The Debate Between The Kingcraft And The Tyrannicai Faction

"The Debates on Salt and Iron" was written in the period of the Emperor Xuandi of the Western Han Dynasty, which was rewritten from the conversation department of the memoirs of salt-iron conference. It is a political comment prose having debating style, and filled with the author’s purpose that "as one of the words". Because it has respect to salt-iron policies, foreign policies and the arguments between the Confucianism and the Legalism, making the systematic study on "The Debates on Salt and Iron" can not only help understand the changes of political and economic system and the social and cultural ideas in the period of the Western Han Dynasty, but also help comprehend the evolutions of literature creation form and prose style in pre-Qin period and Han dynasties."The Debates on Salt and Iron" adds up to10volumes and60chapters, and every chapter has its own focus content. The salt-iron conference, which is described in the book, took the debate over economic policy as the representation, and political struggle as theme. The kingcraft faction represented by Xianliang Wenxue and the tyrannical faction represented by Sang Hongyang argue at this conference, and they discussed many questions such as politics, economics, military affairs, diplomatics and so on."The Debates on Salt and Iron" and "Mengzi" have many similarities, and their writing style and literary form are same:On one hand,"The Debates on Salt and Iron" inherited the amoebean writing style of "Mengzi", and strengthen its debate section, and the argument as well as the theme of "The Debates on Salt and Iron" is more prominent, and the demonstration method of "The Debates on Salt and Iron"is more rich; On the other hand,"The Debates on Salt and Iron" inherited the debate content between the kingcraft faction and the tyrannical faction of "Mengzi", and it hides the supportive attitude for Xianliang Wenxue’s humanistic thoughts.Although "The Debates on Salt and Iron" is based on the memoirs of salt-iron conference, it has the buds of classical dramas and novels because of author’s imagination and creation. It reproduces the debate scene of salt-iron conference, and at the same time, it creates characters successfully such as Xianliang Wenxue, imperial censor and prime minister by methods of conflicts, arguments and detail descriptions.