Thesis On The Images Of Tacticians In Zhan Guo Ce

Zhan Guo Ce was criticized as evil theory by the scholar Zeng Gong in Song Dynasty in that he thought the book described many kindless, and politeless, faithless tacticians. And he further observed that it was all flooded with words and deeds about cheats and tricks but without a single word by the very sensible, like Mengzi. Even Lu Zhonglian, the only man of faith, could only do some helping-out rather than provide a systematic perspective of virtues and loyalty and could at most be rated as the lowest man of faith. From then on, voices against the tacticians of Warring States have never stopped. They are all negative except those of Si Maqian and Liu Xiang.Based on their thoughts, words and deeds, the thesis classifies tacticians as men of crafts, men of bravery and men of righteousness. After realizing two common features of the elocutionists as the identical nature and tragic fates, and with Su Qin as a typical example, the author narrates their ups and downs and addresses the causes of their dooms. This article concludes that they had made great historic contributions with their admirable eloquent speeches despite their shameless pursuits of reputation.The first chapter provides a summary of the recent two-decade study with Zhan Guo Ce and its tacticians in five aspects. The second chapter divides tacticians into three types and addresses their characteristics. The third chapter gives a discourse on the elocutionists' thoughts represented by their characters. The fourth chapter discourses on the tragic fates implied by their characters and generalizes five types of tragedies and points out the causes. The fifth chapter analyzes concretely typical image of Su Qin in six aspects—his experiences of lobbying, notions and propositions, bearing, ups and downs, speech style and the main methods of portraying characters.