Towards Literature:the Composition And Deformation Of Tso-chuan

This research started with exploration of three entangled questions.The first is that as an ancient classic in early China,how did Tso-chuan ?? come into the vision of Confucianism during Han Dynasty?Thus triggering another question that after Tso-chuan was canonized,what process had Tso-chuan as a Confucian canon went through to become a literary classic?To solve these two questions,another one shall be raised that generally speaking,as a literary classic,how was it accepted intertextually and present itself as literature?The Introduction of this dissertation does some theoretic preparations in order to answer these questions.The Introduction includes three parts.The first part introduces background of this dissertation and the second part reviews the study history of this topic by concluding and assessing former studies.In part three,a series of concepts are proposed to be the theoretical basis of this dissertation,namely a new problematic,two pairs of concepts and three dimensions of Tso-chuan text.The problematic of this dissertation is dividing Tso-chuan text into two pairs of concepts and three dimensions,thus founding the basis of arguments.One of the pairs is a pair of Tso-chuan in a whole and Tso-chuan in pieces,the other pair is a pair of Tso-chuan in distinguished dynamic and static states.While the three dimensions are namely events,meaning and language.Chapter One of this dissertation is "The Trio:Three dimensions of Tso-chuan",which focuses on arguing the theory proposed in Introduction.The argument is mainly on the anecdote of "Ts'ai-chi rowing a barge"???? in.This chapter is composed in six parts.The first part is an introduction coherent to the Introduction of this dissertation,proposes the theory above in more specific ways.Then the Part one takes the anecdote of Ts'ai-chi as a particular object to interrogate the authenticity of this anecdote.By means of taking former studies under scrutiny,their ideas and thoughts are displayed to testify the authenticity of the anecdote.The second part is mainly on a study on some parallel paragraphs of the anecdote in early China texts,coming up with an idea that both in and other early China texts,the differences of texts shall not be blamed a lack of authenticity but to focusing on the distinguished moral principles represented in those texts due to their dissimilitude of contexts.The third part concentrates on another group of documents,the lei-shu ??(books by category)which could be divided into at least three kinds.One kind is the general lei-shu compiled for use of literary composing.This kind of lei-shu includes Ch'u-hsüeh-chi???,Yi-wen-lei-chü ???? and Yüan-chien-lei-han ???? are taken into consideration.Another kind of lei-shu series includes those books themselves are literary works such as Shi-lei-fu ???and the last kind of lei-shu includes those books compiled particularly for Tso-chuan,for instance,Ch'un-ch'iu Ching-chuan Lei-dui-fu??????? and Tso-chuan Kan-chu ????.In these books,the Tso-chuan text as a whole is tear into pieces and rearranged into new forms.What is important is that what does this process of tearing and rearranging have done to the comprehension and reading of Tso-chuan text from canonized text as a whole to resources for literary writings.The fourth part continues the study of the former part and adjust its vision to the application area.This part mainly discusses how do later literary works allude the Ts'ai-chi anecdote in Tso-chuan.By doing this,allusions of Tso-chuan are assessed both in general and in detail.The last part comes to a conclusion that according to the study of the specific anecdote in Tso-chuan,Tso-chuan should be literature both as a whole and in pieces of texts.Chapter ? titled "Orality,Bronze Ornament,Bamboo and Silk:Paralleled Prose in Tso-chuan Revisited" primarily discusses the composition characteristics and literariness of Tso-chuan.This chapter bases on three main ideas,which are a)the ancient Chinese Phonology invented by scholars in Ch'ing dynasty,including studies on early china literature in addition to those on inscriptions on bronze ornaments as well as on bamboo and silk.b)literary studies on poetry and rhymed prose in early China.c)some recently flourished researches on the orality and drama in the background of rhymed prose of inscriptions on bronze ornaments.Considering that early China literature originated from rhymed poetry and prose,it is of essence to distinguish two types of rhymed paragraphs applied in Shih-ching ?? and inscriptions.This distinction between Shih-ching and inscriptions suggests the pattern of rhymed prose presented in Tso-chuan.Furthermore,diverse types of rhymed prose could be discovered in discourses of Tso-chuan.which contribute to a unitary pattern of rhyme.On the other hand,the narratives in Tso-chuan are also examined as rhymed prose,thus proposing a theory of "polyphonic concerto" to point out the phonic harmony of rhymed prose in Tso-chuan.In the end,the orality and drama in Tso-chuan are also reconsidered and reexamined in the background of rhymed prose.Chapter Three "From pi-fa ?? to yi-fa ??:the Shih-chi Historiography and Early Tso-shih Study" mainly deals with the methodology and imitation of Shih-chi to Tso-chuan,spanning before Tso-chuan was made a canon.Former studies indicate that Shih-chi has a lot of resemblance to Tso-chuan,while this chapter argues that it is the pattern of Ch 'un-ch 'iu and Tso-chuan which Shi-chi followed contributes to make Shih-chi appear to resemble Tso-chuan.That is to say,not only the paragraphs and text,but also the methodology of compiling resources and endowing meanings should be regarded as the resemblance.The Part One discussed the methodology Ssu-ma Chien ??? applied to Shih-chi compilation by means of observe the character ch'u ? used in Pen-chi ?? and Shih-chia ?? when he narrate enthronement.The Part Two focuses on the character ch'u used exactly in context of Chun-chiu pi-fa???? to carry on a study on the meaning endowed to Shih-chi narrative,therefore speculates that two of Nien-piaos ?? in Shih-chi follow the pattern of Chun-ch'iu.The Part Three continues the former two parts and does some further studies.This part take the character wo ? written in Nien-piao,Shih-chia and Pen-chi into consideration to inspect the idea held by Liang Yü-sheng ??? and Sun Te-chien ??? that Shih-chi conserves ancient history narratives.Then a point is argued that Shih-chi follows Chun-ch'iu with its Nien-piao while patterns Tso-chuan with its Pen-chi and Shih-chia.The last part of this chapter draws to a conclusion.Chapter Four of this dissertation is titled as "History under microscope:The Hsiao-liang Royal Family and the Memory of Barge-rowing".This chapter actually continues the discussion of Chapter I,and shares some similarity with Chapter III on the idea that the historical narrative resembles Tso-chuan not only in historical meanings,but also in historiography.In this chapter,the Ts'ai-chi anecdote is rendered as a motif reborn in Nan-shi ??.The reborn of Ts'ai-chi anecdote reflects the phenomenon that Tso-chuan anecdotes may reemerge elusively in later historical narratives.Chapter Five "Tso Shih fu-k'ua and the Reviving of Classical Prose" chiefly discusses the meaning of the term "Tso Shih Fu-k'ua" ????(the fiction and exaggeration of Tso Shih),proposed by Han Yü ?? in his famous classical prose"Chin-hsüeh-chieh" ???("An Explanation of Academic Progress")and its understandings as well as misunderstandings.Therefore,an observation can be conducted to reexamine the relationship between and Han Yü and Liu Tsung-yüan ???,as well as the classical prose advocated by them.The introduction of this chapter reviews the understandings to "Tso Shih fu-k'ua" and makes comments on some misunderstandings.The Part One of this chapter placed this term into a background of multiple academic tides such as the turn point of Ch'un-ch'iu study in mid-Tang dynasty,the revolution in historiography and the reviving of classical prose,and therefore revaluating the significance of "Tso Shih fu-k'ua" as a classical prose pattern and genre.On this basis,the fictional and exaggerative style of classical prose originated from Tso-chuan is shed light on and meanwhile the reinterpretation of "Tso Shih fu-k'ua" becomes possible.In Part Three,some notable proses such as "Luo-chi-miao Pei" ????(the Monument Inscription of Luo-chi Temple),"Mao-ying Chuan" ???("A Memoir of Mao-ying")are read closely beneath the context.Consequently,it could be seen that how Han Yü took Tso-chuan style as a model of prose writing,thus expanding the writing possibility by applying classical style in his time and eventually approached the marvelous realm of Tso-chuan.