The Monographic Study For The Eight-part Essay Of The Imperial Examination

The eight-part essay was One of the most important and basic style of writing of the Imperial examination in Ming-Qing Dynasty.If we want to make a thorough study on the style ,we should base on the substantial research of the text of this style.Based on the knowledge ,The doctoral dissertation divide special subject for studying the relevant issue of the eight-part essay.This doctoral dissertation is composed of six parts except Preface.Chapter One analyse its name ,pattern and its dominative status in the Imperial examination. The eight-part essay was one of the most important and basic style of writing of the Imperial examination in Ming-Qing Dynasty .Its content first was"SiShu", and the second "Wujing". Its structure was composed of "TiTou"and the "GuDui". Except "the eight-part essay",The style had many another names: "BaBi-essay","SiShu-essay","JingYi-essay","ZhiYi-essay","ShiWen-essay". These names have its own intensions and incarnate one of the characteristic of this style.All the names did not appear in the same space-time in history,but born in the course of the development of this style.Chapter two study the origin and vicissitude.For the origin /There are several versions.Generally,The great majority traces back to "JingYi-essay" in Song-Yuan dynasty . "Speak for Sage", "Parallelism-Antithesis"are the most important characteristic of this style We may track down the origoin to the"JingYi-style"of Wan Anshi. "Speak for the Sage" appears in the traditional style frequently. The "Parallelism-Antithesis" type of writing has far orgin.Requiring writing in this style initially was not the stipulation of the government,but the action of the examinee.Because the "parallelism-antithesis" has positive role on the artistic appeal of the essay, so writing by this style was the result of trying to please the examiner by examinee Later, The "Parallelism-Antithesis" gradually developed into the common style of writing,By Cheng-Hua period in Ming dynasty,became a regular pattern.Chapter three contrast the structure of the eight-part essay of Ming-Qing by sampling to unfold the characteristic of themelves. Theeight-part essay develop with time,The structure also has its development.Chapter four study the Marking Criterion of the eight-part essay.In the examination, how to judge the eight-part essay is good or not by the examiner? The unitary Marking Criterion were required <. Almost all comments are made on"Li,Fa,Ci,Qi", "Qing,Zhen,Ya,Zheng" was an overall requirement that by applied to all these four criteria.This overall requirement was derived from the Ming Dynasty stylistic standard of "Chun,Zheng,Dian,Ya"and was adapted to the requirements for the eight-part essays.The stands were followed and enhanced in later years from when they were established in early Qing Dynasty.Chapter five study the rhetoric of the eight-part essay.From the origin of view,It has deep cultural source.The style converged many writing techniques of traditional Articles.In the rhetorical view ,saying the essay have nothing to do with the rhetoric is inconceivable.The Chapter study rhetorical characteristic from the control center ,sections and chapters meter ,rhetorical style of the essay.Chapter six arbitrate the historical role on base of analysis of the text for first five Chapters.From the birth to the end,the essay went through several hundreds of years.It withstanded many criticisms.How to judge the essay?Firstly,this Chapter differentiate and analyse several criticism of the essay,then list several neutral arguments,and even several words of praise.finally,assess it's historical role: The eight-part essay promoted unity of ideology and steady of the society.In the same time,It had the function of the examination for testing knowledge and intelligence.The function of preventing fraudulent and of commentatng are obvious.