Abstract
Yang Weizhen’s book RevisitingHistorical Events, completed in the late Yuan and early Ming dynasties, was included in the History Sectionof the Four Treasuries. However, the articles such as“Supplement,”“Simulation”and “Supposition”in this book are sharply different from the conventional historical essays. These articles not only demonstrate the author’s particular historical thinking but alsocontainuniqueliteraryvalue. The creative technique of such supplementary articles is to reexamine historical events andexplicatehidden judgementsthrough an immersion in the specific historical scenes and impersonatingthe ancients. In terms of the mode of historical narrative, such technique not only inherits the tradition of neo-Confucianism thatvalorizesdoctrines, but also shows the authorial propensity for“literary impersonation” typicalofpeople ofletters. These articles, more than mere resultsofplayfulwriting, are unique in historical understanding, ingeniousin literary mind, and serious injudgement, hence imbued with multiple implications.
Keywords
Yang Weizhen, RevisitingHistorical Events, mode of historical narrative, literary impersonation, the rhetoric of hiddenjudgements
First Page
162
Last Page
171
Recommended Citation
Bu, Xinglei. 2023. "“Literary Impersonation” and the Rhetoric of Hidden Judgements: A Textual Research of Yang Weizhen’s Supplementary and Simulative Writing in RevisitingHistorical Events." Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art 43, (2): pp.162-171. https://tsla.researchcommons.org/journal/vol43/iss2/16
