The appearance of prose begins with notes. According to the available materials, Oracle Bone Inscriptions and Jinwen in the Yin and Shang Dynasties were the earliest essays.
In addition, among thousands of merchants handed down from generation to generation, Zhou Youming's Yi wares can also see the germination of early prose. Bronzes were originally used to celebrate the achievements of ancestors, show their descendants and protect the regime passed down from generation to generation. "Fuding has inscriptions, and those with inscriptions have their own names. They named themselves to praise the beauty of their ancestors and the beauty that made future generations understand. " (The Book of Rites) These inscriptions are preserved.
In short, Oracle Bone Inscriptions in the Yin and Shang Dynasties, the hexagrams in the Book of Changes, the inscriptions in the Shang and Zhou Dynasties and Oracle Bone Inscriptions are all representative works in the embryonic period of prose.
The first collection of prose described and discussed in ancient China is Shangshu, which is the earliest collection of historical documents in China. Its writing is ancient and clumsy, reflecting the style of early prose.
The Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period were the first time that ancient Chinese literature flourished. Before the Spring and Autumn Period, learning was in government, learning was selfless in people, and writing was selfless in people. In the Spring and Autumn Period, Wang Guan's learning was scattered among the people. As a result, private schools rose, private essays appeared one after another, and prose advanced by leaps and bounds. At this time, the representative work of prose was Chunqiu, which was revised by Confucius according to Lu Shi and compiled by Confucius disciples.
From the Spring and Autumn Period to the Warring States Period, great changes have taken place in society, which is really a "meeting of great changes in ancient and modern times". During the Warring States Period, "the governors were different in politics, and a hundred schools of thought were different" ("Xun Zi Jie Gai"), Chu Shi debated and hundred schools of thought contended. So all factions expressed their opinions and debated freely. Novelists, etc. Among them, Confucianism, Mohism, Taoism, law and vertical and horizontal are the most active. They represent different political interests and openly debate, forming an unprecedented lively political situation with active thoughts and spiritual liberation. Prose, as an effective tool for taking notes, discussing and writing, adapted to the needs of social and economic development and political, diplomatic, military and cultural activities at that time and made a qualitative leap. From the perspective of the development history of prose,
In this historical period, not only the changes of the article are unprecedented, but also the achievements are far ahead of the previous generation. After Guoyu and Zuozhuan, the representative work Warring States Policy appeared. After The Analects of Confucius, a large number of hundred schools of thought's essays, such as Mozi, Laozi, Sunzi, Mencius, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, everything is done wrong, and Lv Chunqiu, emerged, just like the stars shining and shining. Among them, The Warring States Policy and Meng are the most prominent.
In a word, prose has developed with the progress of history since it came into being in Shang Dynasty. From Shang Dynasty, Western Zhou Dynasty to Spring and Autumn Period and Warring States Period, prose experienced a long process, from rhetoric fragments to detailed notes, from quotations and dialogues to relatively systematic and complete speeches. In the Warring States period, prose moved from naivety to maturity, and the first peak appeared in the history of prose development.