Prose is a flexible and capable literary genre in which the author writes about his true feelings and experiences.
The word "prose" probably appeared during the period of Taiping and Xingguo in the Northern Song Dynasty (December 976-November 984).
"Cihai" believes that: Since the Six Dynasties in China, in order to distinguish between rhyme and parallel prose, all prose articles that do not rhyme or rearrange couples, including classics, biographies and history books, are generally called "prose". Later it also refers to all literary genres except poetry.
With the development of time, the concept of prose has changed from a broad sense to a narrow sense, and has been influenced by Western culture.
Basic meaning
List of sentences
(Han) Sima Qian's "Historical Records": Use Taibai Shou to control the world, school prose, Confucianism, unemployment, war, great prosperity, Yinghuo Shou
< p>(Han) Yuan Kang's "Yue Jueshu" Volume 13 of Yue Jue: From the beginning to the end, he respected his position and devoted all things to prose and martial arts. The traces of Jie and Zhou can be seenCitations and explanations
1. Literary talent shines. Jin Muhua's "Hai Fu": "If the prose of cloud brocade is in the sand, the silk silk is exposed in the knot of snails and clams."
2. Still writing. Liang Liu Xie of the Southern Dynasty wrote "Wen Xin Diao Long·Ming Poetry": "Looking at the structure of the prose, it is straight but not wild, tactful and attached, and full of emotions: it is the crown of the five words."
3 .Style name. Any prose article that does not rhyme or rearrange its characters is generally called prose. With the evolution of literary concepts and the development of literary genres, the concept of prose has also changed from time to time. In certain historical periods, novels and other lyrical and narrative literary works are collectively called prose to distinguish them from poetry that emphasizes rhythm. Modern prose refers to other literary works besides novels, poetry, drama and other literary genres. It itself can be divided into essays, sketches, essays, etc. according to its different content and form.
Concept
Prose refers to a literary and artistic genre that uses words as its creative and aesthetic object. It is a genre form in literature.
1. In ancient Chinese literature, prose is opposite to verse and parallel prose, and rhyme and neat sentence structure are not pursued. This is prose in a broad sense.
2. In modern Chinese literature, prose refers to a literary genre parallel to poetry, novels, and dramas. This is prose in the narrow sense.
Features
Xingsan Shenju: "Xingsan" refers to a wide range of themes and diverse writing methods, as well as free and eclectic structure; "Shenju" refers to central concentration, It also refers to the clues that run through the entire text. Prose writing about people and things is only superficial. Fundamentally speaking, it is about emotional experience. Emotional experience is the "never-dispersed spirit", while people and things are dispensable, more or less "forms" of "dispersion".
"Xingsan" mainly means that prose can be based on a wide range of materials and is not limited by time and space; its expression techniques are eclectic: it can narrate the development of events, describe characters, and express emotions through objects. Discussions can be made, and the author can freely adjust and change them as needed according to the content. "The spirit never dissipates" mainly refers to the purpose of prose, that is, the theme to be expressed in prose must be clear and concentrated. No matter how extensive the content of the prose is and how flexible the expression technique is, it will all serve to better express the theme.
Profound artistic conception: focus on expressing the author's life feelings, with strong lyricism and sincere emotions.
With the help of imagination and association, the author writes from here to there, from the shallower to the deeper, from the real to the virtual, so that he can blend his feelings into the scenery, express his feelings on things, express his feelings in things, and express his aspirations through things. , express the author's true feelings, realize the unity of things and myself, show more profound thoughts, and enable readers to understand deeper truths.
Beautiful language: The so-called elegance means that the prose language is fresh and bright (also beautiful), lively and musical, and the writing is like trickling water, with a tinkling sound, like a eloquent conversation, and true meaning. cut. The so-called conciseness means that the language of prose is simple, simple, natural and smooth, and a few words can depict vivid images, outline moving scenes, and show far-reaching artistic conception. The prose strives to describe the scenery as if it were before our eyes, and the emotions to refresh the mind.
Prose is known as "beautiful prose". In addition to its spiritual insights and beautiful artistic conception, it also has a fresh, meaningful, simple and unpretentious literary talent. Regularly reading some good prose can not only enrich your knowledge, broaden your horizons, and cultivate noble thoughts and sentiments, but you can also learn the skills of selecting materials, planning the layout of articles, and choosing words and sentences to improve your language expression ability.
In an article in "Liezi·Huangdi", there is a saying that Liezi "returns by the wind". There is also a passage that Liezi said to Yin Sheng: "The heart is condensed and the shape is released, and the bones and flesh are all melted. I don't realize that the shape is leaning on it, and the feet are walking on it. It moves east and west in the wind, just like the dry shell of a wooden leaf. I don't know that the wind is riding on me?" "Am I riding the wind?" The "heart" here is connected with the "spirit". Zhang Zhan's annotation of "Liezi" refers to "the heart condenses the body and forms the interpretation" as "the spirit condenses the body and forms the waste".
What is "Shen Ning"? There is a saying in the "Huangdi" chapter: "If you don't distinguish your will, you will doubt (condensate) in God". Refers to concentration. Of course, these "spirits" and "condensations" are not stagnant or dead, but as stated in the "Xici·Part 1" in the "Book of Changes": "Only the spirits are there, so they come quickly without going fast, and they come without stopping." ” In other words, “god” can transcend space and gallop freely. Specific to article writing, as mentioned above, "god" is trendy and dynamic.
As for the meaning of "form", there is a saying in "Yue Ji" that "images are formed in the sky and formed on the ground".
Mr. Qian Zhongshu explained it as "'shape' is the final shape of completion." Mr. Qian also quoted Aristotle’s theory that “nature” has five meanings. The fourth is "the raw material that has not yet been formed in comparison", that is, the state of "qualitative but intangible"; the fifth is the "form of final destination". This concept of "forming" from "original substance" and "raw materials" is used in article writing. As Mr. Qian explained, "When spring comes, flowers and birds have the natural appearance of 'form', and those who are addicted to chanting will turn their backs." As 'poetry material'". It indicates that the "form" as "poetry material" includes the "subject matter". "Reciting a good sentence from An'an has a "shape" of words and chapters." It is pointed out that the "form" of poetry refers to the "words and chapters", including language, structure, etc. The concept of "form" I discussed above is also consistent with the statement quoted here.
To sum up, the commonly used expression "the form is scattered and the spirit is not scattered" is used to discuss certain characteristics of prose creation. The meaning of "spirit" and "form" may be taken from Liezi "Shencondensation of form". The use of words such as "Shen Ning Xing San" or "Shen Sheng Xing Fang" to praise the conception and planning of prose is a metaphor in concept, but it has a corresponding analogy with the formulation in "Lieh Zi", and The terminology is concise, the concepts are ready, and it has strong expressive power. So, this is one of the reasons why the theory of "form and spirit" in the field of prose research is recognized and used.