The characteristics of argumentative writing are similar to today's argumentative writing, with profound reasoning, strict logic and clear organization, which is a good article.
Liu Xie, a literary theorist in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, regarded mind, rationality and rhetoric as three necessary conditions for writing essays: if you think clearly in your mind, you can speak clearly and profoundly without loopholes; And careful choice of words and sentences is an important condition for writing a good article. When we appreciate analytical prose, we should focus on these three aspects.
First, different times and writers have different essay styles.
From the Han Dynasty to the Southern and Northern Dynasties, it was either a deliberate arrangement or a deliberate binary opposition. The development of its exposition was often a layer-by-layer reasoning, which went straight down along a clue and the level was relatively simple.
Since Han and Liu in the Tang Dynasty, the articles have been ups and downs, twists and turns, and the changes are bizarre and unpredictable. And the author's conclusion has been fully played in the middle.
The Song Dynasty, represented by Su Shi, not only inherited the legacy of the previous generation, but also had the characteristics of smoothness, liveliness and momentum. Try to make a simple comparison between Jia Yi's On Qin and Han Yu's Miscellaneous Notes 1 to see the difference.
Guo Qin Lun is generally divided into three parts.
The first part narrates in turn: Qin is strong by filial piety; Other governors snared talents and joined forces to attack Qin, all of which were defeated by Qin. Extending to the first emperor, destroying the six countries in Shandong and unifying the world; Since then, Qin has implemented a policy of ignorance and weakness for the people, hoping to spread the industry forever; But they rose up and quickly overthrew Qin; Conclusion: Qin died quickly because he fought violence with violence, and after winning the world, he couldn't keep his position with righteousness.
The middle part continues to discuss the fault that Qin failed to pacify the people's hearts: the first part says that after the Warring States rebellion, the people's hearts were at peace; It is said that Qin Shihuang "greed, self-improvement, disbelief in merit, disloyalty to gentry, abolition of kingship, establishment of private rights, prohibition of documents, torture of laws, and bullying of power before righteousness began with tyranny"; In addition, Qin Ershi is more authoritarian, so that state affairs are out of control; Finally, the conclusion was drawn: "So the late king saw the change of the whole thing, and knew that the key to survival was based on the herdsmen's way and the safety of business."
It can be said that the first part leads to the proposition that the author wants to discuss from the facts; It's just that the novella makes a systematic inference, and the historical narrative appears as an argument. Its exposition is like thousands of feet Waterfall, with fewer twists and turns.
Look at Miscellaneous Notes I again. This is a short article with only 1 10 words:
Dragons roar into clouds, and clouds are solid to dragons. However, the dragon rides in the air and the ocean is poor in the middle of the mysterious world. The sun and the moon are thin, the scenery is quiet, the earthquake feels, the gods change, the underwater soil is dense, and the clouds are strange!
Cloud, what the dragon can do is spirit. If the dragon is spirit, then what Feiyun can do is spirit. However, the dragon has a cloud of happiness, and the god has no spirit. Can't you trust it if you lose it?
It depends on what it does. Yi says, "Clouds follow dragons." Since the dragon barks, the cloud barks.
(Yu Linglong: It is still "Ling". Yang Man: What the sea looks like in Wang Yang. Xuan: Xuan's name means vast space. Thin: forced, close. V: it's equivalent to hiding. Scene: Same as Shadow. Shock: refers to thunder. God: A verb means that its changes are amazing. Water: verb, running water, precipitation)
The theme of the article is about the relationship between the cloud and the dragon, which means that the monarch and the minister should rely on each other and help each other. Although the article is short, it is full of changes. Let's talk about the cloud "Fu Yu Ling Long"; As soon as the sentence "it is strange to ride a dragon naturally" turns, the conclusion that "clouds are also strange" is drawn; Speaking of the dragon "what Feiyun can do is spirit" is another turning point; The sentence "Ran Longfu's" reversed the meaning. Then I sighed that "those who rely on it do what they do", and finally I came to the conclusion that "the cloud follows" from the Book of Changes, and that's all. The full text is like a winding mountain road, moving forward and backward, each backward is also moving forward, deepening step by step, rising repeatedly, doing all the amazing things. This technique is typical in Han Yu's long thesis "The Road and Mourning".
Thirdly, taking Shi Shuo as an example, from the perspective of content appreciation.
Pay attention to find out the sentences that judge things and events in the short passage, connect them and grasp the main idea of the short passage.
The book "Teacher's Theory" aims to prove through a series of arguments that "ancient scholars must have teachers", "therefore, there is no nobility, no length, the existence of Tao, and the existence of teachers", and "disciples need not be inferior to teachers, and teachers need not be superior to disciples". At that time, secular people did not know that ancient scholars must have teachers, but only thought that if they were not older than themselves, their talents would be inferior to themselves. Seeing this, Han Yu used Li Pan to worship himself as a teacher, learn from himself and make comments. Han Yu's idea is that a student who is only 17 years old should learn from himself. He is much older than him, but he dare not pretend to be a saint, saying, "Disciples don't have to be inferior to teachers, and teachers don't have to be superior to disciples." Moreover, the phrase "a teacher is a teacher, so he preaches, teaches and dispels doubts" and "another boy's teacher, teaching and learning his sentences, is not what I call a scholar who teaches and dispels doubts" is very novel. The specific definition of the teacher's role at that time raised the ordinary level of "teaching his books and learning his sentences" to a new high point of teaching Confucianism to solve doubts, which had lofty ideas.
A good essay must be convincing, and you should learn to explore the author's ideas.
In the article, he first put forward the central argument that "ancient literati must have teachers", and thought that the role of teachers was to inherit the orthodoxy, teach Confucian classics and solve students' difficulties in study and life. The role of teachers is really so important that it is difficult to argue. Han Yu then put forward the truth that "there is a Tao, and there is a teacher." People learn truth, and the first person who can understand truth can be a teacher, which has nothing to do with age and dignity. The winner of ability can be a certain kind of teacher, which is even more difficult to question. Then, Han Yu cited three arguments: ancient sages also had teachers, and today's fools actually said that there could be no teachers; Nowadays, scholar-officials choose teachers to teach children, but they don't learn; Wizards, doctors, musicians and craftsmen are not ashamed to learn from them, and all the literati are ashamed to learn from them, which strongly proves the indispensability of teachers and the stupidity of not learning from them. The author then takes the sage Confucius as an example to illustrate the truth that "disciples need not be inferior to teachers, and teachers need not be superior to disciples", which is naturally convincing. Finally, the author explains the motivation of writing this article, and takes the self-taught 17-year-old boy as an example to prove that he is a teacher. Under the method of full-text comparative demonstration, the core topics such as "ancient scholars must have teachers", "Tao has teachers" and "disciples don't have to be inferior to teachers, and teachers don't have to be superior to disciples" are invincible.
Attachment: http://www.newclasses.org/ziliao/4 _1_ 6 _1_ 2017 _ 8 _1/ehjrt.html.