On The Style Of Zouyi Of Song Dynasty

In ancient Chinese society,A memorial to the throne(Zouyi,personal memorials presented by high officials to the emperor in ancient China.The term Zouyi iwill be used in this dissertation for the purpose of authenticy and a better comprehension.)was a major approach to govern a country.Zouyi was also a genre originating from the ancient times and lasting from ancient dynasties to modern times.With the value of literature and historical culture,the creation and criticism of the essay embraced its golden time in Song Dynasty.That is,new elements started to exist including the styles of Tie Hua,Wanyanshu.In addition,the Biaowen developed extremely in Song Dynasty.As an applied official document to the throne,people in Song Dynasty developed a stylistic concept with its time features.People in Song Dynasty were also involved in political affairs and influenced history and culture.However,up to now,all the Zouyi essays of the Han,Wei,Jin and Tang dynasties have been comprehensively and systematically studied except the studies on the Song Dynasty.Therefore,from the two dimensions of stylistic and cultural analysis,the present dissertation studied the new phenomenon in the interactions of literature,culture and politics of Song Dynasty.Meanwhile,the present dissertation revealed the significance and cultural patterns of this type of essay for the purpose of providing a case study for a further research on the application of ancient Chinese essays and literatures.The present dissertation is divided into two parts: part one is the five-chapter analysis of the Zouyi mainly exploring the stylistic connotation of Biaowen,Tie Huang and Wanyanshu,and the genre’s significance reflected in the compilation of the essays.Thus,the present dissertation reveals the evolution of the document genre in Song Dynasty.The first chapterdiscussedconnotations of “Zou”,Impeachment documents and“Zha zi” in song Dynasty,their names,characteristics and functions.The second chapter studied the cause and significance of the development of one kind of Zouyi(Biaowen,personal memorials presented by high officials to the emperor in ancient China.)in Song Dynasty.Biaowen,originated in the Han,Wei and Six dynasties,developed to the highest level in Song Dynasty mainly owing to the application context of institutionalization of creation and ceremonial discourse context.As a required style of imperial examination in song Dynasty,Biaowen was also a mandatory genre for the officials’ routine work.Biaowen strictly obeyed the political position,regulated format tradition,precise wording as well as the expressions of ambition,emotion and willingness.The core of authors’ evaluation between the etiquettes and ambition expression targeted at the real social problems.The Biaowen,as an applied genre,seek a perfect expression between crown and literature.People in Song Dynasty evaluated with rubrics of historicism and intellectualism to understand and interpreted the Biaowen.The strategy showed the transcendent function and free aesthetics of the representative prose of the Song dynasty beyond the system and etiquette.The strategy also showed the richness and creativity of people’s wisdom in the practical official documents.The third chapter studied the new elements of the documents in Song Dynasty: Tie huang,the supplement that the document originated in Song Dynasty.Documents with Tie Huang were presented to the emperor sealed,and the emperor valued the documents greatly.It added rich political information and reflected the characteristics of "respect","prudence","faithfulness","loyalty" and "wisdom" that officials should have when reporting to the emperor.Yanshi Guan was the main user of Tiehuang and it was the product of supervision system in Song Dynasty.Tiehuang was helpful to express the real emotions and inclinations of the speaker for the aesthetic pursuit of elegant language,non-esoteric,obvious and understandable analysis.In addition,Tiehuang could effectively compensate the stylistic limitation of formality writing,enriched and developed the connotation of the essay study in Song Dynasty.Therefore,Tiehuang provided an exemplary significance to rethink the ancient applied genre.Chapter four discussed Wanyanshu,the grand document known as a literature term originated from Song Dynasty.Why more than ten thousand words? Firstly,originality of themes was the decisive factor.That is,most issues presented in it were the new issues and arguments closely related to the country’s regime.Secondly,the complicated arguments of Wanyanshu required the validity of logic and reasoning,which also contributed to the depth of the argumentative essays.Why Song Dynasty? The open-minded emperor of Song Dynasty was the first reason.Besides,as a unique way of advising,the precious opportunity made them put all their eggs in one basket.Therefore,the advisers would seize the chance and take the strategy of elaborate clarification.Finally,from the perspective of essay history,the genre-based argumentative essay in Song Dynasty nurtured Wanyanshu.Limited by the advising opportunities and advisors’ social or official identity,the numbers of Wanyanshu in Song Dynasty were countable.However,Wanyanshu contained superb artistic attainments,delivered the passionate and positive energy of society,and therefore significantly led the literature of Letter Genre.Meanwhile,Wanyanshu became one of the decisive standards for later scholars to build their self-image,which helped evaluate and identify a well-balanced political ecology.These far-reaching influences,together with the actual influences of the Wanyanshu in the political history of the Song Dynasty,constituted the connotation and significance of this new literary category.Chapter five analyzes the new cultural activities that began to flourish in the Song Dynasty: the editing and publishing of the Zouyi collection.Along with the great number of Zouyi created by people of Song Dynasty,the compilation of it entered a prosperous period in this dynasty.The reasons behind,the diversified editors and the profound influence of editing styles on the later generations made it obvious that the Song people’s were strongly motivated in pursuit of immortality great achievements.The collection of Zouyi Essay help readers a deeper understanding of how to write the classic essay and what were the author’s political stands and his achievements.Moreover,the achievements and historical contribution of the advisers were highlighted.Prosperity rooted from the stylistic concept development of Song Dynasty and regarded Zouyi as a three-dimensional Speech Acts to facilitate national management.They highlighted that Zouyi was in effect when responsible officials’ facilitating of the national management and the emperors’ moral values as well as their influence on the execution of Zouyi.Meanwhile,they realized that the emperors’ emphasis on the impacts of Zouyi on the political affairs counted.To ensure the basic characteristics of this genre and make the writing and criticism of it under the guidance of the primary basic principles is required.The principles include three points: first,a thorough analysis;second,stress on the rational usage of argument,narration and artistic expressions;third,reflection of advisers’ integrity.On the other hand,the three types of memorials that did not meet the requirements of the formal style of memorials were empty words,harsh words due to the conflict of emotions,and flattering words to the monarch to please the monarch or the official.On the contrary,unsubstantiated argument,irrational and flattery words were defined as three unqualified types.The second part including chapters 6 to 8 is the cultural inquiry of Zouyi.This part focuses on the fundamental feature of the Zouyi’s application based on multi-perspectives of classical literature,famous intellectuals,disasters caused by the essay’s application.This part highlighted the specific cases and examined the functions and influences of Zouyi’s participation in national political and cultural affairs,and therefore reveals the interactive systems among the essays,politics and culture.The specific research content is as follows.Chapter six mainly studied the process and significance of Lu Zhi’s Zouyi established as classics in Song Dynasty.Influenced by the promotion of the emperors and officials in Song Dynasty and use of the Collection of Lu Zhi’s Essay,Lu Zhi’s Zouyi were noticed and valued by the Song people in terms of his knowledge,essays and spiritual qualities as officials.The qualities were valued as the core of Zouyi.The reason why Lu Zhi’s Zouyi were classicized in Song Dynasty was motivated by Emperor Xiaozong’s strong desire to change the dissatisfied political situation and impractical and unhealthy writing styles.The interpretation of the classical connotation of Lu Zhi’s Zouyi by Song people symbolized a new stage of connotative development of Zouyi in Song Dynasty,namely,how to Write Zouyi and What were the functions of Zouyi.The seven chapter examined a new phenomenon widely existed in Song Dynasty:Zouyi writing service.This dissertation analyzed the causes of the phenomenon,examined Song People’s attitudes towards the service and summarized the social identities and the types of common relationships between the employers and employees.Findings of this dissertation showed three discourse functions for the employers: Firstly,acknowledgements of official promotions and congratulation letters from intimate friends;Secondly,justifications to the emperor for friends or family when they suffered from slander;thirdly,acknowledgements or retirements applications for the aged out of courtesy.In addition,the different personality or relationships between the employers and employees made an inconsistent option in essay writing and application.Part of the writers insisted in their own styles and some employers consequently were unlikely to adopt their employees’ Zouyi.With emphasis on the disturbance caused by the Collection of the Northern Song Dynasty,Chapter eight examined the causes and influences of the catastrophe caused Zouyi.Lv Zuqian compiled the Anthology of Essays of the Northern Song dynasty at emperor Xiaozong’s command.The Anthology of Essays collected a number of Zouyi and caused a stir when Emperor Xiaozong and other officials criticized them.The direct cause was Lv Zuqian’s compilation purposes and selection standards differing from the prevailing standard,the insistence on his own style and refusal to others’ suggestions.However,the events of Song Wenjian was only an miniature of the disaster of Song Dynasty.In the Song Dynasty,the disaster of Zouyi was widespread and tragic with a wide range of involvement of literati groups and a wide variety of essays.The essays became the excuse for attacking other officials and the means of political settlement.Meanwhile,the invalid advising and discussing on national systems made the disaster possible.The new Zouyi became existence,namely,strong criticism on political disadvantages and narrative methods under the name of Emperor’s teacher.Those were the main incentives to cause the disaster of Song Dynasty’s Zouyi.Directly influenced by social factors including politics,ideology and culture,this type of essay became a mature art of satirical advice.Therefore,in the process of evolution,Zouyi formed different aesthetic styles with elegance as the core.The last chapter specifically analyzed a typical phenomenon reflected in the use of Zouyi by officials of the Three Museums and secret pavilions in Song Dynasty: the massive loss of books.The pavilions owned a large number of books of Song Dynasty,but the loss of books in the pavilions was throughout the Song Dynasty and even intensified.The leading cause of loss of books was a series of problems of management:unproper keeping,poor daily management and loan system,unstable strict lending system,frequently changeable regulations,invalid and ineffective system.The reasons for these problems were that museum faculties were poorly-paid and some of the staffs made personal profit from the books.But the most fundamental reason was that the Song Dynasty overvalued the literati and over-tolerated them.The serious loss of the collections reflected the staffs’ serious duty neglection.The serious problems caused by the irresponsible staffs badly influenced the later generations.