On Chen Liang's Political Essay

Chen Liang is a patriotic scholar and a representative figure of Utility oriented School in Nan Song Dynasty. He has the ambition of becoming famous in the world, making contribution to the nation and advocates to regain Zhong Yuan Region. In Chen Liang's short life, taking revenge, rejuvenating the Zhong Yuan Region, and prospering the nation are Chen Liang's perpetual dreams. We can feel Chen Liang's patriotic ambition of making contribution to the nation, and his generosity and heroic spirit in his works. The arguments are very convincing and exciting, and his articles are extremely witty, eloquent, and his works are very overwhelming, which expose his lofty spirit and soaring determination and unbending character. As a great thinker, Chen Liang is paid so much attention, and the researches concerning his thoughts are rich and all-round, but there is a shortage of study about his literary works. In the literary history, Chen Liang always creats his works as a Ci writer of Xin School, people of educational circles write so much words about his Ci, but there is few works concerning his political essay. I am intended to analyze the content and character of Chen Liang' political essay, according to the environment he lives in (including realistic environment and spiritual environment) and the source of his political essay. And I sincerely hope I can make my Iittle contribution to the study about Chen Liang.This thesis includes five parts:The first part is about the definition of the political essay and how to distinguish the political essay in Chen Liang's collected works. Political essay combines the content of political comment and the art of essay in a high degree, and integrates the nature of political comments with the nature of literature. Chen Liang's political essays are mainly in his articles submitted to the emperor and in his essays on current affairs. The achievements of his articles submitted to the emperor, Zhong Xing Lun, and Zhuo Gu Lun are especially prominent.The second part is the analysis about the creating background of Chen Liang's political essay, with the hope of knowing the person from discussing the society. Crisis from home and abroad, and the corrupting social environment in Nan Song Dynasty are the actual background of the creation of Chen Liang's political essay. Regaining Zhong Yuan Region and reforming the domestic policy are the focus of his political essay. Meanwhile, the scholars' spiritual state and cultural environment in Nan Song Dynasty are the breeding ground of Chen Liang's political essays, and also form the ideological background of his political essays, which is reflected by the rise of the patriotic enthusiasm, the literati and officialdom's spirit of participating in politics in Song Dynasty, the development of the theory of LI (principle) in Nan Song Dynasty and the hedonism element in the culture of Song Dynasty. These four elements together endow Chen Liang's political essays with clear age character, and the very deep connotation, and also form the rich content of his political essays.The third part is about the source of Chen Liang's political essays, and meanwhile discusses the character of Chen Liang's political essays. The discussion is concerned about four aspects. Firstly, Chen Liang is very intelligent and likes talking about the art of war, which is reflected by his reference of the military commanders' thoughts, especially Sun Zi Bing Fa, which forms the character of the political comment and discussion about the war art. Secondly, the content of Chen Liang's articles is very vivid and overwhelming, and its style is benefited from Zhan Guo Ce. Thirdly, Li Bai's unconstrained, chivalrous character and Zhuge Liang's political chastity of loyalty and patriotic spirit, and distinguished talent of fighting the enemy are combined in Chert Liang's ambition, which reflect the character ambition in Chen Liang's political essays. Finally, the ancient article campaign in Bei Song Dynasty gains great achievement, and produces so many excellent works, which set very good example for Chen Liang's creation. The emphasis of practical use in literary ideology and the fashion of discussion in literary forum both have deep influence on Chen Liang's works, which form the practical discussion of his political essays.In the fourth part, the writer describes Chen Liang's influence and the effect produced by his works. At that time, Chen Liang and his political essays produce effects, in different degrees, on the ruling authority, patriotic scholars and the theorist of LI (principle). In later ages, Chen Liang's sense of social responsibility and sense of historical mission are highly affirmed and praised.The fifth part is the appraisal for Chen Liang's political essay. The ideological significance of Chen Liang's political essays is more important than its literary significance. And this is the reason why the later people pay much more attention to his thought than his essay art.The new idea of this thesis: Through analyzing the creating background of Chen Liang's political essay, combining the character of political essay closely concerning the reality, the author doesn't only reveal the age character of Chen Liang's political essay, but also concludes its rich content. In addition, through analyzing the source of Chen Liang's political essays, the author tries to describe the character of his political essay. This reflects Chen Liang's wide knowledge and the diversity of his ideology, and demonstrates the forming clue of the character of his essay, and the deep meaning behind the character. On the basis of discussing the creating background, content and character of Chen Liang's political essays, the author analyzes Chen Liang's influence and the effect produced by his essays, and appraises his essays objectively.