Ten Classic Ancient Books in China

From Yanhuang to Ming and Qing Dynasties, there are countless excellent classic ancient books in China. Among the voluminous ancient books, besides the Four Books and Five Classics and Four Great Classical Novels, there are many ancient books worth reading. The following book list includes poetry and prose, a hundred schools of thought contend, novels of Ming and Qing dynasties, and historical humanities, which are worth learning.

The Book of Songs

The Book of Songs is the first collection of poems in the history of China, with a total of 305 poems, so it is also called "300 poems". According to the use and music, it can be divided into three parts: wind, elegance and ode, in which wind refers to folk songs around the country, elegance is the court music of nobles, and ode is the dance music used by Zhou and princes to sacrifice to ancestral temples.

The Book of Songs has a lofty position and far-reaching influence in the history of China literature, which has laid a fine tradition of China's poetry, thus forming the national characteristics of China's poetry art. Its enthusiasm for paying attention to reality, strong political and moral consciousness and sincere and positive attitude towards life are summarized as "elegant" spirit by later generations, which directly affects the creation of later poets.

Many sad stories in The Book of Songs are still sung by later generations and become the source of people's literary creation, which has a far-reaching impact on the genre structure and language art of poetry in later generations in China and also plays an important role in improving personal cultural literacy.

Zhouyi

Zhouyi, a classic box of Zhou Dynasty in China, is known as "the head of the group classics and the source of a hundred schools of thought", and its significance to the Chinese nation is comparable to that of the bibles of western countries.

Zhouyi culture is the root and source of China's cultural development, which has had a great and far-reaching influence on China's politics, economy, culture and many other aspects. China's architecture, medicine, music, painting and daily life are inextricably linked with Zhouyi, which still affects the national character and spirit of China people. Confucius read the Book of Changes, and Wei compiled the Three Absolutely. Even The Analects quoted many sentences from the Book of Changes.

history

Historical Records is China's first biographical general history, from the legendary Huangdi to the first year of founding ceremony, the Emperor of the Han Dynasty, which recorded the history of China for about 3,000 years. Biography 12, table 10, 8 books, 30 aristocratic families, 70 biographies, * * 130. With rich historical facts and brilliant literary talent, he enjoys the reputation of "a historian's swan song, leaving Sao without rhyme"

Historical Records is not only a historical work, but also covers politics, economy, culture and other aspects. For example, its economic viewpoint put forward a long time ago has been ahead of western countries for more than 100 years, and its forward-looking wisdom and famous sentences still have a guiding role today. At the same time, it also opened up a new field of historical research and promoted the development of history. Therefore, it makes sense for some scholars to regard Historical Records as "the whole history".

the art of war

Sun Tzu was a master of ancient military science in China. His extensive and profound military philosophy, extensive and profound classical military theory system, meticulous literary language, and the fruitful results of previous studies on him have had a far-reaching impact on later generations and are honored as "soldiers' saints."

The historical significance of his book The Art of War has already crossed time and space, transcended national boundaries, and has been widely circulated all over the world, winning the elegant reputation of "the first book of ancient art in the world".

The Classic of Mountains and Seas

Shan Hai Jing is a book that records ancient myths, geography, plants, animals, minerals, products, witchcraft, religion, medicine, folk customs and nationalities in China, and reflects all kinds of cultural phenomena.

Besides preserving rich mythological materials, it also involves many academic fields, such as philosophy, aesthetics, religion, history, geography, astronomy, meteorology, medicine and so on. It's vast in Wang Yang. In the case of underdeveloped ancient culture, science and technology and transportation, Shan Hai Jing is a wonderful book with the most myths recorded in China, and it is also an encyclopedia of geographical knowledge.

Wenxindiaolong

Wen Xin Diao Long is the first magnificent masterpiece in the history of China's literary criticism. It systematically discusses a series of important issues such as the origin, genre, thinking, style, rhetoric, appreciation, writer's personality and social changes of literary language.

The author Liu Xie's literary view is mainly Confucianism, which is compatible with Taoism and Buddhism. His comments on characters and works are insightful, which is the first in the history of China's literary criticism and has a far-reaching influence on later generations. The style of the work is vigorous and poetic.

Shi Shuo Xin Yu

Shi Shuo Xin Yu is a masterpiece of "Zhi Ren Novel" in the Wei, Jin and Southern and Northern Dynasties in China, and it is a short story with notes on events.

Shi Shuo Xin Yu is an excellent material for studying the history of Wei and Jin Dynasties. Among them, there are vivid descriptions of the activities of celebrities in Wei and Jin Dynasties, such as beautiful speech, commenting on topics, and various personality characteristics, such as comfortable life, noble birth, simplicity and arrogance, pursuit of life and wide hobbies. Throughout the book, we can get the group image of several generations of scholars in Wei and Jin Dynasties. Through these characters, we can further understand the fashion of the upper class in that era. Mr. Lu Xun called it "a textbook for celebrities".

A Dream in Red Mansions

A Dream of Red Mansions is China's first classical Four Great Classical Novels and a novel written by Cao Xueqin in Qing Dynasty. This book is divided into two editions: 120 Cheng Ben and 80 Fat Ben. The first eighty chapters of the new edition of Tongshu were collected according to Fat Book, and the last forty chapters were collected according to Cheng Shu, with the signature "Cao Xueqin, Anonymous, Cheng Weiyuan, Finishing".

Because Cao Xueqin's original works handed down in this world are only the first 80 chapters, and the last 40 chapters of A Dream of Red Mansions circulating in the market 120 are all continued by later generations, the ending explained is quite different from the ending implied by the first 80 chapters of the original works, and the descriptions and thoughts and behaviors of the characters are deviated, so it is impossible to generalize, so the stories of the last 40 chapters cannot represent the original works of A Dream of Red Mansions.

A Dream of Red Mansions is an earthly novel with world influence. It is recognized as the pinnacle of China's classical novels, an encyclopedia of China's feudal society and a master of traditional culture. The novel takes the rise and fall of Jia, Shi, Wang and Xue as the background, the family affairs of Jia's family and the leisure of boudoir as the main line, and the love and marriage stories of Jia Baoyu, Lin Daiyu and Xue Baochai as the main line, depicting the beauty of humanity and tragedy of lovers centered on Jia Baoyu and Jinling Twelve Chai. Through family tragedy, daughter tragedy and protagonist's life tragedy, the end-time crisis of feudalism is revealed.

Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio

Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio, referred to as Liaozhai for short, describes a world of flowers, demons and foxes. The chapter of pure love between man and fox, man and ghosts, and man and man has been sung so far.

Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio also has high artistic achievements. It has successfully shaped many artistic shapes, with bizarre twists and turns, rigorous and ingenious structural layout, concise writing and delicate description. It is the pinnacle of China's classical short stories. Guo Moruo once commented: "Writing ghosts and writing demons is superior, and stabbing greed and stabbing abuse into the wood."

Ancient prose view

Guanzhi of Ancient Chinese Literature is an anthology of ancient Chinese literature, which was written in Qing Dynasty. According to the historical process, cataloging the most representative works of the best writers in turn is like walking in the corridor of the development history of ancient prose in China, seeking the source with the waves and seeking the leaves from the branches.

Guan Zhi of Ancient Chinese Prose almost covers all kinds of styles and contents of China's ancient articles. The View of Ancient Prose is an image of China's prose in the past dynasties, a vivid development course of prose and a must-read literary work.