Reasons for the Formation of Literary Style and Discourse Mode of the Book of Lord Shang

Li Kui’s and Wu Qi’s political reforms and the political tradition of State Wei constructed the ideological basis of Lord Shang. But State Qin’s special development status and practical requirements made the thought of Lord Shang gradually tend to extreme. He even thought that the country should use all its armed might to indulge in wars of aggression. Lord Shang established the thought foundation of Shang School. Because of Shang School’s special behavior and way of thinking, theBook of Lord Shang mainly used practical writing, and most of this book’s essays are disquisitions, and it is plain, simple and vigorous in language. Authors of the book mainly used two reasoning methods to prove their points of view: the historical citation and the use of experiences. The combination of these reasoning methods makes the significance of the argument increased significantly, and it marks that the disquisition has become a mature literary style.