The Research About LiXian And GuRang Zalu

LiXian, a Chinese bureaucrat from Dengzhou, Nanyang, was an official for more than a score of years since late Xuande, and occupied an important position in the mid-Ming Dynasty. People from different dynasties thought highly of him. Nowdays, some scholars think that LiXian was the first prime minister of cabinet according to the records of History of Ming.But other historical datas had been called some cabinet members before LiXian the prime minister of cabinet. We sh ould evaluate LiXian’s influence on the cabinet of the Ming Dynasty accurately o n the basis of the development and the actual situation of the cabinet.LiXian was also a prolific author.His collected works, GuRang Ji, was name d of his native place,Dengzhou.But the rest of his writings can’t be seen today.O ne of his representative novels, GuRang Zalu, was included in his collected works, GuRang Ji,which was divided into thirty volumes,and has three volumes.Other ki nd of GuRang Zalu from some book series had only one volume.And we can’t fi nd the kind of GuRang Zalu,which was divided into two volumes. On the classi fication of bibliographic description, some books, like History of Ming, put it into the class of the novelist in Zibu,while other books, such as the General Catalogu e of the Imperial Collection of Four,put it into the eclectics.This difference refers to the concept of bibliography.In content, the book,which mainly records knowledges in and out of office, and relates current events and his comments upon them, shares an important role in the history and novel researches of Ming Dynasty as reference materials.People and events in this book can be classified into four categories.The first is QinLi.So me events from the experiences of LiXian can be put into this category.The secon d is TingWen.Things from the hearing of LiXian was put into it.The third is ZaS huo.In this kind of category,there were some comments of LiXian.The fourth is Z aZhuan,which mainly introduces the successive positions of officials,like biography. We can find other similar materials in the official and other historical books,whic h can prove and supplement the events from GuRang Zalu each other, fully reflec ting its literature and historical value.In writing, LiXian used different narrative point of views,like internal focaliza tion in the category of QinLi, omniscient point of view in the category of TingW en,and outside narrative perspective in the category of ZaZhuan. Discussion in this book accounted for a larger proportion. The category of QinLi mainly used descr iption, while the discussion was less.But the category of ZaShuo was the opposite. And there were some contents full of discussion. The book specially recorded the people and events of the Ming Dynasty. There were biographical characteristics in portraying characters.The discussion in the content can be seen as a view of hist oriographer,which gave expression to the writings of historians. At the same time, the book had some parts of virtual description, imagination and exaggeration on the base of the facts, which embodied the novelist writing characteristics.