A Comparative Study Between Gui Youguang And Tang Shunzhi

Tangsong school which led by Tang Shunzhi and Gui Youguang is a important literary school. It is the succession of the eight tang-song prose masters and also the headstream of Gong'an school and Tongcheng school. But since the advent of Tangsong school , controversial opinions always exist, and its focus was concentrated on the attribution Gui Youguang . Some holds that Gui Youguang is not a member of Tangsong school. This paper attempts to give a comparative study between Gui Youguang and Tang Shunzhi through the analysis of Literary thoughts and their writing in order to find their respective characteristics in the essay writing, also to find correspondence in writing thoughts, in order to promote the study of Tangsong school.The full text is divided in to four chapters, start with the analysis of philosophic thinking of the two writers, then do a further study of the theory of essay, lastly , analyzed the unique artistic prose formed under the guidance of their literary thoughts. The first chapter discusses the academic thoughts divergence between Gui Youguang and Tang Shunzhi ,and give a comparative analysis of Xinxue theory of Wang Yangming and the acceptance of the practice of the ideal personality. On one hand, both Gui and Tang are under the scholars growing up under deep influence of Confucian doctrine, deep-rooted the tradition of Confucian thinking; On the other hand under the relaxed political atmosphere in the Ming Dynasty ,the Xinxue theory was in full flourish and has profound impact on the people in the late Ming Dynasty including members of Tangsong school . Thus, Gui and Tang have more or less accepted Xinxue theory. Especially Tang Shunzhi has even been a representative of Wang's Xinxue theory in Nanzhong. On the road of practising the ideal personality, they had different ways to practice the tenets of their own lives. On the basis of ideological comparison and comparison in the previous chapter , the second chapter explained the literary proposition difference between Gui and Tang, from'moral carried by articles'and'writing must has methods'. And ,'moral carried by articles'is the important content of the traditional Chinese literary theory, while'writing must has methods'adaptation of the Ming Dynasty imperial examination for the article skills. In the double limit of content and form Gui and Tang's prose did not weaken its aesthetic artistry.The third chapter discussed the origin of Gui and Tang's prose from Tangsong prose , histo-biographical prose and Wangyangming's prose three aspect. Tangsong school gets its name because of advocating prose of Tang and Song.So Tang and Song's prose became the imitating object of Tangsong school .Thus Tang ang song prose were also important object masters of Gui Youguang and Tang Shunzhi . Histo-biographical were highly evaluated by Gui ang Tang,and their writing deeply influenced In addition, while Wang Yangming's Xinxue theory became popular the colloquial, popularization of the language at that time had also affected the prose style in Ming dynasty, and Gui and Tang prose works also reflect this.The fourth chapter discussed the art of Gui and Tang's prose style. In the prose style of art they have characteristics。In narrative writing of people their works demonstrated the glory of human nature.