"In Eternal Lines To Time Thou Growest"

Yu Guangzhong has made great achievement in his prose. There are hundreds of commentaries remarking on his prose both at home and abroad, which cover almost all the aspects of his works and theory. However, as one of the writers with high quality, there are still many other things left to us to study further. It's generally considered that Yu's spirit connotation is affected by Chinese traditional culture as well as western culture, while the humanism showed in his prose is well worth discussing too; his theory on prose arouses interests to a certain extent, but lack of induction; in the aspect of artistic style, more attention should be paid to the successful usage of the means of artistic expression, such as the use of allusion, beauty of music and painting, headings, organization and the taste of Chinese character in his prose; some conclusion of his artistic style has been made now, but in the field of different periods' division according to different style, there are something left behind for us to find out. The essay makes a thorough analysis of Yu's prose and theory from four points of view: spirit connotation, theory, artistic expression and the style of his prose. Through the analysis, I try to tap the artistic beauty of Yu's prose, analyse the cause of his artistic beauty, search his contribution to prose, grasp his styles in different periods and take his achievement and shortage into account so as to give him a appropriate status in today's field of prose.Though Yu Guangzhong's works of prose can't be called rich and there are certain limits in his spirit connotation, both the creation and theory of his prose have distinctive personality. Regarding to the theory of prose, Yu considers that prose should be modernized; at the same time, he himself embodies prose modernization through words and phrases, organization, rhetoric and so on. He develops and enriches prose, whichconstitutes special scenery in the world of prose. The experience of war chaos in Yu's early years provides him rich creative inspiration, but affects him not so much. It's the pity that his prose lacks of bitter thinking, in-depth pondering over the destiny of human beings and thoroughly understanding of humanity. So, in the aspect of prose spirit connotation, there are much room for Yu to improve. But his description of the relation among human beings can yet be regarded as a kind of creation or enrichment. And in the aspect of artistic expression, he breaks the old pattern of prose with no doubt. His distinctive personality may not be admired or followed, but cannot be ignored! Therefore, he is undoubtedly worthy the title "great master of prose art".In order to grasp Yu's prose comprehensively, some parts of the essay may discuss the same characteristics with current commentaries, such as metaphor, personification and some theory on prose. But special emphasis is put on the new findings, such as humanism showed in Yu's prose, beauty of Chinese characters, usage of means of music and painting for reference, the value of his prose, special images, the division of his works and the comparison of Yu and other prose writers, so as to seek the style of his prose.