TERMBASES
This term originally refers to an attitude in reading classics, requiring one to become deeply absorbed in the work as if one were submerged in water, repeatedly ruminating on its meaning until one is able to fully digest its significance so that it informs one’s own feelings and insights. In time this becomes a way of learning, impelling one to mobilize one’s own experience and accumulated knowledge to think deeply about what he is reading so that knowledge is endlessly renewed and refreshed. As a method of understanding and interpreting literary works, it requires one to place one’s own thought in the particular world of the work so that one becomes deeply aware of why the work was so written and can master its subtle meanings and artistic conception. This method is premised on the understanding that literary works can be deeply inspiring and enlightening.
【CITATIONS】
When a scholar reads a book, he must sit straight, read attentively, read out softly, focus all his thought on the book, be entirely absorbed in it, and meditate on its significance from his own experience.
Such language has an inner coherence and logical line of thought. When a person has been deeply absorbed in it for long, he naturally understands how to articulate its complexities and unite its core ideas. There is no need to rely on theories and discussions extraneous to the work. To do so would only be to stifle what the poet intended to express.
By carefully studying the literary context of a text, and by becoming so absorbed in the text as to master its essence, one will be able to discern the essential differences between different literary works.
Qu is the aspirations, emotions, and interests expressed in the work of a writer or artist. His pursuit of qu determines his unique perception and comprehension of nature and life. It also determines w…
This term refers to an effect that allows lasting satisfaction and rewarding in poetry appreciation, which is a particular sense of beauty offered by poetry. In the Southern Dynasties, poetry critic Zh…
This term refers to the subtle elegance of literary and artistic works. It was originally used to depict a person’s mien and manner. During the Wei and Jin dynasties, the propriety inherent in a perso…
The term refers to a state where the scene described in a literary or artistic work reflects the sense and sensibility intended. Jing (境) originally meant perimeter or boundary. With the introduction …
Jingjie (境界) originally meant border or boundary. Later, it was used to translate the idea of a mental realm in Buddhist sutras, a state of spiritual cultivation achieved after having overcome bewild…