Codification of Composition Structures in the Works of Jin Shentan: Interrelation of Historical Records by Sima Qian and the Novel The Water Margin by Shi Nai’an
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Abstract
The research works of the prominent literary critic Jin Shentan, the scientist who laid the foundation for the research and codification traditions of literary works composition features in the Baihua language, are analyzed in the article. Composition structures or laws of creating a text represent an original aesthetic phenomenon in the national and cultural space of the Chinese literary texts; studying this phenomenon reveals the ideological, aesthetic and stylistic originality of ancient Chinese literature.
The works of Jin Shentan determined the value and contemporary meaning, the ideological and aesthetic components and the significance of literary works; they also showed the imitation of the traditional text composition structures on the examples of research of the chronicle Historical Records and the novel The Water Margin. The composition structure analysis of the chronicle Historical Records and the novel The Water Margin verifies that the linguistic imitation traditions of the literary works of past centuries are the main operating mechanism for preserving and passing on the stylistic norms.
The article reviews biographical information about Jin Shentan and underlines his research interests and achievements, as well as their significance for understanding basic linguistic phenomena of Chinese classical literature. Due to the detailed analysis of literary and historical texts, paying attention to detail and classifying their compositional aspects, Jin Shentan identified such compositional structures as the inversion method (倒插法), the storytelling method (夾敘法), “Snakes in grass and Threads in ashes” method (蛇灰线法), “Ink Spot” method (大落墨法), “Needle in Cotton and Thorn in Clay” method (綿針泥刺法), “Backside Powder Coating” method (裏面鋪粉法), “Wedged Citation” method (弄引法), “Otter Tail” method (獺尾法), “Impossible Contraction” method (極不省法), “Mountain Cloud Refraction” method (橫雲斷山法), etc. The main achievement of Jin Shentan’s research works is illustrating the correlation between historical literature and literary works, as well as creating the basis for further investigation and preservation of the composition structures of Chinese classical literature.
How to Cite
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Jin Shentan, composition structures, codification, stylistics, ancient Chinese language, classical Chinese prose, linguistic features
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