原道与神思——读《文心雕龙》札记

Spontaneity and Shen:Notes on the Wenxin Diaolong

《文心雕龙》要旨有二:一曰:文原于自然之道,所谓"自然",无主使,无宰制,自然而然之谓也。二曰:文章之成,治心为先,而治心必根于养神(或曰养气,或曰爱精)。凡自然界、人文界一切,皆为道所包,道之所在,不论内容,不论体裁,皆文之所载。彦和所谓"文心"者,乃"为文之用心"。故林公铎(损)谓,论文心即论人心也。而人心则如庄子所云,"排下而进上,上下囚杀",难以控驭,故万事以治心为先。心则有其本,"神"是也,故"驭文之首术"在养神。养神之要则在"清和其心,调畅其气",亦即爱精自保,守母以存子,此《神思》、《养气》篇之所以作也。

Two main points of the Wenxin Diaolong come into our notice:first,cosmological spontaneity,that is the Dao,that means that there is neither driving nor dominating force for the working of the universe,and second,the precondition of composing a piece of good literary work is the discipling of the mind-heart(xin),based on the cultivation of shen or qi.Everything in the universe is embraced in the Dao;hence,literary work comprises anything whether of the natural or the human world.As pointed out in the last chapter of the wenxin Diaolong,wenxin(literary mind) means "weiwen zhi yongxin"(how to use the mind to compose a piece of literary work).However,it is hard,as indicated by Zhuangzi,to control the mind-heart,and therefore the cultivation of shen("the heart within the heart") is of significant importance.