文学有“进步”吗

Is There“Progress”in Literature?

文学艺术自产生以来,数千年的历史轨迹究竟经历着怎样的变化过程:是"进步"呢,抑或不能用"进步"概念指称之?是一代比一代差("今不如昔")呢,还是一代比一代好("今胜于昔")?西方学者对此争议不断,持线性史观的人,认为文学有"进步",这是自古希腊起直到19世纪占主导地位的理论思维;19世纪之后,现代艺术的产生及相应的现代美学理论的出现,对能否以"进步"为标准指称文学艺术的运行轨迹,提出了尖锐的理论挑战,他们认为文学是"情感的表现",无论古今,只要是成功的文学艺术作品,其表现情感同样动人,古今都一样,无所谓进步。中国的情况有些特殊,古代文论历史中,许多权威人士那里确立了"唯古是从""唯古是尊"的思想,古文、古诗最优秀,而越往后就越走下坡路,逐代衰退,总之,今不如昔。但也有相反的观点:明代中期的思想家、文论家李贽,主张"与世推移、其道必尔""如岁时行、昼夜更迭"的历史发展观,坚决反对"复古""退步"说,提出诗文是可以和应该今胜于昔的。我认为,从"大历史"的观点看,文学总是有进步的。"表现"说否定"进步",从大历史看来,不过如地球人夜间看北斗,只是看不出宏观运动以及在宏观运动中的"进步"而已。

Whether the present literature and art is better than that in the past or not,western scholars are in dispute over continuously. The persons with the linear historical views before the 19 th century thought that there was progress in literature. After the century,the modern aesthetic theory believed that the present was the same as the past and there was no progress at all.In China,many authorities in the history of ancient literary theory held that the past is superior to the present. Li Zhi,a thinker and literary theorist in Mid Ming Dynasty,had opposite views that poetry today can and should be better than yesterday. From a perspective of ＂big history＂,I am sure that literature always has progress.