The Research Of Xun Zi’s Literature

As the one of the greatest Confucians by the end of Warring States period, Xunziabsorbed various theories from different ideologist to inherit and develop Confucian school.He hold the post of Ji Jiu for three times in the state of Qi. During the period mentioned above,Xunzi worked as magistrate in LanLing County in the state of Chu on the request of ChunShengjun. Hoping to put his thoughts on philosophy, politics, and literature into effect, Xunziwandered in the states of Qi, Chu and Qin., but failed in the end because of the inappropriatetimes. He spent rest of life writing books together with apprentices in LanLing.The book, Xun Zi, which contains thirty-two articles, summarizes his main ideology inthe forms of prose, ode and verse. He made full use of metaphors and allegories presented inthe prose, which were written by means of narratives and argumentation to interpretphilosophy theories. The prose appeared persuasive by quoting famous historical figures andevents.Originated from enigmas, Xunzi’s ode, together with Qu Yuan’s ode, promoted theformation of Han Odes. The article, named “Xun Qing Fu”, was composed of “five asks”which manifested the five classifications for gentlemen by Xunzi. Taking time as clue, thepaper discusses the relevancy between Xunzi’s ode and Qu Yuan’s ode and reveals thefeatures influenced by cultures in the state of Chu in the article named “Xiao Ge”.“Cheng Xiang”, which apparently shows characteristics of folk literature, was theindispensable well-known work in the history of the research on folk literature.Xunzi made a tremendous contribution to the spread of the Books of Songs by quotingsongs in his work. Because of the illustration for the Book of Songs by Xunzi was combinedwith social backgrounds, it’s really worthy of studying deeply.The work “Yue Lun” comprehensively depicts the relations among music, humanityand literature. He insisted on having the manners doctrine as the dominated ideology, andhold his ground that “Tao” is the reflection of literature. Xunzi strongly believed that literatureis an important tool for obeying the order of the feudalism rank.