Jia Yi's Political Thesis

Jia Yi, a famous thinker, politician and artist in Western Han Dynasty, composed quite a few essays and poems which have deeply influenced the following writers in literary history in China. His essays were highly praised as "master pieces in Western Han Dynasty" by Lu Sun, and they were thought as the remarkbale representatives in the early days of Han Dynasty. Based on his political works, and the previous studies on them, this essay tryies to have a deeper discussion on their objective and subjective foctors. Besides, we also discuss the literary value and the profound influence of his works.This thesis is composed of three chapters.Chapter One is the discussion on the composing factors of Jia Yi's political essays.There is a close relationship between these factors and the times in which the author lived. We can find the effect of the times of his life in both of the contents of his works and the thoughts they reflected. In this chapter, we discuss these factors in three aspacts:the polictal needs in Han Dynasty, relatively liberal political and cultural environment, and the author's characteristics.Chapter Two is about the ideological content of Jia Yi's political works. Jia Yi not only had deep thoughts as a thinker, but also had the sense of history and the temperament as a politician. Therefore, Jia Yi's political works reflected a rather wider socio-historical picture and a rich ideological content in this chapter. We will discuss the reflections on history, summary on lessons of Qin Dynasty's extinction, and exposure of ills in that times.Chapter Three is the probing into the artistic features of Jia Yi's political works. His works were influenced by those of pre-Qin-dynasty philosophers. At the same time, it was the period of multi-cultural integration in the early Han Dynasty, and its own style and feature were formed. In this chapter, we will discuss it from these three aspects:pressing momentum and abundant feelings; lively image of the reasoning and various techniques; sophisticated texture and well-knit structure.