The full text of Wang Guowei's "thorns on earth"

The word takes the realm as the top. If there is a realm, it will be self-contained, and it will have its own famous sentence. Ci in the Five Dynasties and the Northern Song Dynasty is unique here.

There is also creation and writing, which is the difference between the two schools of idealism and realism. However, it is quite difficult to distinguish the two. Because the environment created by great poets must conform to nature, the environment written must also be adjacent to the ideal.

There is my territory, but there is no my territory. "Tears ask flowers without words, and red flies over the swing." "It's like a cold spring closing a lonely pavilion, and the sunset setting cuckoo." This is my place. "Picking chrysanthemums under the east fence, you can see Nanshan leisurely." "From the cold wave, Bai Niao is leisurely."

There is no room for me. If you have my own environment, you can see things with me, so everything is my color. Without me, we look at things in terms of things, and we don't know what is mine and what is physical.

Things in nature are interrelated and restricted. However, when it is written in literature and art, its relationship must have certain limitations. So although he is a realist, he is also an ideal home. No matter how fictional the realm is, its materials must be sought from nature and its structure must follow the laws of nature. Therefore, although he is an ideal home, he is also a realistic home.

Scenery is not the only thing. Emotions and sorrows are also one of the realms in people's minds. Therefore, what can describe the scenery and true feelings is called the realm. Otherwise, it is called boundless. "The branches of red apricots are noisy in spring", and with the word "noisy", the realm is exhausted. "Clouds break the moon and show shadows", write the word "De", and the realm is exhausted.

Realms are big and small, and the pros and cons are not divided by what is right. "Fish comes out in the drizzle, and Yan is inclined in the breeze." If He Qi didn't "drop the banner of sunshine, and the wind hung a small silver hook on the curtain", why didn't he "miss the tower and cross the maze"?

Vernacular translation:

Writing should take realm as the highest standard. Bounded words will naturally have high style and taste, and famous sentences will naturally appear. This is the reason why Ci in the Five Dynasties and the Northern Song Dynasty is so original and peerless. There are both imaginative artistic conception created by the poet's imagination and real artistic conception describing reality in ci, which is the difference between idealism and realism.

However, it is difficult to completely distinguish these two schools of Ci, because the imaginary artistic conception imagined by great poets must conform to the laws of nature, and the realistic artistic conception described must also be close to the poet's ideals and beliefs. Some poems express the poet's self-emotion, while others show the poet's selflessness.

For example, "Tears ask flowers for silence, red flies over the swing", "Lonely pavilion in spring, cuckoo sound in sunset" and so on are all landscapes written with the poet's own feelings. "Picking chrysanthemums under the east fence, leisurely seeing Nanshan" and "Cold wave starts, Bai Niao leisurely falls" just don't write about their emotional experiences, just write about the scenery.

Poets who write about my realm look at things subjectively, so the scenery they write has the subjective color of the author's emotion. Poets who write about the realm of selflessness look at things objectively, so they can't tell which sentence in the poem expresses their feelings and which describes things.

In the past, poets used to write subjective poems with my realm, but they could not always write objective poems without my realm, so poets who could write without my realm could be unique among many literati. Only when the poet's mood is clear, free and quiet, and he transcends his desire, can he reach the realm of selflessness.

There is a realm of self, which needs the poet to conceive and create when intense emotional conflicts are naturally generated and then quietly recalled and deeply felt. Therefore, the realm of self and the realm of no self are described as beautiful and grand respectively.

There are big and small realms, but we can't distinguish them. Why do you think that the artistic conception of "fish in the drizzle, swallow in the breeze" is not as good as "A?vagho?a sunshine flag falls, the wind is rustling"? How can I feel that "hanging a small silver hook on the curtain" is not as good as the realm of "fog blind month"?

Source: From Wang Guowei's "Thorns on the Earth during the Republic of China".

Extended data:

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Creative background:

Wang Guowei lived in the dark age of China, with foreign invasion, the decline and collapse of the Qing government, social out of control, and disordered value system. People's thoughts are experiencing violent turmoil, and individual life spirit is confused and miserable. Wang Guowei's life has also experienced the painful baptism of the times.

1902, Wang Guowei returned from Japan due to illness. He said he was so weak and melancholy. "The problem of life has always been in my mind, so I decided to engage in philosophical research." The problems in life led him to philosophy. In philosophy, he dabbled in the philosophy of Kant and Schopenhauer, hoping to reveal the truth of life through philosophy and get rid of the pain and helplessness of life.

But this is not an easy thing. 1907 He lamented: "Philosophically speaking, most lovely people are not credible, and credible people are not cute." For Wang Guowei, the philosophy of "believable" and "unlovable" is aimed at the phenomenon world, and accurate empirical scientific knowledge can be obtained.

This kind of knowledge is credible, but it only states empirical facts and cannot satisfy people's pursuit of the meaning of life, so he feels unlovable. What he pursues is "cuteness" and "credibility". Unity, which made him fall into the internal tension between metaphysics and scientific positivism in academic circles since modern times, and the conflict and confrontation between irrationalism and positivism.

Wang Guowei believes that learning philosophy can solve "the problem of life" and find a way out of life. However, contrary to expectations, Wang Guowei fell into the dilemma of "loveliness" and "credibility", and he had to give up his philosophical research and find another way out.

His academic attention shifted from philosophy to literature in order to find the comfort of life pain in literature and his own realm and goal of life. In the study of literature, the non-utility of literature itself brought him aesthetic pleasure, so he wrote "thorns on earth"