1. "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" The story of the Three Kingdoms did not start with Luo Guanzhong. In the Song Dynasty, those who talked about ancient sayings in the alleys had "say three points", and they were telling the story of the Three Kingdoms.
Su Dongpo also said: "Wang Pengchang said: 'Children in the streets... sit and listen to ancient sayings. When they talk about the affairs of the Three Kingdoms, when they hear Liu Xuande's defeat, they often frown and some shed tears; when they hear Cao Cao If you lose, you will rejoice and sing quickly. Therefore, if you know the merits of a gentleman and a villain, you will never be defeated. '" It can be seen that before Luo Guanzhong, there were books like "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms". Because the affairs of the Three Kingdoms are not as complicated as the Five Dynasties; nor are they as simple as the Chu and Han Dynasties; they are neither simple nor complex, so they are suitable for novels. Moreover, the heroes of the Three Kingdoms period were very touching because of their wisdom, skill, and bravery, so people like to use them as the basis for novels. In addition, Pei Songzhi's annotation of "Three Kingdoms" is very detailed and enough to attract people's attention to the affairs of the Three Kingdoms. As for whether Luo Guanzhong's "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" was created or inherited, we dare not make a hasty judgment now; but during the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, the title of the book was "The biography of Chen Shou, Marquis of Pingyang in Jin Dynasty, edited by Luo Ben in the Ming Dynasty", which shows that it was directly based on It is based on Chen Shou's "Three Kingdoms". However, the current "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" has been changed many times by later generations, and it is no longer its original appearance. When discussing the merits and demerits of his book, commentators believe that it has three shortcomings: (1) It is easily misunderstood. Because the things described in the middle are 70% true and 30% false. However, there is more truth than falsehood, so people may inevitably believe that the falsehood is true. For example, Wang Yuyang is a famous poet and scholar, and the title of one of his poems is "Luofengpo Diao Pang Shiyuan" [1]. This "Luofengpo" is only found in "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and has no other basis. However, Wang Yuyang was It fainted. (2) The description is too realistic. People who write well have no disadvantages at all;
And people who write poorly have no benefits at all. In fact, this is factually wrong, because a person cannot be all good at everything, nor can he be all bad at everything. For example, Cao Cao also has his political benefits; and Liu Bei, Guan Yu, etc. cannot be said to be unquestionable, but the author does not care about it and just writes subjectively, often becoming people beyond reason. (3) The article and the idea cannot be consistent - this means that what the author expresses and what the author imagines cannot be consistent. For example, if he wants to write about Cao Cao's treachery, the result seems to be bold and wise; if he wants to write about Kong Ming's wisdom, the result seems to be cunning. ——However, after all, it has very good points. For example, the section about Guan Yunchang beheading Hua Xiong is really vivid; the section about Cao Cao on Huarong Road is full of righteousness and courage, just like seeing the man. Later, there were many historical novels, such as "The Romance of Kaikai", "The Romance of the Eastern and Western Han Dynasties", "The Romance of the Eastern and Western Jin Dynasties", "The Romance of the Later and Later Tang Dynasties", "The Romance of the Southern and Northern Song Dynasties", "The Romance of the Qing History"... none of them could keep up. "Romance of the Three Kingdoms". So people like to look at it; it will still maintain its considerable value in the future.
2. "Water Margin" "Water Margin" is about Song Jiang and others, and it does not start with Luo Guanzhong; because Song Jiang is a real person, and it is a fact that he was a thief. Things about him , has become a social legend since the Southern Song Dynasty. During the Song and Yuan Dynasties, Gao Ru, Li Song, etc. wrote novels based on the story of Water Margin; Gong Shengyu, a survivor of the Song Dynasty, also wrote "Praise to Thirty-six People in Song Jiang"; and "The Legacy of Xuanhe" also said that "Song Jiang had meritorious service in capturing Fangla, and he was granted the title of "Fang La". "Jiedushi" and other words, it can be seen that this kind of story has been spread among the people for a long time, or there have been various simple books, but it is not known. Later, Luo Guanzhong collected various stories or small versions of "Water Margin" stories, and selected and discarded them to form a large part of "Water Margin". However, the original "Water Margin" is no longer available. There are two types of popular "Water Margin":
One type has seventy chapters; the other type has more than seventy chapters. The one type with more than seventy chapters is that the first one tells that Lieutenant Hong accidentally escaped the demon, and then a hundred and eight people gradually gathered in Liangshan Po, robbed homes and houses, and were later recruited to break the Liao Dynasty. Pingtian Hu, Wang Qing, captured Fangla, and established the great merit. In the end, the court became suspicious, and Song Jiang took poison and died, eventually becoming a god. Among them, the theory of recruiting peace was an idea from the late Song Dynasty to the early Yuan Dynasty. Because the society was in chaos at that time, the officers and soldiers suppressed the civilians. Those who were peaceful tolerated it, while those who were not peaceful separated and became thieves. On the one hand, the thieves resisted the officers and soldiers, and the officers and soldiers were defeated. On the other hand, they robbed the people, and the people were naturally harassed by them from time to time. But when the foreign invaders came in, and the officers and soldiers were unable to resist, the people, because of their hatred of foreigners, wanted to use their stolen goods to defeat the officers and soldiers. Resisted him, so the thief was praised at that time. As for the story of Song Jiang taking poison, it was added in the early Ming Dynasty. After the Ming Dynasty Taizu unified the world, he was suspicious of the heroes and went on a killing rampage. Very few died well. In order to express sympathy for the murdered heroes, the people added the story of Song Jiang becoming a god by taking poison. go. ——This is actually the defective person, and the novel reunites him.
Many people think that "Water Margin" was written by Shi Naian. Because there are more than 70 chapters in "Water Margin", there are two types: the traditional version and the simplified version. The author of one of the traditional versions is named Shi Naian. However, Shi Naian was probably the pseudonym of the founder of Fanben, who was actually born after Luo Guanzhong. When later generations saw that the complex version was written by Nai'an, they thought that the simplified version was actually the abbreviated version, so they regarded Nai'an as a more ancient person and ranked him before Guanzhong. In the early Qing Dynasty, Jin Shengtan also said that "Water Margin" was good up to the "Zhao An" period, and was very bad after that;
He also claimed to have obtained the ancient version, and decided that it was Nai'an's work up to the "Zhao An" period, and that it was written by Nai'an from then on. Luo Guanzhong continued and scolded him. So he deleted everything after "Recruitment" and only saved the first seventy chapters - this is the current version.
He probably didn't have any ancient books, but just deleted them based on his own opinions. The ancient books and so on were nothing more than a means of "supporting ancient books". However, there are some differences between the articles, but it is indeed as Shengtan said. However, as I said before: "Water Margin" is a collection of many oral traditions or small versions of "Water Margin" stories, so of course they cannot be treated uniformly. Moreover, it is more difficult to describe an article after a successful career than when you are a bandit. It is common for a large book to fail to end, and it cannot be concluded that it is a continuation of Luo Guanzhong. As for why Jin Shengtan deleted articles after "recruitment"? This was probably due to the influence of the social environment at that time. Mr. Hu Shizhi said: "Sheng Tan was born in an era when thieves were all over the world. He saw bandits like Zhang Xianzhong and Li Zicheng poisoning the whole country. Therefore, he felt that banditry should not be promoted and should be punished with words and writings." This is very true. It was Sheng Tan who believed that using bandits to suppress foreign invaders was unreliable, so he did not want to listen to rumors about Song Jiang's meritorious service.
But after the fall of the Ming Dynasty, foreign forces became more powerful. The few remaining people embraced the pain of losing their country, so they forgot the pain of the bandits and expressed sympathy with the bandits. For example, Chen Chen, a survivor of the Ming Dynasty, wrote a "Hou Shui Hu Zhuan" in the name of Yandang Shanqiao. He said: After Song Jiang died, the remaining comrades still served as Song Yujin, but later they had no merit. Li Jun led his troops to Siam and became the king. ——This means that because the country is occupied by foreigners, one turns to sympathize with the bandits. However, things changed later and even the sense of race was forgotten again. Therefore, during the Daoguang period, Yu Wanchun wrote "Jie Shui Hu Zhuan", which said that the mountain bandits Song Jiang and others were all killed by officers and soldiers. His articles are beautiful and the descriptions are not bad, but his thoughts really spoil the scenery.
Author: 58.60.243.* 2006-9-21 17:30 Reply to this statement
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2 Reply: Lu Xun on the Four Great Classics
3. "Journey to the West" "Journey to the West" is mostly believed to be from the Yuan Dynasty Taoist priest Qiu Changchun did it, but it is not the case. Qiu Changchun himself also had three volumes of "Journey to the West", which are chronicles of his travels, and they are still extant in "Tao Zang": but because the titles of the books are the same, people mistakenly thought they were the same. In addition, the person who published the "Journey to the West" novel in the early Qing Dynasty took the "Preface to Changchun Zhenren's Journey to the West" written by Yu Ji as the first, and people are even more convinced that "Journey to the West" was written by Qiu Changchun. ——In fact, the person who wrote "Journey to the West" was Wu Chengen, a native of Shanyang, Jiangsu. This was found in the "Huai'an Prefecture Chronicles" compiled in the Ming Dynasty; however, this record was deleted when the Chronicles were compiled in the Qing Dynasty. What I have seen so far in "Journey to the West" is one hundred chapters. First, it tells the story of Sun Wukong's enlightenment, and then it tells the origin of Tang Monk's study of Buddhist scriptures. After that, he finally returned to the East after going through eighty-one difficulties.
This novel was not written by Wu Chengen, because "Master Tripitaka of the Tang Dynasty's Poems for Studying Sutras" - mentioned before - has already mentioned the monkey walker, the god of the deep river [1], and All kinds of strange places. Zajus of the Yuan Dynasty also used Tang Sanzang's study of Buddhist scriptures from the West as material.
In addition, there was also a brief "Journey to the West" in the Ming Dynasty - from this we can see that Xuanzang's journey to the West to obtain Buddhist scriptures gradually evolved into a magical story from the late Tang Dynasty to the Song and Yuan Dynasties, and was mostly made into simple stories. novels, and Wu Chengen in the Ming Dynasty compiled them into a large part of "Journey to the West". Cheng En is good at comedy. He talks about the joy, anger, sorrow and joy of monsters, which are all close to human feelings, so people like to watch them! This is his skill. And it makes people watch it without tolerance, unlike "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms", where people are happy when they see Liu Sheng, and hate when they see Cao Sheng; because "Journey to the West" talks about monsters, we watched it, but we found it funny , the so-called forgetting the gains and losses, only keeping appreciation - this is also his skill. As for the purpose of this book, some say it is to encourage learning; some say it is to talk about Zen; some say it is to preach; there are many discussions. But in my opinion, it is just the author's game, just because he was influenced by the same origin of the three religions, so Sakyamuni, Laojun, Guanyin, Zhenxing, Yuanshen, etc., are all-encompassing, so that no matter what Believers can just join in as they see fit. If we must ask about its main purpose, then I think what the Ming Dynasty scholar Xie Zhaoxuan J said "Journey to the West... takes the ape as the god of the heart, the pig as the spirit of the mind, and the indulgence at the beginning, going up to the world and down to the earth. It can't be restrained, but it can be controlled by a tight spell, which can tame the mental ape until death. This is a metaphor for peace of mind." These few words are enough to say it. Later, there were "Later Journey to the West" and "Continued Journey to the West", etc., but they could not escape the mold of the previous book. As for "Journey to the West" written by Dong, it became a satirical novel and has nothing to do with this genre.
Author: 58.60.243.* 2006-9-21 17:31 Reply to this statement
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3 Reply: Lu Xun on the Four Great Classics
. "Dream of Red Mansions" was originally called "The Story of the Stone" and has eighty chapters. It suddenly appeared in Beijing in the middle age of Qianlong. At first, they were all copied. It was not until the 57th year of Qianlong's reign that Cheng Weiyuan's engraving was made. Forty more chapters were added, and one hundred and twenty chapters were edited. It was renamed "A Dream of Red Mansions".
According to Weiyuan, they were all collected from old homes and drum drums. As for its original version, it is rarely seen now. There is only one lithographic copy, but it is not known whether it is the original or not. "A Dream of Red Mansions" narrates the affairs of the Jia Mansion in Stone City - not necessarily today's Nanjing. The main one is Baoyu, the son of Jia Zheng of Rongguo Mansion, who is extremely smart and loves the opposite sex. There are actually many good women in Jia Zheng's family. In addition to the master and his subordinates, there are also many relatives, such as Daiyu, Baochai, etc., who all come to stay. Shi Xiangyun also comes often. Baoyu and Daiyu loved each other the most. Later, when Zheng married Baoyu, he married Baochai. When Daiyu found out, she vomited blood and died. Baoyu was also depressed and lamented that he was ill. Later, Jia She of the Ningguo Mansion was dismissed from his post and inspected, which affected the Rong Mansion. As a result, the family declined, and Baoyu went crazy. Later, he suddenly changed his career and was elected. But not long after, he suddenly disappeared again. Later, when Jia Zheng was passing by the mausoleum for the burial of his mother, he saw a man with a bare head and bare feet. He bowed down to him and saw that it was a precious jade. When he was about to ask questions, a monk suddenly came and pulled him away. There was no trace of him, only a vast expanse of white wilderness.
Everyone knows that the author of "A Dream of Red Mansions" is Cao Xueqin, because it is written in the book. As for what kind of person Cao Xueqin is, few people have mentioned it; now through Mr. Hu Shizhi's research, we can know roughly. Xueqin's name is Qi, which means Qinpu. She is a bannerman of the Han army. His grandfather was named Yin, and he weaved for Jiangning during Kangxi. When the ancestor of the Qing Dynasty visited the south, he used the Weaving Bureau as his palace. His father also weaved for Jiangning. From this we know that the author was actually the son of a wealthy family when he was young. He was born in Nanjing. When he was ten years old, he followed his father to Beijing. After that, I don't know what happened, and the family fortune suddenly declined. Xue Qin was middle-aged and lived in poverty in the western suburbs of Beijing, sometimes without enough food.
But he also indulged in drinking and composing poems, and it was at this time that "A Dream of Red Mansions" was created. Unfortunately, he later died due to excessive grief over the death of his son - in his forties - and he was not able to finish "A Dream of Red Mansions", only eighty chapters. Later, the number carved by Cheng Weiyuan increased to 120 chapters. Although it was collected from various places, in fact it was continued by his friend Gao E and was not the original.
There are many speculations about the meaning of what is stated in the book. To cite the more important ones: (1) It records the family affairs of Nalan Xingde. The so-called Twelve Golden Hairpins are the people who were regarded as guests by Xingde. This is because Xingde was a poet and passed the examination as a teenager. His home was later raided, which was similar to Baoyu's situation, so he guessed it.
However, when it comes to the search, Baoyu was alive and Xingde was dead. There are many other differences, so they are not very similar. (2) It tells the story of Shunzhi and Concubine E of Dong; and Concubine E is the former Qinhuai prostitute Dong Xiaowan. When the Qing troops went south, they plundered Xiaowan and arrived in Beijing. Therefore, he favored the ancestor of the Qing Dynasty and was granted the title of Guiji. Later, when Xiaowan died, the ancestor of the Qing Dynasty was very sad and became a monk in Mount Wutai. In "A Dream of Red Mansions", Baoyu also becomes a monk, which is a clear allusion to this story. But Concubine Dong E was a Manchurian, not Dong Xiaowan. When the Qing troops went to Jiangnan, Xiaowan was already twenty-eight years old;
And Shunzhi was only fourteen years old, so there was no way she would make Xiaowan his concubine. reason. So this explanation doesn’t make sense either. (3) It describes the political status of the Kangxi Dynasty; it is believed that The Story of the Stone is a political novel, and the purpose of the book is to commemorate the death of the Ming Dynasty and expose the mistakes of the Qing Dynasty. For example, the word "red" is used to shadow the word "zhu", the word "stone" is used to refer to "Jinling", the word "Jia" is used to denounce the pseudo-dynasty - that is, the word "Qing" is denounced, and the twelve hairpins of Jinling are used to ridicule the famous people who surrendered to the Qing Dynasty. However, this statement is almost untrue. Moreover, now that we know that the author is a bannerman of the Han army, it seems that he will not bear the pain of national subjugation on behalf of the Han people. (4) It is a self-narration; it was the earliest to say it, and the fewest believers, but now there are more and more people. Because we already know Xueqin’s own situation, which is very consistent with what is described in the book. Xueqin's grandfather and father were both engaged in weaving in Jiangning. The luxury of their family was actually similar to that of Jia's family. When Xueqin was young, he was a good son, just like Baoyu. But then he suddenly became poor, presumably because his family was ransacked. Perhaps it was caused by an accident of this kind, which is reasonable. From this, we can see that the end of the book "Dream of Red Mansions" is mostly narrated by the author, which is actually the most credible theory.
As for the value of "A Dream of Red Mansions", it is really rare among Chinese novels. The key point is to dare to describe it truthfully, without any concealment. It is very different from previous novels that described good people as completely good and bad people as completely bad. Therefore, the characters described in them are all real people. In short, since the release of "Dream of Red Mansions", traditional thinking and writing methods have been broken. ——The charm and lingeringness of its articles are secondary matters. However, there are many opponents, thinking that it will have a bad influence on young people. This is because when Chinese people read novels, they cannot appreciate them with an appreciative attitude. Instead, they get into the book themselves and pretend to be a character in it. Therefore, when young people read "A Dream of Red Mansions", they think of themselves as Baoyu and Daiyu; while when young people see it, they assume the role of Jia Zheng controlling Baoyu, and they are full of profit and loss plans, and they can't see anything else.
After "Dream of Red Mansions", there are many sequels: "After Dream of Red Mansions", "Continuation of Dream of Red Mansions", "After Dream of Red Mansions", "Dream of Red Mansions Revisited", "Dream of Red Mansions", "Dream of Red Mansions Again" ", "Dream of Red Mansions", "Dream of Red Mansions"... probably to make up for its shortcomings and achieve reunion.