The Spring and Autumn Warring States period was an era of severe turmoil, and the development of productive forces, the reform of the political system, the frequency of annexation wars, and the changes in social customs promoted academic activities and a situation of a hundred schools of thought contended. Together with the historical prose of the time, the prose of the Hundred Sons and Hundred Schools formed a spectacular pre-Qin prose trend and replaced the status of poetry.
The prose of the pre-Qin Zhuzi includes "Analects", "Mencius", "Mozi", "Xunzi", "Zhuangzi", "Han Feizi", etc., which are extremely rich in content, mainly expounding the political propositions and academic views of the hundred families of the Zhuzi, so they are called the Zhuzi prose as philosophical prose. Among them, the most important are the four Confucian Taoist schools. Its form has a complete development process from simple to complex, initially a quotation-style question-and-answer body, such as "Analects", "Mozi", etc.; in Mencius, although there is still a form similar to "Analects", but more discussion has penetrated; and then into "Xunzi", "Zhuangzi", "Han Feizi", the question-and-answer body evolved into a complete argumentative essay.
The Analects are classics on which Confucianism is based, supporting China's feudal society for more than 2,000 years. It was written by a disciple of Confucius and records Confucius's political thought and other remarks on "serving the country with courtesy." Meng Ke, the author of Mencius, was a Confucian orthodox. He inherited Confucius's ideas of "practicing benevolent government" and "practicing the first king of the law", and at the same time put forward the political proposition that "the people are precious, the society is secondary, and the king is light". The author of "Mozi", Mo Zhai, was relatively close to the people among the pre-Qin sons, and he advocated both love and non-aggression, "to revitalize the interests of the world and eliminate the harm of the world." "Xunzi" was composed by the Zhao ren XunQing (famous), who first inherited the Confucian way, and then advocated the "King of the Law Queen", putting forward the idea that man must win the heavens, thinking that "praise from the heavens, and use them with the control of the heavens". This foresight inspired future generations in their struggle with the natural world. Lao Tzu, whose name was Li Er, wrote the Tao Te Ching, etc., and was the founder of Taoism. His disciple Zhuang Zhou, who wrote Zhuangzi, inherited and developed laozi's ideas. On the one hand, they exposed the ugly situation of the ruling class at that time, and on the other hand, they advocated escaping from reality, detaching from society and abandoning the struggle. Han Fei, the author of "Han Feizi", is a master of the Fa.
From the perspective of prose writing skills, Zhuzi prose has two main characteristics:
(1) Using fables and historical stories to illustrate the truth is the most commonly used method of expression. For example, The Cow of Ku Ding in Zhuangzi's "Health Lord", the Seedling Booster in Mencius's "Gongsun Ugly Shang", the Shou Zhu Waiting rabbit in Han Feizi's "Five Beetles", the Ji Chang Xue Shooting in Liezi's "Tang Question", and the Yugong Moving Mountain are all examples of being good at using image metaphors to illustrate profound truths.
(2) The combination of discussion and narrative is also an important means of expression. For example, "Zhuang Tyrannical Sees Mencius" ("Mencius"), which recounts Mencius's dialogue with Zhuang Tyrannosa and King Xuan of Qi, and explains the principle of "enjoying with the people". Another example is Mozi's "Gong Losing", which recounts the dialogue between Mozi and the King of Chu, and clarifies the principle of attacking the injustice of song. In addition, the complete structure of some articles, the rigor of reasoning, the variability of sentences, and the richness of imagination are also very influential on the development of later literature.
The prose styles of the Zhuzi Hundred Schools are different and varied, such as Meng Wenqing is fluent and fluent, the literary atmosphere is vast, the Xun wen is simple and simple, and the Korean is profound and clear. Among them, the most accomplished Dang Tui Zhuangzi, he takes a wide range of materials, rich imagination, romantic temperament, free writing, interesting, is the representative of the prose of the pre-Qin Zhuzi.