Memorials Of The Han Dynasty Cultural Significance And Aesthetic Interpretation

This dissertation mainly discusses the names of memorial (zouyi) in the Handynasties, its origin, stylistic characteristics and functions, general transformation andcompilation situation, cultural connotations, literary value and aesthetic characteristicsfrom the aspects of stylistics, archive science, literature, culture and aesthetics. The introduction mainly explains the objects and background of this study, thedenotation of "wen" from the pre-Qin period to the Han dynasties, and objective,significance and method of the dissertation writing. The body of this dissertation has five chapters. The first section of Chapter Onediscusses connotations of memorial ("zouyi"), its names, stylistic classification,characteristics and functions. The second section explores the origin of "zouyi" in thepre-Qin period. Chapter Two discusses the writing background of "zouyi" in the Han dynasties,its transformation, compilation, posting, reading and storage. Chapter Three discusses the topic range of "zouyi" in the Han dinasties, its typesand cultural connotations. The part of cultural connotations is elucidated from theaspects of pursuit of practicality, incarnation of the nation's magnificance andawareness of possible suffering, spirit of participation, dependence on classics whenexpounding one's ideas, Heaven-man interaction and calamity reporting, and theexpostulation psychology of "I would rather die than let the monarch be in peril". Chapter Four is about the literary value and the aesthetic interpretation of"zouyi" in the Han dynasties. The latter is elaborated from the aspects of characterand personality, elegance, passion and momentum, wit and flexibility in expostulation,philosophical thinking, and rhetorical character. Chapter Five expounds the cause of the literary flavour of "zouyi" in the Handynasties and its influence and historic effects. The appendices are three tables of the transformationof the Han dinasties.