Li Jianwu’s Chinese Impression Criticism

In the 20 th century,Wellek’s view was the common view of literary criticism.Wellek made a distinction between this critical concept and divided it into two parts:broad sense and narrow sense.Generalized criticism refers to all theories and principles related to literature,not just the evaluation of a certain work or author.The narrow criticism is just the opposite,and it mainly targets specific literary works.This paper discusses Li Jianwu’s literary criticism in a broad sense,not only discussing his criticism of specific works,but also paying attention to his criticism theory.From 1930 s to 1940 s,Li Jianwu published a series of critical articles under the pseudonym of “Liu Xiwei”.With vivid words,prose style and metaphorical expression,Li Jianwu conveyed his comments on the vivid sentiment of the text,endowing his works with infinite charm.This way of comments is also regarded as impressionist criticism.Therefore,the first part of this paper is discussing the development of impressionist criticism in China and the West.This part mainly from several aspects: First,the development process of western impression criticism and Li Jianwu’s alienation and choice of western impression criticism.From the end of 18 th century to the beginning of19 th century,impressionistic criticism began to appear in Britain,which required critics to “judge by feeling rather than reason”.From 19 th century to the first 30 s of 20 th century,impression criticism prevailed in Europe and America.In “Debate among Flutes”,Francis directly stated: “An excellent critic is such a person,who discusses the exploration activities of his soul in many outstanding works.” At the same time,impression criticism puts forward the “self ” standard,emphasizes self-feeling and critical spirit,which Li Jianwu accepts and agrees with.However,impressionist criticism overemphasizes the subject and ignores its objective analysis in the process of criticism.It inevitably leaves shortcomings for criticism,which is also the reason why impressionist criticism is constantly opposed by “objective criticism” or “scientific criticism”.Therefore,when Li Jianwu accepted western impression criticism,he was alienated.He adopted more scientific analysis and comprehensive way,abandoned the nihility and mystery in impression criticism.Therefore,when studying Li Jianwu’s literary criticism,we can neither simply and rudely classify it as impressionism criticism,nor ignore or deny Li Jianwu’s acceptance of impressionism criticism.The second is to discuss the development process of Chinese impression criticism and Li Jianwu’s inheritance and return to it.One of the common ways of appreciation in ancient Chinese literary criticism is “Han Yong”,which emphasizes the writer’s sinking and grasping in literary criticism.Li Jianwu undoubtedly appreciates and inherits this way of appreciation.At the same time,in language,the poetic expression in ancient Chinese criticism also attracted Li Jianwu and became an important part of his criticism.Thirdly,it discusses the inevitability behind Li Jianwu’s formation of Chinese impressionism criticism.As we mentioned earlier,Li Jianwu can’t be simply classified as impressionism criticism,which is due to the fact that Li Jianwu’s two literary comments on Jian Xianai and Zhu Datan in the early stage obviously didn’t receive the influence of western impressionism criticism.However,the style of his writing are similar to those of the following comments.Therefore,the important reason for the formation of Li Jianwu’s Chinese impression criticism lies in his individual disposition and traditional thinking mode of attaching importance to perception,which makes him have a common point with western impression criticism.The second part of this paper discusses the uniqueness of his criticism.Li Jianwu’s literary criticism is obviously different from western impression criticism,and the use of some objective analysis methods in Zuihuaji and Zuihuaji Hua Er are obviously different from the traditional Chinese thinking paradigm.This is because in the process of criticizing practice,Li Jianwu strives to pursue an objective analysis on the basis of overall intuition.Although this rational objective factor has not penetrated into too much,it has also become an important factor that is different from Chinese and Western impression criticism.This objective analysis is just Li Jianwu’s acceptance and absorption of other western academic schools,gradually explore and sum up his own criticism methods and truly put criticism into practice as an independent art.At the same time,Li Jianwu put forward the criterions of “life experience” and “masterpiece”,paid attention to the self-sufficiency and harmony of “beauty” in the text,used artistic metaphor and contrast,and friendly style of writing,which also formed the uniqueness of his impression criticism.In the third part of this paper,I mainly discuss the epoch value of Li Jianwu’s literary criticism from diachronic and synchronic perspectives and its important enlightenment and influence on the modern transformation of Chinese traditional literary theory.From the synchronic point of view,Li Jianwu’s literary criticism set off a unique style for literary criticism in 1930 s and 40 s,which broke through the mode of socialist criticism and greatly enriched the types of literary criticism at that time.From the diachronic point of view,Li Jianwu laid the foundation for the development of impressionist criticism in later generations.The formation of Tang Kun’s literary criticism style is deeply influenced by Li Jianwu.Even today,many critics still admire Li Jianwu’s impression criticism and gradually form a unique school.In addition,Li Jianwu is of great significance in the docking of Chinese and Western literary theories and realizing the modern transformation of ancient Chinese literary theories.