再论文学批评的"雅正"传统--从范雨素谈起 = Reconsidering the Tradition of "Yazheng" in Chinese Literary Criticism - Focusing on the Fan Yusu Phenomenon

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This study reexamines the concept of “Yazheng (雅正)”, one of the core traditions in Chinese literary criticism, through an analysis of the Fan Yusu phenomenon that drew wide attention in the Chinese literary world in 2017. Originally proposed by Confucius, Yazheng represented an aesthetic principle aimed at restoring ritual and musical order while cultivating moral sensibility through literature. Over time, however, as Confucianism became institutionalized during the Han dynasty and the social hierarchy of the literati intensified in the Wei–Jin period, the original spirit of Yazheng gradually transformed into a tool for moral judgment and social stratification, shifting the focus of criticism from the substance of literary works to the author’s moral standing and social position.
The case of Zuo Si (左思) in the Western Jin, whose literary excellence was overshadowed by prejudice against his humble background, reveals how this evaluative pattern became entrenched. The modern reception of Fan Yusu’s writing echoes this same logic: although her work continues the realist tradition and authentically portrays the lives of marginalized people, critical discourse often centered on her status as a “nonprofessional writer,” rather than on the literary quality of her text.
This paper argues that such tendencies stem from the historical distortion of Confucius’s Yazheng principle, which originally emphasized sincerity of content and moral equilibrium in aesthetic judgment. The study suggests three directions for restoring a balanced critical framework in contemporary literary discourse: (1) a return to content-based criticism, (2) restraint in moral judgment, and (3) an awareness of the dialectical relationship between the “elegant (雅)” and the “popular (俗).” Ultimately, this research calls for a form of literary criticism that moves beyond rigid moral and hierarchical norms to embrace a more open, inclusive, and humane mode of evaluation.