Research Of Sima Xiangru’s Original Stories

Historical records about Sima Xiangru first appeared in Historical Records by Sima Qian.Historians usually wrote down things tersely but implicitly.Such a manner and method could not fully present the event and people.As a result,the residual fraction made by those historians generated the various imaginations of later generations.During the Period of Wei,Jin and Southern and Northern Dynasties,Miscellany of the Western Capital written by Gehong related Sima Xiangru’s various stories with romantic color and vivid plots which were greatly different from the previous historical books.From then on,Sima Xiangru’s original stories began to intrude in the field of literary writing,such as his love,royal favor and even his unmentionable disease,which could not only meet the universal interests,but also tally with the men of letters.That’s why they became the frequently used subject-matter of some poems,essays,ci and songs.As for this aspect,some successful literary works were noticed,which changed the original meanings of those stories,but simultaneously,expanded the connotations of Sima Xiangru,as a man of letters.From the earliest historical records to the vivid literary narration with multiple meanings,it is rather more meaningful to research the variational chances of those original stories than to differentiate those historical facts.In the introduction part,this paper first clears up the contents of Sima Xiangru’s original stories,and then makes a comprehensive survey of the research achievements already made by the predecessors in this field,and finally puts forward the contents and aim of the study,and simultaneously,states the research methods used in this paper.According to the focus of the study,the main body of this paper consists of the following three chapters:Chapter one deals with Feng Qiu Huang.On the basis of the explanation of its original meaning,the paper will look far and wide the later generations’ acceptance and application of it so as to summarize the changes of its symbolic meaning,andto make an excavation for its reasons.Chapter two centers on Xiangru’s disease.After tracing its quarry,the paper moves on to investigate its recreation in classical literature in the following generations so as to generalize all the connotations gathered in the process,and to perspective the reasons for its wide acceptance.Chapter three focuses on Lingyu style.Beginning with its themes formed in history,the paper,from the angle of literary elucidation,lists its profound understandings given by all the schools so as to extract its purified multiple meanings,and to dig the reasons for this.In the conclusion part,this paper will summarize all the trains of thought and all the points of view,and attempt to discuss the nowadays meanings existing in the study of Sima Xiangru’s original stories.For the purpose of easy reference,appendix in the form of tabular will be given which includes literature review concerning Sima Xiangru’s original stories,and literary acceptance of Feng Qiu Huang,Xiangru’s disease and Lingyu style in the classical works.