《人間詞話》之「境界」說,在學者的努力之下,其理論義已逐漸明朗,其中,「有我之境、無我之境」以及「造境、寫境」已多所釐清;至於「大境、小境」的義蘊則因材料極為有限,無法做明確的解釋,歷來學者著墨不多。筆者以爲,「境界」一詞在王國維《人間詞話》一書中的義涵係包括「真景物」與「真感情」兩個面向,因此,對於「大境」與「小境」的探討除「景物」之外,自當不能忽略「感情」一端。再者,「境界」不但是作者所應秉持的創作原則,更是指讀者於欣賞過程中所獲得的興發體會與生命感動,因此,「大境」與「小境」便不只是作者單方面取材大小、情感深淺的問題,更包含了讀者參與、心理反應的層面。因此,本文分別就「景語」、「情語」、「作家眼界」、「讀者聯想」四方面,對「大境」與「小境」進行了全面的觀照。末了則是針對王國維「不以是而分優劣」及「大小固不同」兩個矛盾的說法作一釐清。
Nowadays, under the utmost efforts of scholars, all the aspects of the 'STATES' Theory-for instances, the 'STATES between observing scenery on I's standpoint and observing scenery on Scenery's own standpoint' aspect and the 'STATES between Ideal and Real' aspect-promulgated by Wang Kuo-wei in his 《Jen Chien Tzu Hua》 have been clarified excepting the 'STATES between Big and small' aspect because of insufficient literature. According to my study, Wang Kuo-wei's 'STATES' Theory includes two basic elements-one is Sentiment and the other is Scenery. Therefore, paying our attention to the Scenery, we should not neglect the Sentiment at any time while we are probing into the 'STATES between Big and Small' aspect. Moreover, the 'STATES' are not only the principles for the Author while he/she creating but also the guidance to recreation for the Reader while he/she reacting. Here in the coming essay, as more complete it could be as I thought, the analyses of the 'STATES between Big and Small' aspect will involve four parts-they are SENTIMENT, SCENERY, AUTHOR, and READER. Of cause, how each of the four relates to the 'STATES between Big and Small' aspect will be pointed out definitely and thereby present the completion of the 'STATES between Big and Small' aspect. At last, the clarification of the seeming paradox between the two disputable sentences concerning the 'STATES between Big and Small' aspect-”There do exist differences in the STATES between Big and Small.” and ”We cannot distinguish which one is better or worse than the other by their STATES”-will be promulgated as an ending of the coming essay.