The development mileage and rules of ancient Chinese novels
The first part explains the development process of ancient Chinese novels; the second part explains the rules of the development process of ancient Chinese novels. The first part is discussed from the vertical aspect, and the second part is discussed from the horizontal aspect. The whole text is intertwined vertically and horizontally, complementing each other, and completely expounds the development and laws of ancient Chinese novels.
The first part talks about the development process, and the author writes it in several stages. 1. Origin: Myth and legend. 2． Development: Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, people with great ambitions and eccentricities. In the above two stages, novels belong to the same category as history. 3. Mature: Legends of the Tang Dynasty. It breaks away from history and becomes an independent literary creation. 4． Continue to develop: Song and Yuan script novels and romance novels. 5． Peak: Ming and Qing literati created independently and wrote about ordinary people and things.
The author elaborates on the development of ancient Chinese novels and grasps two key points. The first is the relationship between literature and history. Xiao Tong's definition of literature says, "Things come from contemplation, and justice comes from Hanzao." This means that literary works must have imagination and fiction, and they must also pay attention to literary talent. Myths, legends, aspirational people and strange things are all recorded through on-the-spot visits and collected from the people, so they are included in the same category as history. The legends of the Tang Dynasty were imaginative and fictional and emphasized literary talent, so they separated from history and developed into literary creations. The second key is the relationship between literati’s processing of folklore and literati’s independent creation. The story-telling novels and romance novels of the Song and Yuan Dynasties were all re-created by literati using folklore, and they wrote about extraordinary characters and unusual heroes; the novels of the Ming and Qing dynasties developed into independent creations by literati, describing the daily lives of ordinary people. Life. By grasping the above two keys, the development process of ancient Chinese novels can be easily clarified.
The second part talks about the laws of development, and the author lists four. These four items are closely related to the content of the first part. For example, Article 1 states, “Chinese novels come from the folk and are a reflection of the people’s thoughts, wishes and life realities. Every development and progress of Chinese novels is caused by outstanding literati writers learning from the folk and participating in and processing folk creations. obtained”. This can be proved in several stages of the development of ancient Chinese novels. Another example is the second article, "The influence of historical biographical literature on Chinese classical novels." This can be seen more clearly from the several stages of development of ancient Chinese novels. The author only talked about "views and descriptions of people" in the text, and also talked about several points in other articles (refer to "Relevant Information").
2. Explanation of key learning points
1. Integrate and understand the text
First of all, connect the content of the first part about the development process in chronological order to understand. In the meantime, the development process can be divided into five stages and two key points. Once you understand this, you understand the first part. Secondly, combine the content of the second part on development laws with the content of the first part to understand. For example, the second rule is that because ancient novels were born out of historical biography literature, they inevitably inherit the tradition of historical biography literature, which is first reflected in the views and descriptions of people. On the contrary, if you understand the second part, you can understand the first part more deeply. For example, if we understand that ancient novels were born out of historical and biographical literature, then it is not difficult to understand that the emergence of story novels and romance novels in the development process of novels is not accidental.
2． Draw inferences from one instance and use examples to illustrate the rules
In the text, the author has given many examples to illustrate the rules. Therefore, it is not difficult for students to get inspiration from the text and imitate and use familiar examples to further illustrate the rules of the text. For example, the author has used "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and "Water Margin" to explain the third rule, but it is too simple. You might as well ask students to make the explanation concrete. Even for some examples that are familiar to students but not covered by the author, students may as well be asked to explain certain rules mentioned in the text. This is an extension of studying the text and also helps to further understand the text.
●Problem-solving guidance
1. Fill in the following table according to the text content.
This question is designed to guide students to comprehend and grasp the basic content of the text.
Dynasties
Development stages
Genre characteristics
Rules
Before the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties
< p>OriginMyths and Legends
1. Ancient Chinese novels came from the folk, and every development of ancient novels was achieved by the participation and processing of folk creations by literati writers. 2． Historical and biographical literature has a great influence on ancient Chinese novels. 3. The creation of ancient novels is based on reality. 4． Due to the oppression and destruction of feudal culture, the development of ancient novels was extremely difficult.
Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties
Development
Strange people and strange people
Tang Dynasty
Mature
< p>Legends of the Tang DynastySong and Yuan Dynasties
Continue to develop
Huaben
Ming and Qing Dynasties
Peak
p>①Romance novels
②Realistic novels that are independently created by literati and focus on ordinary life
2. Understand the meaning of the following sentences and explain their role in clarifying the views of the text role.
1． Things come from contemplation, and righteousness comes from Hanzao.
2． If you love something, you will know its ugliness; if you hate it, you will know its goodness. The good and the evil must be written down. This is a true record.
3． The bright mirror shines upon the object, and the beauty is revealed.
4. Although the title of my book is Zhiguai, it does not cover ghosts. The human world has changed over time, so there is little warning.
The quotations listed in this question are all in classical Chinese, and students need to understand them and know their meaning; students are also required to understand their role in explaining the points of the article.
1． This means that the objects described in literary works have positive significance, the expression of content and the arrangement of form have been deeply conceived and imagined by the author, and the artistic forms such as diction, melody, and allusions are relatively particular. Things refer to the objects described in the work. Meditation, deep thinking. Meaning refers to the content of thought. Hanzao refers to the diction of the work. The text quotes these two sentences from Xiao Tong to illustrate that Xiao Tong already understood the difference between academic works such as literature and history. By the Tang Dynasty, my country's ancient novels finally broke away from history and developed into literary creations.
2． Meaning, love it but know its shortcomings, hate it but know its advantages. The shortcomings and strengths must be written down. This is a true record. The text quotes these words from "Shi Tong" to illustrate that ancient Chinese novels inherit the literary tradition of historical biographies, which is first manifested in the ability to understand and describe people dialectically.
3． Meaning, when a bright mirror shines upon an object, all its beauty and ugliness are clearly revealed. Yan, beautiful; Ya, ugly. The text quotes these two sentences to illustrate the superb art of writing people in "Water Margin".
4. What I mean is that although my book is titled Zhiguai, it is not specifically about ghosts and gods, but it always writes about the changes in the human world, and it also contains some warnings. The text quotes Wu Chengen's words to illustrate that "Journey to the West" is based on reality.
3. The author uses "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms", "Water Margin" and "Journey to the West" as examples to illustrate the third rule. Among them, the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and "Water Margin" are used as examples to explain the third rule briefly. The description of one of these two examples is made concrete.
Take "Water Margin" as an example. The author writes about the Songjiang peasant uprising in the Northern Song Dynasty, which is based on reality. The author Shi Naian was born in the late Yuan Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty. At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, a peasant uprising broke out, and mass resistance movements surged. They were large in scale and affected a wide range of areas, and many heroic deeds of epic proportions occurred during them, so they left a deep impression on people. Legend has it that Shi Naian had a certain connection with the peasant uprising movement in the late Yuan Dynasty, and even personally participated in the uprising team. It can be seen that the peasant uprising described in "Water Margin" is based on reality.
4. Try reading "Lin Daiyu Enters Jia's Mansion", "Lin Jiaotou's Fengxueshan Temple", "Lost Street Pavilion", "Du Shiniang Sinks the Treasure Box in Anger", "Sun Wukong Three Fights against the Bone Demon", "Fan Jin Passed the Examination" 》 and other texts, think about which laws they reflect in this article, and write a short article of one to two hundred words.
They embody the four laws proposed in the text. Write a short article of one to two hundred words, and you can focus on one of them.
●Teaching Suggestions
1. Guide students to use old knowledge to seek new knowledge, integrate old knowledge and new knowledge, and understand the text. Senior high school students should have read some ancient Chinese novels and a lot of historical and biographical prose, such as the four famous ancient Chinese novels, story novels, novels about people and strange things, myths and legends, etc., such as "Zuo Zhuan" and "Zuo Zhuan". Some prose in "Warring States Policy" and "Historical Records", etc. It is much easier to mobilize these accumulations of students to understand the text.
2. Understanding the relationship between ancient Chinese novels and historiography is the key to grasping the content of the text. The first part talks about the development process of ancient Chinese novels. Novels are independent from historiography, which is a key progress; the second part talks about the development rules of ancient Chinese novels. Novels inherit the excellent tradition of historical and biographical literature, which is a key rule. Therefore, when guiding students to grasp the text, they must grasp the key points and not relax.
3. This text has a certain degree of difficulty. Students are not required to understand it all. They can understand as much as they can. The teaching of this text only needs to achieve this goal: to enable students to know how to read articles of certain difficulty comprehensively.
4. Give full play to students’ subjectivity and cultivate students’ self-learning ability. You can provide students with certain things in the "relevant information" and let them read the text in combination with the information.
●Related information
1. About the meaning of "literature" (Hu Jingzhi)
Both China and foreign countries have gone through a long period of understanding that literature is language art. The historical development process has gradually become clear.
In China, the meaning of "literature" has changed several times. In the pre-Qin era, "literature" was the general term for "articles" ("wen") and "erudo" ("learning"). "Literature" included the entire culture. The philosophical, moral, and political articles of the pre-Qin scholars were all said to be Cheng is "literature". By the Qin and Han dynasties, "literature" still included "Confucianism" and "Articles", but the two gradually became independent, and "literary scholars" gradually separated into two categories: one was classified as "Wenyuan" and the other was classified as "Confucianism". Scholars like Sima Xiangru who were engaged in the creation of poems and poems were separated from those scholars who specialized in Confucian classics. In the Wei and Jin Dynasties, "literature" and Confucian classics, metaphysics, and history all developed separately. In the Qi and Liang Dynasties, "literature" was further subdivided into "Confucianism" and "learning", and "articles" were subdivided into "wen" and "pen". Articles such as historical biographies and memorials are classified as "bi", while poems and poems by Qu Yuan, Song Yu, Mei Cheng, Sima Xiangru and others are counted as "wen" ("Jinlouzi·Li Yan" by Xiao Yi, Emperor Yuan of Liang Dynasty) Chapter" clarifies this).
The division of "wen" and "bi" shows that the understanding of literature gradually deepened in the Qi and Liang Dynasties. There are different opinions on the interpretation of "wen" and "bi". Scholars in the Qing Dynasty often called those with rhyme "wen" and those without rhyme "bi". In fact, the principle of "literary" and "pen" lies not only in rhyme and lack of rhyme, nor in the beauty of words, but also in ruthlessness. In the Qi and Liang Dynasties, some people distinguished the "wen" that "things come from contemplation, and the meaning comes from Hanzao" from ordinary articles. "Wen" must not only have special words, but also have special sentiments, which is the so-called "wen" "Lingering in mourning" and "the soul is shaken". This view of "literature" is close to what we mean today by artistic literature or beautiful literature. The distinction between "wen" and "pen" distinguishes artistic literature or beautiful literature from other literature (actually articles) in terms of content and form. It is a pity that people in Qi and Liang Dynasties often only regarded poems and poems as "literature", while novels were excluded. In the practice of creation, the sentiment of Qi and Liang literature was limited to the narrow world of the aristocratic and upper class society, and they tended to pursue the beauty of "Han Zao". The disadvantages of formalism were serious. In the Sui and Tang Dynasties, in order to oppose formalism, the ancient prose movement emerged, which abolished the distinction between "literary" and "pen", and even regarded "pen" as "literary". "Literature" became a tool for "clarifying the Tao" without distinguishing between art and art. literary and moral essays. By the Song Dynasty, "literature" simply became a tool for "carrying Taoism", and Taoism replaced "literature". Fortunately, since the pre-Qin Dynasty, the views of "poetry" in the past dynasties have been closer to the meaning of artistic literature or beautiful literature. Since the Tang Dynasty, the distinction between "poetry" and "literary" has become more obvious, and the characteristics of language art have been fully utilized in Tang poetry. It is also increasingly evident in operas, novels and some essays. However, for a long time, feudal literati regarded operas and novels as minor skills and could not be included in the palace of "literature". Those articles without language and art characteristics were respected as authentic "literature". Only in modern times, people finally call these poems, novels, scripts and essays with the characteristics of language art literature, and list those articles without language art characteristics as outside literature. Thus, the meaning of literature as language art was determined.
Abroad, the changes in the meaning of “literature” have also gone through a similar path. In the ancient Greek era, epics and tragedies were already very developed, but "literature" does not refer specifically to such things, but encompasses all cultures. The West uses the Latin word littera to refer to everything written, from as small as a letter to as large as the entire culture, including things with language and art characteristics, all inclusive. Medieval theology was all-encompassing and all-encompassing, and literature was submerged in theology. After the Renaissance, especially since the Enlightenment, the development of science and the subdivision of academics have made politics, economics, ethics, history, aesthetics, etc. independent and become specialized sciences. The remaining poems, plays, novels, etc. that cannot be classified as science are independent and are called literature.
The "Encyclopedia of America" ??(1963 edition) said that literature "etymologically means anything written or printed." Until now, “two opposing ideas about literature are still popular. One idea is that everything that is well said is literature, and that literary style marks the difference between literature and non-literature.” “The other idea is that, The core and basic characteristic of literature is that it is a form of imaginative expression, and all literature is fictional." Japan's "All Encyclopedia" (1973 edition) also divides literature into broad and narrow senses: "Literature in the broad sense is everything written in words." "In the narrow sense... it is synonymous with literature and art. "This shows that people today have an increasingly precise and profound understanding of the nature and characteristics of literature as a language art.
(Excerpted from "Literary Aesthetics", Peking University Press, 1987 edition)
2. The nature and scope of ancient Chinese novels (Shi Changyu)
Discussing China When it comes to novel style, the first thing we encounter is the nature and scope of the novel. Novels are narrative prose (the Qing Dynasty parallel prose novel "The History of Yanshan" is a very rare exception), and the difference from narrative poetry is clear. For example, Chen Hong's "The Song of Everlasting Sorrow" is a novel, Bai Juyi's "The Song of Everlasting Sorrow" is a poem, and one is Prose and verse, although both are narratives, the difference in style is clear at a glance. What is more difficult to distinguish is novels and historical biographies.
Novel and historical biography are both narrative prose. They both have characters, plots and themes, as well as author overviews and scene descriptions. What is the difference between them? Take a fragment from Sima Qian's "Historical Records", such as "The Banquet at Hongmen". The scene is described with actions, dialogues and details, and the characters are lifelike. It can be said that it is no different from the novel. However, despite its high literary value, it is a biography rather than a novel. The basis is that it is written based on facts. The characters and plots of ancient novels, especially historical novels, may have some historical basis, but the author just uses them to express his own thoughts. In the creation, he inevitably has to select, emphasize and reorganize the original facts. Supplemented by fiction, it is generally a product of the author's subjective imagination and is essentially illusory, so it is a novel rather than a historical biography. Xie Zhaozhao of the Ming Dynasty said: "For novels and dramas, it must be half virtual and half real, and then it can be used as a play of samadhi. It also needs to end with the perfect scene, and there is no need to ask whether it exists or not." (Volume 10 of "Wuzazu" 5) In the early Qing Dynasty, Ding Yaokang further pointed out that the value of novels is different from that of historical biographies, "Novel began in the Tang and Song Dynasties and spread in the Yuan Dynasty, and its styles are different.
Those who are able to pass down classics and history together with Tian Fuye are probably left behind by emotion." ("Preface to the Collection of Jin Ping Mei"). In the traditional Chinese cultural concept, "history is more valuable than literature", and novels have long been despised because of their nonsense. , Xie Zhao and Ding Yaokang confidently declared that novels are false and nonsensical, clarifying that the value of novels does not depend on "truth" but on "emotion", thus clearly distinguishing the literary character of novels from historical legends to lies. True and false, this is the difference between historical biographies and novels.
However, when it comes to the actual work, the difference between vernacular novels and historical biographies is obvious. The problem lies in the system of classical Chinese novels. . From a vertical perspective, it is easier to deal with before the Tang Dynasty, because there were no novels at that time. The "novel" of that period in ancient historical records and bibliographic documents refers to something else, not the novels of Huan Tan and the Eastern Han Dynasty. When Ban Gu was dealing with ancient documents, he collectively called those written records "novel". Some records of ancient people were close to Zibu but shallow, and some records of ancient events were close to Shibu but were ludicrous. This type of work is classified in the history department. First, these works are true records. Although there is actually a mixture of authenticity and falsehood, the author recorded it based on what he saw and heard, and did not exaggerate or embellish. Therefore, second, the text is brief, the length is short, and the so-called size is short. For this kind of works, Huan Tan and Ban Gu were unwilling to accept them, and it was a pity to abandon them, so they were listed as "novelists" for reference, and could be widely used for research in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. The prosperity of novels about people and novels has its own social and cultural reasons, but in terms of style, it is inherited from "novelists" and became the main part of "ancient novels" before the Tang Dynasty, which were characterized by factual records and short stories. At best, it is just a prehistoric form of Chinese novels. When entering the Tang Dynasty, the problem became more complicated. Tang Dynasty legends did not shy away from fiction and used imagination to describe narratives. The principle of factual recording was abandoned, and the short format was broken. It marked the birth of the novel style. The existence of legendary novels has led to the differentiation of "ancient novels", which are closely related to historical records. This is the unofficial history notes, which focus on collecting historical materials, including narratives, explanatory essays and essays, and the content is just like that of the Ming Dynasty. Hu Yinglin summarized the six categories of zhiwei, legend, miscellaneous records, series of talks, identification and regulations, and admonitions. The last four categories are the main body of unofficial history notes; the other category oscillates between historical biographies and legendary novels, and it flaunts factual records. The length is also short, but it focuses more on storytelling and interest, so it has a strong literary flavor. This is a notebook novel. It is difficult to make a quantitative judgment on whether it is more fiction or less reality. If you are tolerant, you can include it in history. If the novel expands its own scope, it should also be confirmed that the notebook novel is a member of the novel family.
When facing a collection of works, it is necessary to analyze it in detail to confirm whether it is a novel. A collection also contains works of a legendary and supernatural nature. For example, "Youyang Zazu" in the Tang Dynasty has good works of myths and ghosts, and "Guixin Zashi" in the Song Dynasty has some works recording anecdotes. In the late Yuan Dynasty, Some chapters in "The Record of Shuing Geng" in the early Ming Dynasty became the source of themes for later novels, and even some literati's collections occasionally contained some wonderful novels, such as "The Legend of Zhongshan Wolf" in "The Collected Works of Dongtian", "Nine Episodes" include "The Legend of Negative Love", "Zhushan", "Liu Dongshan", etc.; on the contrary, the collection of notebook novels will also contain some miscellaneous texts, such as the collection of notebook novels "Liao Zhai Zhi" written in the legendary novel method. "Yi" also has some non-narrative chapters. The occurrence of this situation is related to the ancient people's concept of "novel". Although popular writers after the mid-Ming Dynasty rectified the name of novels and loudly advocated for the status and development of novels, the dominant cultural traditional concepts were deeply rooted. The "General Catalog of Sikuquanshu" compiled during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty had no reference to "novel" This is a clear proof that the views remain basically unchanged from those of Huan Tan and Ban Gu. The coexistence of two concepts of "novel" is an important reason why novels and historical biographies partially overlap.
(Excerpt from "Ancient Chinese Style Series·Novel", People's Literature Publishing House, 1994 edition)
3. Theory of Ancient Chinese Novels (Wu Zuxiang)
my country There are many good experiences in ancient novel theory, but some of them we have not inherited well. There was a historian named Liu Zhiji in the Tang Dynasty. He summed up his experience in historical biography literature and wrote a book called "Shi Tong". He is very particular about "knowledge". The pre-Qin Dynasty had long paid attention to "knowledge of utensils". It is said that "scholars first know utensils first, and then literature and art." Instrumental awareness means being open-minded and far-sighted. Why was Sima Qian able to write a "Historical Records"? He believes that one must read thousands of books and travel thousands of miles. It’s not enough to read thousands of books, but you still have to travel thousands of miles. In this way, he will gain more knowledge and broaden his mind. The first rule of Chinese novel theory is that if you want to write a good novel, you must first have an open mind and a broad vision, and you must first work hard on "instrument knowledge". Instead of being narrow-minded and narrow-minded, only seeing a little thing in front of one's eyes, one must be able to look at problems from a far-sighted perspective.
Second, if you want to write a good novel, you must have "lonely anger". Li Zhi said why "Historical Records" was written well? Because Tai Shigong was "lonely and angry"; why is "Zuo Zhuan" written well? Because Zuo Qiuming had "lonely anger". Why is "Water Margin" so well written? Shi Naian has "solitude and anger". Later, many commentators on "Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio" and "A Dream of Red Mansions" also said that Pu Songling and Cao Xueqin were "lonely and angry". What is "lonely anger"? To put it in current terms, it means having one’s true feelings and one’s unique passion.
It means that you have great enthusiasm for this subject and theme, and you are so moved by this subject and theme that you can't stop writing it. Not for fame, let alone royalties. Writing novels in ancient times was unlucky. Where did the fame and fortune come from? If you don’t have deep feelings about what you want to write, don’t have great enthusiasm, and aren’t deeply moved by it, there is no need to write it, and also write it. not good.
Article 3: Chinese novels pay great attention to "truth". Now, some of our comments are still disgusted by this photo. To write truth is to be naturalistic, to expose the dark side of our society, and to use reactionary propaganda. In fact, we cannot stop eating because of choking. If you burp once, you will stop eating? Of course, if you use writing truth as an excuse to write bad novels, we will criticize you; but we cannot object to writing truth just for this reason. How can one object to writing the truth? We all need the three things "truth, beauty and goodness". But these three things are not equal. Truth, beauty and goodness are based on truth. Without truth, your beauty is fake beauty and your kindness is hypocrisy. What is the value of fake beauty and hypocrisy? So be bold and write the truth. As for whether you write well or not, that is a matter of your thoughts, ideas, and emotions. It is really the life of literature and art, and also the life of novels. Without truth, it loses its life. If we want to make literature and art a tool for the people and serve the people well, we must first respect its performance. Truth is its performance. If truth is thrown away, it will not be able to serve the people well and it will become useless. In the past, we often obliterated and ignored the performance of literature and art.
To write truth, it is very important to go deep into life. If you don't have a life, it won't work if you just make things up, sit in your room and think about things, and take things for granted. "Shi Tong" summarizes an experience in historical and biographical literature, and it is called "reflection theory" in ready-made terms. Marx once said something. I can’t remember the original words. It means that when we read a novel or a literary work, we must distinguish between things in the author’s subjective world and things in the objective world. That is to say, the work is a reflection. It reflects the objectivity through the writer's subjectivity, and reflects the objective social life, the atmosphere of the times, and the historical outlook. "Shi Tong" summarizes our country's historical and biographical literature, such as "A bright mirror shines on an object, and the beauties are exposed." "Everything that is turbid must be heard." Just like air transmits sound, both pleasant (clear) and unpleasant (turbid) are transmitted. This is reality, a true reflection of objective things, objective social life, the face of the times and the face of history. This is not objectivism. The purpose of historical and biographical literature is to "include praise and blame" and "distinguish between good and evil", that is, the praise and blame of good and evil are included in it, not stated directly. This is the so-called "Spring and Autumn Brushwork". The Chunqiu style of writing is also called "Pili Yangqiu". Right and wrong, good and evil are not stated directly. Readers are allowed to make their own judgments through plots, scenes and dialogues. There is a saying in Chinese poetry theory called "Buy Yan Quan". Yanquan is an explanation. "Shi Tong" marks the word "obscure" as opposed to "xian". "Xian" means to explain briefly, that is, to explain directly; "Hui" means to describe in detail, which is against direct explanation. Chinese literature has this traditional creed, which does not allow explanations, but must express praise and blame through plots, scenes, and images. Therefore, "the mirror shines upon things" is not objectivism, but contains praise and criticism, with hidden praise and criticism. This is what Lu Xun strongly believed in. Some people do not understand this meaning and have made opposite evaluations, which should be considered!
From this, "Shi Tong" also concluded that "if you love, you will know its ugliness; if you hate it, you will know its goodness, and if you hate it, you will know its goodness." The evil must be written down, and it is a true record." That is to say, love it but know its shortcomings, hate it but know its strengths. As we understand: everything in the world is a unity of opposites and contradictions, and there can be no pure things. Good people have shortcomings, and bad people have strengths. This is entirely consistent with dialectics. But this does not mean that there is no distinction between good and evil, right and wrong. What you love and what you hate can be clearly distinguished; under this premise, let’s look at the secondary aspects. For example, Wu Chengen wrote "Journey to the West" and created Zhu Bajie, a small farmer producer. He is short-sighted, not broad-minded, and is very shaken. When encountering difficulties, he will break up and go back to Gaolaozhuang. When he encountered demons and monsters, Sun Wukong went to fight them, but he hid and fell asleep. When he came back, he saw that Sun Wukong had almost won the battle. He was afraid that all the credit would belong to others, so he hurried over and hit a few rakes. He also loved to sow discord and spoke ill of Sun Wukong several times in front of Tang Monk and drove Sun Wukong away. In short, this person's shortcomings are many and serious. But we don’t think this person is particularly hateful. Our children laugh when they see him and don’t regard him as an enemy. Why? Because the author also wrote many more important advantages of Zhu Bajie. For example, the hard and painful things were all done by Zhu Bajie, and Sun Wukong did not do the long-distance carrying of the burden; when he passed through the sparse persimmon cave, Zhu Bajie forced himself to use his mouth to make a way; the demons and ghosts caught him, and he scolded him to the end. Never surrender. Also, it was common for him to get emotional, but he never left the Buddhist scripture-seeking team. Such a person was indispensable in the Buddhist scripture-seeking team. This means that when the author created Zhu Bajie, he "loved and knew his ugliness" and wrote about his ugliness boldly and fully. "Water Margin" writes about Lin Chong, Wu Song, Lu Zhishen and Li Kui, all adopting this attitude. The same goes for "hate something but know it's good". "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" writes about Cao Cao. The author hates him and writes about him as a villain. But Cao Cao had great talent and great strategy, and he was the one who won in the end.
He has many advantages. He is good at employing people and recognizing talents. Seize the little benefit and write it down, never hide or obliterate it. But these advantages, these talents and strategies make him a big bad guy, not an ordinary bad guy. Sima Qian also held this view when writing about Liu Bang and Xiang Yu. This is to write about real people through the observation and experience of real life, and to write about people with flesh and blood. "A Dream of Red Mansions" is even more like this. The author sympathizes with Lin Daiyu, but writes about her many shortcomings; the author dislikes Xue Baochai, but does not negate her various strengths. Because of this, there are many characters written in "A Dream of Red Mansions", all of them are alive and move us. "Know what is ugly when you love it, know what is good when you hate it, and you must write down the good and the evil." We have not inherited this experience well. Why can't we make characters real? There are so many touching new people and new things in life, but when we write about them, they often seem unreal.
Chinese novels also pay attention to spiritual similarities. It's not enough to just make the description realistic, it also needs to be similar in spirit. Su Dongpo said: "When it comes to painting, it's about similarity in form, and it's like seeing children." This means that painting only pays attention to similarity in appearance. This view is the same as that of children. It is too shallow and childish, so it must be similar in spirit. Mr. Lu Xun also said that painting hair is not expensive no matter how fine it is. The important thing is to draw the god, draw the eyes, and draw the expression of the eyes. Ancient Chinese novels all pay attention to similarity in form and spirit, and even more emphasis on similarity in spirit. Several main characters in "Water Margin", including Song Jiang, Li Kui, Lu Zhishen, Wu Song, Lin Chong, etc., are all written in a similar way. "A Dream of Red Mansions" pays more attention to spiritual similarities, and the relationship between people is also written with spiritual similarities. For example, Huang Ying'er, if you look carefully, she must be Xue Baochai's maid; Zicuckoo, at first glance, she is Lin Daiyu's maid; also, the servant is the maid who explores spring, and the painting is the maid who cherishes spring. It has this characteristic. The relationship between people is fascinatingly written. Tolstoy's novel "War and Peace" writes about five noble families. Everyone in each family has a different personality. But in general, every family has a unique family style, and at first glance, it belongs to this family. Not many of our current novels can be written like this.
When I was in school, I had a classmate at the Academy of Fine Arts who knew how to draw. He advocated "freehand brushwork" and his paintings were spiritually similar. He drew a portrait for me, drew a head, a few strokes of hair, eyebrows, and eyes. There will be no painting at the bottom. Not even an outline, no nose, no mouth. But when it was hung in the corridor of the dormitory, everyone immediately thought it was me. They all say, how come they look so similar in just a few strokes? I said why don't you draw the nose and the mouth? You messed with me so badly. He said, "I don't see any features in your nose, nor in your mouth. Why draw it?" Your features are at the top. So, I grabbed this and drew the resemblance. There are many places in "A Dream of Red Mansions" written in this way. Daiyu buried the flowers, crying and reciting the funeral words. Jia Baoyu heard it clearly from behind the rock several dozen meters away, and recorded it sentence by sentence. This is impossible in real life, it just doesn’t look like it. Lin Daiyu's voice was originally soft and she was crying. Can you clearly hear the funeral words she read from so far away? But the author doesn't care about this. Just like the classmate from the Academy of Fine Arts who painted my portrait just now, he doesn't care about the physical resemblance. The important thing is to grasp the spiritual resemblance. Daiyu's funeral captures one of the most essential elements of Lin Daiyu's typical character. Why bury flowers? She was pitying the flowers. Why pity the flower? She was pitying herself, just like a flower. In such a filthy social environment, a woman like her, such a beautiful flower, would be destroyed and trampled into mud. She wanted to bury the flowers, "what comes and goes will remain pure". This captures one of the key points of Lin Daiyu's typical character, a "meaning" and a spirit. In this case, we discard the physical resemblance and focus only on the spiritual resemblance. Daiyu burying flowers constitutes a picture that has been passed down for a long time because it depicts "gods". Of course, I advocate that the appearance should be similar, but the appearance is still basic. If you write novels with realistic themes, it won’t work if the form doesn’t resemble them. However, this tradition existed in ancient times and we cannot object to it. But we need to understand, and then our comments will be different. This is also true in poetry. Du Fu's famous saying: "The frosty skin is raining forty meters around, and the dark color is two thousand feet into the sky." Some commentators said that this cypress tree was too thick; some said it was too tall, which is not true.
A wise commentator,