The Scholars was originally published only 55 times. According to Cheng Jinfang's "Poems for Feeling", it can be proved that Wu wrote the manuscript at the age of 49, but it was not until more than ten years after the author died that Jin carved it for him. This print has been lost today. At present, there are 56 engravings, and the last one was forged by later generations.
Wu (1701-1754), a native of Quanjiao, Anhui Province in the Qing Dynasty (the seal script of "Xu Lanting" written by Wu: "Quanjiao Wuli Renyin"). Wu was born in the 40th year of Kangxi in Qing Dynasty and died in the 19th year of Qianlong at the age of 54. Young, smart and good at remembering. A little longer, make up the formal disciple. Jing You's Selected Works, Cheng. I am not good at treating students, and my nature is heroic. In a few years, I have squandered all my old products, and sometimes I can't even eat. In the 13th year of Yongzheng (A.D. 1735), Governor Chair Zhao gave a speech on the grounds of "learned words" and refused to go. Moved to Jinling and became a literary leader. He also gathered two comrades-in-arms to build a sage at the foot of Yuhua Mountain and sacrificed 230 people below Taibo. If the capital is insufficient, the house you live in will be sold, and the poor will benefit at home. In his later years, he became an old man named Wenmu, who was a guest in Yangzhou, especially in drinking. Later he died among the guests. Amethyst's career was the worst in her life. She wrote fifty-five chapters of The Scholars (fifty-six chapters in one book and sixty chapters in the other, all of which were not original), which made him laugh. There are also seven volumes of poetry, five volumes of Wen Mu Fang Shan Ji, seven volumes of poetry and A Brief History of China's Novels. Because there is a "Wenmu Mountain Residence" at home, he called himself "Wenmu Old Man" in his later years, and because he moved from his hometown in Quanjiao, Anhui Province to Qinhuai River in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, he was also called "Qinhuai River Guest". He was born in a famous family, received a good education as a child, and showed a special talent for literary creation. When he became an adult, he had the opportunity to gain a lot of knowledge, including the inside story of officialdom, because he worked as an official with his father everywhere. When Wu was 22 years old, his father died, and there was a fierce struggle for property and power within the family.
Wu and Yu Jie in The Scholars
Wu's life can be divided into two parts. In the early stage, like Xiao Shan, he drifted away from the "normal" life track with an emotional lifestyle. "When I was a teenager, I painted a boat in Qingxi Jiuqu. I once remembered to swim and smell ... I spent a lot of money that night, so I didn't care about the price." ("Buy a Limb Pond") "The Wangs have a head cover, geisha know spring songs and drinks, and the whiteboard goes to the west. Only when they win will they know these songs. "(Minus Magnolia) Wu is not really addicted to love like a hill, but flaunts one more.
An unacceptable attitude towards life. You don't swim for the sake of swimming, but you experience freedom in swimming. Hu Shi said that Wu Jiaye was defeated in Qinhuai, but I think it was "sediment throwing a gold, bearing a burden" deliberately. Only when we lose our property and get rid of the shackles of the clan can we enter literary creation with a pure mentality.
"I didn't know that owls were apprentices in the East." ! Wu Jingbang, 33, was penniless. When he moved to Nanjing, he was already regarded as the "black sheep". After three days of rain, the stove was cold and there was no money, he still refused to take Fu's Ci exam. When the "old man's bitter words" interfered with his freedom, he "crossed his hands and thanked the old man, with an eyebrow like a tiger." [45] His "stupidity", "ignorance" and "concealment" remain unchanged throughout his life. How similar he is to Xiao Yan!
Wang Mian is regarded as a "celebrity" in The Scholars. The reason why he has such great ability is that he is an "aboveboard" person and an "interesting" person. Wang Mian is both a childlike cowboy and a talented freak. He painted lotus flowers, "the spirit and color of lotus flowers are very similar", because he himself is a lotus flower that emerges from the mud but is not stained. "When the flowers are beautiful, I ride a cow to my mother's car. He is wearing a top hat, a wide coat, a persistent whip and singing in his mouth. He played around in rural towns and lakes, causing people in rural areas to laugh with him in droves, and he didn't pay attention. " How spontaneous and naive this is! Faced with the threat of "killing a magistrate", Wang Mian would rather live on the streets than bow his head. He is far away from the hut and breeds the whole world. He revealed the essence of the official position: "This method is not good! In the future, scholars will be honored and despise the source of that article. "
In the novel, Feng Si's father seems to have a calcium dobesilate capsule, but it is actually a key. According to textual research, the prototype of Feng Si's father is the chivalrous Gan Fengchi. [46] At that time, Li Jue, the governor of Zhejiang Province, described Gan Fengchi in his memorial: "Investigating this generation of gangsters, false letters, sensational, I really hate it, and it is difficult to let the fish slip through the net." There are no more people who think about the good things in Jiangsu and Zhejiang than the criminals such as Gan Fengchi who are now arrested. "For such a traitor, Wu Jingbang sincerely praised:" The imperial court severely punished the secret network, and many literati bowed their knees when they saw it. You little people regard it as dirt, respectable! "
The Scholars ends with the story of four strange people. When "Nanjing's celebrities have gradually sold out", the strange man appeared in the middle of the road. The season when I can write meets the year, "but I refuse to learn ancient calligraphy, just create my own style and write with a pen." "If he doesn't want to, let your princes send him a lot of money, and he doesn't even look at it." He met Shi's face and scolded him: "What kind of person are you? Dare to ask me to write! I am not greedy for your money, your power or your light. Don't you dare let me write words to express my independent personality and high spirit. Wu regards "Four Musts" as a first-class figure who "reminisces about the past and thinks about the future". Konglin is a mess, but Jingcheng has a shining personality. Wu has quietly changed a brand-new value standard. Why can you maintain the independence of personality and the freedom of mind in the street?
Yuan Jing is a tailor, who can play the piano, write and like to write poems. A friend asked him, "If you want to be an elegant person, why do you want to work in your expensive business?" Why is it different from people in some schools? "He said," I don't want to be an elegant person, just want to be similar in temperament, so I often learn. "As for our cheap business, it was left by my grandfather. Don't you defile yourself by reading and writing as a tailor? Besides, those friends at school who have other opinions don't want to get along with us! Now I find sixty or seventy cents of silver every day. It's up to me to play the piano and write when I'm full. Do not covet the wealth of others, do not serve their faces; If the sky doesn't accept it and the earth doesn't care, it will be happy. This sentence is really groundbreaking. Wu realized that behind personality independence is economic independence. In the Confucian forest covered by the power network, there are only vassals like climbing vines and independents like Yan Yuansong. Street people run a profession despised by literati, but they gain real economic independence in this profession. What do you mean, "everything is up to me"! Scholars dare not say such big things even if they climb to the highest position like Zaifu. Wu broke through the traditional moral judgment and revealed the economic basis of "strange man". No one realized this before.
Wang Mian appeared at the beginning, four grandfathers appeared in the middle and four strange people appeared at the end, which was carefully arranged by the author. They are ordinary people who have no social status and are outside the ruling order. Their simplicity, enthusiasm and indifference are in sharp contrast with the ugly Confucian scholars and officialdom. As Hu Shi said in "Comment on Wu", "Being an official is the only way for an autocratic monarch to be trapped. There is only one way to resist this vicious cage: to advocate a new social psychology and let people know the ugliness of the industry and the ugliness of officials; People think that' people' are more valuable than' officials', and character is more valuable than wealth. If we cultivate this kind of psychology in society, we will not be afraid of the emperor's diabolical means of "doing nothing for the official". "The scholar's intention is only to develop this kind of social psychology."
However, this kind of social psychology is difficult to cultivate after all. Wu, the upright black sheep in Embedded Battery, is lonely, and so are the strange people in his works. Yuan Jing plays the piano for his bosom friend. "After playing for a while, he suddenly changed the emblem. It was so sad that the old man couldn't help crying when he heard it in the depths." Readers read here, hiding their own ideas, afraid that they will "cry"!