A Study On The Literature Process Of Memorial Essays In The Pre-Tang Periods

This thesis is composed of there parts. The first part is about the changes of the contents of memorial I essays . These changes are determined by the changes of the function of style. Memorial essays' function was diminishing and the dead inent ioned in the article were becoming non political and the relationship between the dead and the writers was becoming individualized. With these changes above, the contents of memorial essays wen* also changed. In Pre Qin and Han dynasty, they were mainly about the dead' s political behavior and moral character and mainly about their literary talent, temperament and interest, after Wei and Jin dynasties. Regarding emotion, groups' feelings were mainly expressed in Pre-Qin and Han dynasties and personal feelings after Wei and Jin dynasties. These changes were due to the discussion on talent and interest, atmosphere of evaluation of people and nature concept.The second part concerns the form of memorial essays. Such essays took shape in the Pre-Qin periods. But the form of such essays was not fixed until Han dynasties. The form in Han dynasties was characterized by the contents of writing about achievements of the dead before his death and the sorrow of the living over his death and by the internal structure of writing about achievements before sorrows with each sentence containing four' Chinese characters. The form renovation of such essays after Wei and Jin dynasties was achieved by making some changes in the sentence structure in the part where grief was expressed.The third part is about changes of expressing ways and aesthetic style of memorial essays. The ways of writing about achievements were in broad outline in the Pre (Jin periods and Han dynasties and were becoming diverse after Wei and Jin dynasties. Concerning expression of sorrow, writers only expressed groups' emotions in the memorial essays by narrating funeral in Han dynasties, which were changed after Wei and Jin Dynasty. Writers endeavored to express their individual emotions in various ways. Therefore, memorial essays in each period have their own aesthetic styles: They highlighted elegance in the Pre-Qin periods, deep emotions in Wei and Jin dynasties and flowery language in Nan dynasties.The literature process of memorial essays is not finished in the Pre-Tang periods , which is discussed in the last part. This is determined by the double- nature of this style, the interaction of various style and the un-thoroughgoing of literature process.