Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No.6, 2018

Changes in Writing Culture and the Rise of Scholar Literature: Centered on the Spring and Autumn Annals and Its Early Interpretation

(Abstract)

Cheng Sudong

The early commentaries on the Spring and Autumn Annals, represented by the Gongyang school, range from the Warring States period to the early Han. They established a system of textual interpretation based on “writing by private persons” which not only established the image of the author but also once again endowed writing with rich cultural connotations. This became an important way in which scholars preserved and passed down Confucian orthodoxy while at the same time realizing their own values. Unlike the formulaic official writing rooted in the tradition of court culture, this private writing emphasized the independent presentation of individual values and promoted a personal writing style; readers needed to grasp this personal mode of writing to appreciate the author’s intentions. Looking at the overall scene of early literary development, one can see that a series of innovative modes of reading and interpretation revolving around the Spring and Autumn Annals had become a seedbed for early literary theory, profoundly influencing the establishment of the scholar-gentry literary tradition in terms of textual functions, forms and reception. This phenomenon merits the attention of students of literary history.