Chapter 9 Chapter 8 Different Schools and Different Styles

8.1.1 Classical Chinese with differences In the world, no two individuals are exactly alike.The same is true of classical Chinese works from different authors, and there are always large or small differences in expression.As far as the available documents are concerned, regardless of the Shang and Zhou dynasties, from the Warring States period to the end of the Qing Dynasty, expressions and expressions in classical Chinese belonged to the lexical and syntactic system of the Qin and Han Dynasties, but the appearance of the written works was often quite different.For example, the "Tengwang Pavilion Preface" and "Shi Shuo" that everyone is familiar with, one parallel and one scattered, one gorgeous and one simple, do not seem to come from the same dynasty.Another example is that Huang Tingjian's poems are based on Du Fu's, but when we read Huang's poems, we always feel that they are not so vigorous and natural, and the taste is different from the authentic ones.There are many reasons why the works of different authors are different, mainly as follows.The first is the era, for example, the articles written by the Han people have the taste of the Han people. No matter how the people of the Tang and Song dynasties chase after them, what they write is not the taste of the Han people.Another example is that if you live in the Southern Dynasties, you cannot use parallel style when writing articles.Second, regions are also often related. For example, around the Spring and Autumn Period, people in the Central Plains could not write poems without using four characters. People in the Jianghan area are different.The same is true in the Southern and Northern Dynasties. The poems of the Northern Dynasties were not very embellished, while the Southern Dynasties always wore red and green.Third, personal knowledge and personality are more related. For example, Gu Yanwu and Li Yu are both from the early Qing Dynasty, but they are completely different from "Idle Love Ou Ji". This is obviously a reflection of the difference in knowledge and personality of the two people.Compared with knowledge and personality, perhaps personality is more important. For example, Li Bai and Du Fu's works are so far apart that one is immortal and the other is sage.In short, to express ideas in classical Chinese, although the expression methods are all taken from the lexical and syntactic systems of the Qin and Han Dynasties, they are taken in different ways. That is to say, different writers are restricted by their own conditions. This one can extract these elements and organize them in this way. That person can extract those elements, such as that organization, so after writing, it will appear in different appearances.We often say that the differences in people's minds are just like their faces, and the differences in purpose can be seen. The small ones will be countless, and even the big ones will be too numerous to list.Fortunately, what I want to talk about in this chapter is only a phenomenon that is not very related: the expressions in classical Chinese are the same, but there are more or less differences in the works.There are too many differences, so we have to focus on them.The emphasis is on "genre" and "style".

8.1.2 Style and Genre Style, which was called "pin" in the old days, is hard to say.For example, Sikong Tu divides the poems into twenty-four types, such as forceful, dilute, thin, and calm, but his explanation can only be side-sighted. ..." Comparing things like this, it's still indescribable.Or it can only be conveyed in general terms.A certain author's poems and prose, in terms of expression, are not at a high level, so compared with other authors' works, they do not show their own characteristics. Even if there is a small difference, it is not a style.If it is another situation, the level is high or very high, compared with other authors, especially those with different ways, the characteristics are obvious, we say that it has its own style.It can be seen that style includes two indispensable factors, one is to write well, at least quite well, and the other is to have characteristics.Poetry has a style, and this style is always the author's preference; some people not only love it, but also want to explain it clearly, so they find reasons and form the theory of poetry, such as "Wen Bi Qin and Han" and "Shen Yun Shuo" kind.Later or at the same time, some people also admired this style and believed in this theory, so they cited it as a fellow, wrote according to that way, and promoted that theory, forming a genre.There are characteristics in the expression of poetry and prose, whether it can be regarded as a style, and whether people with the same characteristics can be regarded as colleagues, whether it can be regarded as a genre, are all matters for the benevolent and the wise.I think, in order to avoid entanglement in the issue of style, it is best for us to choose the big and discard the small, and it doesn’t matter if the achievements are not great or the characteristics are not outstanding.For the sake of simplicity and practicability, the issue of genres can be determined based on two conditions, internal and external. The internal ones have distinct characteristics and often have theories, while the external ones have titles with symbolic characteristics (for example, Yongming style focuses on works, and the Eight Great Masters of Tang and Song Dynasties focus on people. Of course, those who meet these two conditions must be counted, those who only have one of them, and those with significant influence can also be counted, and those without them can not be counted.

The relationship between genre and style is intricate.Genre mainly refers to people, which refers to the poetry and prose who form a group of comrades. Style mainly refers to works, and refers to the unique characteristics of poetry and prose in terms of expression. There is a difference between the two.But works are written by people, so different styles often come from different genres.Different schools have different styles.But it cannot be said the other way around, if they belong to the same genre, the style must be the same.For example, Zeng Gong and Su Shi, who are both ancient writers, have different styles. Under the same theory, differences due to differences in knowledge and personality are allowed, or cannot be avoided.It can be seen that styles are more detailed than genres.Because it is finer, small differences cannot form genres.The formation of genres depends on some social conditions in addition to the vastly different styles.So sometimes, even a big difference in style does not necessarily form different schools. For example, "Mencius" and "Mencius" are both in the style of quotations. The former is simple and honest, and the latter is eloquent, but they have not formed different schools.Generally speaking, there are differences in the sameness of classical Chinese. Different genres express greater differences, and different styles may express greater differences or lesser differences.Minor differences, the literary theories, literary reviews, poetic talks, and ci talks of the past dynasties have talked a lot about it, and most of them can touch some superficial things only by experience, which cannot be discussed here, and there is no need to talk about it, because we What I want to know is that the same classical Chinese, in terms of expression, due to differences in genres and styles, the appearance is not the same.But even with this little request, the content involved is also complicated, because the time is too long, and there are too many authors and works.As a last resort, I have to cite some notable examples here, in order to get a glimpse of the whole leopard through one spot.

8.2 Different genres Schools have different sizes, or levels, large or high levels, and involve a wide range of areas, and vice versa, involve a narrow area.For example, in the early Tang Dynasty, Li Shan annotated "Wen Xuan" and founded Wen Xuanxue. Afterwards, many people wrote poems and essays. , which involves a wide range of aspects, so the genre should be considered large.There are also second-class ones, as opposed to the restoration of the seven sons before and after the Ming Dynasty. There is a difference between the Gong'an School and the Jingling School. They are both ancient writers, and the Tongcheng School and the Yanghu School are different. This involves relatively small areas, and the schools should be counted. Second class.There are also smaller ones, such as Wang Shizhen's theory of Shen Yun and Yuan Mei's theory of spirituality, which are only schools of poetry; Zhu Yizun compiled "Ci Zong" and founded the Zhe School, and Zhang Huiyan compiled "Ci Xuan" and founded the Changzhou School. Limited to the genre of the word.In addition, there are those who are between the school and the non-school, such as the Seven Masters of Jian'an, the Four Heroes of the Early Tang Dynasty, and the Ten Talents of the Dali Dynasty. Genre, because the works of these people may have quite a lot of differences in terms of expression, such as Wang Bo and Chen Ziang.

As mentioned above, the difference in style does not necessarily form a genre.This was the case in the early days. For example, in the Warring States period, the articles of various scholars had their own characteristics, but there were only schools of thought, not schools of expression.The genre comes from how to write intentionally, and sometimes it focuses more on how to learn, so compared with the style, it is a latecomer.If the "Seven Sons of Jian'an" can be counted, it can only be said that the so-called school did not exist until the Han and Wei dynasties.But this title comes from Cao Pi's "Dian Lun Essays", saying "Kong Rong Wen Ju of Lu State, Chen Lin Kong Zhang of Guangling...", and then said in a nutshell: "The seven sons of Si have nothing left in their studies and nothing false in their words. It is difficult to obey each other in order to gallop thousands of miles with one's feet up and gallop side by side." If anyone refuses to obey others, it seems that it cannot be said that a school has been formed.It is not so much a genre as a common style of the times.The genre worthy of its name and reality is the "Yongming Style" of Shen Yue, Xie Tiao, Wang Rong, etc. during the Qi and Liang Dynasties of the Southern Dynasties.The Yongming style has a great influence. The closest ones are the "Gong style" and "Xu Yu style" of Yu Jianwu, Xu Ling, Yu Xin, etc. in the late Southern and Northern Dynasties, and the farther ones are the "Shangguan style" of Yu Shinan, Li Baiyao, and Shangguanyi in the early Tang Dynasty. ", which are characterized by the use of gorgeous rhetoric to praise the life of the palace, in addition to the metrical poems after the early Tang Dynasty.From the middle of the Tang Dynasty, the biggest school in the history of Chinese literature appeared, which was the opposition between ancient prose and selected schools.The ancient prose is written in Pu Ao's prose style, and the chosen one is written in parallel style with gorgeous rhetoric and duality.This situation lasted from the Tang and Song Dynasties to the Qing Dynasty. It was mentioned in Section 6.2 above and will not be repeated.After the Tang and Song Dynasties, the more important genres were all related to ancient prose, and most of them stood on the side of sponsorship, while very few stood on the side of non-sponsorship.Let me talk about the sponsors first. The ones who achieved very little but were the loudest were the "former seven sons" headed by Li Mengyang and He Jingming in the Ming Dynasty, and the "last seven sons" headed by Li Panlong and Wang Shizhen. It is a fake antique; it is neither smooth nor natural.Those who opposed this unhealthy trend were the "Tang and Song schools" such as Wang Shenzhong, Tang Shunzhi, and Gui Youguang. They advertised that they learned from Ou Zeng, and their writing was relatively easy and natural.By the Qing Dynasty, the important schools of ancient prose were the "Tongcheng School" headed by Fang Bao and Yao Nai, and the "Yanghu School" headed by Yun Jing and Zhang Huiyan.The Tongcheng school still followed the Tang and Song dynasties, seeking simplicity and elegance in writing, but they paid more attention to the method of writing, and emphasized the meaning and method of "spirituality, smell, rhythm, sound and color".As for the Tongcheng School, the Yanghu School is a revisionist school, which not only insists on the Tang and Song Dynasties, but also does not abandon the Five Classics, so the road is wider and the works appear more natural.Not to mention not sponsored.One of them is the "Xikun style" written by Yang Yi, Qian Weiyan, Liu Yun, etc. in the early Song Dynasty. Whether it is poems or essays, there are always a lot of gorgeous words and allusions, which makes people feel difficult to understand.Then there was the "Gan'an School" headed by Yuan Zongdao and Yuan Hongdao in the late Ming Dynasty, and the "Jingling School" headed by Zhong Xing and Tan Yuanchun.The Gong'an faction loudly opposed retro, wrote articles seeking freshness and nature, and wrote directly from their hearts.This is of course good, but people at the time saw it as vulgar, so the Jingling School wanted to correct it, and the method was to seek deep and cold, and make it easy and dangerous. .In addition, Liang Qichao's "new style" is also worth noting if he can be counted among his neighbors. He wrote articles in the style of speeches, which was popular, fluent, vigorous and affectionate, and eventually became the classical Chinese that became the vernacular.

Many genres are limited to verse.This can be as early as the "Sao Style" of the Warring States Period. "Historical Records Biography of Qu Yuan" said: "After Qu Yuan died, there were disciples of Song Yu, Tang Le, and Jing Chai in Chu. They were all good at speech and known for their prose." It can be seen that Sima Qian regarded them as genres.Later, the Tang Dynasty was the most popular school of poetry, such as Meng Haoran, Wang Wei, etc. were the "Shanshui Poetry School", Gao Shi, Cen Shen, etc. were the "Frontier Poetry School".This is small because the effect is not large.The most influential ones were Yuan Zhen and Bai Juyi's "Yuanhe Style", which wrote current events in plain language and reflected the suffering of people's livelihood.After that, a big school was the "Jiangxi School of Poetry" of Huang Tingjian, Chen Shidao, etc. in the Song Dynasty. They used novel and out-of-the-way words in their poems, used a lot of allusions, and had many disadvantages.In the Qing Dynasty, there were great differences in the theory of poetry. Wang Shizhen advocated the "shenyun theory", Shen Deqian advocated the "style theory", and Yuan Mei advocated the "spirit theory".The major schools of Ci are "graceful" and "bold", with the former being much more powerful than the latter.By the Qing Dynasty, Ci also had a small school: Zhu Yizun compiled "Ci Zong", praised the literati Ci of the Southern Song Dynasty, and the lyrics were skillful and elegant, and became the "Zhe School"; Zhang Huiyan compiled "Ci Xuan" and praised the Ci of the Northern Song Dynasty. Inside and outside the meaning, it became the "Changzhou School".

8.3 Different styles Style is hard to say, as already mentioned in Section 8.1.2 above.Difficult, because small differences are not easy to distinguish; although large differences have obvious characteristics, it is not easy to name them. They are forced to be named, such as vigorous and diluted. Looking at flowers in the fog.But the style does have its own things. The more obvious ones are "Xunzi", Li Bai and Du Fu. When we compare and read them, we will always feel that there are many differences in appearance or charm.Style comes from expressive characteristics, which can be more obvious after comparison.In this way we can find an almost infinite variety of styles from the Warring States period onwards.Here, of course, we can only talk about some of the most remarkable, or the most tangy.Taking the pre-Qin philosophers as an example, compared with "Mencius" and "Xunzi", the former is majestic, written like the Yangtze River, and flows consistently;There is a bigger difference between the former and the former. The former is simple and sincere, like a kind-hearted old man talking about family affairs;In the Han Dynasty, similar works, such as "Historical Records" and "Hanshu", Jia Yi's Fu and Zhang Heng's Fu, are all similar but different.There are also quite a few great differences, such as "Huainanzi" and "Lunheng", the former is profound while the latter is simple; and Cao Zhi's poems, the former is written in simple ordinary Chinese, while the latter is not, but embellished with meaning, not only for artistic conception Beautiful, and the writing is gorgeous.The difference between Tao Yuanming, Xie Lingyun, Xie Tiao and others was also the same, Tao Pusu and Xie Zao decorated.

During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the difference in style developed greatly, that is, the difference between "wen" and "pen" appeared.Wen Xie's "Wen Xin Diao Long Zong Shu" said: "As the saying goes today, there are writing and writing, and those who think that there is no rhyme are writing, and those who have rhyme are also writing." Liang Yuandi's "Jinlouzi" said: "Writers, The beards are beautiful and colorful, and the palace is full of manliness." It can be seen that the so-called pen refers to plain and practical writing, such as theory and notes, and writing refers to beautiful writing with exquisite rhythm and gorgeous rhetoric, such as poems and prose.Some people are good at both, and some people can't be good at both. For example, "Southern History Yan Yanzhi Biography" records that Emperor Wen of Song Dynasty asked Yan Yanzhi about the talents of his sons. This means that a son is not as clever as his father, and cannot be good at writing both practical and beautiful essays.In fact, as far as the fashion at that time was concerned, beautiful prose was listed at the top, so even prose without rhyme had to learn the embellishments of poetry and prose.This sowed the seeds for later greatest differences in style (simplicity and ornamentation).After the Northern and Southern Dynasties, few people paid much attention to the differences in writing style, but the opposition between simplicity and decoration did not disappear, but was transformed into a long-term disagreement between ancient prose and parallel style.This has been mentioned many times before, so I won't repeat it here.

In addition to the big difference between ancient prose and parallel style, we can easily see many significant differences in style through comparison in the history of literature.For example, and are both works of the Southern Dynasties, but their styles are quite different. The former is written in parallel, four li and six, meticulously crafted, while the latter is written in the style of gossip, and the spoken language of the time is often mixed in.The same is true of people. Both Yu Xin and Yan Zhitui were from the end of the Southern Dynasties, and their experience of living in the Northern Dynasties was similar. However, when we read "Yuzishan Collection" and "Yan Family Instructions", we felt that the styles were very different. The former was full of flowers, while the latter was simple and unpretentious.The same is true of poetry in the Tang and Song Dynasties. For example, Yuan (Zhen) Bai (Juyi) is compared with Wen (Tingyun) and Li (Shangyin), Fan Chengda is compared with Huang Tingjian, and Liu Yong is compared with Wu Wenying. The latter is difficult, the former is simple, and the latter is refined.Compared with the Gong'an School, the seven sons before and after the Ming Dynasty have more obvious style differences.Finally, you can also compare Liang Qichao and Zhang Taiyan, who wrote articles. The former simply wanted to use vernacular (because it was before the "May Fourth Movement", so he was unable to do what he wanted), while the latter wanted to learn the classics of "Shang Xue".

A style with obvious characteristics can be clearly felt without comparison, as long as you keep flipping through it.For example, when we read "Chu Ci", we always feel deep feelings and wonderful imagination; when we read Han Fu, we always feel complicated and pretentious, extravagant and exaggerated.The same is true of individual writers, such as Han Yu's poems like essays, Su Shi's poems like poems, Li He's poems are deep and strange, Yan Jidao's poems are twisted and lingering, etc., all of which can be understood after reading a little.