First, language art research
The Analects of Confucius, as a collection of speeches by Confucius and his disciples, focuses on memorizing words. Therefore, to understand the literary value and artistic achievements of The Analects, we should first start with its linguistic features. Lu Xun's Outline of the History of China Literature gives an insight into the language and artistic features of The Analects of Confucius from the ideological characteristics of "Confucianism worships reality". [2] Jiang believes that the language style of The Analects, as the earliest written style, is related to the writing style of The Analects. The Analects of Confucius is a "direct record" of what Confucius' disciples remember, "to cover up its extravagance and polish it, or to lose its truth." [3] Liu Cunren summarized the language features of The Analects as "long and concise" and "more implicit and deep meaning", and thought it was "a place to remember words" and "a person with rich words and emotions to describe" [4]. From the above discussion, it can be seen that in the 1930s and 1940s, researchers generally agreed with the language style characteristics of The Analects and its causes: First, it was decided by early Confucianism; The second is the writing method of "recording"; Third, limited by the material conditions of writing at that time. "About the time the Analects of Confucius was written, it was extremely difficult to obtain documents and record oral English. [5]
Although the Analects of Confucius is a quotation, it actually includes three styles: quotation, dialogue and some short narratives. The former recorded the remarks of Confucius and his main disciples; The latter two parts mainly describe the answers between Confucius and his disciples in time, and also use some short stories with both form and spirit to express the behavior of the characters. The artistic features of the Analects of Confucius are embodied in these styles. The Analects of Confucius is basically colloquial, easy to understand and concise in words. Generally, they only describe their own views without full expansion and demonstration, thus forming a "simple" language style. Zheng Zhenduo thinks: The Analects is simple and straightforward, but it can fully show the positive thoughts of Confucius. [6] However, "simplicity" is not barren and boring. Due to the life of Confucius and the emergence of The Analects of Confucius, the poetic cultural charm still exists in the Spring and Autumn Period, and the good poetic cultivation of Confucius and his disciples, so "simplicity" and "length", "simplicity" and "concealment" have created a strong poetic flavor, giving people a leisurely and far-reaching feeling. Qian Jibo thinks that, compared with the canon, oath and patent in Shangshu, "there is no cadence, and the wood is strong and the god is weak", and there are 20 Analects of Confucius, "the muddy words are easy to be fluent, and the author's demeanor is perfect"; Compared with Zuo Zhuan, The Analects of Confucius is characterized by its simplicity and beauty, implication and profundity, so it is slow and profound, its aftertaste is full of joy, its words are more than meaning, its taste is light and long, and its luster is quiet. [7] This theory is very pertinent.
Because of Confucius' profound observation of real life, there are many concise, philosophical and enlightening sentences in The Analects. Most of these sentences are cadenced and catchy, giving people a sense of lively rhythm and harmonious phonology. They are quite similar to the prose poems of later generations, and are highly respected because of their rich and profound thoughts, vivid expressions and subtle meanings. After 1950s, with the social and academic transformation in China, the research on the prose art of The Analects began to move from perceptual criticism to systematic theoretical research. You Guoen believes that "The Analects of Confucius is a recorded prose, mainly recorded words ... Its main features are concise language, far-reaching significance," elegant, subtle style "and" concise and thought-provoking ". [8] Hu believes that "some aphorisms expressing philosophical theory" in The Analects of Confucius are mostly "full of literary meaning". These sentences "have rich meanings. A few words or a dozen words are often the result of years of life experience or long-term observation, and the words themselves are often full of charm". "Not only is the content profound, but the language is also full of changes. [9] Wu Jinghe believes that the Analects of Confucius, as a work of On Compilation, follows the realistic principle of "words without deeds, letters with faxes", and does not dare to "falsely accuse teachers of what they want", but it is also "words without promises", which is a typical speech and event through "memory selection", so it permeates the author's life and aesthetic thoughts, and is even more. [10] Yin also analyzed the artistic language of The Analects, and thought that its language features were: (1) popular and elegant "spoken language"; (2) Flexible rhetorical devices, thus "making the language more subtle, vivid and vivid"; The clever use of function words naturally enhances the lyricism of language. Therefore, the language of The Analects of Confucius "has reached an appropriate, popular and refined state, forming the characteristics of stable words, proper sentences and fluent writing". [1 1] or argue, the statement is straightforward, or the words are incisive, or emotional and lyrical, with the characteristics of "clear views and vivid feelings"; Comprehensive use of rhetorical devices such as parallelism, questioning, metaphor, setting off, contrast, hierarchy, etc., thus "reasoning is lively and has received good results." [12] Lin Jian wrote that this kind of sentence in The Analects of Confucius is a combination of poetry and philosophy, so it has thought-provoking beauty. With its warning power, it drives readers and authors to think together and explore the true meaning of life. It is a poetic philosophy and a philosophical poem. [13] This article is novel, in-depth and enlightening. Based on the stylistic features of quotations, Tan Jiajian discusses the subtleties of the language art of The Analects of Confucius, and holds that its language features are: "Concise, simple and meaningful" is good at condensing abstract philosophy into concrete images and making profound theoretical words full of poetry at the same time; Emotion is contained in reason. When recording the speeches of Confucius and his disciples, we always strive to truthfully reflect their rich and complicated feelings, which is strongly lyrical. [14] The article starts with specific case analysis, which is quite convincing. Cao Wenxing believes that the greatest feature of the annotations of The Analects of Confucius is incisive and profound, full of philosophy. It is the crystallization of Confucius' profound observation and thorough understanding of life, and the condensation of his unique rational understanding of society and life through rich experience. So it is "the best literary language" and "the best literary language". [15] Mei Jundao's On the Literary Language Features of The Analects of Confucius is a paper devoted to discussing the literary value of The Analects of Confucius from the perspective of language art, pointing out that its language art is embodied in: distinctive dialogue between characters, strong lyrical expression language, concise and implicit aphorisms and philosophical aphorisms, rich and varied rhetoric techniques and concise action expression language. The author thinks that the Analects of Confucius is concise, accurate and vivid, and its simple and natural language style is still full of vitality. [16] Zhang Cang Shou comprehensively studied the language and artistic features of The Analects of Confucius, and thought that its language has the following characteristics: beautiful rhythm, beautiful rhyme and strong readability; The neat sentence pattern of beauty is recited with relish; The concise implication of beauty gives people endless enlightenment; The repetition of beautiful sentences is hard to find. The author thinks that it is these characteristics that make it shine in hundred schools of thought's prose art garden. "An Analects of Confucius can be said to be a collection of famous aphorisms". Zhang also analyzed the maxims in The Analects of Confucius from the perspective of artistic beauty, and thought that they were "rich in meaning, concise", "profound in philosophy, infinite in enlightenment", "simple and natural, vivid in image"; These maxims "not only show the uniqueness of thinkers, but also have the profundity of philosophers;" It not only shows the logic of educators, but also the image of writers. " [17] Fang Ming discovered the beauty of rhythm and melody between his words through the analysis of parallelism, duality and overlapping in The Analects of Confucius. He believes that the beauty of language in The Analects "is reflected in the pursuit of language rhythm", and the editors of The Analects "intuitively felt it and created a beautiful melody and moving rhythm". [18] Fu Xiuyan thinks that the words of Confucius' guidance in The Analects of Confucius are as boring as those in The Spring and Autumn Annals, Zuo Zhuan and Zhong Ni, but they are more expressive, or metaphorical, or even both. [19] It can be seen that researchers have made in-depth research on the language art of The Analects. The Analects of Confucius, with its meaningful language, has formed profound and meaningful reasoning characteristics. In fact, Confucius and his disciples, who opened a private lecture atmosphere, paid great attention to the expression of language, but they did not intend to "meditate." The expression of "teacher-apprentice dialogue" used in The Analects of Confucius weakened their deliberate management, thus inherently "stipulated" their leisurely and gentle language style; The intimacy and tacit understanding between teachers and students make their conversation stop properly, forming a concise, implicit and meaningful language; The elegance of "presentation" when sitting on the road makes it reveal "vivid" charm in simple indifference; The poetic culture in the Spring and Autumn Period and Confucius' good poetic cultivation made their speeches poetic. Therefore, further research is needed to grasp the moral realm and spiritual charm embodied in The Analects through its linguistic representation.
The Analects of Confucius not only records the pure quotations of Confucius' remarks, but also contains a large number of dialogues between characters, which can be said to be embodied in the form of dialogues, starting from the Analects of Confucius in the history of prose. In The Analects of Confucius, there are many interesting scenes, such as four sons sitting in chairs, and intriguing fragments, such as Chang Jujie drowning, He Ren. In these short dialogue units or narrative fragments, the author often gives a brief description of the specific context, and Confucius's words that exude philosophical brilliance become the so-called "literary eyes" and "poetic eyes" similar to later generations. Moreover, due to the specific language environment, the motto "Master's elegant demeanor overflows" ("Wen Xin Diao Sheng") can vividly depict characters, express their expressions and voices, and express their personalities in concise language. Lin Geng believes that the dialogue fragments in The Analects are "recorded by their words and deeds", so that "in prose, they are good at writing the expressions of interlocutors" and "expressions vividly show everyone's personality and thoughts and feelings", and The Analects is becoming an excellent prose. [20] You Guoen believes that an important feature of The Analects is "expressing the image of characters in simple dialogues and actions". These dialogue languages are both "easy to understand and close to spoken language" and conform to the identity and personality of the characters, thus "expressing the cordial conversation between Confucius disciples at that time in twists and turns" [2 1] Lin Jian believes that in the narrative of philosophical discourse, "The Analects of Confucius is often interspersed with narrative fragments full of life interest, even trivial matters, which adds endless fun to the article", "At the same time, it helps to enrich the character, make the character image approachable and vivid on paper" and give people beautiful enjoyment ",which makes the article elaborate brilliantly. [22] Tan Jiajian believes that the Analects of Confucius always tries to truthfully reflect their rich and complex feelings when recording the remarks of Confucius and his disciples, "and has a strong lyrical color". [23] Cao Wenxing believes that the descriptions of some scenes in The Analects of Confucius, whether static or dynamic, all show superb artistic level. One of its characteristics is nuanced, often a few strokes, while Bi Xiao vividly depicts the psychological state of the characters and their relationship; Second, it is rigorous and accurate, and the specific "thing" provides the specific environment and specific meaning for "speech". [24] Mei Jundao believes that when the characters in The Analects describe their ideals, they often "create a poetic mood" through some specific scenes, "express their feelings with the scene, empathize with the scene, and be poetic" and "receive good artistic effects". [25] In fact, due to the specific scene formed by the dialogue body, the language of The Analects has a strong lyrical color and artistic appeal; In the harmonious communication or conflict with all kinds of characters, language has distinct personalized characteristics, which makes language become the self-expression of characters' images and personalities. It is these that fully demonstrate the literary features and artistic achievements of The Analects.
Second, the study of characters
The Analects of Confucius is a vivid record of Confucius and his disciples exploring, studying and discussing the truth of social life. Its "writers" have no conscious consciousness of portraying characters and shaping characters, but because they are very familiar with all the characters they write, they can put themselves in the position of writing characters' activities, inadvertently express their characters and be active in vivid, plump and tangible images. The study of characters in The Analects of Confucius is one of the important achievements in the literary study of The Analects of Confucius in the 20th century, and it is also an important aspect to confirm its literary value. In the past hundred years, the research on the characters in The Analects of Confucius has mainly focused on two aspects: the image characteristics of Confucius and his main disciples and the methods of expressing characters.
Throughout the feudal society in 2000, Confucius, who was worshipped by people, was dazzling, and Kong Qiu, who called for "down with Kong Laoer", was fierce. Scholars at the beginning of this century, regardless of their attitude towards Confucius and Confucianism, have realized that Confucius is a man, not a god. In The Way of Confucius, Mei Guangdi described Confucius as a gentleman with profound knowledge, versatility, noble character, humanity and sense of humor. In an article published in 1935, Lu Xun painted an image of Confucius who suffered a lot when he was alive. [26] These "close-to-the-truth portraiture" of the "reduction" of the image of Confucius laid the foundation for the theoretical study of the characters in The Analects.
Sister Liu studied the characters in The Analects of Confucius published by 194 1, and thought that in many paragraphs of The Analects of Confucius, "the image of Confucius' younger brother has its own characteristics". Taking the chapter "Waiting" in Advanced as an example, she pointed out: In this paragraph, "each has its own characteristics" The article points out: "The characters in this book are all centered on Confucius. In the history of China literature, this is the first time that a work centered on expressing a character has appeared. The image of Confucius written in The Analects of Confucius is quite full. The image of Confucius described in The Analects of Confucius is touching because it shows his character through the description of some specific events in his life. There are three methods: one is to describe it in detail by static description. Hu Wen also believes that this book vividly describes the personalities of many characters, but "writing this large group of characters is mainly to set off Confucius' thoughts and his personality." [28] The article focuses on the overall situation, starts with the details, and is fully discussed and quite convincing. Wu Jinghe believes that the image of Confucius described in The Analects of Confucius is a comic figure by its nature. The reason why this role appears is that "the purpose pursued by Confucius is not in harmony with historical development", "he is as serious as a tragedy when he does the most absurd things", "the author is very good at writing Confucius' complex spiritual life through actions" and "he focuses on the description of the mental outlook of the characters when writing narratives", so he is a well-deserved ancestor of biographical literature. [29] This theory is quite distinctive. Yin also made a thorough analysis of this, arguing that the Analects of Confucius presents "many characters" with "clear faces and distinct personalities" by showing their specific environment full of life breath, describing their manners, demeanor and actions, and euphemistically winding storylines, while describing characters "mainly adopts objective lyric methods, that is, expressing their feelings directly in their own language". While affirming its literariness and "writing is similar to literary works", the article reminds people of the difference between The Analects of Confucius and pure literary works. First, it is limited to real people, "unlike the later pure literary works, the material of life has been artistically processed and reasonably imagined", and second, the fragmented and incoherent recording form makes "the thoughts and characters of the characters have no process of development and evolution". [30] This argument is relatively sound. Cao Wenxing thinks that The Analects of Confucius "created the artistic image of Confucius with realistic methods and lyrical brushstrokes" and "reflected an idea, a belief, a morality and an era to the greatest extent through the creation of the image of Confucius", and quoted Balzac as saying that "the smallest area unexpectedly expressed the most thoughts", so the author thinks. [3 1] Views also have their own characteristics.
While studying the characters in The Analects of Confucius, the researchers also discussed its relationship with later narrative works. Tan Jiajian believes that the images of Confucius and Lutz in The Analects of Confucius have distinct personality characteristics, which are manifested in many aspects. At the same time, he compared the descriptions of Confucius in Historical Records and The Analects of Confucius, and thought that The Analects of Confucius spoke in many lines and details, remembering only small things but not big things, only fragments and not systems. Therefore, although Confucius' face is incomplete, it is concrete and vivid, showing his mental state and manner. [32] Fu Xiuyan discusses the description of characters in The Analects from the perspective of narratology, and thinks that "seeing people by words" is its distinctive feature. Focusing on Confucius' words, he touched the specific context slightly, thus forming a series of relatively independent units or fragments with narrative significance, and the personality temperament of the characters was clearly revealed in the readers' minds. "The whole Analects of Confucius is simply a character gallery", "So, at the same time, the author also noticed its connection with the embryonic novel Shi Shuo Xin Yu, and thought that Shi Shuo, represented by Shi Shuo Xin Yu in Wei and Jin Dynasties, inherited and developed the narrative mode of the Analects of Confucius with essence as its eye, and briefly discussed the similarities and differences between them. [33] Although brief, it has opened up a new research field. Along this line of thought, it will be a very interesting topic to study the origin and influence of the image art of The Analects of Confucius and the art of novels and operas. However, in the study of the characters in The Analects of Confucius, there is also a tendency to simply apply modern concepts. The Analects of Confucius mainly describes Confucius' philosophical thoughts and political opinions. Although it is undeniable that we can get a glimpse of the characters' voices, smiles and even personalities, it is rough and fragmented after all, and it is difficult to compare with the characterization in later narrative works such as novels and dramas.
Third, the study of stylistic features and overall style.
The Analects of Confucius, as a book that records Confucius' philosophical thoughts and political opinions, has obvious characteristics of "political theory" and advocating morality. It is inevitable to evaluate its literariness with the preconceived ideas of modern concepts and to evaluate its artistic characteristics with western discourse methods, because it has literary value and literary works are different after all. Therefore, revealing the characteristics and styles of the prose art of The Analects of Confucius realistically, rather than starting from the existing concepts and aiming at the reality of the research object, should be the inherent meaning of the prose art research of The Analects of Confucius.
Tie Min, Shao Kang and Guang Shuo believe that evaluating the literary value of The Analects of Confucius from the concepts of image and emotion "narrows the way" because it "does not conform to the actual situation of ancient Chinese prose". [34] Wu Jinghe believes that although The Analects of Confucius "is permeated with the author's life and aesthetic ideals, it is more literary", but many chapters "do not reflect objective things through specific perceptual image forms, but focus on analyzing the general nature of specific individual phenomena and reflecting the world by logical generalization", "The whole Analects of Confucius is full of the breath of academic papers". [35] Although it touches some essence, the author has tasted it and failed to discuss it. Moreover, the writing style of The Analects limits its "flavor of academic papers" and "logic", so it is very different from later political papers and academic papers. Li's essay "Analysis of the Writing Achievements of the Analects of Confucius" [36] defines the Analects of Confucius as rational prose, and discusses the writing achievements of the Analects of Confucius from the perspective of the development of reasoning prose. The author thinks that the Analects of Confucius has three obvious characteristics in reasoning. First of all, it is a school of theory. Although it does not constitute a whole article, it focuses on analyzing and discussing a certain issue, but its views are internally consistent, and it can explain a central issue from different aspects and angles, which is in line with "speaking in groups and focusing on one theory". Second, more than four-fifths of the chapters in the book belong to the nature of reasoning, and most of them use the forms of judgment such as speaking frankly, assuming and choosing words, and the methods of comparison, analogy, assistance and deduction, which are clear and logical. Third, the book was written in the Mandarin "Yayan" at that time. The language was concise and clear, and it was lively by using various rhetorical devices. Regarding the logic of The Analects of Confucius, Zhao thinks: "Confucius has no concept of class at all". [37] Wen Li disagrees with this statement, and uses concrete examples to illustrate that Confucius "has a high degree of analytical ability and generalization ability in logical thinking", which is manifested as follows: First, the concept is clear and thorough, and "the judgment is very logical"; Second, in reasoning, I have been able to properly reflect the internal relations of objective things and express profound thoughts with complex judgment forms; Third, I have been able to skillfully use causal, analogy, deduction, induction and other reasoning methods. "The argumentation method is flexible and the reasoning is quite rigorous." Therefore, although the Analects of Confucius, which is in the primary stage of reasoning prose, "inevitably has some shortcomings and deficiencies", its achievements are "unprecedented" and it is an important breakthrough in the development history of reasoning prose. This article has a novel perspective and profound exposition, which is of guiding significance for understanding the artistic and stylistic features of The Analects of Confucius and even China's ancient prose.
Tan Jiajian thinks that The Analects of Confucius is an original work in the history of China literature and articles. Tan discusses the stylistic features of bibliography, and thinks that although bibliography is not a pure literary form, it is a genre of articles or works in ancient China. He sorts out the endless emergence of outstanding works in past dynasties, makes a thorough summary of its evolution and gains and losses, and fills the gap in bibliography and its development research. [38] Zhu Ling believes that the Analects of Confucius, as a recorded prose, "records the essence of thought in a unique way of reasoning": 1, "writing prose to make a big article" and "controlling a huge and complex ideological system with seemingly random structural forms"; 2. "Tell a little truth" and "It's really smart to see the big from the small"; 3. "Examining small quotations, governing the country"; 4. "The language style of words is what words are, and metaphor is what reasons are"; 5. "Language and rhythm of poetry". [39] It is more innovative to grasp the stylistic features of The Analects.
As for the overall artistic style of the prose of The Analects of Confucius, although there are works discussing its literary value and artistic achievements from time to time, they are rarely discussed. Chen Pingyuan tries to grasp the stylistic features of The Analects of Confucius as a whole, and thinks that it is not "speculation" but "verve", which is embodied in the leisurely and gentle narrative style, the manner of "talking while sitting", the "verve is vivid" revealed in indifference, and the spiritual realm reflected from it. [40] Lin Jian's article "A Preliminary Study on the Literary Interest of the Analects of Confucius", [4 1] makes a quite novel and original exposition on the prose artistic style of the Analects of Confucius from the interest aspect, which is a creative new paper. The article holds that the Analects of Confucius is a great success and remarkable feature in artistic expression, that is, "the high integration of didactic language and literary interest" "With the help of colloquial and visualized literary language, prose is humorous, natural, vivid and implicit, and it is not boring and obscure to read. In the author's approachable and touching narrative, we can realize what the article declares. The author makes an in-depth study on the interest of The Analects from three aspects. First, it is thought-provoking and thought-provoking, using metaphors, symbols and other means to directly use life phenomena and natural phenomena to give ordinary things specific philosophical connotations; Second, I have a strong interest in life. In the wise narrative, there are often some interesting fragments in life, even trivial things unrelated to the big idea, which adds endless fun to the article. The third is fascinating humor, that is, witty and clever use of humor, humor, banter, satire and other comedy techniques, or full of fun, or incisive and original, "shining with the light of wisdom, adding comedy color and charm to the article." "This article has a unique perspective and thorough discussion, which is quite enlightening for breaking through old ideas, creating new ideas and leading the study of the artistic style of The Analects.
Over the past 100 years, the research on the prose art of The Analects of Confucius has been in a hurry, but mistakes are inevitable in the comments. However, only from the situation listed in the Abstract, the research on the prose art of The Analects of Confucius has become a grand view from the beginning, gradually getting rid of all kinds of constraints and prejudices and embarking on the road of independent development. Its literary value and position have been recognized and established, and its achievements are obvious. However, compared with the study of philosophy and social and political thoughts, the study of the prose art of The Analects of Confucius can only be said to be in its infancy, and there are undoubtedly many shortcomings. First of all, we should make a calm and realistic analysis of some theoretical mistakes. In the past hundred years, the standards and terms used to confirm the prose art of The Analects of Confucius were basically transplanted from Europe and America, which did not fully conform to its actual situation. Because the essays of pre-Qin philosophers, such as The Analects of Confucius, have their unique internal characteristics and are relatively independent in stylistic category, subject matter content, formal structure and expression techniques, any transcendental theoretical model and rigid way of thinking will castrate their richness and fail to reveal their real achievements and unique charm. Therefore, it should be an urgent task for the future study of the prose art of The Analects to really proceed from reality, extract relevant propositions, explore theoretical expressions that conform to the artistic characteristics of The Analects of Confucius, analyze one's own research objects, and make convincing conclusions, so as to lead the study to a deeper level. Secondly, due to the particularity of The Analects, the research on its prose art has been disturbed by mainstream ideology and political thoughts for a hundred years, which not only caused many mistakes, but also led to the superficiality of the research. Many fields and problems still lack in-depth discussion, and there are even many "blanks". Therefore, it is imperative to further expand the research field of the Analects of Confucius and the prose art of pre-Qin philosophers, strengthen theoretical construction and seek new breakthroughs.