Chinese Journal of Literary Criticism

No.4, 2022

Qian Zhongshu’s Perspective and Approach on Literary Hermeneutics

(Abstract)

Gu Pengfei

Qian Zhongshu’s unique perspective on literary hermeneutics came into being in the course of annotating Classics of Chinese traditional literature and history in his representative works Guan Zhui Bian and On the Art of Poetry. It takes xintong litong (innate knowledge of the human mind and the principles of the universe are in liaison) of modern psychology as the basic principle of interpretation, and circular interpretation of intratext, outertext, and inter and outertext as the basic method, making heterogeneous and homogeneous comparison. An interpretative thinking of literary text and cosmic life in the sense of “comparison and similarity” has formed.