He was born at the wrong time. After the Ming and Qing dynasties, he came to the most authoritarian era in Chinese history;
He was extremely talented and once said, "I will enter school with my talents." "Like taking a mustard ear", but he refused to be imprisoned by the imperial examination and took another path;
He deviated from the tradition and even advocated that the government forced the people to rebel. He rated himself as one of the "Six Great Scholars", but he was not tolerated by the times. Eventually killed.
In the autumn of 1661, Jin Shengtan, a talented man of a generation, died in Sanshan Street, Nanjing. The last scholar in the feudal era died.
Jin Shengtan
People today know about Jin Shengtan mostly through his comments on "Water Margin", but Jin Shengtan's real life is far more legendary than his literary works.
1. The scribes were convinced by the fuqi to bring down spirits
Jin Shengtan first entered the public eye, not through the well-known literary criticism, but through the fuqi.
The method of supporting the ji has been around since ancient times. It is a traditional divination method. It evolved into the late Ming Dynasty and gradually became a fashion among the literati in the south of the Yangtze River. But unlike ordinary witches and divine men, Jin Shengtan applied his literary talents to fuqi and used supernatural methods to fully demonstrate his unique thoughts and literary talents, thereby creating gorgeous poems.
Jin Shengtan started to support si at the age of 20. A few years later, he successfully entered the mainstream cultural circle. The scholar-bureaucrats respectfully called him "Ligong" or "Lishi". Most of the people who interacted with Jin Shengtan were contemporary celebrities, such as Ye Shao and Yuan , Qian Qianyi et al.
Qian Qianyi was afraid of the cold, so he wore a lot of clothes
In 1634, 26-year-old Jin Shengtan worked as Ye Shao and Yuan Fuqi. He absorbed knowledge from ancient books and fictionalized "Wu Ye". "Tang", which is believed to be the gathering place in the underworld for women who died young. Later, he asked his deceased daughter Ye Xiaoluan to take over, wrote wonderful articles, and had a conversation with Ye Shaoyuan, which alleviated his longing for his daughter.
According to later research, Cao Xueqin referred to Ye Xiaoluan in Jin Shengtan's novel when he created Lin Daiyu.
But the most surprising thing is Jin Shengtan’s view of the current situation. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the world was in chaos. Ye Shaoyuan was confused about who was the biggest threat, Li Zicheng or the Manchus. Jin Shengtan said: "Thieves will never cross the river, and war in Suzhou will be inevitable in ten years." Eleven years later, Ye Shaoyuan was lying on the hospital bed, thinking of Jin Shengtan's prophecy, and was shocked.
Ye Shaoyuan
Two years later, he performed a trance for Qian Qianyi, who was a leader in Jiangnan literary circles. It is naturally not an easy thing to gain the recognition of everyone. Jin Shengtan claimed to be Master Tiantai. He seemed crazy, but he kept mumbling and wrote down all his judgments on the current situation, which surprised Qian Qianyi.
In the years that followed, Qian Qianyi was convinced that Jin Shengtan was the reincarnation of the eminent monk Donglin Huiyuan of the Eastern Jin Dynasty.
2. Apostasy, The Book of Six Talents
The method of Fuji is just a packaging method for Jin Shengtan. His greater interest lies in literary criticism. Jin Shengtan was extremely conceited about his talent, saying, "Since ancient times, I am the only one who has been a great talent, and I am the only one who has suffered greatly." So he decided to review various books, but in the end he only completed "Water Margin" and "Water Margin". Reviews of "The Romance of the West Chamber".
During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, novels were just a low-grade literary work that could not be compared with the books of saints, and no one would study it specifically. This is not the case for Jin Shengtan. He collectively called "Du Gongbu Ji", "Water Margin", "The Romance of the West Chamber", "Zhuangzi", "Li Sao" and "Historical Records" as the "Six Talents Books".
Before Jin Shengtan, when literati commented on ancient books, they would just draw a circle and add a few simple comments. However, Jin Shengtan's comments were dense and meticulous, going down to every word and every word. He even revised the shortcomings with his pen, which made him feel like he was taking over the work.
He was dissatisfied with the recruitment plot in the second half of "Water Margin", so he cut "Water Margin" in half to make the story more compact and create a more popular 70-chapter version.
"Water Margin" promoted the peasant uprising, which was regarded by the literati at the time as a treasonous act, and even cursed Shi Naian to be deaf and mute for three generations. However, Jin Shengtan highly praised this and promoted the rationality of peasant uprising.
He did not fully accept it. He had his own opinions. He was very dissatisfied with Song Jiang, the leader of Liangshan, and placed him on the "lower level". He believed that "Song Jiang was purely using magic to win over people." , Song Jiang is the same kind of person."
Chinese literary criticism has reached brilliance since Jin Shengtan, and has made great progress in subject matter and methods. Lin Yutang called him "the great impressionist critic of the seventeenth century." ?
3. Proficient in eight essays and despising imperial examinations
Jin Shengtan studied Buddhism since childhood, was also proficient in Taoist thought, and also studied Confucian classics quite a bit. Therefore, Jin Shengtan not only has the free spirit of Buddhism and Taoism, but also appreciates the Confucian spirit of worldliness.
His name was also influenced by "The Analects of Confucius". Some of the Confucian disciples yearned for freedom and had no intention of becoming an official. His noble character was praised by Confucius. This is how the word "Shengtan" came to be. Come.
Jin Shengtan was rich in academics and eager to gain fame and achieve great things. He once said, "Going to school with my talent is like trying to get a mustard ear." As early as the late Ming Dynasty, Jin Shengtan took the exam, but he regarded the exam as a game. "Whenever he met the annual exam, he would use slang words to enter the current style, or write a short poem at the end of the paper to ridicule the examiner."
One time Jin Shengtan took part in a provincial examination, and the question was "Will you be tempted by this?" This was a standard eight-legged essay, boring. But he had an idea and wrote on the test paper: Are you tempted by a thousand taels of gold and a beautiful person? Then I wrote 39 words for "moving", just enough to fill up the test paper, because Mencius said that "if you are not tempted at forty," you will be tempted before the age of 40.
With such cynicism and treating the imperial examination as child's play, one can imagine the result of Jin Shengtan's examination. But after many failures, Jin Shengtan still became a scholar. After being tortured by the eight-legged essay, Jin Shengtan was no longer willing to give up his hobbies and take part in the same imperial examination. After that, he concentrated all his energy on literary criticism.
4. Crying in the temple turmoil, Shengtan died
When Jin Shengtan was 37 years old, the Ming Dynasty fell and the Manchus took over the Central Plains. From this, ideological autocracy developed to its historical peak. The literati remained silent under the high-pressure policy and were unable to speak out even in the face of social darkness. Jin Shengtan's living space was further squeezed.
Jin Shengtan’s calligraphy
In 1660, Ren Weichu, the magistrate of Wu County, took office. In order to recover the taxes owed by the government, on the one hand, he imposed taxes on the people, causing many families to go bankrupt; On the other hand, he stole and sold the grain and rice in the official warehouse to enrich his own pockets. Over the past few months, the people of Wuxian County had been complaining. Under such circumstances, the scholars in Wuxian County spontaneously organized a crying temple to express their inner dissatisfaction.
The Suzhou area has a prosperous economy and developed Confucianism. Since the Ming Dynasty, the custom of "crying in the temple" has gradually formed. The so-called Crying Temple refers to the people's supervision of the government. Whenever evil deeds by the government occur, the literati spontaneously gather at the Confucius Temple to cry out to the sage Confucius. In addition, they will also write articles to report to superior departments.
In the long-term evolution, the government and the literati have formed a good interaction. The government can not only win over the scholars, but also effectively resolve social conflicts. Both parties are willing to achieve peace through such a gentle way. *knowledge.
But after the mountains and rivers changed color, everything changed.
The Manchus took over
Jin Shengtan also knew this, but as a man of the hour in Suzhou, he would not watch the government oppress the people. On the second day after he cried at the temple, Jin Shengtan wrote an article called "Ten Buddhas Seen" to complain to the government. The excerpt of the content is as follows:
"On the fourth day of February in the eighteenth year of Shunzhi, Jiangnan Shengyuan When he served as Wu Chong at the beginning of the Wei Dynasty, he was so bold that he deceived the world and destroyed his ancestors. He openly broke the rules for thousands of years and ignored the benevolent rule of the Holy Dynasty. He sneaked to Changpingwu and collaborated with Cao Wu on his trip, stealing and selling public grain. , the people's sentiments are boiling. People who study and live up to the national spirit should follow the four-dimensional and eight virtues as their etiquette. Unexpectedly, they are dressed like beasts, like the people of Ren Weichu. .
Some of the sentences may be fierce, but they are basically true. Even a hundred years later, we can still understand Jin Shengtan’s feelings of concern for the country and love for the people.
But the Manchu and Qing dynasties would not accept this gentle way of participating in politics. They did not like any supervision, especially supervision by scholars. Knowing this, it is not difficult to explain the cause of Jin Shengtan's death.
At this time, Zheng Chenggong and Zhang Huangyan launched a war against the Manchus in the coastal areas. The Manchurian government decided to go on a killing spree, starting with the literati, to completely eliminate the anti-Qing thoughts of the Jiangnan people. In this context, Jin Shengtan will undoubtedly die.
Soon, the Manchu Qing government instructed Zhu Guozhi to arrest those involved in the "Crying Temple Case", and Jin Shengtan was named the main culprit. The charge was "shaking people's hearts and promoting chaos, which is different from the national law."
A dark age cannot tolerate such a genius after all.
Jin Shengtan
In 1661, in the rustling autumn wind, the great talent Jin Shengtan ended his life in Nanjing at the age of 54. After his head fell to the execution ground, two pieces of paper fell out of his ears, with the words "good" and "pain" written on them. Even if he died, Jin Shengtan would still make his voice heard.
The butcher knife of the Manchu Dynasty worked. After Jin Shengtan, the scholars became more obedient than the others, had no personality, and did not dare to criticize. They gradually became the favorite of the rulers.
Jin Shengtan knew everything, but he didn’t want to be silent
He didn’t do anything wrong except making a sound.