A Study On Ancient Prose Of The Great South Song Idealistic Philosophers

In South Song ancient prose research is very desolate, and there are mainly two reasons. Firstly, after ancient prose of North Song enter high tide, the ancient prose writers of South Song have no the dint to put forth new ideas; secondly, the ancient prose researchers regard vehement articles of patriots as the main body of ancient prose, regardless of articles of the scholars. To change this condition, one must clarify the relation of the ancient prose and idealist philosophy, and bring articles of idealist philosophers into the research.The ancient prose has a congenital dependence on Confucianism. Ancient prose rise for publicizing the " ancient way" , which aims at renewing Confucianism. The condition of Confucianism in Tang Dynasty substantially decides the fate of ancient prose. The prosperity of ancient prose in middle Tang Dynasty and its decadence in late Tang Dynasty is consistent with the rise ad fall of Confucianism. The slow development of ancient prose in Tang Dynasty presents the difficulty of renewing Confucianism in the Tang Dynasty. In North Song the victory of the ancient prose movement is an important marking of the renewing of Confucianism. The core of the ancient prose is an "ancient way", rather than the language or the literary style. Without the " ancient way", ancient prose would not exist. The obscurity of ancient prose in Tian and Kai Year, the queer writing of the Han School, even the strange style of Tang Dynasty, all pay attention to the language of writing to revive old customs excessively. The success of the Han and Lv lies in their deep understanding of the characteristic of the ancient prose. So does the rise of ancient prose in North Song. Exactly in the elucidation of " ancient way", the idealist philosophy began to sprout and came into form. Great writer of Ancient prose in Tang and Song, particularly in north Song, mostly are the pioneers of idealist philosophy or idealist philosophy themselves. The rise of the ancient prose and the original of idealist philosophy occur in the same culture current of thought. The two are not natural enemy. The opposition of the moralist and the ancient prose writers lies in their different understanding and requirement of " way". Melting of prose creation and tradition may proceed only after they each have developed fully. The outstanding manifestation of the highlydeveloped culture of South Song, is its scholarship flourish. The scholar's prose is really an important part of the prose in South Song. The prose of idealist philosophers contribute greatly to the development of the prose in South Song.Chen Liang shouted the instauration, advocated king's speech the and respected the utility. He presented his views vehemently, exposed his personality fully, and showed the awe-inspiring righteousness. The dint of its style of writing is robust and vehemence. Particularly in the breeze of the widespread soft prose of literary circles in south Song, his articles shocked the public and aroused them.The ZhuXi gathers the essentials of the idealist philosophy. Theories in his article, although there is thick Taoism color, exist many penetrating views. Though he attaches importance to "tao" rather then the article itself, his ideas are versed than Zhou's and Cheng's. He makes a point of imitation and reviving the old customs, because he is dissatisfied with the literary atmosphere then. He emphasizes the rules, but also has no objection to original ideas; He advocates mildness, however not lay claim to tastelessness; He has the sharp ability of artistic appreciation, and his comment on each party is extremely to the point. His article elucidates views in a detailed and clear way, without extreme or radical ideas. It is not impressive-looking but delicate and graceful.Lu Zuqian adopts the various ideas and forms his own thought. This kind of way of thinking also affects his literature idea. He tried to eliminate the estrangement between ancient prose and the idealist philosophy. He emphasizes history and utility, at the same time he advocates the composition, construction and rhetoric. Compared with the idealist philosophers in his time, his literature thought is more deep and rich. His influence on the field house literary atmosphere is even more profound.Lu Jiuyuan lays claim to" know to return this" and " to pursue simplicity". On prose creation, he pursues the bold and straightforward style. Although he has the ambition of the sages, regarding article as the other business, he does not deny the importance of the technique of ancient prose art. His works is very few, among which most are letters he wrote to friends or the handouts of his lectures. His sayings reserved the characteristic of straightforwardness. His language enlightens, exhorts, and warns the readers. He seldom employs a long statement or careful logic reasoning; instead he makes use of many special metaphors.Chen Fuliang's guiding principle for study is practicability. First of all, he placedweight on the first-hand material; then he attached importance to the evidence and reasoning, which made his arguments strong and convincing.Yeh Shi pursued practical value of his study. Unbounded by the set theories, he was creative. Its prose lay claims to practicability as well as individuality. There is attempt in his ideas to co-prove the Confucianism through classic systematic criticisms, so as to form his own characteristic. He held the questioning attitude toward the ideas of Confucianism, the non-Confucianism and even his own school. Yeh could adopt the essence and the cream of the greatest scholars of his time. His style possessed both Su's (Su Shi) unrestrainedness and Ou's (Ouyang Xiu) expressiveness; at the same time being aware of the redundancy and the weakness of both works.In all, ancient prose of those great idealistic philosophers well deserves further study, and the achievement is very outstanding, which occupies a very important position in the Southern Song proses. These philosophers stressed much on the analysis and summary of the art of the writing techniques, and thus formulated their own systematic artistic theories. These artistic theories are closely related to their academic theories and the atmosphere of a school. These exert direct influence on their own prose creation. Some of their outstanding prose works are not inferior even compared with outstanding works in the Tang Song Dynasty. Their artistic works and theories have had profound influence on the Yuan Dynasty even Ming and Qing Dynasty's prose creation and ancient prose theories. Their achievement and theories have certain help in the changing of the traditional viewpoint "the idealistic philosophy hinders the literature creation", at least "the idealistic philosophy hinders the ancient prose creation".