It's hard to know a friend! The sound is difficult to know, and the knowledge is difficult to meet; Every time you meet a bosom friend, it's a once-in-a-lifetime experience!
Liu Xie discusses from two aspects: one is that sound is difficult to recognize, and the other is that sound is difficult to recognize. First of all, it's hard to conform to what you know: Liu Xie cited a lot of examples in literary criticism since Qin and Han Dynasties, which shows that critics who really know each other are rare from ancient times to now. Some are "emphasizing the ancient times and neglecting the present", thinking that the works of modern people are always inferior to those of the ancients; Some "restrain themselves and promote others", belittle others and raise themselves; Others "believe in falsehood and confuse truth", believe in hypocrisy and don't know the truth. This kind of unrealistic criticism is certainly not a "confidant". However, such facts abound, so Liu Xie lamented: "A bosom friend comes once in a thousand years!"
The full text is divided into four parts.
The first part is about "knowing that it is difficult to meet". Liu Xie took Qin Shihuang, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Ban Gu, Cao Zhi and Lou Hu as examples to show that there were some bad tendencies in ancient literary criticism, such as "attaching importance to the past but neglecting the present", "worshiping oneself and restraining others" and "believing in falsehood and being fascinated by truth", so it was difficult to meet correct literary critics.
The second part talks about "sound is difficult to recognize". There are some difficulties in literary criticism. Because from an objective point of view, literary works themselves are abstract and complicated; Subjectively, critics have limited knowledge and different preferences, so it is difficult to be appropriate. According to this feature and difficulty,
The third part puts forward the methods to do literary criticism well: mainly, critics should have knowledge to improve their ability to appreciate literary works; Eliminate personal preferences in order to evaluate works objectively and fairly; And put forward "six views", that is, from six aspects: genre arrangement, word use, inheritance and innovation, singularity of expression, use of allusions and syllable processing, to investigate the ideological content expressed by it and whether these six aspects can properly serve the content.
The fourth part puts forward the basic principles of literary criticism: "Writers write with emotion, and readers write with emotion." It shows that although there are some difficulties in literary criticism, it is entirely possible to correctly understand and evaluate the works. Finally, it is emphasized that critics must ponder the works deeply and carefully in order to realize the exquisiteness and fragrance of the works.
A bosom friend is the forty-eighth article in Wen Xin Diao Long. It is a concentrated article in Liu Xie's criticism to discuss how to carry out literary criticism. Yin Zhi is the first systematic literary criticism theory in ancient China, which comprehensively discusses the attitude, characteristics, methods and basic principles of literary criticism, involving the relationship between literary criticism and creation and literary appreciation. However, these problems are relatively brief in this paper, and we need to contact the relevant expositions in the whole book to fully understand Liu Xie's literary criticism view. Liu Xie's critical practice basically carried out his thoughts in this article. Therefore, according to this article, it is also helpful for us to understand Liu Xie's evaluation of ancient writers' works.