From the seventh year of the Renzong Heavenly Saint, the applicant had to pay fifty policies, and after that, it became customized, and the edict of the seventh year of the Heavenly Saint said: "(Those who should be virtuous and good and square six subjects) are still advanced in the fifty articles of karmic policy, and the pavilion gate or attached to the submission, the commission of the two systems to see in detail." It is mainly centered on the well-preserved Renzong Dynasty Section. And because the sage Fangzheng can bluntly say that the establishment time of the extreme department is the longest and has the greatest influence, so it is often used "virtuous" to refer to the department, so the scholar often refers to the system volume as "virtuous into the volume", and this article also uniformly uses "virtuous into the volume" in the title.
Although the Northern Song Dynasty frequently issued edicts, the imperial examination was only held twenty-one times, and only forty people were enrolled. Among these subjects and firsts, most of the virtuous scrolls have not been handed down, and only Zhang Fangping, Chen Shunyu, Su Shi, Su Zhi, and Li Qingchen have been preserved in the more complete volumes. However, there are also some people who have not succeeded in making the subject, but the entry volume is completely preserved, such as Li Mi and Qin Guan's entry volume.
Although not many of the virtuous scrolls of the Northern Song Dynasty have been completely preserved, the above are all influential figures in the cultural circles of the Northern Song Dynasty, (Li Qingchen enjoyed a high reputation in the literary circles of the Song Dynasty, and his gradual oblivion in the society of future generations was mainly related to the fact that he was a member of the New Party.) We can get a glimpse of the relationship between the Northern Song Dynasty and literature by studying their virtuous scrolls.
For example, Su Shi, Su Zhi, and Li Qingchen's entry volume are all policies and 25 articles each, while Li Mi and Qin Guan's entry volume adopts the structure of twenty treatises and thirty policies, and Zhang Fangping's entry volume is divided into nine topics, each topic is a thesis plus several policies, the structure is slightly different from others.
Applicants often add a "preface" at the beginning of the volume to explain their arrangement for entering the volume, and some will even summarize the main thrust of their own chapter, in short, this "preface" can enable readers to quickly understand the central meaning of the volume. Judging from the existing relatively complete volumes of the Northern Song Dynasty, most of them adopt the structure of strategy and half of the theory, and sometimes the strategy is slightly more than the discussion; There are often one or two "preamble" texts in the volume to explain the arrangement of the volume.
From the content point of view, the Jin Theory pays more attention to the scriptures and history, and the Jin Policy pays more attention to the core issues such as kings, ministers, soldiers, and Rong, although each volume has its own focus and expertise areas, but when these different periods of the volume generally focus on some common issues in content, their value as a whole is particularly worthy of attention.
Zhang Fangping and Chen Shunyu's virtuous advance volume shows the characteristics of more emphasis on current affairs, so their "advance theory" does not show the characteristics of regularity in content like several others, so we will not include the two in the scope of discussion for the time being. In this way, the theories of Ersu and Li Qingchen have very consistent similarities in content, focusing on scriptures and historical figures, while Qin Guan's theories are completely historical figures. It can be said that the advance theory in the volume of the Northern Song Dynasty focuses more on scripture and history.
Let's look at "Advance Policy". Strategies generally put forward some targeted opinions on specific matters, but the Northern Song Dynasty's science and technology progress policies have a striking consistency in content: the topics of jun, ministers, soldiers, and rong are topics that all advance strategies participate in discussion, which is about related to the reality that the Song court was seriously redundant and redundant during the Renzong period, and border defense was a headache for the entire Song Dynasty.
Carefully reading each of the virtuous volumes, we can easily find that these strategies and theories are not simply listed together to form a sufficient number of volumes, but are systematic and hierarchical. Taking Su Shi's virtuous advance volume as an example, the advance strategy is divided into three categories: strategy, strategy and decision, each major category is further divided into subcategories, strategy is five, strategy is three, strategy is divided into four sub-categories of hundred officials, An Wanmin, thick goods and wealth, and training brigade, and there are gradings under each subcategory, under the class hundred officials there are six themes of strict legal prohibition, suppressing luck, decisive defeat, full-time envoy, no blame, and no depression, An Wanmin under the six themes of dun education, persuasion and harmony, equal household registration, more military service, teaching war guards, and going to traitors, and thick goods and wealth are divided into two subcategories: provincial expenses and military system. The training brigade is divided into three subcategories: storage of materials, military training and bravery. It can be seen that Su Shi's strategy structure is very rigorous, perfect, and has a strong sense of layering.
Not only that, the advanced theory is also distinct, divided into scripture theory and character theory, and the character theory first discusses the emperor, such as "On the First Emperor of Qin", "On Emperor Han Gao" and "On Emperor Wudi of Wei", and then discusses representative figures according to historical dynasties, in which when discussing ministers, it secretly follows the two "Treatises on Ministers", so that "Treatise on Ministers" has a general role. It is also worth noting that although Su Shi's theory discusses characters according to historical times, if we look at "Zisi Theory", "Meng Ke", "Xun Qing", "Han Fei", "Yangxiong" and "Han Yu" together, we will find that they can also become a separate series, focusing on the issue of "sex". It can be seen that Su Shi's virtuous advance is not only systematic and hierarchical in structure, but also takes care and hooks in.
The virtuous volumes of the Northern Song Dynasty show the main characteristics of systematization and hierarchy, if not all of them have a perfect structure like Su Shi, and the number of fifty articles is enough for the entrant to develop all aspects of elaboration, often a virtuous volume systematically expresses the author's main ideas on governance, as well as his opinions on specific issues in various fields.
At the beginning of its establishment, the Song court faced the arduous task of reorganizing the discipline, and a group of social elites born in response to the call of the times paid attention to reality, participated in politics, revived Confucianism with a strong sense of historical mission and social responsibility, and actively reformed the style of writing. They blamed the decline of the literary style since the late Tang Dynasty to the decline of the way of the saints and the popularity of the Buddha's theory, and believed that the revival of the literary style also depended on the revival of the Confucian way, so the ancient literary movement of the Northern Song Dynasty was not only as simple as renewing poetry from the beginning, but also undertook the mission of reviving Confucianism. The Guwen movement of the Northern Song Dynasty roughly went through three stages:
The first stage, represented by Liu Kai and Wang Yuwei, mainly opposed the five-generation body of "sorrow is the mainstay, the wind does not return", and "the temperament is weakened, and it is reduced to contempt". The second stage was during the Xianping to Tiansheng period, represented by Shi Jie and Mei Yaochen, who opposed Yang Yi and Liu Jun's Western Kunti. The third stage, from Qingli to the second year of Jiayou, is represented by Ouyang Xiu, mainly opposing the sinister and jerky "Tai Xue Body".
In the three stages of the ancient text movement of the Northern Song Dynasty, two different ideas have always run through: one is represented by Liu Kai, Shi Jie, Sun Fu, etc., emphasizing the road and light writing; One is represented by Wang Yuwei, Yin Su, Ouyang Xiu, etc., which advocates linking the revival of the ancient road with the practice of political reform, and completing the change of literary style through political innovation. Liu Kai and Shi Jie talked about moral life in vain, but Ouyang Xiu opposed this practice of "talking high and ignoring facts", believing that the atmosphere of empty talk about moral life was contrary to the purpose of Gu Daoli Shizemin. Ouyang Xiu even gave the practitioner a sense of responsibility to worry about the world, and took this as the fundamental purpose of retro.
The Northern Song Dynasty's virtuous entry into the volume was due to its institutional requirements, not to mention the content of the "treatise," and the style of "policy" alone had the inherent requirement of paying attention to reality and "worrying about the world." Moreover, the morale of the person who should be raised, the straightforward and upright character, and the feeling of worrying about the country and the people reflected in the scroll are all in line with the spirit of the ancient text movement advocated by Ouyang Xiu.
The ultimate goal of Ouyang Xiu and other innovative styles of time and literature is to cultivate the thinking of a generation of scholars and doctors who worry about the country and the people, their straightforward and upright character, and the talents that can be used in time and in the form of their articles, so they do not radically oppose "literary style" like Liu Kai and Shi Jie, but adopt a more accessible attitude. They paid more attention to the content of reform articles, requiring them to pay attention to reality and reflect people's livelihood, so that literature could also play the role of "worrying about the world and dangering the master" in the world of peace. Because he adopts an accessible attitude towards the expression of literature, the ancient texts advocated by Ouyang Xiu attach equal importance to literary quality, paying attention to both the critical nature of the article and the literary brilliance of the article.
After Jiayou used the science field to suppress the Tai Xue style in the second year, the ancient literary movement of the Northern Song Dynasty had been declared successful, and the style of plain and easy classics began to become a collective feature of Song Dynasty prose. Traces of the development of the ancient literary movement of the Northern Song Dynasty can also be seen in the Xianliang scrolls of the Northern Song Dynasty, Zhang Fangping, Li Miao, and Chen Shunyu's Xianliang Scrolls have a simple style, while the Xianliang Scrolls of Su Shi, Su Zhi, Li Qingchen, and Qin Guan begin to show brilliant literary brilliance, and their Xianliang Scrolls are often used as models for article reviews. The reason for this difference is probably related to Ouyang Xiu becoming the suzerain of articles, changing the style of writing, and advocating ancient texts that attach equal importance to literary quality.
The virtuous book requires great thought, emphasis on rules, emphasis on structure, and advocating a doctrine of its own, while at the same time being oriented to reality. Before the entry of the Northern Song Dynasty Xianliang into the volume, such a systematic "large" work expounding views was only the pre-Qin Zishu, and then with the popularity of other collections, the sub-books became less and less. The Northern Song Dynasty Xianliang Scroll is very similar to the writing tradition of the pre-Qin Zishu because of its institutional regulations and restrictions on writing content, not only that, but because of its single circulation and writers often enjoy a high reputation in the literary and political circles, coupled with the characteristics of the Song people's "Liyan", the imitation of the Xianliang Scroll has become a custom, which makes the writing tradition of Zishu revived to a certain extent in the Song Dynasty.
Most of the Xianliang scrolls of the Northern Song Dynasty that have been preserved to this day are after the Tiansheng Year of Renzong, and after the Tianshen, the ancient text movement of the Northern Song Dynasty has achieved certain results, and the Xikun body that blindly praises the Taiping can not meet the requirements of the rising scholar to pay attention to the actual people's livelihood, reform the content of the article, and abandon useless false rhetoric has become the theme of the times, and the simple and pragmatic Xianliang entry volume of Zhang Fangping, Li Mi and Chen Shunyu is the result of the development of the ancient text movement in this period.
After the second year of Jiayou, Ouyang Xiu established the style of ancient literature and at the same time, he paid attention to the literary brilliance of the article, so the virtuous scrolls of Su Shi, Su Zhi, Li Qingchen and Qin Guan that appeared after this presented the characteristics of equal literary quality, which was also the result of the development of the ancient literary movement of the Northern Song Dynasty.
The Xianliang scrolls of the Northern Song Dynasty are similar to the writing tradition of the pre-Qin Zishu because of their large and thoughtful style, emphasis on rules, and systematic elaboration in the writing format, and they should be in line with the development of the ancient text movement in terms of writing content and style, plus they created a trend of imitation in the Song Dynasty, so Zhu Gang's comment that the Northern Song Xianliang Scroll is a recreation of the pre-Qin Zishu tradition in the spirit of the ancient text movement is pertinent.
Since the virtuous entry into the volume is not a private writing, but to be submitted to the imperial court and participated in the evaluation, even if the writer does his best to write the rhetoric, his basic style must be easy to reach, not obscure. However, the virtuous scrolls, which are based on ease and access, also show colorful characteristics. This section intends to focus on Su Shi's Advance Scroll to examine how the Scroll Entrant shows his personality in the formal writing of serious subjects.
Su Shi believed that learning how to discuss the interests and harms should be regulated by the "Warring States Policy"; To learn how to talk about gains and losses, it is necessary to read more chapters by Jia Yi, Chao Guo, Zhao Chongguo and others. And his virtuous entry volume is the excellent result of learning "Warring States Policy" and learning Jia Yi.
A major feature of Su Shi's virtuous volume as a whole is that it is rich in content. Taking his theory of advancement as an example, the twenty essays on characters seem to be the same from the title, but in fact the main thrust is different. The "Treatise on the First Emperor of Qin" emphasizes the necessity of "propriety", and the "Treatise on the Emperor of Han Gao" discusses how subordinates should speak to the monarch, each of which chooses a different perspective, grasps different aspects of historical figures, and unfolds its own unique discussion. Because he does not have a clear, consistent theme and principle, his introduction appears to be extremely rich.
When Su Shi uses metaphors, he also likes to use "human feelings" as analogies to derive his conclusions, which makes the argumentation process of the article natural and more likely to resonate. Here, Su Shi compares the villain to a fever, and the Han and Tang Dynasty's behavior of hitting the villain "hitting it and winning and the country dies" to going to the epilepsy, causing it to collapse and die, which makes the original alternative view have a reasonable and vivid basis, making people suddenly realize.
The so-called "high and low, like a dragon and snake can not be caught", that is, the article should not be too plain, it must be unexpected, pay full attention to the reading effect of the text, and seize the reader's attention. It is undeniable that Su Shi's brilliant and brilliant virtuous entry volume is indeed the best reading effect among all the incoming volumes. Many article critics have paid enough attention to the Xianliang Volume, and in terms of planning papers, Xianliang has almost become a model for future generations of scholars to learn, and this exemplary role is not only reflected in the history of article criticism, but also in the way of reading and writing habits.
The writing method of virtuous writing is worthy of attention to the shaping of the author's knowledge structure. In order to cultivate the ability to be suitable for writing into the volume, Shi Dafu should read all kinds of classics extensively and deeply, and form a set of doctrines that are basically self-contained through independent thinking. This has a certain impact on reading styles and reading habits.
A passage when Su Shi instructed Wang Xiang to respond to the action illustrates this problem. The method of recording the history of famous books and "program text" mentioned by Su Shi should be a relatively common reading method when preparing for the scientific examination. When Fan Zhongyan recommended Fu Bi Ying Xianliang, he also opened a room for him, which was also known as "big subject" in the Song Dynasty, and Fu Bi said that he had never studied the big subject, which shows that the examination content and revision methods of the subject are different from those of Jin Shi Subject. And Fan Zhongyan specially opened a room for it, and prepared a large subject text, which shows that there is also a method for the review of the big subject. I think that Fan Zhongyan's learning method to guide Fu Yi should be the same as Su Shi said, but it is just to record the history of famous books and make some "program text".
However, Su Shi believed that these practices were really useless, and that he should read the classics extensively and deeply, and although this method seemed clumsy, "he learned every day, suffered enemies on all sides, and was not the same as the dabbling in the world." It can be seen that Su Shi thinks that he also recorded the history of the number of names like others back then, and the practice of practicing "program text" was just a dabbling in the classics, and the method of reading each book and focusing on only one point each time, although it was also done for the sake of studying, was much more solid than extensive reading without delving into it. Moreover, even for the purpose of responding to the example, such an in-depth reading method has objectively had some good effects on the reader's reading style and habits.
Not only that, people who have written virtuous and entered the volume will also form a special writing habit. Zhu Gang said: "The virtuous book requires great thinking, emphasizing rules, paying attention to structure, advocating the doctrine of self-containment, and at the same time targeting reality. Su Zhi wrote the Xianliang Jin Scroll when he was in his twenties, and in his later years, he also wrote five volumes of the "Treatise on the Chronicles", a total of 45 articles, which are very similar in form to the Xianliang Jin Scroll. This kind of "large" systematic writing cannot but be said to be uninfluenced by the virtuous writing of youth.
The Northern Song Dynasty demanded fifty policies after seven years of Tianshen, which were known as the "Virtuous Scrolls". Most of the Xianliang volumes of the Northern Song Dynasty adopted a structure of half of the strategy and half of the discussion, and there were often one or two "preface" texts to explain the arrangement of the volumes. In terms of content, the theory pays more attention to scripture and history, while the theory pays more attention to core issues such as kings, ministers, soldiers, and soldiers.
The overall value of the Northern Song Dynasty Xianliang scroll is more noteworthy, and the reason why it can become a representative of Shidafu literature is precisely because it recreated the pre-Qin Zishu tradition in the spirit of the ancient text movement, so that the writing tradition of Zishu was revived to a certain extent in the Song Dynasty. At the same time, with Jiayou as the node, the virtuous entry volume before Jiayou advocated simplicity, and the virtuous entry volume after Jiayou added a lot of literary brilliance, and even became a model for future generations of article criticism, which is related to the ancient text movement to the Jiayou period led by Ouyang Xiu, advocating the writing concept of equal literary quality. The virtuous advance scroll of the Northern Song Dynasty not only reflects the development process of the ancient text movement, but also the excellent result of the development of the ancient text movement, and the brilliance of Su Shixianliang's entry volume is an example.