Introduction: Xiao Tong's anthology collects important poems and essays before the Southern and Northern Dynasties, expressing the views of his family. The following is an introduction to the "Selected Works" that I collected and compiled. Welcome everyone to read and refer to it!
"Selected Works", also known as "Selected Works of Zhaoming", is the earliest existing collection of ancient poems and essays in China. It was written by Liang Liang in the Southern Dynasty. Xiao Tong, the eldest son of Emperor Wu, organized a group of literati to compile and select it.
After Xiao Tong's death, he was given the posthumous title "Zhaoming", so the anthology he edited is called "Selected Works of Zhaoming". It originally had 30 volumes and is now divided into 60 volumes, including fu, poems, and Sao. , 7. Edicts, books, orders, teachings, texts, tables, petitions, initiators, notes, notes, memorials, letters, interrogations, essays, words, prefaces, odes, praises, fortune-tellings, historical treatises , historical praise, treatises, connected beads, proverbs, inscriptions, elegies, laments, inscriptions, epitaphs, deeds, condolences, memorial inscriptions and other categories. The selected writers in "Selected Works" range from the pre-Qin Dynasty to the early Liang Dynasty (the writers who were still alive at that time were not included based on the principle of "not recording"), and the works are based on the principle of "things come from contemplation, and justice belongs to Han Zao". , not included in the Classics, History, and Confucius.
From Wei and Jin to Qi and Liang, it was a period in the history of Chinese literature when various literary forms developed and became mature. The number of writers and works far exceeded that of the previous generation. Correspondingly, the discussion of literary concepts and the analysis of literary systems in literary and art theory have become increasingly sophisticated. Emperor Wen of the Song Dynasty Liu Yilong established four branches of Confucianism, Mystery, Literature, and History, and Emperor Ming of the Song Dynasty Liu Yu divided it into five branches: Confucianism, Taoism, Literature, History, and Yin and Yang, which can all indicate that literature has achieved a formal independent status.
There are a large number of literary works, and it has become the need of the majority of readers to identify them and eliminate the complex ones. Therefore, a literary collection that selects outstanding works came into being. According to "Sui Shu - Jing Ji Zhi", from the Jin Dynasty to the Chen and Sui Dynasties, there are 249 total collections and 5,224 volumes. Among them, the famous ones include "Wen Liu Fai Ji" by Zhi Yu of the Jin Dynasty and Li Chong His "Hanlin Lun" and Liu Yiqing's "Jilin" in the Song Dynasty have all been lost. The earliest and most influential collection that can be seen today is "Selected Works".
Most of the upper class of the ruling class in the Southern Dynasties were fond of literature and used it as a symbol of family status and status. Therefore, they rewarded and promoted many achievements. Xiao Tong is one of the representatives. According to the "Book of Liang - Biography of Prince Zhaoming", there were many literati under him, and he often discussed books with them, discussed ancient and modern times, and wrote articles. At that time, there were nearly 30,000 volumes of books in the East Palace. Famous talents were gathered together, and literature was flourishing, which was unprecedented since the Jin and Song Dynasties. He is the author of 20 volumes of "Collected Works", and 10 volumes of "Zhengxu" on ancient and modern classics in classical Chinese. He is good at five-character poetry in 20 volumes of "Wen Yinghua" and 30 volumes of "Selected Works". In addition to the 30 volumes of "Wenxuan" and the 19 volumes of "Ancient and Modern Poetry Yinghua", "Sui Shu---Jing Ji Zhi" is written in Xie Lingyun's "Shi Ying": There are also 30 volumes of "Wen Yinghua", Liang Zhao Written by Prince Ming, died. ?Since the compiler of "Sui Shu" has not seen the original book, it may also be a synonym for "Selected Works" or "Yinghua Collection".
According to the general situation in feudal society, books edited by high-ranking officials were mostly written by or at least had the participation of scholars. Xiao Tong used the honor of the prince to attract scribes. Liu Xiaochuo, Wang Jun, Yin Yun, Lu Kui, Dao Qia and Liu Xie, the author of "Wen Xin Diao Long", who were all famous at that time, had all served as subordinate officials or officials in the East Palace. Rewarded by Xiao Tong, it is very likely that some of these scribes participated in the compilation of "Selected Works".
The political status of metaphysics is still very high. The Metaphysics Museum, the Confucianism Museum, the Literature Museum, and the History Museum were established successively during the Liu and Song Dynasties. Later, as a discipline, the name of metaphysics was also officially proposed. It can be seen that the status of metaphysics in the Southern Dynasties has not diminished, and it is on par with Confucian history and literature. Judging from the time of its establishment, among the "Four Studies" in the early Song Dynasty, the earliest establishment of the Metaphysics Hall was the Metaphysics Hall; judging from the personnel in charge of the four halls In the 13th year of Yuanjia, after the establishment of Guozixue, its first sacrificer was He Shangzhi, the leader of metaphysics, and his successor was Yan Yanzhi, a famous metaphysician and writer in the Southern Dynasty. And Yan Yanzhi also said: "The purpose of deposing King Zheng Gui is to honor Xuan, but to defeat Confucianism." ? In addition, many literati in the Southern Dynasties were both metaphysics and writers, which also provided subjective conditions for the literaryization of metaphysics.
The compiler of "Selected Works" and the literary tendency of metaphysics
Regarding the issue of the compiler of "Selected Works", academic circles basically believe that it was Xiao Tong, the prince of Zhaoming Dynasty, and Liu Xiaochuo, the leader of the literary world at that time. Waiting for a group of literary celebrities. Their writing style represents the literary propositions, aesthetic standards, etc. of the Southern Dynasties, and the literaryization of metaphysics is an aspect that the literati of the Southern Dynasties strive to pursue. When collecting and organizing works, they must focus on selecting those that conform to their literary propositions and "Selected Works" Standard works of selection. In addition, some of the compilers included their own works in "Selected Works", so the works selected in "Selected Works" have a more metaphysical literary tendency.
"Selected Works" contains writers from the Southern Dynasties and the literary tendency of metaphysics
"Selected Works" contains ***25 writers from the Southern Dynasties***, including some major literary figures from the Southern Dynasties group, six of the Three Yuanjia Masters and the Eight Friends of Jingling, as well as several other representative writers in the literary world at that time, whose literary achievements were also quite high, such as Xie Zhuang, Liu Xiaobiao, Jiang Yan, Xu Jingye, Wang Seng Da, Wang Wei, Wang Zhongbao, Wang Jianqi, Liu Shuo, Yu Ziyang, etc. It is not difficult to find from the Four Books of the Southern Dynasties and the "History of the South" that these writers had profound literary attainments and had close contacts with the Eight Friends of Jingling. Therefore, the works of these writers can all reflect the literary atmosphere of the Southern Dynasties. This is also true. This is the reason why it is included in "Selected Works".
Judging from the writers selected in "Selected Works", it tried its best to avoid metaphysical poets. From this, we can see that the Southern Dynasties were trying to get rid of the shortcomings of metaphysical poetry. At the same time, this also paved the way for the transformation of metaphysics into literature. The turn provides an opportunity.
"Selected Works" The Literary Tendency of Style and Metaphysics in the Southern Dynasties
Luo Hongkai said in his "Selected Works": ?Stylistics were not prepared in the Six Dynasties, nor were they strict in the Six Dynasties. Xiao's selected essays are unique in pseudo-style and elegant in simplicity. Eighty-eight of them are divided into different styles, which can be said to be clearly prepared. ? It can be seen that in the Southern Dynasties, literati gradually had a better understanding of the concept of "style" and realized the relationship between style and literature. Therefore, the compilers of "Selected Works" must pay attention to the screening of works of different styles when collecting works.
There are thirty-nine or thirty-eight categories of literary styles included in "Selected Works", among which poems and poems are divided into several sub-categories. His collection of works from the Southern Dynasties totals 175 pieces, covering literary and style poems, narrations of virtues, banquets, farewells to ancestors, historical odes, sightseeing, eulogies, sadness, gifts and replies, travel, suburban temples, Yuefu, miscellaneous songs, and miscellaneous poems. There are 30 categories: , orders, essays, tables, letters, qi, narrations, memorials, books, prefaces, treatises, memorials, mourning, deeds, epitaphs, inscriptions, memorial inscriptions, basically covering the 39 or 39 styles of "Selected Works" 38 categories. Among them, the miscellaneous poems are divided into miscellaneous poems. Just from the number of literary styles, it is not difficult to see the understanding of literary styles by writers in the Southern Dynasties. At the same time, we can also see that the scope of literary metaphysics expanded in the Southern Dynasties, extending to a variety of literary styles. Although, not all the literary styles collected in "Selected Works" have a literary tendency of metaphysics, because "Selected Works" has the largest number of selected poems and involves the largest number of literary styles. Looking at the style as a whole, this tendency is quite obvious.
The works of the Southern Dynasties collected in "Selected Works" and the literary tendency of metaphysics
As an important stage in the development of Chinese poetry and parallel prose, the Southern Dynasties can also be said to be an important transition period. This During this period, poetry made progress in terms of rhythm, allusion, and content expression, and a large number of new poetry styles were created, such as landscape poetry, palace poetry, pseudo-huai poems, epic poems, and so on. The prosperity of parallel prose was second only to poetry in the Southern Dynasties, but the scope of use exceeded poetry. The maturity of parallel prose also conformed to the overall trend of literary development, and "Selected Works" also followed this trend and included a large number of poems and parallel prose. . Therefore, the content of the works collected in "Selected Works" also has a literary tendency of metaphysics. An important way of expressing the literaryization of metaphysics in the Southern Dynasties is the use of allusions. Writers often pay attention to the application of Zhuang Lao's classics when selecting classics, and examples can be found in poetry and parallel prose. Like Xie Lingyun's poem "Sending Kong Ling's Poems from the Song Dynasty to the Maotai Collection on the 9th"? In order to forgive the world, it will bring joy to thousands of people. ?Zhuangzi said: ?If you hear it, you will forgive the world, but if you don't hear it, you will govern the world. ? Xie Hun's "You in the West Pond": ? If you don't care about what you think about, Nan Rong warns you. ? wait.
It can be seen from this that the writers of the Southern Dynasties quoted Zhuang Lao's classics, which has got rid of the shortcomings of only presenting metaphysics in metaphysical poems, making the content of metaphysics more literary.
In summary, through the analysis of the above four aspects of "Selected Works", in order to adapt metaphysics to the development of literature, Southern Dynasties writers gradually realized its transition to literaryization, and their works also showed The literary tendency of metaphysics. At the same time, as a stage in the development and evolution of metaphysics, this tendency also paved the way for the emergence of metaphysics in the Tang Dynasty.
. Among the writers included in the book, the latest one, Lu Jue, died in the seventh year of the Ordinary Period (526), ??while Xiao Tong died in the third year of the Datong Period (531). Therefore, the "Selected Works" should have been compiled a few years after the seventh year of the Ordinary Period. . The book contains 514 works. The standard of arrangement is that all sub-texts should be gathered together. The styles of poems and poems are not uniform, but also divided into categories. Among the categories, each is ranked according to its era? ("Preface to Selected Works"). Judging from the actual classification, it can be roughly divided into three major categories: Fu, Poetry, and Essays, and further divided into 38 subcategories: Fu, Poetry, Sao, Qi, Zhao, Volume, Order, and Teaching.
Fu and poetry account for the largest proportion. According to content, Fu is divided into 15 categories such as Kyoto, Suburban Sacrifice, and Farming Records, and poetry is divided into 23 categories such as compensation for death, narration of virtue, and encouragement. This classification reflects Xiao Tong's understanding of ancient times. The development of literature, especially the theoretical perspectives on stylistic classification and origin, reflects that stylistic analysis has entered a very detailed stage at that time. However, because the classification was too fragmented, it was criticized by later scholars such as Zhang Xuecheng, Yu Yue and others.
The selection criteria of "Selected Works" are mainly famous works by talented poets, and are based on the text ("Preface to Selected Works"). Therefore, the book of Ji Gong, the book of Confucius, the works of Lao Zhuang, Guan Meng and others, the words of counselors, the advice of debaters, the history of events, and the book of years, this is Several categories of works that later came to be known as classics, histories, and scholars were not selected. However, the preface to the praise essays in the historical biographies can be included, because the diction of the summary of the praise essays, the preface is not as elegant as the literary, the matter is based on contemplation, and the meaning is attributed to Han Zao, which meets the selection criteria of "Neng Wen". . The focus of this standard is obviously not on the ideological content but on the artistic forms such as the beauty of rhetoric, harmony of rhythm, antithesis, and appropriate use of words. However, it delimits the scope of literature. It is the result of the development of literature to a certain stage. It has a certain influence on literature. can promote independent development. There are contradictions in Xiao Tong's literary thoughts. He was the person with the highest political status in the literary world at that time, and the elegant writing style of the Six Dynasties had an influence that cannot be ignored on him. However, he maintained a strict compromise on the relationship between the ideological content and artistic form of literary creation. The content required elegance, but the form could be gorgeous. He believed that the development of art must be: to increase the content of literary creation, and to change the essence and intensify it. (" Preface to Selected Works"). He pointed out: "The classics of husband and wife are boring, and beauty also hurts the superficial." He requires beauty but not frivolity, classic but not wild, "gentle and gentle, and a gentleman" ("Reply to the King of Eastern Hunan"). At the same time, he also praised Tao Yuanming. The article is unique, the words are brilliant, the ups and downs are obvious, and it is unique among others. Melancholy and hearty, Mo Zhi and Jing? ("Preface to the Collection of Tao Yuanming"). Therefore, the works selected in "Selected Works" do not actually ignore the content too much. In addition to 8 poems by Tao Yuanming, 18 works by "Nineteen Ancient Poems" and Bao Zhao are also selected. At the same time, we should reject those prose-less mystical poems and dissolute and empty erotic poems and poems about objects. As for whether the selected works are worthy of inclusion, and whether those that should be included have been omitted, scholars of later generations have had many different opinions, and opinions vary. In general, this collection of poems and essays only uses 30 volumes to cover the important works from the pre-Qin Dynasty to the early Liang Dynasty. It reflects the outline of the development of various literary styles and provides future generations with the opportunity to study these seven to eight hundred years. Years of literary history preserve important information.
From the technical perspective of selection, "Selected Works" also has flaws. Some forgeries were selected in the book, such as Li Ling's "Reply to Su Wushu" and Su and Li's poems in reply. Yan Yanzhi of the Song Dynasty in the Southern Dynasty had already suspected that Liu Zhiji and Su Shi decided that it was a fake. In modern times, it was concluded that Kong Anguo's "Shang Shu" "Preface" was also forged by Jin people. At the same time, there are many mislabelings of prefaces and mistitles in the book. The former is such as Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty's "Autumn Wind Ci", Liu Xin's "Moving the Book to Dr. Taichang", etc. The title is marked "with preface", but in fact the preface is clearly It is a historical text; the latter, such as Liu Jun's "Reply to Liu Moling's Edict", is not the original text of the reply book. Lu Ji and Lu Yun each have "Two Poems for Gu Yanxian's Wife". Li Shan has already pointed out in his annotation that Gu Yanxian should be Quan Yan is the first, and except for one poem, the other three poems are all in the tone of a woman answering her husband. In addition, there are fragments of previous texts, improper arrangement of chapters, etc., which are also shortcomings of this anthology.