Modern prose refers to a literary genre that is juxtaposed with novels, poems and plays, and has two understandings: broad and narrow.

Prose in a broad sense refers to all literary prose except poetry, novels and dramas. In addition to discussing lyric prose, it also includes communication, reportage, essays, memoirs, biographies and other styles. Prose in a narrow sense refers to literary prose, which is a kind of literary style mainly based on narration or lyric, with extensive materials, flexible brushwork, short length and rich love for literature.

Second, the classification of prose.

Prose has three functions: narration, discussion and lyricism. Accordingly, prose can be divided into narrative prose, lyric prose and argumentative prose.

1. Narrative prose

Prose that mainly narrates people, events and scenes is called narrative prose.

Narrative prose is complete in narrative, vivid in characters, and the author's feelings are devoted to the description of the scenery. This kind of prose is similar to short stories, but there are obvious differences. As far as narrative is concerned, the events described in prose do not require complete plots, let alone twists and turns, and the requirements for narrative in novels are much higher than those in prose; In addition, prose needs to be full of emotion when it is narrated, and the emotion of the novel is mainly reflected by the characters, and the author does not need to express it clearly. As far as the author is concerned, the novel needs to strive to create typical characters, which are all fictional by the author. On the other hand, the characters in prose are cut and processed on the basis of real people and things, paying attention to the freehand description of characters.

According to the different emphases of this kind of prose, it can be divided into note prose and writer prose.

Notes-based prose takes the development of events as a clue and emphasizes the narrative nature of events. It can be a story with a beginning and an end, such as "Peanut" by Xu Dishan, or it can be several fragments, such as "From Baicaoyuan to Santan Yinyue" by Lu Xun. The author's sincere feelings are poured into the narrative, which is the most remarkable difference from the novel narrative.

People-oriented prose, the whole article is people-centered. It often grasps the character characteristics of the characters, makes a rough outline, and emphasizes the basic temperament, personality and mental outlook of the characters, such as Mr. Fujino in Lu Xun's works. Whether the characters are real or not is the difference between them and novels.

In addition, there is a kind of prose, which focuses on the description of scenery. This kind of prose describes the scenery of a place, except some local customs, mainly tourist prose. Its content is very extensive, including mountains, rivers, customs and places of interest. The main characteristics of travel prose are: the scenery described in the work must be completely true, and exaggeration and fiction are not allowed; But it is not based on similar records, but the author melts feelings into things and realizes the blending of scenes.

4. Lyric prose

Prose mainly used to express the author's subjective feelings is called lyric prose.

Emotion is the common feature of all prose, but compared with other prose, lyric prose is more emotional, imaginative and poetic.

Lyric prose mainly uses the methods of symbol, metaphor and personification to convey the author's feelings through external image description, so borrowing scenery to express emotion and expressing ambition are the most commonly used methods in this kind of prose. The method of expressing one's mind directly can appear in the article, but it is rare to see someone using this method throughout.

In symbolic prose, the author melts emotions into concrete things with symbolic meaning, and expresses subjective emotions with the help of pictographic association or implied association. For example, most of Yang Shuo's essays, poplars' contradictory praise and so on.

Lyric prose by borrowing scenery embodies feelings in the scenery, endows the scenery with life, writes the scenery clearly and writes feelings secretly, so as to achieve the blending of the scene and the scene. Such as Zhu Ziqing's Moonlight on the Lotus Pond and Liu's Sunrise.

3. Argumentative essay

Prose that mainly expresses opinions is called discussion prose.

Like lyric prose, it pays attention to the expression of emotion, but the difference is that discussion prose is more important than reason, and lyric prose is more important than emotion.

It is different from the general argumentative essay, based on facts and logic, and mainly based on literary images. This is a literary argumentative essay.

There are vivid images and strict logic; It is necessary to move people with emotion and convince them with reason; Blend form, emotion and reason in one furnace, and integrate political theory and literature and art. Lu Xun's essays and Tao Zhu's Style of Pine Trees are both typical essays.

Third, the characteristics of prose

1. Strong documentary nature

Prose has a strong documentary nature. However, there are still great differences in the understanding of documentary, and there are three representative views.

First, advocate absolute truth: "Describing real people and stories is the primary feature of prose. Prose writers rely on travel visits, investigate and study rich materials, and carefully examine the course of events, the truth of characters and the real scene of the venue before they start writing. The characteristics of prose must not rely on fiction. The main difference between it and novels and dramas is here. " (Zhou Libo's Preface to Selected Works, Selected Prose (1959- 1962) People's Literature Publishing House 1963)

The second is to advocate "big reality and small emptiness": "Prose writing does not absolutely exclude any fiction in material selection. That is to say, under the premise of keeping the subject matter generally true (please note that the concept here is not equal to the meaning of' authenticity' in literature and science, so it is called' documentary nature of the subject matter'), the fiction of some details and even the virtuality of a minor character are not only habitual, permissible and sometimes even necessary in creative practice. ..... The key is to' take all sizes'. "

Third, practical writing should be strictly realistic; Fiction is allowed in the prose for appreciation: "When talking about prose creation, we can't help but talk about fiction. Novel is a widely used method in literary and artistic creation, which plays an important role in summarizing social life, shaping typical images and highlighting the theme of works. Prose creation does not blindly exclude this method. The reason why the genre of prose with realistic characteristics does not exclude fiction is because people have written prose for practicality and appreciation since ancient times. Practical prose can only be strictly realistic, and fiction is not allowed; Prose for appreciation, realism is not so strict, allowing fictional elements to exist. " (Guan Xian's prose realism theory)

Of these three opinions, the second one is generally adopted. First of all, the theory of "big reality and small emptiness" reflects the objective reality of prose creation in practice. Take Bing Xin's Little Orange Lantern as an example. According to essayist Han, "Not long ago, when I visited Comrade Bing Xin, I got her advice and learned that the contact between the children and the author in the article, including the girl's father's surname, was conclusive and true." "I just made a little fiction in some minor places." In the article "Random Talk on the Writing Process of Little Orange Lantern", Bing Xin added that "some minor points are a little fictional", that is, the minor character "My friend" is fictional. Theoretically, the theory of "big reality and small emptiness" is also logical. Prose is a literary work, and fiction is a common technique in literary works, so prose can't have nothing to do with fiction, but this fiction can't destroy the documentary principle of prose, so it can only be "big reality and small emptiness".

Although the details of prose can be fictional, the emotion in prose is absolutely true, which should also be an important aspect of the authenticity of prose.

4. Extensive materials.

Prose has a wide range of materials, and almost all the world can't write it, so Yu Dafu said: "Prose is easy and covers a wide range. There is nothing to talk about. " () Lu Xun said that the theme of prose should be freely chosen, such as still life, insects and fish, even a flower and a leaf can be used. ) (To Luo Qingzhen and Lu Xun's Letters P24 1), People's Literature Publishing House 1959 edition) Zhou Libo said: "Taking the details of international and domestic events, social families, lifting the sky waves, a small matter, my own history, a little feeling, a pinch of sadness and joy, a kind of meditation. The sadness of the past and the joy of the present can be moved to paper and contributed to readers. " (selected works? Tam said that prose "has many advantages as a style". A stone can be a poem. A wave of water can be freehand. A petal can solve the problem. Really free. "("my view of prose ")

Because of this, some people say that this prose writer is "shocking and can be felt everywhere." Lu Xun read snow and expressed his feelings, forming the spirit of snow; Mao Dun saw the tall and straight poplars, which attracted praise for them. Ba Jin's heart is surging and his heart is singing because of Sunrise at Sea. Wu Boxiao recalled the rhyme of the spinning wheel and wrote the famous article "Remember a spinning wheel"; Yang Shuo's appreciation of gorgeous camellia aroused his creative impulse, leaving a well-known "Camellia Fu". In short, what an author sees, hears, knows and feels can be used as the material for writing prose. "(Han Ji" On Various Prose Materials ").

The content of prose involves all things in nature, all kinds of people, ancient and modern, Chinese and foreign, political events ... can be said to be all-encompassing. You can write domestic and international and social contradictions and struggles, economic construction, literary debates, ethics, literary essays, reading notes and diaries; It can be local customs, travel notes, essays, knowledge notes and literary anecdotes; It can talk about everything, or it can be lyrical and interesting. Zhi Tao can inspire people with thoughts, beautiful feelings and sentiments, broaden their horizons, enrich their knowledge and make them relaxed and happy, so he can be chosen as the subject of prose. When writing prose, we can expand the time span, enrich some related events, insert multiple sets of shots and increase the content and color of prose according to this feature, so as to make the article colorful, knowledgeable, free in writing and extremely infectious.

In the field of materials, novels, plays and poems are inferior to prose. The theme of the novel should have a complete story and vivid characters. The theme of drama should have exciting contradictions and conflicts. The theme of poetry should have deep feelings. However, prose does not have these restrictions. You can write novels, plays, poems and essays. You don't have to write novels, plays, poems, or you can write prose.

You can choose different time and space materials under the command of a theme, which is very free.

We acknowledge and emphasize the extensiveness of prose materials, but it does not mean that everything can be written as prose. When writing prose, we should choose materials that reveal "the lofty and solemn sense of human beings" and reflect "aesthetic ideals and tastes beyond the secular".

3. Flexibility of form

Prose has a wide range of materials and rich content, and the forms of serving it are also flexible and eclectic.

① Various structures.

First of all, the structure of prose is diverse. People can be used as structural centers, such as Mr. Fujino; Typical details can be used as the structural center, Zhu Ziqing's back; You can take the scenery as the structural center, Yu Dafu's Autumn in the Old Capital; You can also use a symbolic thing as the structural center, such as Camellia Fu.

Secondly, the structure of prose is eclectic: some organize materials according to the order of time development or space transfer, such as "Little Orange Lantern" and "From Baicaoyuan to Santan Yinyue"; Some are in the order of the author's ideological understanding and emotional changes. For example, Yang Shuo's "Litchi Honey" connects childhood memories, convalescence in Conghua, Litchi Woods, Su Shi's poems, love to taste honey, visit bee farms, praise bees, farmers' labor, and dream bees at night.

; Some take an idea as the chief commander and organize the materials into several different aspects such as land.

② Free and flexible expression.

Prose can freely use five basic expressions, such as narration and description, and can also use suggestion, symbol, comparison and association. Narration, description and discussion; Discussion prose is mainly about discussion, with occasional narration, description and lyricism.

(3) Use the language freely.

The language of modern prose is mainly modern Chinese, but sometimes we can borrow words and usages from classical Chinese, dialect slang, ballads and proverbs to meet the needs of expression. For example, the words in Tao Zhu's Style of Pine Trees: "The vitality of pine trees can be described as exuberant! Pine trees have few requirements for people. " Taking ballads and proverbs as examples, Zhu Kezhen quoted "Grandparents, cutting wheat and transplanting rice" and "The Three Gorges of the Yangtze River are long and the apes cry three times" in the "Language of Nature" in Li Daoyuan's Martial Arts.

4. poetic.

Prose is different from novels and plays. It attracts readers with fictional plots, conflicts and characters, but infects readers with poetic and rational interests. We should pursue poetry in lyric and narrative prose.

The poetry of prose is inseparable from its lyric style, and its poetic concentration is always in direct proportion to the depth of the author's feelings. Why prose is longer than lyric? Because: a, prose generally uses the first person to write what I see, hear and feel. No matter what you write, its purpose is to express the author's life feelings and thoughts, with strong emotional color, and it is "the song in the author's heart" (Gorky language). B, prose has its own special style, the so-called prose style. The style of prose, first of all, is concise language, beautiful and rich in literary talent; Secondly, the brushwork is flexible and free.

5. Beautiful language.

Beautiful language is prose, so it has become an important aspect of American writing. Prose language has the following characteristics:

① Pay attention to literary talent.

Often use a variety of techniques, or heavy ink, or light pen light color, focus on the performance of things "picturesque" and reproduce a beautiful image. Some prose writers consciously turn common words into unfamiliar words in order to better express the "poetic feeling" and "artistic meaning" of prose. Such as Mr Zhu Ziqing's "Spring" in the first few words:

Peach trees, apricot trees and pear trees are all in full bloom, and you won't let me or I won't let you. Red is like fire, pink is like chardonnay and white is like snow.

Another example is Xiao Sheng's writing in "Red Cliff Fu":

Its voice is full of resentment, longing, crying and complaining, and the lingering sound is endless. It can make the dragon dance in the deep valley and make the widow in the lonely boat cry.

Prose pays attention to literary talent, but it is not just rich and colorful language. Some essayists write beautiful articles in the most common language. The so-called "family style". For example, Wei Wei's My Teacher.

② Flexible and sparse.

The author can extrapolate and dye at will, let the feelings be interspersed, sometimes describe, sometimes discuss, sometimes express their feelings, or blend together. It can be said that you have to follow your heart when you fly around.

③ Pay attention to the rhythm.

The sentence patterns are rich and varied, sometimes parallel and scattered, and sometimes even; Sometimes the length is staggered and the relaxation sets each other off, which makes the works full of musical beauty. For example, a passage in Yuan Ying's "Green Hills and Bamboo": In the blood, Mao Zhuqing is yellow, yellow, green and green, and does not bow to cruelty or to the enemy. Bamboo burns with bamboo branches; Bamboo branches are broken and there are bamboo whips; The bamboo whip is broken, and bamboo roots are buried deep underground.

To learn prose writing, we should master both gorgeous literary talent and simple literary talent. It is not easy to write boldly, and it is even more difficult to write simply. Xu Chi's articles are very literary, and he often uses the method of Fu and the rhetorical devices of Bi Xing, which makes the literary talent gorgeous. But he said, "Only by simply writing can you show your true literary talent. Great essayists at all times and all over the world wrote this way. The greater the writer, the more mature he is, and the simpler he writes. And literary talent shines on the simple pages. " We should also see that the rich literary language of prose, whether gorgeous or plain, comes from vivid spoken language, and is also the inheritance of excellent ancient Chinese creativity, which is the result of careful selection, tempering and processing by the author.

Short and pithy.

Prose is generally short in length, few in levels and complicated in structure, but it also has the characteristics of concise selection, concise intention and profound meaning. Yu Dafu "sees the world in a grain of sand, and talks about human feelings in half a petal." (Preface and Postscript of Modern Prose) Qin Mu said: "Like Suzhou Gardens, though small, they have a deep realm and an open world. (For "Garden Fan Painting Prose", see "Bi Tan Prose")

How to write a good article

Prose style should be the essence of prose style. Concise prose style mainly comes from three aspects:

One is to reflect the concentration of life. One of the outstanding features of prose is to "concentrate on one point" and "sharply" reflect things. An article always tries to write the best thing about a thing and a feeling. Most avoid the complexity and redundancy of materials. Although it is sometimes quoted from the side that the past serves the present, its materials have also been carefully tailored. For example, Zhou Zuoren's Miscellaneous Notes in the Mountains, at first glance, gives people a sense of fragmentation and complexity, both in terms of materials and writing, but after careful reading, you will find that there is "essence" in its "miscellaneous", which seems to be sloppy and has no foreshadowing. Each chapter has a unified theme and artistic conception.

The second is the accuracy of language. The language of prose should be concise and fluent, and the basis of simplicity and fluency is accuracy. Without the precision of language, it takes a lot of words to describe and write a thing, which is not enough to express your feelings, let alone your style! Yang Shuo's style is recognized as short, pithy and clean. Obviously, this is inseparable from his precise and concise language.

The third is the thoroughness of expression. Thoroughly, this is deeper and more accurate. The vivid description and expressive expression of prose not only require general clarity and accuracy, but also always strive to be very strong and thorough. The content written is not only obvious, but also has the feeling of "penetrating seven letters". This thoroughness is what Lao She called "hitting the nail on the head" to write things out. After reading the thorough description, people will feel that there is a "peeling layer" of clarity. The ancients said that "it makes sense to peel off a layer", just like "dig through stubbornness and you will see jade".

It is really difficult to write a good article. First of all, people and things you are familiar with must have good materials and themes. It is also necessary to understand, perfect, refine and deepen from these materials, which is a perfect process for writing and also a process of the author's spiritual understanding. All these must be accumulated, observed, sorted out, thought and refined from it, so as to be expressed in words and write their own unique style.

(A) good at conception

Everything is based on meaning. The "meaning" of prose exists in the deep living soil and the vast ocean of life. To get it, we must rely on our in-depth observation, feeling and understanding of life. Therefore, as long as prose is conceived from the reality of life, with distinct feelings, keen observation ability, the pulse of people's contemporaries, deep feelings, rich imagination and profound thinking, we will feel that our life is full of poetry. This poem is something that touches our hearts, makes our eyes suddenly enlightened, makes our thoughts suddenly sublimated, and makes our feelings more pure. This is the inspiration of the poem. If we want to understand our article, we must understand it quickly. Because there is a tremor in the heart and a flash of thought. Liu said: "Even a faint flash is better than no flash. This is no ordinary photography. This is literature. "

For example, a writer went to see camellia, which has many varieties. The beautiful camellia made him think: "Camellia is beautiful. Everything good in life is created by labor. Who watered the flowers day and night with his own sweat, raised the seedlings like his own children, and finally cultivated such beautiful flowers? We should thank those who beautify our lives. " This is the brilliance of thought, and the writer cherishes it very much, so he writes this meaning down in time. Later, he heard a gardener introduce a kind of camellia, and said, "This is called boy's noodle. It blooms late, just blooms, and its color is deep red, but it is the best. " This didn't cause thinking, but he remembered the name of this camellia. After a while, it happened that a group of children also came to see Camellia, which attracted the writer's attention. He saw the children's bright red faces upturned, smiling sweetly and chattering nonstop. His heart suddenly trembled and he couldn't help but blurt out: "The boy's noodle tea is on." The gardener realized this and said, "Really, there is no more beautiful camellia than this boy's face." This made an idea pop into his mind. He said, "I have an idea for a painting. If you draw a big camellia with the thickest and brightest cinnabar, it is a boy's face. Isn't it a symbol of the face of the motherland? " Therefore, the writer wrote an essay "Camellia Fu" about the feelings and thoughts caused by seeing Camellia. This writer is Yang Shuo. Readers and critics can understand the author's intention of writing this article through reading: to praise the beautiful motherland and honor the working people of the motherland.

(B) good at conception

Conception is a process in which writers refine life materials from coarse to fine, from false to true, from one to two, from the outside to the inside. The writer should seek the perfect artistic form for the ideological content of prose in his conception, so as to achieve the harmonious unity of ideological content and artistry. Therefore, conception should solve the problems of conception, material selection, artistic conception creation, genre determination, basic techniques and layout. This paper focuses on three issues: determining genre, finding clues and creating artistic conception.

First, determine the genre. The genre of prose is flexible and diverse. We have a good meaning (thought) and choose the material to express this meaning (thought), so we should consider what genre to write, and the principle of determining the specific genre is that content determines form, and form serves content. For example, after traveling to Suzhou, if you feel the need to report your travels and impressions to your parents, you can write a letter; When you meet some people or things that move you during your play, you can write essays and ramble; After visiting Tiger Hill, Lion Forest, Hanshan Temple, Xiyuan and Liuyuan, you find the clock in Hanshan Temple particularly attractive and arouse your reverie, so you can write a poetic lyric poem. If you go back to your hometown, eat some local products of Suzhou and recall the past, you can write a memorable essay based on memories ... in short, the form of expressing a specific genre should be determined according to the content of your mind.

Second, look for clues. Prose pursues scattered form rather than scattered spirit. We writers should find a thread, use a pen as a needle, and put on these scattered details.

Third, create artistic conception. The artistic conception of prose is the blend of emotion and scenery, the unity of meaning and environment, and the unity of the author's subjective feelings, will, natural environment and social environment saturated with the spirit of the times. It means soul, and the environment is flesh and blood. High means deep environment, and low means shallow environment. This artistic conception of prose should be the artistic conception of poetry, that is, the so-called "poetry". It is intangible, tangible, material and vivid, but it is touching, soul-shaking, spiritual and spiritual. For example, Zhu Ziqing wrote Moonlight on the Lotus Pond. The whole article focuses on "light taste", and follows the clues that come along the road and stand in meditation. Through description, the path, lotus pond, flowers, moonlight, tree shadows, fog, lights and so on. Found and rotted, visible and perceptible, while leaves, frogs and cicadas can smell it. Multi-emotional expression and clever metaphor create an elegant, quiet and scene-blending artistic conception. This beautiful artistic conception is exactly what prose writers should strive for and deliberately create. The conception method can learn from predecessors and needs its own innovation.

(3) The layout is ingenious. Prose is generally short in length and convenient in layout, but it is difficult to make a good layout because of its short length. This is like a mountain with a small pile of stones, which often does not destroy the grandeur of the mountain. But there is a pile of stones in the small garden, which easily destroys the beauty of the garden. Therefore, the layout structure of prose is very important. The layout of many essays should be clever, often seemingly simple at the beginning, and deepened at the end, making the finishing point, echoing from beginning to end, consistent and organically combined. Beginners of prose writing may wish to learn the method of this layout.

(4) clearer than intermittent. Prose should be "scattered", in addition to material selection, but also pay attention to the intermittent skills in narrative. Only by making clear the discontinuity can prose be written freely. Jia Pingwa said: "remember: the more you know, the less you want to write or can't write;" Blank, this is exactly where you want to write. " He believes that "pay attention to the treatment of' blank'. First, prose can be scattered, intermittent, intermittent, and words can fly, and the mystery will be obvious. Second, prose can be implicit. The ancients also said: heart first, so you have to follow your nature. It seems nonsense, but there are scores in the bones. "We should read more excellent prose works of the ancients, learn the intermittent skills of others, and practice makes perfect after being used many times in writing practice.