Studies On Poetic Mood

â… . Inspiration or Hising, has been an oldest and most profound aesthetic category that can best reveal ancient Chinese way of thinking, and thus has become the richest and most difficult part to understand in ancient poetics, because of its vitality and creativity. The issue of Hising almost concerns and influences all classical poetry and poetics. As a result it has drawn the attention and interests of numerous scholars, poets, and critics in history, who have interpreted Hising in various ways. These interpretations are connected and intermingled with each other, and there evolves the "intermingle problem of interpretation on Hising." Many scholars attempted to solve the problem but ended up with a further complication in the interpretation. We believe, however, the reason lies in the fact that complication is an innate nature of Hising, which makes the complexity of Hising's interpretation insolvable. Basically speaking, such complexity has sustained and protected the interpretation of Hising, while untie the complexity would lead to the loss and misunderstanding of it. It is the complexity that has revealed the truth of Hising.The history of interpretation on Hising shows that the meaning of Hising is open, flexible, in formation and it is omnipresent in the composition of poetry, including the kindling of the poetic mood, the composition and the reading of poetry. Hising, has innately determined the creation of poetry and shaped the national characteristic of Chinese classical poetry and influenced the whole classical poetics. Hising is the noumenon of Chinese classical poetry by nature.â…¡. As the noumenon of poetry, Hising is originated from primitive religion and art, and born of the "archetype" or "original image" that has been habitually repeated in associative thinking. Ever since Hising was separated from primitive religion and art, and entered human civilization, it has been imprinted with "Chinese practical reason." By this, Hising has maintained the meaning of "harmony between human and nature" and helped develop the ancient Chinese way of thinking characterized by holism, sensitivity, transcendence, intelligence and humanism. On the other hand, as soon as Hising has grown out of the primitive religious altar and the wilderness of primitive human thinking, it has adopted a refined characteristic in the palace of art and poetry. We call it "the reformative immergence of Chinese practical reason on Hising," which has played a significant role in the formation of classical Chinese poetic theories centered on Hising,in which poetry is seen as an expression of ambition, emotion, image, spirit, and mood, etc...III. The occurrence of Hising is based on the correlation between the object/world and the poet, the emotion and environment, as the saying goes: "emotion caused by conception of an object is called Hising," "watching an object and you are touched, that is Hising," "moved by an object is Hising." Hising is an aesthetic experience. It can be free and easy as "one forgets about both the self and the world," it can be intent and concentrate "without any distractions," it can also trigger imagination with the outside world. Moreover, it also brings out the correct understanding of secrets in life. Such is the fruit of the aesthetic creation of the free heart.IV. As an aesthetic experience, Hising has the characteristics of "being free of reason or logic pattern" in poetic works. As a special way of expression in poetry, it has three ways: "fu, bi, and Hising." Such expressions have two characteristics, the meaning or noumenon of the poetry is both open and ambiguous. One the one hand, "fu, bi and Hising" lay an open structure for poetry, making its meaning open to the readers, by which there is no single objective meaning and the reader can interpret it in each of their own way. In the many interpretations of a poem, it would be difficult to tell which one is the only correct one. And this is the everlasting charm of the open structure. On the other hand, the basic characteristic of "fu, bi and Hising" is to arouse associations and imaginations, which is on the semantic level. Whenever there is "fu (description), bi (comparison/metaphor) and Hising," there is the described, the compared, and the referred to, and thus forming a "fixed way of thinking" which guides us to an understanding on the semantic level, in which the true meaning or real value of the poem are lost or become ambiguous. As a result, "fu, bi and Hising" as special ways of poetic expression, while keeping the meaningful world of poetry open, it can also lead to the lose of it. This is a typical artistic paradox.V. "Imagery thinking" is another characteristic of "fu, bi and Hising" in poetry, which is "to express by way of image." The relation between image and meaning is on the three levels of obvious image, hidden image, and no image, which comprise an organic whole. Meaning is not only indispensable from image, but is image itself. Image would reveal or evolve image on a higher level, which is what we call "the transformation between emptiness and fullness." However, we should be very careful when we attempt to explainimage, especially artistic image and the image beyond itself by quoting Metaphysical Wang Bi's saying that "meaning is get at the loss of the image," because by this theory the sense that "transformation between emptiness and fullness" is lost between meaning and image. In this case, the image gets lost when the meaning is gained and makes image merely a shallow shell, and meaning would be stagnate as it is isolated from image and becomes some lifeless "absolute conception." This is contrary to the innate aesthetic nature that the image and the one beyond image, together with the meaning beyond the image are embodied within one another and transform between each other.VI. "Imagery thinking" marks the basic characteristic of the expression of Hising. The shift of "Image" to "artistic conception" is a rise in the aesthetic connotation of Hising, as the latter is more holistic, infinite and creative. The artistic conception is overwhelming in the poem, and reflected in the aesthetic mood. It goes beyond the opposition between the heart and the world, emotion and reason, to be and not to be, the limited and the infinite. Therefore the artistic conception of Hising is self-expressive, natural, both empty and full. By essence, the artistic conception of Hising is the artistic conception of the poem, and human life. It has touched the creation of life and is the generation and rise of meaning. It is the instant birth of eternity.VII. To sum up, Hising is the soul and noumenon of poetry. It is the origin and basis of poetry, and innately determines the creation of poetry, on its ways and forms of expression. As the noumenon of poetry, Hising emphasizes aesthetic experience and emotion, values the undisclosed true aesthetic relation between the heart and the world. Such a true aesthetic relation is a way of life, of living, of spiritual life, and is the way of poetry.