Integration and Expansion of Prose Theories

After the great recession of the Ancient Prose Movement in the Tang and Song dynasties, substantial achievements in parallel prose and its status in literary history quickly fell into a low ebb. At the juncture of the Ming and Qing dynasties, literati in Jiangnan, unwilling to accept the reality of the fallen country, were extremely worried and indignant. They shed tears of anger and participated in the battle against the Qing army. During this process, they wrote many indescribably excellent parallel prose masterpieces. In their parallel prose writings, famous writers like Chen Zilong, Xia Wanchun, Gu Yanwu, and Chen Weisong all expressed a strong emotion of “mourning Jiangnan” from archetypal imagery, realm composition, and emotional and psychological expression.