Research on Li Shangyin’s Poems from the Perspective of Text World Theory

周珊珊

Li Shangyin，courtesy name Yishan，was the most eminent Chinese poet of the late Tang Dynasty.Li Shangyin often fused his self-sentimental state about love，mourning，bumpy lifetime together with presentiment of the decline and fall of Tang Dynasty.On the other hand，he was remarkably adept in employing intricate metaphors，symbolism and allusion，which make some part of his works profound and difficult to comprehend.

From ancient times，significant research about Lis life and his poetry has been undertaken by myriads of academic scholars and researchers.With complicated images and profound ambiguity，Li Shangyins poetry has been widely studied from aspects including artistic conceptions，interpretation of “the untitled”，symbolism，western literary theory.However，these traditional approaches deal with the rhetoric，the text，or the author separately from stylistic，structuralist or lexical perspective，with the overall meaning network of a poem ignored.Accordingly，those traditional theories are insufficient to ensure a rigorous and comprehensive analysis of Lis poetry as a discourse，particularly in the facet of discourse processes.Therefore，it attempts to indicate what cognitive poetics，especially Text World Theory，can be conducive to the research of discourse production and reception.

Recently，a proliferation of importance has been attached to the interpretation of literary texts from the cognitive linguistics and cognitive poetics.Cognitive poetics is a new way of thinking about literature，involving the application of cognitive linguistics and psychology to the interpretation of literary texts.With the rise and development of cognitive poetics，Text World Theory has been an indispensable part of it and been widely applied in the analysis of various discourses.Text World Theory is a model of human language processing which is rooted in the notions of mental representation discovered in cognitive psychology，sharing the fundamentally experientialist principles and taking human communicative processes as its central focus.According to the theory，the “world” can be divided into three layers：discourse world，text world，and sub-world；among them，text world is the core.

As a discourse framework，Text World Theory not only focuses on the construction of a particular text，but also concerns the impact of context circumstance exerted upon the discourse production and reception.Gavins claims that “conceptualizing these kinds of remote text-world is a far more complex process and is based on a combination of the world-building deictics provided in the discourse and the inferences the participants draw from such information according to their existing knowledge frames”（2007：38）.When readers try to build the relevant text-worlds about Li Shangyins poems，there will be，definitely，a mismatch existing between the poets and readers cognitive context.Accordingly，under the principle of text-drivenness，discourse participants have to apply much background knowledge to form a common ground in order to negotiate on-line with Li Shangyin across time and space.

It is widely acknowledged that Li Shangyin is quite adept at using classical allusions in his Song Lyrics.With his profound knowledge of culture and history as well as outstanding language competence，Li Shangyin applies various classical allusions flexibly and imperceptibly.In order to understand the real poetic themes，background knowledge is quite indispensible to comprehend classical allusions employed in Li Shangyins works.Since these classical allusions are the typical examples，stories and facts in ancient times，which have become a symbol of value，with historicality，stability and implication.Without readers dynamic participation and relevant knowledge frames，it is not easy to figure out the poets intention and emotion.

As has been mentioned before，these classical allusions are the typical examples，stories and facts in ancient times，which have become a symbol of value，with historicality，stability and implication.Without readers dynamic participation and relevant knowledge frames，it is not easy to figure out the poets intention and emotion.Discourse participants are expected to employ all related background knowledge，whether it is linguistic，perceptual，experiential or cultural，to establish a common ground with the poet，namely entering the same text-world across spatial-temporal boundaries.Meanwhile，under the principle of text-driveness，readers，selectively，activate and collect knowledge in long term memory，narrowing the searching scope of background knowledge and focusing on the relationship among these six classical allusions.Therefore，it is quite necessary to figure out how these allusions work together to realize the poetic theme.

Consequently，the purpose of this paper is to adopt Text World Theory to analyze the artistic conceptions in Li Shangyins poems from the perspective of cognitive poetics.By exploring the artistic conceptions in Li Shangyins poems according to Text World Theory，it is hoped that this study will offer a theoretical framework and a new analytical approach for the interpretation of Lis poetry，enhancing the development as well as spreading of Chinese classic culture.

注：此論文獲得“中央高校基本科研業務費”資助，項目編號：155217005。