《毛詩大序》是闡釋《詩經》的綱領性文件,也是中國文學批評的第一個里程碑,盡管其非凡的洞見為中國詩學理論奠定了第一塊基石,但也因其來歷不明和種種"缺憾"而受到苛責和批評,并未被視為中國傳統第一篇有意為之的文論。《詩大序》真的如歷代學者批評的那樣結構松散混亂,主旨無法一以貫之嗎?從后結構主義話語理論的視角重新細讀《詩大序》的文字表述、思路演進和總體結構,可以得出相反的結論:《詩大序》主旨鮮明,構思精巧,論證連貫,其獨特的結構和論證形式恰恰建立在看似過時的小學(文字學)基礎之上。而且,其意指結構與表現方式隱含了一個創作模式,暗合克里斯蒂娃的"互文"論和德里達的"撒播"論,因此或許可以稱其為古代的后結構主義詩論。采用傳統小學與后結構主義理論相結合的研究方法重讀《詩大序》,旨在探討這樣幾個問題:一、以傳統小學為根基的古代文論與后結構主義詩論是否有本質的區別?二、歷史上至今為止對《詩大序》真實價值的評判為何不夠客觀公正?三、結合西方古典主義和后結構主義的詩學探索《詩大序》究竟是什么性質的詩論?四、使用現代詩學的方式重新細讀《詩大序》能給中國古典文論的現代化提供什么啟發?

The Great Preface of the Mao School of Poetry is a foundational document for the exegesis of the Shijing and a landmark for Chinese literary theory. Despite its status as the first cornerstone for Chinese poetics,it has incurred harsh criticism due to its various inadequacies and unknown origin,and is never regarded as the first self-consciously composed literary criticism. Is The Great Preface indeed a discourse with a loose structure and inconsistent thesis as the critics have suggested? To re-examine its writing,conception,and overall structure from the perspective of post-structuralist discourse theory will draw an opposite conclusion: The Great Preface has a clear thesis,subtly conceived,and coherently argued,with a distinctive organization and reasoning predicated on the basis of ostensibly obsolete philology. Moreover, its structure and ways of signification and representation implicitly contain a creative model of writing that anticipates Julia Kristeva’s intertextuality and Jacques Derrida’s dissemination,thereby enabling the treatise to be viewed as a post-structuralist poetic discourse. Adopting an approach that integrates traditional philology with post-structuralism,this article investigates these concerns:( 1) Does traditional poetics based on philology radically differ from post-structuralist poetics?( 2) Why is The Great Preface not fairly evaluated in history?( 3) What sort of poetics does the The Great Preface imply in comparison with Western and modern poetics?( 4) What insights can a new reading of The Great Preface in terms of modern poetics shed on the modernization of traditional Chinese literary theory?