袁枚的古文文体观念

Yuan Mei’s Style Concept of Ancient Chinese Prose

袁枚对古文的文体持严肃的态度,辨体是他古文理论的基础。古文在中国古代是一个含混的概念,古文与其他学科、文体之间的界线一直没有得到厘清,袁枚从狭义的“古”和“文”两个方面界定了古文的文体特征,划清了古文与经学、时文、尺牍等文体的关系,圈定了古文的领地。袁枚推崇秦汉古文,认为秦汉古文是古文之正宗,他要求古文在文风上必须古雅,认为后世各种因素浸杂到古文之中就会破坏其文风。在行文上,袁枚提出了“严洁”论,“严”是指古文语体的纯洁性,“洁”是指古文写作在行文上必须根据题材繁简得当、富于气势,反对没有裁剪、缺乏顿挫、叙述杂碎的写法。“严洁”论涵盖了古文的语体和表述方式,并不指向思想内涵,有浓厚的唯美主义倾向。

Yuan Mei takes a serious attitude towards the style of ancient Chinese prose,and distinguishing style is the basis of his theory of ancient Chinese prose.Ancient Chinese prose is a vague concept in ancient China.The boundary between ancient Chinese prose and other disciplines and styles has not been clarified.Yuan Mei defines the stylistic characteristics of ancient Chinese prose from the narrow sense of"classic elegance"and"literary grace",clarifies the relationship between ancient Chinese prose and Confucian classics,contemporary Chinese,correspondence and so on,and delineates the domain of ancient Chinese prose.Yuan Mei highly praises the ancient prose of the Qin and Han dynasties,believing that the ancient prose of the Qin and Han dynasties is the authentic one of the ancient prose.He demands that the ancient prose should be classical and elegant in style.He believes that various factors of later generations would destroy the style of the ancient prose.In terms of writing,Yuan Mei puts forward the theory of"rigorous and pithy style",in which"rigorous style"refers to the purity of the style of ancient Chinese writing.The"pithy style"means that the writing of ancient Chinese writing must be appropriate,concise and full of vigour based on the theme.He opposes the writing method without cutting,pause and transition in rhythm,and he is against miscellaneous narrative either.His theory of"rigorous and pithy style"covers the style and way of expression of ancient Chinese prose,and has a strong tendency of aestheticism without pointing to the ideological connotation.