元末明初浙东文人推崇《诗经》的价值,借助《诗经》文本及其相关理论,建立了一套标榜风雅的诗学思想,唤醒了《诗经》的理论活力。其标志有四:首先,他们以《诗经》为最高标准评价历代诗歌,将汉魏诗和唐诗树立为《诗经》的“代言人”,却在师其意与师其辞之间出现了纠缠;其次,他们以《毛诗》“正变说”为框架,或以时代政治盛衰解释诗歌变化,或将个人道德修养融入时代政治盛衰之中,或将政治盛衰偷换为文体变迁,从而实现对“正变说”的遵循、突破与背离;再次,他们发扬了《毛诗序》中的“讽谏说”,借诗歌批判现实,表现下位者诉求,并与永嘉事功之学和吴中文学传统相连接;最后,他们受“发乎情,止乎礼义”之说的启发,由明道、言情二途追求朴质诗风。

Praising highly on the value of the Book of Songs (《诗经》), the East Zhejiang literati from the late Yuan Dynasty to the early Ming Dynasty established a set of poetic thoughts to flaunt elegance on the basis of the texts of the Book of Songs and its related theories, which awakened the theoretical vitality of the Book of Songs. There are four features in the study of the East Zhejiang literati. Firstly, they took the Book of Songs as the highest standard to evaluate the poems from previous dynasties and set the poetry of the Han-Wei and the Tang Dynasties as the “spokesman” of the Book of Songs. However, there occurred some disputes between their learning from its meanings and their learning from its dictions. Secondly, they took “the theory of the orthodox and shifted styles of folk songs and odes” (正变说) from Mao’s Text of the Book of Songs(《毛诗》) as a framework. Some of them explained the change of poetry with the political prosperity and decline of their times, some others incorporated their personal moral cultivation into the political rise and fall of their times, and still some others stealthily turned political prosperity and decline into the changes of literary style, so as to follow, break through or deviate from this theory. Thirdly, they developed “the view of euphemistic remonstration” (讽谏说) from Mao's Prefaces to the Book of Songs (《毛诗序》), criticized the reality with poems, presented the appeal of the people of lower position, and connected this view with the utilitarian studies (事功之学) of the Yongjia Period (永嘉) of the West Jin Dynasty (西晋) and the tradition of Wuzhong literature (吴中文学). Finally, they were enlightened by the view that “love starts from emotion, but stops by the etiquette” (发乎情,止乎礼义) and pursued the simple and unadorned poetic style by acting according to the etiquette (明道) and expressing emotions (言情).