Zuo Zhuan is the abbreviation of Zuo Zhuan in the Spring and Autumn Period, also known as Zuo Chunqiu. According to legend, it was written by Zuo Qiuming, a Lu historian at the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, with the word 180000, which recorded the political, military and diplomatic activities and speeches of various countries in the Spring and Autumn Period for 240 years, as well as events such as heaven, ghosts, disasters and blights. This book is full of drama and compact plot, especially excellent war description, concise language and rich images.
Guoyu is a kind of national history, which records the events of Zhou Dynasty and vassal states (BC 1000-00) respectively. It recorded more words than notes, and most of them were the words of enlightened nobles with foresight at that time.
The author of the Warring States Policy cannot be tested, and the current version is compiled by Liu Xiang in the Western Han Dynasty. Like Guoyu, it is also a chronicle of different countries, which records the major events of the Western Zhou Dynasty, the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, Qin, Qi, Chu, Zhao and other countries, and records the activities and speeches of counselors and military strategists. The article "Warring States Policy" is characterized by being good at saying things, making good use of metaphors and creating vivid characters.
Pre-Qin historical prose laid the foundation of China's historical literature and had a far-reaching influence on later historians and ancient writers.
The turn of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period is an era of great social change, and various academic schools have written books and argued endlessly, forming a situation in which a hundred schools of thought contend. The works of thinkers representing different classes or strata promote the development of reasoning prose. These thinkers include Confucianism, Mohism, Taoism and Legalism. The books recording their speeches have been handed down to this day, including The Analects of Confucius, Mencius, Mozi, Zhuangzi, Han Feizi and so on.
The Analects of Confucius and Mencius are all Confucian works that interpret benevolence. The Analects of Confucius recorded the words and deeds of Kong Qiu and his disciples, most of which were short conversations and questions and answers. Mencius recorded Monk's remarks. Monk is good at arguing, so the language in the book is lively and inspiring.
Mozi represents Mo Zhai's thought of "universal love", with simple language, clear reasoning and strong logic, and articles such as "universal love" and "non-aggression" are very representative.
Zhuangzi represents the Taoist Zhuang Zhou's thought of "governing by doing nothing". Zhuangzi's prose has a unique charm among various schools of thought. This is manifested in the author's fantastic imagination and keen observation, making good use of folk fables and being good at metaphors, which makes the article full of literary interest.
Han Feizi represents the legalist thought of "adapting to the times". Han Fei's prose is rigorous in structure, sharp-edged and profound in reasoning.
Xunzi represents Xun Kuang's theory, with 32 articles and many long articles. Xunzi's prose is characterized by clear arguments, clear levels, complete syntax and rich vocabulary.
Lv's Spring and Autumn Annals is a collective creation of the Prime Minister of Qin Dynasty. It includes eight views, six theories and twelve periods, including Confucianism, Taoism, Mohism, law and agriculture. This book retains a large number of documents and anecdotes from the pre-Qin period. It is a systematic reasoning article that combines many single articles, which is deep and most coherent. Like hundred schools of thought's essays, it is often compared with fables, so the article is full of images.
The reasoning prose of pre-Qin philosophers had a significant influence on the development of later prose both in thought and artistic style.
At the beginning of Han Dynasty, political papers developed. Jia Yi (200 BC-BC 168) was an outstanding writer in the early Western Han Dynasty. His article "Crossing the Qin Dynasty" summed up the reasons for the demise of Qin Dynasty, learned the lessons of the peasant uprising at the end of Qin Dynasty, and developed the people-oriented thought in the pre-Qin period. His prose makes good use of metaphors, and his language is full of images.
Overview of ancient and modern prose
1. Ancient prose: In ancient China, in order to distinguish it from rhymes and parallel prose, all prose articles, including classics, biographies and history books, were called prose.
The development of China's ancient prose;
(1) Pre-Qin Prose: Including the Prose of Various Scholars and Historical Prose. Hundred schools of thought's essays are mainly expositions, such as The Analects of Confucius, Mencius and Zhuangzi. Historical prose mainly focuses on historical themes, and all articles and books describing historical events and historical figures are historical prose, such as Zuo Zhuan.
(2) Prose in the Han Dynasty: Sima Qian's Historical Records in the Western Han Dynasty pushed biographical prose to an unprecedented peak. After the Eastern Han Dynasty, individual prose forms such as books, notes, inscriptions, essays and prefaces began to appear.
Prose in Tang and Song Dynasties: Under the impetus of the ancient prose movement, prose writing became increasingly complex, and literary prose appeared, resulting in many excellent works such as landscape travel notes, fables, biographies and essays. And the famous "Eight Masters of Tang and Song Dynasties" also emerged at this time.
(3) Prose in the Ming Dynasty: First, there were "Seven Scholars", mainly imitating ancient times. Later, in the Tang and Song Dynasties, all works were advocated to flow from the chest, the most famous of which was Gui Youguang.
Qing dynasty prose: represented by Tongcheng school, Qing dynasty prose pays attention to the embodiment of "righteousness" Yao Nai, a representative writer of Tongcheng School, summed up the style of ancient Chinese prose and classified it into 13 categories, including argumentative essays, prefaces and postscripts, recitation, calligraphy, preface, imperial edict, biography, epitaph, miscellaneous words, ode, ci fu and mourning.
2. Modern prose: refers to the literary style on an equal footing with poetry, novels and dramas. It is characterized by expressing the author's views and feelings and revealing its social significance through the description of some fragments or life events in real life, which can be processed and created on the basis of real people and things; It doesn't necessarily have complete stories and characters, but focuses on expressing the author's feelings about life, with flexible selection of materials and strong lyricism. The "I" in prose is usually the author himself; Language is not limited by rhythm, and its forms of expression are diverse. It can be combined with narration, discussion, lyricism and description, or it can be emphasized. According to the needs of content and theme, we can create a certain artistic conception by describing typical details in life, describing images, depicting psychology, rendering the environment and setting off the atmosphere. Such as in novels, and use artistic techniques, such as symbols in poetry. Prose has many forms, such as essays, short comments, sketches, close-ups, travel notes, newsletters, letters, diaries, memoirs and so on. In a word, prose is short in length, free in form, widely used, flexible in writing and beautiful in language, which can quickly reflect life and is deeply loved by people.