The Han Dynasty lasted for more than 400 years, and it was a prosperous time in the history of China. Cultural rulers conscientiously summed up the historical lessons of Qin's rapid collapse, made major adjustments to cultural policies, strengthened national strength, and the literature of Han Dynasty showed a diversified and vigorous development situation.
Prose in the Western Han Dynasty: Political and Narrative Papers have developed unprecedentedly. From the Qin Dynasty to the Western Han Dynasty, China's ancient prose style gradually improved. After the Qin Dynasty died and the Western Han Dynasty seized the world, Lu Jia and Jia Yi summed up the historical lessons of the previous generation and the theory of a hundred schools of thought, and their essays were spread out in an all-round way, leaving behind the legacy of strategists in the Warring States period. There is also the unprecedented development of narrative prose represented by Sima Qian's Historical Records.
Jia Yi of the Western Han Dynasty pushed political essays to a new height. He summed up the reasons for the demise of the Qin Dynasty and the experience of the Western Han Dynasty in seizing the world, and wrote many political papers, the most famous of which was On Qin. On Guo Qin is divided into three parts: upper part, middle part and lower part, with profound insights and high artistic appeal. The first part first discusses the reasons why Qin was strong during the period from Qin Xiaogong to Qin Shihuang. The second part mainly discusses the policy mistakes after Qin unified the six countries, as well as exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous fees. The second part points out the reasons for the demise of Qin State. The three articles are well conceived and incisive in reasoning. They were written behind the demise of Qin State and also warned the Western Han Dynasty. They wrapped the full text with "the past is not forgotten, and the future is a teacher", which is full of political wisdom. At the same time, Guo Qin's theory is a model of prose in the early Han Dynasty, which is rich in emotion and fluent in writing.
Dong Zhongshu's "Strategy" and Liu Xiang's "Qin Yi Xu" focus on how to consolidate centralization of authority, which is gentle and profound.
The narrative prose of the Western Han Dynasty also presents an unprecedented new atmosphere, which began with Sima Qian's Historical Records. Sima Xiangru and Sima Qian, Sima Xiangru's Ci Fu and Sima Qian's Historical Records are the representatives of Western Han literature. From Xuanyuan Huangdi to Western Han Wudi, the history of more than 3,000 years is described. The book consists of twelve biographies, ten tables, eight books, thirty biographies and seventy biographies, and five different styles form an organic whole. "Historical Records" has a detailed narrative, depicting characters by "looking from the side" and other ways. For example, this biography describes Liu Bang's great talent, while in other biographies, it shows his image characteristics such as greed, lust, selfishness and arrogance. In the broad historical background, Sima Qian showed the fate of the characters from different aspects, magnificent and elegant, revealing the philosophical meaning of life and rich tragic atmosphere.
Prose in the Eastern Han Dynasty: the development trend of parallel prose: the prose in the Eastern Han Dynasty has made new development on the basis of the prose in the Western Han Dynasty. In historical prose, Han Shu by Ban Gu and Spring and Autumn Annals of Wu Yue by Zhao Ye are of great literary value. Some realistic works, represented by Wang Chong's Lun Heng, appear in political articles. New prose styles also emerge one after another, including travel notes and inscriptions.
Han Shu is the first biographical history of China, which records the history of 230 years from the first year of Emperor Gaozu of the Western Han Dynasty to the four years of Emperor Wangmang of the new dynasty. It shows all kinds of worldly wisdom and the ups and downs of officials in officialdom. It is another historical biography literary work with high artistic value in narration and writing after Historical Records.
Zhao Ye's Wu Yue Chun Qiu is a historical essay about wuyue's hegemony. The plot is tortuous, the story is absurd and bizarre, and it has a strong romantic color, which is the first of its kind in later generations.
Generally speaking, the prose of Han Dynasty is prosperous, which sets a good example for later literature in value orientation, aesthetic fashion and style.