The full-scale relationship between literature and reality: the main axis of the problem of Ye Xie's "Original Poems"

　 Ye Xie's "Original Poems" is a rare systematic theoretical work in the history of Chinese literary theory criticism, which generally embodies a comprehensive and inclusive theoretical vision, and strives to transcend "discussing poetry on poetry" and "comprehensive and coherent" ("Original Poems, Inner Part i.E.", quoted below "Original Poems" are no longer indicated), and construct a comprehensive and objective poetic theory or literary theory. The main axis of the problem of the Original Poem can be seen as the relationship between literature and reality. The relationship or relevance of literature to reality is complex, and it cannot simply be generalized or negated by one relation. This truth itself is not difficult to understand, but in practice it is difficult to properly grasp and control. The basic premise of the "Original Poem" argument is to have a comprehensive understanding of the relationship between literature and reality, and not to study literary treatises or even one-sidedly exaggerate a certain factor or characteristics of literature.

　　Dialectical subjectivity and objectivity

　　The theoretical propositions of literature and reality in the Original Poems are not pure theoretical propositions for the sake of theory, but have specific practical problems and objects of criticism. Far away, there is Yan Yu's "other materials" and "other fun" theory ("Canglang Poetry And Poetry Discernment"), which once evolved into the contempt and shallowness of the last stream of the public security faction, and later became the strange and secluded interest of the Jingling faction in pursuing "humorous and single-minded"; recently, there is the emphasis on style and law of the seven sons on the basis of "Wen Bi Qin Han, Poetry Must Flourish Tang". Under this premise, Ye Xie's proposition that "the source of poetry is becoming a cycle of prosperity and decline at the end of the book" seems to be a kind of historical cycle theory, but in fact, it emphasizes that the various lineages, revolutions, causes, and creations of poetry should be "analyzed and divided" from the premise and objective conditions of their occurrence, and their historical background and actual motives should be fully understood, rather than abstract, isolated, and static emphasis on a certain aspect or a certain factor.

　　From this, Ye Xie saw an important problem through the literary history perspective of the "Original Poems": from Yan Yu to the Seven Sons before and after, to the Gong'an faction and the Jingling faction, they all saw the problems and shortcomings of the previous generation of literature, and tried to change, but they all lacked sufficient reflection and moderation on the means of change, so they caused new problems in both theory and practice, that is, what he called "mutual circulation". Therefore, what the "Original Poem" wants to emphasize is that it is necessary to examine the historical vision of literary evolution, but only focusing on this will be blinded by a "mutual cycle" appearance, and the essence and origin of the problem cannot be seen. Therefore, more attention should be paid to the axial relationship between literature and reality. In the final analysis, the reason for the accumulation of ills in literature and the new problems that have been followed by changemakers is not that the relationship between literature and the literature of the previous generation is not handled well, but that there are problems in the relationship between literature and reality. Whether it is Yan Yu, the Seven Sons of the Former and Later Dynasties, the Gong'an Faction, the Jingling Faction, or the objects of change they want to change (Song poetry and Tai Ge style, which use "writing", "caixue", and "discussion" as poems), they have all deviated from this issue.

　　The theoretical proposition of the Original Poems first emphasizes the "foundation of poetry", that is, the "mind" of the poet. Ye Xie emphasized that "mindfulness" does not only emphasize the subjective factors or subjective causes of poetry, but as far as the subject is concerned, the subject, like "seeking poetry in poetry", is one-sided and narrow-minded. Ye Xie's "mind" refers to an open, broad literary pattern that can accommodate a broad, rich, and comprehensive experience of life and world experience. On this basis, the theoretical system of the Original Poem is not only an expansion of the horizon of literary understanding, but also constitutes a methodological transformation: "The law person, the false name, is not discussed in existence; and the law person, the positioning is also, not the discussion of nothingness." The "false name" of the so-called "Fa" often becomes a conceptual obstacle for many people who do not know only the cause and the extension, and do not know the creation and revolution (such as the seven sons before and after). At the same time, it is impossible to exhaust the changes and diversity of literary experience and literary creation in the "law" of fixed "positioning", because it has its own methodological limitations. Therefore, Ye Xie replaced the abstract and rigid "Law" with subjective talent, knowledge, courage, and strength, coupled with objective reason, matter, and emotion.

　　The theoretical creativity of "Original Poems" is not only reflected in the accurate exposition of the subjective and objective factors of literature and its internal dialectical relationship, but more importantly, this cognitive system and conceptual system about poetry or literature not only concretizes the "law", but also connects and coherent literature with the living world. Whether it is talent, knowledge, courage, strength, or reason, matter, or emotion, it applies not only to poetry or literature itself, but to all things in the world: "In my fourth, weighed in the third thing, combined into the author's article, the great longitude and latitude of the heavens and the earth, the fine and moving and planting, the chanting and chanting, can not be separated from the truth and the speaker." This is the fundamental methodological methodology of literary epistemology of the Original Poem. This kind of concept and method has a strong vitality and theoretical applicability in breaking through all kinds of so-called "modern" and "postmodern" literary myths and extremist propositions.

　　Will be able to communicate literature and life

　　Under the above premise, this kind of literary cognition and literary theory method has opened up a new situation in literary creation. The "Original Poem" enlightens us that the fundamental problem is not the "big" and "small" of literary concepts, not the choice between "internal" and "external" literary concepts, not the use of aesthetic self-discipline as an excuse to regard literature as a closed entity, or the maintenance of infinite fragmentation, or the establishment of various whimsy and strange theories called literature on the basis of isolated individual consciousness. For literary creation, it is a major premise to place literature in the objective real world and consider it as a concrete and realistic thing. If literature and the world are consciously or unconsciously judged in advance, how can we accurately analyze, strip away and recognize its "origin" and "ontology", and then obtain the "original" of literature? The world of real experience in front of people is the source and source of literature, and the creation, reading, criticism, and theoretical research of literature are inseparable from the connection with reality and the reference to world experience for a moment.

　　Literature certainly has its own laws and characteristics, but the self-discipline of this characteristic cannot be exaggerated. Whether it is "seeking poetry on poetry" or falling into the historical myth of "mutual cycle", it is because people cannot recognize this basic premise, lose the reference of reality and enter the misunderstanding of thinking. For example, Yan Yu's theory of "other materials" and "other fun" is aimed at the shortcomings of the Song people who "use words as poetry, talent as poetry, and argument as poetry", and "other materials" and "other fun" as the artistic characteristics of poetry itself. However, later generations ignored Yan Yu's premise of argument, and excessively pursued the "other materials" and "other interesting" of "such as the sound of the air, the color of the picture, the moon in the water, and the image in the mirror" ("Canglang Poetry: Poetry Discernment"), which inevitably made poetry a mysterious thing that could not be explained and could not establish an effective connection with real-world experience.

　　In addition, this conceptual system and way of understanding the relationship between literature and reality not only focuses on the "external" attributes and "external" relations of literature, but also penetrates into the "internal" factors of literature. This is epitomized in Ye Xie's understanding of the theory, events, and emotions of poetry itself. The so-called reason, matter, and emotion are not only the "materials" of poetry before artistic processing, but also the artistic creation of poetry itself can also be considered by reason, events, and feelings.

　　For literary works, this kind of reason, matter, and feeling has its own special qualities, but the so-called "reason that cannot be said, things that cannot be seen, and feelings that cannot be reached", perhaps the reason, matter, and emotion of "entering the gods" are high-level and high-dimensional reasons, things, and feelings, but they are by no means like Yan Yu's so-called "antelope hanging horns and having no traces to seek" ("Canglang Poetry And Poetry Discernment"). Simply severing the commonality and relevance of literature and world experience can only mean making specific transcendental presuppositions about literature, often severing or distorting the connection between literature and the world itself, and eventually losing oneself in the understanding of the "origin" and "itself" of literature, which is the main source of all kinds of strange theories about literature.

　　Even in the current literary cognition, it is sometimes difficult to avoid the "historical" myths of Yan Yu, the Seven Sons before and after, the Public Security Faction, and the Jingling Faction. The "Original Poem" takes the relationship between literature and reality as the main axis, which is to show the three-dimensionality, complexity, and full-scale nature of this relationship or association. Ye Xie's admiration of "the literature of heaven and earth and nature is also the work" and "the law is the law as it pleases", all of which are intended to unravel the various one-sided and extreme cognitive horizons and cognitive relationships, avoid extremization, and thus move towards harmony and accessibility on the basis of deep, generous, and broad literary experience. Therefore, for today's literary concepts and literary cognitive methods, in the face of the ever-changing cultural scenes and media revolutions, and in the face of increasingly complex literary concepts and theoretical discourses, Ye Xie's theory on the relationship between literature and reality in the original poems still has important practical significance.

　　(Author Affilications:Institute of Literature, Tianjin Academy of Social Sciences)

Source: China Social Science Network - China Social Science Daily Author: Zhang Dawei

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