The Problem of Literary Creativity in the Treatise “Discourses in the Balance” (Lunheng) of the 1st Century

Abstract

This article is devoted to rethinking the understanding of creativity - zuo in the treatise of Wang Chong (c. 27 - 100 AD) “Discourses in the Balance” (Lunheng), which is a logical continuation of the ideas of some of his predecessors. The article draws attention to the peculiarities of the philosopher's literary thought and compares them with the ideas of Yang Xiong (53 BC - 18 AD) from the treatise Exemplary Speeches (Fayan). The main provisions of Wang Chong's literary thought are revealed on the basis of an analysis of the chapters from “Discourses in the Balance”, which the philosopher wrote to fight works that were incorrect, from his point of view. Thanks to a scrupulous examination of such works, the philosopher managed not only to generalize the important thoughts of his predecessors in relation to literary creativity, but also come to many new discoveries that were successfully developed by subsequent literary theorists. The philosopher understands literature - wen quite broadly and includes in it those types of written creativity that during the next era will be excluded from the concept of wen. The thinker himself does not believe that wen means in general everything written in hieroglyphs, and therefore excludes matter-of-fact reports from wen, which is carried out by local officials. Wang Chong assigns a separate place to odic poetry in the wen system and even places a partial emphasis on the aesthetic function of literature. He considers discourse - lun to be a standard of wen, to which he refers his own treatise. The thinker puts forward certain requirements for the style of reasoning and observes them himself throughout the entire treatise, turning it, on the one hand, into a theoretical work, and on the other, into a practical one, on the pages of which this theory is embodied.