Ancient literature and its characteristics

The "ancient" here refers to the literature before the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. Frankly speaking, the greatest feature of literature in this period is simplicity. This is the result of the simultaneous restriction of language development and social development. The literary works of this period mainly record the important events of tribal countries, rather than express some emotions. An example to prove this view is that there are no function words used to express mood and sentence structure in this period. Almost all written records are written in the simplest sentence structure without any modification. "Words only express meaning" is described by Mr. Lu Xun.

At that time, there was a poem "Playing Songs":

This is China's earliest poetic style: two-character poems in classical poetry. According to the current terminology of Chinese grammar research, there are only three nouns and four nouns in the whole poem, and the poet connects these words according to the "subject-predicate" structure. In a few words, this poem depicts the picture of ancient working people shooting prey with bamboo slingshots.

According to modern archaeology, the earliest written document is Oracle Bone Inscriptions. Oracle Bone Inscriptions originated from an ancient way of divination. In ancient times, people believed that communicating with gods with charred tortoise shells and animal bones could be instructed and protected. At that time, the clergy in charge of divination were called "witches". They need to record the results of divination (called "divination") in words on the bones of animals, which is what modern people call Oracle Bone Inscriptions. Oracle Bone Inscriptions is regarded as priceless today, because it has rich archaeological value. I once had the honor to read an article about Oracle Bone Inscriptions excavated from the archaeological base in Joo Won?, which was translated into modern vernacular. It said that Zhou Wuwang had mobilized troops when he was cutting Zhou, and asked whether the mobilization was correct through divination. Divination images show that this transfer can bring victory to the war. The following facts prove that the divination image is correct, so it is engraved next to this animal bone. The translation of the article is very long, in fact, it is only twenty or thirty words, which shows that it is simple to use a pen. This reminds me of the legendary ancestor of Chu people, Xiong, who is the descendant of Vulcan Fuxi. He served as a "witch" during the cutting week and was in charge of divination in the army. He often used divination to inspire Zhou's army. Finally help King Wu win the war. This legend just shows that at the beginning of the establishment of the tribal alliance, the supreme ruler, in order to consolidate his dominant position, described his actions as providence, combined kingship with theocracy, made his rule mysterious and intimidated the ruled, thus consolidating the historical facts of his rule.

At the beginning of the establishment of the tribal alliance, an official recorded the words and deeds of the emperor and senior officials. Such officials are called "history". Historical Records records that "Cang Xie is also the history of the Yellow Emperor", and many people take this as evidence of Cangjie's word-making. But in any case, "Witch" and "History" have made indelible contributions to China literature, because they are the spirit of the times at that time and can be accurately and credibly passed on to future generations, so that future generations can see their true colors. Records of Historical Records were compiled into a special book called Book in the Spring and Autumn Period.