Among contemporary writers
Jin Yong can be described as a master. Opening his 15 books
is like opening a long scroll of "
". What comes face to face is the rich flavor of Chinese culture - music, chess, calligraphy and painting,
Miscellaneous, medical divination, astrology, Shi
Chrysanthemum... it is dizzying. At the same time, through these explicit cultural information carriers, we can also delve into his virtual world of rivers and lakes and the spiritual core of Xia, and explore the mysteries of traditional Chinese culture.
1. The wildness, rebelliousness and weirdness of Jianghu culture
Sociologically speaking, Jianghu is a relatively independent society that was born out of mainstream society but also Be different from it. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, with the collapse of slavery and rituals, the scholar class lost its status, and folk discourse became more active, forming the initial Jianghu culture. Therefore, rivers and lakes first have a wild nature. The so-called "in the country is called the minister of the market, and in the country is called the minister of the market" (Mencius). This kind of wildness runs through Jianghu culture. With the rise, establishment, and perfection of feudal autocracy, Jianghu and mainstream society also experienced a process from differentiation to opposition, and finally complete independence. It can be said that it is a large shadow cast by the towering temple. It is as big as the temple is. It is even far larger than the temple due to the angle of projection. Secondly, it is rebellious. From the beginning of its differentiation from mainstream society, Jianghu culture has manifested itself as a class contradiction, a phenomenon of opposition between officials and the people. In the Han Dynasty, refugees gathered together and became thieves, and in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, party religious sects flourished, and scenes of uprisings were staged in the world from time to time. This kind of rebelliousness sometimes eases and sometimes sharpens as the feudal autocratic totalitarianism stretches and tightens, but it does not manifest itself as a departure from the entire cultural value system, but rather as "equalizing the rich and the poor", "
", A "rebellion
not against the emperor" style of rebellion against the local social order and repair of the entire cultural value system. Again, it's weird. The confrontation with mainstream society has kept Jianghu in a suppressed and demonized position. This situation reached its extreme after the rise of party and religious sects in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Jianghu has its own independent discourse system - cutting, non-involved people do not understand the three flavors; it has its own value system - gang rules, Jianghu morality, which is both different from and interpenetrating with the mainstream
; plus The witchcraft culture and prophecy theology fell from the temple to the people.
The five elements and eight works add to the strange color of the world. This is the objective and real world of rivers and lakes we face, but it is not
especially not the world of rivers and lakes in Jin Yong's
.
2. From Realism, Legend to Symbol
It is worth noting that, strictly speaking
Realistic works that objectively reflect Jianghu society are not actually Commonly seen, this is different from classical martial arts works. Among the classical martial arts works, there are quite a few realistic works. It’s worth not mentioning the historical records of historians such as "Historical Records", "Biographies of Rangers" and "
". Even in works that involve legends such as "Water Margin" and "Shuo Tang", the descriptions of the wild and rebellious nature of Jianghu are still quite realistic. Even extremely legendary works such as the Tang Dynasty novels "
", "Red Line", and "Kunlun Slave" still have a solid basis in reality. The historical background of the rampant separatist regime in Panzhen. The chivalry of the late Qing Dynasty, such as "Three Heroes and Five Righteousnesses", "The Heroes of Sons and Daughters", are either the product of folk discourse or the product of mainstream discourse. Or the product of the fusion of the two. In short, it is just looking for a compromise path under the confrontation between the real world and mainstream society. The sense of reality is quite strong.
New
rised in the overseas colonies, the Chinese world of capitalism
. In order to attract readers, the realistic class antagonism of Jianghu is downplayed, and the legendary and weird color of Jianghu is strengthened to stimulate the changing fashions and tastes of people in commercial society. From a textual point of view, this kind of legend is different from the historical legend of historical novels. It is far inherited from "Journey to the West" and "Journey to the West". "Records" and "
" are closely related to works such as Taiping Jiang Buxiaosheng's "The Legend of Jianghu" and "The Legend of Shushan Swordsman" by Huanzhu Louzhu.
From it, we saw that the rivers and lakes have changed from villages, alleys, and green forests into fairy mountains.
We read that it seemed that they were not rivers and lakes but
. What's more, the arena has expanded from the earth to
, and martial arts and science fiction complement each other. Martial arts, the bottom-up skill that people in the world rely on, has also transformed from realist cold weapons, fists and kicks, into magic weapons, capable of tapping acupuncture points in the air, and riding the wind.
This bizarre world is actually a reflection of the unconscious twists and turns of commercial society. Unconsciously, such works are of low quality and can only be used as disposable consumer goods. However, the mysterious nature of the real Jianghu society undoubtedly provides writers with wild imagination space, and its weirdness and legend naturally have the credibility of "
Let's just listen to it" to a certain extent. Therefore, it can also be said that such works, for commercial purposes, consciously magnify the mysterious nature of Jianghu society. Its wide audience may only have research significance in the sociology of literature and art.
However, we cannot look at Jin Yong in this way. Yes,
he also wrote a lot of absurd legends. As a newspaper writer writing novels, he must first consider the number of readers, so legends naturally became an indispensable condiment. But as a cultural person, he is not satisfied with just making a fuss on the legendary level. With his deep immersion in history and traditional culture, his thorough understanding of human nature in commercial society, and his insight into the spirit of modern people, his martial arts novels have something to do with them. The bizarre legends he wrote have risen to the level of symbolism. A legend on the level. Even we can no longer simply read martial arts novels.
Of course, from the beginning, Jin Yong did not consciously write legends from a symbolic level. Instead, he inherited the method of historical novels and used history to write legends. Compared with painting, it is meticulous rather than freehand brushwork; compared with calligraphy, it is regular script instead of running script, let alone cursive script. The influence of "Water Margin" can clearly be seen in the early "Shu Jian En Yi Lu". The names of more than a dozen leaders of the Red Flower Society imitated "Water Margin". The world of the knights is real, their martial arts are human-like, and the story does not extend much in scope and is based on facts. Originally, there was much to be done about the conflict between Honghuahui and Qianlong. Whether Qianlong should be emperor as a Han or as a Manchu was such a big issue for the Honghua Society, which actually shows the weakness and sadness of the justice of the Honghua Society's "revolt against the Qing Dynasty and restoration of the Ming Dynasty". If "Books and Swords" was just Jin Yong's unconcealed talent that accidentally touched on such a culturally symbolic theme, then the second part "Blue Blood Sword" intentionally strengthened the author's interest.
On a grand tour of the country, I saw the Ming Dynasty,
and the Manchu and Qing Dynasties competing for the top spot. The Ming Dynasty was always "risking the country
and destroying the Great Wall in troubled times." , but what I didn't expect was that "the sighing husband revived the Holy Lord, but also suffered the suffering of the people." In contrast, the Manchu ruling group seemed so far-sighted and talented. Its historical thinking is quite profound. The third part, "Snowy Mountain Flying Fox", describes the different attitudes of the descendants of the four great knights Hu, Miao, Tian and Fan towards power, treasure, friendship and hatred. How did the heroes and knights turn into "men of the rivers and lakes" because of the treasure? The fourth part of "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" is based on the historical background of ethnic strife. In the difficult situation of the country, the pure and inactive believers, the most despicable beggar gang (beggar gang), have no position or power.
The character actually shouldered the national righteousness. Such a story may not be consistent with historical reality, but it contains historical essential truth. It is not only a bitter mockery of those who have occupied high positions in the past dynasties, but also a passionate praise of "people who are more important than the country and the country" (Zhang Pu's "Tombstones of Five People") in the past dynasties. And "
" is clearly an ode to humanity. Yuan Haowen's poem "Yanqiu" runs through the whole book and becomes a real theme that is free from national disputes. "Ask the world, what is love?" On the one hand, the Song Dynasty scholars such as the ancient tomb school, such as
; on the other hand,
human nature is like
toxic and difficult remove. Lust not only produced love demons such as Li Mochou, Gongsun Zhi, and Qiu Qianchi, but also performed love saints such as
,
, and Guo Xiang. By the time of "
", the symbolic meaning of
began to intensify. Since then, I have become more and more conscious and handy. "
" continues the question "What is love in the world?", while "
" is like the prequel or abbreviation of "The Legend of Heaven and the Dragon Slayer". What is hidden in the knife The big secret of being invincible in the world turns out to be just four words: "The benevolent are invincible".
"The Legend of City" tells the story of what is priceless: gold and silver jewelry, superficial power or chivalrous friendship. As for "The Eight Parts of the Dragon", it is clearly the revelation and resolution of the sea of ??suffering; "The Legend of the Deer and the Cauldron" is an out-and-out political allegory; and "The Deer and the Cauldron" is full of culture. Critical spirit. These works are romantic in form and legendary in content, but their essence is realism (symbol) on a deeper level.
Perhaps, we can draw the conclusion that Jin Yong was not very interested in the sociological world and had no intention of writing a biography about it. He is more interested in history, culture, and the development of human nature in modern society. What he wants to write about is actually the issue that pure literature is concerned about, but it is just wrapped in a legendary robe to get closer to the reading psychology of the public. In this regard, he is similar to Pu Songling in writing "Liao Zhai", which is more interesting than factual records, and more symbolic than legendary. So when we read his "full of nonsense", we feel that "it has its own flavor". Gangs and lakes gangs are no longer party sects but like political factions, economic groups, and cultural units in mainstream society. They are weird, absurd and funny gangsters and their behaviors (weird). In fact, they are not gods and monsters.
< p>, which is exactly the reflection of all kinds of human nature that grew up in modern commercial society and semi-colonial soil, especially deformed and pathological personalities. A knight can be read as a scribe such as Qu Yuan, Jia Yi, Tao Qian, Li Bai, Du Fu, Su Shi, Xin Qiji, Xu Wei, Li Zhi, Gong Zizhen, etc.; as for the exaggerated description of martial arts and the "human and sword integration", Skills are like people, and they are also endowed with personality characteristics. Once his martial arts is lost, he becomes a useless person, which is more like a symbolic prophecy. A set of the Eighteen Dragon-Subduing Palms shows Guo Jing and Xiao Feng’s simple and strong character; a set of depressing ecstasy palms can only be achieved by a person who has lived a miserable life; Ren Woxing’s star-absorbing technique can easily make people Thinking of his slogan "unify the world"; and
just practice "
"; once the "Nine Yin Manual" is in hand
it can only be practiced Violent and cruel
; sinister and perverse evil-fighting swordsmanship is naturally the special skill of Yue Buqun and his like. In particular, the practice of a set of inner skills is more like the moral introspection of Confucianism, the preservation of life and integrity of Taoism, and the enlightenment of Buddhism. The depth of its level shows the level of personality.
So it can be said that Jin Yong’s works, with its symbols
have changed the sociological sense of the world, also changed the legendary level of the world, and built a new meaning for the culture of the world. , thus finally changing the situation where martial arts novels were not published. To paraphrase writer Alai’s words: His novel is a game space, an emotional space, and a thinking space