What is the format of ancient letters?

The Basic Format of China's Ancient Letters

Notes on letters: status, title, branch, title and ending.

The so-called identity, that is, the name of the recipient is written in the first line of the first header. The sender's signature is less than half of the whole stationery.

Heading refers to old-fashioned letters, leaving a space or a new line for older recipients to show respect.

Branch is a segmented statement to avoid confusion. Leaving two words blank at the beginning of each paragraph means writing in several paragraphs with different contents.

Appellation, different identities have different appellations. For example, for parents, it is used below the knee and in front of the knee; For the elders, respect the former, respect the right, learn from the ancient, and learn from the ancient, which is the right; For peers, use Taiwan Province to enlighten, learn from, benefit from and stand right; Women use Yi Jian and Cijian; Teachers should use letters, altar mats, etc. At present, it is generally no longer used, and there are comrades, gentlemen and so on. Used as a honorific. If you add Hui Jian, Tai Jian and Ci Jian, it's not bad.

After the letter is written, add the ending, commonly known as "closing the door." For example, salute to Jun 'an, greet you in the near future, wish you health and salute you, and there are more primitive forms such as Chun 'an, Dong 'an and Japanese chess, among which "salute to Tai 'an" is a social usage. In addition, there are hasty words such as "hurry", "carelessness", "say nothing" and "write little".

"Faith" is a compound word, but in ancient times it was divided into "book" and "faith", and "book" refers to letters; "Letter" refers to the messenger, that is, the servant who delivers the letter. Liu Lanzhi, an ancient poem written by Han Yuefu for "A Ship Rushs at Your Wife", asked his mother to cut off the matchmaker who sent the county magistrate rice: "I can cut off the letter myself, but more importantly, speak slowly." The letter is to talk about the messenger of the media.

History of the Three Kingdoms. Shu Wei? "The Sixteenth Year of Jian 'an, Emperor Wu Ji": "(Ma) chased the south and destroyed it, and asked for Hexi, and it was not allowed to be public." The "letter" here also refers to the messenger. This meaning of "faith" is common in the documents of Han, Wei and Six Dynasties, and can not be misunderstood as "faith" after the uprising. But in the Book of Jin? In Lu Ji Zhuan, "book" and "letter" have been combined into words, and "letter" is more common in the poems of shopkeepers. There is a Sichuan method that only refers to letter by "letter".

For example, Wang Changling's "Sending Stones to Youzhou": "There are a few letters in the book, and the geese fly to Hengyang"; Jia Dao's "A Message to North Korea for Chaozhou Jade": "The seal across the ridge is the ball to Hua Yue, and the letter flows through the customs"; Yuan Zhen's "Reward Lotte, Sigh Poor, See and Send": "When I am old, my mood is decreasing, and I have a letter every other year"; They are all connected by letters.

If we think that the letter in these three poems still refers to the person who sent the book, then the letter defended by this poem need not be regarded as a synonym for the book. Yuan Zhen's "Book Lotte Paper": "There is a piece of paper in the Golden Temple, begging for the judge of Jingzhou Yuan. I can't bear to wait, half a letter from Beijing and half a poem. " Beijing's envelope, obviously refers to something, the meaning is very clear. It can be seen that although the meaning of the letter "letter" is later, it is not too late. "Book" refers to the ancient meaning of letters, which has been used to this day. It is very common to write "thank you for your letter" as "received a letter" in classical Chinese.