the third chapter of "The Siege", further ** Qian Zhongshu how to be boya.
There are a total of five guests at the dinner, talking and laughing, quoting classics, and the sentences of "Dream of Red Mansions" are faintly coming. Everyone has commented on the poets of the old modern style, which is like a poetic forum. The meaning of "besieged city" comes from He Jing and He Canon, English "gold-lacquered birdcage", French "besieged castle fortresse assi[ symbol ] g[ symbol ] e", everyone "shows" one by one. Several philosophers in Europe are "vain old men"; In the middle of the discussion, the narrator Qian Zhongshu breaks it with a sharp pen of sarcasm.
Chu Shenming in the seat has the skill to climb the dragon, and he brags about it. He first referred to Bertrand Russell as Bertie, and then recounted how he had "answered many questions" for the famous philosopher during a meal with Bertie in London. Qian Zhongshu arranged how such a "wisdom" character who "climbed the dragon" and "bragged" frothing at the mouth, and then dismantled his "diorama" and told the readers of "The Siege" that Russell's original answer was "when to go to England, what are the plans, and how many pieces of sugar should be put in the tea, which he [Chu Shenming] cannot answer...... himself”
Qian Zhongshu is fluent in many languages and cultures, and his knowledge includes ancient and modern Chinese and foreign cultures. Although Zhang Qian of the Han Dynasty had access to the Western Regions, the scholars of the capital Chang'an generally only spoke Chinese, which was the Chinese language on which the profound culture was based; In Chang'an, Dongfang Shuo and Yangxiong have long been content with the Chinese language, and they have not yet reached the realm of language and culture at the same time. European essayists such as Montaigne and Robert Burton used the word "West" rather than "China". said that the real liberal arts must be Qian Zhongshu.
Modern Western literary theories are as varied as a fashionable hat store in London, Paris, Berlin or New York. Many Chinese scholars who study literature like to choose one of these European and American hat stores and put it on the head of one or some Chinese works. As everyone knows, there are many kinds of clothing in China since ancient times, and there are different styles of hats that are long, wide, high and deep, which can be worn in a variety of styles. We can use the hat of "Boya" in the "Essays" chapter to properly wear on the heads of scholars such as Qian Zhongshu's "Siege of the City".
Wong Wai-leung is a professor at Chinese University of Hong Kong