Because of his different political opinions and personal experiences, Liu Zongyuan did not belong to Han Yu's group of writers, and because he was relegated to the south for a long time and was far away from the literary center at that time, his theory and creative practice of ancient prose did not have as great influence as Han Yu's. However, Liu Zongyuan also made unique contributions to the revival movement of ancient prose.
Like Han Yu, Liu Zongyuan also emphasized the relationship between "Wen" and "Tao". He pointed out in "Reporting Cui An's Scholar's Theory as a Document": "The sage's words are expected to be Ming Dow, and scholars seek all kinds of ways and leave their words behind. Words spread to the world, must be due to the book. It' s clear that the road is false, and it' s a fake book, and it' s just an ear. " That is to say, the purpose of writing an article is "Ming Dow", the purpose of reading an article is "Tao", and the words are only the means and tools to convey "Tao". In Answering Wei Zhongli's Book on Teacher's Way, he clearly put forward the principle that "the writer should take Ming Dow as his guide", and in Answering Wu Wuling's Book on Non-Mandarin, he also demanded that the article should have the function of "assisting the time and transitivity", that is, it can be applied to the reality.
Based on this understanding, Liu Zongyuan is also critical of parallel prose. In "Qi Qiao Wen", he satirized parallel prose as "dazzling for writing, trivial for arranging couples; Draw yellow dialogue and fly away; Parallel four and six, embroidered with heart; Palace sink feather vibration, sheng spring tentacles; The viewer dances and talks about thunder and roar; To drown the minister's heart alone makes him old and ugly ",that is to say, parallel prose is superficial and good-looking, and has no practical use, and even confuses people." He also admired the writings of the pre-Qin and Han Dynasties, and thought that "the prose is nearly ancient and magnificent, which is nothing like the Xijing of the Han Dynasty" (Preface of Liu Zongzhi's Kawachinoayanofumi Class), and advocated that writing articles should be based on the book for its quality, the poem for its constancy, the ritual for its appropriateness, the Spring and Autumn Annals for its breaking, and the book for its Yi.
Generally speaking, Liu Zongyuan's prose theory is very similar to Han Yu's. It is not without extremes when evaluating parallel prose, and it is inevitable to ignore the independent value of literature when emphasizing Tao as the foundation, but it also attaches great importance to artistic considerations such as literary momentum. As for his article, it is not completely limited by his theory.
Liu Zongyuan's view is somewhat different from Han Yu's in the specific performance of the article.
First of all, Han Yu pays more attention to the direct expression of emotion in prose. The so-called "injustice makes a sound" and "the voice of sorrow is wonderful" all refer to the author's undisguised expression of emotion, while Liu Zongyuan pays more attention to the implicit expression of emotion. In "Answer to Wei Zhongli's Book on Teacher's Way", he said his own composition: "I never dared to take it lightly, fearing that it would be wild and not stay; Never dare to be lazy and easy, fearing that it will be relaxed and lax; Never dare to faint, afraid of its ignorance and miscellaneous; I have never dared to do it with pride, and I am afraid that it will be arrogant. "
that is to say, we should be calm in our creation, so that our inner feelings can be expressed deeply and implicitly. There are factors such as attitude towards life and religious belief. Han Yu fiercely opposed Buddhism, and once criticized the Buddhist learners for "being dead and alive, solving the external glue, because they will be indifferent to the world." Berthing and pale, falling and falling, and the rout is out of control "("Preface to Sending Gao Xian to the Master "); Liu Zongyuan, on the other hand, believes in Buddhism, and has repeatedly refuted Han Yu, arguing that Buddhism makes people "enjoy leisure and peace in Leshan" (Preface to Seeing a Monk off), and advocates that feelings should not be exposed too much, saying that "if you are annoyed, you will worry about chaos, and if you look at harmony, you will be sluggish." A gentleman must have something to rest on, something to be smart about, so that he can be calm and level, and if he has more than enough, then he can get things done "("Lingling Three Pavilion "). Therefore, although he often can't suppress his passion and write intense works, he often restrains himself and writes some prose with deep and implicit feelings. In comparison, his works are inferior to Han Yu in strength and momentum, but they are more meaningful, implicit and profound than Han Yu. Secondly, Han Yu is more deliberate in the innovation and creation of language and form. In order to highlight the strength of feelings, he often works hard on language skills, while Liu Zongyuan pays more attention to the expression of inner meaning. He said in "Fu Du Wen Fu Shu": "Although I am a writer, I can't carve my own calligraphy, and I am full of pleasure, so I will stop." In the Preface to Yang's Collection of Comments, it is also said that argumentative essays should be "lofty, strong and broad, with correct and well-prepared words", which is more beautiful than Xingwen's, and in Liu Gong Xing Xiang, it is proposed by praising Liu Hun's prose: "Get rid of the extravagance of algae, and let the ocean be self-sufficient, so as to suit your own needs." It can be seen that he pays more attention to the inner meaning and the fluency of language, and less emphasis on the external form of language. Therefore, his writing style tends to be natural, smooth, fresh and meaningful, which makes readers more memorable.
Liu Zongyuan has excellent argumentative essays, biographies and fables. Arguments such as "Feudalism" are rigorous in logic and sharp and smooth in writing; "The Snake Catcher's Theory" highlights the danger of catching snakes, contrasts the heavy taxes, and points out the theme of "the poison collected is very snake", although the length is short and tortuous. Biographies, such as Duan Taiwei's anecdote, capture four typical stories, which are vivid and convincing: Duan Xiushi managed the garrison, went into the camp alone to advise Guo Xi, sold the horse market to pay rent on behalf of farmers, and refused to accept Zhu Zhi's silk. Fables, such as the famous biography of the slug, satirize those greedy people who "think highly of their position and gain great wealth" and don't know that death is coming; "Three precepts, the donkey of Guizhou" uses donkeys as a metaphor for those giants who are weak in the outside and powerless in reality; "Shuo Shuo" borrows deer,? The tiger, the tiger, and the cockroach make one thing to compare the stupid behavior of those who are not good at relying on the outside world, only relying on external forces without thinking about self-improvement. The imagination is rich and strange, the language is sharp and refined, and the length is short and profound.
But what Liu Zongyuan writes best in his prose are those landscapes.
Liu Zongyuan's travel notes on mountains and rivers do not simply describe the scenery, but after observing the mountains and rivers with all his feelings, he expresses his feelings through the description of nature. As he said in the Preface to Poems in Yuxi, he "washes everything with his heart and pen.".
The scenery written in "The West Hill of Cobalt Tantan" is: "The shape and vision of the clear water, the sound and the ear of the water, the leisurely and empty people and the gods, but the deep and quiet people and the heart."
This landscape is not only an objective object of vision and hearing, but a vivid and intimate nature that projects the author's mood. Therefore, the landscapes in his works all have the noble, quiet and elegant taste he yearns for, as well as the lonely, sad and resentful style in his poems. Xiaoshi Pond's "sad and cold bones, sad and quiet" (A Story of Xiaoshi Pond in the West of the Hill), the abandoned hill in the West of the Cobalt Tantan (A Story of the Hill in the West of the Cobalt Tantan), and Xiao Shicheng Mountain's "The column is Yi Di, and its skills cannot be sold for thousands of years" (A Story of the Hill in Little Rock). He also deeply loves these landscapes, such as "selling them with pity" and "lying on a pillow" (The Hill in the West of Cobalt Lake), and feels that they have the same experiences and joys and sorrows as himself. It is precisely because he has such feelings for mountains and rivers that "his mind is condensed and he is in harmony with all kinds of things" ("Travel Notes of the Western Hills Banquet") that he wrote such delicate, beautiful and emotional travel notes on mountains and rivers.
At the same time, Liu Zongyuan expressed these feelings incisively and vividly through the description of mountains and rivers in extremely beautiful, concise and exquisite language. He is very good at writing all kinds of mountain streams and stones with all kinds of vivid words, such as writing about the deep and calm water, using "Dai Xu Gao Chun" ("You Huang Xi Ji"); Write the water clear and shallow, then use "clear in the sun, shadow on the stone" ("to the west of Xiaoqiu Xiaoshi Pond"); When you write that the water beats briskly, you can use "If the flow weaves, the sound will play the piano" ("The Story of the Stone Stream"); When writing about the twists and turns of water flow, use "winding and redundant, if endless" (Shi Qu Ji); When writing stones, there are hillside rocks that are "those who are tired of each other" and "those who are rushing up the corner" ("The West Hill of Cobalt Tantan"); There is a stone on the shore that "the island is a rock" ("To Xiaoqiu West Xiaoshi Pond"); There are also stones in the garden that "line up or kneel down or stand up or serve, and the caves are quiet and the piles are full of anger" ("Yongzhou Wei Zhi Jun Xin Tang Ji"); There is also a mountain stone of "angry people fight tiger fights, enterprises are fierce, and their noses and mouths are close to each other. If they search for their roots, their hoofs and stocks will meet, and if they are suspicious, they will bite" ("Yongzhou Cui Zhongcheng Wanshi Pavilion").
With rich vocabulary and subtle observation, landscapes are vividly written in various forms.
In the layout of the article, he is also very good at using the method of the combination of reality and reality, and suddenly talking and discussing, which makes the article open and close and interesting. For example, from such a grand scope as China, the landscape of Yongzhou is the best, and then it is gradually concentrated in this place of Huangxi, and then the scenery of Huangxi is presented one by one according to the order of visiting and boarding, just like overlooking from the air, from far and near, from outside to inside, gradually revealing, and finally turning to the legend of Huangxi, it comes to an abrupt end without any subjective feelings, so that readers can feel as if they were there, and use their own eyes. However, Travel Notes on the Banquet at the Beginning of the Western Hills has changed from a general talk about daily boarding to a specific trip to the Western Hills. After a very detailed description, it has turned to a distant view, which is wrapped up by the author's own feeling of "being condensed and harmonious with all things" and is full of subjective feelings, making readers wander about the mountains and rivers in this emotional narrative; However, The Story of Xiaoshi Pond to the West of Xiaoqiu reflects the joy of fish in the water and the sadness of the author sitting on the pool, and shows a distinct sense of contrast with the brightness of the sunshine pool and the darkness of the bamboo trees. However, Yuan Jiake Ji, after hastily recounting the beauty of Yuan Jiake's thirst, turned to write that when the wind came, it was "red and green" and "rushing to the waves", which made a simple visit and a dynamic strange situation.
In addition, Liu Zongyuan's travel notes on mountains and rivers also draw on the advantages of parallel prose, and use short sentences, which are lively and varied. Like Yuan Jia Ke Ji, after "every wind descends from four mountains", eight four words are used in succession:
Vibrate the big trees, cover the grass, make the flowers red and green, make the flowers smell fragrant, wash the waves and swirl the wrasse, retreat the valleys, shake the calluses, and.
It sets off the momentum of the wind with a rapid rhythm. And "To the West of Xiaoqiu in Xiaoshi Pond" describes fish:
There are hundreds of fish in the pond, and if they swim in the air, the sunlight is clear, and the shadows are on the rocks, and they are motionless. You are far away, and the exchanges are sudden, like enjoying the tourists.
it is slightly tightened in the uneven comfort, so that the static and dynamic poles of the fish are vividly born with the rhythm. In these seemingly ordinary places, it embodies Liu Zongyuan's painstaking efforts.
Of course, the influence of Liu Zongyuan's ancient prose was not as great as that of Han Yu at that time, but Liu Zongyuan opened up a new way for the change of writing style with his unique creative practice. In particular, his travel notes on mountains and rivers have broken through the limitation that prose in the past focused on practicality and mainly focused on political and philosophical discussions, changed the concept that prose in the pre-Qin and Han dynasties took the oath of exegesis and historical biography as a model, and created a more literary and lyrical prose type. His fables are also creative. Before that, fable was only a part of an article, which was mainly used as an example of argument. Liu Zongyuan's fable got rid of this dependent nature and became an independent style.
The language of Liu Zongyuan's prose is famous for its "preciseness", accurate, concise and powerful words, and both subtle and natural, which reflects the lofty and refined life sentiment and is a prose style that is unified with personality. His prose creation, together with Han Yu's creation characterized by strange rise and bold release, laid the foundation for the success of prose with the title "ancient prose" but actually a new style.
the movement of ancient Chinese prose is a complicated phenomenon in the history of literature. In terms of liberating literary style, overthrowing the absolute rule of parallel prose and restoring the function of free expression of prose, it has indelible contributions to both practical articles and the development of artistic prose.
Moreover, we also see that although ancient writers flaunt "preaching" and "Ming Dow" as the highest principles of their articles, Han and Liu's most literary essays are generally not centered on this; Korean is magnificent and Liu is beautiful, both of which are full of personal life feelings and have distinct artistic pursuits. Because their understanding of "Tao" is not so narrow, their own "Taoist spirit" is not so strong. On Zhang Xu's calligraphy, Han Yu's Preface to Sending People to Gao Xian said that Zhang's "interests must be clear, and he has no scruples, and his feelings are inflamed in the middle, and he is eager to gain and lose, and he is furious." This passion for success or failure in real life is manifested in calligraphy, and he has achieved outstanding achievements. This not only reflects Han Yu's interest in the free and unrestrained art of the prosperous Tang Dynasty, but also has something in common with his literary view. But at the same time, we can't help but notice that the shortcomings of the ancient prose movement are also quite serious. In the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, through long-term efforts, people finally got a clear understanding of the distinction between literature and non-literature, and the key is to distinguish practical and artistic articles. This provides a necessary prerequisite for the free development of literature in its independent position. The ancient prose movement, because it emphasized the dominance of Taoism over literature, cancelled the distinction between literature and non-literature, which was a major retrogression in literary concepts. Because the core idea of the ancient prose movement is to advocate literature to serve the feudal political order, this will inevitably lead to the convergence of writers' personality, thus adding a heavy constraint to the development of literature. The more feudal autocracy is strengthened, the more serious this bondage is, and the more "ancient prose" shows a strong feudal preaching color. In fact, it was hard to see Han Yu's passionate praise of "passion in China, lust for profit" in the Song Dynasty, not to mention the more formal orthodox ancient writers of Ming and Qing Dynasties. This is also caused by the inherent hidden dangers of the ancient prose movement.