A Study On The Style And Significance Of The Question-and-answer Chinese Writings By William Milne

The question-answer style is an ancient form of literary expression,which has been circulating for a long time in China and the West and has profoundly affected the process of literature.As a Protestant missionary who came to China in the early days,William Milne combined the content and form of question-answer and dialogical works of Western traditional literature,Christian literature and ancient Chinese literature,inherited,merged and innovated,and created the style with unique characteristics of the times.This creation was welcomed by readers and later missionaries,and had a far-reaching impact,even indirectly affecting China’s vernacular novel movement.The first chapter of this article introduces the origin of the question-answer,catechism and dialogical works from three aspects: Chinese literature,Western literature and Christian literature.Among them,the catechisms of Catholic missionaries may be the direct learning objects for Protestant missionaries.The second chapter mainly analyzes Milne’s “A Catechism for Youth” and a dialogical novel “Dialogues between Chang and Yuen”,briefly analyzes his works based on the linguistics and stylistics theories.The third chapter specifically elaborates the stylistic function of the catechism,question-answer and dialogical style,combined with the stylistic function of the traditional Chinese and Western style,expounds the composition function,narrative function,speculative function and practical function of the question-answer and dialogical style written by Milne.The fourth chapter discusses the meaning of the new style,analyzes the influence and development of the Chinese works,and points out the limitation of this style.William Milne’s question-answer and dialogical Chinese works are of great value and profound influence,but the purpose of his creation is to preach.This study tries to conduct research and analysis in an objective and fair manner.It not only affirms the innovation of the catechism and dialogical style by Milne and other missionaries,but also points out its limitations.And this study elaborates the fact that the missionary works were disappeared but the practical question-answer works still exist in the literary world.