中国古代小说批评中的“冷热”术语考释

“Cold and Hot” as Terminologies in Ancient Chinese Novel Criticism

冷与热本为描述温度与人体感觉的词汇,后被引入文论,且不断扩大应用领域,终于在小说审美评点中显示出强大的功能。这一术语或被用以传达叙事场面之冷热,或被用以指示叙事热点转换,或被用以传达世态炎凉,或被用以表明作者立场,当然也有多种功能的兼用。相对而言,在小说审美评说中,“冷”的应用偏高,由此可看出中国小说文本固有的审美偏向,也显示出其背后蕴含着的“道生万物”等哲理意蕴,以及作者偏重冷峻的创作态度选择。

Cold and hot, originally used to describe temperature and human sense, have been introduced into literary theory and have been expanding their application fields. Finally, they have shown strong functions in the aesthetic criticism of novels. They are used to convey the cold and hot narrative scene, indicate the narrative hot spot conversion, convey the cool world, show the author’s position, and or to realize the multiple functions all above. Relatively speaking, in the aesthetic evaluation of novels, “cold” is more frequently used. From this, it can be seen the inherent aesthetic bias of Chinese novel texts. It also shows the philosophical implications such as “Tao gives birth to all things” and the author’s preference for cold creative attitude.