Research On The Jie Prose In The Pre-Tang Days

In the long history of Chinese prose, Jie prose is among one of the rather old styles, which is a style of admonishing and exhorting. Generally speaking, Jie prose is an applied style between literature and non-literature, whose development has embodied pragmatism and utilitarianism. From its first simple pattern in brooding, to the final shape, and to the innovation, admonitory prose has experienced a long gradual historical evolution. During the evolution, the admonitory prose developed from simplification to complexity, from singularity to variety. Firstly, it can be divided into three categories on the basis of writing tone: admonishing, exhorting and the combination of admonishing and exhorting. Secondly, according to the object of admonishing, it is divided into self-admonishing and admonishing of the masses. Thirdly, on the basis of writing style, it is divided into prose, verse, and the combination of prose and verse. The second way of division above will mainly be employed in this thesis, though the first and the third are also referred to in the concrete process of the research. On the basis of the second way of division, the self-admonishing ones can be further divided into self-admonition by the emperors or by their subjects; admonition of the masses can also be divided into family admonition, admonishing others, admonishing objects and matters, admonishing women. Since family admonition and admonishing others are various in their contents, family admonishing is further divided into two types for the convenience of study, according to the different objects and functions; that is: the last admonishment when one was dying and the admonishment for one's offspring; The admonishment for others is divided into three types: an admonishment for the masses, an admonishment for emperors and an admonishment for court fellows. An admonishment for Buddhism is not included in the thesis in view of its special object and my limited knowledge.According to the admonishing prose I have collected, I will divide the history of admonishing prose into the phases below according to their respective characteristics in every phase after carefully studying and sorting of the development of admonishing prose.1.The Pre-Qin Days --- The first phase of Jie prose: During this period, though there was not too much admonishing prose, the categories were almost complete. Therefore, the Jie prose took on varied characteristics. In this long period of development, the Jie prose has also gone through the warring states period in its downfall while in the Spring and Autumn period, family admonishment, the principle type, has become mature both in style and language.2.West Han and East Han ---The phase of systematic maturityThe number of the Jie prose has increased dramatically in this period, when almost all the forms of admonishing prose, except the self-admonition of the emperors in ancient times before the Xizhou Dynasty, have come into appearance and become mature, not only in quantity, but also in content.3.The phase of innovations---The Wei and Jin DaysCompared to Jie prose in preceding phases, the Jie prose became longer in its length in general and more artistic tact was applied as a whole from the view of the overall artistic level. And from the view of its contents, it has become simplified, and the preceding admonishing prose has become integrated with the other forms of prose, tending to be substituted by other forms.4.Ansformation and development---the Northern and Southern Dynasties and the Sui DynastyDuring the two hundred years of the Northern and Southern Dynasties and Sui Dynasty, the admonishing prose underwent a rather inactive period, without new progress either in content or in form, compared to the fast development in Dynasties of Han, Wei, and Jin, while the major topic was"family-ruling", back to its preliminary phase.Several prominent characteristics are stably inherited during its development of the Jie prose, which can be summed up as follows:⑴the most distinct characteristics of the Jie prose is its admonishing function, which is interdependent with the prose itself;⑵the practicality of the Jie prose. The direct motive of admonishing prose is to rule the state, to guide the civics, to be administrative, to flourish a family and so on, to solve practical problems.⑶the stability of writing. In its writing process, the Jie prose has shaped a fixed external pattern, e.g. at the end of the writing, there were fixed sayings of some admonishing and exhorting words. Apart from these, there were also some internal fixed forms in the text.⑷The integration with other styles. In its development, the Jie prose has become integrated with other literary styles, and it is very active with respect to innovation and assimilation.This thesis aims to discuss mainly the commonness of all the literary styles based on the study of admonishing prose, resulting in the basic evolving rules of all the styles, that is, first, the external factor of evolving--the style of an article must be innovated in accordance with the times; secondly, the subjective factor of evolving-the style must be in accordance with the situation of the writer and then develop itself. Thirdly, the internal factor of the Jie prose- limitation of new idea due to the old style and pursuit of other styles. In its process of development, the Jie prose develops itself by comprehensively absorbing the essence for other literary styles, and interacts and overlaps with other literary styles such as: the Zhen prose, the Ming prose, the Jiao prose, the Chi prose, and the Xun prose. On the basis of its self stability, it shapes the characteristics of flexibility and variety and is open to change in the course of development.