Chen Te reads "Wenxin Carved Dragon Lecture" - Liu Xun's "Facade Language" and "True Heart"

Chen Te, Department of Chinese, Fudan University

"Wenxin Carved Dragon Lecture", by Gong Pengcheng, Guangxi Normal University Press, published in January 2021, 500 pages, 98.00 yuan

Mr. Gong Pengcheng is one of the few people in the world, and his reading knowledge, the abundance of his writings and the high self-esteem are no different from those of him. Mr. Gong once criticized Mr. Qian Zhongshu, who is known for his drowning knowledge, for "often appearing to be 'improper'" in his theory, and implicitly boasted that he was knowledgeable and deserved. Among the many fields that Gong has dabbled in, the history of Chinese literary criticism is undoubtedly the field in which he has worked hardest and the most. As early as the 1980s, he published relevant papers, so Mr. Gong, who has studied "Wenxin Carved Dragon" for more than 30 years, published "Wenxin Carved Dragon Lecture" in 2020 (the Taiwan version is called "Wenxin Carved Dragon Lecture"),published by The Taiwan Student Bookstore, and the simplified version introduced by Guangxi Normal University Press, hereinafter referred to as "Lecture"),will attract the attention of researchers in related fields.

The book "Lectures" was born out of the author's graduate class at Peking University from 2010 to 2011, and the author recalled the class as follows: "The audience is not all Peking University, they come from all directions, listen to my rambling talk, or think it is strange. Because I only had a blank piece of paper on my desk, with a few outlines written on it. (p. 2) From a limited "white paper" and "outline" to a nearly five-hundred-page monograph, the author's "talk" is behind the accumulation of many years.

"Wenxin Carved Dragon" is a major town of modern scholarship, and the name of "Dragon Science" shows the extensive research of this book. Originally used for classroom lectures, the "Lecture Notes" naturally cannot but involve relevant background and common sense, and also review the prior research when necessary. However, the book "Lecture Notes" as a whole is still going down the river, and the author uses his overall grasp of Liu Xunqi, the academic culture of the Six Dynasties and the book "Wenxin Carved Dragon" to explain the "Wenxin Carved Dragon", and for the first study, it mainly takes the famous master cheng theory that the author believes is wrong to correct it.

Gong's overall grasp is indeed extraordinary. Therefore, his lectures are also very essential.

For Liu Xunqi, because the historical data is too limited, his life can only be thick and blurred. Although it is difficult to make progress in the examination of facts, there has always been a debate about Liu Xun's life, such as whether he belongs to the Scholar Clan or the Shu Clan, which was once a hot topic in the study of "Dragon Studies" in the mainland. As for the relationship between Liu Xun and Xiao Tong (or the imperial family) (which involves the relationship between the Wenxin Carved Dragon and the Anthology of Literature), there are also different views. Under the circumstance that the specific historical materials about Liu Xun have been repeatedly examined, how to properly describe and position his people depends on the proper grasp of the system, environment and crowd at that time. In fact, although the issue of Shishu was important at that time, in the face of the specific trajectory of each person who has left a name in history, clarifying Shishu does not explain everything. Instead of dwelling on the origin of the scholar, it is better to observe the literati with a number of representative figures as a frame of reference. For example, Xie Lingyun is undoubtedly the representative of the Gaomen clan, and his eunuch experience and life trajectory are enough to be refined into an "ideal type"; Tao Yuanming, Bao Zhao, and Liu Xun are at the other end. Comparing the similarities and differences between Liu Xun and Xie Ke, Tao Ling and others may help us understand Liu Xun's fate and mentality. However, because the researchers of "Wenxin Carved Dragon" often loved Liu Xun deeply, at a certain time, the emphasis on Liu Xun's birth in the Shu clan seemed to add glory to him; while other treatises always tended to speculate that Liu Xun was closely related to Xiao Tong, and then emphasized that "Wenxin Carved Dragon" was quite close to the "Anthology". For Liu Xun's birth and death years, the author does not make a clear judgment, but lists the existing different theories, and at the same time describes the major points of Liu Xun's life under the judgment of different birth and death years. As for the issue of shishu, the author mainly follows the old saying, appointing Liu Xun as a scholar from the aspect of lineage and relatives, but also emphasizes that he has fallen because of "orphans and widows", and can only rely on his own ability in the literature to obtain the help of monks. And Liu Xun was able to make friends with the Xiao Liang royal family, I am afraid that it was mainly based on the monastic community, among the literati at that time, Liu Xun was not the most important, and as far as the existing information is concerned, it is not clear that there was any interaction between Liu Xun and the literati group at that time. Under such a biographical description, we will even find that some scholars of previous generations emphasize that Liu Xun died later (such as the death year proposed by Yang Mingzhao and Li Yuegang, which is nearly twenty years later than that of Fan Wenlan and Xingshan Hongzhi), perhaps not based on the fact of literature examination, but based on the inference of liu xun's opportunity to participate in the compilation of the Anthology. This is still the case with the year of his death, let alone the interaction between Liu Xun and other scribes! Thus, the "Lecture Notes" gives play to reviewing the concepts and methods behind the examination of the life of the text, which is indeed worthy of the deep consideration of every reader who is accustomed to "knowing people and discussing the world".

As far as culture is concerned, the "Wei and Jin Southern and Northern Dynasties" is generally mentioned, and the academic ideas associated with it are first promoted "metaphysics" and "Buddhism". Metaphysics and Buddhism were indeed new trends of thought after the Han Dynasty, and they were also popular doctrines with great attraction during the Six Dynasties period. It is precisely because metaphysics and Buddhism are novel and popular, so many commentators are still more willing to emphasize metaphysics and Buddhism to give Liu Xun great nourishment in the face of the "Wenxin Carved Dragon" of the "Original Tao", "Zhengsheng" and "Zongjing". However, under the new trend and popularity, the background of the literati's learning, thought, and culture at that time was probably Confucianism. Therefore, starting from the Sui Shu Jing Zhi, the "Commentary" points out that during the Six Dynasties, "etiquette was the most prosperous, and Spring and Autumn studies were second", thus arguing that Confucianism was by no means unattended at that time. The author further summarizes: "Many people today think that metaphysics and Lao Zhuang prevailed in the Wei and Jin Southern and Northern Dynasties, but in fact, at that time, the most important ritual style and historical tradition were handed down. If we believe that new trends of thought such as metaphysics and Buddhism are the main resources of Liu Xun's thought, then the "Zhengsheng" and "Sutra" repeatedly stated in the Wenxin Carved Dragon are empty and high-pitched. But if we realize that the influence of the new trend of thought is limited, and that the main thing that readers read is traditional scripture history, then Liu Xunzhi's "Zongjing" is not insincere. What is even more splendid about the "Lectures" is that it connects Liu Xun's great exposition on the "Zongjing" up and down, and from the Han Dynasty onwards, it sorts out a vein, which the author calls "the tradition of literary exegesis." Liu Xun believes that classics are the best articles, so the composition needs to take the classics. Such a line of thought is not a groundbreaking theory, there is a similar expression in the Han Dynasty great Confucian Yangxiong, and it has been endless since then. Yang Xiong was the most important Confucian student of the Han Dynasty, and his status was once extremely high, but Song Ru no longer vigorously praised Yang Zi and did not include him in the genealogy of the saint's preaching, so his status declined. However, in Liu Xun's time, Yang Xiong still occupied a high position of brilliance. In this regard, Liu Xun's advocacy of the "Sutra" is not only out of sincerity, but also has its own origins.

When discussing the origins of Liu Xun's thought, Gong shi also gave us great inspiration in methodology. Thought is the most mysterious, invisible and untouchable, and can only be grasped by words and deeds. As for the influence of thought, it is even more close to catching the wind and catching shadows, and it is impossible to directly conclude that someone is influenced by a certain trend of thought just by virtue of the "similarity" in expression and form. For example, Liu Xun's "Zongjing" and Yang Xiongzhi's theory are indeed highly similar in expression. However, to argue that Liu Xun was influenced by Yang Xiong, it is necessary to examine whether Liu Xun mentioned Yang Xiong and Yang Xiong's influence at that time. Throughout the "Wenxin Carved Dragon", Liu Xun mentioned Yang Xiong many times, and all of them were positive commendations or quotations. On the basis of this fact, combined with Yang Xiong's lofty position in the Southern and Northern Dynasties of the Han, Wei, and Jin Dynasties, we can agree that Liu Xun was indeed in the "tradition of literary exegesis" represented by Yang Xiong. According to this standard, modern scholars either think that the structure of the Wenxin Carved Dragon is based on the Buddhist scriptures, or that Liu Xun's "compromise" is influenced by the Buddhist "Middle Way" doctrine, and they lack sufficient arguments. The "Commentaries" also refute many such expositions.

However, after all, medieval literature is limited, and the text left by Liu Xun to posterity is also a small part of all his writings, and if too much pursuit of "certainty", many issues cannot be discussed. The Lecture Notes also took note of this, and therefore, in addition to discussing the definite ideological context and refuting the unreliable origins, it also discussed "similarity" and "possibility" in a unique way. This is epitomized in the tenth lecture "Writing-Literature-Culture" and the comparison with the Taoist trend of thought. Any religion has its own scriptures, but different religions can reflect the characteristics of that religion in terms of the nature and origin of the classics. For example, the Buddhist scriptures were assembled by the later scholars after the Buddha's demise, so although the Buddhist scriptures are important, they are not among the "Three Jewels" (Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha). Taoism, on the other hand, believes that the scriptures are "the true texts of the Heavenly Book." More than that, Taoism has a great respect for writing, and Gong Pengcheng summarizes the Taoist "worship of words" as "establishing everything by wensheng" and "mastering everything with words". From this point of view, the "original Tao" of "Wenxin Carved Dragon" and the Taoist concept of "text-literature-culture" do have many similarities. But Gong shi made another change after this comparison: "However, I don't like to say 'influence' without a definite relationship." Therefore, the above is not to say that Liu Xun was influenced by the Taoist thought at that time to have a similar statement, but that there was actually a similar line of thought to Liu Xun at that time, which was enough to compare, contrast and invent. (p. 313) Such an attitude does have great methodological implications for the commentators engaged in the work of "catching the wind and catching the shadows."

The "Commentary" is quite similar to the "Wenxin Carved Dragon", the body is big and thoughtful, involving all aspects of the very right line, the above mentioned "knowing people on the world" and "catching the wind and catching shadows" two ends, but only for the largest one. This is inseparable from the author's comprehensive observation and in-depth understanding of the history of medieval thought and literary criticism. However, as an omniscient person, Gong's wide-ranging style of discourse will inevitably leave some regrets. Specifically, at both the macro and micro levels, the Commentaries are negotiable.

As mentioned above, one of the major contributions of the "Commentaries" is to emphasize that the "Zongjing" is not Liu Xun's facade, so it is often correct for some of the statements of modern scholars. However, Liu Xun's label of "zhengsheng" and "sutra" is true, but he never thinks that ordinary people or even himself can become saints and write classics. Therefore, the magic of "Wenxin Carved Dragon" is that: on the one hand, it marks the "Sutra" and advocates the study of the classics; on the other hand, it is determined that non-saints cannot write the classics, so the author must learn the spirit of the classics according to his own conditions and characteristics of the times, which is the meaning of "change". In this sense, the "Pivot of Literature" part, after emphasizing the "original way", "zhengsheng" and "zongjing", must be "correct and weft" and "discerning": weishu pretends to be a saint and disguises itself as a classic, so it needs to be corrected; while the Chu ci "zhizheng yiqi", on the one hand, is a teacher-training classic, on the other hand, it is expressed according to its own situation, "taking the purpose of the sutra and casting great words by itself", which is a model for non-classical articles. From this point of view, Liu Xun's "Sutra" is true, but it is also true if he does not seek to follow the trend. Only with this in mind can we fully understand Liu Xun's view of literary history. "Wenxin Carved Dragon" mostly discusses the development of literary history, but Liu Xun faces different contexts and has three sets of "discourses". The first is the most perfunctory façade, found in the "Chronology" section. Liu Xun has a major thesis in the "Chronological Order": "The change of literature is stained with the world, and the rise and fall of the world depends on the chronological order." Since the quality of the article is related to the rise and fall of the times, how can Liu Xun deny it when talking about Liu Xun's era ("Huang Qi") ? Therefore, the "Chronology" chapter talks about Liu Song and Southern Qi, which are good words, especially for "Huang Qi", only to praise, not to hear flaws. In fact, Liu Xun was dissatisfied with Liu Xun's literary style since the Song Dynasty. Dissatisfaction with the contemporary literary world is also a major driving force for him to create "Wenxin Carved Dragon". Therefore, at the end of the "Time Sequence", Liu Xun pretended to be modest and said: "Hongfeng Yicai, short pen dares to Chen? When you like it, please send Mingzhe. This is really a euphemism that the praise above is just a facade. Readers of all time, both ancient and modern, have no objection to this. The second is the retrogressive view repeatedly emphasized in the "Commentary", which holds: "Liu Xun's evaluation of literature is based on the study of the scriptures, and when Confucianism declines, literature is inferior." Therefore, the three generations are the best, followed by han, and after Wei and Jin, they are more and more unbearable. (p. 214) This is naturally good, but this is only half of Liu Xun's true words. It is precisely because in the concept of Liu Xun and the people at that time, the saints cannot be learned, and the classics cannot be achieved through the efforts of the day after tomorrow, so if the classics are taken as the standard, then the articles of later generations are not as good as the classics, and the history of literature can only be reversed; but if the clues of each genre are sorted out, the development trajectory of each genre is different. Taking the most prosperous poetic endowment of Liu Xun's era as an example, in the "Ming Poems", Liu Xun highly admired "ancient poetry" and Jian'an poetry. In his poetic history picture, although the "four words and orthodoxy" represented by the "Book of Poetry" cannot be surpassed, the "five-word flow" that really attracts authors and readers takes "ancient poetry" and Jian'an poetry as the peak, and the development of poetry history is not blindly retrogressive. As for fu shi, Liu Xun most respected the two Han Dynasties, followed by Wei and Jin, and it is not a simple "retrogression" that can be summarized. This is the third set of "discourses" of Liu Xun's view of literary history, that is, while acknowledging that non-classics are inferior to classics as a whole, there is a special combing and grasp of each genre. Therefore, as far as holism is concerned, the latter is not as good as before; each body speaks, each has its own trajectory.

Behind Liu Xun's three sets of "discourses" in the discourse on literary history is the concept of saints at that time, and saints are born (so the "Zhengsheng" chapter yun "wonderful and knowledgeable"), so learning saints is not to become saints, and learning classics is not to write classics. Along with this line of thinking, although the article is the highest in the classic, the composition does not have to be forced to become a classic, so the article also has its own garden. The Commentary does not have a clear understanding of this, and Gong even believes that "Liu himself imitated Confucius" (p. 180), which is inevitably overlooked.

If the above understanding of the "sages/scriptures" is still a family statement, the author and the reader may not agree. Then there are some other flaws in the "Commentary" that must be corrected when reprinting. Let's try to list them one by one in page number order.

On page 55, the Commentary on the Exodus of the Three Collections introduces the four parts of the Exodus Collection, and speaks of the third part, saying: "The third part is called the 'General Sutra Sequence', and it is a summary of all the scriptures and a preface. This is not true, the third part of the Exodus Sanzang Jishu is equivalent to a total collection, containing a preface and one hundred and twenty epilogues to the Chinese translation of buddhist scriptures, and no separate "synopsis" written.

On page 91, when discussing the style of the Southern Dynasty, the "Lecture Notes" quotes Xiao Gang's "Book of the King of Xiangdong" and gives full play to it: "'Delaying The Spring Day', turning over the "Guizang", describing spring, even from the "I Ching Guizang". "Guizang" is the legendary "Yi" before the Zhou Dynasty, and today's people talk about the "I Ching", which mostly refers to "Zhou Yi", so the "I Ching Guizang" here is easy to be ambiguous.

On page 104, the Commentary on the General Trend of Wei and Jin Scholarship by the Sui Shu Jing Shu Zhi discusses the Chu Ci and says: "The Han Zhi regards the Chu Ci as a representative of literature, so it is classified as a poetic endowment. The Sui Zhi may have valued the ideas and outlook on life it expressed, so it was included in the sub-section. "In the Sui Shu Jing Shu Zhi, the Chu Ci is still in the collection department.

On page 111, the "Lecture Notes" Yun: "Because "Lao Zhuang" is a xuan tan, it is even more an urgent thing. "Here" "Lao Zhuang" is regarded as "Lao Zhuang".

On page 148, the "Lecture Notes" Yun: "This innate human nature, the Wenxin Carved Dragon And the Original Tao, says that it is 'the human being, the virtue of heaven and earth, the intersection of yin and yang, the meeting of ghosts and gods, and the beauty of the five elements'. This passage is from the "Etiquette and Fortune" chapter. The words in quotation marks are not found in "Wenxin Carved Dragon", and what the author wants to quote should be "for the show of the five elements, the heart of heaven and earth".

On page 150, the "Lecture Notes" talks about the "Five Cases of Spring and Autumn" Cloud: "According to Du Xian's "Spring and Autumn Left Transmission Collection" of the Jin Dynasty, it can be seen that the Spring and Autumn Chronicle should be 'small and obvious, ambitious and obscure, elegant and chapter-like, and not polluted'. The "Commentary" also extends the "five cases" one by one in the following, but the quotations are only four, and the example of "punishing evil and persuading good" is missing.

On page 155, the Commentaries deal with the Zongjing: "The second paragraph talks about how good the I Ching, The Book of Shang, the Spring and Autumn Period, the Historical Biography, and the Book of Rites are. What is the "historical legend" here? In fact, in the second part of the Zongjing, the sutras talk about the greatness of the five classics of Yi, Shu, Poetry, Li, and Spring and Autumn.

On page 167, the Lecture Notes introduces how Liu Xun "split the paper" cloud: "Then how to discuss it? The origin begins at the end of the table, the selected text is determined, and the reason is unified. Although there are no quotation marks, the last three sentences are Liu Xun's original text, and "yuan" is regarded as "original".

On page 203, the Commentary discusses the meaning of "wen": "And later generations have obviously continued to use this meaning, just as the character evaluation system of later generations has always followed the provisions of the "History of history and tanfa" (the original "Yi zhou shu tan fa interpretation"). "Where did the "Chronicle of History" come from the "Tanfa"?

Page 315, Lecture Notes: "On December 11-13, 1978, I published in a Taiwanese newspaper the stylistic theory of "Wenxin Carved Dragon." "1978" is a mistake of "1987".

p. 337, Lecture Notes: "But if the classics regard it as being closed, being thoughtful and perfect, it is bad again." "Closed" is suspected as "closed.".

On page 385, the Commentary cites the Anthology of Selected Writings as "although the transmission is concise, but the matter is different; the collection of the present is not taken", and the word "chapter" is omitted before the "chapter".

On page 452, the Commentary on the "Sound Training" Cloud: "But the Han Chinese also have another book in addition to the Shuowen that is also very important: Liu Xi's Interpretation of the Name." "Interpretation of Names" explains the text, mainly using sound training, that is, to find the sound relationship between words and words, and use sound to explain. For example, 'heaven', what is heaven, upside down, 'heaven' and 'upside down', the sound is the same, so use 'upside down' to explain 'heaven', upside down is the top, the top is the sky, this is the sound training. However, interpreting "heaven" with "upside down" is the saying of the Shuowen, and the Interpretation of the Name interprets "heaven" as "xian" ("Heaven, Yusi Yanji said it with his tongue.) Heaven, manifestation, on the high manifestation also. ......”）。 This passage of "Lectures" makes it easy for readers to misunderstand.

Some of the above mistakes are obvious mistakes of the hand people, and some are related to lectures. It can be assumed that the author casually recites it when he is lecturing, so it is inevitable that there will be mistakes. In this sense, these errors reflect the breadth of the author's belly. Of course, when it is republished, the above errors will be revised, and the "Commentary" will also be more benign.

Editor-in-Charge: Ding Xiongfei

Proofreader: Ding Xiao