Literature is the product of a certain social life reflected in the writer's mind. Literary genre, as an element of literary form, is in the final analysis to meet the needs of certain social life. Due to the development of social life and the deepening of human cognitive activities, it is inevitable to require the emergence of literary genres suitable for reflecting this life content; Factors such as technical conditions formed in a certain social development stage also affect the emergence of some literary genres. When talking about Greek art, Truman once pointed out: "Any myth uses imagination and imagination to conquer, dominate and visualize natural forces;" Therefore, when these natural forces are actually dominated, the myth disappears. On the other hand, can Achilles coexist with gunpowder and pellets? Or, can "Hiriart" coexist with movable type trays or even printing presses? With the appearance of the printing press, the muse, the god of folk songs, legends and poems, will inevitably disappear, so will the necessary conditions for the disappearance of epics? "Although Marx's words are not all focused on the evolution of literary genre, they are vivid at the same time. He explained that myths and epics can only be produced in the social stage when the level of productivity and people's understanding is still very low. With the development of social life, the domination of natural forces and the development of science and technology, they will gradually evolve in content and form, resulting in new genres. The formation of reportage also shows the relationship between social life and literary genre. With the deepening of the revolutionary struggle, people require writers to reflect the reality quickly and timely, report touching stories on various fronts, or expose ugly phenomena in life. Reportage can play a greater role in this respect, which is the social basis for the emergence and development of reportage. Without the changes of modern society and the needs of people's revolutionary struggle, and without the material conditions provided by the development of modern printing and publishing, reportage could not be produced and an independent literary fracture could not be formed.
In the final analysis, the formation of literary genre is not only determined by social life, but also closely related to the inheritance and innovation of literary tradition, the accumulation of creative experience in past dynasties and the development of creative ability. Poetry is the earliest genre in the literature of all nationalities in the world, and then novels and drama literature gradually developed. On the one hand, it is determined by the richness and development of social life, on the other hand, it is inseparable from the writer's inheritance of the literary tradition of the previous generation, the accumulation of creative experience and the exertion of creativity. If an era and a writer can't accumulate creative experience for a long time, adapt to the requirements of the times and exert their creativity on the basis of the literary heritage of predecessors, then it is impossible to produce new literary genres. Historically, novellas, novels, long plays and even film literature with a large length have gradually formed under such conditions. For example, the earliest literary genres in China were poetry and prose, while novels and drama literature appeared relatively late. In the development of poetry, most of the poems included in The Book of Poetry are relatively simple four-character poems, followed by five-character poems and seven-character poems, and quatrains and metrical poems with neat antithesis and harmonious rhyme gradually appeared around Sui and Tang Dynasties. These developments and evolutions undoubtedly reflect the development of social life and the corresponding development of artistic expression skills.
Writers adapt to reflect the needs of certain social life, innovate and create on the basis of criticizing and inheriting predecessors' heritage, and will continue to form some new literary genres, which will also promote the development and changes of some genres themselves. For example, China's earliest novels were produced in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, and originated from ancient gods and legends. Strange stories in this period are short in length, and most of them only have simple story outlines and simple expressions. In fact, they are only prototypes of short stories. In the Tang Dynasty, due to the development of productive forces and the prosperity of urban economy, as well as the intensification of social contradictions and class struggles, it provided rich materials for novel creation and expanded the scope of themes; At the same time, tang legends's novels have entered a mature stage because of inheriting the experience of predecessors' novel creation and historical biography literature. They are not only much longer than the novels of the Wei, Jin and Six Dynasties, but also have complex and vivid plots, euphemistic narration and many new characteristics in characterization. Lu Xun said: "The novel changed a lot in the Tang Dynasty. As I said before, the articles of Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio and figures in the Six Dynasties are very brief as facts. In the Tang Dynasty, it was to consciously write novels, which was a great progress in the history of novels. Moreover, the article is very long and can be described as twists and turns, which is quite different from the simple and quaint style, which is also a great progress in style. " Obviously, the development from mystery novels to legendary novels has the same inheritance relationship. There are also innovations and creations that meet the needs of the times.
The formation and development of various literary genres are always from simple to complex, from rough to perfect with the development of social life and the writer's inheritance, innovation and accumulation of creative experience in literary tradition. Like the most primitive poetry, it is the labor cry of "sailing on the sea" that Lu Xun said. Later, it gradually developed into a literary genre with sonorous tone, distinct rhythm and profound meaning, which can best reflect social life and people's thoughts and feelings, and gradually developed four-character, five-character, seven-character and quatrains, regular poems, long and short sentences (words) and other styles. Therefore, the process of various literary genres from simple to complex, from rough to perfect is actually a process of continuous innovation and gradual development and maturity. The maturity of China's drama literature has also experienced a long development process. As early as 100 plays in the Han Dynasty, there were stories like "Huang Gong in the East China Sea". According to "Miscellanies of Xijing", "There is an East Sea man, Huang Gong, who was able to make snakes and resist tigers when he was young. Pei Chi's golden knife ends with a crimson ribbon, and the clouds stand on mountains and rivers. And aging is stronger than exhaustion, drinking too much, and you can't recover your skills. Wu Qin Donghai White Tiger is the red knife that Huang Gong hates. Because of the bad operation, he was killed by a tiger. The third is to lose people and use it as a play, and Emperor Xian of Han also used it as a play. " (2) This story-telling performance is the bud of China's drama, but due to the lack of information, it is hard to say how many drama and literary factors are involved today. From the Han Dynasty, after hundreds of years, with the development of music, dance, acrobatics and rap literature, China drama literature gradually matured. The drama of joining the army appeared in the Tang Dynasty, and there were many zaju and operas in the Song Dynasty. The original zaju and opera scripts are still very rough, and some are just a synopsis, which is equivalent to the modern screen. Some can only sing the lyrics, but they can't say it clearly. After the Song and Yuan Dynasties, drama scripts such as zaju were perfected, and lyrics, physical words and "themes" suggesting characters' actions appeared, which could be used for performance and reading materials. This is the mature stage of China's drama literature. With the increasing social life and people's artistic creation experience, literary thoughts are becoming more and more diverse. The diversity of literary genres reflects the diversity of social life. Heroic historical scenes and stormy conflicts need a literary genre with large capacity, long space and strong expressive force, while small waves and small drops in life need a flexible and light literary genre. This is like eighteen weapons, each with its own characteristics and functions, which cannot be replaced by each other. Of course, in the process of literature development, there are also some genres and styles that only exist under certain historical conditions, or once flourished because of the strong advocacy of the ruling class at that time, and then quickly disappeared because of the loss of life foundation or the evolution of historical conditions. However, after the emergence of new literary genres, most of the genres loved by the broad masses of the people will still be preserved and developed after some innovations and transformations. For example, the literary styles advocated by the ruling class in ancient China, such as eight-part essay and poems on trial posts, tend to dry up because of their empty content, rigid form and lack of artistic vitality and life foundation. However, China's classical poems, such as metrical poems, quatrains and words, can still serve the expression of new content after innovation and transformation in different degrees. Therefore, the emergence of new schools does not mean spring; The complete extinction of Japanese schools; As long as the old genre does have its unique advantages in expressing real life, it will continue to develop. With the passage of time, it is inevitable that literary genres will become increasingly rich and diverse.
In short, the formation, development, evolution and extinction of various literary genres are not accidental, but have their objective laws, that is, in the final analysis, they are restricted by social life and closely related to the accumulation of literary creation experience and the inheritance and innovation of literary genres themselves.
The formation of various new literary genres in history often originated from the people, initially created by the working people, and later attracted the attention of the ruling class and literati, used by them, and gained further development or gradually lost vitality. This is because in the past class society, the working people always created their own culture and literature in the struggle with the ruling class, and also created various literary genres according to the needs of the constantly developing social life. However, because the working people are deprived of the right to enjoy culture, the literary genre they created, though lively, is inevitably rough and needs further processing and transformation. In this process, some literary genres will gradually improve due to the processing and transformation of literati, while others may become rigid due to the transformation of the ruling class and its royal literati. The key lies in whether those literati are more or less close to the people, whether they keep in touch with the people, and whether they can constantly improve and improve according to the needs of social life and the requirements of the people. The four-character poems, five-character poems, words, songs, zaju, scripts and other styles in China classical literature originated from the people have been developed and matured through the processing and transformation of many writers with high artistic accomplishment and keeping in touch with the people. As far as the formation and evolution of five-character poems are concerned, the work of more accomplished writers can not be ignored. The Western Han Dynasty was the heyday of Ci and Fu, and new-style poems were brewing among the people, but the five-character poems were not yet mature. By the Eastern Han Dynasty, although Ban Gu's epic poems were only five words, they had not achieved high artistic achievements. Since then, Zhang Heng's "Simultaneous Songs", Qin Jia's "Poems for Women" and Cai's "Drinking Horses in the Great Wall Cave" have all absorbed vigorous and fresh nutrients from contemporary Yuefu literature and gradually improved the five-character poem style. For another example, the maturity of the drama style of zaju can not be separated from the hard work of writers such as Guan Hanqing and Wang Shifu. Guan Hanqing * * * wrote more than 60 kinds of zaju, and Wang Shifu also wrote 10 kinds of zaju. Their rich artistic practice has made a unique contribution to the perfection and maturity of this artistic style. The processing and transformation of writers plays an important role in the development of literary genres. However, in the past, many writers always had a certain distance from people's lives. Therefore, when dealing with and transforming literary genres, some people can't fully adapt to the people's hobbies and the requirements of social life, and even often only start from the artistic interests of a few exploiting class literati, divorced from life and the masses, and devote themselves to formal skills, thus making some literary genres and literary styles originating from the people gradually rigid. The court poems in the Tang Dynasty, Kunxi poems in the Song Dynasty and some literati poems after the Song Dynasty are obvious examples. As Lu Xun pointed out: "I thought songs, poems, words and songs were folk things, and the literati took them for themselves." The more they do, the harder it is to understand. When they turned them into fossi, they took them away and hung them slowly. Take Songs of the South as an example. Although there are dialects in Lisao, it is not difficult to understand. When it comes to Yang Xiong, it is particularly "ancient", which is inexplicable and not far from death. The lyrics, the beginning of the song, are all in good order, not difficult. Later, it was really difficult to read. " In addition, some literary genres were originally introduced from abroad. Because they are suitable to reflect the needs of their social life and are easily accepted by the people, they gradually take root and grow in combination with their own literary traditions. For example, the literary styles such as free poetry, drama and new novels developed after the May 4th Movement are the most obvious examples.
In a word, literary genre is a specific style to express the ideological content of literary works. It adapts to the needs of social life, and at the same time is subject to the writer's inheritance and innovation of literary tradition, the accumulation of artistic experience and the exertion of creative ability. Only by adapting to the needs of social life and the requirements of the broad masses of the people, and combining with the excellent literary traditions of the nation, can various literary genres develop healthily and gradually improve.