Abstract

Shang Shu，the first Chinese historical documents，the first Confucian philosophical documents，also is regarded as the first Chinese prosaic classic，as the origin of Chinese literature and art.Its authority and influence lasts several thousand years depending on the narrative and rhetorical languages full of elements of literary and the images which display the saints’ personality；it has a profound influence upon our national mind，thought and culture based on its influence on literature.The literary elements of Shang Shu originated from the oral literature of ancient wizard，the historian literature of western Zhou Dynasty and the Zhu Zi literature represented by Confucianism.The narrative part of it contains the fictional and imaginative features of ancient oral epics and its oratorical part is full of rhetorical and poetic characters.It initiated Chinese classical prosaic tradition and set up an excellent example for the development of Chinese prose.From this point of view，Shang Shu is a historical classic and a great Confucian philosophical documents，also is a epical cultural works derived from the times of literary initiation.Shang Shu， along with The Book of Songs and Zhou Yi，has become the origination of Chinese literatures.

This paper consists of two parts：preface and main body.

There are two parts in preface.The first part will introduce the significance and history of literature research on Shang Shu.The second part will analyze the shortcomings and provide improving methods of literature research on it.

The main part is composed of five chapters.

Chapter one，on origination：an investigation about the writing age，author and compilation on Shang Shu.This chapter aims at the problems such as the original writing times and authors of Shang Shu，which is the foundation and precondition of literature research on it.This chapter will contain three sections.The first section will sufficiently employ the available achievements on Shang Shu made by experts such as Gu Xiegang to identify the writing ages of the twenty-eight pieces in current writing.The second section will focus on the problems almost no researchers pay attention to，viz.the real author of Shang Shu.The research showed that traditional point of view was wrong，which mingled the honorary author and the real author.This paper will engage in a detailed textual research about the real author of some pieces in Shang Shu from the text of it and consult the inscriptions on brone vessels as the reference materials.The third section will first divide the origin of Shang Shu into oral and literal forms and then study the basic process of compilation and impartment of Shang Shu in pre-Qin Dynasty.

Chapter two，on art：Shang Shu and the constitution of Chinese early artistic forms.This chapter aims at analyzing the artistic contents of the text of Shang Shu and researching the historical and cultural backgrounds of Shang Shu in order to reconstruct the original literary form of Shang Shu.This chapter will discuss the following three aspects：all kinds of early artistic forms including poetry，song and dance performance developed from artistic religious culture and the germination of early dramatic art.

Chapter three，on narrative：an analysis about historical records and epic elements of Shang Shu.Shang Shu consists of speech record and narrative，the former contains a lot of narrative elements，while the narrative pieces are fewer but have more literary value.This chapter will contain three sections.The first section in the first will outline the historical and literary narratives，then relate Shang Shu with ancient Chinese national oral epic and find out the epical element of it；The second section will investigate into the origin of mythical elements in Shang Shu and the influence on literature according to the text.The third section will try to make a breakthrough by employing western narrative methods in study of the narrative of Shang Shu and attempt to interpret and expound the narratives of Shang Shu.

Chapter four，on rhetoric：original ritual and musical practice and refinement language of Shang Shu.Speech record，the basic form of Shang Shu based on oral lectures made by supreme rulers of Shang and Zhou Dynasties and processed by historiographers of that time and revised by after Confucianists，has a high literary value and abundant rhetorical resources especially.Former researchers always limited themselves to rhetorical research in a narrow sense，such as concrete rhetorical patterns，but could not further research on the rhetorical functions and techniques from theory as a whole.This chapter contains three sections.The first section will elaborate the rhetorical origination of Shang Shu from the perspective of original ritual and musical practice.The second section will elaborate the connection between the function of the historians，the system of appointment and the rhetoric of Shang Shu.The third section will elaborate the connection between Shang Shu and The Book of Song based on rituals and the influence of this connection to rhetoric of Shang Shu.

Chapter five，on influence：“The style of Shang Shu” and the development of Chinese literature.The literary style of Shang Shu is a controversial problem in the research history on Shang Shu.There were various classifications in history，but this problem still can not be resolved until now.This chapter contains the following two sections.The first section will explore the formation and characteristics of the style of Shang Shu and investigate the origin of “Shang Shu six styles” according to the text of Shang Shu and historical records.Furthermore，the paper will find the real origin of “the Shang Shu style” and summarize its style and language.The second section will elaborate its literary influence in details from the following four aspects：reasoning prose，historical prose，official practical writings and essay.