Chinese Journal of Literary Criticism

No.3, 2022

“Sublime Words with Deep Meaning” and the Search for Hidden Meaning of Ancient Novel Criticism

(Abstract)

Wen Qingxin

The critics build an interpretive effect that both mobilizes their own enthusiasm and leads other readers to continue to explore the “sublime words of the text with deep meaning.” The “sublime words with deep meaning” style of searching for hidden meaning has had a profound influence on the interpretation, methods and the construction of values of ancient novel criticism. It reorganizes the various possibilities of the novel’s message and provides an interpretive framework of searching for hidden meaning, allowing the message of the novel to be interpreted over a long period of time and from multiple perspectives with infinite meaning. It is a mode of interpretation that transcends the original meaning of a novel text and is marked by creative insights, and it is the logic underlying the construction of the system of ancient novel criticism, as well as the cultural tradition of productive criticism of novel texts by critics.