Abstract

In this paper, the writer deals with aesthetic characteristics of History-Literature Works in Pre-Qin and Han dynasty. This paper falls into three parts: the first part is concerned with the beauty of structure of H.L.W, which is embodied in harmony and order and includes forms and historical stylistic rules. Annalistic style in historiography (編年體）depends on time while the style of individual countries in historiography ( 國別體）is built on space. order, and history presented in a series of biographies （紀傳體）revolves around characters. The three forms are inseparably interconnected and form beauty of order. The five stylistic rules in Chun Qiu ( 春秋) greatly influenced Zuozhuan (左傳 ) • The five stylistic rules in Shiji (史記 ) fomed architectural beauty. The second part deals with the narrative beauty of H. L.W, which includes authenticity, conciseness, plainness, implicitness. Authenticity means direct description in Zuozhuan, no flattering, no concealment of evilness in Shiji, and objective recording in Hanshu (漢書) . Conciseness refers to being economical of words but rich in content. Words or sentences should be used economically, which is reflected most strikingly in the war description in H.L.W.Plainness means natural beauty, for example, the use of slangs, the simple and straightforward style of writing, and colloquial narration in Shiji, Zuozhuan shows the plain and natural beauty. Implicitness refers to the beauty of metaphor, depth and Liu Zhiji (劉知己) called it using ambiguity. Placing the writer's judgement on narration in Shiji is the excellent expression of implicitness. The third part focuses on the aesthetic meaning of characters in H.L.W. The aesthetic ideals and judgements based on the standards of goodness and evillness and aesthetic choice such as Love Strange (愛奇) have therefore become the aesthetic principle of characters in H. L.W and they will have great impact on the later works.

Keywords: History-Literature Works, Aesthetic Characters, Beauty of Structure Beauty of Narration, Beauty of Characters