Decorum

仪轨

Decorum, as a term in literary criticism, designates the view that there should be propriety, or fitness, in the way that a literary genre, its subject matter, its characters and actions, and the style of its narration and dialogue are matched to one another. The doctrine had its roots in classical theory, especially in the versified essay Art of Poetry by the Roman Horace in the first century B. C. It achieved an elaborate form in the criticism and composition of literature in the Renaissance and the Neoclassic age. In the most rigid application of this standard, literary forms, characters, and style were ordered in hierarchies, or “levels,” from high to low, and all these elements had to be matched to one another.

仪轨作为文学批评术语，指文学体裁、题材、人物及其行为，以及叙事与人物对话风格等之间的匹配得体或适宜。该学术观点源于古典理论，尤其是公元前1世纪罗马诗人贺拉斯的诗体随笔《诗艺》。在文艺复兴和新古典主义时期，仪轨在文学批评与创作实践中得到了高度发展。在应用过程中，仪轨最严格的标准是要求文学形式、人物和创作风格均按照等级或“档次”从高档到低档排列，所有这些要素都必须相互匹配。