從<隨園詩話>談批評與鑑賞, 考據之間的關係

Abstract

Traditional "shihua" writings easily convey an impression of loose organization, as they often lack a rigorous system in form and look like informal essays and notes. In addition, they often offer more than pure literary criticism in content and resemble fiction and conversational discourse, thus inviting criticism of its motley nature. Yet scholars of Chinese literary criticism know that shihua are indispensable reference materials in any research on Chinese poets and poetics. I will take a few statements from Yuan Mei's Suiyuan shihua to illustrate the essence of shihua writings, as well as discuss the relationship among writing, criticism, appreciation and textual research.