The discourse system of China's ancient literary theory is closely related to the spiritual characteristics of ancient China literati. It can be said that literary theory discourse, as a theoretical form of literary concept, is a direct embodiment of the spiritual world of literati. Specifically, it is directly related to the cultural identity of the ancient literati as "social instructors" and forms the discourse system of Confucian instrumental literary theory; It is directly related to the ancient literati's maintenance of individual spiritual freedom and transcendental consciousness, forming an aestheticism literary theory discourse system based on Taoism and Buddhism. It is directly related to the interest of literati in chanting poems, and forms a poetic criticism discourse system with text analysis as the core.

Confucian instrumental literary theory system

Confucian instrumentalism literary theory system is the dominant or official ideological discourse in ancient China. As far as its origin is concerned, there are two main aspects: one is the remains of the Western Zhou culture. We know that the Western Zhou Dynasty is a society where politics and literature are integrated, and the cultural system cannot be separated from the political system. National ideology is directly reflected in the political and cultural system and people's behavior. Therefore, poetry was regarded as an important part of the national ideological discourse system and the ritual and music system in the Western Zhou Dynasty.

As far as the existing works of the Book of Songs are concerned, the function of the poems of the Western Zhou Dynasty is to communicate the relationship between man and god. Those ode poems and some elegant works aimed at offering sacrifices to mountain gods, river gods, sun and moon gods and ancestors belong to this kind of works. Its ideological function lies in: proving the legitimacy of Zhou people's rule to the princes of the world and proving the legitimacy of the aristocratic hierarchy to Zhou people. Sacrificing to God has always been a privilege, therefore, sacrifice itself has an ideological function. The second important function of Western Zhou poetry is to communicate the relationship between monarch and minister. Divided into "beauty" and "thorn" two parts. "Beauty" is the official's positive evaluation of the monarch; "Sting" is the criticism and admonition of the liegeman to the monarch. According to Zheng Xuan's "Six Arts", "Preface to Mao Poetry" and other records of China and Confucianism, we know that in the Western Zhou Dynasty, poetry was used to communicate the relationship between monarch and minister, mainly because it was euphemistic and elegant, and it was easy to speak and listen. Now it seems that this is a special way of speaking or power in aristocratic society-it can be said that "the speaker is innocent, and the listener is enough to quit." According to the Book of Songs, this function of poetry was fully realized in the late Western Zhou Dynasty. For this function of poetry, we can understand it as a self-regulation mechanism within the national ideology. Obviously, these two main functions of Western Zhou poetry are ideological in nature. This means that the poetry of the Western Zhou Dynasty was originally the discourse form of the national ideology at that time. This will naturally have a great impact on Confucian thinkers who inherit and carry forward the ritual and music culture of the Western Zhou Dynasty. In their view, it is natural that poetry has ideological functions just like hens have the function of laying eggs.

Another main reason for the formation of Confucian instrumental literary theory is the identity of Confucian scholars. Confucian scholars, as a group of intellectuals, have regarded "self-denial and courtesy" as their highest task since their birth-achieving the political goal of transforming society through personal moral cultivation. All their discourse construction and interpretation activities revolve around this goal. The interpretation of poetry is no exception. Judging from the existing poetic discourses, such as The Analects of Confucius, Mencius, Xunzi and the Bamboo Slips of Chu, the pre-Qin Confucianism formed a set of instrumental literary theory discourse system in the process of poetry interpretation. From Confucius' theory of "observing words and observing colors" to Mencius' theory of "knowing people and discussing the world" and "opposing one's will with one's will" to Xunzi's theory of "poetry is true and his will is true", all of them can not be separated from the purpose of "self-denial and courtesy".

Confucian instrumental literary theory has become the mainstream of ancient literary theory in China since it came into being, with far-reaching influence. The Han Dynasty is a crucial period for Confucian intellectuals to bargain with the ruling group under the banner of Confucianism, forming a "conspiracy relationship" and thus establishing a new official ideology. The so-called Confucian classics are actually the discourse representation of the political alliance between the ruling group and the intellectual class, the ideological guarantee for the intellectual class to enter the power system, and the direct product of the legitimacy of the power group. Confucian classics is a sign that political power formally recognizes the authority of intellectuals' discourse, and it is a compromise between "potential" and "Tao" Confucian classics is also the result of intellectuals' words suppressing their inherent utopian spirit, and it is the concession of "Tao" to "potential" Therefore, the study of Confucian classics is of epoch-making significance in the ancient cultural history of China: it finally determines the basic pattern that the mainstream culture in China has always been closely linked with politics and knowledge, and thus determines the fate that this culture will never acquire a pure knowledge form and expand into the natural field.

Literary theory discourse in the context of Confucian classics is naturally completely instrumental. Judging from Mao's Preface to Poetry, Zheng Xuan's Preface to Poetry and Six Arts, in the view of Han Confucianism, poetry is directly a political tool to adjust the monarchy and educate the people. The legitimacy of the existence of poetry cannot be found in the emotional world of individuals, but must be found in interpersonal relationships, especially in the relationship between monarch and minister. Confucianism in China says that poetry is either beautiful or prickly. Whether beauty or thorn is a discourse construction with obvious political nature, it is the maintenance and promotion of the value order endowed by Confucianism. No matter what the differences are, the main purpose of the four schools in Han Dynasty is to explain the works of The Book of Songs from the perspective of instrumentalism, and its purpose is to restrain and guide the real monarch with the help of the interpretation of ancient poems. In short, this is a realistic political strategy. The means are cultural and the purpose is political-this is the fundamental feature of China's discourse in the context of Confucian classics.

During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the theory of Confucian instrumental literature generally inherited the tradition of Han and Confucianism. However, due to the development of poetry itself, some new features have appeared in literary theory discourse. After the great prosperity of poetry creation in Wei, Jin and Six Dynasties, the problem faced by Confucian literary critics is no longer how to interpret existing poetry works, but how to create new ones. Therefore, the Confucianists in Sui and Tang Dynasties were no longer satisfied with expressing their instrumental literary views by explaining ancient poems. They directly put forward the view that poetry should serve real politics. The so-called "articles are written for time, songs and poems are written for things" is a typical slogan of instrumental literary theory on this issue. This is a typical pragmatic or utilitarian literary theory. In the value coordinates at this time, making contributions is in the highest position. Therefore, "timely politics" naturally becomes the basic purpose of instrumental literary theory.

Things changed in the Song Dynasty. The Confucianists in this period no longer regarded making contributions as the highest ideal of life, so they were no longer satisfied with just giving poetry direct political functions. From the perspective of social status, the fundamental difference between Confucianism in Song Dynasty and Confucianism in Han and Tang Dynasties lies in: being fortunate to be the only cooperative and dependent object of the monarch; Heroes, consorts, eunuchs and clans in the Han and Tang dynasties were the most important objects of the monarchy, and the literati were often in a position of being suppressed and excluded. This social status of Song Confucians decided that they no longer regarded being an official and getting ahead as the highest ideal in life, but pursued higher goals. Generally speaking, sanctification is a universal life ideal of Song Confucianism. It can be seen that the instrumental literature theory advocated by Confucianism in Song Dynasty is different from that advocated by Confucianism in Han and Tang Dynasties. Its fundamental point is that Song Confucianism should not only serve social politics, but also serve the metaphysical "Tao". The literary theory of Confucianism in Song Dynasty can not be separated from the exposition of "Tao". This "Tao" can be said to be the utopian spirit of Song Confucianism rather than the discourse representation of the real social order. This view that "Tao" is the noumenon of "Wen" and "Wen" is the development of "Tao" was first put forward by Han Yu and others in the middle and late Tang Dynasty, which is the core proposition of the so-called "Ancient prose movement". However, this view was not carried forward in the Tang Dynasty, but a flash in the pan. It was only in the Song Dynasty that the social situation of the speaker changed and became a common literary view.

As a result, there are two tendencies in China's ancient Confucian instrumentalism literary theory: first, poetry is required to directly serve real politics and become a tool of "educational laws"; First, poetry is required to be subordinate to some transcendental spiritual value and become a tool to carry the Tao. There is a certain tension between the two: it is very different to serve real politics and a lofty ideal. It can be said that this difference is the difference between ideology and utopia. From the Song Dynasty to the late Qing Dynasty, the development of Confucian instrumental literature theory is the change of these two tendencies.

Aesthetic literary theory system based on Laozi, Zhuangzi and Buddhism.

Fundamentally speaking, both Laozi and Zhuangzi and Buddhism and Zen denied the existence value of poetry, but both ideological systems had an important impact on the development of ancient poetry. What is the reason? Undoubtedly, this can only show that both the study of Laozi and Zhuangzi, Buddhism and Buddhism have something in common with the value of poetry. In my opinion, this similarity is a transcendental spiritual character and a denial of the materialistic real world. In this regard, people call it aestheticism This is the application of the concept of "aesthetics" in Kant's sense, that is, there is no direct utilitarian purpose, but "no purpose". Of course, Laozi, Zhuangzi and Buddhism have many differences and theoretical clues. But its main purpose can be said to be to deny all the values pursued by the real world and raise people's minds to an ignorant, useless and harmless value vacuum. The so-called "getting rid of the lock of fame and fortune" means whether to abandon the values that everyone believes in in real life. The "nothingness" of Laozi and Zhuangzi and the "emptiness" of Buddhism are basically the ethereal state of mind left after all prevailing values and ways of thinking have been purified, and can also be said to be an absolutely free state of mind after all internal and external compulsions have been eliminated. Laozi and Zhuangzi's "Tao" and "Tao" and Buddhism's "epiphany" probably entered this mental state. This mental state is naturally difficult to really understand with a normal mentality, but according to the words of Laozi, Zhuangzi and Buddhism, this mental state has some important similarities with the "aesthetic experience" that everyone can experience. Or it can be said that the realm of "reaching Tao" or "enlightenment" is a constant aesthetic experience; Aesthetic experience is a kind of instantaneous realm of "reaching Tao" or "enlightenment". Laozi and Zhuangzi pursue this constancy beyond the realm, thus denying the value of poetry. Aesthetic activities such as poetry are convenient forms to experience the realm of Laozi, Zhuangzi and Buddhism in reality, which can be used for reference. Just as people can't be heroes in reality, they are willing to realize this ideal in the virtual world by imagination. The study of Laozi and Zhuangzi is guided by nature, but most people in the real society can't really return to nature, so they satisfy people's spiritual needs with poems praising natural landscapes and rural life. The study of Buddhism and Zen takes "four emptiness" as the highest realm of life, but in real life, most people are pursuing "reality" and avoiding "emptiness", so the description of quiet, ethereal and quiet poems satisfies people's yearning for "emptiness". In short, it is difficult for us to know the actual realization of Laozi, Zhuangzi and Buddhism in real life, but its realization in the field of literary aesthetics is obvious to all. Therefore, the concept of aestheticism literary theory has become a discourse system comparable to Confucian instrumental literary theory in ancient China.

The aesthetic concept of this literary theory was only formed in Wei, Jin and Six Dynasties. The undertaker of mainstream culture in this period is no longer a scholar-bureaucrat in the traditional sense, but a variant-literati. A scholar is a scholar with actual aristocratic status. The biggest difference between them and traditional literati is that they can gain social, political and economic advantages without relying on personal struggle, all of which come from family ties. In addition, there is a serious conflict of interest between aristocratic families and monarchies in this era, so they naturally regard family interests far higher than national interests, so that it can be said that there is no country in the eyes of scholars. In this case, a unique cultural field in ancient China has been formed-a speech space with the main content of talking about philosophy, appreciating figures, appreciating poetry and calligraphy, which is called "speaking clearly". The formation of this cultural space is of great significance, because the spiritual fashion, values, aesthetic taste and poetic style of an era are all formed and fully developed in this cultural space. This cultural space was developed by literati, reflecting a noble spiritual tendency; On the other hand, it greatly strengthens and cultivates the aristocratic atmosphere of the mainstream culture, and excavates a transcendent, extremely delicate, lofty and profound spiritual realm in the traditional culture of China. It can be said that all kinds of ancient literature and art in China reached maturity in this period.

The poetic values produced in such an aristocratic cultural space are of course no longer poetic concepts in the context of Confucian classics in the Han Dynasty, and the slogan of "applying the world to practice" has also been replaced by "poetry is beautiful" and "poetry is beautiful with emotion". Aesthetic literary theory has become the mainstream of this era. The naturalistic social utopia and individual spiritual utopia of Taoism in the pre-Qin period were successfully transformed into the aesthetic style and artistic realm of poetry and calligraphy at this time.

We can choose several literary concepts at will to illustrate the basic characteristics of this aesthetic literary view: (1) nature. In the discourse system of literary theory in the Six Dynasties, the concept of nature refers to the seemingly natural generation of poetry and prose works without any artificial traces. The deep cultural connotation of this concept is the spirit of Laozi and Zhuangzi advocating natural inaction and denying all man-made cultural construction. Influenced by metaphysics, the literati in the Six Dynasties greatly appreciated the natural landscape, but they could not always live in it anyway. So on the one hand, they built gardens and moved landscape trees into their own courtyards, on the other hand, they created a large number of poems and paintings to express their yearning for nature. In this case, an aesthetic value based on nature is formed, and "nature" has become one of the core categories in literary theory discourse. (2) far. This concept officially became an important category of literary theory in the Six Dynasties. "Far" originally refers to the great distance in space, and later it is extended to the great distance in time. In Laozi, it is used to refer to a link in the circular operation of Tao, that is, the so-called "crossing is far, and returning is far". Scholars in the Six Dynasties used this concept to express the transcendence of spirit over reality, which is an important aesthetic realm of poetry. Such as "light distance", "Qingyuan", "sublime", "sublime", "far-reaching" and "far-reaching". Their cultural connotations all refer to the transcendence and deviation of images and artistic conception depicted in poems from real political life or mainstream values, as well as the transcendence and transcendence of spirit to matter, soul to body and inaction to action. (3) rhymes. This concept was originally about sound, because rhyme can make people remember deeply, and later it was extended to the aftertaste and aftertaste behind the superficial meaning of words. Scholars in the Six Dynasties used this concept when evaluating poetry, calligraphy and painting, including verve, verve and verve. Zhuangzi's learning has the so-called "Tao can be Tao, extraordinary Tao; A name can be named, but it is an unusual theory, which can be said in ordinary words and is not really meaningful. Laozi and Zhuangzi also have the saying that "the image is invisible" and "the big sound is sparse", which means that the real "image" and "sound" cannot be grasped with the usual senses. In this way, Laozi and Zhuangzi gave a concept with hermeneutic significance: we should pay attention to what we have not said. Literati in the Six Dynasties inherited the spirit of Laozi and Zhuangzi, advocated the connotation and style of people and things, emphasized "vivid" and "vivid" in the appreciation of calligraphy and painting, and paid attention to "taste" and "unspeakable" in the evaluation of poetry and prose. In a word, it advocates implication and opposes simplicity and straightforwardness, which is also the aesthetic expression of Zhuangzi's learning.

After the publicity of the Six Dynasties, since the Sui and Tang Dynasties, aestheticism has become a literary theory discourse system that can compete with Confucian instrumentalism. Aestheticism represented by Wang Changling's History of Poetry, History of Poetry and Si Kongtu's Poetry is in parallel with Bai Yuan's New Yuefu Movement and Liu Han's instrumental literary theory, which shows that this literary theory has been deeply rooted in people's hearts and gained the legitimacy of discourse. The same is true in Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties. This shows that Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism have found their way of existence in the field of ancient culture through long-term collision and running-in; The mutual penetration and trigger between them constitute a benign interaction between them. From a deeper perspective, the coexistence of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism shows that the ancient literati class has matured in their survival wisdom-they have established a new cultural personality that integrates birth with WTO, makes contributions with spiritual freedom, gives alms to the public and perfects their personality. In ancient China, there was an obvious isomorphic relationship among literary or poetic discourse, philosophical or academic discourse and literati's cultural personality, which can be said to be a trinity.

Discourse system of poetry criticism with text analysis as the core

In ancient China, literary theory discourse, which pays special attention to the text composition, language form and expression skills of poetry, also has a relatively independent tradition, which has not been paid enough attention to in the previous studies of ancient literary theory. The discourse system of this literary theory is not directly related to a certain ideology or utopian spirit, so it can be said to be "value-neutral", and it can also be said to be about "form" or "skill". The discussion on the relationship between words, images and meanings in Yi Zhuan can be regarded as the origin of this kind of literary theory discourse. In the Six Dynasties, this poetic criticism discourse system was formally formed and flourished. From Sui and Tang Dynasties to Qing Dynasty, a rich discourse system of literary theory was formed. In short, this literary theory discourse mainly includes the following aspects:

The first is stylistic theory. China's ancient style consciousness matured late, and the classification criteria of Liu Xin's Seven Views and Ban Gu's Records of Han Shu Literature and Art can only be regarded as the embryonic state of style consciousness. It was not until the Six Dynasties that the sense of style became more mature. Cao Pi has the distinction of "four subjects and eight styles", which distinguishes "poetry and fu" from practical styles such as playing, discussing, writing and discussing for the first time from the stylistic point of view; Lu Ji's "Wen Fu" has the saying that "the style is different, but the quantity is the same", which is about the complexity and diversity of poetic style; In Liu Xie's "Wen Xin Diao Long", he further discussed the evolution and characteristics of style with his special article "From Ming Poetry to Secretary", involving more than 30 styles. In addition, the more subtle style differences contained in these styles are also explained in detail. Therefore, Wen Xin Diao Long can be said to be a sign of the maturity of China's ancient literary concept. Since then, the evolution of stylistic theory is basically inseparable from the scope given by Liu Xie. Of course, according to the definition and classification standard of modern literature, Liu Xie still has the problem of distinguishing literature from non-literature. Because from an aesthetic point of view, there is almost no ancient style that does not pay attention to aesthetics. Even if it is a letter, it should be written with emotion and text. For them, nothing is literature; In contrast, the aesthetic scope of modern people has narrowed. In addition, the "discrimination between words and meanings" and "discrimination between writing and writing" in the Six Dynasties are all manifestations of mature stylistic awareness.

The second is creative skills and techniques. During the pre-Qin and even the Han dynasties, scholars generally believed that "a sage must have a word" and "sincere in his heart, the article is written on bamboo and silk", and paid little attention to the writing skills of poetry and prose. Also in the Six Dynasties, because spiritual life became the primary concern of literati, an independent and meticulous evaluation system was formed in all categories of spiritual life, and various "techniques" received unprecedented attention. According to the characteristics of various styles, Liu Xie put forward specific writing requirements, which have already involved writing skills. Shen Yue and others further put forward the theory of "four tones and eight diseases" and put forward a series of principles of poetry writing techniques from the perspective of temperament. During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, poets wrote along the creative habits initiated by the Six Dynasties, which developed and enriched the creative techniques and techniques in theory and practice. In the Song Dynasty, poets began to pay attention to the so-called "poetic method" and "syntax". As a new literary genre "Poetry Talk", the discussion on poetry writing skills and rhetoric has made great progress in the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties. The words involved in this aspect far exceed instrumentalism and aestheticism.

The third is the viewpoint about the origin and development of poetry. This is also an important part of the literary theory discourse of this school. Although Zhong Rong's analysis of the origin of poets in Wei, Jin and Six Dynasties is far-fetched, it should be an important contribution to pay attention to the inheritance of poetry creation. Poetry criticism after Tang and Song Dynasties takes combing the inheritance relationship between poets and predecessors as an important content. For example, the Sect Map of Jiangxi Poetry Society in Lu Song's edition combs the origin and relationship of Jiangxi poetry schools; The poet Xu combed the development and evolution from the Book of Songs to the poetry of the Song Dynasty from the perspectives of system, rhythm and style. This analysis of the origin of various formal factors does not belong to the literary theory discourse system of instrumentalism or aestheticism, but an objective argument, so it should belong to the poetry criticism system.

The Modern Fate of Traditional Literary Theory

Since modern times, China's traditional literary theory has been in a dilemma. With the expression of modern Chinese replacing the expression of ancient Chinese, traditional literary theory seems to lose its explanatory power in the face of literary creation in the context of modern Chinese. However, traditional literary theory is the mainstream discourse that has lasted for thousands of years. In fact, they form the basis of the formation of modern literary theory discourse and enter the modern literary theory discourse system in a brand-new way. If the formation process of China's modern literary theory is also the process of China's modern intellectuals accepting western literary theory discourse, then the ancient literary theory discourse naturally constitutes the "pre-understanding" or "pre-structure" of this acceptance process, which has an important impact on the choice, acceptance mode and acceptance effect of the recipients.

Since modern times, the traditional instrumentalism literary theory discourse has been very popular. Whether it is "enlightenment", "national salvation" or the ideological construction of socialist countries, literature with great social effects needs to be used as a tool to influence and transform society. Therefore, modern literary theory has established a very close relationship with traditional instrumental literary theory-the latter has become one of the most powerful discourse resources of the former, while the former has become a logical modern development of the latter. From the unprecedented exposition of the social function of literature by the reformists in the late Qing Dynasty to the "Art for Life" advocated by liberals, the "Literary Revolution Theory" advocated by left-wing writers, and the introduction of a series of literary policies in the 1950s and 1970s, no matter how different, there is a consistent spirit that literature should serve the society. It can be said that it is precisely because of the deep-rooted traditional instrumentalism literary theory that this modern literary theory discourse with the purpose of serving reality has gained an overwhelming dominant position. Since the1980s, due to the overuse of instrumentalism discourse resources from China tradition and the west, the mainstream position of literary criticism discourse has been occupied by various western literary criticism discourses such as aestheticism, formalism and psychoanalysis. The speech space that advocates the social function of literature has been squeezed, increasingly diluted and marginalized.

The traditional aestheticism literary theory has a subtle influence on the discourse of modern literary theory, and only those literary critics with aestheticism tendency have become attached to it in modern times. Although the aestheticism literary theory is based on the Buddhism of Laozi and Zhuangzi, it does not necessarily directly reflect the specific thoughts of Laozi and Zhuangzi, Buddhism and Buddhism. The latter only provides a ladder for the former to enter a purely spiritual and utilitarian meaning space. For most literati who can't follow the principles of quiet and natural life of Laozi and Zhuangzi or Buddhism, Buddhism, Buddhism and self-cultivation, it is also a kind of comfort and purification to take a break in the ethereal and detached aesthetic realm occasionally. Perhaps it is for this reason that almost everyone, whether Confucian or Taoist, loves this aesthetic realm. As a traditional cultural accumulation, aestheticism literary theory is still exposed from time to time among modern intellectuals, which is the cultural and psychological basis for them to accept the discourse of western aestheticism literary theory. As we know, the trend of western literary aestheticism developed under the influence of German classical aesthetics. Its core slogan is "Art for Art's sake". In the 1920s, many writers and literary critics in China (mainly members of the Creation Society) accepted this slogan and became an important literary proposition opposite to "Art for Life". On the surface, this proposition is undoubtedly "borrowed" from the discourse of western aestheticism, but if we look closely, we can easily find that their "beauty" is largely something of China's traditional aestheticism. For example, Zhou Zuoren, Lin Yutang, Zong Baihua, Zhu Guangqian and others all have such literary views. Let's take a look at those creative achievements under the slogan of "art for art's sake", such as essays and lyric poems, which also show the artistic realm with the distinct imprint of essays in Ming and Qing Dynasties. This is enough to show that China's traditional aestheticism literary theory really occupies a decisive position in modern aestheticism.

Traditional poetry criticism can be said to be China's text-centered literary theory, which only pays attention to the composition of literary texts. This literary tradition constitutes the cultural and psychological basis for China's modern literary theory to accept the western text-centered literary theory represented by "new criticism" and "image criticism". For example, Empson, the representative of the "New Criticism" in Britain and America, came to China to teach twice in 1930s and 1940s. His poetic criticism method had a great influence on China's poetic creation and criticism at that time. China people can understand Yan's famous theory of "seven meanings" because they accepted this view from the inherent "implication" of China's traditional literary theory. In 1980s, Russian formalism criticism, British and American "new criticism" and French structuralism criticism set off an upsurge of literary criticism in China, which led people's eyes from social history to the text itself. Of course, this is mainly determined by the cultural and historical context at that time, but China's traditional literary criticism attaches importance to text analysis and has accumulated a lot of experience, which is of course a factor that cannot be ignored.