A Research Of Wu Yingji’s Prose

In the late Ming Dynasty,when the world was sluggish and the literary style was empty,Wu Yingji,as the leader of the Fu She,devoted his life to supporting politics and transforming the literary world.His 288 essays contain rich theoretical propositions and ideological spirit,and are an important window for understanding the Fushe and the Anhui literati of the late Ming Dynasty.At present,there is a lack of systematic research on Wu Yingji’s prose.His essays are divided into four categories: literary essays,historical essays,political essays and other essays.The content and characteristics are clarified through close reading,comparison,comprehensive analysis and other methods,so as to objectively judge the literary historical status of him and his writings.In prose theory,he inherited Han Yu’s concept of " Wen Yi Ming Dao" and believed that prose can save the world and participate in political public opinion.He thought it has a more important position than poetry and fiction.In the mighty retro stream,Wu Yingji has his own thoughts on various topics of it.He saw the shortcomings of the Baguwen,but also affirmed its existence.Based on this,he put forward the proposition of saving the Baguwen with ancient scripts.He did not take the Tang and Song dynasties as a humble which corrected the bias of the Fushe literati.In addition,he proposed specific learning methods.In order to save literary style,Wu Yingji also synthesized the theory of“wen qi” of his predecessors,put forward the theories of "Li" "Ti" and "Qi",and creatively pointed out the importance of "Gangqi".Based on the above theory,Wu Yingji himself also wrote a large number of essays.In terms of ideological content,his historical treatises analyze and judge the monarchs from the Spring and Autumn to the Southern Song Dynasty,and the war situation in the Qin and Han dynasties and the Three Kingdoms Period.In view of the social situation of the late Ming Dynasty,Wu Yingji put forward many suggestions in his political essays.Politically,he advocated that the government should be in a systematic manner and rectify the rule of officials.Militarily,it advocates the establishment of a special military talent reserve and selection mechanism,training troops in actual combat,garrisoning the frontier to guard against foreign enemies,and using suitable offensive and defensive strategies to defeat the bandits’ forces.For the imperial examination,he put forward the views that successful candidates of the national civil service examination each year can be dismissed,the results of the three exams need to be examined comprehensively,the points of Chinese studies should be used,and the literary examination and the martial arts examination should be assessed separately.Economically,the proposal of unifying prices,unifying measurement tools,and building community granaries was put forward.Biographical essays,ritual texts and letters reflect Wu Yingji’s Confucian spirit and literary elegance.In art,Wu Yingji hoped to absorb the essence of the articles of his ancestors and "become an expert in the art of articles ".Although "it did not come true",his prose is methodical,imposing,concise,direct,and powerful overall,coordinating with literary theory,which is also a feature.Specifically,historical papers have unique perspectives,novel views,and easy changes in argumentation techniques.The political essays have clear themes,are well-tailored,rigorously expounded,and have the style of scholars.When discussing ideas,he often traced the origins and decompose layer by layer,which achieve a crisscrossing and fascinating effect.The travel essay is written fresh and natural,like master’s articles.The note essay is short and concise,and the style is colorful.The sacrificial texts and letters are heroic and tragic.Biographies and the few prefaces and letters of talking about articles and morality are strong and powerful.In short,Wu Yingji’s prose is more brilliant in content,and many ideas have had a certain impact on the literati and descendants at that time.Although the art is retro,it is also born from the heart and having unique style.His prose has literary and historical value that cannot be ignored.It is as admirable as his martyrdom for fatherland and deserve a place in the history of late Ming literature and Anhui literature.