Abstract Han Yu in the Tang Dynasty advocated classical prose and promoted the stylistic reform,which was of great significance in Chinese literature history .However,classical prose did not prevail .After the period of Han Yu and his followers,parallel prose became popular again in Chinese literary .Ornate diction had been the main feature of prose until the beginning of the Song Dynasty .Ouyang Xiu,imitating Han Yu,continued to promote poetry and prose reformand finally was able to establish writing patterns : classical prose as the predominant prose writing style,parallel prose as the practical writing style .Ouyang combined classical prose with parallel prose and created Song Parallel Prose,which was different from Tang Parallel Prose .Ornate diction was not advocated in his Parallel Prose and even rhythm was not applied in some prose .Therefore,the Song Parallel Prose gradually lost its aesthetic features in rhyme scheme,tonal pattern and literary quotation,all of which were hallmarks of traditional parallel prose .Noticing these weaknesses,Wang Anshi strictly kept to the rules of parallel prose and modified the Song Parallel Prose by quoting classical idioms .But Wang's parallel prose was not as powerful and magnificent as those of Ouyang's and Su Shi's .Hereafter,two schools of Parallel Prose emerged,one acknowledging Wang Anshi as their master and the other imitating Sushi .But during the transition from the North Song to the South Song,the two schools tended to merge with each other .Wang Anzhong,Sun Di,Qi Chongli,Wang Zao,and other poets learned the strong points from both of the two schools,combining aesthetics of prose with the rhythm of parallelism,applying natural and poetic diction,which perfected the parallel prose reform proposed by Ouyang and other poets . After Six Dynasties,edicts and presentations were usually written in the form of parallel prose,characterized by elegant and graceful expressions .During the time of Dezong in the middle of Tang Dynasty,Lu Zhi was in charge of the official documents writing .Lu wrote summons and presentations in the formof parallel sentences,however he didn't use literary quotations .Instead,Lu used plain words in illustrations and discussions .His articles were full of true feelings and inspiration,which played an important part in suppressing rebellions and stabilizing the society . At the turn of North Song and South Song,the central government was between the beetle and the block,facing more handicaps than Dezong in Tang Dynasty .During this period,the court required ministers to follow the writing sample of edicts created by Lu Zhi to inspire people to cooperate to code with national difficulty .Thereafter,a large number of edicts following the style of Lu Zhi appeared .WangZao,Qi Chongli and etc,who were regarded as the living embodiment of Lu Zhi at that time,changed Parallel Prose from formal writing to influential writing which matters to the entire country .Two of Wang Zao's parallel prose were well-known,one was″A Proclamation to the people by Emperor Dowager,″the other was″A n Imperial Edict Issued by Emperor Gaozong(on Nov 3rd,3rd year of Jianyan ) .″T he former was recognized as the best parallel prose by Chen Yinque . Between the Northern Song Dynasty and Southern Song Dynasty,many Parallel Prose writers gained their fame in the literature field,winning universal praise with their masterpieces . This formed another peak after Ouyang Xiu,Wang Anshi,and Su Shi in the history of Parallel Prose .The masterpieces bore both aesthetic value and sincere feelings,so they were regarded as the apotheosis of Parallel Prose .
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