Chinese Journal of Literary Criticism

No.3, 2019

“Way—Image—Utensil”: The Ontological Interpretation of Form Analysis Discourses

(Abstract)

Fan Baoying

There can be found a discursive sequence of ideas on form analysis from emphasizing on culture, accentuating on rhetoric, advocating high standards, clarifying the rule, and differentiating the style in Chinese traditional literary theories from the perspective of historical examination and rational reflection. Its basic pattern is built upon the model of “one divided to three”(yifenweisan). As an interpretative paradigm, it is constituted according to the logic framework of “way-image-utensil”(dao-xiang-qi), mediated by linguistic structure, and aimed at enunciating the meaning of text and defining the beauty of literature and why. This paper is to do a kind of ontological interpretation of traditional discourse on forms, with the focus on close reading of classics, elevating the mediation function of form, and promoting the rational meticulous analysis, and pursuing the tension between sensibility and rationality, in the hope of providing reference for contemporary literary theories and criticism.