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How does the Six Kingdoms Theory achieve its goal by satirizing the present from the past?
Metaphor from the past or satire from the past-on the writing intention and artistic features of Su Xun's Six Kingdoms.

In the history of China literature, eight famous writers appeared in the Tang and Song Dynasties, and Su Xun in the Song Dynasty was one of them. Although his fame was not as great as that of Han Yu, Liu Zongyuan and Su Shi, his Essays on Six Kingdoms was quite popular at that time. Even today, Six Kingdoms is often selected as a textbook for middle schools and universities. Then, as Su Xun in the Song Dynasty, why did it talk endlessly about the "six countries" more than a thousand years ago? What article is this? Today, let's discuss the writing intention and artistic characteristics of Six Kingdoms.

1. The Theory of Six Kingdoms is not a work that satirizes the present by borrowing the ancient, but refers to the present by borrowing the ancient.

When commenting on Six Kingdoms, many articles emphasize that Six Kingdoms is a satire. For example, the 1983 edition of "Reference to Chinese Teaching in Technical Secondary Schools" [1] said: "The Theory of Six Kingdoms satirizes the present through the ancient times and criticizes and warns the rulers of the Northern Song Dynasty." In my opinion, The Six Kingdoms is by no means a parody of the present, but a metaphor of the present. It is not a mockery and criticism of the rulers of the Northern Song Dynasty, but a strategy to safeguard the interests of the rulers of the Northern Song Dynasty and a euphemism for the rulers to change their national strategy.

Irony, stab also. Metaphor, than also. Their positions are different, and their purposes and intentions are also different. The former focuses on exposure and criticism, while the latter focuses on exhortation. If you don't understand this, you will misunderstand the real purpose of Su Xun's writing Six Kingdoms, and then misjudge Su Xun's thoughts and feelings towards the Northern Song Empire. I think people who use the ancient times to satirize the present should be extremely dissatisfied with the present reality, so it is not for the benefit of the satirized people to satirize and ridicule the ancients like "cutting tan" and "telling stories" in the Book of Songs. The purpose of this criticism is to safeguard the interests of an object and use the story of the ancients as a metaphor to persuade the current dissatisfaction. The starting point of this criticism is good, in order to safeguard the interests of the criticized. The Six Kingdoms should be such an article.

Generally speaking, the literature of Song Dynasty can be divided into two parts: scholar-bureaucrat literature and folk popular literature. Scholar-bureaucrat literature has a strong political and moral color. The experience of being an official and the spirit of being brave in using the world make literary creation always closely related to politics. Their understanding of political issues is more practical and sober, and they rarely indulge in artificial political fantasies; In addition, the free discussion of Taiwan remonstrance and the openness of political struggle in Song Dynasty made officials and literati dare to express their political opinions boldly and frankly, which attracted literature to approach politics and made literature play a more direct role in real politics. On the other hand, writers in the Song Dynasty generally took the major issues of the national economy and people's livelihood as literary themes, inherited the tradition of "singing only the outline of birth" and played an encouraging role in "holding my spear and fighting my son". Therefore, the literature of the Song Dynasty showed a lasting and consistent enthusiasm for politics and concern for the fate of the country. Su Xun, a scholar in the Northern Song Dynasty, was concerned about the fate of the country and political issues, and wrote an article "On the Six Kingdoms", which discussed the national politics and remonstrated to change the national policy. Therefore, we must first affirm that "The Six Kingdoms" is a political policy paper on "Six Kingdoms", which actually refers to the Song Dynasty.

During the Northern Song Dynasty, the revival of Confucianism became the dominant ideology. As scholars or literati, they all show their loyalty and love for the rulers because of the influence of Confucianism. They discuss or engage in political affairs mainly to safeguard the interests of the ruling class, and will never demonstrate and discuss politics in order to damage or overthrow the interests of the ruling class. For this reason, The Six Kingdoms should be a metaphor for the present-a discussion on the reasons for the demise of the Six Kingdoms, hoping to cause the rulers to change the general plan of governing the country, which shows Su Xun's urgent desire to avoid repeating the story of the Six Kingdoms in the Song Dynasty.

Second, writing about Six Kingdoms is a reflection of contemporary real life.

Su Xun, a Song Dynasty poet, talked about the reasons why Qi, Chu, Yan, Han, Zhao and Wei perished in the Warring States Period more than a thousand years ago, so we can't help but wonder: Why did Su Xun, a Song Dynasty poet talk about the Warring States Period more than a thousand years ago? The answer is that the current reality of life in the Northern Song Dynasty, where Su Xun lived, prompted Su Xun to have the desire to write Six Kingdoms. Seeing that the Song Dynasty was getting more and more depressed and anxious, he thought that the reason for the demise of the "Six Kingdoms" was "Gong Qin", so he wrote this strategic paper on the "Six Kingdoms" and actually the Song Dynasty.

Literature is a social phenomenon, a social ideology and a reflection of a certain social life. Social life is the root of literature. Mao Zedong said: "Where does the source of all kinds of literature and art come from? Literary and artistic works, as ideology, are the products of a certain social life reflected in the human mind. " [2] Without social life, there can be no literature. Therefore, literature comes from life. Although Su Xun lived in the Song Dynasty, although the content of Six Kingdoms was about the six countries before the Song Dynasty, Su Xun lived in the Northern Song Dynasty and was similar to the six countries in the Warring States Period in terms of "being attacked". Therefore, he thought about the Six Kingdoms during the Warring States Period through his own experience, observation and understanding of life in the Song Dynasty, which should have a certain basis for life. Literature reflects social life through the writer's subjective initiative, that is, it reflects social life through the writer's feelings, experiences and understanding. Russian writer Goncharov once said, "I can only write what I have experienced, what I have thought about and what I grew up with." [3] This shows that the writer wrote a certain social life, that is, his feelings, experiences and understanding of this social life, and also reflected his feelings, experiences and understanding of this social life. The Theory of Six Kingdoms is a reflection of the author's feelings, experiences and understanding of life in the Song Dynasty.

Third, borrow the ancient "six countries" to describe the present of the Song Dynasty; The Theory of Six Kingdoms is full of patriotism.

According to literary theory, "the writer's purpose in creating literary works is to convey his thoughts, feelings, ideals and wishes to readers through artistic images, and to influence readers' thoughts and actions, thus producing certain social effects." [4] Although Su Xun lived in the Song Dynasty, he was worried and anxious in the face of the increasingly depressed social situation in the Song Dynasty. He didn't want the Song Dynasty to perish like the Six Kingdoms. So he wrote "Six Kingdoms" to express his hope that the rulers would change the general plan of governing the country, hold their heads high and show the dignity that the Great Song Empire should have. So, what is the social status quo of the Northern Song Dynasty in which Su Xun lived?

Song Dynasty is an era of extremely unstable society and sharp contradictions. In the first year of Jingdezhen, Song Zhenzong (A.D. 1004), in order to live a comfortable life, the Song Dynasty paid 102,000 pieces of silver and 200,000 pieces of silk to the Khitan every year. In the second year of Li Qing, Song Renzong (A.D. 1042), the Khitan threatened to use force and demanded that Dasong increase the ceded territory. The Song Dynasty gave Khitan 102,000 pieces of silver and 100,000 pieces of silk every year just to get a moment's peace. During the Li Qing period, Xixia invaded again, and the Song Dynasty held peace talks with Xixia in Li Qing for three years (A.D. 1043), and signed a peace treaty that Dasong gave Xixia 102,000 pieces of silver, 100,000 pieces of silk and 30,000 Jin of tea every year. This is a naked act of surrender and betrayal. What is the difference between this behavior and the situation of the "six countries" in the Warring States period?

During the Warring States period, the State of Qin expanded eastward, and the three countries of Korea, Wei and Chu were afraid of the influence of the State of Qin and took the initiative to bribe the State of Qin to cede territory to ensure peace. Qi, which is far away from Qin, made friends with Qin because it was not invaded by Qin for the time being. Instead of supporting the established United front, it bullies the weak and attacks itself. Although Yan and Zhao insisted on resistance, their forces were limited and they lacked strong assistance. In this way, the six countries "bribed" Qin, which became weaker and weaker, while Qin became stronger and stronger, and was finally destroyed.

The Theory of Six Kingdoms reflects the reality of life in the Song Dynasty by discussing the reasons for the demise of the Six Kingdoms. Literary works are the reflection of social life, which is permeated with the writer's understanding, discovery and evaluation of social life. Excellent literary works are closely related to various social problems. For example, belinsky said, "If a work of art only describes life for the sake of describing life, there is no strong and subjective excitement from the dominant thoughts of the times, if it is not a painful wail or a joyful praise, if it is not a question or an answer to a question, then it is a dead work for us." [5] Out of love for the rulers and loyalty to the country, Su Xun wrote the book Six Kingdoms to remind the rulers to change the strategy of governing the country. At the end of Six Kingdoms, he cried passionately: "The world is big, and the story of falling from Six Kingdoms is under Six Kingdoms again!" Didn't this cry just show the author's great pain and anxiety about the demise of the Song Dynasty court? I don't think this loyalty to the court and the king was patriotic at that particular time.

Fourthly, the artistic features of Six Kingdoms.

Su Xun loves pre-Qin prose, especially studies Mencius and the Warring States policy, so the article is full of strategies. This is the case with the six countries.

1. The Theory of Six Kingdoms is rigorous in structure and meticulous in reasoning, showing extremely high artistic structural characteristics of vertical and horizontal cooperation.

We might as well analyze the argumentation process of the six countries.

"The six countries are scattered, and the soldiers are not unfavorable, and the war is unfavorable. The disadvantage is in Qin. " The article comes straight to the point, tells the truth, and tells the main idea in one sentence. Then, from the two aspects of "taking bribes from Qin, but losing the soldiers, this is the way to ruin" and "those who don't take bribes, their reputation is ruined and they can't finish it alone", we can draw the conclusion that "the small one wins the city, and the big one wins the city", which shows that the victory of Qin mainly comes from the "taking bribes from Qin" of Han, Wei and Chu, followed by Yan, Zhao and Chu. It also issued a call that "the story of falling from six countries is not as good as that of six countries", expressing the author's true intention to write "The Theory of Six Countries". From this analysis, we can easily see that the structure of Six Kingdoms is very rigorous and its reasoning is very thoughtful, which shows the artistic characteristics of strategic prose in the pre-Qin period.

2. The language is ancient and sharp, and the words are accurate and imposing.

For example, the use of four comparative sentences in the second paragraph, "The land of governors is limited, the desire to storm Qin is insatiable, and the more complicated it is, the more aggressive it is", strengthens the momentum of the article. In terms of words, "limited" and "insatiable" are relative, "abundance" and "invasion" are relative, and "complexity" and "urgency" are relative. The use of these words sharply and powerfully exposes the harm of humiliating and bribing rapists and strengthens the power of argument. In addition, the argument viewpoints of Six Kingdoms are distinct and prominent, and the argument process is well-founded, showing the style characteristics of strategists with magnificent history and argumentation.

In a word, "Six Kingdoms" is an argumentative essay with superb art .. "Boredom can not be chaotic, and the boss can not flow. It is magnificent, if it decides to go downstream; Its light is clear if it leads the stars. " [6] is the best evaluation of Su Xun's articles.

Verb (abbreviation of verb) "History of Six Kingdoms"

The Theory of Six Kingdoms is a valuable legacy of China's ancient literature. Today, when we read it, we must not just stay in the superficial appreciation of the article, but should deeply understand the ideological significance brought by this beautiful article. Artistic creation is the result of the writer's emotional experience. Without the artist's emotional experience, there is no artistic creation; Then, without the emotional experience of the appreciator, there will be no artistic appreciation. Therefore, when we read Six Kingdoms, we must read it deeply, and we must "pay attention to the communication of my feelings and things." [7] Deeply understand the historical role of the six countries in appreciation. As the saying goes: Take history as a mirror. The Theory of Six Kingdoms is a mirror.

The Theory of Six Kingdoms is a valuable legacy of China's ancient literature. In the glorious literary river of China, The Theory of Six Kingdoms will surely remind people with its brilliant purpose that history is a mirror; History is a lesson.