The development of pre-Qin philosophers' prose can be divided into three stages. The late Spring and Autumn Period and the early Warring States Period are the first stage. Representative works include The Analects of Confucius and Mozi. Most articles are quotations or short chapters of concise discussion. The mid-Warring States Period is the second stage, and the representative works are Mencius and Zhuangzi. The article gradually developed from quotations to dialogues and monographs. The late Warring States is the third stage, with Xunzi and Han Feizi as the representative works, and their articles are basically monographs with the same body, which improves the debate system.
Pre-Qin philosophers have distinct characteristics. Ideologically, they all insist on independent thinking, expressing their opinions and speaking freely. For example, Confucius advocated benevolence, righteousness, propriety and music, Mozi advocated universal love for sages, Zhuangzi advocated natural inaction, and Han Feizi advocated magic power. Accordingly, the style of writing also has its own personality and style. For example, The Analects of Confucius is simple and subtle, Mozi is simple and lively, good at analogy, Mencius is magnificent and eloquent, Zhuangzi's writing is unrestrained and fantastic, Xunzi's metaphor is profound and meticulous, and Han Feizi is harsh and provocative. Linguistically, they all make good use of metaphors instead of taking pictures. Such as "Fable 19" in "Zhuangzi", the introduction is connected, and the image is profound, which is the most among the philosophers. From the perspective of stylistic development, the essays of pre-Qin philosophers first established a system of discussing essays. It shows the general characteristics of the development of argumentative essays in China, from the viewpoints in the records to the monographs with clear arguments, sufficient arguments, strict logic and complete structure. In addition, some stories and novels in the prose of pre-Qin philosophers provided nutrition for the narrative literature of later generations.
Prose of pre-Qin philosophers had a far-reaching influence on China's political system, culture and art for thousands of years.
The Analects of Confucius and Mozi
The Analects of Confucius is a recorded work of Confucius, his disciples and his contemporaries. Written in the early years of the Warring States, it covers philosophy, politics, current affairs, education, literature and many other aspects. It is an important classic of Confucianism. There are 20 articles today, which mainly record Confucius' words and deeds.
Confucius (55 1-479), whose name was Zhong Ni, was originally from Qufu, Shandong Province. He was the founder of Confucianism, a great politician, thinker and educator, and the first person to set up a private school in China. He has been eager to learn manners since he was a child. He is a young man in politics and his career is not obvious. Later, he got together to give lectures. After the failure of Sandu, I traveled around the world. In his later years, he returned to Shandong, giving lectures and writing books and sorting out classics. According to legend, poems, books, Yi, Li, Yue, Chunqiu and other ancient books were compiled by him. The core of Confucius' political thought is "benevolence" and "courtesy". In teaching, he advocated "there is no class in teaching", "never tire of learning and never tire of teaching", taught students in accordance with their aptitude, followed good advice and created many valuable teaching methods.
The literary value of The Analects lies in its portrayal of Confucius and his disciples. Most of its shaping is unintentional. But it is precisely because of this that it truly reflects the original character and style of the speaker. For example, Confucius' thought is profound, his manners are staid, he is gentle, his emotions are invisible, Lutz's frankness, recklessness and fortitude, Yan Yuan's reticence, his poverty is changeable, and he is sensitive and studious. There are several long articles, processed by the author, which show the characters, such as Sitting on the Seats. Through Confucius' inquiry, students' expressions and Confucius' evaluation, Confucius' affability, frankness, self-confidence, recklessness, Ran Qiu's timidity and caution, Gong Xihua's sense of language, color, external self-reliance and once indifferent and free-spirited ideological character are vividly shown. Secondly, The Analects is concise, simple and vivid, full of philosophical and emotional colors, forming an elegant, meaningful and implicit language style. Many aphorisms and aphorisms have become the mottos for future generations to live, study and work. For example, "three people must learn from each other", "those who have no long-term worries must have near worries", "the three armed forces can win the handsome position, but ordinary people can't win the ambition", "when the cold comes and the summer goes, you will know that the pine and cypress will wither" and so on. In addition, as a recording system, The Analects aims at memorizing words, using spoken language, being popular and simple. However, Confucius emphasized "gentleness", so the questions and answers of master and apprentice are all meaningful, although they look natural after polishing.
"Mozi" is Mozi's post-study, sorting out the speeches and notes of the former teacher. A small part is written by Mozi, and most of it is the arrangement or development of post-learning. The original book is 7 1 book, and there are 53 existing books.
Mozi (the first 480? -The first 420? ), Zhai, a native of Lu, is called a Song Dynasty. Handicraft background, once worked as a doctor in Song Dynasty. His knowledge was contrary to Confucianism, and both were prominent at that time. Mohist Group is not only an academic group, but also a diligent and disciplined political group. He advocated "Shang Xian", "Shang Tong", "universal love", "non-attack", "frugal use", "frugal burial", "unhappy" and "doomed". His thoughts reflected the voices of the middle and lower classes at that time.
Mozi opposed literary talent and paid attention to logic, and put forward the famous "three-table method", emphasizing that "studying the interests of the people" should be the purpose of literary argumentation. Therefore, the style of the book is simple, lacking some literary talent, but its logic is strict, and it is of great practical significance to make good use of induction and analogical reasoning and integrate theory with practice. The basic structure of his article is to ask questions first, then analyze them and finally make a brief summary. The article has a title, clear arguments and sufficient arguments. For example, the first part of All Love is such a well-structured and well-organized essay. The expression of Mozi's image is an aspect of Mozi's comparative literature. While recording Mozi's words and deeds, articles such as Gongbo, Luwen and Geng Zhu also show readers his image of "intransigence" and enthusiasm for saving the world, which is vivid and touching. In addition, a large number of rhetorical devices such as parallelism, antithesis and metaphor in Mozi also make it catchy and literary.
The second section "Mencius" and "Zhuangzi"
Mencius is a documentary prose that records the words and deeds of Mencius and his disciples, co-authored by Mencius and his disciple Zhang Wan. The book consists of seven articles, each of which is divided into two parts.
Mencius is a disciple of Confucius' grandson Zisi and an important representative of Confucian school after Confucius. He once lobbied Teng and Lu for Qing, and retired to Zou in his later years to give lectures and write books. He advocated "kingly way" and "benevolent government" and opposed unjust war and extortion; Advocate that "the people are more expensive than the monarch" and take the people as the foundation. He also advocated "good nature" and attached importance to personal moral cultivation.
The literary value of Mencius lies in its reappearance of Mencius' image as a Confucian scholar to save the world and people, and his integrity and emotional personality as an ordinary person. He despises the emperor and sometimes approaches the interface; Despise traitors, sometimes almost intolerant; Arguments about literature and art are sometimes biased; Treating people sincerely and frankly is sometimes almost naive.
The articles in Mencius are eloquent and full of debates, but they also pay attention to debate skills and combine rigidity with softness. Or according to different objects, grasp each other's psychology, be ingenious, attract people's attention, press down layer by layer, step by step, and make people irresistible. For example, Mencius cleverly avoided Qi Xuanwang's psychology of wanting to know about "hegemony", and gradually turned the topic to "kingly way", taking metaphors nearby, affirming that the King of Qi had "benevolence" and could "govern the world", so as to arouse his interest in "kingly way" and then expound his proposition of "kingly way" positively. Or play hard to get, lure the enemy into depth, let the other side put forward arguments, set the target of criticism, and then take advantage of the situation and push it forward layer by layer, so that the other side is in a contradictory situation. For example, the chapter "Make a Promise for the Word of Shennong" (Teng Wengong I) refutes Xu Xing's proposition that "saints and people share the land and eat together". Or use metaphors and fables to reason, which is vivid and fascinating. For example, "I want to get what I want from fish" (Shang) uses the metaphor of "taking bear's paw instead of fish" to "sacrifice one's life for righteousness"
From the linguistic point of view, Mencius is not only rich in language and fluent in writing, but also has strong feelings, great momentum and inspiring people. Many words such as "sharp-eyed", "hot water", "reneging on one's word", "outstanding", "completely convinced" and "one violent and ten cold" have become idioms, which have been passed down to this day.
Zhuangzi is the work of Zhuangzi and his disciples. There are 52 original articles and 33 existing articles, which are divided into 7 internal articles, 5 external articles1and miscellaneous articles 1 1. It is generally believed that the Inner Chapter was written by Zhuangzi, while the Outer Miscellaneous Chapter was written by his disciples and later scholars.
Zhuangzi was the most important representative of Taoist school in the middle of the Warring States Period. He traveled to Chu, Wei, Zhao, Qi, Lu and other countries for Meng Qiyuan's order. Poor family, but look down on officials. I am familiar with all kinds of theories, and I trust Laozi the most. He fiercely criticized the darkness of reality, not Confucianism, Mohism, propriety and benevolence. Advocate quietness and conform to nature; Advocate the unity of all things, live and die together, and pursue absolute spiritual freedom; Advocate not to condemn right and wrong, not to condemn the secular. His thoughts have a far-reaching influence on later generations.
Zhuangzi is the highest artistic achievement in hundred schools of thought's essays. First of all, it is good at combining literature and philosophy through vivid metaphors and fables with strong plots, and making profound philosophical images lively and interesting. For example, in order to illustrate the author's idea of pursuing absolute freedom of "doing nothing", Xiaoyao uses many images such as Dapeng, Snow Pigeon, Xun, Chao Jun and Ghost. And all activities and phenomena, big or small, high or low, big or small, are "things to do" to show that there is no absolute freedom in the material world, and then we can draw our own conclusions. As for reasoning with fables, it is even more prominent. Zhuangzi's soliloquy fables account for nine tenths, and now there are more than 180. These fables are imaginative and vivid, which enhances the romance, persuasiveness and appeal of the article. For example, The Battle between Men and Women (Zeyang) satirizes the war between governors for land and the great disaster it has brought to the people by touching and fighting for the snail horn. "Skillful hands know cows" ("Master of Health Care"), taking knowing cows as a metaphor, illustrates the truth of health care.
Secondly, Zhuangzi is rich in imagination, unique in conception, exaggerated and bold, full of twists and turns, broad in artistic conception and full of romanticism. Such as "Ren Gongzi fishing" ("foreign things"), "Fifty pigs (healthy cows) as bait, squatting at the meeting and throwing a pole into the East China Sea", after the fish swallowed the hook, they struggled hard, "If Bai Bo is a mountain, the sea shakes and ghosts smell it", which is soul-stirring and full of weather. The fish caught can feed more than half of the population in China. The picture of Dapeng spreading his wings in Happy Travel is particularly broad. It is a giant Kun fish "I don't know its thousands of miles" and flies with wings. It's really unexpected that "water beats three thousand Li, and the one who beats it is nine Wan Li". Its territory is powerful, and its thinking is strange and unprecedented.
Third, Zhuangzi's language has achieved the highest achievement among the philosophers. It is not only full of laughter, impassioned and magnificent, but also rich in vocabulary, creating new words, such as carefree, chaotic, natural, strange, novel, luck, effortless, toddler in Handan, and effective in learning from the East.
The influence of Zhuangzi's thought and art on later literature is also very prominent among the philosophers. Guo Moruo believes that "almost half of a history of China literature since Qin and Han Dynasties was influenced by him." ("Zhuangzi and Lu Xun")
In the third quarter, Xunzi and Everything is Wrong.
Xunzi was written by Xun Kuang and his disciples. There are 32 articles in this edition, most of which were written by Xunzi and a few by his disciples.
Xunzi is a master of Confucianism as famous as Mencius. His theory is based on Confucius' Confucianism and critically absorbs various theories. The biggest feature is etiquette. He opposed the superstition of fate, emphasized the separation between man and nature, "controlling life and using it", opposed the theory of good nature and advocated the theory of evil nature, thus emphasizing acquired education, environmental influence and personal efforts. Among his disciples are Han Fei and Li Si.
The articles in Xunzi are mainly long monographs. Most of these papers are good at reasoning repeatedly around a topic or a center through analogy, quotation, metaphor and parallelism, and discussing them at different levels. The structure is dense and rigorous, the reasoning is thorough, the style is calm and profound, the language is concise and concise, the words are colorful and the syntax is full of momentum. For example, "Persuade to Learn" is a monograph to persuade people to learn. It expounds the importance of learning, as well as the attitude, ways and methods of learning, with rigorous structure and thorough reasoning. Especially in the section of learning attitude, nine metaphors are used in succession, and it is repeatedly discussed that learning is focused, imaginative and vivid from both positive and negative aspects. At the same time, these metaphors are overlapped, neat and smooth, full of momentum and sonorous syllables.
Xunzi also includes Xiangcheng, Zuo Shi and Fu Pian, which belong to the category of literature. Xiangcheng is a work that publicizes political views in the form of Chu folk songs, and it is a verse. Fu Pian includes five small poems including Li, Zhi, Yun, Silkworm and Zhen, and two accompanying poems. Five-character poems are mainly four-character rhymes, mixed with essays, much like riddles. They are the integration of "book collection" in the Warring States period, which opened a precedent for later generations to praise and interpret things.
Han Feizi is a collection of political philosophy founded by Han Feizi, a representative figure of legalism at the end of the Warring States Period. There are 55 existing articles, a few of which have been occupied by later generations. Most of them are reasoning, strict logic, thorough analysis, clear-cut, profound and clear-cut, sharp words and steep writing. For example, "Wuzhu" used nearly 7,000 words to accuse the people of Wuzhu of endangering the country, which is the further development of pre-Qin essays. In addition, being good at analyzing analogy and summarizing and explaining things with historical stories and fables is also a prominent feature of Han Feizi. There are more than 300 fables in Han Feizi, among which Shuo Lin and Chu Ci are the most concentrated. Most of these fables are vivid, profound and thought-provoking. At the same time, the plot is vivid and humorous, with a strong literary color, such as Waiting for the Rabbit (Wu Zhu), Buying Shoes by Zheng Ren, Buying Bamboo Slips and Returning them to the Pearl (Explaining the Left from the Foreign Reserve) and Contradicting itself (Difficult One).