評點遡源

Abstract

Pingdian criticism is one of the most inportant critical forms in the history of Chinese literary criticism. "Pingdian" literally means criticizing (Ping) and marking (dian). Since middle twelfth century it become increasingly popular. The Pingdian critic worked on given text, using dots and circles to indicate individual lines or extended passages which he admired or disapproved of, and writing critical comments in the top margin, between the lines, or at the end of a piece of writing. However it's absent of deep and system research about tracing to the source of the pingdian. The present paper tries to discuss it from four directions in synthesis, and gained such conclusions : "Zhangju" 章句----punctuation and annotation----which since Han Dynasty provided the use dots and format for reference of the pingdian, the evolvement of former literary criticism choosing its center of gravity, the imperial examination of Song Dynasty bring on the requirement for it, the "pingchang" 評唱----one of the Zen works genre----gave its writing model.