The Study Of Suxun's Prose

Suxun is not only one of the eight greatest prose writers in the Tang and Song Dynasty , but also a promoter of ancient article movement in Northern Song Dynasty. As result of his son—Sushi's greater achievements and fame, however, Suxun hasn't aroused extensive attention and left us a lot to study, especially in the study of his prose. Moreover, a comprehensive valuation is lacking for him. He is said to be a miscellaneous scholar, a political strategist or a legalist. So far, no agreement on it has arrived.The paper includes four parts: the first part tries to employ a view of antagonism to make an overall research on Suxun's prose, including his political opinions, creative viewpoints, commenting ways and compositions of essays. Besides the study of his various types of prose, this part also tries to reveal his inner heart through his prose. From an analysis of his prose, a conclusion is drawn that the antagonism between sharp and tactful, forceful and gentle, deep and plain , neat and various characterizes his prose, which creates a kind of antagonistic beauty in his prose.The second part is to reveal his thoughts. According to the ideas in his prose, Suxun is considered to be mostly of Confucianism. He insists on the basic principles "benevolence" in Confucianism, adores Confucius and thinks highly of Confucius as a man wise in adaptation to situations. However, different from orthodox confucianists, Suxun combines Confucianism with "adaptability" through absorption of the thoughts of Buddhism, Taoism, legalism etc., forming his own thoughts and becoming the founder of Shu knowledge.The third part is to analyze his background of prose writing in three aspects: his social surroundings, hometown and personal experience. The tolerant social surroundings and long family history not only make him think separately, write quickly, speak boldly and behave unruly, but also link him with the nation, which gives his works a different sense of worry.Finally, the paper regards him as a thinker, for he is extremely concerned over state affairs. He is of a politician's quality, but regretfully, fails to complete his political aim. As a literary man, he is an outstanding prose writer in ancient time and pushes forward the ancient article movement in the Northern Song Dynasty. Moreover, he cultivates two literary talents---Sushi and Suzhe and makes a great contribution to the development of our literature as well as leaving us a precious treasure----his literary creation and theory.