A Study Of The Letters Of The Pre-qin And Han Dynasties

Originally, letters are used as a relatively advanced way to convey messages. Theearly letters start from applicable purposes with the feature of emphasizingevent-recording.The deposits of time provide the letters with the property of researchable literaryaesthetics gradually.The strong practicality and distinctive artistic charm of letters makethem the research targets by past scholars.What’s more, the letters of the pre-Qin and Handynasties are studied and researched by people in the first place. The value of the letters ofthat certain period hasn’t been discovered even until nowadays due to various reasons,leaving great space for later exploration. Therefore, this paper, as a further attempt, ismainly divided into four chapters based on the previous researches.The first chapterdiscusses the writing evolution of the letters of the pre-Qin and Han dynasties, which ismade up of three sections--the writing subject,the change of writing content and theartistic development of writing. The writing subject in the pre-Qin and Han dynastiestransfers from singularity to diversity,forming a dynamic process. The second chapterdemonstrates the emotional connotation of the letters of the pre-Qin and Han dynasties bycategory, reviewing the lyric means and features of categories like home letters, friendletters and subject official letters. This chapter treats the ideology and emotion of theperiod comprehensively, looking into the sublimation of their inner worlds and thevaluable home-country spirit. The third chapter is the research and analysis of therelationship between the letters of the pre-Qin and Han dynasties and social ideology. It isobvious that these letters are influenced by several social thoughts. The first one is thetransformation of the concepts of propriety and profit from the Spring and Autumn periodto the Warring States period. The second thought is the lead of the scripture studies duringthe Han dynasties, which is followed by the alternation of the thoughts in the end of theEast-Han dynasty. It is worth mentioning that the value orientation of the Chinese ancienttraditions is manifested in these letters. The last chapter separates the relationship betweenthe letters of the pre-Qin and Han dynasties and poems from the category of art. It focuseson the application of poems and The Book of Songs in letters, the meanings of poetic lettersand the social connotation of letter-writing phenomenon.