诚斋文气说的审美意蕴

The Aesthetic Connotation of YANG Wan-li's Wenqi or Literary Spirit Theory

学术界很少论及杨万里的文气说。杨万里在《诚斋策问》中集中阐发了他的文气理论主张,而《诚斋策问》是杨万里早期的作品,未收入《诚斋集》,是以未引起学术界的重视。当然,这种文气理论也贯穿在杨万里后来一生的文学创作实践和理论建构中。杨万里的文气说是在其哲学气本论的基础上构建起来的一个重要的美学范畴,赋予了文气说新的审美要素和审美情趣,提升了“气象”在中国诗歌美学体系中的地位,并且合理地将文气、文体和文法有机统一起来。杨万里的活法理论和诗味说都是由文气说发展而来的。其文气说对中国古代文气理论的发展有着其独特的贡献。

YANG Wan-li, one of the most famous poets in Song Dynasty, had a posthumous collection of poems called Cheng Zhai Collection. The present author notices that YANG＇s theory of wenqi, or the spiritual vein or literary spirit, of literary articles has attracted little attention to the academic field. In fact, he chiefly accounted for his claim of wenqi theory in Cheng Zhai Ce Wen, an early work of his which was not collected in Cheng Zhai Collection, and hence failed to draw wide attention. But this theory is embodied in all his later literary practices and theoretical constructions. The wenqi theory, or literary spirit theory, was set up as an important aesthetic category based on his philosophical qi or spiritual noumenon, hence bestowed the classical Chinese literary theory with new aesthetic elements and tastes. It not only promoted the status of qi （spirit） and xiang （image） in the aesthetic system of the classical Chinese poetry, but also united organically literary spirit, literary style and literary layout （close to the present ＂grammar＂）. Hence YANG＇s literary spirit theory made a unique contribution to the ancient Chinese literary aesthetic theory.