“文辞”、“文学”与“文章”的由来

On the Origin of "Diction","Literature" and "Essay"

文的原义与文学观念的发生颇有关联。殷商时,文已非纯粹的象形符号,乃寓涵某种政治与宗教涵义;至西周,德意识的介入使文成为一切德目的归宗与本体。由此,文学观念之诸概念,如由行人辞令演化的文辞,由文与学偏义性联合的文学,由早先指称音乐的"文章"变而指称篇什的文章,均受文德观之影响而包含礼义的内涵。因知,礼义德性的人文精神是文学观念先天的性格。

The character ＂wen＂ originally implies to some extent the generation of literary concept;it signifies a certain political and religious concept instead of pure pictographic signs in the Shang Dynasty and in the Western Zhou Dynasty involvement of moral awareness makes it a essential and ontological term of virtue;therefore,several more terms including ＂wen ci（diction）＂,＂wen xue（literature）＂ and ＂wen zhang（essay）＂ all imply much connotation of rite and righteousness generated on the basis of the concept of virtue.Consequently,the original quality of literary concept consists of the major aspects including rite,righteousness,virtue and character.