Classification of Literature in the Pre-Qin and Han Dynasties

This course will be guided by historical materialism and adhere to the policy of using the past for the present. By systematically introducing the major writers' works and literary styles of the pre-Qin and Han periods, students will be able to recognize and firmly grasp the basic characteristics and laws of the literary development of this period, familiarize themselves with the important writers and works of this period, increase their basic knowledge of ancient literature, and lay a better foundation for the study of the history of literature in the other phases of the period thereafter.

Course content:

Part I Pre-Qin Literature (36 hours)

Overview (1 hour)

1. Scope of Pre-Qin Literature.

2, the beginning of Chinese literature; primitive ballads and ancient myths; myths are the encyclopedia of the Chinese nation's childhood, the earliest treasures of China's literary heritage.

3. China's first general collection of poetry, the Book of Poetry. As the source of ancient realist literature, the Book of Songs has a pioneering significance in both the object and technique of literary expression.

4. The social changes of the Warring States period and the emergence of the "Hundred Schools of Thought" contributed to the flourishing of prose. Historical prose and

Zhuzi prose masterpieces such as forests, famous writers, laying a solid foundation for the development of prose in China.

5. Qu Yuan is the first great poet in the history of Chinese literature, and the excellent poems represented by Li Sao are full of lofty ideological sentiments, patriotic passions and magical colors of Romanticism, opening up the fine tradition of Romanticism in China.

Thinking question: what is the overview of pre-Qin literature?

Chapter I Ancient Myths (2 hours)

1. Myths and the emergence of myths. Myth according to Marx is "in the people's fantasies through the unconscious artistic way processed nature and social form." The creation of myths is closely related to the level of productivity and thinking ability of primitive people; the way of myths usually includes two aspects of labor production and religious activities.

2. The content of myths. China's ancient myths are very rich and complete, such as the myth of the universe, the myth of the origin of mankind, the myth of heroes, flood myths, as well as a variety of myths about the types of gods, habits, forms and other depictions of myths, a complete set.

3. The art of myth and its national characteristics. Ancient myths are the embodiment of the romanticism of primitive man, which expresses primitive man's understanding and imagination of nature and society by means of exaggerated fantasies. China's myths have their distinctive national characteristics, singing the spirit of endless creativity in the content, the performance of indomitable, tenacious and persistent pursuit, praising the unrelenting dedication, with a positive spirit of romanticism, in the art of colorful, rich in fantasy.

4. The significance and influence of myths.

Thinking questions: 1. What are the contents and characteristics of the ancient myths?

2. What is the relationship between ancient myths and primitive religions?

Chapter 2: Poetry of the Zhou Dynasty and the Book of Poetry (13 hours)

1. Ancient ballads and proverbs, incantations and the formation of Zhou poetry. Before the Book of Poetry, China's ancient poetry had a long history of development. Ancient ballads and proverbs and ancient incantations were the two main forms of early poetry and the precursors of Zhou poetry. The Zhou Dynasty was a period of great prosperity of China's ancient poetry, in addition to the Poetry Scriptures, preserved in the Zhou Yi, Zuo Zhuan and other books of poetry is also a lot, can be compared with the Poetry Scriptures survey.

2. The system and codification of the Book of Songs. The Book of Poetry*** contains three hundred and five poems written between the beginning of the Western Zhou Dynasty and the middle of the Spring and Autumn Period, a period of about five hundred years. It is divided into three parts: wind, elegance, and ode. The geographical area of the 300 poems includes all or part of today's provinces of Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan, Hebei, Hubei, and Shandong. Some of them are folk songs, and some of them are the compositions of nobles and scholars, and the names of the authors of the great majority of them are no longer available. The collection and organization of the Book of Poetry, in the past, there are all sorts of sayings, among which the more influential ones are the saying of dedicating poems, the saying of collecting poems and the saying of deleting poems by Confucius. Nowadays, people think that the collection of the Book of Poetry into a compilation, about the court and the local lords and musicians **** with the completion. In the pre-Qin period, the book of poems was only known as "Poetry" or "Poetry 300", and after the Han period, it was regarded as a classic by Confucianism, so it was called "The Book of Poetry".

3. Overview of the classification of the Book of Poetry. (1) Zhou tribal epics; (2) political satire; (3) poems of servitude; (4) agricultural poems; (5) love poems; (6) miscellaneous poems. The Book of Songs is a reflection of all aspects of social life in the Zhou Dynasty, and the lives and feelings of people of all classes in the Zhou Dynasty are reflected in the Book of Songs. Some of the poems show the history of the growth of the Zhou people; some of them express the worries or dissatisfaction of the aristocrats, scholars, officials, people and even slaves about the social and political situation; some of them show the ritual life of the aristocrats, their entertainment and festivals; some of them show that the small states and officials are not able to be driven, and attack the social reality of the inequality of work and leisure; some of them show the agricultural production of the Zhou people; and some of them express the sweetness or unhappiness of the love and the marriage of the family; Some of them depict the social problem of women's abandonment in the Zhou Dynasty; some of them reflect the relationship and friendship between families, clans and friends. All in all, the Book of Songs is a work of realism, showing various aspects of social life in the Zhou Dynasty.

4. The Artistic Achievements of the Book of Songs. (1) the realism of the "Classic of Poetry" artistic characteristics and techniques; (2) narrative, reasoning, lyricism, landscape writing, and discussion of all kinds of artistic means; (3) the "Classic of Poetry" sentence and chapter; (4) the "Classic of Poetry" language art; (5) the "Classic of Poetry" of the fugue than the Xing technique.

Thinking questions: 1. What are the six meanings, the four beginnings, the Mao poems, the four poems, and the changing styles and elegance?

2. What is the main content of the Book of Songs?

3. What are the main artistic features of the Book of Songs?

4. What are the specific manifestations of the artistic techniques of Fubi Xing in the Book of Songs?

Chapter III Pre-Qin Historical Prose (5 hours)

1. The basis for the development of Pre-Qin historical prose. Great social changes; new air in the field of thought and culture; new requirements of social development on the style of history books.

2. Historical prose from Yin-Shang to Spring and Autumn period. The oracle bone inscriptions and gold inscriptions were the origin of the ancient prose system; the Zhouyi was a book of divination, in which certain historical contents were also expressed; the Shangshu was the earliest history book in the form of a record of words; and the Spring and Autumn Period was the earliest chronicle of historical events.

3, "Zuo Zhuan". Zuo Zhuan is especially good at writing about the rhetoric of pedestrians.

4. The State Language. The style and content of the Guoyu; the art of the Guoyu: the Guoyu is much less accomplished than the Zuozhuan, but it does contain excellent chapters with interesting dialogues, vivid stories, and more detailed characterizations.

5. The Strategies of the Warring States. The Warring States Strategies" style; "Warring States Strategies" process; "Warring States Strategies" content and art: "Warring States Strategies" reflects the thinking of the Warring States strategists, the portrayal of active and vivid image of the strategists, the book of the politicians and strategists of the power, treachery, an objective depiction, but also recorded and praised some of the political vision, uphold justice, defying violence and their vivid deeds. Artistically, "Strategies of the Warring States" likes to use exaggerations, metaphors and fables, and the characters and stories are all interesting; the language style is unrestrained and unrestrained, and makes good use of proverbs, resulting in strong language, coupled with brilliant and vivid rhetoric, and the linguistic ability has improved and developed compared with the previous historical prose.

Thinking questions: 1. Try to analyze the achievements of Zuo Zhuan in describing war.

2. Try to analyze the language style of the Strategies of the Warring States.

Chapter IV: The Prose of the First Qin Sons (5 hours)

1. The Rise of the Scholar and the Hundred Schools of Thought. Spring and Autumn and Warring States, "a hundred schools of thought" situation formed with the rise of the class has a close relationship with the rise of the Shi, by the transformation of various social classes from the cab, to become active in the political arena and the world of thought, the education sector of the people, which "nine streams of ten", with a complete system of thought, and became the hundred schools of thought. The "Nine Streams and Ten Schools", with a complete system of thought, became the representatives of the Hundred Schools of Thought.

2. The aphoristic prose of the School of War and early Taoism. Characteristics of the layout of Sun Tzu's Art of War; linguistic characteristics of Sun Tzu's Art of War; ideas of Lao Tzu; aphoristic prose of Lao Tzu.

3. A collection of discursive prose, The Analects of Confucius. The thought of Confucius; the refined linguistic art of The Analects; The Analects' depiction of character and speech patterns.

4. Conversational polemical essays "Mencius" and "Zhuangzi". Ideology of "Mencius"; characteristics of argumentation of "Mencius"; language art of "Mencius"; allegorical art of "Mencius"; ideology of "Zhuangzi"; romanticism characteristics of prose of "Zhuangzi"; allegorical art of "Zhuangzi".

5. Discursive prose "Xunzi" and "Hanfeizi". The art of expository prose in Xunzi; the art of allegory in Hanfeizi.

Thinking questions: 1. Try to analyze the argumentative skill of the prose of Mencius.

2. Try to analyze the romantic style of the prose of Zhuangzi.

Chapter 5 Qu Yuan and Chu Rhetoric (10 hours)

1. Chu culture and the emergence of Chu Rhetoric. The socio-political background of Chu; the relationship between the production of Chu Rhetoric and the folk songs and popular music of Chu; the relationship between the production of Chu Rhetoric and the witch culture of Chu; the relationship between the production of Chu Rhetoric and the culture of the Central Plains.

2. The authenticity of Qu Yuan's life and works. Early in his life, he was the left disciple of King Huai of Chu, the conflict with the old power of Chu aristocracy, the seizure of manuscripts, being slandered, exiled to the north of Han, and then released to the south of the Yangtze River, and sank himself in Buro. Qu Yuan's works "Han Shu - Art and Culture" recorded 25, some of which are feared to be forgeries.

3, the heart of the melody - "Li Sao". Li Sao" is Qu Yuan's masterpiece and a long autobiographical and political lyric poem that will live on through the ages. The whole poem profoundly expresses Qu Yuan's political ideals and his conflicts with the old forces of Chu, pouring out his psychological pain and helplessness, his passionate love for his homeland and his unremitting pursuit of ideals, which becomes the righteousness of the world that is strong and powerful. Li Sao has a strong spirit of romanticism, with a strong mood, a high tone, and a broad, sweeping atmosphere. He is also skillful in skilfully utilizing the materials of myths and legends to gallop his imagination, of which the parade in the heavenly realm has become a classic chapter of such depictions in ancient Chinese literature. Vanilla Beauty's picaresque technique also had a great influence on the later generations of poems of wistfulness, history, and antiquity.

4. The Nine Chapters, a Suite of Exile and Wandering. Editing and naming of the Nine Chapters; contents of the Nine Chapters; analysis of the chapters of the Nine Chapters; the art of the Nine Chapters.

5. The Divine Sacrifice Suite--"Nine Songs". The content of the Nine Songs; the art of the Nine Songs.

6. Qu Yuan's other works and their influence. The Heavenly Question, The Invocation of the Soul and others.

7. The flow of Chu Rhetoric and other writers. Song Yu and his Nine Arguments, Wind Fugue and others; the influence of Chu Rhetoric on Han Fu.

Thinking questions: 1. What are the reasons for the emergence of the new poetic form of Chu Rhetoric?

2. What is the unique style of Chu Rhetoric? How is it expressed?

3. The similarities and differences between the artistic styles of Li Sao and Jiu Ge.

Part II: Literature of the Qin and Han Dynasties (24 hours)

Overview (1 hour)

1. Emperor Qin Shi Huang united the long-divided China in 221 B.C.E., but was overthrown in less than 15 years. Qin made few literary achievements, with only the pre-unification Lu Shi Chun Qiu (Spring and Autumn Annals of Lu Shi) and Li Si's Admonition of the Evicted Guests being slightly commendable.

2. The Han was one of the strongest feudal dynasties in China. China in the era of Emperor Wu of Han was even the largest, most productive and most powerful country in the world at that time. However, the ruler's extravagance and foreign expansion made the people pay the price of "depletion of the sea and the population by half". The social conflicts in the late Han Dynasty were extremely intense, and there were constant uprisings and riots in different parts of the country. This background had a great influence on the development of Han literature. The main achievements of the two Han dynasties include the two Han prose, the Han fugue, the Lefu poems and the nineteen ancient poems.

3. Sima Qian's Shiji (The Records of the Grand Historian) and Ban Gu's Han Shu (The Book of the Han) are the masterpieces of the historical and biographical literature of the two Han dynasties. In particular, the Shiji is the originator of the general history of the chronicles and is one of the most outstanding prose works of Chinese literature. The political essays of the two Han dynasties were also quite developed, with political essays written by Jia Yi and Chao Qiu at the beginning of the Han Dynasty, by Huan Kuan under Emperor Xuan Di, and by Wang Chong and Zhong Changtong during the Eastern Han Dynasty.

4. Han Fu is a new style of writing. It was developed mainly from the basis of Chu Rhetoric, and the style is between poetry and prose. The form is characterized by the question and answer between the subject and the guest, and the rhyme is used between the scattered, good at narrative. Although the content of the Han Fu was mostly about praising the Han Empire, it was also full of satirical and admonitory meanings. In terms of style, Han Fu had a great influence on the literature of the Six Dynasties.

5. The Lefu poems of the two Han dynasties were mainly the works of the grassroots people, mostly "the hungry sing about their food, the laborers sing about their deeds", the style was simple and simple, and they were long in narratives, and their pentameter form had a great influence on the pentameter poems of the literati.

6. After the Eastern Han Dynasty, the pentameter poems became more mature and had a great influence on the history of poetry, and Nineteen Ancient Poems is a representative work of literati pentameter poems.

Thinking questions: 1. What is the overview of the literature of the two Han dynasties?

Chapter I: Prose and Rhetoric of Qin and Pre-Western Han Dynasty (3 hours)

1, Qin Dynasty Literature. The Qin dynasty in the literature of the few no achievements, only the unification of the "Lu Shi Chun Qiu", Li Si's "remonstrate with the guests" can be slightly commendable. The style of Lü's Spring and Autumn Annals; the art of allegory in Lü's Spring and Autumn Annals; the stylistic significance of the Book of Admonition.

Jia Yi and early Han prose. The life of Jia Yi; the three types of Jia Yi's prose; Chao's prose.

2. Fugue writers of the Western Han. The origin of fugu style; the tao style fugu--Jia Yi's fugu as the object; the founder of the big fugu in loose style--Mei Xie and his "Seven Hair"; the representative writer of the big fugu in loose style--Si Ma Xiangru and his "Zi Xu Fugu" and "Shang Lin Fugu"; other fugu writers of the Western Han Dynasty --Dongfang Shuo and Yang Xiong.

Thinking questions: 1. Briefly describe the three stages of the development of Han Fu.

2. How to evaluate the scattered big fu?

Chapter 2: Sima Qian and His Historical Records (6 hours)

1. Biography of Sima Qian. He was born in a historian's family, and was taught ancient texts and the Shangshu and Spring and Autumn Annals; his three wanderings during his youth and middle age broadened his horizons, and he collected a lot of relevant anecdotes and rumors, which directly helped him to write the Shiji; when he started to write the Shiji, he was struck by the Li Ling disaster, and then he became furious to write the Shiji. The book was written by Li Ling when he started to write the "Records of the Grand Historian", and finally completed this great work of history.

2. About the book of Shiji. The style of the Shiji; the purpose of the writing of the Shiji; the historical view of the Shiji.

3. The ideological content of the biographies of the characters of the Historical Records. How the Historical Records chose its biographers; how the Historical Records wrote its biographers; the ideological tendency of the biographies of the characters of the Historical Records.

4. Historical authenticity and literary artistry of the biographies of the characters of the "Historical Records".

5. The literary achievements of the biographies in the Historical Records. The Historical Records is vivid and evocative in its narrative, and rich in figurative descriptions. On the basis of historical facts, often by taking the cut material, highlighting the mental outlook and character traits of the characters. The article is magnificent, but also rich in lyrical color. And often in the book by historical events to write the indignation, pouring into their own feelings. Mr. Lu Xun once praised the "Records of the Grand Historian" as "a masterpiece of the historians, the unrhymed "Li Sao"".

6. The status and influence of the Records of the Grand Historian in the history of literature.

Thinking questions: 1. How is Sima Qian's life related to the writing of the Historical Records?

2. Briefly discuss the ideological content and artistic achievement of Sima Qian's historical prose.

3. How the method of argument and praise and the method of inter-view in the Historical Records are expressed

Chapter III: Prose and Rhetoric in the Eastern Han Dynasty (2 hours)

1. Ban Gu and the Book of Han. The style of the Book of Han; the ideological and artistic achievements of the Book of Han; comparison of the History and the Han.

2. Prose of the Eastern Han.

3. Rhetoric of the Eastern Han Dynasty.

Thinking questions:

1. How to evaluate the ideological and artistic achievements of the Book of Han?

2. What are the famous prose writers and works of the Eastern Han Dynasty?

3. What is the general situation of the rhetoric of the Eastern Han Dynasty?

Chapter 3: Folk Songs of Han Lefu (8 hours)

1, about Lefu. The organization and mission of the music government; the change of the meaning of music government.

2. The ideological content of the Lefu folk songs. It is a work that expresses the life of the rich class; ② anti-war work; ③ work that expresses the life of peasants and citizens; ④ work that expresses love and family life. Lefu Folk Songs are "sent in sorrow and music, and are inspired by events", and most of their authors are of low status, so they are characterized by "the hungry singing about their food, and the laborers singing about their affairs". Whether the poem is about the luxury of the upper class people or the dilemma of the lower class people, it can be seen from the perspective of the singers themselves, so it embodies the distinctive color of the common people and the spirit of realism.

3. The artistic achievements and influence of Han Lefu folk songs. The subject matter is mostly taken from typical events or certain scenes; the system of narrative poetry, rich in dramatic monologues and dialogues, and characters with certain character traits; the poetic form is free and unconstrained, with pentameter as the main language and miscellaneous language as the intermingling; and the language style is simple and natural.

Thinking questions: 1. What is the ideological value of the Lefu folk songs?

2. Briefly discuss the artistic characteristics of Lefu folk songs.

3. What is the significance of Lefu folk songs in the history of the development of poetic style?

Chapter 3: The Origin and Development of Five-Language Poetry (4 hours)

1. First appeared in the folk songs of the Han Dynasty, the earliest literati quintuple verse was Ban Gu's Winged History, and Zhang Heng, Qin Jia, and Zhao Yi all composed quintuple verse. Five-character poems are more advantageous than four-character poems in terms of expressing one's thoughts and feelings, and it is also easier to reproduce the beauty of the rhythm of the poetic form of iambic pentameter.

2, "nineteen ancient poems". The Nineteen Ancient Poems represents the highest achievement of the literati pentameter poems of the Han Dynasty. It reflects the pain of separation and lovesickness of the scholars at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and the bitterness and sadness of disillusionment in their career paths. Its artistic characteristic is that it is long on lyricism and good at expressing deep feelings in plain and elegant language.

Thinking questions: 1. Briefly summarize the development of poetic styles in the pre-Qin and Han dynasties and the position of the Nineteen Ancient Poems in the development of pentameter poetry.

2. How to understand the value of Nineteen Ancient Poems?