On the Artistic Achievements of Narrative Prose in Pre-Qin Period from Warring States Policy to Zuo Zhuan

The narrative of Warring States Policy has made great achievements. Around the lobbying activities of counselors and strategists, the book describes a large number of people with distinctive personalities, from monarchs and nobles to villagers. Among them, the most brilliant are those "heroes of the world". With vivid brushstrokes, the authors reproduce their outstanding style in the political arena of the Warring States Period. There is a great difference between the chronological narrative of Zuo Zhuan and writing people by events. The Warring States Policy often focuses on one person's events in one work, and there are many exaggerations, exaggerations and even fictions in the narrative. The author not only expresses the character through his distinctive words and deeds, but also pays attention to revealing his inner world, so that the character image is full of flesh and blood, with both form and spirit. For example, "Qin Ce Yi" records that Su Qin and Lian Heng called Qin Wang in their early years and received a cold reception:

Say ten words about the book of the king of Qin and say no, mink is not good, gold is exhausted and resources are scarce, so I went to Qin and returned. Tread on the hub and bear the weight of books. Haggard, with a dark face and a look of shame. When I get home, my wife won't fail, my sister-in-law won't cook, and my parents won't talk to me. Su Qin sighed: "My wife doesn't treat me as a husband, my sister-in-law doesn't treat me as an uncle, and my parents don't treat me as a son. This is the sin of the Qin Dynasty." It was the night when the book was published, and dozens of Chen Ru got the idea of "squire Yin Fu", so they bowed their heads and recited it, thinking it was concise and trying to find out. I want to sleep after reading it, so I stab myself in the thigh and bleed to my feet. Yue: "Does anyone say that the master can't show his wealth and glory, but takes the respect of the prime minister?" By the end of the year, I figured it out and said, "This can really be said to be the king of the world!" "

So, Mo gathered in Que. When he saw the prince of Zhao in the mansion, he reached into his palm and spoke. Yue's name is. The sealed person, leather car hundred times, cotton embroidery thousand pure, white bi hundred pairs, gold ten thousand pieces, and then, about from scattered horizontal, in order to suppress.

……

Will say the king of Chu, passing by Luoyang, parents heard that the Qing palace was cleared, Zhang Le set up wine, and the suburbs would be three miles. The wife looked askance and listened, and her sister-in-law knelt on the ground and thanked her. Su Qin said, "Sister-in-law, why were you humble before?" Sister-in-law said, "If you respect the position of the season, you will get more gold." Su Qin said, "Wow! Poor parents have no children and daughters, and rich relatives are afraid. If the world is rich, how can it be built? "

This article reproduces the glorious history of a strategist. Su Qin's early down and out, his later dignity and his anger in the middle of the night are all vividly written. The monologues before and after strongly show his personality and ideological characteristics; The condescending attitude of family members makes people see the typical environment of Su Qin's life, which makes this image more real. In these aspects, the author deliberately exaggerates, exaggerates and even adds imagination.

The narrative of the Warring States policy takes characters as the key link; Most of the stories recorded in the book are the stories of people who used tactics to find different strategies, turned the corner and survived. Authors often deliberately exaggerate them. Therefore, the strange and tortuous plot is organically combined with the strange and extraordinary characters, which makes the work legendary. For example, in Qi Ce Si and Feng Xuan Meng Ke County, when Feng Xuan appeared, it gave people an unusual feeling. Then, the author passed the bullet. In the Qing Dynasty, Wu Chucai and Wu Tiaohou said, "There is no way to see heroes for a while. Writing throughout, the waves are endless, and the posture is full of life breath, which can make Feng Gong's eyebrows float on the paper. Therefore, fallen people add color. " In addition, when writing narratives, the author often pays attention to meticulous descriptions, such as Zou Ji's psychological activities of looking in the mirror several times in Seven Strategies One, Zou Ji's sarcastic dialogue with Empress Zhao in Shangshu and the change of Empress Zhao's attitude. These detailed descriptions in the Warring States Policy are quite different from the concise Zuo Zhuan.

From the Warring States Policy to Zuo Zhuan, it is not difficult to see that the pre-Qin historical prose laid the tradition of ancient historical prose. Historians express their thoughts and opinions by recording historical facts, summing up historical experience. They either express their appreciation, disapproval, love and hate in their narratives, or dare to express their feelings directly. This spirit of taking history as a mirror was carried forward by later historical writers. Sima Qian of the Han Dynasty strongly agreed with Confucius' view that "it is better to act with deep insight than to speak empty words". By writing historical records, he not only entrusted his ideals and loves and dislikes, but also wrote a "true record" of "not empty beauty and not hiding evil". Pre-Qin historical prose combines rigorous historical writing with vivid literary expression. To achieve the unity of authenticity and image, the works pay attention to depicting characters and describing details, and are good at expressing dramatic plots in narrative. From these works, different styles, such as chronology and country, development and miscellaneous history, such as biographies of Mu and Chunqiu Yanzi, further record historical events as the center of a person. These creative characteristics and experiences are not only inherited by later historical prose, but also directly gave birth to biographical literature such as Historical Records and Hanshu. The biographies created in Historical Records borrowed a lot of books such as Zuozhuan and Guoce to describe the characters. Among them, Biography, Table, Shi Jia, Biography and other narrative styles also draw lessons from Royal Family, Biography and Queen Pu.

China's ancient novels are closely related to historical biography literature, and historical prose in pre-Qin period is an important source of historical biography literature. Some miscellaneous biographies in the pre-Qin period, such as Mu Zhuan, were full of novel colors, and gradually developed into novels in the Han, Wei and Six Dynasties. On the other hand, historical biographies influenced the formation of ancient novels through biographies of later generations such as Historical Records. China's ancient novels often take historical stories as the theme, and often adopt the narrative form of historical biography. The author arranges the plot structure according to the development order of time, and depicts the characters through the actions and language of the protagonist in the narrative process, rarely making static descriptions. These distinctive national characteristics can be found in the historical prose of the pre-Qin period. Pre-Qin historical prose is rich in content and has become a treasure house of later novels and operas.

The style, language and writing skills of historical prose in the pre-Qin period have also become models for later essayists to learn. In the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, most of the essayists had the habit of strategists in the Warring States period, and others' great fu also clearly showed the traces of the spread of the Warring States policy. Prose writers in the Tang and Song Dynasties took the historical prose in the pre-Qin period as an example when advocating the ancient prose movement. Both Han and Liu's prose are influenced by Zuo Zhuan, and Han Yu's Ping Huai Xi Bei is written in imitation of Shangshu, and Liu Zongyuan also advocates "participating in Mandarin to enrich his interest" (answer to Wei Zhongli's book Teacher's Way). Ouyang Xiu advocated "simplified method" in Spring and Autumn Annals, while Su Xun and Su Shi borrowed more from "Warring States Policy" in their essays. Until the Tongcheng School in the Qing Dynasty, the pre-Qin historical prose such as Zuo Zhuan was still regarded as a model of ancient Chinese prose, and Fang Bao's theory of "righteousness" was put forward on the basis of summing up the creative experience of Zuo Zhuan and Historical Records.