What are the ideological contents and artistic characteristics of The Analects?

The Analects, as a collection of Confucius' and his disciples' speeches, focuses on the memory of words, so the understanding of the literary value of the Analects and the artistic achievements of the prose begins with its linguistic characteristics. Lu Xun's "Outline of the History of Chinese Literature", from the ideological characteristic of "Confucianism is practical", insights into the language and artistic characteristics of "The Analects", which are "slightly free of ostentation, and only sufficient to achieve the meaning". According to Jiang Boqian, the Analects, as the "earliest form of record of speech", "the chapters are brief, the rhetoric is simple", and so the formation of the "simple" style of language is related to the way of the formation of the Analects, which is the first book. The Analects of Confucius is a "direct record" of what the disciples of Confucius saw and heard, and "it is a matter of course that the records are faithful, considering the fact that they are embellished and embellished, and that they may lose their truth." Liu Cunren summarized the linguistic characteristics of the Analects as "long and simple words" and "more implicit and deeper meanings", and believed that its "record of words" "has been quite rich in words and emotions. It is believed that "where words are written down", "there is already a richness of words and emotions that can be summarized". From the above discussion, it can be seen that in the 1930s and 1940s, researchers succinctly recognized the linguistic features of the Analects in general, and realized its causes: first, it was determined by the ideological ideas of early Confucianism, second, it was the way of writing "records", and third, it was due to the limitations of the material conditions of writing at that time. "About the time when the Analects of Confucius was written, the material of the document was still extremely difficult to obtain, and the record of the spoken word was only an outline to avoid omission, while the subtle and profound meaning was only based on the spoken word, not necessarily all on cloth and silk."

The study of characterization

The Analects, as a true and evocative record of Confucius and his disciples' study and discussion of society and life, was not consciously aware of the need to characterize and portray characters, but they were very familiar with the characters they were writing about and were able to put themselves in their shoes. But because they were very familiar with all the characters they wrote about, they were able to put themselves in the shoes of the characters and write about their activities, inadvertently showing their personalities, and creating a vivid, full-bodied, and tangible image of the characters. The study of the characters of The Analects of Confucius is one of the most important creations of the literary study of The Analects of Confucius in the 20th century, and it is also an important aspect to confirm the literary value of The Analects of Confucius. In the past hundred years, the study of the characterization of the Analects has again broadly focused on two aspects, namely, the characterization of Confucius and his main disciples and the techniques of presenting the characters.

Three, stylistic features and overall style

The Analects, as a discursive work recording the philosophical thoughts and political ideas of Confucius, is characterized by an obvious "political theory" and a reverence for virtue, and it is difficult to avoid a gap between the literary character and the artistic features of the Analects by using the preconceived notions of modern concepts and citing Western discourse. Characteristics are inevitably not up to a sense of diaphragm, because there is a difference between a literary value and a literary work. Therefore, not from the established concept, for the actual object of study, and realistically reveal its characteristics and style, should be the Analects of Confucius prose art research within the meaning of the title.

Mengzi's thought originated from Confucius. Mencius developed Confucius' "benevolence" into the doctrine of "benevolent government". He believed that the implementation of "benevolent government", we must "make the people constant production", so that each farmer has a hundred acres of land, five acres of house, the minimum means of production; "do not take away the agricultural time", to ensure that farmers have the time to work; "save the time of the farmers", to ensure that the farmers have the time to work; "save the time of the farmers", to ensure that the farmers have the time to work. The people were allowed to have a minimum material living condition by "saving penalties and taxes" and by "strengthening moral education so that the people could understand the principles of filial piety, fraternal duty, loyalty and trust". Seeing that the people were suffering from the exploitation and oppression of the feudal landlord class, Mencius tried to adopt these measures to ease the class conflict and consolidate the rule of the landlord class, but it was still beneficial to the development of production. In connection with the doctrine of "benevolent government", Mencius also put forward the idea that "the people are the most important thing to the ruler", saying: "The people are the most important thing, the altars of the gods of earth and grain are second, and the ruler is the least important thing to the ruler" ("Mengzi - Duixinxia"). He believed that a monarch could only achieve and maintain a dominant position if he had the support of the people, so he advocated that a ruler should practise "benevolent governance" and "enjoy the people". The people of the country could kill the ruler who brutalized the people. King Zhou of the Shang Dynasty was a famous tyrant in history, and he thought it was right to kill him, saying, "I have heard of the execution of a man named Zhou, but I have not heard of the regicide of a king" ("Meng Zi" - King Hui of Liang, "below"). Although Mencius sympathized with the people and condemned the tyrant, his political thought still defended the feudal system, so he also preached: "He who labors to rule the people rules the people, and he who labors to rule over the people. He who rules over people eats people, and he who rules over people eats people, and this is the common sense of the world" ("Mencius - Teng Wengong"). This view has long been the theoretical basis for the defense of the exploitation system.