Listen to this articletǐxìng 体性
Style and Temperament
作品风格与作者个性的统一与结合。是关于文学风格的重要术语。“体”指文章风格，“性”指作者个性因素。源出于刘勰《文心雕龙·体性》，该文分析了作者个性特点与文章风格有着内在的关联，文如其人。这启发了后人从作者个性着眼去分析文学作品不同的风格类型，奠定了中国古代文学风格论的基本思想。
This is an important term about literary style that stresses the unity and integration of the styles of writings with the temperaments of their authors. The term originated from Liu Xie’s The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons. One chapter of the book discusses how the styles of writings are related to the temperaments of the writers, and argues that the writings truly reflect the temperaments of their authors. This has encouraged later generations to analyze different styles of literary works based on the authors’ temperaments and became a basic line of thought on ancient Chinese literary style.
引例 Citations：
◎夫情动而言形，理发而文见。盖沿隐以至显，因内而符外者也。然才有庸俊，气有刚柔，学有浅深，习有雅郑；并情性所铄，陶染所凝，是以笔区云谲，文苑波诡者矣。（刘勰《文心雕龙·体性》）
（情感激发而形成语言，道理表达便体现为文章。也就是将隐藏在内心的情和理逐渐彰显、由内至外的过程。不过人的才华有平凡和杰出之分，气禀有阳刚与阴柔之别，学识有浅深之异，习性有雅正和鄙俗之差。这些都是由人的先天情性所造就，并受后天的熏陶积聚而成，所以他们的创作奇谲如风云变幻，文章诡秘似海涛翻转。）
When emotions stir, they take the form of language. When ideas emerge, they are expressed in writings. Thus the obscure becomes manifest and the internal feelings pour into the open. However, talent may be mediocre or outstanding, temperament masculine or feminine, learning deep or shallow, upbringing refined or vulgar. All this results from differences in nature and nurture. Hence the unusual cloud-like variations in the realm of writing and the mysterious wave-like undulations in the garden of literature. (Liu Xie: The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons)
◎故性格清彻者音调自然宣畅，性格舒徐者音调自然疏缓，旷达者自然浩荡，雄迈者自然壮烈，沉郁者自然悲酸，古怪者自然奇绝。有是格，便有是调，皆情性自然之谓也。莫不有情，莫不有性，而可以一律求之哉？（李贽《读律肤说》）
（所以那些性情开朗透明的人所作诗的音律自然直接流畅，性情迟缓的人所作诗的音律自然疏朗宽缓，性情旷达的人所作诗的音律自然磊落浩荡，性情雄奇豪迈的人所作诗的音律自然强劲壮烈，性情沉郁的人所作诗的音律自然悲凉酸楚，性情古怪的人所作诗的音律自然不同寻常。有什么性情，便有什么音律，这都是个性气质所自然决定的。人人莫不有情感，莫不有个性，怎么可以用一个音律标准去要求所有的诗歌呢？）
So it is natural that those with an open and easy-going temperament create poems with tonal rhythms that are direct, smooth, and easy to understand; those with a slow temperament write in relaxed tonal rhythms; those with a broad mind, magnificent and uninhibited; those with a heroic character, powerful and gallant; those with a depressed personality, sad and miserable; those with a weird temperament, out of the ordinary. Temperament decides the tonal rhythms of an author’s writings. People have their own emotions and personalities. How can all the poems be judged by the same standard for tonal rhythms? (Li Zhi: My Understanding of Poetic Genre)
