Three styles commonly used in modern literature and four themes of literary works

award

A style in ancient China, which emphasized literary talent and rhythm, was both poetic and poetic. It is characterized by "spreading articles, writing things and writing ambitions", focusing on writing scenery and expressing emotions through scenery. It first appeared in hundred schools of thought's essays and was called "short fu"; Qu Yuan's "Sao Style" is a transition from poetry to fu, which is called "Sao Fu". The style of Fu was formally established in the Han Dynasty, which is called "Ci Fu". After Wei and Jin Dynasties, it developed in the direction of parallel prose, which was called "parallel prose". In the Tang dynasty, it changed from parallel style to regular style, which was called "law fu"; In Song Dynasty, Fu appeared in the form of prose, which was called "Wen Fu". Famous Fu include: Fu of Epang Palace by Du Mu, Fu of Autumn Sound by Ouyang Xiu, Fu of Thousand Chibi by Su Shi, etc.

parallel prose (prose written in the parallel style)

Originated from the Han and Wei Dynasties, it was formed in the Southern and Northern Dynasties and prevailed in the Sui and Tang Dynasties. It appears alternately with four characters and six characters, and is called "Liu Siwen" in the world. Parallel prose often affects the expression of content by accommodating sentence patterns and piling up words. After Han and Liu advocated the ancient prose movement, parallel prose gradually declined. The most famous is The Book with Zhu written by Wu Liangjun in the Southern Dynasties.

origin

The original intention is the ancient argumentative style. This style is a fundamental investigation and discussion of a certain theory, proposition, political system or social custom, and it is highly theoretical. Such as Han Yu's Original Extinction and Huang Zongxi's Original King.

argue

"Debate" is to argue about right and wrong, not true and false. This style is characterized by refuting a wrong argument or discriminating some facts. For example, Han Yu's Debate on Taboo and Liu Zongyuan's Debate on Dong Xiong.

say

The floorboard of ancient argumentative articles. It was not much different from Lun, so it was later collectively referred to as reasoning analysis. On the preface to the essay, it says: "The speaker explains, explains the meaning, and explains with his own meaning." The articles of this genre we have studied include On Teachers, On Horses, On young chinese, On Snake Catchers, On Huang Sheng's Borrowing Books, etc.

discuss

A style of writing, according to "Yun": "Commentators discuss things". "Selected Works of Zhaoming" said: "There are two theories. One is the theory of history, which is the judgment of good and evil made by loyal ministers at the end of biographies. For example, Tai Shigong said after Historical Records. Second, in political theory, it is fallacious for a bachelor and doctor to talk about ancient and modern figures or comment on classics and history. " For example, The Six Kingdoms and Guo Qin.

Emperor/throne memorial

Ancient ministers collectively went to court. Including play, discussion, reconciliation, expression, countermeasures and so on. "The article has a body order": "Seven countries used to call books, and Qin changed books to play. There are four kinds of ceremonies in Han dynasty: one is to say thank you; Second, play until it collapses; Three expressions of feelings; Four days of deliberation, there is deliberation. " (1) sparse. It means detailed report. For example, Jia Yi's On Accumulation and Sparse Storage. (2) table. Just stating a point or something. Such as Zhuge Liang's "model". (3) countermeasures. In ancient exams, the topic was strategy, so that candidates could answer strategies, and the articles that candidates answered were called countermeasures, such as Su Shi's "Teaching War and Defending Strategies".

Preface (postscript)

Foreword is also called "preface" or "introduction", just like today's "introduction" and "preface", it is an article that explains the intention, arrangement style and author of writing or publishing a book. It can also include comments on writers' works and research on related issues. "preface" is usually written at the front of a book or article (some are listed at the back, such as historical records? Taishi Gongxu), listed at the back of the book is called "Postscript" or "Postscript". This kind of article belongs to expository or argumentative according to the content, and it is expository to explain the writing purpose, style and content. Comments on the author's works or explanations are argumentative. The prefaces we have studied are: the preface to Scream, the preface to Rural Investigation, the postscript to the South Record of Returning to Germany, and the Biography of Lingguan.

Gift order

Stylistic name. In ancient times, poetry was used to bid farewell, which was called the preface of giving and answering. For example, Han Yu's Preface to Sending Stones to Chu Shi: "Therefore, all Dudong people ... hence the name" Six Rhymes of Songs and Poems ",which is sent to the preface cloud. After that, all farewell articles, which are not attached to the poem, are also called prefaces, and their contents are mostly words of praise or encouragement. We studied Song Lian's Preface to Send Ma Sheng to Yang in the Ming Dynasty.

inscription

In ancient times, words carved on objects to warn themselves or describe merits were called "Ming". Inscriptions carved on cards and placed on the right side of the case to protect themselves, such as Liu Yuxi's "My Humble Room", are called "mottos". An epitaph is carved on a stone tablet to describe the life of the deceased and praise the memory. Such as Han Yu's epitaph of Liu Zihou.

Funeral speech

Articles read when offering sacrifices to the dead or gods such as heaven, earth, mountains and rivers. There are two genres: verse and prose. The content is to remember the main experiences of the deceased before his death, to praise his main moral character and achievements, to mourn and to inspire the living. Such as Yuan Mei's "Sister-in-law".

Random notes

Including: (1) Miscellaneous notes on landscape and personnel. Descriptions of mountains and rivers, scenery and people, such as "Little Stone Pond" and "Mount Tai". (2) Precautions. Mainly notes, characterized by short length, about 1000 words; Rich in content, there are historical anecdotes, heritages, literary essays, people's essays, science novels, textual research, reading miscellaneous notes and so on. Shi Shuo Xin Yu and Meng Qian Bi Tan are such styles.

travel notes

Travel notes are a form of prose describing travel experiences. Travel notes have a wide range of materials, which can describe the beauty of famous mountains and rivers, record the peculiar richness of local customs, reflect the daily life of a person and a family, and also record the major events of a country and express the author's thoughts and feelings. The style of writing is relaxed, vivid and informative, giving people rich social knowledge and good feelings. Travel notes are argumentative essays, such as Yueyang Tower and You Bao Chan. There are scientific ones, such as the Three Gorges in Li Daoyuan; Some are lyrical, such as Liu Zongyuan's The Story of Little Stone Pond.

lie

A children's literature. Through rich imagination, fantasy and exaggeration to shape characters, reflect life and educate children ideologically. The language of fairy tales is popular, vivid, vivid, bizarre, tortuous and full of interest. The anthropomorphic description of natural scenery can adapt to children's psychology and interest, stimulate people's imagination, and is conducive to their acceptance and transformation. Fairy tales selected as teaching materials are: Andersen's The Emperor's New Clothes and Ye Shengtao's The Stone Statue of Ancient Heroes.

folk story

The literary form formed by the oral creation of the masses has been passed down orally and has been continuously revised and processed by many people. The characteristics of folk stories: strong story and vivid plot; Spoken, simple and lively; Imagination is strange and rich; Often use exaggeration and metaphor, which has a strong artistic appeal. In content, it comes from the people and mainly reflects the folk life. Some folk stories often have mythical fantasy plots and are full of magical colors. For example: fisherman's story, Cowherd and Weaver Girl, etc.

fable

This is a persuasive or ironic story. "Entrust" means "Entrust". Fables usually contain profound truths in simple stories, so that they can be used to describe each other, see the big from the small and compare the present with the ancient. They are used to personification. The language is concise and sharp. Famous fables in European literature include Aesop's fables in ancient Greece. Fables prevailed in China during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, and there were many fables in Zhuangzi, Han Feizi and other works, such as Zheng Ren buys shoes (Han Feizi), Fighting between snipes and mussels (Warring States Policy) and Carving a Boat for a Sword (Lv Chunqiu).

One legend is that ...

Stories of historical figures, events or natural objects with some legends and fantasies that have been circulated among the people for a long time. For example, the legends of the legend of heroes, lake legend and Yellow Crane Tower. Some are based on specific historical facts, while others are purely imaginary. Legends of people and things are mostly eulogies and praises, reflecting people's ideals and ambitions; The legend of natural scenery is close to beautiful narrative prose.

Myth; legend

One of the novel genres. Named for its bizarre and magical plot. Generally used to refer to short stories written in classical Chinese by people in Tang and Song Dynasties. Such as Biography of Liu Yi and Biography of Conan. Because "legends" are mostly based on later rap and drama, Song and Yuan operas, Yuan zaju operas and Ming and Qing operas are also called "legends". For example, Tang Xianzu, a playwright in the Ming Dynasty, wrote Peony Pavilion, and Kong in the early Qing Dynasty wrote the legendary drama Peach Blossom Fan.

Classification of literary genres

In the process of emergence and development, various literary genres have gradually formed their own characteristics, which are embodied in image-building, plot conception and language use. Various literary genres are distinguished from each other because they have different characteristics and functions in reflecting social life and expressing thoughts and feelings. For a long time, writers and literary critics have been classifying various literary works in order to study and master the laws and characteristics of various literary genres and promote the development of literary creation and literary criticism, so some theories and works on stylistic classification have emerged. The classification of literary genres has always had different standards, so there are also different classifications. China's earliest classification method is dichotomy, that is, literary genres are divided into two categories: verse and prose according to rhyme and non-rhyme. But since the May 4th Movement, China has had two common classification rules: one is "three points" and the other is "four points". "Trigonometry" is to divide various literary genres into three categories according to the ways of shaping images: narrative, lyric and drama. This classification standard is quite popular abroad, from Aristotle to belinsky. Aristotle (384 BC-322 BC) clearly pointed out that there are three ways for literature to imitate reality: "It can be like Homer's, sometimes with narrative techniques, sometimes with characters appearing [or incarnating as characters], or it can be always the same, with its own tone, or it can be imitated by imitators with actions." This is the earliest explanation of the "dichotomy", and the so-called "like Homer" refers to the narrative (epic) category; "Narrating in one's own tone" refers to the lyrical category; "Let imitators imitate with actions" refers to drama. After Aristotle, some famous literary critics in western Europe followed this classification standard. For example, Horace (8 years before 65 BC) did not specifically discuss the classification of literary genres, but when he talked about "what style to write in", he was essentially divided into three categories according to Aristotle's statement. (2) Povalo (1636-1711year) made it clear. In the art of poetry, he discussed the writing of lyric works which he regarded as "secondary poetry", and discussed the so-called "main poetic style" of tragedy, comedy and epic works. In belinsky (1811-1848), the classification standard of "trisection" is explained in detail and fully. Belinsky not only clearly divided literary genres into epic, lyric and drama, but also studied their various specific styles and their evolution, and thought that "there are only three types of poetry, and there can be no more". According to the "three-point method", narrative refers to a work that depicts the character through the description of events, thus reflecting the reality and expressing the author's thoughts and feelings. In this kind of works, the author's thoughts and opinions permeate the description of specific events. "All internal factors are deeply infiltrated into external factors, so that these two aspects-internal and external-are inseparable from each other and present a definite and self-sufficient reality-event in direct integration. There are no poets here; A well-defined world is developing itself, and poets seem to simply say what they have done automatically. Because the author of this kind of works narrates from the side, and at the same time allows the characters to express themselves without any restrictions, it can reflect the real life to a very wide and sufficient extent. Such works include narrative poems, novels, fables and so on. Lyricism refers to those works that reflect reality through the author's expression of some thoughts and feelings. In this kind of works, the author directly expresses his feelings about real life, love and hate, and reflects reality through it, infecting readers. " Here, poetry stays in the stage of thinking, feeling and thinking of internal factors; The spirit retreats from the external reality to itself, endowing poetry with endless and complex colors of inner life (it transforms all external things into itself). Here, the poet's personality is dominant, and we can only feel and understand everything through the poet's personality. "(2) This kind of works generally have no complete plot, and the length is often short. It includes lyric poetry and lyric prose. Drama refers to those works that put characters on the stage and let them express their character through actions. In this kind of works, "such as epic, there are some real events driven by various subjective and objective forces;" "However, this kind of event is not purely external. Here, the event is not suddenly presented to us, but prepared: it begins with the initiative hidden from us, goes through its own journey of freedom, and then falls back to itself. Yes, here, we see the origin and process of the event from our personal will and character. On the other hand, these characters do not stay on themselves, but are constantly exposed, and they should constantly expose the inner side of their spirit in practical interests. " In other words, this kind of works has the characteristics of narrative works-it has a complete plot, and the factors of lyric works can be expressed one by one through the characters; But it is not only different from lyricism, but also different from narration, and it is not a simple make-up between the two. It has its own characteristics, which is why it can exist independently. Such works include tragedies, comedies and plays. "The above is the basic theory of" three points ". As for the "quartering method", all literary works are divided into four categories according to their different basic points in image-building, institutional structure, language use and expression. This classification is widely used in China. In the development of China's literature, two genres of poetry and prose first appeared, while novels and dramas gradually matured (as did the literary development of other countries in the world). Therefore, the earliest literary genre classification in China was only poetry and prose, but literary critics in past dynasties often subdivided it into several categories. Cao Pi said in Dian Lun Essay: "Fu Wen is the same but not different: the cover is elegant, the book theory is reasonable, the inscription is profound and the poetry is beautiful" (2) This shows that Cao Pi divided the articles (people didn't distinguish between general articles and literary works at that time) into four categories according to his understanding of "same" and "same". From now on, when these four categories merge, there are actually only two categories: poetry and prose. After Cao Pi, with the further enrichment of creative achievements and the gradual accumulation of creative experience, and with people's further understanding of the nature and characteristics of literature, the classification of literary genres has also developed. For example, Lu Ji's Wen Fu, Zhi Yu's Essays on Biezhi, Xiao Tong's Preface to Selected Works and Liu Xie's Wen Xin Diao Long all put forward opinions on the classification of literary genres. It is precisely because people can't grasp the classification standards of literary genres in essence that some classifications are still a mere formality, and some people even divide them into one or two hundred categories, which is very complicated. After the Song and Yuan Dynasties, novels and drama literature developed, but people did not pay enough attention to the classification of literature, because at that time, both novels and dramas were excluded from literature by literati of the feudal ruling class. In the late Qing Dynasty, due to the attention and advocacy of bourgeois reformists and revolutionary Democrats, more and more foreign novels and dramas were translated, and at the same time, domestic novels and dramas gradually attracted social attention. At that time, the literary genre classification of magazines and literary works actually began to adopt the quartering method. After the May 4th Movement, with the development of the literary revolutionary movement, the creation of new poems, novels, dramas and essays has made great progress. At that time, foreign theories on literary genre classification were also introduced, so the "four-division method" was clearly defined on the basis of inheriting the advantages of past literary classification and absorbing the advantages of foreign classification. When discussing essays, Lu Xun said that since the May 4th Movement, "the success of essays is almost above novels, operas and poems". This is the classification standard of "quartering". The new literature series edited by Lu Xun and Mao Dun in the 1930 s were also edited in four categories: novels, poems, essays and plays. In the "four-division", the first kind of poetry includes lyric poetry in the "three-division" and narrative poetry in the narrative category. They are grouped together because they have many similarities in shaping images, organizational structure, language use and so on. Fiction is a part of the narrative category in the "trichotomy". Because it is centered on the shaping of characters, it has outstanding characteristics in character description, plot description, environmental description, structural arrangement and language use, which is obviously different from poetry and prose. This school was the most popular in modern times, so it came out as a big category in the "quartering method". Prose refers to all literary genres except novels, poems and drama literature. It has a wide range. Lyric prose can be classified into this category, as well as travel notes, miscellaneous notes, reportage, biography and so on. What belongs to the narrative category can also be classified into this category, even including essays and essays with narrative and discussion. As an independent category, rake prose is different from poetry, novel, drama and literature because of its wide range of subjects and diverse styles. It does have the basic characteristics of literature. At the same time, it can also correct some narrow understandings of literature and prevent some works with literary value and characteristics from being excluded from literature. As for drama literature, it is exactly the same as drama in the "trichotomy". In the classification of literary genres, whether it is "three-way division" or "four-way division", it is only relative. Because, in the process of its formation and development, some literary genres often absorb some factors from other literary genres, thus forming a situation in which this genre and that genre cross each other. For example, the genre of prose poetry, from its content, has the quality of poetry and is full of the author's strong feelings and imagination, but it appears in the form of prose, which is quite different from poetry in genre and closer to prose. This genre, if divided by "quartering", can be attributed to both prose and poetry. This is a situation. Secondly, when using some literary genres, the author often absorbs and uses the characteristics of other literary genres in order to better express his life and attract readers. For example, poetic drama is an obvious example. Generally speaking, poetic drama belongs to drama, but the lyrics in it are written in the form of poetry, and independence is poetry. In addition, some schools have different interpretations of its connotation, so it is difficult to classify specific works. For example, fables can be classified as novels or essays; Reportage and short Wei novels are sometimes not so easy to distinguish. As for the specific names or boundaries in the same category (such as the boundaries between novels and novellas), it is more common. When talking about "trigonometry", belinsky said: Epic, street poetry and drama "exist differently from each other, but when they are presented in individual poems, they are not always clearly divided. On the contrary, they are often mixed together, so that some works are epic in form, but they have the characteristics of drama, or vice versa. This is also the case with the "quartering method". This fully shows the relativity of literary genre classification, indicating that classification can only be general, not absolute. The classification of literary genres is not only relative, but also develops with the rich development of practical experience in literary creation. As I said before, literary genre has its formation and development process in history. When a literary genre has not been produced or matured in creative practice, it cannot be reflected in genre classification theory. For example, in the literary history of our country, novels and dramas matured late, so in the theory of literary genre classification, they were only divided into three categories: poetry, prose and myth for a long time. Secondly, after the emergence of a certain literary genre, it is still in constant development and change. Therefore, to study the classification of literary genres, we need to pay attention to their different situations in different periods. For example, China's novel genre has gone through different stages of development, such as Six Dynasties, Tang and Song Legends, Song and Yuan Storybook, Ming and Qing Zhang Hui Novels and New Novels after the May 4th Movement, and each stage has different characteristics. Nowadays, people generally use "three-way division" or "four-way division" to divide literary genres, which is mainly based on the current actual situation besides historical reasons. With the development of social life and the accumulation of creative experience, in order to express a new life, new literary genres are bound to emerge constantly, so the classification of literary genres cannot be fixed. For example, with the high development of modern science and technology, especially the development of photography and recording technology, a new comprehensive art form-film art has emerged on the basis of drama art, and a new genre of film literature has been born accordingly. Others, such as radio novels, TV dramas, science fiction, etc. , are new schools that have emerged and developed in modern times and even in modern times. Therefore, if we treat "three-way division" and "four-way division" in a fixed way, we will not be able to adapt to the situation that new schools are constantly emerging. Above, we have emphatically introduced the two most common classifications of literary genres-"trisection" and "quartering". So, what are the advantages and disadvantages of these two classifications? What kind of classification will we adopt in this book? Trigonometry classifies literary works according to different methods of creating images and reflecting life, and captures some important basic characteristics of various genres, which has strong generalization power. However, it only classifies from three different aspects: narrative, lyric and drama, ignoring the characteristics of various genres of literary works in other aspects such as system, structure and language, thus separating some literary genres with the same basic characteristics that should belong to the same category. For example, quoted poems and narrative poems in poetry, lyric prose and narrative prose in prose are rigidly separated and classified into two categories. In this way, the similarities between lyric poetry and narrative poetry, lyric prose and narrative prose are easily overlooked. To sum up, the advantages of the "quartering method" mainly include: First, the division not only pays attention to the differences in image-building methods, but also pays attention to the differences in systems, which is more in line with China's traditional habits. In naming, it is more specific and easier to master than the "trisection", and it is easy to associate its name with its characteristics. Secondly, the novel genre has developed rapidly since it came into being, especially since modern times, and it occupies a very important position in literary creation. It is in line with the actual situation to divide literary creation into a big category independently. Thirdly, prose is a very flexible genre, which has a glorious tradition and rich inside information in the history of China literature development. From the pre-Qin period to the May 4th Movement, many excellent masterpieces and great writers appeared in the field of prose. It is not only in line with the actual situation of literary creation, but also conducive to critically inheriting the excellent tradition of China literature and prospering socialist literary creation. Therefore, in this book, we have adopted the "quartering method".