From the Ming and Qing Dynasties to the present age, almost all the ancient prose anthologies have chosen the book On Qin (I), so there are many comments on it by predecessors. For example, Yao Nai, a poet in A Qing, rated it as a "majestic and grand boss" in A Collection of Ancient Literary Words, and Wu Kaisheng, a close friend, rated it as "a book full of attention, like a book", summing up the opinions of most critics, mainly saying that this article is full of momentum and is the first "sheng" article in ancient and modern times. Therefore, Wu Kaisheng's views are more representative.
From the linguistic point of view, the so-called lively articles often use parallelism or antithesis sentences, and this article is no exception (for example, the second paragraph, from So Six Kingdoms, uses the word "you" first and runs through the next three sentences, and lists a large number of names, that is, parallelism; For example, the following four sentences, every two sentences in pairs, are antithesis. There are compound sentence and antithetical sentences, such as the beginning saying that Qin Xiaogong "swept the world, embraced the universe, embraced the meaning of the four seas, and swallowed up the heart of eight famine". But this is only understood from the superficial phenomenon. In the famous classical prose, there are many articles that use parallelism or duality, but they are not necessarily full of vigor. For example, Kong Guizhi's "Northern Yi Shan Language" is full of sentences, even broken sentences, but it doesn't feel very angry to read. It can be seen that the use of parallelism and duality is only one of the factors to increase the vitality of the article, which belongs to external artistic skills and is not the main factor.
There are three reasons why this article is immortal, because it is vigorous and convincing. The first and most important thing is that although this article is a reasoning article, it takes 78% of the space to describe it. Narrative reasoning can be said to be the biggest feature of this article. The author summed up the history of more than 100 years from Qin Xiaogong to the demise of Qin, and expounded the whole process and main phenomena of the rise and fall of Qin. At the same time, it also runs through the author's own views to explain the key to its rise and fall. This helps us to have a clear understanding of this historical fact. Why does this feature make the article read with momentum? The key points are as follows: 1. The author can express rich content with concise pen and ink, which makes readers feel that a short article actually contains a lot of things, and naturally feels that the article is full and full, and the reading ideas naturally follow the author's pen, which will certainly appear "sheng"; Secondly, Jia Yi's description of the rise and fall of Qin is very organized. He grasped a vertical line, that is, from the rise of Qin Xiaogong to the demise of the Qin Dynasty, the articles were always arranged in chronological order. On the other hand, highlighting a certain point in a certain period of time enables people to see not only the "line", but also the "points" on the "line" described with strong colors. So you can't help pushing down and reading in the order arranged by the author. If he doesn't stop, neither can you. You can't touch the rest if he doesn't make trouble. So it also brings a strong feeling to people.
The second reason why readers feel that the article is full of vigor is another feature of this article: Jia Yi writes reasoning prose by writing fu. Writing Fu requires exaggeration, which Jia Yi can say is adopted throughout. For example, in paragraph 1, the words "sweeping the world", "sweeping", "included" and "annexed" are basically synonyms; "World", "Space", "Four Seas" and "Eight Famines" all mean the same thing. Writing several words with the same meaning in succession is both parallelism and duality, which is an exaggeration of writing fu. In the following paragraphs 2, 4 and 5, there are similar sentences, and the list is endless. The so-called "biography" mainly refers to such sentences. This natural momentum makes readers feel that the author's pen is sharp, aggressive, energetic, persuasive and unstoppable. This is because the author himself is a ci writer. As a writer, Jia Yi is not only a politician, but also a writer. As a work, On Qin also has the artistic characteristics of literary works.
There is a third reason, which is also the third characteristic of this article, that is, the author compares the whole article to the end to write his argument. There is nothing strange about the contrast, but the highlight of this paper lies in four aspects: namely, the contrast of Qin itself, which is first strong and then weak, first prosperous and then declining, and first prosperous and then extinct; Comparison between Qin and Six Countries: Comparison between Qin and Six Countries: Comparison between Chen She and Six Countries. Several contrasts are intertwined, and the structure is natural and magnificent, and the momentum is natural and majestic, and the words are more weighty. The difference between subjective and objective situations and the difficulty of ups and downs of strength are all manifested from several aspects of comparison. The reason why the article is full of gas is not difficult to understand.
The first three paragraphs are mainly written in three aspects: first, several generations of Qin have ambitions; Second, the strength of Qin is getting stronger and stronger; Third, because of Qin's strength, it is not very difficult to unify the world. 1 section emphasizes ambition, section 2 emphasizes strength, and section 3 emphasizes both. The layout and comparison of the whole article start from these three aspects, and the concrete facts run through it, drawing a big outline in general language, which makes the narrative content biased and has the author's own views. For example, "The Qin people surrendered to seize the Xijiang River", "The Price of Death" and the end of the third paragraph "The heart of the first emperor thought that Guanzhong was solid, the golden city was thousands of miles away, and the descendants of emperors were also eternal industries", etc., all of which were extremely ambitious and powerful, and it was not difficult to write about the world. At the same time, the author also wrote another aspect, such as "Four Kings", "Teachers of Nine Countries" and "Scholars of Six Countries". The stronger the other side, the stronger the Qin dynasty. This is the way to celebrate the moon. But we feel that the more we write about the power of Qin, the more we see the arrogance and ignorance of Qin; The more you write about Qin's self-confidence, the more you see Qin's subjective one-sidedness; The greater my ambition to write about Qin, the shorter my vision of Qin. Although the author is talking everywhere, he is "preparing" for the discussion in the last paragraph everywhere. Such an article naturally feels full and hearty to read.
At the beginning of the third paragraph, there are only nine words: "the country is shallow, and the country has nothing to do." This is of course a fact. But it's not that there is nothing to write about. However, I don't intend to waste more ink here, but draw a vertical line that runs through all periods of Qin Dynasty. From the aspect of writing, an energetic article cannot but make people breathe. A dozen words at the beginning of the third paragraph made the whole article pause briefly. Gui Youguang, an ancient prose writer in the Ming Dynasty, once said that this is "like people exhaling" (see Gui Youguang's Historical Records Review). Of course, we can't look at the problem in a formalistic way, but insist on inserting a "window" in the article in one go; However, when the article is written here, there is naturally a chance to breathe. It is still necessary to "exhale", and people who learn to write should pay attention. (Perhaps the author's version of "enjoying the country is shallow, and the country has nothing to do" is located at the beginning of the third paragraph. )
The third paragraph is about Qin Shihuang: ambition and strength. But paragraph 3 is different from paragraph 2. The second paragraph is written on both sides by positive and negative contrast, and the third paragraph is written on the front, which vividly depicts the strength and ambition of Qin Shihuang. Write more and more. Even at the beginning of the fourth paragraph, there are still two sentences to be added: "The first emperor didn't, I was surprised by the strange customs." Wu Kaisheng criticized: "It is arrogant to add two more sentences." It's like pumping a ball or wheel to the maximum, and then adding two strokes, the natural ball or tire will burst. Later, he suddenly fell down and was written by Chen She, but he praised Chen She everywhere, which further shows that writing about the demise of the Qin Dynasty is really asking for trouble.
The last paragraph is "on" and "off". Several aspects are still compared and combined, and then a conclusion is drawn, which is the so-called "off". In order to make the conclusion more solemn, I mentioned Qin again and said it again, ending with "benevolence and righteousness are not applied but the offensive and defensive trends are different." Articles must be able to publish, collect, open and close, and start to look at skills. Jia Yi did this completely in this masterpiece.
Jin Shengtan added a comment to this article in Volume II of "Ancient Talents (Dynasty Part)": "Those who passed Qin also passed Qin. Guo Qin just broke the last sentence "benevolence and righteousness are not applicable", which is the full text. ..... As for the six countries mentioned in the first half, this is just a comparison with Qin; The mention of Qin in the second half is just a comparison with it, which is the most bizarre. " This is to the point.
This article really had a good influence at that time. As a scholar-bureaucrat, Jia Yi certainly made suggestions for the Han Dynasty from the standpoint of the feudal ruling class. However, he was able to recognize the power of the peasant uprising, and realized that the key to the demise of the Qin Dynasty was to lose people's hearts and trust in force too much. The feudal rulers were ambitious, abused the people and were finally eliminated by the people. With this understanding, the ruling class began to consider how to ease social contradictions in order to consolidate its ruling regime. This shows that the peasant uprising really pushed the wheel of historical progress. With Jia Yi's description, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty can really sum up the experience and lessons of the Qin Dynasty from prosperity to decline and from strength to weakness.
Abstract: The main idea of On Guo Qin is to analyze Guo Qin, which is divided into three parts: upper, middle and lower. In fact, it is an article, and the most widely circulated "Guo Qin Lun" is the first third of the articles. By reviewing the history of Qin's prosperity, it is pointed out that Qin's reform plan is strong, and it can win the world, but it can't protect it. In the second part, the mistakes after the unification of Qin dynasty are discussed in detail. This novella points out that Qin unified the world and ended years of war. Originally, the situation was good, but Qin Shihuang did not formulate correct policies, but burned books to bury Confucianism and ruled the world with tyranny. In the second year, the original mistakes could not be corrected and the country was finally overturned. In the second part of On Qin, the author points out that if Zi Ying can change its original wrong policy, and "close the door to Eritrea" and "defend with halberds", it will be able to hold the land of Sanqin, and then "help the people", and Xu Tu will develop and even restore national unity. Unfortunately, the Qin Dynasty.