CAI Zhili
The May Fourth New Literature Movement gave rise to the so-called the Liberation of Literature or the Consciousness of Literature, advocating that ancient Chinese Literature became independent from scholarship constraints since the Han and Wei dynasties, possessing pure aesthetic qualities devoid of utilitarianism. This perspective significantly influenced the study of classical Chinese literature, so that many literary genres and works from ancient China have been excluded from classical literary studies because they do not conform to modern literary standards. The emergence of anthologies or the establishment of ji-bu (category of anthologies) sections is often regarded by proponents of the Liberation of Literature as a sign of literary independence. Therefore, in modern literary theory, they are often considered as corresponding directly to literature.
Focusing on the Comprehensive Catalog of the Imperial Collection of Four Divisions (四库全书总目) as the subject of study, this paper analyzes the discourse on stylistic analysis it employed when categorizing books, in order to scrutinize the internal logic guiding its classification of ji-bu sections. It further delves into the implicit relationship between literature and scholarship underlying this classification, thereby reflecting on the effectiveness of interpreting classical literature through the lens of the Liberation of Literature. The paper finds that classical Chinese texts are exceptionally complex, often encompassing multiple literary forms within a single work. When categorizing books, the General Catalogue of the Imperial Collection of Four Divisions had to analyze the literary forms of the miscellaneous genre books and either offer normative criticisms or classify them based on the identified styles as expediently as possible. When distinguishing the styles of ji-bu sections, it often juxtaposed content elements such as philosophical ideas, historical events, and political systems as the heterogeneous counterparts of anthologies. Relevant books were included in the Classics, Histories, and Philosophies sections based on the prominence of their content values, thus highlighting the formal values of anthologies. Since content and form are inseparable in the phenomenal world, the establishment of anthologies and ji-bu sections epitomized the formal value, while the Classics, Histories, and Philosophies sections epitomized the content value. Therefore, the distinction between literature and scholarship merely epitomized the highlighting of formal value and content value from an abstract conceptual perspective. It implies that literature was a concept within the realm of form in ancient China, fundamentally unrestricted by content; in other words, any content could be fitted into the formal framework of literature. However, within the realm of written works, literature and scholarship still appeared as two sides of the same coin.
Therefore, the Liberation of Literature, as supported by the establishment of anthologies or ji-bu sections, does not correspond to the historical reality of the ancient concept of literature. In ancient China, literature was never independent in the field of phenomena; its independence within the realm of abstract concepts was evident when Confucius stated “without literary refinement, one cannot go far in life (言之无文,行而不远)” without needing to wait until the Han and Wei periods as some scholars suggest. The distinction between concepts and the classification of things is a completely different matter. Concepts are abstract, while things are concrete. Abstract concepts may have essential differences, but when applied to specific objects, they inevitably have two sides. However, when it comes to classifying things, one must distinguish between the two sides of these entities. The Liberation of Literature, based on the establishment of ji-bu sections, confused the nature of concepts and classifications in its approach.
Distinguished from existing reflections on the Liberation of Literature, which focus on the period of its emergence and the revelation of its intellectual origins, this paper takes a different approach. It conducts an in-depth analysis using the classical work of classical bibliography, the Comprehensive Catalogue of the Imperial Collection of Four Divisions as a typical text. This paper reveals the inherent logic behind its classification of ji-bu sections and reevaluates the methods of argumentation in the Liberation of Literature from the perspective of bibliography. This paper provides a new perspective on reflecting on the nature of classical literature, which helps Chinese classical literary research break free from the constraints of Western romantic literary trends of modern times, enabling it to achieve a fusion of horizons.
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