What are the characteristics of pre-Qin literature?

Randomness and originality, comprehensiveness, practicality and randomness are interrelated and complementary, and * * * isomorphism has become the basic feature of pre-Qin literature.

Pre-Qin literature is the glorious starting point of China literature, which spanned three social forms: primitive society, slave society and early feudal society, and went through a long process from embryo germination to growth and maturity until the Zhou Dynasty became a magnificent sight. The Book of Songs and Songs of the South stand two peaks of realism and romanticism, and philosophers such as Ishikawa laid a fine tradition of China's ancient prose. In the history of China literature, all previous poetry innovation movements took pre-Qin poetry as the model and evaluation standard, which was determined by the characteristics of pre-Qin literature itself.

The first is originality. Pre-Qin literature is the first glorious page in the history of China literature. Literature came into being with the daily life of people in primitive society, such as labor, sacrifice and marriage. It developed with the development of society and became a grand view in the Zhou Dynasty. There are all kinds of literary forms, such as poetry, prose and ci fu, and there are obvious differences among historical prose, various schools of thought prose and applied prose. From separation to integration, the narrative of historical prose has produced many styles, such as writing, chronology, country, pedigree and so on. Hundred schools of thought's prose developed from a short note to an argumentative essay, and then formed a monograph, completing the system of argumentative essay. The applied texts include canon, ink, precepts, patents, oaths, letters, oaths, greetings, speeches, proverbs, inscriptions and other styles. The pluralistic thoughts of the pre-Qin philosophers formed their own system and infiltrated each other, which formed the characteristics that the history of ancient China thought began with a hundred schools of thought contending and spread to other literary forms. In pre-Qin prose, the skills of memorizing words, narrating, describing people, discussing and expressing feelings have changed from nature to consciousness. Poetry is the beginning of China's lyric poetry. The Book of Songs and Songs of the South initiated two schools of China literature, realism and romanticism, which had a far-reaching influence. From the point of view of Confucian classics, the pre-Qin era was the era when the Yuan Dynasty came into being, and the original classics of hundred schools of thought, such as Confucianism and Taoism, all came from this era. From the aspects of the origin of literature and art, the emergence of literary genres, the formation of ideological system, the exploration of artistic techniques and the establishment of literary schools, the pre-Qin literature has pioneering significance. This pioneering work fully embodies the pioneering spirit and rich imagination of writers in the pre-Qin era, pays attention to independent thinking and dares to be unconventional, which is in sharp contrast with the imitation atmosphere of later generations.

The second is comprehensiveness. In the pre-Qin era, literature, history and philosophy were not separated, but poetry, music and dance were integrated. Literature refers to all disciplines including politics, philosophy, history and literature. The Analects of Confucius? 6? 1 It is advanced that Confucius disciples Zi You and Xia Zi are good at literature, and "literature" generally refers to ancient documents. Historical records? 6? 1 The Biography of Mencius Xun Qing says: "Wang Xuan likes literary lobbyists", among which literary scholars write books and make statements, and lobbyists shake their lips and drum their tongues. In pre-Qin literature, historical prose records history and explains classics, but there is no lack of philosophical speculation, twists and turns in stories and vivid characters; Prose of various schools objectively reflected the history at that time, and their arguments and reasoning were concrete, using various literary techniques such as fable, metaphor, line drawing, exaggeration and parallelism. The Book of Songs and Songs of the South are both literary creations, but both have certain historical value and speculative color. These documents are equally important for studying politics, military affairs, economy, culture and literature in the pre-Qin period. Poetry, music and dance in the pre-Qin era are inseparable, from primitive ballads to The Book of Songs and Songs of the South. "Lu Chunqiu? 6? 1 Ge Zhile, recorded in ancient music, has descriptions of dance props and movements. The title of the movements summarizes the contents of poetry, which is obviously a comprehensive expression of poetry, music and dance. The Book of Songs is full of chapters and sentences, originally to meet the needs of repeated performances of music and dance. Mozi? 6? 1 Meng Gong also said: "Confucianism can sing, dance, string and recite the Three Hundred Poems, which shows that the Book of Songs has the characteristics of comprehensive art." "Chu Ci? 6? 1 The last sentence of Lisao, the last sentence of River, Mourning, Thinking and Huai Sha in Nine Chapters, and the last sentence of Evocation all have "nonsense", which is not only a summary of the content, but also the last chapter of the logo music. "Nine Songs" was written by Qu Yuan on the basis of folk songs offering sacrifices to witches. Witchcraft songs for offering sacrifices to the gods are songs sung by performing witchcraft dances. There are no "random words" in each capital, but the last one is the first ten general random words in nine songs. It can be seen that Chu Ci also has the characteristics of integrating poetry, music and dance. To clarify the comprehensive characteristics, it is necessary to closely combine the cultural background of the times and try to avoid blind people touching the elephant when studying literature.

The third is practicality. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the society was in great turmoil, great change and great reorganization, and literature was generally practical or issued for specific social problems, such as the folk song "Hungry people sing their food, laborers sing their things" in the Book of Songs; Or sum up historical experience and lessons, judge the merits of historical figures, and provide reference for the real society, such as judging the right and wrong in historical prose and judging suspects; Or reveal and solve real social problems, such as the concept of salvation that a hundred schools of thought contend; Or born out of resentment, attacking real politics, such as Qu Yuan's work Li Sao.

The fourth is randomness. Randomness means that a writer can speak freely, say whatever he wants, and say whatever he wants. The original songs, myths and legends before the writing came into being naturally did what the human brain could think of and what the population could say. The Yin-Shang era, which produced characters, was also unrestrained. Despite the infinite worship of the gods, there are still Wuyi people who dare to shoot the sky. The Zhou Dynasty advocated the etiquette system and restrained its thoughts. The folk songs in The Book of Songs express their true feelings in simple language. Hungry people sing about food, while laborers sing about things. They mercilessly mock Mr. Adults and frankly express the feelings of men and women. After screening and polishing, The Book of Songs still has a sense of reality. It is conceivable that the poems that have not been selected are more real. No one imitated the Book of Songs in the pre-Qin period. After 200-300 years' gestation, Chu Ci appeared in the poetry circle with a brand-new look. Later generations commented on Li Sao with the Book of Songs as a contrast, or thought that Li Sao had the advantages of both national style and elegance, or that the difference between Qu Yuan and the Book of Songs was that he showed his talent, praised himself and criticized himself. Or that Qu Yuan depends entirely on the poet's meaning and the Five Classics. Liu Xie's Wen Xin Diao Long? 6? Sao 1 Zheng Zheng is divided into four parts, which, like Ya, are extraordinary classics and can be regarded as a compromise summary. The writers of Han Dynasty praised Confucian classics and emphasized imitation, ignoring the randomness of pre-Qin writers, praising the same as the Book of Songs and belittling the different from the Book of Songs, which is a strange circle. Qu Yuan is the most distinctive poet, and Li Sao is the most distinctive poem. There is no need for him to "collect scripture" to vent his anger, and get it off his chest quickly. During the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, the emperor's authority gradually declined and gradually existed in name only. The divided political situation has created objective conditions for active freedom of thought and speech. Confucianism has the freedom to spread benevolence and morality, Taoism has the freedom to despise benevolence and morality, and strategists also use interests to replace the freedom of benevolence and morality. In the face of the decline of the old system, the destruction of the old order and frequent merger wars, various independent ideological systems have been formed by the contending prescriptions for governing the country. In order to spread their ideas more effectively, people compete to find the most appropriate expression and the most wonderful language skills, thus forming their own unique aesthetic taste.