Word-Image Intertextuality: The Binary Progression of Ideological and Political Education Narrative

Narrative coexists with humanity and is a fundamental human impulse. In a certain sense, narrative means storytelling; story-based narration reaches directly into people’s hearts. Xi Jinping pointed out: “Knowing how to tell stories and telling them well is very important. Ideological and political courses must tell the stories of the Chinese nation well… especially the stories of the New Era.” [1]1 Xi Jinping, “Speech at the School31 Stories must rely on media to be narrated. Language and script, on the one hand, and images, on the other, are two basic media forms through which humans cognize the world, and they are ancient and important modes of expression. As the most basic signifying symbols of the cognitive system, language/script and images are both heterogeneous and consistent in their referentiality within narrative. They are heterogeneous because language/script and images each have their own strengths: script is known for imagination and association, while images are known for intuition and concreteness. They are consistent because, within the narrative system, language/script and images complement each other: one is a direct overflow of thought, the other an intense expression of emotion. Images need language/script to explain the ideas they imply, so that thought is clarified; language/script also need the help of images to make their expression more vivid and concrete. The effective combination of the two then produces “intertextuality,” which can make the entire narrative text appear appropriately deep and shallow, and will prompt the story’s telling to possess greater spatiotemporal tension and value resilience.

叙事与人类相伴而生，是一种基本的人性冲动。叙事在一定意义上就是讲故事，故事化叙事直抵人心。习近平指出：“会讲故事、讲好故事十分重要，思政课就要讲好中华民族的故事……特别是要讲好新时代的故事。”[1]31故事必须借助媒介才能得到叙述，语言文字与图像是人类认知世界的两种基本媒介形式，是人类古老的重要表述方式。作为认知系统最基本的表意符号，语言文字和图像在叙事的指涉性方面既具有异质性，又具有一致性。说其异质性，是因为语言文字和图像各擅胜场，文字以想象和联想著称，图像则以直观和具象见长；说其一致性，是因为在叙事系统中，语言文字与图像是相辅相成的，一个是思想的直接溢出，一个是情感的强烈表达，图像需要语言文字解释其所暗含的思想，使思想得到澄明，语言文字也需要图像的帮助，使其表达更加形象具体，两者的有效结合继而产生“互文性”，能使整个叙事文本显得深浅有度，会促使故事的讲述更具有时空张力和价值韧性。

Therefore, so-called word-image intertextuality refers to the interactive relationship between the two narrative media of language/script and images. So-called the binary progression of ideological and political education narrative refers to treating language/script and images as two different types of discourse texts for storytelling in ideological and political education, with language/script as one element and images as the other, and the “1+1>2” promotional effect on narrative outcomes produced by their combination.

因此，所谓语图互文，指的是语言文字和图像这两种叙事媒介之间的互动关系，所谓思想政治教育叙事的二元进阶指的是将语言文字和图像视为思想政治教育讲故事的两种不同性质的话语文本，语言文字和图像各为一元，以及二者联合之后对叙事效果所产生的“1+1>2”的促进作用。

I. Theoretical Exploration of Word-Image Intertextual Narrative in Ideological and Political Education

一、思想政治教育语图互文叙事的理论探赜

Word-image intertextuality in ideological and political education narrative refers to the combination of image symbols containing some educational meaning with the language that interprets that image, and also to the intuitive interpretation of the deep meaning of a text containing some educational meaning through images. The anchoring of image signification by linguistic messages, the concrete presentation of written language by image symbols, and the bidirectional rhythmic movement between the two indicate the simultaneous presence of language/script and signifying images in the narrative practice of ideological and political education. Intertextual co-rhythm, intertextual metaphor, and intertextual context constitute the intertextual structure of word-image narrative in ideological and political education.

思想政治教育叙事的语图互文意指蕴含着某种教育意义的图像符号与阐释这一图像的语言的结合，也指蕴含着某种教育意义的文本得到图像对其深层含义的直观阐释。语言讯息对图像意指的锚固、图像符号对书写语言的具象呈现以及二者之间的双向律动指涉了语言文字和表意图像在思想政治教育叙事实践中的同时在场。互文共律、互文隐喻、互文语境构成了思想政治教育语图叙事的互文结构。

(I) Intertextual Co-Rhythm: The Rhetorical Rhythm of Mutual Construction between Language/Script and Image Information

（一）互文共律：语言文字与图像信息互构的修辞律动

Co-rhythm refers to the common laws of the language medium and the image medium in ideological and political education narrative, or the common characteristics of the two signifying symbols, i.e., their commonality. Script is an important marker of Chinese civilization, inscribing the cultural memory of the Chinese nation over 10,000 years. Engels pointed out: “Mankind began with the smelting of iron ore and transitioned to the age of civilization due to the invention of script and its application to documentary records.” [2]2 "Place the image on the left, place the book on the right; seek the image in the diagram, seek the principle in the book" (置图于左，置书于右；索象于图，索理于书): A classical Chinese formulation attributed to the Song dynasty scholar Zheng Qiao (郑樵, 1104–1162) from his work *Tongzhi* (《通志》), emphasizing the complementary roles of visual diagrams and written texts in scholarly inquiry.37 As early as prehistoric times, Chinese ancestors drew and carved pictorial symbols on rocks and artifacts, nurturing the embryonic form of script. Looking at the evolutionary trajectory of scripts across the world’s nations, all began with tracing the physical contours of objects. As the carrier of Chinese civilization, Chinese characters originated from primitive graphic symbols; the development of graphics was the foundation for the emergence and development of script. Dots and lines constitute the basic framework of characters; from an external visual perspective, this framework is similar to the abstract geometric shapes of graphics. Examined from this perspective, script and images possess intermingling and isomorphism. Further, language encodes intended meaning through sound. Script carries thought, thought controls script, and script is a record of language; through the recording of language by script, instantaneous thought is fixed. Therefore, language/script and images have a deep origin and strong similarities.

共律是指思想政治教育叙事之语言媒介和图像媒介的共同规律，或者说是两种表意符号的共同特点，即共性。文字是中华文明的重要标志，铭刻着中华民族上下10000年的文化记忆。恩格斯指出：“人类从铁矿的冶炼开始，并由于文字的发明及其应用于文献记录而过渡到文明时代。”[2]37早在史前时期，中华先民就在岩石、器物上摹写契刻图画符号，孕育了文字的雏形。纵观世界各民族的文字演进轨迹，莫不以描摹实物的形体轮廓为起点。作为中华文明之载体的汉字，其发展的起点是原始的图形符号，图形的发展是文字出现和发展的基础。点和线条构成了文字的基本框架，这种框架从外在形象上来看与图形的抽象几何形状异曲同工，就此意义上进行审视，文字和图像具有交融性和同构性。进言之，语言是用声音对所要表达意思的编码。文字承载思想，思想操控文字，文字又是对语言的记录，通过文字对语言的记录，使得瞬间的思维得以固定下来。因此，语言文字和图像之间具有很深的渊源，也具有很强的相似之处。

Language/script creates meaningful inner spiritual images in linear arrangement, while images “appear in memory where language cannot process” [3]3 "Time is actually the active existence of man" (时间实际上是人的积极存在): A quotation from Karl Marx's *Grundrisse der Kritik der politischen Ökonomie* (1857–1858), where Marx discusses time as the space for human development and activity.247, becoming symbols capable of independently manifesting meaning through visual form. “Script was once interpreted as a direct overflow of thought, while images were interpreted as a direct expression of intense emotion or the subconscious.” [3]3 "Time is actually the active existence of man" (时间实际上是人的积极存在): A quotation from Karl Marx's *Grundrisse der Kritik der politischen Ökonomie* (1857–1858), where Marx discusses time as the space for human development and activity.247 In real life, we express thoughts and convey emotions through language/script, encoding thoughts and emotions that have left their living carriers into conceptualized language/script, and through the combination, repetition, and naming of images, transforming invisible thoughts, morals, values, ethics, and emotions into visually visible graphic symbols, endowing the discourse power of ideological and political education narrative with infinite tension. Overall, the world’s nations have created diverse languages and scripts over long historical development; although various languages and scripts differ slightly in form, the idea that script originates from graphics is universal. They are all products of society and can all carry and transmit certain information. In ideological and political education narrative, although language and images are heterogeneous media, they share the same psychological mechanisms, emotional foundations, and modes of thinking; they interweave to form meaning and combine to reveal significance, producing a synergistic force that achieves the goals of ideological and political education. From this perspective, the intertextual co-rhythm of language/script narrative and image narrative in ideological and political education refers to the narrative sharing of cognitive and representational functions between language/script and images as heterogeneous signs; their fusion in terms of formal expression, signifying space, and memory shaping stretches the dialogic tension between image intuition and language abstraction, enabling ideological and political education to acquire a logic of narration and mode of argumentation based on word-image co-rhythm.

语言文字在线性排列中创造了富有意味的内在精神图像，图像则“出现在记忆中无法用语言来加工的地方”[3]247，以一种视觉形象成为能够独立显现意义的符号。“文字曾被阐释为思想的直接溢出，图像则被解释为一种强烈情感或者下意识的直接表现。”[3]247在现实生活中，我们通过语言文字来表达思想、传达情感，把离开了鲜活载体的思想和情感通过概念化的语言文字编码存储起来，通过图像的组合、重复和命名等方式，将不可见的思想、道德、价值、伦理和情感等转化为视觉上的可见性图符，赋予思想政治教育叙事话语权无限张力。总体观之，世界各民族在历史的长时段发展中创造了姿态万千的语言文字，尽管各种语言文字在表现形式上略有不同，但文字起源于图形的理念却是相通的。它们均是社会的产物，都可以承载和传递一定的信息。在思想政治教育叙事中，语言和图像虽为异质媒介，但却具备相同的心理机制、情感基础和运思方式，二者之间参互成文、合而见义，产生达成思想政治教育目标的同构合力。在此视域下，思想政治教育语言文字叙事和图像叙事的互文共律，指涉互为异质符号的语言文字和图像在认知和表征功能上的叙事共享，两者在造型表意、意指空间、记忆形塑等方面的融合拉伸了图像直观和语言抽象的对话性张力，使思想政治教育获得了语图共律的讲述逻辑和论证方式。

(II) Intertextual Metaphor: The Transferred Meaning Generation from Source Domain to Target Domain through Imagination and Construction

（二）互文隐喻：从源域想象并建构目标域的转义生成

The intertextual metaphor of language/script and image narrative in ideological and political education refers to the transferred meaning generation based on the similarity between different meaning systems in the “source domain” and the “target domain.” In essence, it means using a cognitive system or conceptual category familiar to the public to replace another relatively unfamiliar cognitive system or conceptual system [4]4 Intertextual meaning (互文见义) is a traditional Chinese rhetorical device where two seemingly separate phrases or elements (here, language and image) mutually complete and illuminate each other’s meaning, producing a fuller understanding than either could alone.; its essence is that a currently complex and unfamiliar thing needs to be cognized and experienced through another simpler and familiar thing. Ideological and political education is a political practical activity carried out in the ideological field through educational forms, an educational activity that cultivates qualified social members according to certain social needs. From the perspective of the inherent domain of ideological and political education itself, it possesses strong abstraction and speculative nature; therefore, in concrete educational practice, one cannot “take a document and read it aloud, lifeless and dry” [5]5 Transposition (出位) refers to a medium temporarily adopting the narrative characteristics of another medium (e.g., a painting suggesting a sequence of events over time, or a text describing a static spatial scene in detail).21. To help students better understand relevant knowledge, teachers need to make abstract theoretical knowledge and ideological concepts as vivid and concrete as possible, closer to students’ lives, and convenient for students to understand. Narrative is one of the most vivid forms of ideological and political education, a powerful lever for improving the pertinence, appeal, and effectiveness of ideological and political education, and can find effective discourse carriers for abstract and complex ideological concepts in a soft manner. As mentioned above, the intertextuality and signification between language and images mainly stem from the rhetorical strategies they share; both language and images have the function of conveying information and expressing meaning through metaphor, embodying the essence of mutual metaphor at the level of meaning presentation. The hierarchical application and comprehensive integration of linguistic metaphor and image metaphor are important methods for expressing ideas and clarifying principles; they make abstract concepts concrete and profound truths simple through visually perceptible and audibly comprehensible means, enabling the educated to understand unfamiliar things from familiar cognitive categories and to infer unknown truths from known principles.

思想政治教育语言文字与图像叙事的互文隐喻指涉不同意义系统在“源域”和“目标域”相似性基础上的转义生成，实际上指的就是用一种大众熟悉的认知体系或概念范畴来代替另一种较为陌生的认知体系或概念系统[4]，其本质就是当前的较为复杂陌生的事物需要借助另一种较为简单熟悉的事物来进行认知和体验。思想政治教育是在思想领域以教育形式展开的政治实践活动，是按照一定的社会需要培养出合格社会成员的教育活动。从思想政治教育的本身存在之域来讲，其具有很强的抽象性与思辨性，因此在具体的教育实践活动中不能“拿着一个文件在那儿宣读，没有生命、干巴巴的”[5]21。为了使学生更好地理解相关知识，就需要教师尽可能将抽象的理论知识和思想概念变得形象化和具体化，更加贴近学生生活，方便学生理解。而叙事是一种最生动的思想政治教育形式，是提高思想政治教育针对性、吸引力和实效性的有力抓手，能够以软性方式使抽象复杂的意识形态观念找到有效的话语载体。承前所述，语言与图像之间的互文与表意主要出自于它们所共有的修辞策略，语言和图像都具有通过隐喻的方式传达信息和表达意义的功能，在意义的呈现层面上体现出互喻的实质。语言隐喻和图像隐喻的层次性运用与综合集成是表达思想、阐明事理的一个重要方法，其通过视觉上可感、听觉上可悟的方式使抽象的概念具体化，艰深的道理浅显化，使受教育者从熟悉的认知范畴中了解不熟悉的东西，从已知的道理中推及未知的真理。

The effectiveness of metaphorical narratives in ideological and political education depends on the educator’s excavation of source-domain resources and their creative interpretation. Abstract theories of ideological and political education must be presented through concrete practices, using material imagery and mental description. Several metaphors in the word-image narrative of ideological and political education, as important discourses for telling China’s story and spreading China’s voice, possess unique explanatory power, persuasiveness, and appeal. The effect of metaphorical narrative in ideological and political education hinges on the selection of the source domain itself, because ideological and political education must frequently interpret innovative theories and explain the significance of new phenomena. Different things carry different cognitive frameworks and underlying modes of understanding. The source domain is a familiar thing or cognitive system, while the target domain is a complex or unfamiliar thing. When we imagine and construct the ideological and political educational meaning of the target domain along the cognitive system of the source domain, the corresponding rhetorical principle is actually embodied as a process of tropological transfer. Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, Xi Jinping has used “calcium for

效果明显的思想政治教育叙事隐喻，取决于教育主体对喻体资源的挖掘及其创造性阐释。抽象的思想政治教育理论必须要通过具象的思想政治教育实践进行物象呈现和心象描述。思想政治教育语图叙事的若干隐喻，作为讲述中国故事、传播中国声音的重要话语，有着别具一格的解释力、说服力和感染力。思想政治教育隐喻叙事效果取决于源域本身的选择，因为思想政治教育要时常对创新的理论进行阐释、对新生事物的意义进行解释，而不同的事物所携带的认知框架及其深层的理解方式是不同的，源域是一种熟悉的事物或认知系统，目标域是一种复杂或陌生的事物，当我们沿着源域的认知系统来想象并建构目标域的思想政治教育意义时，对应的修辞学原理实际上体现为一种转义过程。党的十八大以来，习近平以“精神上的钙”比喻共产党人的理想信念，以“石榴籽”比喻新时代的民族关系，以“第一粒扣子”比喻青少年的价值观，以“空气”比喻社会主义核心价值观的影响力，以“同心圆”比喻最广大群众的思想共识，以“惊涛”和“春雨”比喻思想政治理论课的声势与效果。这些“总开关”“总钥匙”之喻、“钙”之喻、“扣子”之喻、“空气”之喻等用一些具有普遍认同基础的事物携带着某种集体共享的理解框架使我们能够有效地把握前者事物的内涵与特性。

(3) Intertextual Context: The Cognitive Framework Established by Intertextuality Constructs the Generative Context of Value Interpretation

（三）互文语境：互文性确立的认知框架搭建价值释义的生成语境

Within the logical framework of ideological and political education narrative, the word-image intertextual context refers to the cognitive framework established by intertextuality between linguistic texts and image texts, as well as the underlying rules or external environment that ideological and political education relies on to stimulate the generation of meaning for a given event. Any woven linguistic text or combined image is a textual form embedded within a specific cultural background; therefore, it inevitably carries particular emotional appeals, lifestyles, historical memories, and value philosophies. Its mode of interpretation is necessarily constrained by established cultural laws and civilizational principles. Only by placing the language and images that interpret the emotion and reason, the morality and righteousness of ideological and political education within the interpretive system laid out by the background culture can the narrative text establish fundamental productive logic and stimulate discursive explanatory discourse. The context anchors and limits the center and boundaries of the interpretive act of word-image narrative in ideological and political education, making it a theoretical proposition that requires special consideration in the rhetorical practice of word-image intertextuality in ideological and political education narrative. The narrative context of ideological and political education is an organic system involving the basic elements of the educational process, such as the educational subject, object, mediator, and environment. As the external environment for linguistic and image narrative expression, the intertextual context is a dialectical unity of the subjective and the objective. At present, key terms such as Chinese-path modernization, omnimedia, the metaverse, digitalization, and new quality productive forces constitute the most unavoidable and prominent objective historical realities of contemporary Chinese social development. Their comprehensive integration defines the ecological environment of ideological and political education narrative.

在思想政治教育叙事的逻辑框架下，语图互文语境指语言文本和图像文本在互文性上所确立的认知框架，以及在此基础上思想政治教育关于激发某一事件意义产生的底层规则或外部环境。任何编织状态的语言文字或组合状态的图像都是镶嵌在特定文化底色中的文本形态，因此必然负载着特定的情感诉求、生活方式、历史记忆和价值哲学，其释义方式也必然受制于既定的文化法则、文明定律。只有将阐释思想政治教育情与理、道与义的语言和图像置于背景文化所铺设的阐释体系中，叙事文本才能搭建根本性的生产逻辑、激发言说性的解释话语。语境锚定和限制了思想政治教育语图叙事释义行为的中心与边界，是思想政治教育叙事语图互文修辞实践中需要特别考虑的学理命题。思想政治教育叙事语境是一个涉及到教育主体、客体、介体和环境等教育过程中各基本要素的有机系统，作为语言和图像叙事表达的外部环境，互文语境是主观和客观的辩证统一。在当下，中国式现代化、全媒体、元宇宙、数字化、新质生产力等关键词是当前中国社会发展不可回避的、最为突出的客观历史现实，它们的综合集成规定着思想政治教育叙事的生态环境。

The intertextual context emphasizes exploring the underlying rules or external environment of narrative occurrence within the interactive relationship between linguistic texts and image texts. As the French sociologist Roland Barthes stated, all narratives must rely on the "context of the narrative work," that is, "all the regulations upon which the narrative work depends for its completion." [6]6 Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim. *Laocoön: An Essay on the Limits of Painting and Poetry*. The reference [13]85 indicates the source citation in the original text.137 Therefore, context not only establishes the boundaries of the intertextual narrative between linguistic texts and image texts but also directly participates in the construction of meaning as a productive element. The social psychological structure of an era always carves the interpretive structure of linguistic texts and image texts in a subtle, imperceptible manner, silently acting upon the unconscious domain of the educated. Take the 2022 textbook illustration incident involving the People's Education Press as an example. What aroused public outrage were the images from the book—criticized as "ugly character illustrations, distorting aesthetics, with tattoos and private parts appearing." [7]7 Arnheim, Rudolf. *Visual Thinking*. The reference [14]119 indicates the source citation in the original text. This quickly evoked memories of illustrations in older editions of the textbooks—images full of student vitality, aesthetically pleasing, vivid, and story-rich. The cartoon illustrations from the two editions of the textbooks constructed an intertextual context. Through the interpretation of the former by the latter, people reflected on the problems of the new edition's textbook illustrations: their lack of beauty and positivity, lack of seriousness and standardization, and lack of meticulousness and accuracy. Clearly, the emergence of the aesthetic imagery of the older edition's textbook illustrations was summoned by the problems existing in the new edition's illustrations. Together, they built an intertextual context, thereby granting a foundational interpretive rule to the problems of the new edition's textbook illustrations. It is precisely within such an intertextual structure that people were astonished to realize the highly imaginative narrative space that the older edition's textbook illustrations provided for students, thus reflecting, from the depths of the endogenous logic of ideology, on the various problems present in the new edition's textbook illustrations.

互文语境强调在语言文本与图像文本的互动关系中探寻叙事发生的底层规则或外部环境。诚如法国社会学家罗兰·巴特所言，凡叙事都要依附于“叙事作品的语境”，亦即“叙事作品赖以完成的全部规定”[6]137。因此，语境不仅确立了语言文本与图像文本互文叙事的边界，而且作为一种生产性的元素直接参与意义的建构。一个时代的社会心理结构，总是以一种潜移默化的方式雕刻着语言文本和图像文本的释义结构，悄无声息地作用于受教育者的无意识领域。以2022年人教版教材插图事件为例，引起众怒的是来自书中的图像——被指“人物插图丑陋、歪曲审美，出现纹身、隐私部位”[7]。这会让人迅速联想到旧版教材中的插图——学生气息扑面而来，图像美观、生动、有故事感。两版教材中的卡通插图构建起互文语境，通过后者对前者的释义，反思新版教材插图的不美观向上、不严肃规范、不细致准确等问题。显然，老版教材插图审美意象的出场，源于新版教材插图存在问题的召唤，二者共同搭建了一个互文语境，从而赋予新版教材插图问题一种基础性的释义规则。正是在这样的一个互文结构中，人们才惊讶地意识到老版教材插图所带给学生的极富想象力的叙事空间，从而在意识形态内生逻辑的深处反思新版教材插图所存在的种种问题。

II. The Logical Dimensions of Word-Image Intertextual Narrative in Ideological and Political Education

二、思想政治教育语图互文叙事的逻辑向度

Language follows temporal logic, while images follow spatial logic. The word-image intertextuality of ideological and political education narrative must clearly delineate the similarities and differences between linguistic text and images as narrative media. Linguistic text, as a medium, is suitable for argumentation and exposition; images are conducive to storing prototypes of objects, can bring people direct visual perception, and are an objective display of visual images. However, the two are not completely isolated and independent; their related functions often intersect. Since ancient times, China has had a narrative tradition of "placing images on the left and text on the right" and "the inseparability of text and image." "Place the image on the left, place the book on the right; seek the image in the diagram, seek the principle in the book." [8]8 Cassirer, Ernst. *An Essay on Man: An Introduction to a Philosophy of Human Culture*. The reference [18]46 indicates the source citation in the original text. The two complement each other and cannot be neglected. Whether it is using images to verify history, using images to supplement history, or using text and images to mutually verify each other, all point to the phenomenon of "image" and "text" complementing each other in narrative since ancient times. This also anchors the spatiotemporal coordinates and delineates the warp and weft of the era for contemporary ideological and political education narrative.

语言遵循的是时间逻辑，而图像则遵循的是空间逻辑。思想政治教育叙事的语图互文必须要清楚地厘定出语言文字和图像作为叙事媒介有何异同。语言文字作为媒介适合论说，图像有利于事物原型的储存，能够带给人视觉直观感受，是视觉形象的客观展示。但二者之间并不是完全隔绝独立的，它们的相关功能往往又相互交叉，我国自古以来就有“左图右文”和“图文不分”的叙事传统。“置图于左，置书于右；索象于图，索理于书”[8]，两者相辅相成，不可偏废。无论是以图证史，还是以图补史抑或是图文互证，都道出了“图”与“文”自古以来在叙事中相辅相成的现象，也为当下思想政治教育叙事锚定了时空坐标、刻画了时代经纬。

(1) Temporal Logic: The Temporal Spatialization of Linguistic Narrative in Ideological and Political Education

（一）时间逻辑：思想政治教育语言叙事的时间空间化

Linguistic text is continuous; it is the art of time. Its narrative function is realized through encoding according to certain expressive rules. The world represented by linguistic text, the objects presented, unfold sequentially; it cannot simultaneously combine and present multiple objects in one space like an image can. Therefore, the objects described by linguistic text require the assistance of imagination to complete the subjective construction of the linguistically described object in the mind, thereby forming an internal spiritual image—that is, the spatialization of time. Linguistic text is an external representation of a person's inner world, containing an internal worldview and crystallizing the ethnic thinking of a particular group. This means that there is an inherent connection between linguistic text and thought. To a certain extent, the essence of ideological and political education narrative is to master the discourse power for publicizing a certain matter. Discourse is woven from specific individual characters and phrases according to a certain logical dimension. From this perspective, language naturally occupies a dominant position in narrative. In the practical activities of ideological and political education, language can very conveniently regulate the sensory control system of the educated. This is because, in the process of transmitting knowledge, imparting skills, and resolving doubts, it is mostly carried out in the form of linguistic description. Language and time are isomorphic with each other; the relationship between the two increasingly manifests as a whole. Marx pointed out: "Time is actually the active existence of man." [9]9 “That most pregnant moment” (最富于想象力的那一顷刻) is a concept from Lessing’s *Laocoön*, referring to the single moment in a visual artwork that best suggests both what came before and what will follow.161 As an explicit yardstick, time runs through the entire process of human life and is a sufficient and necessary condition for constructing human existence and the meaning of life. The hierarchical combination of linguistic text can depict the time when an event occurs, using the productive force of language to turn back the pointer of time to within the spatial coordinates of the story that ideological and political education intends to tell. Therefore, linguistic text, as a temporal medium, is itself the material of the story. The rapidly flowing linear time can create suspense and lay out the plot in educational practice activities, thereby driving the narrative forward.

语言文字是连续的，是时间的艺术，其叙事功能是通过一定的表达规律完成编码之后而实现的。语言文字所表现的世界，所呈现的物象是依次进行的，无法像图像那样在一个空间中同时组合呈现多个物象。因此，语言文字所描述的物象需要借助想象力的加持，在头脑中完成对语言描述之物的主观建构，进而形成一幅内在的精神图像，即时间的空间化。语言文字是一个人内心世界的外在表征，蕴含着内在的世界观，凝结着某一个团体的族群思维。这也就是说，语言文字和思维之间具有某种内在关联。思想政治教育叙事的本质在一定程度上就是要掌握对某一事物进行宣介的话语权，话语是由一个个具体的文字和词组按照一定的逻辑向度编织而成的。在此视角上而言，语言在叙事中天然地占据主导性。在思想政治教育实践活动中，语言可以非常方便地调控受教育者的感官控制系统，这是因为在传道授业解惑之时，多数时候是以语言描述的形式进行的。而语言和时间彼此是同构的，二者之间的关系越来越多地表现为一个整体。马克思指出：“时间实际上是人的积极存在”[9]161，时间作为一个显性标尺贯穿于人生命过程的始终，是构建人的生存状态与生命意义的充分必要条件。语言文字的层次化组合能够描绘出事件发生的时间，利用语言的生产力将时间的指针拨回到思想政治教育所要讲述故事的空间坐标之内。因此，作为时间性媒介的语言文字本身就是故事的素材，快速流动的线性时间能够在教育实践活动中制造悬念、铺陈剧情，继而推动叙事。

The temporal spatialization of linguistic narrative in ideological and political education is not a physical unfolding and presentation, but rather a spatial pattern that emerges in our minds through understanding and imagination. If we liken linguistic narrative to a river, then spatialization means bringing to the surface the internal floating objects and underlying sediments in that river, allowing them to echo with the scenery on both banks, thereby achieving the purpose of the narrative. The strategies for the temporal spatialization of linguistic narrative in ideological and political education can be divided into two categories in terms of totality. First, the abstractness of temporal media is dissolved in spatialization, and the objects of ideological and political education gain concrete support for their perception of time. It is precisely because of the spatial support of the coordinate grid that the narrative of ideological and political education under the pressure of time can achieve the understanding and acceptance of the narrated matters through the imagination and reflection of the educated. Second, the transformation of spatialization allows abstract, one-dimensional, linear time to acquire a three-dimensional mirror image to which it can attach, thereby making time itself multidimensional and three-dimensional. In the narrative of ideological and political education, the one-dimensionality of time is extremely important because it makes the narrative thread clear and discernible. The spatialization of time enables the multidimensional manifestation of the forms of things, forming a complete narrative structure, and thereby completing the artistic interpretation of language and text in temporal narrative.

思想政治教育语言文字叙事的时间空间化并不是物理学上的铺开呈现，而是借助理解和想象，在我们的头脑中呈现出来的一幅空间格局。如果我们把语言文字叙事比喻为一条河流的话，那么空间化就是要将这条河流中的内在漂浮物和底层沉淀物呈现出来，让其与河流两岸的风景产生呼应，继而达成叙事之目的。思想政治教育语言文字叙事时间空间化的策略在总体性上可以分为两类。一是时间性媒介的抽象性在空间化中被消解，思想政治教育对象对于时间的感知有了具象的凭借。时间压迫下的思想政治教育叙事，正因为有了经纬坐标的空间支撑，才能经由受教育者的想象与思考达致对所叙述之事物的理解和接受。二是空间化的变格让抽象一维的线性时间获得了可依附的立体镜像，从而使时间也变得多维和立体起来。在思想政治教育叙事中，时间的一维性是极为重要的，因为它让叙事脉络变得清晰可辨。时间的空间化得以多维显现事物的形态，形成一个完整的叙事结构，继而完成语言文字在时间性叙事中的艺术演绎。

(2) Spatial Logic: The Spatial Temporalization of Image Narrative in Ideological and Political Education

（二）空间逻辑：思想政治教育图像叙事的空间时间化

In today’s era of reading images, from social media to offline spaces, we are surrounded by various images every day; work, life, and study are all closely related to images. According to the explanation in the *Modern Chinese Dictionary*, an image is “a likeness drawn, photographed, or printed” [10]10 The original text cites W. J. T. Mitchell, *Iconology: Image, Text, Ideology* (University of Chicago Press, 1986). The bracketed numbers [21] and [22] refer to the original Chinese bibliography, which is not reproduced here.1325. In the narrative paradigm of ideological and political education, images are a logical overlay of basic cognitive methods such as “listening,” “speaking,” and “reading.” They are narrative expressions using image symbols such as film and television, painting, photography, and advertising as the basic signifying system, characterized by turning the abstract into the concrete, the complex into the simple, and the rational into the perceptual. Images are inseparable from visual forms; “the construction (of visual forms) is carried out by means of visual symbols” [11]11 The original text cites Xi Jinping, *Xi Jinping: The Governance of China*, vol. 213. An image is a “decontextualized existence” extracted from the flow of forms of events. “Strictly speaking, storytelling is a matter of time, while pictures are a matter of space” [12]. Whether psychologically or physiologically, visualized information is more in line with the cognitive and receptive habits of the general public. In the logical framework of word-image intertextual narrative in ideological and political education, language texts are linear, while image texts are nonlinear, spatial, and cyclical. Images often involve spatial intrinsic elements such as position, size, and shape, while image media such as painting, sculpture, and photography are also adept at representing people, events, and objects juxtaposed in space.

在当今的读图时代，从社交媒体到线下空间，我们每天都处在各种图像的包围之中，工作、生活、学习均与图像有着密切的关联。按照《现代汉语词典》的解释，图像就是“画成、摄制或印制的形象”[10]1325。在思想政治教育叙事范式中，图像是在“听”“说”“读”等基础认知方式的逻辑叠加，是以影视、绘画、摄影、广告等图像符号为基本表意系统的叙事表达，具有化抽象为具体、化复杂为简单、化理性为感性的鲜明特征。图像与形象密不可分，“（形象）建构乃是借助于视觉符号所实施的”[11]13。图像是一种从事件的形象流中离析出来的“去语境化的存在”。“严格说来，讲故事是时间里的事，图画是空间里的事。”[12]无论是心理上还是生理上，影像化的信息都更加符合社会大众的认知接受习惯。在思想政治教育语图互文叙事逻辑中，语言文本是线性的，而图像文本则是非线性的、空间性的、循环往复性的。图像往往关涉到位置、大小、形状等空间内蕴要素，而绘画、雕塑、照片等图像媒介也长于表现在空间中并列的人、事、物。

The essence of image narrative in ideological and political education is the temporalization of space, that is, reincorporating spatialized, decontextualized images that carry the emotions, principles, morality, and righteousness of ideological and political education into the process of time, in order to restore or reconstruct the context of their occurrence. The essence of ideological and political education narrative is storytelling, and stories are events that have already happened in the past. Events always occur within a certain context, with specific spatial support and a certain temporal thread. Taking photographs as an example, photographs are core elements in the image system under the dominance of modern media. The generation of photographic narrative originates from the moment the camera shutter is pressed, freezing a situational unit from a certain time and space within the image, using the explicit form of space to inscribe an implicit temporal scale. That is, in the image medium of the photograph, time has already been spatialized, mainly manifested in the photographer’s discovery of those “most pregnant moments” [13]83 in real life and recording them with the camera as a carrier. By analogy, painting is the author’s depiction of those “most pregnant moments” [13]83 in real life or the imagined world, and an artistic creation using a brush on certain media. Therefore, the time frozen or preserved in a static image is very brief, often just an instant. To enable such a temporal slice that has been transformed into space to narrate a story completely, clearly, and fluently, it must be reincorporated into the process of time. That is, for an image to achieve narration, the space within the image must be temporalized, and the spatialized, decontextualized things in the image must be reincorporated into the process of time, allowing them to “flow.” Only in this way can the objects of education perceive some internal logic, temporal relationship, or causal connection in the matters that the educational subject intends to narrate through a series of images, thereby making the mixed images of ideological and political education in the visual culture era orderly amidst complexity and structured amidst abundance, and making the plot development of image narrative in ideological and political education more aligned with the cognitive structure, psychological traits, and thinking modes of the educational objects, thus being easily accepted.

思想政治教育图像叙事的本质是空间的时间化，即把空间化、去语境化的承载思想政治教育情与理、道与义的图像重新纳入到时间的进程之中，以恢复或重建其发生时之语境。思想政治教育叙事的本质是讲故事，而故事是已经发生的过去的事。事件总是在一定的语境中发生的，具有特定的空间承载和一定的时间脉络。以照片为例，照片是现代媒介主导下图像系统中的核心元素。照片叙事的生发源自于相机按下快门的那一刻将某一时空中的情景单元凝固在图像之中，以空间的显性形式刻画了隐性的时间标尺，即在照片这一图像介质中，时间已经被空间化了，其主要表现为摄影作者发现现实生活中那些“最富于孕育性的顷刻”[13]83，并用相机这一载体进行记录。以此类推，绘画则是作者描绘出现实生活中或者想象世界中那些“最富于孕育性的顷刻”[13]83，并在某些介质上用画笔进行的艺术创作。因此，静态图像中凝固或保存的时间是非常短暂的，往往只是一个瞬间。要使图像这样一种已经化为空间的时间切片能够完整、清晰、流利地叙述一个故事，就必须把它重新纳入到时间的进程之中，即图像要实现叙事，必须使图像中的空间时间化，把图像中空间化、去语境化的事物重新纳入到时间的进程之中，让其“流动”起来。唯有如此，才能让教育对象在系列图像中感觉到教育主体所要讲述之事的某种内在逻辑、时间关系或因果关联，继而使视觉文化时代驳杂的思想政治教育图像组合杂而有序、繁而有章，使思想政治教育图像叙事的剧情演绎更加契合教育客体的认知结构、心理特质和思维方式而被容易接受。

(3) Spatiotemporal Coupling: The Intertextual Meaning of Spatiotemporal Fusion in Word-Image Narrative of Ideological and Political Education

（三）时空耦合：思想政治教育语图叙事时空融合的互文见义

“Intertextual meaning” [4]4 Intertextual meaning (互文见义) is a traditional Chinese rhetorical device where two seemingly separate phrases or elements (here, language and image) mutually complete and illuminate each other’s meaning, producing a fuller understanding than either could alone. is a rhetorical method formed by the comprehensive integration of language and image narrative. Language anchors the interpretive system of the word-image text, while images use shapes and colors in space to outline vivid and concrete forms of things, compensating for information that language texts find difficult to convey. However, in the dimension of discourse production where language texts and image texts interact, a profound interactive structure emerges between the two. Their combined force creates a larger, somewhat persuasive rhetorical discourse in the narrative practice of ideological and political education. Continuing from the above, in the narrative logic of ideological and political education, images can be called spatial media, while language can be called temporal media. Time and space possess self-existence in social development; time and space also serve as a “container” or an “environment” in which the narrative of ideological and political education operates. In the philosophical perspective of thinkers like Kant, time and space together constitute the transcendental framework for human perception of all things, which also provides “reference from other domains” for us to use the two basic media of language and images to tell the stories of ideological and political education well. The narrative of ideological and political education must first tell the stories of the Chinese nation and the stories of the Communist Party of China. These stories always occur within a certain context and specific space, and also follow a certain temporal thread. However, spatial media such as painting and sculpture, and temporal media such as spoken language and text, do not have completely absolute attribute boundaries. In actual narrative activities, there exists a phenomenon of “transposition” [5]5 Transposition (出位) refers to a medium temporarily adopting the narrative characteristics of another medium (e.g., a painting suggesting a sequence of events over time, or a text describing a static spatial scene in detail)., where temporal media or spatial media sometimes transcend their own narrative capabilities and enter the state of expression that the other medium excels at.

“互文见义”是语言文字和图像叙事综合集成后的一种修辞方法。语言文字锚定了语图文本的释义体系，图像用空间中的形体和颜色勾勒出生动具体的事物形象，用以弥补语言文字难以传递的信息。但在语言文本和图像文本双重互动的话语生产维度上，二者之间呈现出一种深刻的互动结构，其合力作用在思想政治教育叙事实践中制造出一种更大的带有某种劝服性的修辞话语。承前所述，在思想政治教育叙事逻辑中，图像可称之为空间性媒介，语言文字则可称之为时间性媒介。时空在社会发展中具有自在性，时空也是思想政治教育叙事得以运作的一个“容器”或一种“环境”。在以康德为代表的哲学家思想视域里，时间与空间一起构成了人类感知万事万物的先验框架，这也为我们利用语言文字和图像这两种基本媒介讲好思想政治教育故事提供了“他域参考”。思想政治教育叙事首先要讲好中华民族的故事、中国共产党的故事，而这些故事总是在一定的语境中和特定的空间中发生的，也遵循着一定的时间脉络。但绘画、雕塑等空间性媒介和口语、文字等时间性媒介并没有完全绝对的属性界限，在实际的叙事活动中，存在一种“出位”现象，即时间性媒介或空间性媒介有时超越自身的叙事性能而进入对方媒介擅长表现的状态。

The German aesthetician Lessing pointed out: “All bodies exist not only in space, but also in time.” [13]85 The “transgression” of word-image narrative in ideological and political education refers to the fact that language and images should not rigidly adhere to their boundaries; they must timely cross or exceed the narrative positions constituted by their own media, placing themselves in a state of flux, capable of promptly bridging the gaps of misalignment that crack open during the narrative process of a single language or a single image. Therefore, in the narrative practice of ideological and political education, the two basic media of language and image “step out of their positions,” exceeding the limits or constraints inherent in the media themselves, making them auxiliary media for the primary narrative medium (image or language) in special contexts—this is precisely the original meaning of the “transgression” of word-image narrative in ideological and political education. As the American film theorist Rudolf Arnheim stated: “All media of sensory expression interpenetrate each other, and although each medium performs best when relying on its own most unique properties, they can all infuse themselves with new vitality through occasional alliance with their neighbors.” [14]119 Since ancient times, China has had a narrative tradition of “pictures on the left, text on the right,” “no separation of picture and text,” and “mutual verification of picture and history.” The picture is called the warp, the text the weft; warp and weft interwoven, they form patterns and reveal meaning. In the process of ideological and political education narrative, language expresses thoughts and conveys emotions, while images can use vivid and concrete forms to compensate for information that text finds difficult to convey, accurately reproducing the specific circumstances of event scenes through visibility and intuitiveness. In short, the spatiotemporal coupling of narrative media in ideological and political education creates a narrative structure where there is text within the image, or image within the text. This structural mode, mutually indexing and verifying text and image, creates a certain tension between text and image—either cooperating or supplementing—thereby generating a powerful narrative efficacy in ideological and political education.

德国美学家莱辛指出：“一切物体不仅在空间中存在，而且也在时间中存在。”[13]85思想政治教育语图叙事的“出位”指的是，语言文字与图像不能刻板地固守疆界，要适时地跨越或超出自身媒介所构成的叙事本位，让自己处于一种流动状态，能够及时弥合单一语言或单幅图像叙事过程中裂开的错位缝隙。因此，在思想政治教育叙事实践中，语言和图像这两种基本媒介“跳出本位”，超出媒介自身固有性质之限制或束缚，使其成为特殊场合中主要叙事媒介（图像或语言）的辅助媒介，正是思想政治教育语图叙事“出位”的本意。正如美国电影理论家鲁道夫·阿恩海姆所言：“所有的感觉表达媒介都在发生相互的渗透，尽管每一种表达媒介在依靠自身最独特的性质时发挥得最好，它们又都可以通过与自己的邻者偶然联袂为自己灌注新的活力。”[14]119我国自古就有“左图右文”“图文不分”“图史互证”的叙事传统，图谓之经，文谓之纬，一经一纬，相错而成文见义。在思想政治教育叙事的过程中，语言文字表达着思想、传递着情感，而图像则可以用生动具体的形象弥补文字难以传递的信息，以可视性、直观性准确地再现事件场景的具体情形。简言之，思想政治教育叙事媒介的时空耦合创设了图中有文，或文在图中的叙事结构。此等结构方式，互为索引、文图互证，使得图文之间形成某种张力，或合作或补充，继而产生强大的思想政治教育叙事效力。

III. Practical Strategies for Word-Image Intertextual Narrative in Ideological and Political Education

三、思想政治教育语图互文叙事的实践策略

“The fundamental element in the formation of human thought is the ability to use symbols.” [15] Chinese characters belong to pictographic writing; at their inception, they shared a common origin with images, mutually constituting interior and exterior, and in their evolutionary and developmental logic, they follow a pattern from realism to gradual abstraction and symbolization. Examined from the perspective of cognitive psychology, language and images—these two narrative media of ideological and political education—correspond to different receptive psychologies. Language follows temporal logic, unfolding narrative along a fixed linear logic; it corresponds to the systematic cognitive mechanism of the educated, emphasizing the educated subject’s holistic grasp and systematic summarization of the narrative text’s connotations, especially the judgment and response to the structure, system, and framework of the linguistic information carrying the content of ideological and political education. Images, on the other hand, follow spatial logic; they correspond to the heuristic cognitive mechanism of the educated, emphasizing the educated subject’s rapid extraction of information conveyed by the educational subject, especially the emotional recognition and identification perception of the information presented in the image, and, on the basis of association and imagination, capturing “that most pregnant moment” [16] within the image. When these two narrative media, according to a specific combinatorial logic, step out of their “positions” and thereby form an integrated, synthesized systemic text, they synesthetically construct a new narrative relationship—namely, word-image intertextuality.

“人类思想形成的根本要素是使用符号的能力。”[15]中国文字归属于象形文字，其诞生之初与图像同源，互为表里，在演进与发展逻辑中遵循着从写实到逐渐抽象化、符号化这一规律。基于认知心理进行审视，语言文字和图像这两种思想政治教育叙事媒介对应于不同的接受心理。语言遵循的是时间逻辑，是沿着固定的线性逻辑而展开叙事的，其所对应的是受教育者的系统性认知机制，强调教育客体对叙事文本内涵的整体把握与系统概括，尤其是对承载思想政治教育内容之语言信息的结构、系统、框架的判断与回应；而图像则遵循的是空间逻辑，其所对应的是受教育者的启发性认知机制，强调教育客体对教育主体所传达信息的快速提取，尤其是对图像中所呈现信息的情感识别和认同感知，并在联想与想象的基础上，捕捉图像中“最富于想象力的那一顷刻”[16]。当两种叙事媒介按照特定的组合逻辑跳出“本位”，继而形成一个综合集成的系统文本，就联觉同构了一种新的叙事关系，即语图互文。

(I) Temporal Strategy: Using the Discursive Symbols of Language to Stimulate the Systematic Cognitive Mechanism of the Educated Subject

（一）时间策略：以语言的推论性符号激发教育对象的系统性认知机制

Language symbols, as a temporal narrative medium, follow linear logic, focusing on stimulating the systematic cognition of the subject of ideological and political education. Language narrative focuses on using the arrangement and combination of words to tell stories, depict characters, and express themes; it is the most important and primary mode of human narration. Strategic use of language helps achieve better functions of social persuasion and identification [17]. Narrative and discourse are closely linked; the essence of narrative is to grasp the power of discourse. Ideological and political education is a social practice activity that uses certain ideological concepts to exert influence on the educated. And “writing is seen as a medium on par with thought… language is the audible medium in the process of encoding thought and information…” [3]3 "Time is actually the active existence of man" (时间实际上是人的积极存在): A quotation from Karl Marx's *Grundrisse der Kritik der politischen Ökonomie* (1857–1858), where Marx discusses time as the space for human development and activity.213. Using language to narrate educational events that happen to oneself or others to the educated possesses high generality and immense capacity; it can narrate through summary, thereby expressing abstract thought. Thought is organized according to a certain logic; writing is the direct overflow of thought. Therefore, language and ideological and political education narrative share a natural internal logic. Language follows a systematic yet abstract linear logic of speech in narration, which requires, through certain means and methods in the narrative process, mobilizing the systematic cognitive mechanism of the educated to grasp the value and meaning that the ideological and political worker intends to convey. The human brain primarily relies on systematic and heuristic cognitive mechanisms to process external information. The systematic cognitive mechanism leans toward rational speculation; it is a cognitive expression formed after the brain’s “central processor” screens, classifies, and processes various input information. It corresponds to the reception and decoding of discourse (or speech) culture, mainly handling abstract and complex information. In the narrative process, it emphasizes the holistic grasp of the text’s meaning, as well as “the holistic questioning, analysis, and response to the contentious nature of information” [15].

语言文字符号这一时间性叙事媒介遵循着线性逻辑，侧重于激发思想政治教育对象的系统性认知。语言文字叙事聚焦的是用文字的排列组合来讲述故事，刻画人物，表达主题，是人类最重要和最主要的叙述方式。对语言文字的策略性使用有助于实现更佳的社会劝服与认同功能[17]。叙事与话语是紧密联系的，叙事的实质就是掌握话语权。思想政治教育是用一定的思想观念对受教育者施加影响的社会实践活动。而“文字被看作是与思想比肩的媒介……语言是思想和信息编码过程中的有声的媒介……”[3]213。利用语言文字向受教育者讲述发生在自己或他人身上的教育事件，具有高度的概括性和巨大的容量性，可以通过概述的方式进行叙事，继而表达抽象的思想。思想是按照一定的逻辑组织起来的，文字是思想的直接溢出。因此，语言文字与思想政治教育叙事具有一种天然的内在逻辑。语言文字在叙事时遵循着系统而又抽象的线性言说逻辑，这就需要在叙事过程中通过的一定的手段和方式调用受教育者的系统性认知机制来把握思想政治工作者所要传达的价值意义。人脑主要是依靠系统性认知机制和启发性认知机制处理外界信息的，系统性认知机制偏重理性思辨，是人脑的“中央处理器”对输入的各种信息进行筛选、分类和加工之后所形成的一种认知表达，其对应于话语（或言语）文化的接受与编译，主要处理的是抽象且复杂的信息。在叙事过程中强调对文本意义的整体把握，以及“对信息的争议性做出整体性的追问、分析与回应”[15]。

The German philosopher Ernst Cassirer pointed out: “Man is a symbolic animal.” [18]46 Language is a conventional sign; its meaning structure is subject to certain socially established semantic rules. Literature is a brilliant example of language narrative; literature relies on the arrangement and combination of language to construct stories and shape images. Therefore, in the narrative practice of ideological and political education, educators should be adept at using oral and written words to evoke emotional resonance in the educated, allowing the subjects of ideological and political education to rely on their own knowledge backgrounds and cultural experiences, and with the aid of imagination, to shape abstract linguistic concepts carrying ideological content into an internal spiritual image deep within their minds. On the other hand, the educational subject should use abstract language to establish images and fully express meaning. Specifically, this means using the “verbal image” of language to generate a “mental image” of a certain person, thing, or object in the educated, leveraging the freedom and convenience of language to convey the deep true meaning it contains, thereby conveying the implied meaning and unintended purport of ideological and political education.

德国哲学家恩斯特·卡西尔指出：“人是符号的动物。”[18]46语言文字是一种规约符，其意义结构受制于某种约定俗成的社会性的语义规则。文学是语言文字叙事的光辉典范，文学依托语言文字的排列组合来构造故事、塑造形象。因此，在思想政治教育叙事实践中，教育工作者要善于通过口头和书面的文字来引起受教育者的情感共鸣，让思想政治教育对象依托自己的知识背景、文化阅历，进而借助想象力的加持将抽象的携带思想观念的语言文字概念塑造成脑海深处的一幅内在精神图像。另一方面，教育主体要借助抽象的语言文字，立象尽意。具体来讲，就是要通过语言文字的“语象”使受教育者产生关于某人某事某物的“心象”，借助语言文字的自由性和便捷性传达其所内蕴的深层真意，继而传达思想政治教育言外之意、意外之旨。

(II) Spatial Strategy: Using the Representational Symbols of Images to Stimulate the Heuristic Cognitive Mechanism of the Educated Subject

（二）空间策略：以图像的表象性符号激发教育对象的启发性认知机制

Images are representational symbols; images connect to spatial narrative [19]. Compared to temporal language narrative, spatial image narrative is a form of speech in presence—that is, directly, openly, and unobstructedly facing the thing to be narrated. Relative to the generality and rationality of language narrative, the psychological reception process of image narrative tends more toward sensibility, providing the educated with a simpler way to understand the described object. The cognitive activity of the human brain follows the principle of inertia; the concrete, vivid, and penetrating characteristics of images often attract the perceptual attention of the educated at the first moment. Therefore, reinserting spatialized, decontextualized images into the temporal process, helping them restore or reconstruct context, can then convey a clear sense of presence through vivid and intuitive visual symbols, relatively easily activating and mobilizing the heuristic cognitive mechanism of the object of ideological and political education. The heuristic cognitive mechanism, in turn, focuses on “using certain convenient decision-making rules to construct one’s own behavioral attitudes” [20]. In the narrative activities of ideological and political education, the hierarchical application of image narrative media makes it relatively easy for the educated to enter, along the cognitive channels pre-designed by the educational subject, into the persuasive discourse, rationalized order, and value meaning behind the image. Especially when specific content of ideological and political education is implanted into the representational structure of the image, patriotism, collectivism, socialism, as well as ideals, morality, discipline, and legal system, enter the subconscious of the educated in an unthinking, silent manner.

图像是表象性符号，图像联结的是空间叙事[19]。相较于时间性维度的语言文字叙事而言，空间维度的图像叙事是一种在场的言说，即直接、敞开、无遮挡地面向所要讲述之事物。相对于语言文字叙事的概括性和理性而言，图像叙事的心理接受过程更加趋向感性，其所带给受教育者的是一种更加简单的认识所描述事物的方式。人脑的认识活动所遵循的是惰性原则，图像具象化、形象性、渗透性的特征往往会在第一时间吸引受教育者的知觉注意力。因此，把空间化、去语境化的图像重新纳入到时间进程，助其恢复或重建语境之后能够以形象而直观的视觉符号传递一种明确的在场感，相对容易地激活并调用思想政治教育客体的启发性认知机制。而启发性认知机制侧重于“借助某些便捷的决策法则来构建自身的行为态度”[20]。在思想政治教育叙事活动中，图像叙事媒介的层次性应用比较容易让受教育者按照教育主体预先设计的认知管道进入图像背后的劝服性话语、合理化秩序与价值性意义之中，尤其是当图像化的表征结构中被植入了特定的思想政治教育内容时，爱国主义、集体主义、社会主义以及理想、道德、纪律、法制等会以一种不假思索的、悄无声息的方式进入到受教育者的潜意识之中。

The American image scholar W. J. T. Mitchell points out: “Iconology discusses the question of the image.”[21]¹ Image narrative is greatly connected with image construction. Xi Jinping points out: “Only by presenting facts can one convince people, only by presenting images can one move people, only by presenting emotions can one inspire people, and only by presenting principles can one influence people.”[22]²¹² As a self-evident visual language, images present to the senses of the educated an indisputable scene of ideological and political education. In concrete narrative practice, one must be adept at using concrete and perceptible pictorial language, bringing into play the rhetorical functions of images such as symbol, metaphor, and suggestion, and combining means such as color contrast and light variation to guide the educated, through those visible pictures, to explore and grasp those invisible thoughts and concepts. First, use images to elucidate the “truth” of ideological and political education. The educational subject must fully excavate image resources applicable to ideological and political education narrative, screen them in combination with the cognitive patterns of the educated, construct images in a targeted manner, and present the originally abstract content of ideological and political education to the educated in a concrete, three-dimensional, comprehensive, and precise form through visual cultural symbols, so that the educated experience the sensory stimulus of “seeing is believing” and the authenticity of “I am on the scene.” Second, use image resources to let the educated experience the “context” of ideological and political education narrative. In the practice of ideological and political education image narrative, one must rely on immersive image media such as VR, AR, and even the metaverse to place the educated in a specific situation, giving the educated a sense of being personally on the scene. Third, use the narrative channel of image resources to let the educated perceive the “emotion” of ideological and political education. “Images are interpreted as a direct expression of intense emotion or the subconscious.”[3]3 "Time is actually the active existence of man" (时间实际上是人的积极存在): A quotation from Karl Marx's *Grundrisse der Kritik der politischen Ökonomie* (1857–1858), where Marx discusses time as the space for human development and activity. Compared with the “direct overflow of thought” carried by language and text narrative, images are an intense expression of emotion in the dimension of ideological and political education narrative. Therefore, when conducting ideological and political education narrative, the educational subject must be supported by sincere emotion, externalize and visualize the emotion in the story in the form of images, and then stimulate the emotional resonance of the educated, so that the core values carried by the images are internalized in the heart and externalized in action.

美国图像学者米歇尔指出：“图像学讨论形象问题。”[21]1图像叙事与形象建构具有莫大的关联性。习近平指出：“讲事实才能说服人，讲形象才能打动人，讲情感才能感染人，讲道理才能影响人。”[22]212作为一种不言自明的视觉语言，图像向受教育者的感官呈现着不容置疑的思想政治教育景象。在具体的叙事实践中，要善于通过具体可感的画面语言，发挥图像画面的象征、隐喻、暗示等修辞功能，结合色彩的对比、光线的变化等手段引导受教育者通过那些看得见的画面，去探寻并意会那些看不见的思想和理念。首先，利用图像阐释思想政治教育之“真”。教育主体要充分挖掘可运用于思想政治教育叙事的图像资源，并结合受教育者的认知规律对其进行筛选，有的放矢地进行图像建构，通过直观、立体、全面且精准的视觉文化符号将原本抽象的思想政治教育内容具象化呈现给受教育者，让受教育者产生眼见为实的感官刺激和“我在现场”的真实性。其次，利用图像资源让受教育者体验思想政治教育叙事之“境”。在思想政治教育图像叙事实践中，要依托VR、AR乃至元宇宙等沉浸化图像媒介将受教育者置于特定的情境中，让受教育者产生身临其境的在场感。再次，利用图像资源的叙事通道，让受教育者感悟思想政治教育之“情”。“图像被解释为一种强烈情感或者下意识的直接表现。”[3]相较于语言文字叙事所承载的“思想直接溢出”，图像则是思想政治教育叙事维度中一种情感的强烈表达。因此，教育主体在进行思想政治教育叙事时，要以真挚的情感为支撑，让故事中的情感以图像的形式外在化、视觉化，继而激发受教育者的情感共鸣，让图像所承载之核心价值内化于心、外化于行。

(3) Synesthesia and Isomorphism: Bridging the “Gap” between Word and Image, Creating Persuasive “Rhetorical Images”

（三）联觉同构：弥合语图“缝隙”，制造劝服性的“修辞意象”

“An image is a spiritual picture composed of words, colors, shapes, etc. … An image includes not only the visual features of an object but also other sensory factors, material factors, and intellectual factors.”[21]³ In other words, an image is a figure that, after being perceived through hearing, vision, and touch, is screened and processed by the brain. It is an organic fusion of subjective feelings and perceptual objects, a psychological picture closely linked to human creative activity. In the shaping of images, language and text, on the one hand, and images, on the other, have equally important rhetorical functions. In ideological and political education narrative, the cross-use of language and text and images can produce a powerful narrative synergy, achieving a narrative experience of “synesthesia and isomorphism,” realizing the discourse production and intertextual meaning-making of word-image encirclement. Specifically, images construct the “persuasive discourse” of ideological and political education in a visualizable way, endowing the narrative with infinite possibilities and tension, mobilizing the heuristic cognitive mechanism of the educated through comprehensively integrated visual symbols; language and text, through the rapid flow of linear time, create suspense, lay out the plot, and propel the narrative, expanding a visualizable imaginative space in the temporal dimension. The comprehensive integration of these two narrative media transforms the educated’s external perception of the objects described by the educational subject into cultural images and psychological images, and further activates the systematic cognitive mechanism of the educated through visual rhetorical strategies such as symbol, metaphor, and intertextuality, thereby carrying out the persuasion of ideological and political education values and the activation of collective memory. Therefore, language and text and images have a complementary and integrative nature in narrative expression, as well as consistency in value guidance. Text and images complement each other: images can provide a vivid and concrete expression of the content described by text, while the discursive nature of language and text can explain and interpret the content of images. The two narrative media rely on each other in the telling of stories, making the stories vivid and concrete, allowing the educated to intuitively and rationally understand the true meaning within.

“意象是由文字、色彩、形状等构成的精神画面……意象不仅包括物的视觉特征，而且包括其他感觉因素、物质因素以及智性因素。”[21]3换言之，意象就是经过听觉、视觉和触觉感知以后被大脑筛选加工过的形象，是主观情意与感性物象的有机交融，是一幅与人的创造性活动紧密联系的心理图像。在意象的形塑中，语言文字和图像具有同等重要的修辞功能。在思想政治教育叙事中，语言文字和图像的交叉使用能够产生强大的叙事合力，达致“联觉同构”的叙事体验，实现语图合围的话语生产和互文见义。具体而言，图像以可视化方式构造了思想政治教育的“劝服性话语”，赋予叙事无限可能性和张力，通过综合集成的视觉符号调动受教育者的启发性认知机制；语言文字以线性时间的快速流动，制造悬念、铺陈剧情、推动叙事，在时间维度上拓展一个视觉化的想象空间。两种叙事媒介的综合集成使受教育者对教育主体所描述事物的外在感知转化至文化意象和心理意象，并进一步通过象征、隐喻、互文等视觉修辞策略激活受教育者的系统性认知机制，从而进行思想政治教育价值的说服和集体记忆的激活。因此，语言文字和图像在叙事表达上具有优势互补的交融性，也具有价值引领的一致性。文字与图像相辅相成，图像可以对文字描述内容进行形象、具体的表达，语言文字的思辨性可以对图像内容进行解释说明，两种叙事媒介在故事的讲述中互为依托，使故事变得生动形象，让受教育者能够直观、理性地了解个中真义。

An image is a concretized sensation, generated and identified on the basis of the object. Language and text and images are two relatively independent “meaning-manifesting” units, yet they use their respective advantages in meaning interpretation to collaboratively complete the discourse generation of the overall text. According to the foregoing discussion, the educated always subconsciously seek the simplest way to perceive all things and understand the world. Image narrative and language-and-text narrative share a homologous and symbiotic nature in the domain of thought, and are important media for organizing and shaping collective memory. However, images, as a narrative medium, more easily capture the perceptual attention of the educated, yet this effect is short-lived and difficult to enter the long-term memory system of the educated, because it only activates their heuristic cognitive mechanism. To enable the narrative to produce a long-wave effect of shaping “dynamic images” in the educated, one must opportunely resort to the rational system of language and text symbols, activating the systematic cognitive mechanism of the educated, so that the ideological and political education values embedded in the narrative enter their long-term memory system. In short, in the practice of word-image encirclement in ideological and political education narrative, one can first use image symbols to evoke the educated’s perceptual understanding of the described object, prompting them to form a perceptual memory of the narrated matter—that is, awakening the educated’s heuristic cognitive mechanism—and then use highly generalized language and text to discursively elucidate and thoroughly refine the object described by the images—that is, awakening the educated’s systematic cognitive mechanism—thereby, through the hierarchical application and comprehensive integration of the two narrative media, transferring the information stored in the educated’s short-term memory system into the long-term memory system, creating persuasive “rhetorical images.”

意象是具体化了的感觉，在物象基础上生成和识别。语言文字与图像是两个相对独立的“显意”单元，却又利用各自的意义阐释优势，协同完成整体文本的话语生成。根据前文所述，受教育者在潜意识中总是会寻求一种最简单的方式去感知万物和认识世界。图像叙事和语言文字叙事在思维域上具有同源共生性，是组织和形塑集体记忆的重要媒介。但图像作为叙事媒介更加容易捕捉受教育者的知觉注意力，然而这种作用效力是短时间的，难以进入受教育者的长时记忆系统，因为它只是激活了受教育者的启发性认知机制。而为了让叙事能够对受教育者产生形塑“能动意象”的长波效应，就要适机诉诸理性的语言文字符号系统，激活受教育者的系统性认知机制，让叙事所内蕴的思想政治教育价值进入其长时记忆系统。简而言之，在思想政治教育叙事的语图合围实践中，可先以图像符号唤起受教育者对所描述事物的感性认识，促使其形成对叙述之事的知觉记忆，即唤醒受教育者的启发性认知机制，然后再用具有高度概括性的语言文字对图像所描述事物进行思辨性地阐解与透彻性地提炼，即唤醒受教育者的系统性认知机制，进而在两种叙事媒介的层次化应用与综合集成中将存储在受教育者短时记忆系统中的信息转入长时记忆系统，制造劝服性的“修辞意象”。

Online Editor: Tongxin

网络编辑：同心