What are the main forms and achievements of Han Dynasty literature?

The Han Dynasty was a period of great unification. The prosperity of the economy, the strength of the country, and the expansion of the territory made the writers of the Han Dynasty full of heroic feelings.

In the history of literature, the Han Dynasty is generally divided into the Eastern Han Dynasty and the Western Han Dynasty, that is, the literature of the two Han Dynasties.

The division between east and west is named after the location of the capital.

The works of the Han Dynasty pursued broad capacity and grand momentum, which evoked a sublime beauty.

The main literary achievements of the Han Dynasty mainly include prose, Han Fu and poetry.

1. Prose: In addition to historical and biographical works such as "Historical Records" and "Han Shu", the mainstream of prose in the Han Dynasty is political essays.

Their writing style is simple and thick, and their content is close to current affairs.

In the early Han Dynasty, Jia Yi was full of emotions and had the legacy of a strategist; in the middle and later periods, Dong Zhongshu and Liu Xiang, etc. quoted classics and had a classic style; in the early Eastern Han Dynasty, Wang Chong was open-minded and easy-going, with profound understanding; in the later period, Wang Fu, Zhong Changtong, etc. were cynical, all of which are classics of prose.

1. "Historical Records" is China's first biographical general history, with 130 chapters.

In terms of style, "Historical Records" is divided into five parts: the Benji, which records the affairs of the emperor; the family, which describes the affairs of the princes; the biographies, which describe the affairs of people and ministers; the Biao, which is a tabular record of major events; and the book, which is the regulations and systems.

Through these five parts, "Historical Records" cooperate and complement each other to form a complete historical system and become the basic form of Chinese history books.

The so-called "Twenty-Four Histories" are headed by "Historical Records".

Lu Xun deservedly called "Historical Records" "the swan song of historians, the most rhyme-free Li Sao".

As far as the literary nature of "Historical Records" is concerned, it is first reflected in its narrative method. It uses a third-person objective narrative, which actually "embeds praise and blame in the narrative."

It narrates a long history of three thousand years and reproduces the magnificent scenes and character activities in history.

Many biographies in "Historical Records" are unfolded in a series of stories.

For example, "The Biography of Lian Po and Lin Xiangru" is composed of stories such as the return of the perfect jade to Zhao, the meeting in Mianchi, and the apology while shouldering a thorn.

At the same time, many of the stories in "Historical Records" are dramatic.

For example, the famous "Hongmen Banquet" story in "The Chronicles of Xiang Yu" is like a wonderful dramatic performance. The characters' appearances, exits, expressions, movements, dialogues, and even the orientation of the seats are all written as if they are heard and heard.

Meet the person.

The plot is full of climaxes, exciting and dramatic.

Secondly, many characters with distinctive personalities have been created: emperors and generals, nobles and wealthy businessmen, literati and hermits, knight-errant assassins, and ordinary people.

There are nearly a hundred people who can leave a deep impression, such as Xiang Yu, Liu Bang, Zhang Liang, Han Xin, Li Si, Qu Yuan, Sun Wu, Jing Ke, Lian Po, Lin Xiangru, etc.

For example, Xiang Yu is a failed hero, but Sima Qian does not judge a hero based on success or failure, but carefully depicts Xiang Yu's heroic and tragic fate.

The characters depicted in "Historical Records" have vivid faces and expressive expressions, which benefit from the artistic means of character creation: description of the characters' appearance and expressions, depiction of life details, use of character dialogue, and setting of dramatic scenes.

All the above are used freely in Sima Qian's writings.

Thirdly, the language art of "Historical Records" is exquisite.

Sima Qian rewritten the difficult and difficult sentences in the historical materials into the language popular in the Han Dynasty, making the ancient prose simple and fluent.

Such as concise and concise narrative language, personalized language of characters, etc.

Sima Qian's personality and record-keeping spirit profoundly influenced the creative attitudes and creative methods of later writers; it created a precedent for Chinese biographical literature; his writing style directly influenced the ancient writers of the Tang and Song Dynasties and became their standard for writing and wording; it also exerted great influence on the legends of the Tang Dynasty.

Even the novels and drama creations of the Ming and Qing Dynasties also had a profound impact.

2. "Book of Han" Ban Gu (32-92), courtesy name Meng Jian, was a native of Xianyang, Shaanxi today.

His father Ban Biao wrote 65 chapters in "Historical Records".

After his father's death, Ban Gu inherited his father's business and compiled the "Book of Han" based on the Han Dynasty part of "Historical Records" and "Historical Records Later Biography", which lasted 20 years.

"Hanshu" is China's first chronological history (only one dynasty is written) in the form of biographies.

Its style is basically inherited from "Historical Records", except that "Book" is changed to "Zhi", four Chronicles are created: "Criminal Law", "Five Elements", "Geography", and "Arts and Literature", and "Family" is canceled and replaced with "Biographies".

Taken together, they are collectively called "Zhuan", giving "Hanshu" a new look.

"Hanshu" has twelve chapters, eight lists, ten records, and seventy biographies.

***100 articles.

This chronological history later became a model for official history books.

"Hanshu" is another historical masterpiece rich in prose literature after "Historical Records".

There are many outstanding biographies among them, such as "The Biography of Huo Guang", "The Biography of Zhu Maichen", and "The Biography of Dongfang Shuo", which are all recognized as famous works.

In particular, "The Biography of Su Wu" is not inferior to "Historical Records".

Su Wu was sent as an envoy to the Huns and was detained for nineteen years. However, he persisted in the struggle and did not succumb to the enemy's persecution. He was not tempted to persuade him to surrender. The image of a touching patriot emerged vividly on the page.

In addition, the language style of "Hanshu" is in sharp contrast with "Historical Records". It appears elegant, ancient and difficult.

3. Political essays The writers of the early Western Han Dynasty were born at the beginning of the establishment of the new dynasty. They had great ambitions and closely linked their writing with real politics. They had strong characteristics of the times.

The central theme of this type of political paper is nothing more than summarizing the experience and lessons of the Qin Dynasty and providing good strategies for the new dynasty to govern the country and secure the country.

The most outstanding writer among them is Jia Yi.