Pre-Qin Prose

Source: cultural-china.com

The origin of prose can be traced back to oracle inscriptions, written admonitions of the Shang and Zhou Dynasties from the Collection of Ancient Texts, and bronze inscriptions of the Shang and Zhou Dynasties. During the pre-Qin period, there was no self-consciousness in literature and no distinction between literature, history and philosophy, resulting in the literature form "works based on history and academic". Therefore, pre-Qin prose is generally divided into historical prose and philosophers' prose.

In the class of historical prose, the Spring and Autumn Annals is the earliest chronological history book of China. "Spring and Autumn" used to be the generic term for history records of all countries in the pre-Qin period. Later, as only historical records of Lu were passed down, it became an exclusive term. The existent Spring and Autumn Annals is said to be sorted out and revised on the basis of history books compiled by historiographers of Lu, which cover a period of 242 years from the first year during the reign of Lu Yin (722 BC) to the 14th year during the reign of Duke Ai of Lu (481 BC). A writing style of the Spring and Autumn Annals is to convey a profound message with subtle words. The contents are organized against a detailed outline, and aim to appraise historical figures and events with precise and refined language. Because of its writing style mentioned above, books to interpret the Spring and Autumn Annals appeared. As the Spring and Autumn Annals was later incorporated in the classics (jing), books that interpreted the classics were called commentaries (zhuan). The famous three commentaries on the Spring and Autumn Annals include Mr. Gongyang's Annals, Mr.Guliang's Annals and Mr. Zuo's Annals. Among them, Mr. Zuo's Annals has the greatest literary achievements. The Strategies of the Warring States is another history book with high literary values.

In the pre-Qin period, there was a well-known period of contention between numerous schools of thought when the exponents of various schools explained their doctrines to their disciples and their disciples recorded and straightened out their masters' words and acts. These records make up the philosophers' prose we are discussing about. In terms of influences on later generations, the Confucian School and the Taoist School are the greatest. In terms of reality of that time, however, the Confucian School and the Mohist School were dominant schools of thought.

There are three periods in the development of the philosophers' prose. The first period is between the late Spring and Autumn period and the early Warring States period. Major works of this period include the Analects, the Laozi and the Mozi. The second period is the middle Warring States period. In this period, the style of dialogue was still in use, but the works were no longer records of the master's words and acts by his disciples like the Analects, but collective works of a school; and the contents were no longer restricted to a single person's words and acts, but extended to dialogues. Major works of this period include Mengzi and Zhuangzi, etc. They are characterized by rich language, clear reasoning and the frequent use of fables and metaphors. The third period is the late Warring States period. By then, the philosophers' prose had completely broken away from the style of dialogue and become monographs. It was no longer collective works of a school or refutation-focused, but was memoir of an individual and valid argument-focused. This resulted from the deepening of the contention between numerous schools of thought. Major works of this period include Xunzi, Hanfeizi and Master Lv's Spring and Autumn Annals, etc. They are characterized by rigorous argument and thorough analysis. They shed profound influence on philosophical prose since the Han and Wei Dynasties.