一曾经有人提出,意象这个范畴,是我国古代美学固有的,并不只是外来语image的译名。这样说有一定道理,不过问题还有另一方面。随着历史条件的变化与认识能力的深入,思维的范畴,包括美学的文艺学的范畴,其实都在发展变化之中。有时候,范畴名称一沿其旧,但其内涵外延已不同于历史上的情况。意象这个范畴也是如此。说得更确切些,今天我们所谓的“意象”,实际上是我国传统美学概念与西方二十世纪观念的结合与互补。我们既站在自己的美学与文学的遗产上接受与解释了image这个外来词,同时又从当代的审美水准出发理解与阐述着古老的意 It was once suggested that the category of imagery is inherent to ancient Chinese aesthetics and not merely the translation of foreign words. There is some truth to this, but the problem is another side. With the change of historical conditions and the deepening of cognitive ability, the category of thinking, including the category of aesthetics of literature and art, is actually undergoing changes. In some cases, the name of a category follows its old style, but the connotation of its extension has been different from that of history. The same is true for the category of images. To put it more precisely, what we call “imagery” today is actually the combination and complementarity of the concept of traditional Chinese aesthetics with the concept of the 20th century in the West. We not only stand on the inheritance of our aesthetics and literature to accept and explain the loanwords of image, meanwhile we understand and elaborate the ancient meaning from the contemporary aesthetic standard