王国维的“古雅说”与中西诗学传统

Wang Guowei's Doctrine of Classical Elegance and Traditions of Chinese and Western Poetics

王国维的"古雅说"与中西诗学传统的关系如同一枚铜板具有不可分割的两面,其中一面是康德、叔本华为代表的西方天才理论,另一面是以南宋典雅词派为代表的中国古代词学中尚雅的审美传统,离开了其中任何一面,都不会有"古雅说"的提出。从理论渊源上看,王国维的"古雅说"植根于以康德美学为代表的西方天才理论,但王国维建构"古雅说"的目的,是企图对中国古代词学的雅化传统进行颠覆和重估,因此尽管中西两种诗学都参与了"古雅说"的建构,但前者是以"理论",后者是以"材料"的身份介入其中,二者并不是一种平等参与的对话关系。正是由于王国维对西方天才理论的所谓"普遍真理性"缺乏必要的反省,导致他在跨文化阐释中的失误。

This paper reviews the relationship between Wang Guowei's doctrine of classical elegance and the traditions of Chinese and western poetics. In view of its theoretical source, Wang Guowei's doctrine of classical elegance is deeply rooted in Kantian aesthetics, which represents the theory of western genius. However, the aim of Wang's construction of this theory is to overthrow and re-estimate the elegance tradition of Chinese ancient poetics. Consequently, though both Chinese and western poetics are involved in the construction of Wang's theory, the former centers on theory, while the latter on substance. In other words, they are not of an equal relation. It is Wang's lack of reflection on what is called 'universal truth' of the theory of western genius that leads to some misinterpretations in multi-cultural context.