On the Literature Proposition Draw Forth by Mencius

Abstract

The three propositions of Mencius,which were well known as 'One needs to improve self-cultivation so that he can distinguish from other’s opinions','One needs to catch on the times before he can understand the others' and 'One can use his own thought to comprehend the writings of the authors',were the major theory of Confucian before the Qin Dynasty,which later became the essential thesis of Chinese Literary Criticism. This essay is written to decipher these three propositions in a new perspective.

孟子所提出的'養氣知言'、'論世知人'和'以意逆志'等三大命題,本是先秦的儒學理論,后來成為中國文學批評的基本命題。本文對如何理解這三大命題,提出一些新的看法。