The Study Of Prose In The Southern Dynasties

With the prose in the southern dynasties as the research object, with the famous theory which includes two important principles of renewing the research on literature history and a new logical thinking way put forward by Prof. Wang Zhong-ling as the guilding ideology, based on the original works, giving consideration to the background of times and culture,aesthetic conceptions,the writers' experience, this dissertation makes a plausible and convincible explanation of the achievements and characteristics of the prose in different times in the southern dynasties. In order to show the primary appearance of prose objectively, the author interprets it by way of "the grasp way of the original state" .The thesis contains three parts: introduction, main text and conclusion. The introduction mainly involves the scope of the prose in the southern dynasties and the research methods. The main text consists of four chapters. The first chapter gave a review of research history, the present state and the significance of the research. The second chapter discussed the reasons for prosperity of the articles in the southern dynasties on the basis of the difference of literary conception,literary position and the aesthetic consciousness. Moreover, the author also analyzed the performances of prosperity of the articles such as the distinction between verse and prose,the emperors and the ordinary literaties devoting themselves to literatures progressively,the nobleman taking a fancy for literatures and the flourishing atmosphere of literary criticism. The third chapter meticulously expounded the achievements and characteristics of the prose in different times in the southern dynasties. According to the evolution process of parallel prose, the developed course of parallel prose in the southern dynasties was separated into three periods which included Liu Song,Qi Liang and Liang Chen. Liu Song was a period when parallel prose was regularly formed. The writers paid attention to parallel construction,allusions and ornate dictions, but not strictly, because the parallel prose was just regularly formed. During the course of the evolution of the parallel prose, Fu also displayed the parallel state. In contrast to Western Jin, the relative amount of parallel articles in Liu Song grew bigger, but the absolute quantity was small. Most articles existed between the free style and the parallel style. In short, the prose in Liu Song existed in two forms, but the amount of the parallel articles was smaller than it of the prose. For details, some writers were expert in parallel prose, such as Yan Yan-zhi, Bao Zhao, etc. The other writers were skilled in the articles of two forms which includes the free style and the parallel style such as Fu Liang, Xie Ling-yun, etc. In the case of Fu, most writers mentioned above usually had famous writings. Qi Liang was a period when parallel prose developed further. In the years of YongMing, Emperor Qi Wu, the theory of melody sprang up. It not only influenced poetry, but also affected parallel Fu and parallel prose. It promoted the formal factors of the parallel prose to go into shape. From then on, the writers were particular about the creative skills: exquisite parallel construction; too many appropriate allusions; flowery language; strict melody. With the speed of development of parallel prose becoming rapid, the amount of the parallel article and prose changed. The quantity of the parallel articles was bigger than it of the prose. For details, many writers, such as Ren Fang, Shen Yue, Jiang Yan, etc, were all good at the parallel style. Moreover, Xie Tiao, Wang Rong, Kong Zhi-gui, Qiu Chi, Wu Jun, Tao Hong-jing, etc, had fine parallel writings. In the case of Fu, Jiang Yan was also a famous writer. Although Pei Zi-ye was fond of ancient style, he never opposed parallel prose. Liang Chen was a period when parallel prose went into maturity. This period ranged from middle stage of Liang Dynasty to Chen Dynasty. The parallel articles pursued the ingenious parallel construction, gorgeous language, numerous allusions, harmonious melody, and skilledly made use of the four-word-sentence and six-word-sentence where there was an interval between two structures. The foremost writers were Xu Ling and Yu Xin in this period, but Yu Xin mainly lived in Northern Zhou in the last part of his life, so the dissertation was not related to Yu Xin' s writings. There were some better writers such as Shen Jiong, Chen Shu-bao, etc, at this stage besides Xu Ling. The fourth chapter generally described the achievements of the free prose in Liu Song and Qi, Liang, Chen. He Cheng-tian, Yuan Shu, and Wang Wei were all famous writers who specialized in articles of free style. Zhang Rong, Fan Zhen, etc, also got unusual achievements in writing free articles. The conclusion further generalized the whole text and suggested that the following researchers strengthen the study of prose in the southern dynasties.