At the end of primitive society, our ancestors created words for recording on the basis of original picture symbols. The appearance of characters provides the necessary conditions for the formation of official documents. According to legend, clan leaders before the Yellow Emperor issued instructions in oral language. The so-called "Shennong has no orders, and the people follow" ("Huainan Panzi's Lun Xun"), "There have been books since the Five Emperors." (Records of Sacrifice in the Later Han Dynasty) The first of the five emperors is the Yellow Emperor. Therefore, the initial germination of China's official documents appeared in the period of the Yellow Emperor.
The earliest recorded official document name in China is "History". There are * * * five articles named "oath" in Shangshu, among which "Shi Gan" is a military mobilization order issued by Xia Emperor when he crusaded against powerful people, "Tang Shi" is a military mobilization order issued before Shang Tang's crusade, and "Mushi" is a military mobilization order issued when he crusaded against Shang and Zhou Dynasties to the outskirts of the capital city of Muye. From the point of writing, most of them are prominent in the center, full of momentum and motivation. These "oaths" have the same name, the same function and the same format, and already have the main characteristics of official documents, which are relatively standardized official documents. Most experts in the study of secretary history believe that Xia Qi Oath is the earliest official document in China. Accordingly, the emergence of official documents in China is synchronized with the emergence of state power, which is by no means a historical coincidence, but is determined by the nature and utility of official documents.
Shangshu is the earliest official document compilation in China, which contains books of ancient emperors. Since the Han Dynasty, Shangshu has been regarded as a classic of China's feudal social and political philosophy, and it is a compulsory course for emperors, princes, nobles' children and literati. Therefore, it has a great influence on later official document writing.
The article structure of Shangshu has gradually changed from loose to complete and rigorous, with certain levels, and attention has been paid to the use of ideas and articles. Wuyi, Pan Geng, Qin Shi and other chapters are particularly exemplary, with clear organization, echoing from beginning to end, very rigorous structure and certain literary talent. For example, in "Pan Geng", it is even more vivid to use the metaphor of "burning in the same place, can't fuck you" to incite the masses to "talk nonsense" and to sit back and watch the country decline with the metaphor of "sitting in a boat".
During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, diplomatic activities were frequent, political reform and innovation movements rose, cultural and educational undertakings flourished, and the styles and styles of official documents showed a diversified trend. At that time, the diplomatic documents, legal documents and "letters" written by scholars to the monarch to state their political views were scattered in Zuo Zhuan, Mandarin, Warring States Policy and later historical records, and a great official writer like Li Si appeared. During this period, public writing is characterized by thorough reasoning, fluency and colloquial language.
The Qin dynasty was short-lived and died the next year. Among the few official documents, most of them have the characteristics of "respecting quality but not writing", that is, paying attention to the content of official documents and not paying attention to literary talent. Official document is an applied style, and "emphasizing quality but not writing" meets the requirements of official document writing.
In the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, a number of great official document writers and some exemplary official documents appeared. For example, Jia Yi's Chen Zheng Poetry Book, On Accumulation and Storage Book, Chao Cuo's On Your Millet Book, Sima Xiangru's Jane Hunting of Shangshu, etc. The main feature of these official documents is that they are political. The authors care about the development of the country and society, face the reality, analyze the situation, criticize the shortcomings of the times, summarize the reasons for the short-term collapse of the Qin Dynasty, draw lessons from the past and draw lessons from the present, and write deeply and clearly, which is very convincing and infectious. Lu Xun pointed out in the Outline of China Literature History: Jia and Chao's theory of sparseness "are masterpieces of the Western Han Dynasty, which have a far-reaching influence on later generations".
Since the late Western Han Dynasty, influenced by Fu style and parallel prose, the style of official documents has a bad tendency of neglecting content and pursuing form excessively. Fu is a popular literary genre in Han dynasty, which is characterized by description-oriented, rhetoric-oriented, neat sentence pattern, semi-prosaic and poetic realism. His writing style is totally unsuitable for official document writing. Since the mid-Western Han Dynasty, some people have used Fu to write official documents such as Zhang Shu, which led to some official documents full of rhetoric and false contents. For example, a letter written by Dong Fangshuo reached more than 100,000 words, but Emperor Wudi praised it greatly, which is bound to encourage official document writing to pay too much attention to literary talent and advocate complex unhealthy trends.
Parallel prose appeared in the late Eastern Han Dynasty and Wei and Jin Dynasties. The main characteristics of parallel prose are the symmetry of syntactic structure and the duality of words used throughout; Pay attention to the use of flat tones in phonology, and the rhythm is harmonious; Rhetorically, it pays attention to decoration and allusions. Generally speaking, parallel prose pays more attention to formal skills and often fetters content. Parallel prose is more unsuitable for official document writing than prose.
The influence of parallel prose on official document writing has a developing process. During the Three Kingdoms period, some famous politicians were pragmatic. Their official documents were mainly prose, and some excellent official documents appeared, such as Cao Cao's Let Counties Know Yourself and Zhuge Liang's Example. In the Western Jin Dynasty, parallel prose gradually became a climate and was separated from prose, but the official documents of the two Jin Dynasties were still mainly prose. Parallel prose reached its peak in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, especially in the Southern Dynasties. Most official documents of the imperial court were written in parallel prose.
Influenced by Fu Style and Parallel Prose, from the mid-Western Han Dynasty to the Southern and Northern Dynasties, although there were excellent official documents from the Three Kingdoms period, the general development trend of official documents' style was to pursue colorful words and ingenious forms day by day, ignoring the contents of official documents. This style of writing does not meet the pragmatic requirements of official documents, and it is a countercurrent in the history of official documents.
In the early years of Sui Dynasty, it almost completely inherited the formalism style of Liang and Chen who emphasized the beauty of words and ignored the content. Some people of insight saw that this style of writing not only affected the administrative efficiency, but also affected the atmosphere of the whole society, and put forward suggestions for reforming the style of writing. The first initiator was Minister Shi Li. In the third year (583), he presented the Book of Emperor Gog Wenhua to experience the harm of flashy writing style, and asked the court to "screen frivolous and stop its falsehood". Emperor Wendi of the Sui Dynasty adopted Li Ashi's suggestion, and wrote a letter to the generals of the world in the following year, which was recorded in public and private, and offenders were punished. Since then, the prelude to the reform of writing style in Sui and Tang Dynasties has been opened.
In the first year of Wude (6 18), at the beginning of the founding of the Tang Dynasty, the high-impedance Li Yuan published the book "The Commandment is not true", which reformed the style of writing and severely criticized that "following the rules is too much. If you apply to be a thief, you won't say it. "If you talk nonsense and use a lot of paper, you will lose things if you don't obey your body."
In the early Tang Dynasty, Emperor Taizong, Wei Zhi, Chen Ziang, etc. They all expressed their opinions on the reform of writing style. Wei Zhi and Chen Ziang also set an example in their writing practice, and wrote many honest official documents, which had a great influence on the reform of writing style. In the middle Tang Dynasty, parallel prose rose again. In the middle Tang Dynasty, Han Yu and Liu Zongyuan launched the "Ancient prose movement", which pushed the reform of writing style to a climax. After several generations' efforts, the official documents in the Tang Dynasty generally showed a simple and pragmatic style.
The style reform in the Tang Dynasty continued until the Song Dynasty. Ouyang Xiu, Su Shi, Wang Anshi and others not only advocated the reform of writing style in theory, but also wrote a large number of official documents with simple writing style and clever reasoning. The official documents in Song Dynasty are not only abundant in quantity, but also of high quality, which is the prosperous period of official document writing in China.
The rulers of the Yuan Dynasty valued martial arts over literature, and most of the secrets were in the charge of Mongolian and Semu officials. Official document writing does not pay attention to rules and regulations, so the Yuan Dynasty lacked excellent and exemplary official documents.
Official document is an applied style, and its writing should be concise and clear. However, in the last two dynasties of feudal society, Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty, red tape prevailed and long and empty official documents were everywhere. Among them, the most worthy of people's thinking and pondering is the historical fact that the red tape was repeatedly banned in the Ming Dynasty, and it ended without results.
At the beginning of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang personally handled state affairs and was very disgusted with thousands of words in official documents. In the second year of Hongwu (1369), he said to Zhan Tong, a bachelor of Hanlin, "The ancients thought that the articles were simple and easy to understand, and there were no deep surprises. To "model" like Zhu Gekongming, is it carved into words? The overflow of sincerity has made people recite it so far, which is naturally loyal and grateful. Modern literati can't reach current affairs without studying moral foundation. Although the speech is difficult, its meaning is simple and practical. From now on, Hanlin is a writer, but those who understand the truth and the world have nothing to do. "
In the ninth year of Hongwu (1376), Shang Shuru, a minister of punishments, wrote a political treatise, which was 17,000 words long. Zhu Yuanzhang asked Wang Minnian, a book doctor in China, to read it to him. When he read more than 6300 words, he still didn't know what to say. Zhu Yuanzhang was furious and ordered Ru Taisu to be beaten a hundred boards. The next day, Wang Min was ordered to continue studying. When he read 16500, he said five things to say. It can be seen that the last 500 words are enough to explain the problem, while the first 16000 words are mostly floating words. Zhu Yuanzhang sighed: "I am so eager to talk about things, but it is beneficial to all countries in the world. Those who float words are just listening. " So he ordered Zhongshu Province to set up a proposal format, "show it to Chinese and foreign countries and let the speaker state the gains and losses without complicated words."
These measures taken by Zhu Yuanzhang really played an important role in overcoming the disadvantages of red tape at that time. However, due to the decline of state affairs, the disadvantages of red tape articles were finally banned throughout the Ming Dynasty. The style of writing is a reflection of political atmosphere and social atmosphere, and red tape is accompanied by political corruption. The reality of increasingly corrupt political governance in the late feudal society determines that the efforts of a few promising politicians cannot change this trend of official document writing.
All of the above are about the overall style of official documents. In the dynasty when the style of official documents declined, there were also a few excellent official documents, most of which were honest and pragmatic people, such as Hai Rui, a famous minister in Ming Dynasty, and Lin Zexu, a famous minister in Qing Dynasty.