A Study On Public Documents In The South Dynasty

This study on public documents in the South dynasty is divided into five parts. The first chapter provides an overview of the public documents, including a summary of its definitions, characteristics and types, a description of the overall process of its emergence and development, and an introduction of the appearance and usage of the phrase "gongdu"(public documents).The second and the third chapters start from an analysis into the writing styles of public documents, the subjects of which include zhao, ce, zhang, biao, zou, qi, xi, yi, etc., followed by tracing back to their sources, introducing their written formats, and revealing their functions and writing characteristics. For example, zhan was used to express one’s gratitude to the emperor, and biao to explain the opinion, while both share the features of accounting the situations and one’s aspirations as well as emphasize the elegancy of wordings; zou was mainly used in impeachments or unveiling corruptions and is characterized by its impartiality and sincerity, while qi in thanksgivings and is recognized for its conciseness and lyric expression; xi was for condemnation on behalf of the ruler, featured by its sharpness and incontestability.The fourth and fifth chapters probe into the literaturization of public documents in the South dynasty. The fourth focuses on the process of literaturization itself, emphasizing the form of the documents, i.e. its parallelization. Here the south dynasty is divided into three phases, i.e. Liu Song, Qi Liang and Chen Dai, and the representative authors of each phase are selected for scrutiny:Fu Liang, Yan Yanzhi, Bao Zhao and Xie Zhuang in Liu Song, Wang Rong, Xie Tiao, Shen Yue, Ren Fang, Jiang Yan, Xiao Gang, Xiao Yi in Qi Liang, Xu Ling and Yu Xin (who was in Northern Zhou of the same period) in Chen Dai. As the most obvious feature of parallelization lies in the paralleled phrases, this chapter examines the extend of parallelization mainly by ways of counting and analyzing the ratio of paralleled sentences against the total number of sentences in the public documents by the above authors as well as looking into the quality of these paralleled sentences. It also discusses the literary quotations, the elegancy of wordings, the rhythms and other aspects. The following conclusion is arrived at through various examinations and analysis:from the periods of Liu Song to Chen Dai, the ratio of paralleled sentences in the public documents rose to more than half of the total number of sentences, thus accomplishing the transition from essay to parallel prose. The changes accompanied this process include the literary quotations became more skillful, the wordings more elegant, and the rhythms more harmonized.The fifth chapter concerns the evolution of the contents and functions of public documents. It has been recognized by the academia that poetry in the South dynasty evolved from ideological representation towards lyric expression, but few have noticed that the same trend is applicable as well to the public documents which were highly practical. This is signified in three dimensions:from the pre-Qin era, the two Hans till the South dynasty, the political awareness in public documents writing diminished and the political purpose became less important; in the South dynasty, the number of zou, zhi, ce, etc. which emphasize reporting political issues sharply reduced, while those of qi, che, etc. which are more suitable for expressing individual emotion increased dramatically; besides, it was also during the South dynasty that public documents were used for playful writings. These all reflect the fact that in this dynasty, the political function of public documents declined, while the lyric expression function increased. Though the latter function had never been able to replace the former, this development seems to have reached the roof that public documents were capable of withstanding. Moreover, this roof represents that the level of literaturization of public documents in the South dynasty was unprecedented.