| Letter writing has a long history in China,and in the era when Cao Cao,Cao Pi and Cao Zhi lived,there was a new prosperity in letter writing,which was not only a tool for transmitting information,but also a vehicle for expressing the writer’s heart and opinions to a large extent.This paper examines the objects,contents and characteristics of the Cao Cao,Cao Pi and Cao Zhi’s letters,and places them in the historical context of the development of correspondence to explore the new changes and examine their historical value.This paper has five parts.The first part is the introduction,which briefly analyzes the source of the selected topic,the significance of the study,and the current status of the study.The second part is the background of the creation of Cao Cao,Cao Pi and Cao Zhi’s letters,which aims to grasp the creation of them letters from an overall perspective.It mainly focuses on three aspects: social conditions,ideological and cultural environment,and the development of the epistolary style,laying the foundation for subsequent research.The third part is based on the text of Cao Cao,Cao Pi and Cao Zhi’ss letters and digs into their main ideological contents.It mainly contains five aspects,employment ideas,the thought of employing people,the thought of military and political affairs,the friendship of friends,the literary proposition and the interest of life.The fourth part is to analyze and summarize the writing characteristics of Cao Cao,Cao Pi and Cao Zhi’s letters and their causes through text reading.The letters have both commonality and individuality,as they live together in one era,and inevitably bear the brand of the era in their letters.But at the same time,each of them had different growth experiences in the era,and the differences in life experiences and personalities shaped the different styles of them letters.The fifth part mainly places Cao Cao,Cao Pi and Cao Zhi’s letters in the context of the development of the epistolary genre,and reveals the value of them letters in several aspects,including the transformation of the function of letters,the development of content and subject matter,and the diversification of writing techniques,through vertical comparison,reflecting the importance of Cao Cao,Cao Pi and Cao Zhi’s letters in the history of epistolary development.Finally,the existence of the Cao Cao,Cao Pi and Cao Zhi’s letters provides a different window for later readers,as the constraints of writing authentic history make it difficult to portray characters in stereoscopic,multi-faceted,and rich in detail.By studying the letters of them,it is also possible to understand more realistic historical figures.At the same time,their letters can also play a positive role in the present day,and can provide some reference for letter writing. |
