吴澄文气论的理论创新

The innovation of Wu Cheng's"Wei-Qi"theory

元代理学大儒吴澄颇重游艺之事,并显露出圣贤多能之气象。他习惯于以理学思辨为根据阐发文学艺术之见解,因此其文艺思想具有内在的哲学逻辑。他不仅推崇以气论文,而且由全体贯通的天地之气分解出时代气运、地方土气和作者才气等多重序列,并最终归结到气质之性上来,整个过程浑然邃密。不过,吴澄并不是“气本论”主张者,他坚持“理在气中”的学术立场和“理主气辅”的文艺观念,认为气是构成万物的最初质素,理才是气得以如此的依据。如此,则气运和土风通过作者的才性气质发挥作用,作者也可通过积学明理的变化气质之功突破气运和土风的笼罩,此即时地因素影响文艺的机制与局限。基于对理气关系这一根本问题的认知,吴澄在文艺批评实践中构建了内涵丰富而体系圆融的文气思想,不仅将中国古代文气命题推进到新的境界,也对当下的文学地理学构建具有重要借鉴意义。

Wu Cheng,a Neo-Confucianism scholar from the Yuan Dynasty,quite emphasized travel and arts with an air of a saint and multi-talent.He was used to expounding views on literature and art with Neo-Confucianism,so his literary and artistic thoughts were endowed with innate philosophy and logic.He not only advocated using Qi("vital energy")to interpret literary works,but also decomposed a series of multi-layers,including the spirit of the era,local customs and the author’s talent,the whole process of which was integrated and profound.However,Wu Cheng was not the advocate of the theory that Qi is the primordial substance of the world.Instead,he insisted on the academic stand that Li(principle)is immanent in Qi,believing that"vital energy"is the original element to form every creature,while the"principle"is the way that"vital energy"works.So,the exact expression of his noumenon of literature and art should take"principle"as the major,and"vital energy"as assistance.Only so,can spirit consonance and local customs play their roles via the author’s talent and temperament,and can the author,by accumulating knowledge and understanding Li,break through the envelopment of the spirit consonance and local customs,which essentially indicate the mechanism and limitation that would influence literary and artistic creation there and then.Based on the cognition of such essential issue as Li-Qi relation,Wu Cheng,in his practice of literary and artistic criticism,constructed his Wen-Qi("writing energy")theory with rich connotations and flexible system,which not only promoted Chinese ancient Wen-Qi proposition to a new height,but is also of important referential significance to the construction of contemporary literary geography.