literary history
The literary achievements in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period were mainly reflected in prose and poetry, while the content paid more attention to the description of history.
first, achievements in prose.
Oracle inscriptions in Yin ruins can be said to be the bud of pre-Qin prose. It briefly recorded the divination words of Yin and Shang dynasties on the tortoise shell of animal bones. Shangshu (also called "Book Classics") is the earliest compilation of historical documents in ancient times. Yu Shu, Xia Shu, Shang Shu and Zhou Shu were collectively called Shu in the Warring States Period and renamed Shangshu in the Han Dynasty, that is, the book of ancient times. From Yao Shun to Qin Mu, most of the records are the oaths, orders and instructions of emperors recorded by historians, which are of great ancient historical value. Shangshu can also be said to be China's first collection of essays, which was later called one of the Five Classics of Confucianism. His articles are complex in structure and concise in wording. But about the author, there is no conclusion at present.
most of the 5, words in Laozi are written in verse, with concise and vivid language and profound meaning.
The Spring and Autumn Annals compiled by Confucius in the Spring and Autumn Period is the earliest chronicle in China. It summarizes some important historical events through extremely concise words, and expresses the author's praise and criticism of these events. Chunqiu plays an exemplary role in the compilation of future generations' history.
The Analects of Confucius was written during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, and was recorded and collated by Confucius' students and their retranslators. It is a book that records the words and deeds of Confucius and his students. The Analects of Confucius covers many aspects such as philosophy, politics, economy, education, literature and art, and is the most important classic of Confucianism. In terms of expression, the Analects of Confucius is a model of recorded prose with its simple, concise and vivid language and rich poetic flavor.
Zuo Zhuan was written in the early Warring States period, and some scholars think it was written by Zuo Qiuming. It is different from Biography of Ram and Biography of Guliang, which specially explain Spring and Autumn Annals. It is a vivid and authentic chronicle of China. This book is not only rich in language and lively in dialogue, but also vivid in its description of historical events, especially the war. Liu Zhiji, a famous historical critic in the Tang Dynasty, tried his best to praise the narrative of Zuo Zhuan as "outstanding in ancient and modern times". Zuo Zhuan was not a Confucian classic, but it was gradually regarded as a classic by Confucianism since it was established by scholars and later attached to Chunqiu.
second, achievements in poetry.
Folk songs were very popular during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. Zuozhuan, Guoyu and Zhuzi books often quote folk songs. Due to the popularity and development of ballads, the poetry in the Warring States period has been different in style. In The Book of Songs, a collection of poems before the Spring and Autumn Period, "Elegance" is Wang Ji's formal and elegant music in the Western Zhou Dynasty, "Ode" is the lyrics of dance music sacrificed in the ancestral temple of the upper class, and "National Wind" is a folk song. The existence of the word "Xi" is one of the criteria to distinguish the lyrics of the court and the folk at that time. Xi is often used as an auxiliary word in Guofeng, but it is rare in Daya, Xiaoya, Zhou Song, Lu Song and Shang Song. It turns out that the ancient pronunciation of the word "Xi" is "ah", which is a common auxiliary word in ancient folk songs.
By the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, lively lyrics with different syntactic lengths had appeared in folk songs, instead of using four neat sentences as in Guofeng. At this time, folk songs are often accompanied by music. In the music accompaniment, it is very touching to sing lively lyrics with different lengths. When Jing Ke set out from Yan State and went to Qin Mou to stab the king of Qin, he passed by Yishui. Gao Jianli played a bamboo stringed instrument called Zhu, and Jing Ke sang: "The wind is rustling and the water is cold, and a strong man will never return." Jing Ke's songs are in harmony with the tones played by Gao Jianli. It is said that the first one is "the voice of variation" ("variation" is a sad tone), and everyone cries when they hear it; After that, "feather sound for Heng" ("feather sound" is an impassioned tone), everyone listened, their eyes widened and their hair seemed to stand on end. This is a folk song in the south, which is tortuous and pleasant to listen to.
It is said that when Chu Qing was the assistant to the king, the Hubei gentleman was clearly boating in the new waves. As soon as the sound of the bell and drum stopped, the Vietnamese paddlers sang a song with 32 syllables in Vietnamese while paddled. Because E Jun couldn't understand it, he asked someone to translate it in Chu language, which became such a Chu saying: "What's the evening? Let's go to the middle of the continent." What day is today? in the same boat with the prince. I am ashamed that I am unworthy of my humble opinion. My heart was stubborn and restless, and I learned that the prince. There are trees in the mountains, and there are branches in the trees. I am happy that you don't know. "
The representative achievement of poetry in this period is The Songs of the South.
the name of "Chu ci" first appeared in Historical Records? Biography of Zhang Tang. It can be seen that this name already existed in the early Han Dynasty. Its original meaning, at that time, generally referred to the songs of Chu, and later became a proper name, referring to the new poetic style represented by Qu Yuan's creation in the Warring States Period. This style of poetry has a strong regional cultural color. For example, Huang Bosi, a Song Dynasty poet, said in "On the East View" that "all people write Chu language, write Chu sounds, remember Chu places and make Chu objects famous". At the end of the Western Han Dynasty, Liu Xiang collected the works of Qu Yuan and Song Yu, and the works of people in the Han Dynasty who imitated this poetic style. The title was "Songs of the South". This is another collection of poems with far-reaching influence in ancient China after The Book of Songs.
As Qu Yuan's Lisao is a masterpiece of Chu Ci, Chu Ci is also called "Sao" or "Sao Style". Apart from Li Sao, the main works in Songs of Chu include Nine Songs (including Emperor Taiyi, Jun in the Clouds, Xiang Jun, Mrs. Xiang, Priestess of Death, Shaosi Ming, Dongjun, Hebo, Shan Gui and National Mourning).
writing
China's ancient writing had artistic flavor in the Yin and Zhou Dynasties. In addition to the "carved words" carved with a knife, Oracle Bone Inscriptions in the Yin Dynasty also wrote "calligraphy words" with a pen. The inscriptions on bronzes in the Western Zhou Dynasty should be written before casting. Many of these works have beautiful fonts, although they were all written by unknown calligraphers at that time.
At the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, people began to make the writing artistic consciously. For example, at the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, countries such as Wu, Yue, Cai and Chu often engraved fine arts fonts on weapons used for ceremonial purposes. It was just the opposite of the sloppy font at that time, trying to be neat and beautiful, or adding some dots to the strokes, or pretending to be twists and turns, or adding bird-shaped decorations to the strokes. This is the origin of "bird seal", "insect seal" or "Miao seal". In 1965, the sword of Gou Jian, the king of Yue, was found in the Chu tomb in Jiangling, Hubei Province. The whole body of the sword was covered with diamond-shaped dark lines, with the inscription "The sword of the king of Yue is shallow and self-acting". In 1977, a bronze sword was found in the tomb of the Warring States Period in Heshimiao, Yiyang County, Hunan Province. On both sides, the inscription "Self-acting Sword of Yuewangzhou Sentence (that is, Zhu Sentence)" was cast, all in this bird seal script.
in the warring States period, characters were frequently and widely used among the people, and simplified and sloppy fonts were popular in large numbers. Not only the change of font is very significant, but also the phenomenon of abnormal characters between different regions is very prominent. At that time, the characters on seals, coins and pottery, the engraving on bronze weapons, the names of workers engraved on bronzes, and bamboo slips and silk books unearthed in recent years were all sloppy fonts, which were obviously different from the neat inscriptions on bronze ritual vessels. Generally speaking, the neat fonts on the important bronze ware at that time still followed the traditional writing method since the Western Zhou Dynasty, while the sloppy fonts on the general daily utensils were created by the people everywhere at that time. Because of the free creation of local people, the writing of characters is very inconsistent, and even the radicals are different, resulting in the phenomenon of "abnormal characters" in the Seven Kingdoms, as Xu Shen said in the Han Dynasty.
There were no proper names of fonts in the Warring States period, but in actual use, neat and sloppy fonts were formed. One kind of neatness is the origin of seal script; The sloppy one can be called "grass seal script" or "ancient official script", which is the transition from seal script to official script. Take Qin as an example. When Shang Yang reformed, the inscription on Shang Yang Fang Sheng was neatly written, which was a traditional seal script since the Western Zhou Dynasty. However, the engraving on "Da Liang Zao Upset" is very hasty and belongs to the font of Cao Zhuan. The two jade seals (unearthed from the Qin tomb in Fenghuang Mountain, Jiangling) in the reign of King Zhao of Qin Dynasty are both written as "Lingxian", one is Xiao Zhuan, and the other is Cao Zhuan, which is close to official script. The radical of "Lingxian" has been written as "three points of water" instead of "water". In the late Warring States period, the inscription of "Gao Nuhe Shi Tongquan" in Qin Dynasty was already in official script, and the word "nu" and the word "Zao" were both in official script. Before Qin Shihuang completed the unification, in fact, both Xiao Zhuan and Li Shu had existed for a long time. The inscription of "New Tiger Symbol" was Xiao Zhuan, while the silk book "Way for Officials" unearthed in Yunmeng Sleeping Tiger Land in Hubei Province was close to Li Shu. The biggest difference between official script and seal script is to change the round pen into Fang Bi and the arc line into a straight line, so that the writing speed can be accelerated.
Many important bronze inscriptions in the Warring States period used neat seal script, which paid attention to beauty. For example, the chimes made in South Korea in the early Warring States period were all marked with squares, and neat seal characters were written in the squares, which was very beautiful. The bronze inscriptions unearthed from the tomb of the king of Zhongshan in Pingshan, Hebei Province are also neat seal scripts. This is the origin of calligraphy. Later, Qin Shihuang also used this method to unify the national characters. In addition to the extensive use of official script, many characters on carved stones and important bronzes were written in seal script, which was also neat and beautiful. According to legend, Li Si is a calligrapher, whose name is Gong Zhuan, and many stone carvings and twelve inscriptions of "Zhong Li Jin Ren" are written by him (Shui Jing? River note "cited Wei Heng" Syria seal "). From then on, as a calligraphy art and as an application tool, the characters followed their own paths and developed forward.
In terms of art
The works of art in the Warring States period can be roughly divided into four categories: first, bronzes (with gold and silver inlaid and bronze mirrors); second, sculpture works of art; third, painting works of art; and fourth, other handicrafts, including lacquerware, jade articles and pottery.
in the archaeological discoveries in China in the past 5 years, a large number of works of art in the warring States period, including bronzes, tiles, jades, lacquerware and pottery, have been unearthed in Liyu village, Hunyuan, Shanxi province, Yixian county, Tangshan, Huixian county, Ji county, Luoyang Jincun village, Linzi, Anhui province, and Changsha, Hunan province. From these artworks, people can get a glimpse of the artistic achievements in the Warring States period.
first of all, achievements in bronze ware.
From the Zhao artifacts unearthed in Liyu, Hunyuan, Yan artifacts unearthed in Tangshan, Hebei, Wei artifacts unearthed in Huixian, Korean artifacts unearthed in Jincun, Luoyang, Cai artifacts and Chu artifacts unearthed in Shouxian, Anhui, and Qi and Qin artifacts unearthed in various places, the manufacturing time is mostly from the end of the Spring and Autumn Period to the Warring States Period, but they basically have some similarities: First, the shapes, decorative themes and decorative methods are similar. The decorative part tends to be three-dimensional and realistic animal sculpture, and the decorative pattern is the most common one, but there are many different ways to deal with it. Secondly, in casting technology, the through-carving decoration may have been cast by wax pattern method, and the pattern is printed on the original mold of bronze ware by simple suppression method (not on the pattern), and the composition of copper and tin also has a new proportion. Third, the style of bronzes is gorgeous and magnificent, which is highlighted in the inlaid objects such as gold and silver. Metals such as gold, silver and copper or minerals such as turquoise, crystal, jade and agate are filled or inlaid in the gaps of bronze patterns, resulting in multi-color effects.
bronze mirrors in the warring States period were found in Chu state and its neighboring areas. Round bronze mirrors (a few of which are square) can be polished on the front and have well-organized and complete patterns on the back. These patterns are often Yun Leiwen or fantasy animal patterns that rotate vertically on the dense background patterns. The upper and lower layers show a contrast effect due to different reflections. The bronze mirror pattern in the Warring States Period is one of the typical patterns in China. In order to make the mirror surface smooth and delicate, a small amount of lead is often added to the alloy in the copper border of the Warring States period, so the pattern on the back is particularly neat and clear.
Secondly, achievements in sculpture.
Sculpture works in the Warring States period have the ability to express trends and begin to depict facial expressions. For example, the wooden figurines unearthed in Changsha and the bronze statue of Hu Nv unearthed in Luoyang. Another example is the monkey-shaped and parrot-shaped bronze ornaments unearthed in Changzhi watershed, Shanxi Province, a variety of squatting and kneeling bronze figures unearthed in Jincun Village, Luoyang, and a pair of frogs about to jump into the water on the copper washing of gold and silver staggered moire and animal patterns, all of which show the real state of action. There are also gold and silver animal heads, dragon heads unearthed in Jincun, Luoyang, and animal head-shaped ornaments unearthed in Huixian, all of which use exaggerated techniques, and at the same time use different colors of metal to decorate, which has achieved very vivid results.
Third, achievements in painting.
Han Feizi records that the painter spent three years painting a basket for Zhou Jun. In a certain light, we can see that "dragons and snakes, beasts, chariots and horses, and everything in the painting are equipped", which is obviously the main theme of decorative paintings in the Warring States period. Qu Yuan, a poet of Chu, had seen the fantastic mythical pictures of "Heaven and Earth, Mountains and Rivers, Gods, Qi Wei, and Monsters of Ancient Sages" in the murals of the Temple of the King of Chu and the ancestral temple of Gongqing before he wrote "Tian Wen". Lu Ban, a famous craftsman in ancient times, used his feet to draw an image of "I feel careful" that he knew he was ugly and didn't want people to see him. The painter of the State of Qi respected the king, painted a nine-stage platform for the king of Qi, and could not go home. He painted a portrait of his wife to console himself, so that his wife was taken away by the king of Qi. Qi Wangke thinks that it is difficult to paint dogs and horses that people are familiar with, and it is difficult to paint ghosts that people have never seen before. This shows the development of painting art at that time.
Among the paintings in the Warring States period, the silk painting "Dragon and Phoenix Ladies" unearthed in Changsha is the representative. There are trees, Mercedes-Benz chariots and horses, hunting and other scenes on the painted lacquer tomb unearthed in Changsha. It shows the composition ability of painting art at that time. Other scenes, such as hunting pots with gold and silver, chariots and animals on bronze medals, also showed the general level of painting at that time to some extent. Other works include "Bronze Pot with Warfare Patterns on Land and Water Attacks" unearthed in Jixian County, which is hidden in the Forbidden City, with music playing, archery, palace scenes and nine kinds of battle scenes; There is also the engraved bronze Jian of Yanle Shooting and Hunting unearthed in Huixian County.
fourth, other technological achievements.
The lacquerware unearthed in the Warring States period is also very outstanding. In addition to the above-mentioned lacquered cases of the characters in the painting stories, the lacquered shield, the bird dish, the three-phoenix and two-phoenix dishes, the painted lacquered paintings and poems unearthed in Changsha are the earliest and complete works. It is very common to use linen to make tires with bamboo, with uniform and clean paint and bright colors (red and black). The pattern composition is extremely ingenious and exquisite, the lines are as thin as hair, or symmetrical and thick, and the description technology has reached a high level. Lacquerware patterns and bronze mirror patterns in the Warring States period have the same important position.
in addition, jade craft has also made outstanding achievements. Yu Pei, jade bi and all kinds of animal-shaped jade ornaments unearthed in Jincun, Luoyang, Dahuanghuang, carved jade inlaid with beads, silver hooks and jade parrots unearthed in Huixian are the best in ancient jade crafts. The discovery of semi-finished products with jade craft in Jincun can help us understand its making process. But the ancient jade-making technology is still a mystery to people today.
Clothing
Men's clothing in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty is similar to that in the Western Zhou Dynasty, and it generally follows the clothing system of the Shang Dynasty, with a slight change. The style of clothes is slightly looser than that of Shang Dynasty. Clothing styles are characterized by right-crotch, narrow sleeves, ankle length, more waist straps, and some are long and seated. There are two types of sleeves, the collar is generally rectangular, but there is no button yet, usually tied at the waist.