The development of literature in the early Ming Dynasty had a tortuous process. Apart from the famous novels Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Water Margin, which came into being at the turn of the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, there was no great achievement in this period, and only in Chenghua period did some new explorations be made in opera and folk songs.
At the end of Yuan Dynasty, the peasant uprising, which was formed by the outbreak of class contradictions and ethnic contradictions, was huge, which plunged most areas into war. This situation will inevitably directly or indirectly affect intellectuals and writers. Some of them joined the peasant uprising team, and some wandered around the world because of "avoiding soldiers", which broadened their horizons and enriched their life experiences. Among these writers, Liu Ji and Song Lian are famous literati recruited by Zhu Yuanzhang to join the Rebel Army. It is said that Shi Naian was a figure in the Zhang Shicheng Uprising Army, and Luo Guanzhong was a litterateur who traveled around the world because of "many things". Therefore, Luo Guanzhong and Shi Naian were able to process and write The Romance of the Three Kingdoms and The Water Margin on the basis of the long-standing folk stories. The Romance of the Three Kingdoms shows all kinds of military, political and diplomatic struggles between feudal ruling groups in the late Eastern Han Dynasty and even the whole Three Kingdoms period with its grand structure and tortuous plot. The struggle scenes described by the author are ever-changing, with their own characteristics and unique artistic ingenuity. Different from the object of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Water Margin is a novel that reflects the peasant war and artistically summarizes the whole process of the occurrence, development and failure of the peasant uprising. The book focuses on praising many heroes of the uprising, many of whom are vividly portrayed and have distinct personalities. The success of The Romance of The Three Kingdoms and The Water Margin had a great influence on later historical romances and a large number of heroic legendary novels.
In the field of poetry and prose, there are also some works that expose social ills and have certain social content. For example, some of Liu Ji's poems have this feature. Liu Ji, Song Lian and Gao Qi are important writers of poetry and prose in this period. Some of their creations won by biographies, some were good at fables, some were good at mastering the history of the Five Dynasties, and some were good at using songs, all of which made certain achievements.
In addition, some zaju created by Liu Dongsheng, Jia and Yang Jingxian are also among the better works.
With the gradual stability of the Ming Dynasty, in order to strengthen the rule, the feudal rulers, on the one hand, vigorously promoted the literary inquisition, and the scribes often suffered great disasters because of the mistakes of every word; On the other hand, it adopted the means of casting a net. The Wenhua Hall was opened in Ming Taizu, and more than 2,000 scholars from all over the world gathered to compile the Yongle Grand Ceremony of the Ming Dynasty. In order to control the literati's thoughts, the rulers of the Ming Dynasty also strongly advocated Zhu Cheng's Neo-Confucianism. Ming Chengzu ordered Hu Guang and others to compile The Four Books, The Five Classics and The Complete Book of Sexual Principles, which were regarded as the required books for students in imperial academy and counties all over the world. The ruler's control over literary and artistic creation has also become stricter. For example, although Ming Chengzu himself likes opera, he pays attention to controlling the content in his opera creation. In the ninth year of Yongle (14 1 1), a post said: "In the future, musicians will advocate Excellence and dress up zaju, in addition to playing an immortal and virtuous woman according to law, his filial son Shun Sun, and persuading people to be kind, happy and peaceful, there will also be lyrics that blaspheme the emperors and sages. According to the imperial edict, after these songs are published, they must be cleaned for five days, and the officials will burn them. Who dares to accept it, the whole family will kill it. " This severe ban had to affect the literary creation at that time.
The Water Margin?
At that time, the literary world was dominated by royalty, the powerful minister Zaifu, and some Taoist Confucian scholars. These people try their best to turn literature into a tool to praise themselves and entertain themselves, and into a teaching material to promote feudal morality and enlightenment.
In the field of traditional Chinese opera creation, there are 3 1 kinds of zaju in Chengzhai Yuefu written by Zhu Youdun, and its author is named Zhou Xianwang. There are "celebration plays" decorated with praise, "depravity plays" with absurdity, superstition and negative decadence, and "festival plays" with loyalty and filial piety as the theme. Even the dramas depicting Liangshan heroes distort the character and image of heroes and slander the peasant uprising. His achievement is only a slight change in the form of zaju, and the lyrics and melody of the drama are also smooth and harmonious.
Among the legendary creations, the most representative works advocating feudal enlightenment are Qiu Jun's Complete Collection of Five Theories and Shao Can's Box Collection. Qiu Jun clearly stated his creative purpose in "Introduction to the Deputy End": "Recently, talented people have newly compiled this play, which is called" Five Lunquan Bei ". It is based on temperament and justice, and it is moved by those who are easy to learn. Moving to the theater will make the children of the world filial and loyal. " Therefore, Wu Lunquan and Wu Lunbei, two half-brothers in the play, are forgeries, and they are supreme models in dealing with the "five ethics" relationship everywhere. The image is dry and the language is sour. The story of Xiangnang "was marked with purple Xiangnang because of the New Biography of Wu Lun". Many descriptions of Zhang Jiucheng and Zhang brothers' loyalty and filial piety in the play are pieced together by copying other people's scripts. Xiangnangji and others make good use of the language of parallel prose in Grade 4 and 6, pursuing rhetoric and allusion, and are known as the parallel prose school in the world. This kind of work was imitated by many people at that time. Xu Wei pointed out: "As for the effective work" Fragrant Sack ",the author blindly accepts words, without a word that is not in the frontcourt, without a story, without repeating the past events of the Song and Yuan Dynasties. The vulgar son of Wu, who thought himself elegant, died teaching handmaiden and then became popular. Southern Opera is nothing more than today. " (Narrative of Nanci)