The literati scholars in the early Qing Dynasty were dissatisfied with the rulers' national oppression and autocratic rule. They generally had national thoughts that opposed the Qing court, and some people also had progressive democratic thoughts. The majority of poetry writers during this period were the Ming Dynasty survivors who held this idea. Huang Zongxi, Gu Yanwu and Wang Fuzhi were the most outstanding thinkers and scholars during this period. Their prose, with its profound skills, expresses strong national thoughts and varying degrees of democratic thoughts, surpassing the achievements of prose in the late Ming Dynasty and showing a new look; their poetry is also of high character. Important surviving poets include Guizhuang, Du Jun, Wu Jiaji, Yan Ermei, Qian Chengzhi, Qu Dajun, Chen Gongyin, etc. The important theme of the survivors' poems is to reflect national contradictions and express patriotic thoughts; Yan Ermei, Qian Chengzhi, and Wu Jiaji also reflected the social and class contradictions at that time. In terms of style, each has its own characteristics.
Qian Qianyi and Wu Weiye, who served as Ming ministers in the Qing Dynasty, were also two important writers in the early Qing Dynasty. Their identities are different from those of the survivors, but the contents of their works are similar.
Qian Qianyi had profound knowledge and magnificent writing style. Before Huang, Gu and Wang, he had begun to change the pattern of prose in the late Ming Dynasty and expand its scale. His poems also learned from the great masters of the Tang and Song Dynasties. His works after entering the Qing Dynasty were also good at describing the rise and fall of the country, so as to "never forget the motherland".
Wu Weiye's poems mostly describe historical events in the late Ming Dynasty and early Qing Dynasty. His seven-character songs are full of beautiful words, pathos, harmonious syllables, and have strong appeal. Famous prose writers include Wei Xi, Hou Fangyu, Wang Wan and others.
Wei Xi is a survivor, and his writings have strong national sentiments and strong imagery. Hou Fangyu's writing is unrestrained and powerful. Wang Wan's writing is smooth and concise. Under the influence of Qian Qianyi, Gu Yanwu and others, literati in the early Qing Dynasty were well-read and rich in classics, so they were also good at writing parallel prose, with the talented parallel prose written by Chen Weisong being the most famous.
In the late Kangxi period, the rule was consolidated, and most of the scribes grew up in the Qing Dynasty, and their life experiences were different from those of the Ming Dynasty survivors. The poetry of this period no longer focused on expressing national and class contradictions, but was devoted to the pursuit of artistic skills. The content was mainly lyrical, recalling ancient times and imitating landscapes. Due to the evolution of literature itself, the development of urban life, and the growth of the citizen class, the status of emerging operas and novels in literary history since the Yuan and Ming Dynasties has gradually surpassed that of poetry and prose at that time. Qing Dynasty literature also continued this trend, with outstanding achievements in opera and novels. Operas in the early Qing Dynasty, such as Wu Weiye's Moling Spring and Li Yu's Niutoushan, etc., expressed the pain of the country's decline and were a tortuous projection of the national conflicts at that time.
"Qingzhongpu", co-produced by Li Yu and others, exposes the darkness of the eunuchs' rule and puts the struggles of the citizens on the stage; the plot and characters are relatively concentrated, which reduces the problem of complicated clues in the legendary operas of the Ming Dynasty. The content and form All worthy of recognition.
The contents of "Fifteen Guans" by Zhu Guan (also known as Suchen) and "Amber Key" by Ye Zhifei (known as Shizhang) are also valuable. Then came two outstanding legends, Hong Sheng's "The Palace of Eternal Life" and Kong Shangren's "The Peach Blossom Fan."
"The Palace of Eternal Life" describes the love tragedy between Tang Xuanzong Li Longji and Yang Guifei in the context of the Anshi Rebellion, criticizing feudal politics and the decadent aspects of Li and Yang's lives, and reflecting the broad society Contradictory; it embodies the author's ideals in praising true love. Although there are contradictory shortcomings in the treatment of the theme and the protagonist's character, the plot of this play is moving, has a strong lyrical atmosphere, and its achievements are still high.
"The Peach Blossom Fan" takes the separation and reunion of Hou Fangyu and Li Xiangjun as the main line, describing the fall of the Hongguang Dynasty of the Southern Ming Dynasty and the rise and fall of the Ming Dynasty in 300 years, achieving a comparison between historical reality and artistic reality. A winning combination. It directly writes about the historical events before and after the Qing soldiers entered the Pass, and is more closely related to the real struggle than "The Palace of Eternal Life". The whole play has a tight structure, showing Li Xiangjun, who lives in an insulted and oppressed position but has a noble character, and creates an image of a patriotic woman who upholds national integrity. Its main limitation was its hostility to the peasant rebels in the late Ming Dynasty. Literature in the Yongzheng and Qianlong Periods Based on the rising political and economic situation in the late Kangxi period, the Yongzheng and Qianlong periods entered the "prosperity" of the Qing Dynasty. The destroyed capitalist production factors that had sprouted since the mid-Ming Dynasty were restored and developed, and China's feudal economy showed its final stage of prosperity. However, while the Qing court was boasting of its successes in both civil and military affairs, land concentration, official corruption, rulers' extravagance, corruption and militarism gradually intensified the temporarily alleviated social conflicts.
In terms of culture and ideology, the policy of suppression continues to be strict: Lu Liuliang's suicide note in the Yongzheng Dynasty, Hu Zhongzao, Peng Jiaping and other literary prisons in the Qianlong Dynasty are still widely implicated and the punishments are cruel; the rulers are advocating the Neo-Confucianism of Cheng and Zhu. In addition, it also rewarded textual criticism, which actually played a role in guiding scholars to engage in academic research that was divorced from the struggle against reality; the Qianlong Dynasty took advantage of the opportunity of compiling the "Sikuquanshu" to destroy and alter a large number of documents that were not conducive to the rule of the Qing court. books.
During this period, various literary creations were active.
The poetry writers of this period succumbed to the pressure of the imperial court and were confused by the superficial peace of the "prosperous age". They continued the tendency of the late Kangxi period and their creations were weak in reflecting social contradictions. But poetry theory and poetry school are quite active.
Famous poets include Shen Deqian, who holds the theory of style, Yuan Mei, who holds the theory of spirit, and Jiang Shiquan, Zhao Yi, and Zhang Wentao, who are as famous as Yuan Mei and have similar creative ideas; Li E, whose style is distinguished by his elegance, Qian Zai wins for his novelty, Li Bian for his strangeness and steepness, Huang Jingren for his clearness and suaveness; and Zheng Xie (ie Zheng Banqiao) who describes the suffering of the people, etc. There are many poets, diverse styles, and varying degrees of innovation in artistic techniques, creating a grand occasion unprecedented since the Yuan and Ming Dynasties.
In terms of prose, the Tongcheng School of prose represented by Fang Bao, Liu Dakui and Yao Nai emerged. Fang Bao emphasized righteousness and law, while Yao Nai emphasized the yin and yang of firmness and softness in his writing. Ideologically, he adhered to the orthodox concepts of Shoucheng and Zhu Neo-Confucianism, and his style was pure, elegant and upright, adapting to the political background of the time. Their simple and aeolian works have their own characteristics, but lack grandeur and scale.
There were also many parallel prose writers in this period: Hu Tianyou, Yuan Mei, Wu Xiqi, Kong Guangsen and others followed the example of the Six Dynasties, Tang and Song dynasties, and won by their rich talents; those who imitated the Wei and Jin Dynasties, and won by their elegant style, included Wang Zhong, Hong Liangji, Shao Qitao and others.
In the world of Ci poetry, the Zhejiang School has the greatest influence, with representative writers such as Li E. Long novels radiated unique and huge brilliance in this period, which was the emergence of two masterpieces, Wu Jingzi's "The Scholars" and Cao Xueqin's "A Dream of Red Mansions".
"The Scholars" comprehensively exposes and satirizes the destruction of talents by the feudal examination system of eight-part essay selection. Although it uses exaggerated techniques, it embodies "the life of irony is real." of profound reality. Its humorous and simple language art can also achieve "relative and humorous, sad and full of irony", and is full of implicitness. It is the most accomplished satirical novel in ancient China.
"A Dream of Red Mansions" reflects the decadence of bureaucratic landlord life through the love tragedy of Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu and the story of Jia's family from prosperity to decline, and expresses the democratic thoughts and traditional ideologies of rebellious young people. The conflict revealed the trend of decline of the feudal ruling class and feudal society. It creates a large group of characters with profound typical significance and distinctive personalities through refined descriptions of daily life trivia and the inner world of the characters. The characterization is delicate, the atmosphere is rich, and the language is beautiful and colorful. It has become the pinnacle of Chinese classical novels with its great achievements in thought and art.
Short classical Chinese notebook novels, such as "Yuewei Cottage Notes" by Ji Yun and "New Qixie" by Yuan Mei, are not as successful as the earlier "Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio". Literature during the Jiaqing and Daoguang periods. Political corruption in the late Qianlong period intensified social conflicts.
From the early years of Jiaqing to the Opium War in the 20th year of Daoguang (1796~1840), social conflicts continued to develop and became more acute.
The "prosperous age" of the Qing Dynasty tended to decline, and China's feudal society was also declining day by day. The people's resistance struggle intensified as life became increasingly poor, and large-scale uprisings such as the White Lotus Sect and the Tenri Sect broke out. The literati at that time saw the appearance of the "prosperous age" gradually disillusioned, and they could not break free from the constraints imposed on their thoughts. They were in the dull and suffocating air on the eve of the storm. There have been some small changes in the literary world, but the prosperity is no longer as strong as in the previous period.
In terms of prose, Yun Jing, Zhang Huiyan, Li Zhaoluo and others advocated that articles should combine the strengths of the Han, Wei, Six Dynasties and the Tang and Song Dynasties, and combine the strengths of both parallel and prose styles, hoping to save the country with a vigorous and vigorous style. The weak Tongcheng faction was called the Yanghu faction. The achievements of the Yanghu School in writing practice cannot exceed that of the Tongcheng School, and its influence is not as profound as the Tongcheng School. Representative writers of the Tongcheng School during this period include Mei Zengliang, Guan Tong and others. Zhang Huiyan, and later Zhou Ji, etc., promoted the significance and social role of propaganda words. The propaganda words should be written in a profound, beautiful and meaningful way, with substantial content. He made great contributions in theory and promoted the progress of Qing Ci. Its influence directly extended to modern times and was called the Changzhou School. However, although their creations wanted to "cast the faces of Wen, Wei, Zhou and Xin with the national style and the purpose of "Li Sao"", they were actually deeply influenced by Wen Tingyun, Zhou Bangyan and Wu Wenying, and tended to be more colorful. , and lacks content with profound practical significance and positive spirit. Compared with the Zhejiang sect and the Yangxian sect, there is no real difference between them.
When the Changzhou School was popular in the world of poetry, there were poets who were not constrained by the style of this school, such as Guo Luzhuan and Xiang Hongzuo. Highly praised by commentators.
In terms of poetry, famous authors include Wang Tan, Sun Yuanxiang, Shu Wei, etc., who are known as the "last three" after the "Qianlong three" of Yuan Mei, Jiang Shiquan and Zhao Yi. Shu Wei's poems are good at tailoring idioms and full of strangeness; Sun Yuanxiang's poems are clear and beautiful, full of ingenuity and have wonderful works.
Although the writers of the above poems, articles and lyrics all died during the Jiaqing period, some of their creative activities had begun in the late Qianlong period. Therefore, in the history of literature, Yun Jing, Zhang Huiyan, Wang Tan, Sun Yuanxiang and others were placed among the writers of the previous period.
Gong Zizhen is the representative writer who has a premonition that the storm is coming and is looking forward to welcoming the dawn of a new era. He lived in this period, but his poems and prose with enlightenment ideas and rich in brilliant colors created a new trend and had a greater impact on modern literature. Therefore, he is often listed as a pioneer of modern literature in literary history. Novels and dramas reached a low ebb during this period. The most famous chapter-length novel is Li Ruzhen's "Flowers in the Mirror". It has some progressive views on women's issues and reflects democratic ideas, but it also contains a lot of feudal preaching and vulgar content, and it also has obvious shortcomings in art.
After "The Palace of Eternal Life" and "The Peach Blossom Fan", the content of legends has gradually tended to promote feudal morality and meet the entertainment needs of scholar-bureaucrats; the form has also become lengthy, stacked, and rigid, and excellent The works are rare.
What has emerged instead are various local operas that have new vitality. Singing literature, such as storytelling, drum poetry, tanci, etc., has various varieties and is quite active in cities and rural areas, showing their folk color and vitality.