Flowers of Literature Series - Ancient Part: Selected Prose of Zeng Gong

Author: Zeng Gong (Northern Song Dynasty)
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2005-05-01
Features: Ancient Chinese prose has a long and profound history, with deep roots and lush branches. Like poetry, it is one of the most important and distinctive literary forms in ancient Chinese literature, as well as a magnificent cultural treasure trove in the history of human civilization. To promote the excellent culture of the Chinese nation, inherit the fine traditions of ancient prose, and foster the prosperity and improvement of contemporary prose creation, as well as provide reference and appreciation for a broad readership, this series of "Ancient Chinese Prose" is compiled as a part of the "Hua Bai Prose Series." The scope of prose has evolved over time, differing between ancient and modern periods. The selected works in this series primarily consist of prose with strong literary qualities, such as lyrical and narrative styles. The selected authors range from the pre-Qin period to the Qing Dynasty, with each author's works compiled into separate volumes. The arrangement of essays in each book follows the chronological order of their composition, allowing readers to understand the development and evolution of prose creation.
Each book in the series is divided into two parts: one is an essay, and the other is prose. The essay part provides brief introductions to the authors' lives and literary activities, with a focus on analyzing and commenting on their prose creation ideas, particularly artistic characteristics, the development of their prose writing, and its influence. The prose part includes supplementary title explanations and annotations for each essay. The essay part aims to complement and enhance the prose part, helping readers achieve a rational understanding of the selected prose through the essays, while the selected prose deepens readers' intuitive understanding of the essays. This mutual reinforcement makes the series not only a collection of selected prose for reading but also, to some extent, a study of the authors and even a history of ancient prose, differing from general prose anthologies and general histories of ancient prose while possessing its own unique features.
The selected prose in each book includes representative masterpieces of the authors, as well as works from different periods, themes, and styles to reflect the development of the authors' prose writing. The title explanations not only interpret relevant words, specialized terms, and provide information on the writing time and sources but also offer concise comments on the background, ideological value, artistic characteristics, and artistic techniques of the works. The annotations primarily focus on explaining difficult characters, words, allusions, official titles, artifacts, names, and places. For important or uniquely used terms, references to sources or examples are provided to help readers understand not only "what" but also "why."
Zeng Gong, styled Zi Gu, was a native of Nanfeng County, Jianchang Prefecture, in the Northern Song Dynasty, later known as the Master of Nanfeng. His prose works are grounded in classical principles, express scholarly intent, blend narration and commentary, convey profound meaning in simple language, present detailed narratives, maintain clear logic, employ graceful and flexible writing, and adopt winding and elegant styles. Among the thirty prose works selected in this book, "Postscript to the Biography of Wei Zhenggong" is excerpted from "The Collected Sayings of the Eight Great Masters of the Tang and Song Dynasties," while the rest are selected from the《》 of the "Four Treasures of the Chinese Library." This book strives to include Zeng Gong's various representative works, hoping to provide a glimpse of the author's thoughts and creative style. The editors have used a parallel format of classical and vernacular Chinese, a first of its kind, to facilitate reading and reference for the readers.