On the Connotation of Fang Bao's:"The Anecdotes of Zuo Zhongyi Esquire":Emotion-Reason Conflict,Political Implications and Truth-Seeking Narrative Strategies
Fang Bao's prose"The Anecdotes of Zuo Zhongyi Esquire"is a masterpiece of the Tongcheng School,which has always been highly praised by anthologists.It is regarded as a wonder-ful practice of Fang Bao's theories of"Purport and Method","Elegance and Terseness"and other creation theories.Zuo Guangdou is a famous fighter against eunuchs in the late Ming Dynasty,for whom biographies have been written before Fang Bao's article.The subtle differences between Fang Bao's essay and those of his predecessors precisely show that this essay breaks through Fang Bao's theory of prose.This contradiction between theory and practice is actually a conflict of emotion and reason,and is a natural contradiction inherent in Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism that Fang Bao be-lieved in.This prose interacts with Dai Mingshi's"The Biography of Zuo Zhongyi Esquire",writing about Zuo Guangdou and his disciple Shi Kefa,which actually contains a common political implica-tion of memorializing the former dynasty.In addition,this article adopts the unique genre of"anec-dotes"used in historical books,indicating Fang Bao's intention to differentiate himself from the ex-isting biographies.The opening phrase is echoed in the concluding paragraph,explaining that the source of the"anecdotes"is reliable,increasing the authenticity and credibility of the incidents de-scribed in this article.In the past,it was thought that the first sentence"the former gentleman once said"was only an introduction to the matter of wearing clothes on the snowy day,which was really a misunderstanding.Fang Bao's other articles on"anecdotes"are sufficient evidence for this.Accord-ing to Qian Zhongshu,this claim about the origin of the anecdotes may also be fictitious.
"The Anecdotes of Zuo Zhongyi Esquire"emotion-reason conflictpolitical implicationtruth-seekingnarrative strategy
NETL
NSTL
万方数据
