History of Pre-Qin Literature

1. The pre-Qin period is the period of the germination and creation of Chinese culture, and the cultural spirit constructed during this period has had a profound influence on later generations. Pre-Qin literature, as an important part of Pre-Qin culture, has also become a model to be respected and taken by successive generations.

2. During the pre-Qin era, various cultural forms were still integrated but not yet delineated, so the form of pre-Qin literature was also characterized by the indistinguishability of literature, history and philosophy, and the combination of poetry, music and dance.

3, pre-Qin literature can be roughly divided into summer and commerce, Western Zhou, Spring and Autumn, and the Warring States period.

3-1 Xia and Shang dynasties, the primitive religious culture is dominant, wizards have a pivotal position. The rhyming texts (such as oracle bone divination) and incantation songs they composed for divination and rituals are the oldest existing literary styles.

The historians were the main bearers of another type of cultural heritage. Originally, their function was also religious, but later, when witchcraft and history were separated, the duties of the historians became more personnel-oriented. The Shang Dynasty works preserved in the Shangshu are the earliest creations of historical prose.

3-2After the Zhou revolutionized Yin's life, the culture of sorcery was replaced by a culture of ritual and music, the so-called "substitution of virtue for heaven". Concerns about politics, society, and life surpassed religious concerns, and the culture of historians rose, giving birth to such masterpieces of historical prose as Zuo Zhuan (The Chronicles of Zuo). Some great cultural giants put forward different social ideals, giving rise to such influential works in Chinese cultural history as the Analects of Confucius and Laozi.

3-3 During the Western Zhou period, learning was in the king's officialdom, and only the nobles had the right to education. After the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the Zhou Dynasty declined, the status of the aristocracy declined, and the scholarly class emerged; the teaching of knowledge broke through the monopoly of the aristocracy, and the folk style of learning prevailed, which was known as the "Rituals and Music Downfall". Schools of thought sprang up, and a hundred schools of thought were formed, forming a cultural pattern of a hundred schools of thought. They have different ideas, literary concepts and styles are also colorful, resulting in a very different from the previous generation of prose and poetry.

Chapter 1: Ancient Myths

I. What is Myth

In short, myth is the story of God. The psychological basis for its birth is the concept of "everything has a spirit", usually to explain natural or social phenomena, or to express the desire to conquer or transform. The main characters of myths are usually natural deities or deified heroes, who have supernatural powers and magical abilities and are feared by people.

The origin of myths

On the origin of myths, the prevailing explanations are the origin of labor and the origin of religion. The former holds that myths arose from the laboring life of the primitive people, while the latter holds that myths were born from the religious activities of the primitive people.

Three Types of Chinese Ancient Myths

1. China's ancient myths are very rich, but they have not been preserved in their entirety. Among the existing literature, the mythological value of the Classic of Mountains and Seas is the greatest. The remaining bits and pieces are scattered in various books.

2. Ancient myths can be simply differentiated into two categories: nature myths and ancient history myths. The former was born very early, often anthropomorphizing nature, including the earliest mountain spirits and tree monsters such as spirit myths and more systematic creation myths, ancestor myths, flood myths, etc.; the latter is a myth or myth of history, close to the legend, including war myths, heroes myths, invention myths and so on.

Four, the characteristics of mythological thinking

1, the level of the mind of the first people is still at a low level, can not clearly distinguish between the subject of thinking and the object, there is a "mutual penetration" of the relationship between man and nature.

2. When the first people perceived nature, they often anthropomorphized it, forming the thinking characteristic of observing things from my point of view.

3. Mythological thinking is a kind of concrete and figurative way of thinking, in which abstract concepts such as time and location are expressed as various deities and their activities according to specific emotional experiences. A part of the mythological image is detached from the concrete image, by the combination of different objects.

4. Mythological thinking is always accompanied by strong emotional experience.

5, mythological thinking is actually a symbolic or metaphorical thinking. Myth, on the other hand, is a product of collective consciousness.

Fifth, the influence of myths on later literature

Marx once said that Greek mythology is the soil and arsenal of Greek art, and the same is true of Chinese mythology.

1. Myths provided the later generations with inexhaustible creative materials.

2. The primitive way of thinking of myths provided a rich means of expression for the creation of later generations of writers, while the archetypal images created in the world of myths became a powerful spiritual force in the veins of literature.

Chapter II, "The Book of Poetry"

Section I, "The Book of Poetry," the collation and system

I, "The Book of Poetry," the collation

1, "The Book of Poetry," is the first collection of poems in China, the original name of the "Poetry" and also known as "Poetry 300," **** there are 305, and the other pith poetry, six, there are There are 305 poems*** and six psalms, which have no words. The whole book mainly collects works from the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty to the middle of the Spring and Autumn Period, a period of more than 500 years. The geographical area where these works were produced roughly covers the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River and the upper reaches of the Han River. The authors of the Book of Songs included all social classes, from the nobility to the common people.

2. The compilation of the Book of Songs was completed around the 6th century BC. As for the compilation, the later generations had the expressions of "dedicating poems", "collecting poems", and "deleting poems". Nowadays, it is generally believed that these works were compiled by the imperial music officials as a base for singing and learning poems.

Second, the system and function of the Book of Songs

1, the present version of the Book of Songs is divided into three categories according to the type of music: wind, elegance, and ode. Wind means music, and the fifteen national winds in the Book of Songs refer to the different kinds of music in different parts of the world. Ya (雅), meaning correct, is the music of the capital region of the dynasty; the difference between Daya (大雅) and Xiaoya (小雅) is also a distinction based on the type of music. Ode, originally refers to the appearance of the dance in the sacrificial ceremony, and by extension refers specifically to the dance music used in the rituals of the clan temples.

2. The Book of Songs is an important carrier of ritual and music culture, and an important tool for the implementation of indoctrination. In the Zhou Dynasty, it was mainly used for ceremonies, satirical advice and entertainment, and was widely used in rituals, courtships, diplomacy, banquets and other occasions, and it was also the textbook for the education of the aristocracy. The poetic tradition and the system of poetic discourse that emerged after the Han Dynasty poetics had a profound influence on the formation of the Chinese literary tradition.

The Analects of Confucius - Yangguo: Zi said: "Why should a boy not learn poetry? Poetry is a way of expressing one's feelings, of watching one's thoughts, of being in a group, of complaining about one's feelings. I can serve my father at a distance and my ruler at a distance; I can recognize the names of birds, animals, grasses and trees.

"Poetry preface": love in the sound, sound into the text is called the sound, the sound of the sound of the world peace to music, its government and; the sound of the world of chaos to anger, its political misbehavior; the sound of the death of the voice of mourning to think, the people of the poor. Therefore, the correct gain or loss, move heaven and earth, feel the ghosts and gods, not close to the poem. The first king used the poem as a means for couples to become filial and respectful, for the sake of human relationships, for the sake of educating the people, and for the sake of moving the customs of the people.

3. During the Han Dynasty, the Poetry Classic was transmitted by the poems of Qi, Lu, and Han, collectively known as the Three Families Poetry, whose authors were Shen Pei of Lu, Yuan Gu of Qi, and Han Ying of Yan; in addition, there was the ancient Mao Poetry, which was passed down by Mao Heng of Lu, and Mao Jang of Zhao. Later, the poems of the three families died out one after another, and the Mao poems were passed on alone. The Poetry of the Book of Songs, which we read today, is Mao's poetry.

Section 2: Contents of the Classic of Poetry

1. Sacrificial Poetry and Epic Poetry

2. Agricultural Poetry

3. p>Fu, Bi, Xing are generally regarded as the modes of expression of the Book of Songs, but the interpretations of their meanings are divided. Among them, Zhu Xi's statement is more down-to-earth and is generally accepted by later generations. According to him, "Foo is to present the matter in a straightforward manner; Bi is to compare one thing with another; Xing is to speak of other things first to arouse the words being chanted."

2. Chapter structure

The Book of Songs usually adopts the structure of repeated chapters. The so-called re-chapter is not a listing of the exact same words and phrases again, but a repetition of singing after changing or replacing some words and phrases. There are two kinds of cases: one is that the words are changed but the meaning is the same; the other is that the words are changed so that a hierarchical relationship of meaning is formed between the chapters.

Peppard's Prayer: Picking Prayer, Picking in Thin Words. The first thing you need to do is to get your hands dirty. The first thing you need to do is to get your hands dirty. The first thing you need to do is to get your hands dirty. The first thing you need to do is to lift up the dress. The first thing you need to do is to lift up a dress, and then lift up the dress.

3. Syntax and Language

The Book of Songs has a basic syntax of four lines. At the same time, under the basic sentence pattern of four words, there are variations and changes, and the length is flexible. The rhythm is distinctive, the rhyme is harmonious, and there is a natural musical beauty. The basic pattern and rules of rhyme have actually become the guideline for the rhythms of poems of later generations.

In addition, the language of the Book of Songs is also very distinctive. First, it has a rich vocabulary; second, it has a large number of double-sounding and rhyming conjunctions and superimposed characters. For example, "Guan Guan", "Myrtle", "Yao Shao", "Jie Jie", " enthusiastic", "silk muse", "poor", "strider", "snake " and so on. These features add to the beauty of the poem's rhythm, and convey the poet's twisted and subtle emotions and the gestures of the objects more delicately.

Section 4: The Status and Influence of the Book of Songs

1. The Book of Songs started the tradition of lyric poetry.

2. The Book of Songs set up the spirit of "elegance" which is concerned with reality.

3. The Poetry of the Book of Songs establishes the tradition of simile, which constitutes the basic technique of literary expression in later times.

Chapter 3: Pre-Qin Historical Prose

China's ancient culture of historians was very developed, and the narrative prose of historical events was the first to emerge in the history of prose; the oracle bone inscriptions and the Yin Shang bronze inscriptions were the earliest recorded texts in China, and the "Shangshu" and the "Spring and Autumn Annals" provided the different styles of historical prose. The appearance of Zuozhuan, Guoyu, and Zhanguo Ce marked the maturity of narrative writing and opened the tradition of narrative literature in China.

Section I. From Divination to the Spring and Autumn Annals

1. The origin of China's prose can be traced back to the oracle bone divinations. Their narratives are relatively simple and unsystematic. Very few narratives are more complete, with a full range of narrative elements, which can be regarded as the germ of pre-Qin narrative prose.

2, the bronze inscriptions of the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, from simple to complex, longer, more complex, with a certain scale of narrative.

3, "Shangshu" is China's first historical anthology, mainly to record the words, is the compilation of the Shang and Zhou records of historical materials. Including the book of Yu, the book of summer, the book of commerce, the book of Zhou, four parts. Pan Geng" is a reliable work of the Shang Dynasty and the ancestor of our country's narrative literature. The text of the Shangshu is ancient and difficult to read, as Han Yu said in his "Explanation of Progress in Learning": "The Zhou enjoins the Yin Pan, which is difficult to pronounce". The letters of the Shangshu are structured and separate, and their language skills are significantly more mature than those of the divination and bronze inscriptions. It had a profound influence on the style of official documents of later generations.

4. The Spring and Autumn Annals was originally the common name of the history books of the Zhou Dynasty, but later it specifically referred to the history of the state of Lu. It recorded the history from the first year of the reign of Duke Yin of Lu (722 BC) to the fourteenth year of the reign of Duke Ai of Lu (481 BC). The Spring and Autumn Annals is the first chronological history book in China, organizing historical events in chronological order. Legend has it that Confucius once penciled the Spring and Autumn Annals, but some believe that Confucius only used it to teach his disciples. It has a legalistic account of events, but they are all abbreviated, as if they were modern news headlines, not narrative prose in the true sense of the word.

5, "Spring and Autumn Annals" throughout the book throughout the maintenance of the Zhou rituals, the right name to set points of thought. This idea in the text is not resorting to thesis words, but through the historical facts of the prose, as well as implicit and rigorous way of wording to show. This is the so-called "Spring and Autumn writing method" of "micro-aggression", in which a word implies praise and blame.

Section II, "Zuo Zhuan"

I, "Zuo Zhuan" of the book

1, "Zuo Zhuan" is "Spring and Autumn Zuo's biography of the abbreviation, also known as the "Zuo Spring and Autumn Annals". According to legend, Zuo Zhuan is a work of biography for the Spring and Autumn Annals, the author is Zuo Qiu Ming, but later generations have doubts about this.

2. The chronicle of Zuo Zhuan begins in the year of the Duke Yin of Lu (722 BC) and ends in the twenty-seventh year of the Duke Ai of Lu (468 BC), which is basically the same as the Spring and Autumn Annals. It was written in the early Warring States period, and the compiler was a Confucian scholar.

3, "Zuo Zhuan" at that time that there is written, long-term single line, and "Gongyang Zhuan" "Gu Liang Zhuan" and called "Spring and Autumn" three biographies. After the Western Jin Dynasty, the biographies were united and became the face we see today.

Second, the historical concept of Zuo Zhuan

1, Zuo Zhuan inherited the spirit of good history of the Spring and Autumn Annals to punish the evil and promote the good, stood in the position of Confucianism to summarize the historical experience, and evaluate the historical figures and events, to provide historical reference for the future generations.

2. The humanistic spirit and people-oriented thinking are the outstanding ideological features of Zuo Zhuan, reflecting the author's progressive historical concepts, as well as the reflection of the social realities and trends of the time. The humanistic spirit is a subversion of the divine consciousness, and the Zuo Zhuan puts forward the view that "the people are the masters of the gods"; the people-oriented idea is manifested in the importance attached to public opinion, and expresses the view that the people are the basis of the state, and that the people are more important than the ruler.

Three, "Zuo Zhuan" narrative

"Zuo Zhuan" is a historical work, but it is detailed and supportive, vivid, and simple and unwritten "Spring and Autumn", "Shangshu" is very different. Its narrative features can be seen from the following four aspects:

1, literary cut and storytelling of historical events.

Literary cut, that is to say, it both recounts the true face of historical events, but also good at making the events conveyed interesting, and avoid boring running account of the account. The storytelling of historical events means that Zuo Zhuan, in recounting historical facts, often draws on the portrayal of characters, depicting their words, behaviors, and relationships with each other, and some of them are even colored with novels and operas.

2. Characters are characterized by a sense of three-dimensionality.

"Zuo Zhuan" is not recorded in the form of biography of history, but in the narrative of historical events is very focused on portraying characters. Among them, such as Cao Yu, first square, string high, ZiYan, YanYing, etc. are very vivid image. More attention can be paid to, "Zuo Zhuan" can not only write the characteristics of the characters, but also focus on portraying the character of multiple sides, some even able to write the development of the character.

Zuo Zhuan mainly uses dialogues and actions to express characters, but never describes subjective static features such as appearance and psychology of characters.

3. Vivid scene descriptions and evocative detail descriptions.

"Zuo Zhuan" is known for being good at writing about war, it recorded many large and small battles during the Spring and Autumn Period, and often focus on the two sides of the pre-war planning narrative. Such as Jin and Chu before the battle of Chengpu intricate diplomatic strategy, that is an example. The description of the battlefield scene is simple and vivid. Such as the battle of Jin and Chu Bi Bi, written by the Chu army was routed Jin soldiers scramble boat across the river, attacking and killing each other, as a result, "the boat in the finger can be scooped up," the state of the hasty appeared.

The narrative and writing of Zuo Zhuan utilizes a lot of detailed descriptions, which are extremely evocative. For example, after the battle of Qin and Jin in Banyan, Duke Xiang of Jin released the three marshals of Qin, and Marshal Xixiang was furious and rebuked, "spitting in spite of him", showing his far-sightedness and irritable character. Another example is the Battle of Bi Bi between Jin and Chu, in which the soldiers of Jin fled when their troop car got stuck in a pit. The pursuing Chu taught them to draw off the horizontal wood in front of the car, and also taught them to pull down the flags, remove the yoke of the car, and flee with light loads. While fleeing, the Jin soldiers turned around and mocked the Chu army, saying that they did not have a way to escape because they did not suffer defeats as often as the Chu soldiers did. This detail shows the panic and confusion of the Jin army, the calmness and leisure of the Chu army, and the teasing and ridicule of the Jin army.

4, "Zuo Zhuan" is also good at narrating the diplomatic rhetoric, Rich Wenmei. As Yin Yiyi nephew to Qin Mugong's reply, not only recognize that the state of Jin has been negative to the state of Qin, but also show that the whole state of Jin with the same enemy, never yield; not only expressed the Jin people on the capture of Duke of Jin Huigong's sorrow, but also clarified the Qin must release the reasoning of the Duke of Jin Huigong. Deeply into the heart of the other party, grasp their psychology, the words correct and euphemistic, not humble, not overbearing, full of reasoning, appropriate, so that the other party had to be convinced. Other famous examples include "Candle's Wu's Retreat from the Qin Division," "Asked by the King of Chu," and "Lu Xiang's Extermination of the Qin," among others.

These literary achievements of Zuo Zhuan had a profound influence on later literature, especially the creation of novels.

Section III: The State Language and the Strategies of the Warring States

I. The State Language

1. The State Language is the first country-specific history book of our country, which records the affairs of eight countries, namely, Zhou, Lu, Qi, Jin, Zheng, Chu, Wu and Yue, and it is a compilation of the histories of various countries. It is a compilation of the history of various countries. It is mainly written in the language of record, so it is called "The State Language". It is rumored that its author was also Zuo Qiu Ming, but it is not reliable.

2. The words of "The Language of Nations" are meticulous in both figurative and logical thinking, and they are popularized and colloquialized, lively and rich in images.

3. Although the Guoyu is mainly written in jiyin, it is not a mere thesis or discourse, but a series of small and large stories are interspersed with it, and there are successes from time to time in narrative techniques, plot ideas and characterization