CHAPTER THREE

PROSE OF THE PRE-QIN AGE

Prose writings of the pre-Qin age were produced on the basis of all kinds of practical purposes, and involved various aspects of culture and thought in the society. Strictly speaking, pre-Qin prose writings are not literary works, but they nevertheless hold an important place in literary history. It is because such writings demonstrate the process of maturity of the written language of ancient times and the increase of its capability in expressing thought and feeling. In addition, one may say that in the early stage of literary history there is no clear dividing line between literature and non-literature; non-literary works often contain literary elements, and some of them are even of a strong literary nature, hence they have exerted an important influence on the later development of literature.

1. Historical Prose

We have mentioned previously that great differences existed among various pre-Qin historical works. Generally speaking, the literary elements in this kind of writing went through a process of gradual increase. For example, with the exception of the forged parts, The Doc- uments of High Antiquity, in its early stage, were entirely a collection of documents archived by official historians. On the other hand, the Intrigues of the Warring States, which took shape from during the last years of the Warring States period to the transitional period between the Qin and Han, already included many fictitious historical tales, and savored of fiction.

The Documents of High Antiquity and the Spring and Autumn Annals The Documents of High Antiquity is a collection of historical docu- ments, as well as some pieces in recollection of ancient events, from China’s remote antiquity. From the Spring and Autumn period to the Warring States period, it was known simply as the Documents (Shu). 52 chapter three

It was not until the Han dynasty when it came to be known as The Documents of High Antiquity. Confucians honored it as a classic, so it was also known as The Book of Documents. Originally The Documents of High Antiquity was known to have consisted of one hundred texts. After the burning of books during the Qin dynasty, only twenty-eight texts existed in the early Han. (Due to the difference of grouping, some believe that there should have been twenty-nine texts.) Because this version was written in the script of that age, it was known as The Docu- ments of High Antiquity in Contemporary Script. During the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han, a certain kind of The Documents of High Antiquity in Ancient Script was discovered, but was lost again shortly afterwards. During the Eastern Jin period, Mei Ze presented to the throne a kind of The Documents of High Antiquity in Ancient Script with fifty-eight texts, which turned into the most popular version of the book later and came to become the version included in The Thir- teen Classics with Annotations and Scholia. Thirty-three of the texts therein are tantamount to the twenty-eight in The Documents of High Antiquity in Contemporary Script; the other twenty-five were judged to be forgery in the research of Yan Ruoqu, a renowned scholar of the Qing dynasty, and were generally referred to as The Forged Documents of High Antiquity in Ancient Script. In recent years, however, with the discovery of more excavated documents, the authenticity of these texts has been called into question again. The “Pangeng” section in the extantThe Documents of High Antiq- uity is probably the earliest of all the texts. It is a record of the speech of Pangeng, the King of Yin, which he delivered to his subjects when he moved the capital. Notwithstanding its archaic and abstruse lan- guage, one can still feel, from time to time, Pangeng’s emotions and sharp eloquence during the speech, as in the following: I have not abandoned myself to vice and lost my virtue; only you people have held your good will and have not been in awe of me as a person. I am like a big fire, but I have refrained from using my force, accordingly you have become undisciplined. If a net is held by a head-rope, then it will be in good order and will not make a mess. If you are like the farm- ers, working hard in the fields, then you are also likely to have a good harvest in the autumn. Within a short speech, three analogies are used in a lively way. In addition, when Pangeng cautions his ministers, telling them not to instigate the people to oppose to the moving of the capital, he says that