A hundred schools of thought contend should refer to the "scholar" class in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. Although the so-called "scholars" have different identities, the basic purpose of their activities is mostly to consolidate the position of the rulers. However, most of the "scholars" are intellectuals in the middle and lower classes of the ruling class, and some of them are born in poverty, so they still keep in touch with the people. They have a keen observation of historical trends and social contradictions, and more or less see the pain of people's lives and the strength of the people. Therefore, in their speeches and articles, they more or less reflect the interests of the people and the requirements of social progress. They represent the interests of different ruling classes, put forward many central issues, such as the relationship between rulers and the broad masses of the people, and where to lead the society, etc., and launched a fierce debate. They lobbied the governor and put forward various political opinions; Writing books, summarizing the experience of social struggle and debating with each other have formed a flourishing situation in which a hundred schools of thought contend. In the mutual attack, different academic ideas complement each other, grow together, and jointly promote the development of various theories. The ancient prose of Yin and Zhou Dynasties has been unable to complete the task of recording such complicated academic thoughts. In order to better express this complex academic thought and make her more convincing, literary language has developed rapidly. ...
It is under such a specific historical background and social conditions that academic thoughts have flourished and hundred schools of thought's essays have undergone rapid changes.
Due to the long history, it seems that there are not many works handed down today, far from a hundred schools of thought contend. As far as I know, there are: The Analects of Confucius, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Mozi, Xunzi, hundred schools of thought, Lv Chunqiu and so on. Among them, The Analects of Confucius, Mencius, Zhuangzi, Mozi, Xunzi and Han Feizi are representative. (I'm not familiar with Laozi's theory "Laozi" and "Lushi Chunqiu" headed by Lv Buwei, so I dare not jump to conclusions. Even if the above six works, I only dare to tamper with the first three, and the last three are just peeping. )
I believe everyone is familiar with the author of The Analects of Confucius, and we all respect him up to now. Confucius was a native of Lu in the Spring and Autumn Period. The earliest Confucian school was established. The core of Confucius thought is "benevolence" with humanitarian spirit. Today's intellectuals seem to have different views on this. He advocated that "you can stand up if you want to, and you can achieve it if you want to." He said, "People are also benevolent." Asked Ren, he answered "love". He also said, "Only by scrimping and saving and loving others as yourself can the people keep pace with the times." He opposes exorbitant taxes and levies and thinks that "tyranny is fiercer than tiger". However, he concretized this kind of "benevolence" into a "ritual" that embodies the relationship between monarch and minister and human relations, which has great limitations.
The Analects of Confucius is a fragment of Confucius' words and deeds recorded by his disciples and later scholars. The content covers almost everything, including philosophy, politics, education, current affairs and so on. As a theoretical text, The Analects of Confucius is a kind of bud. As a quotation, it is another model. The achievements of The Analects of Confucius in literature are mainly manifested in language. Its style is graceful and smooth, concise and implicit, and it is not as sharp as the articles in the Warring States period. This is because when Confucius was born, there was no such fierce class struggle and text debate as during the Warring States period. Therefore, culture and the background of the times are closely linked.
The language features of The Analects are various, and the reasons for its success are also complicated. First of all, due to Confucius' rich social practice and various cultural accomplishments, he left many vivid and concrete aphorisms in The Analects. These proverbs are rich in meaning and sum up many valuable life experiences. Elephant: "A threesome must have a teacher." "Do your part." "If you want to do a good job, you must sharpen your tools first." "Haste makes waste." Wait a minute. These familiar sentences are really extracted from life, which makes people feel intimate and specific and has certain guiding significance to life.
Secondly, the language of The Analects is colloquial, humorous and inspirational. It shows Confucius' persuasive elder demeanor. Confucius often gives different answers to the same question from different angles because of different people, different times and occasions. He teaches students in accordance with their aptitude, which is really excellent. I'm afraid not many people will deny this. )
Confucius paid great attention to the cultivation of language and was best at using modal particles. Many sentences in The Analects of Confucius are poetic. It is often possible to summarize extremely complex and rich contents in one or two sentences, which is meaningful and can arouse people's association with reality. For example, "I didn't know that the pine and cypress were carved later until I was cold" ("Zi Han"), a short sentence is a celebration of strong character, which gives people enterprising power and a good feeling. Later, China's poems and paintings were often based on pines and cypresses, expressing the poet's uncompromising feelings towards reality, which was somewhat influenced by The Analects. "Confucius said in Sichuan:' The deceased is like a husband, don't give up day and night! "(Zi Han) is more poetic. Reading inevitably broadens our horizons, broadens our minds, evokes many associations with the life world from ancient times to modern times, and also expresses Confucius' love for real life.
In addition, there are some very simple short stories in The Analects, which show the characters' personalities with vivid dialogues and actions. They are vivid, accurate, inexpensive and intriguing. For example, The Sitting of Luz, Hui Xi, You Ran and Gong Xihua has only more than 200 words, describing five characters, each with his own personality and accomplishment. It's hard to imagine that I have to describe such five completely different roles in less than 200 pages now.
As for Confucius' contribution to culture, it is obvious to all, because it doesn't conform to the idea of the article, so I won't say much.
Then talk about Mencius. Mencius' name was Ke, and he was born in Zou during the Warring States Period. He is a master of Confucianism after Confucius. Because of different times, his thoughts are more active, vivid and combative than Confucius'. The writing style of Mencius is sharp-edged, with strong feelings. It has the spirit of strategists in the Warring States period and distinctive characteristics of the times, but it is still in the development stage of theoretical articles and is basically a dialogue transcript.
In the era of Mencius, it was "Qin used to enrich Qiang Bing; Chu Wei defeated the strong enemy with Wuqi; Wang Xuan used Sun and Tian Ji's disciples, and the princes were in the east; Everything in the world is in harmony, and attacking is wisdom "(Biography of Historical Records Mencius and Xun Qing), which is the most intense era of melee among countries. At that time, there was a great disparity between the rich and the poor. The so-called "there is fat in the barn, fat horses in the stable, and hungry people have hunger" (Mencius: Liang) is the contrast between the two lives at that time. The ruling class completely ignored the people's life and death, and launched wars year after year in order to realize their so-called "great aspirations." Mencius appeared as the savior at this time, comparing himself with Kong Zhou. He said, "If you want to rule the world, you can leave me alone." . The advantage is very strong. He has a high enthusiasm for politics, does not agree with the secular, and has the character of "wealth can't be lewd, poverty can't be moved, and power can't be bent". But politically, like Confucius, he failed for the same reason as Sima Qian said, "pedantic and far-reaching", and the so-called "how can you get in if you want to chisel in?" Personally, I don't appreciate Mencius. He has many obvious ideological limitations and backward elements, such as: "it is not difficult to be a politician, not to offend the giant room" and "there are three unfilial, no future". He emphasized the goodness of human nature and tried to establish an idealistic philosophy system based on love, which blurred the essence of class opposition and was later used by the ruling class to deceive the people and played a reactionary role. )
Mencius' seven articles were written with his students when his political ideal could not be realized, so the articles were full of emotion, cynicism, ridicule and overwhelming. The characteristics of Mencius' article are as follows:
First of all, there is strong emotion, strong militancy and great irony. For those who don't like it, they always spare no effort to dig at it mercilessly, such as: "Mencius saw King Liang Xiang and said," If you are not a gentleman, you are not afraid of it. Suddenly he asked, "Is this world evil?" I said to him, "The reservation is one." "("Liang ") a few words, Liang's stupidity and disgust, Mencius' disgust are very real.
Another feature that constitutes the momentum of Mencius' prose is his flexible and diverse argumentation methods. In his writing, he can often try to figure out the situation of the other party, grasp the initiative and grasp the direction of the debate according to the development of thoughts, feelings and logic. Or cut to the chase and go straight to the point; Or the actual situation, first capture and then longitudinal; Or make a small detour to gain momentum before launching an attack, which shows Mencius' alertness and wisdom. (It can also be understood that Mencius is narrow-minded and unreasonable. For example, "Wang Gu talks about him" was forced out by him. As the saying goes, writing is like fighting, and Mencius' article really embodies the truth of "know yourself and know yourself, and fight every battle."
Secondly, he is good at using metaphor, which is clever, accurate and interesting, making abstract truth concrete, enhancing readers' impression and deepening their understanding. For example, "looking for fish by the tree" and "pot calling the kettle black" are phrases that we often use today.
There are also some fables in Mencius, which are good at depicting characters and can be regarded as the seeds of later novels. For example, Qi people have wives and concubines, Chen Zhongzi's goose, Song people's encouragement and so on. Whether explaining a truth, exposing and criticizing a phenomenon is very profound and has cognitive value and aesthetic significance. Among them, the description of characters' behavior and psychology is very detailed and vivid.
There are many dialogues in Mencius' articles, but in the dialogues, he often writes about the actions of characters, which makes the articles flexible and deepens the readers' understanding of the articles. Mencius' language is not only gorgeous, but also humorous.
The last point is the agitation of Mencius' language, which is easy to incite people's emotions. It can be said that Mencius was a scholar, politician, strategist and philosopher, but he used "reason" instead of "benefit" to explain the problem.
Mencius' social status is inferior to that of Confucius, but the influence of prose is much greater than that of The Analects, especially in its momentum and militancy. As far as I am concerned, almost all ancient writers after the Tang Dynasty like to learn Mencius' prose.
Zhuangzi's name is Zhou, and he was born in Song Dynasty. (One of my personal favorite ancients)
There are thirty-three articles in Zhuangzi, seven of which are the general introduction of Zhuangzi, and the rest and essays are written by the owners or scholars of Zhuangzi. The thought and style of Zhuangzi are basically the same.
Zhuang Zisheng was born in an era when social contradictions were extremely acute and complicated. He was a poor intellectual and personally endured the rule of the tyrant King Kang Song. Zhuangzi is cynical, mercilessly exposing and attacking reality. He said, "If you want to be unprepared, can you get evil?" (Samwood) "Jin Fang's world is just free from punishment." He also pointedly pointed out: "Whoever steals the hook will be punished, and whoever steals the country will be a vassal." (The Human World) really hit the nail on the head with the essence of society. Moreover, he mercilessly mocked secular people and those who pursued wealth and power. Zhuangzi also satirized the knowledge that the trend should adapt to the world, especially the exposure of "vulgar Confucianism" and "humble Confucianism". These are all things that I think should be affirmed.
But his thoughts also have a negative side. On the one hand, he is extremely dissatisfied with the reality, on the other hand, he tries his best to seek inner reconciliation and self-anesthesia. He thinks that there is no distinction between life and death, survival, honor and disgrace, right and wrong, and good and evil. He imagines an ultra-primitive "chaos" and the most humble "coexistence with animals". Although these ideas have been criticized by many people and the secular, I personally think there is nothing radical. After all, his thoughts originated from his own body and returned to his own body, which will not cause any harm or influence to others. To put it bluntly, you can think that he is a bit nerdy or delusional, but he is definitely not worthy of criticism from the people. (Hehe, it seems to be beside the point)
Zhuangzi's argumentative literature really has the power of "like the Yangtze River, rolling and running", and its argument rarely wins by the power of logic, but by the lofty and peculiar argument of Wang Yang. The power of his exposition is admirable, and even opponents have to feel ashamed and give in to its cleverness. Happy travel, everything, autumn water, etc. Is the best example. Zhuangzi intends to use fables to write articles. He is good at personifying all kinds of things, so that everything becomes Mr. Wu who speaks for him. The fable of Zhuangzi is characterized by its fantasy and unparalleled richness. Zhuangzi's fables are humorous, pungent and satirical.
There are many famous fables in Zhuangzi, such as Shi's Sick in Bed, Treating Cows, Well Frog and Tortoise, etc. All these show Zhuangzi's meticulous observation and rich imagination.
Zhuangzi's mastery of language, ingenious brushwork and graceful posture are invincible.
The metaphors in Zhuangzi are always bold and creative, such as "skin is like ice and snow, graceful as a virgin" (wandering). The articles in Zhuangzi are fluent, rhythmic, full of parallel sentences and well used.
Later recluse poets and pastoral poets were deeply influenced by him. In my opinion, Zhuangzi is no less than any prose works at that time.
The following three people and their works have to rush by because they are not deeply involved in the world.
Mozi, a native of Lu, was born after Confucius and before Mencius. Advocating universal love, opposing war, opposing rites and music, and believing in ghosts and gods is a big school opposed to Confucianism. Mohism emphasizes the role of quality and negates form, but their articles play a very important role in the development of theoretical articles, and they are the first of discussion papers.
The book Mozi was written by Mozi, his disciples and later scholars. His articles are very logical and persuasive, and he is good at reasoning with concrete examples, such as "public loss", "love for all" and "not attacking" His article is from empirical argument to general argument, which represents a progress in reasoning, but Mohism seems to have gradually disappeared after the Han Dynasty, with little influence.
Xunzi, a native of Zhao during the Warring States Period, lived like a hundred years old, engaged in political education all his life, and wrote books. Xunzi was the greatest Confucian at the end of the Warring States Period. He also advocated respecting the king and promoting talents, which is the same as Mencius; But he was also the ruling power, the queen of France, who advocated the theory of evil nature, which was contrary to Mencius. His articles show a high degree of organizational and analytical skills, rich metaphors and rhetoric, and concise language, such as Encouraging Learning, is a good representative. But in the aspect of reasoning, there is no creative development in both language and structure.
Han Fei, a student of Xunzi (killed by another student of Xunzi, Li Si of Qin State), was born with a stutter, but he was good at writing books. Have patriotic thoughts. He repeatedly advised the king of South Korea to practice law and art, but he didn't listen. He wrote hundreds of thousands of words in a fit of pique, which was greatly appreciated by the king of Qin. His thought embodies the requirement of great unity, gets rid of the shackles of all old ideas, and combines the four thoughts of criminal name, law, technique and potential to form an ideological system of feudal centralization and absolutism.
His style of writing is rigorous and incisive, which embodies the characteristics of legalists. He is a master of reasoning and writing of pre-Qin philosophers. When it comes to Han Fei, his theoretical writing can be said to be completely mature.
Like Nan Yi, South II, South III and South IV, other countries have used their methods of debate, but absolutely no one can be as bold as Han Fei. Can you imagine what will happen if the whole article goes on like this? Not only does he not make people feel monotonous, but he is also rational, which is also a development of reasoning.
In a word, the essays of philosophers in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period not only made great achievements themselves, but also influenced later historians, ancient writers and poets. They have a long history and are the deep sea of ancient culture in China.