A Study On Fan Zhongyan's Essays

As a famous official in Song Dynasty, Fan Zhongyan's personal charms glare even in the contemporary world. But his essays, which are the important carriers of his charms, have not been paid enough attention to. The present study aims to do a comprehensive research into Fan Zhongyan's essays in the hope of enriching the studies on him.The present thesis consists of five chapters:Chapter One introduces Fan Zhongyan's works, mainly including the different versions, the classification and the proportion of their different styles. The status quo of this kind of research will be given subsequently.Chapter Two analyzes Fan's essays from the following six types: memorials to the throne, regulated-fu, Ji, preludes and postscripts, tablet-inscribed records and Chi Du. Through sharp remarks on the current affairs, determined propositions on reforming and ingenious arguments, the memorials embody his concerns for the public. From his broadened contents and skilled techniques, Fan Zhongyan's contributions and innovations to the regulated-fu are shown. His Ji indicates that he treats fu as the essays, which enriches the structures and expressions of Ji. In the section on his preludes and postscripts, firstly, the differences between the two are introduced and then the thought of "human-oriented" is emphasized. In the tablet-inscribed records, Fan praises the glories and achievements of the deceased. Chi Du, equal to "letter", emphasizes particularly on its function, i.e. it manifests his sincere affections for his family, teachers and friends.Chapter Three expounds Fan's literary thoughts and groups them into five points: "complementarity of form and content", "duality of art and morals", "Stylistics", "theory of Qi in literature" and "theory of form". Particularly, the thought of "complementarity of form and content" paves way for and has positive significance on the development of literature in Song Dynasties. Chapter Four focuses on Fan's personalities, principally from the following aspects, such as his patriotism to his country, loyalty to the emperor, filial piety for his parents, thriftiness in life and cherishment towards the talents.Chapter Five discusses the influences of his essays and the personal charms contained in the essays from six perspectives.