试论曾国藩对桐城派之传承与对接

Comment on Zeng Guofan's Inheriting and Docking of Tong-cheng Group

曾国藩推崇桐城诸老,文学理论师法桐城传统。他继承戴名世“率其自然”的主张,崇尚自然之文。韩愈是桐城派最为推崇的作家,其雄奇文风被曾氏所张扬。曾国藩作品洋溢豪迈刚健之气,气吞山河之势。他沿袭道统与文统相结合的规则,添加文学经世主张,创建了桐城派一个变种湘乡文派,使桐城古文再度延伸达半个世纪之久。

Zeng Guofan respected the elder generations of the Tong - cheng Group so much that his literary theory followed its tradition. He inherited Dai Mingshi＇ s “natural view” and praised highly their natural essays. Han Yu, one member of the Tong - cheng Group, was respected the most, whose essays once won high praise from Zeng, because of the heroic atmosphere embodied in them. Zeng followed the style of connecting Confucian orthodoxy with the writing orthodoxy, and held the view that literature should be with the state affairs. He created the Xiang - xiang Group - a modified branch of Tong - cheng Group, which made the Tong - cheng essays extend haft a century.