“文如其人”、“風格即人”與李長之的“傳記批評”

“Writing Reflects the Author’s Personality,” “Le Style, C’est L’homme,” and Li Changzhi’s Critique of Biographies

Abstract

LANGUAGE NOTE | Document text in Chinese; abstract also in English.

“文如其人”是中國古代文論中涉及“人———言／文”關係之一大命題，其假定了“言／文”爲“人”心之外發外現，因而兩者之間理應若合符契。進入二十世紀後，隨著西方文學觀念的東漸，“文如其人”屢被用作轉譯或比附於法國布封的名言Le style, c’est l’homme（風格即人），並與當時流行的西方自然主義理論相結合，在現代文學批評的語境下持續發揮影響力。而這一傳統文論話語在經歷中西對接的意義轉化後，又爲李長之創造性地借用，他汲取了狄爾泰的“體驗”論和洪堡特的語言觀，重新省思中國古代“文如其人”的觀念傳統，並摶成其獨具特色的“傳記批評”之理論基礎。緣此，對“文如其人”此一古今中西對接演繹過程之勾勒梳理，允爲考察古代文論在西學東漸潮流下的傳承和轉化之絕佳案例。

The belief that “writing reflects the author’s personality” (wen ru qiren 文如其人) was a major theory in traditional Chinese literary criticism concerning the relationship between Man and Word/Text. It presumed that Word/Text is a manifestation of the author’s thought; therefore, the two should perfectly correspond with each other. Since the beginning of the 20th century, with the introduction of Western literary theories into China, wen ru qiren has frequently become a rendering or counterpart of the famous saying “le style, c’est l’homme” by Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1709-1788). It was also combined with the then-popular Western Naturalism theory and exerted continuous influence within the context of modern literary criticism. This traditional literary discourse underwent conversions of meaning as a result of its interactions with Western theories before Li Changzhi (1910-1978) borrowed it for his own creative use. Li drew upon Wilhelm Dilthey’s (1833-1911) philosophical theory on “Erlebnis” and Wilhelm von Humboldt’s (1767-1835) philosophy of language, reevaluated the traditional Chinese concept of wen ru qiren, and thereby molded these Western and Chinese theories into the theoretical basis of his unique “critique of biographies.” For this reason, the investigation of the process through which wen ru qiren evolved by connecting a traditional Chinese concept with modern Western theories makes a perfect case study for examining the inherence and conversion of traditional literary theory during the era when Western knowledge was introduced to China.