Author: Lu Meixing records and arranges
prologue
1994, I came to Taipei to attend a talk with Mr. Yang Zhao and Mr. Zhan Hongzhi (co-organized by Ren Jian and Liu Yuan Publishing House). The content of the lecture is quite rich, which is the most impressive among several cities I have been to. The audience is extremely high, and the questions are very deep and deep. Nice to meet my friend in Taipei.
Seeing this scene here today is like heroes from all walks of life coming here to attend the Wulin Congress. Actually, I don't like giving lectures myself. In the past, when Ming Pao was run, I wrote a social commentary if I had any opinions. However, this has a disadvantage, that is, a person talks to himself and doesn't keep up, thinking that he is right, but he doesn't know if he is right. So I don't like speeches, but I like dialogues.
The ukiyo-e edition of China Times opened "Jin Yong Teahouse", which was originally intended to be called "Metallography", but the words "Metallography" were embarrassing. First, my novel is not learned, so metallography is not established, but it is called Jin Yong Teahouse. If readers are interested, they can sit down and talk, criticize, scold and praise. today，
My novels have always been about characters, and history is something I have always been interested in, so I decided the topic as "Historical Figures and Martial Arts Figures". Everyone who comes to the lecture must be interested in the characters in my novel.
Many people have asked me before, who is my favorite historical figure? If I had to choose, which historical figure would I most like to be? If I had to choose, which historical figure would I most like to be? In fact, the most comfortable person in the history of China was Emperor Qianlong. He was born to be emperor and did not fight for the throne. He didn't do anything important, such as killing and setting fire. He was the Taiping Emperor all his life, lived comfortably and established a large territory for China. He lived a prosperous life without family tragedy. This kind of life is very satisfying.
Westerners have different cultural backgrounds, and everyone knows the story of the epic Iliad: the Greeks went to Troy for a beautiful Helen, and Helen has now become synonymous with the beauty of western society. In Greek mythology, there are three goddesses, one is Juno, the wife of the Greek god, the other is Athena, the patron saint of Athens, and the other is Venus, the goddess of love. They always thought they were the most beautiful, so they asked the Prince of Troy to evaluate who was the most beautiful. This kind of evaluation and election are both bribes, which is of course unfair, and this election culture is not only the worst, but also the most backward. Juno bribed the prince to give him the most gold and wealth in the world; Athena wants to give him the greatest wisdom in the world and become the smartest person; Venus said that she could give him the most beautiful woman in the world as her lover. The prince thought, he is already a king and has a lot of wealth, but what can he do as a wise man? So he decided to give the golden apple to Venus, hoping to get the most beautiful woman in the world-he got Helen.
If we put this question back to ourselves, what choice will you and I make? I want to choose many of the richest or smartest people, but choosing the most beautiful person may be hoping to get the woman you love most. The woman you love is not necessarily the most beautiful, and the most beautiful person is not necessarily the best lover. Westerners think very differently from people in China. If you ask me what kind of person I want to be, I always hope that I have great wisdom and can solve many problems in my life.
Philosophers in the world sum up life and always find that life is actually very painful and there are many problems that cannot be solved. Sakyamuni said that birth, old age, illness and death are all painful. Buddhists also mentioned "complaining about others". It is a kind of pain for a person he doesn't like to stay with him all the time. There is also "love separation", and separation from close people is also painful; There is also "I can't get what I want", and I always can't get it in the end. I want to learn something, but I always can't understand it. I want to go to that university. If you want to make a sum of money in business, you can't make it; I tried to develop well but failed. In a word, there are many things in the world that I can't get, because I can't get, and I have pain.
We know that the solution of Buddhism is to gain wisdom. After gaining wisdom, these painful things can be solved, because it is inevitable to see through the pain of life. Wisdom is different from cleverness. Wisdom can solve small problems, but wisdom can solve big problems. If you really can't bring it up, don't. There is no pain if you don't ask for it. China people say that "people get something for nothing". If a person does not pursue something persistently, his character will naturally be noble. If he wants to fight for it, he naturally wronged himself. When he reaches the realm of pursuing nothing, his character will be lofty and carefree. To achieve this state, of course, we must have great wisdom. Someone asked me in the past, I want to be two people in the history of China? I said I wanted to be two smart people, Fan Li and Sean. They made great achievements, but later they retired after their success. They are not greedy, nor have they become any big officials. They live happily with their beautiful wives. There are very few such people.
Sean is great, but some friends think that Fan Li is even greater, because he took away the most beautiful woman. When he stopped being an official, Tao Zhugong became rich in business, which sounds like an ideal life. But this idea is actually selfish. All desires have been satisfied, but they are of little help to others. Fan Li only helped the State of Yue destroy the State of Wu. General Sean also helped Liu Jianli establish the Han Dynasty-perhaps these two wise men were basically successful, but their contributions were different. Speaking of martial arts, I think martial arts novels should be renamed and changed into chivalrous novels. Although there are martial arts and fighting, the most important thing I really like about martial arts novels is not martial arts, but chivalry-chivalry in the characters.
In Taiwan Province Province, worshipping Guan Gong is popular, and Guan Gong's martial arts are high. However, because loyalty and righteousness are really admirable, people call him Guan Gong, and his status is as high as that of an emperor. Loyalty is a very important moral quality in China society. Foreigners fall in love with relatives and friends, while China people give lectures in addition to interceding. Therefore, it is not enough to be affectionate and righteous. It doesn't matter if it's not business. The righteousness between us still exists. The so-called "business cannot be right". No matter what the circumstances, this "righteousness" is always maintained, and "righteousness" is an important criticism standard for historical figures or martial arts figures. Foreigners ask me, what is the definition of "Xia"? Because foreigners always think that the so-called "knight-errant" can be morally perfect as long as he is loyal to a certain church or organization, while the "knight-errant" in China includes helping others aimlessly and even sacrificing himself.
In my martial arts novels, some people think that martial arts is the first, but they are bent on finding someone to fight and kill. Such people don't care about chivalry, just want to get fame and status first. It is not necessarily a bad thing to compete with others for the first place in the world, but it is not necessarily a good thing. It is not a bad thing for someone to avenge his friends and satisfy his own revenge, but it is not a good thing either. In my opinion, the real chivalrous behavior is that you may sacrifice your life to serve the country and people without any gains. This is also the demeanor of "the great man of chivalry".
◎ "Tens of millions of people follow their own ideas and find it interesting ..."
Q: Among the martial arts figures you created, who is your own incarnation?
A: There is no incarnation of myself in my novel. The characters in the novel are just satisfying their own imagination. I will think, if I were this person, how should I react? If I have this skill, what should I do with this man? There are some personalities that I want to have. He is good at martial arts. He doesn't hold grudges or retaliate when others retaliate against him. He always takes a "forget it" attitude.
Q: Your martial arts works are full of chivalry, but most of them end in retirement. What are your specific views on retirement?
A: Retirement from Jianghu may only be applicable to ancient society, which may be unreasonable from a modern point of view, but there is no other way out for martial arts figures. If you are skilled in martial arts, it may be more satisfying to unite a group of people to overthrow the former dynasty and become an emperor yourself. But like Zhu Yuanzhang, the Ming emperor, he absorbed and merged some people who felt bad about the Yuan Dynasty, overthrew the former Dynasty together, and then became emperor himself, but his emperor couldn't do well, and other dissatisfied people simply let him mess around and not participate. Participation is not over, because every uprising is held for the welfare of the people for a very aboveboard reason. Once the dynasty is successfully established, it will in turn oppress the people-how to be an emperor? These people don't like it. They had to leave after helping solve the problem. Bye.
Q: In your novels, the hero always has a lot of heroines who love him. Like Qiong Yao's novels, all heroines have a group of boys who love her. What do you think of love? In addition, in your novel, the heroine's personality is not as complete as the hero's. Will you feel sorry? Have you ever considered taking women as the protagonist of the novel?
A: I'm a man, so I can't know all about women's psychology. If I cast Xia Xia as the leading role, I have to think about what she will look like. It's not easy. If I write about a man, I will naturally have those reactions. It's simpler. I want to fight with others, so I don't have to comb my hair and make up before I go out.
Q: How to write a martial arts novel? How to draw ideas from materials? The structure of your novel is dense and complicated, and you often forget the front when you see the back, but you echo it back and forth and arrange it skillfully. Have you rehearsed carefully through the sand table?
A: I write a paragraph a day, some for two or three years, sometimes I forget whether I explained it before, and sometimes I don't pave the way and remedy it afterwards. Anyway, readers are full when they see it.
Q: In your novels, everything from chess, martial arts, medicine and Buddhism has been deeply studied, which is amazing. Excuse me, how did you create such profound skills in real life?
Answer: If you know how to write a novel, you can write it down. Don't write if you don't know. Unlike teaching, if students want to ask you, it is impossible to understand. Martial arts novels are completely controlled by the author. You don't understand, and neither do the characters in the book! You can look it up slowly when writing a novel. If you can't find it, change the disease and change the medicine.
Q: May I ask you the reason for closing the pen?
A: There is no motivation to write novels now. It used to be for newspaper sales, but now newspapers don't do it. Writing a novel is very hard and painful, especially if you can't stop serializing a paragraph every day. If you want to travel abroad, you should either write a few paragraphs first, or take them abroad, stay up late and write them hard, and send them back early in the morning, which is very stressful. I also hope to have enough time to write novels in the future, which is very entertaining and I am happy to write them myself, so I can share my experience. I think it's funny that tens of thousands of people think with themselves.
◎ "Real historical novels may make Wei Xiaobao marry seven wives, but they can't make Wei Xiaobao fight with Russia ..."
Q: Why do you think the Song Dynasty was a prosperous time for China? Is a country that attaches too much importance to writing and despises martial arts enough to become the foundation of peace and prosperity?
A: The Song Dynasty was the most prosperous time in China. At that time, capitalism began to sprout and the whole productive forces flourished. No matter production, technology, culture and art are the first in the world, Russia and the United States are underdeveloped, and Britain, France and Germany are far behind the Song Dynasty. Every era has its advantages and disadvantages and should be comprehensively reviewed. Its civil service system and examination system are sound, and people's hearts are stable, but its national defense is not strong, so it is often invaded.
Q: Is your evaluation of Emperor Kangxi the first emperor in China? And your opinion of Confucius.
A: Among the emperors in China, I have a high opinion of Kangxi. He is not only open-minded, but also studious and has learned foreign knowledge. In addition, I admire Wendi in China. He behaves appropriately. Before he died, he wrote a testament saying that he had done many wrong things in his life, and he was really sorry. He apologized to the people of the whole country. This way is very rare. If there is a disaster, such as an earthquake or a flood, he will write an article and publish it to the people of the whole country, saying that he has done badly, and God will punish him, pity himself and criticize himself. In the past, the emperor was a saint. When he never did anything wrong, everything else was wrong. In addition, Emperor Guangwu of Han Dynasty was also very kind and generous to the people.
Confucius is a teacher from generation to generation. Everyone in China has been enlightened by Confucius all his life, especially his "self-denial", which means that he can restrain his excessive desires, and the scope of etiquette is very wide, including system, culture, law and so on.
The French philosopher Rousseau wrote a book called Freedom and Organization. In the 18 and 19 centuries, the biggest difficulty is that individuals want to develop individualism and strive for freedom. However, there is a country behind them. If individuals strive for personal freedom too much, organizations and countries will be powerless. Therefore, freedom and organization should be limited, not overstepped, and state power should not be allowed to expand indefinitely, ignoring people's freedom, so the country will become chaotic. Confucius's "self-denial and self-reply" is a self-restraint to individual freedom. Only by establishing national norms and systems and solving contradictions can stability be achieved. More than two thousand years ago, Confucius had the idea of "benevolence" in everything, and he was a great man.
Q: What is the biggest difference between historical novels and martial arts novels? Is there any reference to Mr. Levin's historical novels? If you write The Merchant with the Red Top, how would you interpret it?
I like Mr. Levin's novels very much. Historical novels have a basic scope, which is limited by historical events, with more restrictions and less imagination space. Like Duke of Lushan, they are more like historical novels, but a real historical novel may make Wei Xiaobao marry seven wives, but it can't create a war between Wei Xiaobao and Russia.
Q: What do you think of Cao Cao and Wu Zetian?
A: From a historical point of view, these two men are both great people. Cao Cao once proudly said that at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, without me, the people were miserable, and the king dominated, and I made the people's lives better. This sentence is correct. At that time, business people had to go through the checkpoints on various hills. If the customs continues to collect money, how can the people stand it? Once reunified, the road will be unimpeded, and the economy will naturally develop, contributing to the economy of China. However, once a city is occupied, it is cruel and unnecessary to order a massacre. If he hadn't done these things, China would have been unified.
Q: What do you think of Mr. Su Dongpo?
A: Su Dongpo knows everything. His calligraphy, painting, poetry, writing, articles and personality are all first-class, and his talent is good. What is more enviable is that even his father and brother are first-class writers. This kind of thing is hard to find.
Q: Do you have any "idols" or admirers?
A: I admire Yue Fei in history. He sacrificed his own interests to fight against foreign enemies for his country, but in the end he was wronged and killed. I also admire Sima Qian and Sima Guang.
Q: Is Huang Rongshi unfit to live in this era? Will she take the joint exam?
If Huang Rong takes the entrance exam, I doubt that she will cheat. She is very clever and learns physics and mathematics quickly. Of course, she doesn't need to cheat, but her personality is perfect. If she can't solve a problem, she will try to cheat and the cheating teacher can't catch it.
Q: Among the female characters in your novel, who do you want to be a wife with most?
A: Many men think that women had better not be too capable, so if Huang Rong is a wife, everyone will be afraid of nothing, so I don't like Huang Rong as a wife.
Q: What do you think of Wei Xiaobao? Why does the first half of Wei Xiaobao look warm, but the second half is lewd and evil?
A: This is a necessity for a man to grow up. Generally speaking, the older a man is about love, the worse it is. On the one hand, he has rich experience, on the other hand, he has greater material conditions and power, so the chances of bullying women will increase.
Q: How did you create the role of Yue Buqun? Is it related to the life around you? Can you analyze it from the psychological level?
A: I am gradually speculating about the character, age, personality characteristics and motivation of a character like Yue Buqun, and what he wants to achieve. According to his talent and personality, what means will he take to achieve his goal and how will he solve the difficulties? Yue Buqun's psychology may happen to many people, but the average person's martial arts is not as high as his, and his scheming is not as deep as his. I particularly emphasized his foresight. In fact, people who use scheming and tricks in their lives can be seen everywhere.
◎ "If dogma doesn't apply, it's like there is no movement and no fixed belief. If something happens, it will be solved in a practical way ... "
Q: You may be a historical figure in the eyes of the next generation. What do you think of your position? What attitude should be adopted between historical figures and politics?
A: The positioning of traditional historical figures in China is inseparable from politics. The biographies in Historical Records written by Sima Qian, with characters as the leading role, rank first in the world. No one recorded it before the history books, and later biographies of Greek and Roman celebrities were also based on individuals, but they were much later. China's overall social habits pay special attention to politics. Except politicians, other figures in history books are placed in a less important position, such as The Scholars, Biography of Lienv and Biography of Traitors, which are mainly figures, but not as important as politicians. It doesn't matter whether I can become a historical figure personally. I just hope that in a hundred or two years, someone will like to read my book and still have a place.
Q: Please explain the realm of "win or not".
A: In fact, dogmatism still exists in the whole society. Everything is so-and-so, and everyone likes to say "Mao Zedong said", "Sun Yat-sen said" and "Marx said". These tactics have been decided. In fact, the society is ever-changing, and many things were unexpected by the ancients, such as the computer network of modern science and technology, which I am afraid even Lenin and Sun Yat-sen could not think of! Dogma does not apply, just like there is no trick, no fixed belief, and what happens is solved by practical methods. Another example is a contest, to see what the other side has done, to find out his shortcomings, and to stab him to death with a sword. This is not a trick.
Q: How do the chivalrous men in your novels make a living?
A: Some martial arts figures are inferior to others by making money as attendants. Some sects are landlords, like Wu Tangmen, who can live by themselves. But some schools are poor, like Ling Huchong of Huashan School. Master won't pay, and he can't even afford to buy wine. Generally speaking, most of these knights are poor. Because economic activities are not the main theme of martial arts novels, they are often skipped.
Q: Have you found anyone with the same temperament or personality as those in martial arts novels in real life?
A: I don't think I can find it because the characters in the novel are too exaggerated. In fact, there are no such lovely women or men, and those are unrealistic.
Q: Most of the women in the novels are as beautiful as flowers and pure as jade, but Cheng Lingsu's personality is quite different. What is the motive for creating her?
A: A lovely woman is not necessarily beautiful. Parents are born to be beautiful and can't work hard, but beautiful people are not necessarily good. In my novels, good women are beautiful, of course, but this kind of thing doesn't happen often. Being too good-looking may be a disadvantage. It is not good for her to rely on her beauty and behave badly, and it is not good for her to be accommodated by others. Cheng Lingsu is very cute. She is clever and single-minded, which is rare. Judging by appearances has nothing to do with his personality.
Q: Why is Yang Guo not suitable for the real society, while Ling Huchong is?
A: Yang Guo is a completely uncompromising person, while Ling Huchong is indifferent and casual. He doesn't care much about social problems. He is at ease and doesn't have to do such a thing.
Q: Why does a proud woman like Huang Rong fall in love with a silly boy like Guo Jing?
A: Love can compensate. Often you like a person, but his personality is very different from yours. Huang Rong is so smart, and seeing Guo Jing is so honest, you will feel the value of the other person's personality.
Q: Do you watch the adapted movies and TV? Who do you think is the most vivid?
A: There are many adaptations of my novels, and writers like to change them. I am not satisfied with them. I think the novel is long, so it's okay to delete it, but it's better not to add it. However, movies and TV just like to add some things. For example, in the legend of the condor hero, Huang was asked to keep a cat. It is understandable to have a dog in China, but it is rare to have a cat.
Q: Will the historical figures in the novel be mixed with personal feelings? Do you prefer to write better than worse?
A: This is inevitable. Historical figures are added to increase authenticity. Anyway, with historical figures as a foil, readers will feel that the novel story is more reliable, but it also increases a lot of personal imagination.
Q: The love between Yang Guo and Little Dragon Girl is beyond reality. Is there any other way for lovers to be together besides seclusion?
A: The personalities of these two people are difficult to reconcile with the feudal society of the Song Dynasty. If you don't live in seclusion, it will turn upside down and there will be more problems in the rivers and lakes.