The Study Of Liuxiang's Prose

Liuxiang was an outstanding bibliographer ,writer ,historian and thinker in the history of china. He mainly lived in the time that HanXuanEmperor ,HanYuanEmperor and HanChengEmperor were at position of monarch .It was just this time that the XiHanDynasty gradually waned. The time of HanXuanEmperor was thought to be the restoration of Han Dynasty,and Liuxiang was on his youth .Therefore he was hopeful about it and most of his works was fu .HanYuanEmperor thought highly of Confucianism ,so the Confucian scholars began to take the position of the government .Liuxiang > Xiaowangzhi and zhoukan were put in the important positions by HanYuanEmperor.They fought resolutely against the centre eunuchs such as Honggong and Shixian who abuse their power.Liuxiang was framed and was put into jail,and even was cast aside for more than ten years.When HanChengEmperor ascended the throne,Liuxiang was was assigned a post.HanChengEmperor was controled by his mother and his mother's brothers.As a result,he could not decide for himself in government affairs.Though Liuxiang was trusted by Emperor ,he could not be put in an important position,and even could not be Nine Ministers.In 26 B.C.,Liuxiang complied with the imperial edict to proofread and sort out the books of feudal dynasty and made great contribution to the culture of China .In this time ,the power of HanDynast was more declined.HanChengEmperor was dissolute and the relatives of Emperor monopolized state power,so that the political affairs were thrown into confusion and the social situation was characteristic by turbulence intranquility.As one of imperial family ,Liuxiang was keenly distressed about this .Bsides presenting directly to Emperor a memorial ,he used the material collected in the course of proofreading books and chose purposely the material from the historical records ,confucian classics and commtaries on them and the various schools of thought to write the three books such as new recount .collection of stories and suidance and biographies of women in ancient of China as warning for contemporary ruling class.The material of Liuxiang's three books has very extensive sourecs.lt stemed from almost all of the important ancient books and records before Liuxiang,among which include the historical records,confucian classics and commentaries on them and the various schools of thought.In the expressing way,he carried forward the traditions of our national culture that he lodged his thought and feeling at the concrete and figural materials .this way was directly influenced by Hanfeizi and Lvshichunqiu.ln compiling style,the books were influenced directly by Hanshiwaizhuan .In the history of Chinese literature .Liuxiang compiled first the historical stories according to the tendency of their ideas to express his ideology.The content of the three books did not limit to providing warning for the ruling class.Liuxiang used a series of historical stories to express his moral principles and sociopolitical ideology. Liuxiang's ideas could be divided into two levels.Firstly,Liuxiang was a Confucian scholar ,so the main part of his ideas were his moral principles and sociopolitical ideolo9gy of Confucianism.Secondly he was a learned man and an exact participant in government and political affairs.The historical experience and actual lesson made him attach importance to the experiences and actual effect.Therefore his ideology included many other kinds of ideas which embraced in confucianism.At the same time ,Liuxiang made a systematic exposition to the problems such as the basic principles of governing country,the status and effect of Emperor and its subject .Liuxiang also expounded vividly the problem of women and expressed his views about women .Using the concrete and figural material Liuxiang made criticism,admonishment and allegory to the contemporary social reality.Because Liuxiang used historical stories to express his ideas,so the most important artistic peculiarity of his prose was its way of metophorically recounting .It was to say ,he expressed his ideology...