On the Resurrection of Humanity in the Literature of the Jian’an Period

Jiang Haijun

(National Research Center of Cultural Industries Central China Normal University，Wuhan Hubei430079)

Ⅰ．Introduction

From the perspective of traditional history of literature，Chinese literature’s entering the Jian’an Period is referred to as entering the conscious age of Chinese literature on the basis of the independence of literature and the formation of independent aesthetics．The concept of“beauty”has transcended its former connotation in terms of the formation of independent aesthetics．Besides formal beauty，the beauty of realm and mind has gradually become the main body of beauty in Jian’an Period．It is“humanity”that carries the deep sense of the main body．To be more specific，the aesthetic consciousness of Chinese literati has gone back to the“mind”，which is by nature“humanity”．It refers to the inherent nature of all humans，which is，of course，quite different from the natural“barbarity”of humans．The inherent nature is always existent in the development of Chinese literature，which shares the weal and woe of the development of Chinese literature．Humanity is a vague idea in the development of Chinese literature．Humanity is explicit before the Jian’an Period，to be more specific，pre-Qin Period．Yet it has been implicit since the Qin and Han Dynasties．However，it doesn’t mean that“humanity”does not exist in Chinese literature，and instead，it“struggles to”survive in a more implicit way．Therefore，the reappearance of“humanity”in Chinese literature in Jian’an Period is by no means some sort of discovery．Meanwhile，the“consciousness”of literature in Jian’an Period has been built on the foundation of the return of human nature．

Ⅱ．Definition of humanity

“Humanity”is not a common word in ancient China，however，it doesn’t mean that there is hardly no humanity in ancient China．Li Zhi，a thinker of the Ming Dynasty，puts forward the idea of“authentic，pure mind”in Tong Xin Shuo．Despite the fact that he advocates his view against the background that human mind is affected by Taoism，he explicitly points out humanity should be“pure mind that cannot be affected by the environment”．Those who possess the mind can claim that they have true humanity．Zhu Xi，a thinker of the Song Dynasty，noted that“Human nature is all kind．Those who understand it at first must be followed by those who understand it later，and then they will understand humanity and come back to the original state of mind．”in Lun Yu Ji Zhu．Zhu Xi refers to humanity as an inherent matter．Mencius points out that evil is the crime of humanity．What’s more，he notes that sense of compassion，sense of guilty，sense of respect and sense of justice are equipped by nature．Despite the fact that Mencius aims at stressing the mind of state of benevolence，righteousness，etiquette and wisdom，undoubtedly，he makes it explicit that humans should turn back to the nature of benevolence，righteousness，etiquette and wisdom．His words indicate that humanity is inherent，which can be interpreted as purity，innocence and kindness．Therefore，the basic definition of humanity is the inherent，authentic purity and kindness．The identification is abstract，but possesses universal significance．Zhuang Zhou，representative of Taoism，points out the greatness of humanity by noting that“nothing under heaven can compare to the beauty of being pure”．He objects the“benevolence”proposed by the cynical Confucians in that he notices the degrading of“benevolence”in the process of people’s seeking fame and profit in the secular world，thus twisting the original pure and natural humanity．Zhuang Zhou holds that humanity is born with humans and it is kind，and that the entire external disturbance should be got rid of to achieve the purification of individual mind and restore the inherent，pure and kind humanity．In this sense，it is justifiable to say that the humanity in Chinese literature is also a kind，honest nature，and that people of all dynasties in the history possess this nature．Hence，whatever dynasty it is，pre-Qin，Western Han and Eastern Han or Jian’an Period，the humanity in Chinese literature is always consistent．

Ⅲ．Literary texts before the Jian’an Period

The literary texts here refer to a comparatively narrow definition of literary texts，namely the text pattern from the perspective of modern aesthetics．All text patterns should be included in the framework of the general literary view，namely aesthetic proses，political essays and records with strong purposes．Han Shu Yi Wen Zhi records all the texts available in the government from the pre-Qin Dynasty to the Han Dynasty，consisting of six parts of Six Arts，Various Schools of Masters，Poetry，the Art of War，Strategies and Folk Machines，among which poetry caters to the modern aesthetics．The part of poetry includes 25 Qu Yuan Ode，four Tang Le Ode，16 Song Yu Ode，24 Zhuang Zhou Ode，seven Jia Yi Ode，Mei Cheng Ode，Si Ma Xiang Ru Ode，82 Huainan Emperor Ode，Cai Jia Ode，33 Liu Xiang Ode，16 Wang Bao Ode，three Wang Jia Ode，two Zhu Jian Ode，35 Yan Zhu Ode…

The mainstream texts before the Jian’an Period are mainly satiric，which means that the purpose of creation is to satirize the emperors or to give suggestions to them．The classification of poem and ode in the Han Shu Yi Wen Zhi indicates that people of Han ethnic group has instinctive division of the texts with modern aesthetics．However，the classification still remains vague with its publicity．And the publicity is less explicit than the texts with special purposes．Mao Shi Da Xu states that“Poetry express one’s ambition．Ambition is in one’s mind，while poetry is spoken out aloud．Moving emotions are expressed by words…it beautifies indoctrination and purifies the customs．”This is the understanding of the effects of poetry by Han people，who hold that poetry is the expression of human mind and has become a text form，thus possessing the counter-effect on the objective environment and others’mind．People would accept the objective reality and retrospect on their inner world after reading poetry，and once this effect becomes evident and external，it would lead to the formation of conducts and changes of national practical strategies．

From the perspective of modern aesthetics，the following poems are the representative works of humanity:15 Wu Chu Ru Nan Poems，nine Yun Zhong Long Xi Poems，four Han Dan He Jian Poems，four Qi Zheng Poems，four Huainan Poems，three Zuo Feng Yi Qin，one He Dong Pu Fan，15 Huang Men Chang Che Zhong Poems… 75 Zhou Yao Poems．The majority of them come from the folk．They express the temperament of people and the attention to living conditions，which are pure expression of the poets’ego and barely subjectively exert influence on others or society．This situation is quite common in the pre-Qin folk，which is the most real expression of humanity in texts．

Ⅳ．Humanity in the literature of the Jian’an Period

The means of expression of humanity in the history of Chinese literature needs to be studied before discussing the humanity in the literature of the Jian’an Period．As mentioned before，the concept of humanity exists on the foundation of the confrontation between Confucianism and Taoism in the history of Chinese ancient literature．It changes between the state of being implicit and being explicit．To be more specific，the pre-Qin Confucianism puts forward this concept and then realizes the universal significance by means of texts．In the Qin and Han Dynasties，the foundation of feudal empires with centralized authority accordingly leads to the integration trend of ideology．The practice of burning books and burying Confucian scholars alive in the Qin Dynasty and that of banning from hundred philosophers and venerating Confucianism in the Han Dynasty contribute to the annihilation of humanity，a universal concept．At this period，the expression of humanity tends to be implicit and it is explicitly manifested in the documents submitted to the emperors by the court officials．

For instance，despite that the stone inscriptions of Langya Mountain written by Li Si for Qin Shi Huang praises his contribution of unifying China and making people’s life prosperous and peaceful，it is the only thing that indicates the greatness of Qin Shi Huang．The factor of humanity，which regards the care of people’s living conditions as the core，has become evident in Li Si’s compliment．But humanity is not explicitly expressed or even mentioned in the unified ideology of the Qin Dynasty．It can be said that humanity is quite implicitly expressed in literature．However，the quality of literature is regulated as that literary expression should at least take into consideration of the care of the mass and be sympathetic．Therefore，it is justifiable to say that the expression of humanity in Chinese literature is established on the broad foundation of“people first”，which originates from the nature of humanity，namely“inherence and kindness”．The realization mechanism is benevolence，righteousness，etiquette and wisdom proposed by Mencius，which are common to all people．Everyone can possess humanity by possessing the four qualities．The connotation of humanity includes the need of national unification，peace and stability，which is manifested as the care and expression of the above in literature．The expression method of humanity in literature has penetrated into very field of literature，including purely aesthetic literature and purely utilitarian applied literature．It is believed that the expression of humanity in Chinese literature has dissolved the contradiction between Confucianism and Taoism in terms of the living state of humanity，thus making it the eternal theme of Chinese literature．While in the Qin and Han Dynasties，the explicitness of literature discourse is manifested as the externalization of the movement of“implicitness”and“explicitness”，or the confrontation between the mainstream and non-mainstream，instead of the confrontation between“advocating humanity”and“suffocating humanity”．

To be more specific，humanity expressed in the official documents in the Qin and Han Dynasties is expressed by pure literary form in the literature of Jian’an Period．The literary works which express ego and individual feeling constitute the universal and equal attention，or the individualization of universal living state，which means taking myself as the representative of the mass and taking my own feeling as the feeling of the mass．Different from the previous expression of humanity in literature，the carrier of“poetry”is adopted in Jian’an Period，particularly Wu Yan and Qi Yan，and lyric odes originating in the late period of the Han Dynasty．At the same time，literati of the Jian’an Period tend to more frequently use the natural objects in society as images than the previous literati did，which is the biggest difference in expressing humanity between Jian’an Period and previous literary works．However，there is no difference in the essence．Cao Zhi，the main representative of Jian’an Period，expresses this implicit care of humanity in his work Yu Zhang Xing．

Thanks for the restrained literary expression of humanity in Jian’an Period，the idea of“articles should be for the times，poems should be for current affairs”in the later dynasties and the idea of“the hungry sing for their food，the labor sing for their work”in the literature before the Wei and Jin Dynasty have realized unprecedented unification．Meanwhile，the expression of humanity in literature of Jian’an Period has relieved the confrontation between Confucianism and Taoism on the explicit level of the development of Chinese literature to some extent，endowing humanity，a main body in Chinese literature，with the power to be interpreted independently and making explicit the difference between Confucianism and Taoism in terms of the choice of images and the narration of discourse．

Ⅴ．Conclusion

In conclusion，humanity is a universal phenomenon in Chinese literature，which manifests in the universal and equal care for common people and the experience of life in literary works．The literary works in Jian’an Period is embodied as“restrained literary expression of literature”，thus making humanity，the basic element of Chinese literature explicit，realizing the integration of the history of humanity literature and the inner connection of the history of Chinese literature．

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