自從陳世早晨先生由西方抒情詩的角度提出中國文學的「抒情傳統」以來，論者大抵偏重作者自我的內在獨白、瞬間感興，強調感情本體的世界觀，並以漢末、魏晉的詩文作為抒情傳統的典型建構或是理論完成的主要依據，而明顯忽略漢代這一大段所謂表現社會群體意志的時期對於建構中國文學「抒情傳統」的重要性。本文以〈詩大序〉為主，希望針對其中牽涉「言志」、「比興」這些議題的文字段落，提出更充分相關的背景資料，並探討彼此歧異，而尋索合宜的詮釋範圍，也就是希望呈現出〈詩大序〉得以如此論述的存在空間。這所謂相關背景或存在空間，必然糾結著資料原本所在的文本環境，與〈詩大序〉編著者在引錄、截取時的期待視野，同時還包括前後時代針對如何認知事物或建構合理 (合於道) 的生活世界所形成的觀點演進，而無法僅圈跟在自我感興的層面。而如此重新反思「抒情傳統」於先秦兩漢間的建構過程，可以發現從樂教至於詩教的轉變，從歌詠「六詩」到以義為用的「六義 J，尤其自「引詩為比 J 以來，知識分子透過譬類方式所觸連起的熟悉上手的時物系統，在如何讀、如何用當中累積了可以表達與被理解的感發方式，通足以成為後來創作時自然發詠的基礎，同時也為中國文學的「抒情傳統」鋪設出兼具智識性與情感性的發展脈絡。

Since Chen Shixiang, from the perspective of Western lyric poetry, suggested the idea of "lyric tradition" in Chinese literature, scholars have tended to stress the poets' interiority and stirring of emotions, emphasizing a worldview rooted in affect. The late-Han and Wei-Jin poetry and prose were taken as exemplars to advance their theories. Yet they have overlooked the important role the Han period-the great span of time characterized by expression of the collective social will-played in constituting the lyric tradition. Drawing on the "Greater Preface" to the Book of Songs, I focus on the topics of "expressing intent" (yanzhi) and "comparison" and "affective image" (bi and xing) to introduce and investigate more fully the constitutive materials of the lyric tradition. My goal is to locate the possible planes of interpretation, and to demarcate a critical space for meaningful discussions of the "Greater Preface." The relevant background is inextricably linked to the textual environment in which the original materials existed, which forms the horizon of expectation of the "Greater Preface" writers. This relevant background calls forth the points of view of the previous and succeeding generations from which they understand things, and invokes the manners they lived. It is, in short, unwise to confine analysis to merely the individual's emotions. In the process of the formation of the lyric tradition from pre-Qin to Han times, we observe a process of transformation from "musical education" (yue jiao) to "poetic education" (shi jiao), from praising the "six poems" (liu shi) to emphasizing the meaning of individual words in the spirit of the "six principles" (liu yi). Particularly, since the practice in which "poems were cited for the purpose of analogy," intellectuals had made full use of analogies pointing to stock natural images and phenomena. In the process of negotiating how to read and how to make use of the affective means available at the time, they laid the foundation of subjective expression for later poets. At the same time, they set forth a lyric tradition that was at once intellectual and emotional.