Zhang Pu

Zhang Pu was the famous leader of Fushe (复社) , social activist, scholar and writer of late Ming Dynasty. He has great influence in the movement of Fushe as well as in other academic and literature activities. But, affected by political reasons such as the Party Contention in late Ming Dynasty and the ban of most of his works, research on Zhang Pu has been inactive in a long time.There has been no academic book of research on Zhang Pu completely. The common treatise of Zhang is wanting. Many books on history of literature and literary criticism history did no more than drawing the outline of Zhang or just mentioning him a little. The lack of research on Zhang Pu formed intense contrast with his great influence and eminent position in late Ming Dynasty,Thus necessitates a full-scale study of Zhang. On the basis of reading all the works of Zhang and other relevant sources, by means of studying Zhang's life, friends, thoughts, works, influence and value thoroughly, the author tries to give out comparatively objective valuation and accurate allocation of Zhang's literature achievements and social activities, fill in a relevance studying blank space and push forward literature research of late Ming Dynasty further. The paper is composed of four parts: introduction,text, concluding remarks and appendix.As the research background and common basis, the introduction contains three parts: the reflection of the late Ming Dynasty literature, the summary of research on Zhang, and the times when Zhang lived.The text contains five chapters in total. Chapter 1 is the introduction and research of Zhang's life. It is divided into four periods. It also contains 32 special topics studying Zhang's life which aim at recovering the historical truth and helping understand the Zhang's better.Chapter 2 discusses Zhang's thoughts from four aspects: outlook on life, values and ethics; thoughts about society and politics; academic thoughts ; thoughts about literature. In the first aspect, Zhang's ideal personality was to be a sage, gentleman and great Confusion. He pursued morality and integrity, and cherished the love of consanguineous family and the loyalty of friends as the foundation of his behavior. In the second one, he proposed to win over the emperor and to be of benefit to the people. He suggested to nominate the virtuous and depose the wicked, to do the good and abolish the bad. He had a strict differentiation on Hua (the Han people) and Yi (the barbarian people), which has much realistic meaning in that time. He attached great importance to individual value and thought both men and women were equal. In the third one, he paid homage to the Confucian classics and valued history. He struggled to revive the old convention while hold a feasible viewpoint; he argued that scholarism should be utilized and spread in reality to heal the society. He proposed to divide the academic research into different categories. He suggested strengthen the root of study, do deep and specific study after far going reading. He opposed and criticized Buddhism and Taoism. In the fourth one, he argued that the root of literature lied in Tao, which meant the Confucian classics. He claimed that one should "talk about the contemporary things" as long as the "lived in the contemporary world". He emphasized the true feelings and focused on talent. Personality, learning and times as for poetry criticism. He appreciated the tradition of ShiJing which valued tenderness and moderate in poetry writing while pointed out that it should be "tender and moderate, but not undiversified." He thought literature was meant to convey the Confucian values, it should be both meaningful and elegant. A good literature works should be highly conceptive, moving, and full of vigour. His iterion of writing criticism is whether it was Refined.Chapter 3, research on Zhang's prose. It contains two parts: research based on categories, and analysis on artistic characteristics. Zhang specialized in prose writing. His prose can be classified into six categories according to style: inscriptions, prefaces and postscripts, epistles, biography, argumentations. Inscriptions combine criticism of both the articles and the writers. As for the writers, he figured out their times and lives to get a vivid impression and compared them with other writers of the same times or of the genres in history. As for the articles, he traced back to their origins and followed their branches, indicated their characteristics and brought them into comparison from different aspects. He displayed his acute insight and innovative viewpoints in all these inscriptions. On the other hand, he reposed his own feelings in them by means of using a method of Chinese traditional historiography which implied the attitude of the historiographers in the narration of history. He examined and reanalyzed historical facts of that time, which made his essays somehow like history arguments. Zhang's prefaces and postscripts sum to 15 rolls, which made up of the mass of his collection. Zhang followed a principle of "proper" and "downright" when writing prefaces, so they came out to bear a refined style and were good at criticizing people. Zhang's epistles often dealt with his thoughts and truly reflected his thinking, they are often full of sincerity and showed no affectation. Zhang's most representative and well-known biography writing was On the grave of five .Among Zhang's elegiac addresses, there was some articles written merely for social purpose, but the elegiac addresses he wrote for his best friend's mother and Wei Dazhong were excellent with true feelings and substantial content. The great amount of argumentation writings in Zhang's collection----most of which are history criticism and current affairs criticism show his reflection and criticism on history and reality. The artistic characteristics of Zhang's prose lie mainly in combination of Confucian classics and history, outstanding argument and impassioned writing style.Chapter 4, research on Zhang's poetry. It is made up of two parts: research based on poetry categories, and analysis on artistic characteristics. Zhang was not famous for his poetry writing, but he loved writing poetry for all his life and left five rolls of poetry, 874 poems in total. According to the content of his poetry, it can be classified into four categories: poetry about sending off or missing his friends; Yue Fu poetry; poetry on mourning for dead and recalling history; poetry about travel or written on paintings. Zhang valued friendship much, so his poems about sending friends off and missing friends far away are often sincere and touching. Some mourning poems of Zhang are also distressed and affective. He mourn for his relatives and friends as well as the famous generals, loyal liegemen and legendary talented women in history. Some of Zhang's poems about traveling are also good.Some poems for the painting are short and fresh. Three art characteristics that whose poetry and song shows: First, styles are varied. Second, Common poetry and song is in Zhang stylistic accept Han and Wei Dynasties. Third, they are tended to become amiable. carry out the intention correcting on whole mausoleum poem wind.Chapter 5, common effect of Zhang and significance. From public activities , political struggle , literature, four aspects such as document, style of study discusses whose effect and significance. Think that he has established the biggest culture association of ancient China.And the fighting with the eunuch group has demonstrated the scholars' responsibility, justice and high moral principle. Effect on literature with his activities and works . Zhang is one of the ethos initiator and the important transition person .Concluding remarks. Zhang is the strategic point in the history literature, and it's accept by the people of Ming Dynasty. But the fact isn't accept and wiped away by the people Of Qing Dynasty for being not nonacademic reason. Now the fact is confirmed by our research. We regard it being common that Zhang is one of a final literature leading exponent in Late Ming Dynasty. He can cover up with generation.Appendix. including introduction of Zhang's works and the chronicle of all his life.