审美暗示:中国古代的开放性文论

Aesthetic Suggestiveness:The Theory of Literary Openness in Ancient China

审美暗示是中国古代文论一个重要的命题,从远古时代起,中国思想家就已经开始着手探讨审美暗示与文艺创作的关系,并留下了许多时至今日仍然广为传诵的艺术思想,如"言外之意"、"弦外之音"、"象外之象"、"味外之旨"和"不尽之意"等。在后现代理论的语境下,中国传统的审美暗示关心的其实是一种"开放式创作",虽然其在认识论和方法论方面深深烙下了中国美学思想直观和印象式的鲜明特征,但与后结构主义的文学开放理论有着异曲同工之妙。本文并不企图系统研究中国传统的审美暗示在古代文艺领域的表现,而是要在后现代开放性理论的框架下探讨审美暗示的一些重要观点及其现代意义,并对中国古典文论中的一些核心观念进行现代转化,为建立中国的开放文论做一次尝试。

Aesthetic suggestiveness is a key subject in traditional Chinese literary thought. As early as high antiquity, Chinese thinkers began to explore the relationship between suggestiveness and literary creation and left behind numerous fascinating insights that have been widely circulated up to today, including ＂implications beyond expressed meaning＂, ＂reverberations beyond the string＂, ＂images beyond the image＂, ＂tastes beyond the flavor＂ and ＂endless significations＂. In the context of postmodern theory, aesthetic suggestiveness is concerned with ＂creative openness＂. Although it displays intuitiveness and impressionisticness characteristic of the epistemology and methodology in traditional Chinese literary thought, it shares a similar rationale with the post-structuralist theory of literary openness. By examining some most important ideas and notions of suggestiveness in the conceptual framework of postmodern literary theory, this article aims to explore their modern relevance, transform some of the core ideas in terms of modern theories, and make a preliminary attempt to establish a Chinese theory of literary openness.