Historical prose and political prose are the most prominent prose in Han Dynasty. Sima Qian's Historical Records reflects the history with people as the center, creates a new style of biographical history books and opens up a new era of biographical literature, which is the most brilliant achievement of the Han Dynasty. Han Shu written by Ban Gu in the Eastern Han Dynasty is equally famous. There are many famous political works, such as On Tong Qin and Public Security Policy by Jia Yi, On Gui Su by Chao Cuo, On Salt and Iron by Huan Kuan, On Balance by Wang Chong, On Hidden Husband by Wang Fu and As the saying goes by Zhong Changtong. Culturally, the literature of the Han Dynasty has a strong tradition of restoring ancient ways, which is related to the academic atmosphere of the whole Han Dynasty, which takes the Five Classics as its ancestor, takes sages as the criterion, attaches importance to the inheritance of learning from others, and attaches importance to the study of chapters and sentences. This has also caused some literary historians in later generations to criticize the two-way mode of literature in Han Dynasty, that is, the literati's literary concept under Confucian orthodoxy is retro and conservative, and the natural literary concept under Taoist heresy is innovative and enterprising.
Yuefu Poetry and Wuyan Poetry are the most remarkable achievements in the Han Dynasty. Yuefu poetry in the two Han Dynasties is a new style of poetry after The Book of Songs and Songs of the South. The famous Peacock Flying Southeast is a narrative novel in Yuefu Poetry, and later generations called it "Three Wonders of Yuefu" together with Mulan Poetry in the Northern Dynasty and Wei Zhuang's Poem of Fu Qin in the Tang Dynasty. Nineteen Ancient Poems represents the highest achievement of five-character poems in Han Dynasty.
Han Fu is another new style of literature in Han Dynasty. It is between poetry and prose, with both verse and prose. It is a poetic prose, and it is a poetic prose. It is eclectic and diverse in style, such as The Book of Songs, Songs of the South and pre-Qin prose. It has formed a comprehensive literary style with great capacity and expressive force. Jia Yi's Ode to Hanging Qu Yuan is a prose poem, Mei Cheng's Seven Hair is a symbol of the formal formation of Han Fu, and Sima Xiangru's Fu is the peak of Han Fu. Later, Ban Gu's "Two Dues Fu" and Zhang Heng's "Two Dues Fu" are both representative works of Han Da Fu. Zhang Heng's "Returning to Tianfu" also opened a precedent for lyrical small fu.
history
Sima Qian (formerly 145— about 87), born in xia yang (now Hancheng, Shaanxi), is a great writer and historian in China. He was born in a historian's family, and his father Sima Tan was a scholar. Sima Qian moved to Chang 'an with his father when he was nearly ten years old. Later, Dong Zhongshu and Kong Anguo studied Chunqiu. At the age of twenty, he began to roam widely, including Hunan, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Shandong, Henan and other places today. During this roaming, he visited the legendary Dayu site and the former sites of activities of Confucius, Qu Yuan, Han Xin and other historical figures. After roaming, he was appointed as a doctor and he was sent to Sichuan and Yunnan. Since then, he has been to more places and traveled all over the country. Wandering life opened Sima Qian's eyes. He contacted the lives of people from all walks of life, especially collected the information and legends of many historical figures, which laid the foundation for the later writing of Historical Records. In the first year of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty (1 10), his father Sima Tan died, and the unfinished business of his father's history fell on his shoulders. In the third year of Yuanfeng, Sima Qian succeeded Taishiling. From then on, he read all the credentials, studied all kinds of historical materials and began to write history. Unexpectedly, a huge disaster fell from the sky. In the second year of Tianhan (99 BC), Li Ling was defeated and surrendered to the Huns. When the news reached the capital, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was furious, and the courtiers pushed the boat forward and scolded Li Ling. Sima Qian thought it was unfair to Li Ling and stood up. Chen said that Li Ling had no choice but to surrender. His excuses angered Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, and in addition, he wrote "The Biography of Emperor Jing", bluntly stating that both Emperor Jing and Emperor Wu were at fault. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty took this opportunity to punish him for both crimes and execute "castration". Faced with such a great shame, Sima Qian thought of death, but his career of writing history did not end, so he had to endure and continue writing. In this regard, he made a detailed statement in his book Bao Ren, and put forward the view of life and death that "people are inherently mortal, or they are heavier than Mount Tai or lighter than a feather". In the fourth year of Taishigong (the first 93 years), Sima Qian finally completed the brilliant masterpiece Historical Records. Since then, his deeds are unknown and he died in the last years of Emperor Wu.
Historical Records [1] is the first biography of China, with *** 130 articles. As far as the style is concerned, Historical Records is divided into five parts, namely, the calendar year, which records the major events of emperors; Home, the matter of the princes; Biography, telling the story of people and ministers; Table, that is, memorabilia in tabular form; Books are the system of laws and regulations. Through these five parts, Historical Records formed a complete historical system and became the basic form of China's history books. The so-called "twenty-four histories" are headed by historical records.
Lu Xun called Records of the Historian "a masterpiece of historians, leaving Sao without rhyme" and deserved it. As far as the literariness of Historical Records is concerned, it is first manifested in its narrative mode, and the objective narration with the third person is actually "including praise and criticism in the narrative". It tells a long history of 3,000 years and reproduces magnificent scenes and people's activities in history. Many biographies in Historical Records are based on a series of stories. For example, the Biography of Lian Po and Lin Xiangru contains stories such as Return to Zhao in Perfect Condition, Meet in Mianchi, and offer a humble apology. At the same time, many stories in Historical Records are full of drama. For example, the famous "Hongmen Banquet" in Biography of Xiang Yu is like a wonderful drama performance. The appearance, exit, expression, movement, dialogue and even the orientation of the seats of the characters in the play are written as if they had heard and seen. The climax of the plot is one after another, gripping and dramatic. Secondly, he created many characters with distinct personalities: emperors and generals, wealthy businessmen, literati hermits, ranger assassins and ordinary people. Nearly a hundred people were impressed, including Xiang Yu, Liu Bang, Sean, Han Xin, Li Si, Qu Yuan, Sun Wu, Jing Ke, Lian Po and Lin Xiangru. For example, Xiang Yu is a failed hero, but Sima Qian did not talk about heroes by success or failure, but described and wrote the tragic fate of Xiang Yu in detail. The vivid characters depicted in Historical Records benefit from the artistic means of shaping the characters: the description of their appearance and expression, the description of life details, the use of dialogue between characters and the setting of drama scenes. All the above can be used freely in Sima Qian's works. Thirdly, the language art of Historical Records is exquisite. Sima Qian rewrote the difficult sentences in historical materials into the popular language of Han Dynasty, which made the ancient prose simple and fluent. For example, concise narrative language, personalized character language and so on.
Sima Qian's personality and record spirit have deeply influenced the creative attitude and methods of later writers. It pioneered China's biographical literature; His brushwork directly influenced the ancient literati in the Tang and Song Dynasties and became the norm of their words. It also had a far-reaching impact on Tang legends and even novels and operas in Ming and Qing Dynasties.
the Book of the Han Dynasty
Ban Gu (32-92) was born in Xianyang, Shaanxi. His father Ban Biao wrote 65 biographies of historical records. After his father's death, Ban Gu inherited his father's career and compiled Hanshu on the basis of Historical Records, which lasted for 20 years. Hanshu is China's first biographical work of dynastic history (writing only one dynasty). Its style is basically inherited from the historical records, but it changed the book into records, created four records of criminal law, five elements, geography and art, abolished the aristocratic family background and merged with biographies, collectively called biographies, which made the Book of Han take on a new look. Hanshu has twelve chapters, eight tables, ten records and seventy biographies. *** 100. This dynastic history later became a model of official history books.
Hanshu is another historical masterpiece with the characteristics of prose literature after Shiji. There are many excellent biographies, such as Biography of Huo Guang, Biography of Zhu Maichen and Biography of Dong Fangshuo, which are all recognized masterpieces. Especially the Biography of Su Wu, which is no less than the historical records. Su Wu defected to the Huns and was detained for 19 years, but he persisted in the struggle, did not yield to the enemy's persecution, and was not tempted to surrender. The image of an epic patriot is vivid and touching. In addition, compared with historical records, the language style of Hanshu is in sharp contrast, elegant, ancient and difficult.
Writers in the early years of the Western Han Dynasty were born at the beginning of the establishment of the new dynasty. They are ambitious, closely linking their creations with real politics, and have strong characteristics of the times. The central topic of this kind of political paper is nothing more than summing up the experience and lessons of the Qin Dynasty and providing good strategies for the new dynasty to govern the country and maintain peace. Among them, Jia Yi is the most outstanding writer. During his ten years as a doctor for Emperor Taichung of China, he wrote a series of political papers, the most famous of which was about the Qin Dynasty. This paper is divided into three parts: upper, middle and lower. The first part describes the process of Qin's prosperity and decline by exaggeration and exaggeration. At that time, the governors of the six countries concentrated huge military forces and the best talents to destroy Qin, and the result was self-destruction. Qin was invincible in the world, but it was "benevolent" and was finally destroyed by the peasant rebels against Qin, with great contrast. The second part and the second part point out that Qin Ershi and Zi Ying went their own way, were cruel and heartless, and lost the hearts of the people. In fact, they provided lessons for the Western Han Dynasty. Chao Cuo is another important political commentator after Jia Yi. His famous book "On the Turtle Speed Book" gives a more concentrated and detailed play to Jia Yi's viewpoint of attaching importance to agriculture and restraining business, which has practical significance.
In the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, folk songs of Han Yuefu had not been sung, and folk songs were rare. Rhyme follows the continuation of Chu Sheng and Chu Ge. Xiang Yu and Liu Bang, the protagonists of the Chu-Han dispute, wrote Chu short songs "Gaixia Song" [2] and "Da Feng Song", which are the representative works of rhymes in the early Han Dynasty.
Song of Gaixia
Xiang Yu's "Gaixia Song" can be found in historical records. Biography of Xiang Yu, which says as follows:
Rise from the mountain and be angry with the world,
Bad times never die.
I can't help it if I don't die,
I'm afraid I'm afraid I can't do anything!
This poem, in the form of "Xi" font of Chu Ci, is short in length, simple in language and sincere in feelings, which shapes the image of Xiang Yu, a lost hero and has touching power. Shen Deqian commented on his "sobbing, lingering" (The Source of Ancient Poetry, Volume II).
Song of the wind
Compared with Xiang Yu's Song of Gaixia, Liu Bang's Song of the Big Wind is tragic and generous, but it has a sense of desolation in its grandeur:
The wind is blowing and the clouds are flying.
Vega returned to her home in the sea,
Andrew, soldiers are always looking!
This poem was written by Liu Bang in October of the 12th year (BC 195) when he returned to his hometown of Pei County after the uprising. His pride is beyond words, but the last sentence vaguely reveals a sad meaning. Han Gao Di Ji records that Liu Bang was "generous and sad, and wept a few lines" after singing. Although the space is short, the feelings are rich and complicated.
Other rhyming poems
Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty had autumn wind poems, Princess Wusun had elegies, but not in the early Han Dynasty.
In addition, Huainan Mountain has its unique features in attracting hermits. Although he has the form of Chu Ci, what he shows is the secret content that Qu and Song's works have never had. The poem strongly exaggerates the lonely and gloomy atmosphere in the mountains, showing that the theme of "the king returns, but he can't stay in the mountains for a long time" is used in the cold and steep, and "the syllables are clear and sharp" (Wang Fuzhi's "Chu Ci Shi Wen") is the ancestor of poetry and fu that attracts concealment in later generations.