A Study On The Eight-part Essay And Its Literary Feature In Ming Dynasty

The Eight-part Essay was the symbolic writing styles for the Imperial Examination in the Ming dynasty.It was formed under the influence of the vogue of literary and bureaucratic aristocracy in the middle period of Ming.Eight-part essays evolved from the Song-Yuan jingyi(??),one of the important writing styles in ancient Chinese imperial examinations courses with the highly stylized characteristics in the stylistic structure,but after combining the literature rhetoric skills such as parallelism and antithesis,imitation,the Eight-part Essays became a mature form of the jlngyi writing.The balance between the stereotype and writing which the Eight-part essay has reached,to some extent,is also the balance between Confucian classics and literature,the balance between imperial style and literary style,as well as the functional balance between the imperial examinations and literary expressionCan the Eight-part Essays be considered as literary work?After the establishment of the modern concept of literature,people tend to think that the Eight-part Essays,lacking in neither emotional aesthetic qualities,nor creative freedom,are difficult to be considered as literature.However,after an in-depth investigation and study into the actual circumstances of the Eight-part Essay writing in Ming dynasty,we are surprised that the eight-part essays are filled with exploration and new consciousness,and especially the pursuit of individuality.It shows that the development of Eight-part essay writing in Ming dynasty was intimately tied up with literature and derived from its same origin,and the culture of imperial examination and ideological trend of literature reacted mutually at the same time.From Chenghua and Hongzhi to Tianqi,Chongzhen,especially after a series changes of the eight-part essays,appeared a number of masters of the eight-part essays,thus forming a status of the thriving of various academic schools,which gave a true reflection of the gradual opening up and diverse ideological and cultural status since the middle period of the Ming dynasty.These facts help to strengthen our confidence that eight-part essays of the Ming dynasty could be seen as part of its ecological literature,it shows another side of the Ming Dynasty literature which was not yet flully concerned by the society.Two forces of imperial examinations and literature shaped the history of the eight-part essay writing in Ming dynasty,containing and competing with each other.The investigation on the eight-part essay writing in Ming dynasty is supposed to be led to the more important issue of concept and method:in what literature position literature should we take to examine the literature?how to achieve a greater field of vision of literature and the images of the history of literature?The answers to the questions are still under exploration,but it is certain that we need to strengthen the focus on literary history form,focus more on the literary system in specific historical space,because in the final analysis,literature is not a pure spiritual nature,but a historical phenomenon existing as a league with a variety of cultural institutionsThe above is the basic train of thought of this essay,and all chapters of which will be carried out according to it.The first chapter investigates the encounters the Eight-part Essay experienced in the literature history writing during the modern times,reviewing the academic history for the Eight-part Essay research from special angles.The second chapter discusses the formation history of the Eight-part Essay,combing the historical thread along which the Eight-part Essay evolved form Song-Yuan Jingyi to Yuan-Ming sishOyf(???),and again to the Eight-part Essay,and also discusses the relation between the formation of the Eight-part Essay and the special historical literature space.The third chapter discusses the literature feature of the Eight-part Essay,mainly focusing on the revealing of the literature elements of Eight-part Essay and the function of its rhetoric.The forth chapter discusses the co-existing relationship between the Eight-part Essay and the Ming dynasty literature,from which it can be seen that the Eight-part Essay in deed can not be excluded outside the development process of the Ming dynasty literature.The fifth chapter then comes back to the criticism and discussion on the approaches.The so called research approach on the historical form of literature has mainly two meanings:on the one hand it should respect the historical shape of the literature of China,avoiding the pre-set position formed from the moden literate concept;on the other hand,attention should be paid to the analysis on the relationship between the literature of China and the specified literature system during the specially appointed historical space,i.e.the relationship between literature and the imperial examinations,if the focus is narrowed to the Eight-part Essay.