Preface Study Of Zeng Gong

The preface is a vital type of prose,which plays an important role in ancient China literature.This form of literature was originated in Qin dynasty and it was enriched in Wei and Jin dynasties and was gradually matured in Tang Dynasty.With the aid of the development of printing techniques and literature,alone with the victory of ancient literature development,the preface had reached its peak in Song dynasty.In the continuing preface history,the creation of one litterateur named Gong Zeng,who is a member of The Eight Masters of Tang and Song,was neglected by ancient China literature academia.Gong Zeng’s work was considered to have high literature values and himself was ranked as one of the top litterateurs in his own age also in Ming and Qing dynasty.His prose creation was regarded as an outstanding representation in ancient China prose history,and it could reflect the trend as long as the features with respect to the development of prose in Song dynasty.According to Anthology of Zeng Gong,which was proofread by Xingzhen Chen and Jizhou Chao and was published by Zhonghua Book Company in 1984,there are plenty of preface articles created by Gong Zeng.Among The Eight Masters of Tang and Song,Gong Zeng had created a relatively large portion of preface articles.Moreover,his prefaces have distinct characteristics and argumentative point of views.By researching the work of Gong Zeng,it is feasible to understand the personalities of him,and at the meantime,to comprehend the ancient literature development in Song dynasty.Therefore,with all the advantages mentioned above,the study of Gong Zeng’s preface articles is with high value regarding to ancient China literature research.The first chapter was aimed to evaluate Gong Zeng’s literature work and its current research level,started from the contrast between the high status of Gong Zeng as a member of Eight Masters of Tang and Song and the limited interest on this topic.The second chapter studied the definition of the preface from the dimension of history,and introduced the preface through ages.The third chapter selected all Gong Zeng’s literature works as research objects,from different aspects,tried to conclude the connotation of all the different types of his works.The fourth chapter focused on the writing characteristics,such as discussions and purposes,to analyze special features in Gong Zeng’s works.The fifth chapter again explored the true value of Gong Zeng’s works since those works serve as a link between different ages,and discussed the inspirational effects that those works had done to different literature genres,in order to underline the true cultural meaning of Gong Zeng’s works in literature history.