Such as Dong Fangshuo's Nerve and Zhang Hua's Natural History; Narrating historical hearsay stories outside the official history, such as Ban Gu's Hanwu Story and The Legend of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty; Tell strange superstitious stories about ghosts and gods, such as Gan Bao's search for gods in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Cao Pi's different story, Ge Hong's fairy story, and the search for gods after Tao Qian.
The mystery novel is one of China's classical novels, which mainly tells the stories and legends of immortals and ghosts. They came into being and prevailed in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, and were directly related to the social and religious superstitions, metaphysics and the spread of Buddhism at that time. Strange fingers and strange records mainly refer to novels produced in Wei and Jin Dynasties, which describe immortals and ghosts, and may also include similar works in Han Dynasty. Under the influence of the prevailing social atmosphere of talking about ghosts and gods and praising the supernatural, anecdotes were formed.
brief introduction
After the Han dynasty, Taoism and Buddhism gradually prevailed, and the preaching of superstition of ghosts and gods was widely circulated, so many books describing wonders appeared. Many works in the Six Dynasties were named after "Zhi Guai". Such as Zutai's Zhi Guai, Cao Pi and Yuekong's Zhi Guai.
Strange novel
Confucius's Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio, and Pu Songling's Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio (the word strange stories from a Lonely Tour in Zhuangzi: "Qi Xie is also strange." Modern writer Lu Xun's A Brief History of Chinese Fiction lists the first and second chapters of ghosts and gods in the Six Dynasties.
Lu Xun's A Brief History of Chinese Novels said: "China believed in witchcraft. Since the Qin and Han Dynasties, the theory of immortals prevailed, witchcraft prevailed at the end of the Han Dynasty, and ghosts became more and more fierce. Hinayana Buddhism will also enter Middle Earth and spread gradually. These are arrogant ghosts and gods, praising the supernatural, so from Jin to Sui, there are many books about ghosts and gods. His books are written by scholars and believers. Literati's works, though not like Buddhism and Taoism, are intended to teach themselves, but they are not intended to be novels. At that time, Gai thought that the secluded and the bright were different, and people and ghosts were real. Therefore, his narrative of different things was different from recording worldly affairs and he thought he was sincere. " This paper points out that the reasons for the prosperity of strange stories in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties are stimulated by folk witchcraft, Taoism and Buddhism, and the author's attitude is to record the legends of strange stories as facts. As a basic summary, Lu Xun's summary is correct. However, it should also be noted that the source and actual appearance of mystery novels are more complicated. There is still a big difference between focusing on preaching Shinto or falling in love with anecdotes and how much life interest is expressed in novels.
Among the existing mystery novels, there are works signed by Han people, mainly including The Story of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, The Biography of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty and The Cave Story by Guo Xianzuo.
In the past, researchers thought it was due to the false entrustment of the people in the Six Dynasties, but recently some people put forward different opinions, so it is necessary to discuss it in depth. This book is suspicious for the time being.