追寻“物自性”:叶维廉与道家现代主义的形成

Pursuing “Thingness”:Wai-lim Yip and and Daoist Modernism

美国现代诗歌受到中国文化的影响已是一个广为人知的事实,但是道家思想在里边起到了什么作用,是一个人们并不太清楚的问题。叶维廉在研究美国现代派诗歌时,采用了非常明晰的道家研究视角。他认为道家美学的"无言独化"观点,即物之原初状态通过诗人不加任何主观修饰的语言表达出来,被美国现代派诗歌吸纳和发扬光大。道家的"物自性"理念,即肯定物之为物的自性,也成为了美国现代派诗歌的重要特征。本文探讨"道家现代主义"诗学所产生的影响,以及它所带来的质疑和争论。梳理这些概念的同时,也希望对它的出现、发展和争论的过程进行追溯,对其得与失、贡献与偏颇进行述评,以期为学术界提供一个比较完整的学术史面貌,为后人进一步的研究提供一个基础。

It is now well-known that American modernist poetry is influenced by Chinese cuhure, but it is still unclear what role is played by Daoist thoughts therein. While studying American modernist poems, Wai-lim Yip adopts a very clear Daoist perspective, believing that American modernist poetry absorbs and carries forward the Daoist aesthetics of ＂empty language,＂ ie, the poets represent the objects as they are in their original condition without any distortion from linguistic descriptions. Thus the Daoist idea of ＂the thingness of things,＂ ie, affirmation of the objects in their original freshness and thingness, has become an important feature of American modernist poetry. This essay aims to discuss the influence of Daoist modernism as well as the doubts and debates it has brought forward. While developing insights of these concepts, the essay intends to trace back to the origin, development and dispute about Daoist modernism, assess its gains and losses, contribution and lapse, in order to provide a comparatively thorough academic history and lay a foundation for further research in this area.