“被发明的传统”——《人间词话》是如何成为国学经典的

The Invention of Tradition: How Ren Jian Ci Hua Became the Canonic Chinese Classics?

晚清词坛对《人间词话》保持了集体沉默,辛亥革命前后王国维诗学几乎无声无息。五四新文化运动后,胡适等人的推阐发扬才使之声誉日隆。二十世纪三四十年代,唐圭璋等人纷纷撰文批评王国维的观点,但这种来自中国诗学传统的狙击,并未阻挡这部著作影响的扩大。二十世纪五六十年代,一批接受苏式文艺理论训练的年轻学者撰写了大量有关研究论著,推动了其经典化进程。这批学者集中阐发了《人间词话》与苏式文艺理论的一致性,给予"境界说"很高的评价,认为它是中国古典文艺理论中最接近于现代文艺理论的概念。而实际情形是,王国维把德国古典美学的内容翻译为中国古代文论话语,这些中国学者又把它再度翻译成接近现代文艺理论的内容,通过这种循环创造了一种适合现代需要的古代诗学传统。二十世纪八九十年代,《人间词话》又成了中国古代诗学的总结性代表作。然而,"中国古代意境说"的传统仍然是在西方理论帮助下建构起来的。事实上,"意境说"正是霍布斯鲍姆所说的"被发明的传统",当我们把王国维等人依据德国古典美学传统建构的"意境说"视为中国古代诗学的核心范畴和审美理想时,同时也就埋葬了自己民族的诗学传统与审美理想。

Ren Jian Ci Hua by Wang Guowei did not arouse any significant interest from the society of Ci-poetry in the late Qing Dynasty,nor did his theory of poetics bring forth any cultural influence around the period of Xinhai Revolution in 1911. Only after the May Fourth New Culture Movement did the book begin to gain a rising reputation through the praises from Hu Shi and others. In 1930's- 1940's,such scholars as Tang Guizhang wrote to critizise Wang's theory of poetics. In 1950's- 1960's,the scholars,trained in Soviet Union literary tradition,made a great number of researches on Wang's poetics,and this helped the book be canonized. Their critical interest is mainly in the correspondence between Ren Jian Ci Hua and the literary theories in Soviet Union tradition. They spoke highly of Wang's theory on artistic conception,and regard it as the closest practice to western modern literary theories in ancient Chinese literary theories. Ren Jian Ci Hua became a magnum opus of ancient Chinese poetics through scholars' further efforts in 1980's- 1990's,and the theory on artistic conception in ancient China put forward by Wang has been constantly constructed in the framework of western theories. Indeed,Wang's theory on artistic conception is one of the instances of what Eric Hobsbawm defines as the invention of tradition. Once we take the theory of artistic conception,which was invented by Wang with his knowledge of classic German aesthetics as the central category and aesthetic ideal of ancient Chinese poetics,we are indeed digging a tomb up for the poetic tradition and aesthetic ideal of our nation.