The development of satirical novels and their brilliant achievements
Satire is a common artistic technique, which can be used in any novel. There are bitter poems in the Book of Songs and implied essays in the works of various philosophers in the pre-Qin literature, which are characterized by exposing all ugly and decadent imaginations, satirizing the ruling class, satirizing the emerging gentry class and satirizing the general human feelings.
During the Han and Wei Dynasties, many wonderful satirical works of prose appeared, such as Jia Yi's New Book, Liu Xiang's Shuo Yuan, New Preface and Wang Chong's Lun Heng.
The Tang Dynasty was the mature period of ancient satirical art, and many excellent satirical works appeared. The satirists Han Yu and Liu Zongyuan created many immortal satirical works with innovative and critical spirit. Luo Yin, a writer in the late Tang Dynasty, wrote almost all about resistance and anger.
During the Song and Yuan Dynasties, satire gained new development in Sanqu and traditional Chinese opera literature. The satirical essays in the Ming Dynasty are all emotional, with the philosophy of life hidden in ridicule and sympathy hidden in reprimand. Novels, such as The Journey to the West, The Journey to the West and Jin Ping Mei, also contain satire on human feelings.
Some novels with irony as the basic feature appeared in Qing Dynasty. Satire novels can be divided into three categories: one is magical satire novels, whose works include Ghost Chop, Ghost Ping and He Dian. This kind of satirical novels use grotesque techniques to describe ghosts and gods that do not exist in reality, and express serious themes in humorous descriptions.
The second category is realistic satirical novels, which are the mainstream of satirical novels, and the representative work is The Scholars. This kind of satirical novel inherits and develops the realistic creative spirit in China's literature, and brings the satirical art to the extreme.
The third category is allegorical satirical novels, the representative work of which is "Flowers in the Mirror".
The Scholars is the most outstanding representative of satirical novels. Wu Anhui, the author of The Scholars, is a pepper man. He was born in a bureaucratic landlord family, and many of his ancestors made outstanding achievements in the imperial examinations. But when I arrived in Wu, my family was in decline.
When Wu 14 years old, he followed his father to work in the Education Bureau of Ganyu County, and his life was bumpy. At the age of 23, because his father lost his official position and died of depression, he began to see clearly the reality of officialdom struggle. After a series of attacks on the imperial examination, I completely despaired of the dark and backward imperial examination system and decided to write a book for help. The Scholars was brewed and created under such circumstances.
The Scholars has more than 400,000 words in 56 chapters, focusing on the life and mental state of feudal literati, but it does not run through the protagonist and main plot of the book.
At the beginning of the work, the criticism was directed at stereotyped writing system, and Wang Mian, an ideal figure, accused stereotyped writing system of "this method is not easy to determine. In the future, scholars will not only have this road of honor, but also look down on the source of that writing. "
Under the guidance of this thought, the author starts with exposing the imperial examination system and the ugly and humble souls of scholars enslaved by this system, and then satirizes the fatuity and incompetence of feudal officials, the greed and meanness of landlords and gentry, the hypocrisy of arty celebrities, and even the corruption of social atmosphere and moral life.
The Scholars inherits a high level of realistic creative spirit, and its satirical object is realism. On the one hand, the author writes the rich external personality characteristics of the satirical objects, on the other hand, he digs their deep inner world.
The satirical description in The Scholars is true. It shows satirical realism art from ordinary life phenomena. Many ironic scenes and details in The Scholars seem exaggerated, but they are actually very realistic.
"The Scholars" has superb satirical art. Through accurate sketches, it shows the contradiction and disharmony of people who are "vulgar", "open" and "not surprising" and shows its meaning. It satirizes disharmonious people and things elegantly and sharply.
Generally speaking, the satirical description in The Scholars is so trivial, so ignorant and ridiculous. There is no mystery, confusion and absurdity in the external form, but it profoundly shows the atrophy of human inner spirit.
The language of The Scholars is refined and processed on the basis of southern folk spoken language. In order to adapt to the identity of the characters in the book, many classical Chinese elements and jargon of different professions are also incorporated. The author's narrative language is rarely exaggerated and described, simple and elegant, humorous and witty, which plays a great role in forming its unique satirical style.
The artistic structure of The Scholars is also very distinctive in Zhang Hui's novels. It has no main characters and plots running through it, but is composed of many scattered characters and stories, each with its own paragraphs. Although it is not concentrated enough, it is convenient, free and flexible to expand a broad life, which makes many people from all walks of life and various social phenomena come one after another, ups and downs, ups and downs.
Although those relatively independent paragraphs are only fragments of life, after careful carving by the author, it is easy to express the thoughts and personalities of the characters, stimulate the readers' association, and receive the artistic effect of being small, big and light.
Moreover, many characters and stories in the book, despite the lack of close contact, are not pieced together in disorder, but are carefully selected and arranged according to a clear theme, reflecting strict ideological logic.
The author combines some characteristics of short stories and novels to create a brand-new structural form, which is very suitable for expressing the specific content of this book.
The Scholars is a groundbreaking masterpiece and the pinnacle of satirical novels, which has a far-reaching impact on later novel creation. For example, its content was absorbed by condemnation novels in the late Qing Dynasty, and its form was also used for reference by condemnation novels.
After The Scholars, the famous satirical novel is Li Ruzhen's Flowers in the Mirror. This is a novel full of fantasy, which is extensive and complicated, but what is impressive is the irony of ugly reality.
The author highlights the absurdity and ugliness in the form of illusion and exaggeration. For example, Mr stereotyped writing puts on airs in White Republic of China, but he writes in vain while reading; All kinds of people in Shu are Confucian scholars, unpretentious and polite, but haggle over every ounce, very stingy and full of sour gas.
There are two sides in the "two-faced man" in the works, which are the exposure of snobs and treacherous people; People in the "Longarm Country" are insatiable and "reach out" everywhere. Over time, they made their arms very long in vain; People who "wing the Republic of China" "love to wear high hats", and their heads are covered with high hats every day, so they gradually lengthen their heads, even to five feet and five feet. There are also "dogs pecking at the country", "Mao Republic of China", "wearing a chest country" and "dogs sealing the country", all of which are extremely ironic.
Most of these fantasies come from ancient books such as Shan Hai Jing, but the records of these countries in Shan Hai Jing and other books are extremely brief, and some even have only one or two sentences.
Based on this, Flowers in the Mirror was born and spread out, showing the author's ingenious ideas and amazing imagination. This comic description is also the enrichment and development of the satirical literary techniques in The Mirror Flower Garden.
In addition to The Flowers in the Mirror, Zhang Nansheng's He Dian is also a unique satirical novel. In the book, a ghost story of a ghost world is made up with humorous and straightforward Wu dialect, and the reality of the world is satirized through the ghost story.