In China's ancient novels, there are countless works that show Shan Yao's water monsters, flower spirits and fox spirits, as well as the struggle between gods and demons. The peculiar artistic imagination of these works can be traced back to ancient myths and legends, in which their oldest original forms can be found. For example, in the novel Romance of the Gods in the Ming Dynasty, the imagination of the battle scene between "stopping teaching" and "solving teaching" is similar to the description of the battle between the Yellow Emperor and Chiyou in ancient mythology. In the novel "Mirror Flower Garden" in the Qing Dynasty, the imagination of foreign countries can also be found in the distant countries and nations described in the ancient myth "Shan Hai Jing".
Historical biographical literature, such as Zuo Zhuan, Historical Records and The History of the Three Kingdoms, has unparalleled authority and high literariness. They either accumulated narrative art experience for ancient novels, or provided them with creative themes of characters or stories, which naturally became models for ancient novels to follow. Judging from the titles of works, ancient novels often use titles such as biography, record, discipline, ambition and record, which is a historical style. In terms of structural form, ancient novels are often based on biographies of people in historical biographies, and thus evolved into a combined biographical style. Famous ancient short stories, such as Tang and Song legends, Song and Yuan stories, San Yan, Er Pai, Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio, etc. , often written as a public biography of the main characters. Tell the protagonist the time and place first, and then describe his experience and ending in chronological order. Although there are novels in ancient novels, there must be several before and after. In a novel, there are several things, but if there is one person, there must be ten people out of ten "(comment 33 of Water Margin by Jin Shengtan), and then many characters are biographized in different ways to form an overall structure.
China's ancient novels attach great importance to historical themes. Such as "Miscellaneous Notes of Xijing" and "Biography of Immortals", the contents are mostly taken from historical stories and rumors; The legendary Song of Eternal Sorrow in the Tang Dynasty, Wu Zixu's Bianwen and Wang Zhaojun's Bianwen are also adapted from historical figures and legends. In the Song Dynasty, there was a family that talked about history. After the Ming Dynasty, the rise of novels, whether it is a historical romance such as Biography of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, a heroic legend such as Yue Biography, or even a ghost story such as Romance of the Gods, evolved from historical stories and legends. Most vernacular novels take the story as the structural core. This feature is mainly influenced by the "theory" of Song and Yuan Dynasties. During the Song and Yuan Dynasties, most of the listeners came to the bookstore to listen to stories for fun. Therefore, in order to tell the story from beginning to end and let the audience hear it clearly, the artist who speaks will tell it in an orderly manner according to the natural process of the story. This narrative-centered and natural way of chronology has been inherited by novels and has become a consistent creative tradition. For example, the Romance of the Three Kingdoms began with the chaos in the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty and ended with the unification of China by Wei Chan and Sima Shi in the Jin Dynasty. The Water Margin begins with Hong Taiwei's misguided approach, and ends with the final failure of Liangshan Rebel Army and the gathering of Song Jiang and others. Journey to the West begins with the birth of the stone monkey, ends with the return of Buddhist scriptures, and ends with the Monkey King's title of fighting Buddha. Not only these masterpieces, but also a large number of short vernacular novels adopt the structure and narrative method of telling stories in chronological order.
Ancient poetry occupies the position of literary leader with its long history and brilliant achievements. Ancient novels are naturally greatly influenced by ancient poetry (including fu, ci and ditty). As a special way of description and expression, poetry is a common writing method in ancient novels. In Zhang Hui's novels, "poems (or words) before returning to the original text" is often used as the introduction, and "poems (or words) after returning to the original text" is often used as the end. According to the statistics of researchers, there are 77 poems in Youxian Cave, 556 poems in Water Margin and 54 words. The Romance of the Three Kingdoms has 157 poems and 2 words. A Dream of Red Mansions consists of 124 poems, 35 songs and 8 words. Poetry is integrated into the novel, or reveals the temperament of characters, or expresses the ambition of characters, or exaggerates the atmosphere, or describes the scene, or reveals the connotation of works, which becomes an organic part of the artistic conception and image composition of novels. It can be said that the introduction of poetry into novels, so that the two match perfectly, set each other off and become interesting, has become a major feature of China's ancient novels.
The main body of ideology and culture in China feudal society is a * * * body with Confucianism as the core and Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism keeping pace. Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism are the main elements of China's national culture, and they are also important genes for shaping national character and psychology. Therefore, all kinds of ancient literature and art in China, including ancient novels, are inevitably deeply influenced by Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism.
Confucianism has the deepest influence on ancient novels, focusing on the ideological values of orthodox ethics and the literary function view of enlightenment first. In ancient novels, the positive characters have ethics such as loyalty, filial piety, benevolence, righteousness, courtesy, faithfulness, wisdom, courage, chastity and so on, while the negative characters have contradictions such as treachery, cruelty, disobedience, treachery and ingratitude that are despised by Confucianism. In the stories of classical Chinese novels in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, Yong Dong sold himself to bury his father, uncle Xian Xiong drowned his father's body, and Guo Ju buried his adoptive parents. It is the image of a dutiful son. The image of a righteous man is a model of making friends thousands of miles away, a Chu guest who is willing to die with the king of Chu in order to avenge the weak, and so on. The image of a virtuous wife is the wife of Le Yangzi and Han Ping, who died with her husband and was captured by Song Kangwang. In the legendary novels of Tang and Song Dynasties, the woman disguised as a man to kill the robber in order to avenge her father's death, the good official Tan Yige abandoned by her husband, and the woman Li Wa who abandoned evil and became good all have the qualities of loyalty, filial piety and moral integrity. Most of the characters in Sanyan 120 works are "loyal ministers, dutiful sons, virtuous shepherds, good friends, righteous husbands, virtuous women, virtuous people and good families". In the novel, "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and "Water Margin" take "loyalty" as the ideological core of the whole works. The positive characters in Romance of the Three Kingdoms, such as Liu Bei, who is loyal to the Han Dynasty and generous to others, can be said to be the embodiment of loyalty and benevolence. Zhuge Liang, who strategized and won thousands of miles, is a model of wisdom, while Guan Yu's benevolence and righteousness and Zhang Fei's bravery are in line with Confucian ethics. The villains, such as Cao Cao, Gao Qiu and Cai Jing, are treacherous and cruel traitors in troubled times, or treacherous traitors who bully the monarch and despise the people. Song Jiang, the rebel leader of Liangshanpo, is a loyal minister, a righteous man and a dutiful son. Li Kui jy, an unruly hero, always takes "loyalty" as his code of conduct.
Buddhism and Taoism are rich in religious imagination, and their large-scale and well-structured system of gods and bodhisattvas, as well as all kinds of grotesque religious images, religious stories and figures, are one of the important artistic resources for the creative ideas, themes and images of ancient Chinese novels. Some religious stories and characters with strong illusory colors even entered the novel directly. Strange stories in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties recorded many illusory religious stories and characters. There are a lot of fairy tale magicians and their magic changes in Sue Ji Shen and You Ming Road. Among the characters in tang legends, there are trapeze Nie Yinniang, who cuts paper into donkeys, hides a dagger behind his head, turns insects into human bellies, and turns white snake spirits into beautiful women, entangled with handsome scholars. The Journey to the West's stone monkey turned into the Monkey King, the Monkey King, Tian Pengyuan's handsome pig Bajie was born wrong, Nezha with three heads and six arms in the Romance of Gods, Zhuge Liang, the "living immortal" in The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Hong Taiwei in The Water Margin, and Xuan Nv's nine-day adventure in Song Gongming. These are inextricably linked with the world of bodhisattvas and immortals constructed by religious imagination.
Influenced by Buddhism and Taoism, some images in ancient novels are mysterious and philosophical. A Dream of Red Mansions uses three myths, such as "nothing can fill the sky", "the alliance of wood and stone" and "the dreamland of emptiness", to form a mysterious symbol system, which dominates the whole connotation of the novel. The psychic Baoyu, who comes from the foot of Qingji Peak on the barren hills and cliffs, is the lifeblood of Jia Baoyu, the son of Jia Family, in the real world. The "alliance between wood and stone" on the western spiritual river bank is the cause of Baodai's love in the real world; However, the life and fate of the sisters in the daughter country of Daguan Garden have long been recorded in the "dreamland". The Supplement to a Journey to the West breaks the natural process of time and space, allowing the Monkey King to learn about rich emperors, courtiers and scholars, romantic children and heroes and celebrities through the "green world", "ancient world" and "future world", and finally revealing the philosophy originated from Buddhism.