Although the classical Chinese short stories of the Ming Dynasty cannot compete with the vernacular long and short stories of the same era, they occupy an important position in the history of the development of classical Chinese novels. Famous collections of legends, strange stories, and clear-cut novels include: Qu You's "Xinhua on Jian Deng", Li Zhen's "Remaining Stories on Jian Deng", "Looking for Deng Yin Hua" by Shao Jingzhan, and "Yu" edited by Zhang Chao. "Chu Xin Zhi", "He Dai Yu Lin" by He Liangjun, etc. There are many works of rich literary and emotional quality in these collections. In addition, some famous prose writers such as Song Lian, Liu Ji, and Ma Zhongxi also have famous works of Japanese novels.
In the more than 600 years from the beginning of the Song Dynasty to the end of the Ming Dynasty, most classical Chinese short stories were written in the Jin and Tang Dynasties, but none of them surpassed the Tang Dynasty. Great changes occurred in the Qing Dynasty, when classical Chinese short stories flourished, producing "Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio" with world significance and influence, pushing the development of classical Chinese short stories to its highest peak. "Using the legendary method to create strange stories" (Lu Xun) summarizes the basic characteristics of the writing and content of "Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio". The fundamental difference between the "Zhiguai" in "Liao Zhai" and the "Zhiguai" in the Six Dynasties is: Pu Songling's "Zhiguai" does not believe in "weirdness", while the people in the Six Dynasties "Zhiguai" believe in "weirdness"; "Weird" is an unintentional promotion of "weird", while Pu Songling's "Zhiwei" is intentionally based on "weird". There is a saying in "Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio": "It is impossible to continue the record of the netherworld by gathering armpits and writing in vain; it is only a book of loneliness and anger. It is quite sad to put it in this way!" As soon as "Liao Zhai" was published, the writing became famous. , although no one can compete with them, they each have their own achievements. Those with more obvious influence include: Wang Shizhen's "Chibei Ou Tan", Yuan Mei's "Zi Buyu" (i.e. "Xin Qixie"), Shen Qifeng's "Xie Feng", Man Ren Bang'e's "Night Tan Sui Lu", Zeng Yandong's "Xiaodou Sheng" wait. Later, from the reign of Shi Zhi to the Guangxu period, there were Wang Tao's "The Admonitions of Eunku Ku", "Songyin Man Lu", "Songbin Suo Hua" and Xuanding's "Ye Yu Qiu Lu", etc. Lu Xun commented on several later collections and said: "The style of writing and the style of "Liao Zhai" spread far and wide for a while, but the records have gradually become rarer, and the story of hundreds of fireworks is flourishing." There is also Cheng Zhixiang's "This" Chinese Language" and Jia Ming's "Nu Liaozhai", etc. This shows the influence of "Liao Zhai" and the grand occasion of his letter writing. After "Liao Zhai" became popular for more than a hundred years, Ji Yun's "Notes on Yuewei Thatched Cottage" came out one after another. Ji's criticism of "Liao Zhai" was quite critical, saying that it was "the pen of a talented scholar, not the author of the book". "Zi
(zhǐ地anni) has the details of the legends of the Tang Dynasty, but also has the shortcomings of the legends of the Six Dynasties." (Lu Xun's words) Lu Xun praised "Yuewei", saying that "he is thoughtful about wonderful things, and he is able to explain them in time; he also has insights from miscellaneous research and analysis. The narrative is graceful and elegant, and the sky is more and more abundant, so no one after him can take his seat." "However, "Yuewei" focuses on recording events to understand the truth. The storyline is not rich enough, the characters are not rich enough, and there are too many discussions. Therefore, it lacks the strong novel flavor of "Liao Zhai", and its academic value is higher than its literary value. After "Yuewei", believers also joined together. Qing people's notes were a grand space, and among the short stories in classical Chinese, note novels accounted for the largest proportion. However, most of the works in the notes are novels, but there are many works in the notes that meet the requirements of novels. It needs to be identified and sorted out by us.
Let’s talk about the formation, development and evolution of vernacular novels from the Song Dynasty. The emergence of the Song Dynasty's scripts was of a revolutionary nature. Its positive intentions are at least as follows: ① From classical Chinese to vernacular, it not only enhances the expressive power of novels, but also expands the readership, thus improving the social function of novels. ②The object of the work's description has shifted from feudal scholars to civilians, especially citizens. Therefore, the ideological viewpoints and aesthetic taste of the work have changed accordingly. ③Laid the foundation of vernacular short stories and novels. The rise of pillow-talk novels is “actually a major change in the history of Chinese novels.” (Lu Xun language)
"Huaben" is originally the speaker's original text. To "speak" is to tell a story. As a skill, it originated in the Tang Dynasty and flourished in the Song Dynasty. Its origin is very long ago. Before the Tang Dynasty, "talking" activities were limited to scholars Daguang, and were mostly used for entertainment during the ruling period. In the Tang Dynasty, "speaking" as a skill had a tendency to develop into "citizen literature". Due to the classical Chinese novels and Bianwen of the Tang Dynasty, dialogue books have an influence regardless of content and form.
In the Song Dynasty, "speech" was very prevalent in tiles, goulan, teahouses, wine shops, streets, palaces, temples, mansions and villages. In this way, a group of professional "speakers" emerged, as well as groups that wrote scripts and "speakers" guilds. "Speakers" have a professional division of labor called "Family Numbers"; among the "Family Numbers", the two families with the greatest influence are "Novel" and "History Telling", especially the "Novel" family. There is an evolution process from "talking" to story-telling novels. In the early days, the scripts, as the "speaker's" manuscript, were not for people to read, but for masters and apprentices to teach and speak to others; the scripts were compiled not for literary purposes, but for professional needs. With the improvement of citizens' cultural demands and the development of printing industry, the scripts for "speakers" to use were gradually processed and polished, and printed and circulated for people to read. After the vernacular script was circulated publicly, vernacular novels were born. Since then, this art and script have become separate in a certain sense.
During the Song and Yuan Dynasties, most of the scripts were circulated in single pieces and were mostly written by folk artists. They were circulated in the market with almost no signatures. As a result, the specific year of writing of many works is still unclear. Especially the Song and Yuan dynasties are more difficult to distinguish. So those who organize novels had no choice but to lump them together and call them "Song and Yuan scripts".
There are still no precise statistics on how many "Song and Yuan scripts" there are. Contemporary scholars believe that there are 67 novels in the Song and Yuan Dynasties, most of them from the Song Dynasty. "Tao Shi" [also known as "Pinghua" (or "Pinghua")] script. Most of them come from the Yuan Dynasty. According to the records in the catalog volume 46 of "Yongle Dadian", there are 26 chapters (unfortunately, many of them have been lost. Today, only "Compilation of Pinghua of the History of the Five Dynasties", "Five Kinds of Pinghua of Quanxiang", and "Xuanhe of the Song Dynasty") "The Legend" and "Lectures" are only approximate novels rather than novels, but they had a positive impact on the formation of Zhanghui novels.
The rise of "speaking" skills in the Song Dynasty was related to the deformation of the urban economy at that time. Prosperity is closely related, which can be clearly illustrated from various notes such as "Tokyo Menghua Lu", "Capital Records", "West Lake Old Man Fansheng Lu", "Mengliang Lu" and "Wulin Old Events".
The Ming Dynasty was an era when vernacular short stories flourished. As far as vernacular short stories are concerned, the Ming people made contributions in three aspects: first, they processed and polished the artistically flawed scripts of the Song, Yuan and Ming dynasties. The second is to collect and organize a collection of vernacular novels, and the third is to create a large number of vernacular novels (short stories) in the Ming Dynasty. The most prosperous period for vernacular novels (short stories) was after Wanli, especially in the south, where the urban economy developed and the urban class formed an increasingly liberal life for literati. Therefore, the vernacular short stories with the main content reflecting the lives of citizens have been increasingly developed. The most representative collections are "Qing Ping Shan Tang Hua Ben" by Hong Biān (Mu Ming) and "Three Words" by Feng Meng. ” ("The Ming Yan of Yu Shi", "The Tong Yan of Awakening the World", "The Heng Yan of Awakening the World") and Ling Mengchu's "Er Pai" ("Surprise at the First Moment", "Surprise at the Second Moment").
< p> "Qing Ping Shan Tang Hua Ben" was originally divided into six volumes and contains 60 novels. The total title is "60 Novels", and only 27 of them are old works from the Song and Yuan Dynasties and have not been polished; a few are from the Ming Dynasty. Works. "Three Words" contains all the vernacular novels, some of which were edited by Feng Menglong, and some of which were written by him. Most of the works in "Erpai" were written by Ling Mengchu in the Ming Dynasty. This book. Feng Menglong is an "all-round" popular writer who also has outstanding insights into the theory of popular novels. His "Three Words" has a wide range of themes, many excellent works, covering all aspects of social life at that time, and he has made many artistic creations. . From this, we can see the outstanding achievements of the Song, Yuan and Ming dynasties. "Erpai" is the earliest collection of huahua at the same time as "Sanyan". It contains 80 works. Ling Mengchu's thoughts are far less advanced than Feng Menglong, and the book is dregs. It is much more serious than "Three Words", but in terms of art, "Lyric description of scenery is like hearing it" (Sun Kaidi's words)Please start from "Three Words" and "Two Words". "Pai" selected forty works, named "Wonderful Views of Modern and Ancient Times". When "San Yan" and "Er Pai" were once lost, we can rely on this book to understand the basic situation of the vernacular novels in the Ming Dynasty. This selection is in It had a broad and profound influence on the masses.
In the late Ming Dynasty and the early Qing Dynasty, under the influence of "Sanyan" and "Erpai", there was an upsurge in the creation of imitative scripts, with a collection of forty. Although their ideas and artistry are not as good as those of "San Yan" and "Er Pai", they are still the same, and there are still some works worth reading, such as "Stone Nod" by "Natural Zhisou" published during the Chongzhen period. "The Twelfth Floor" by Li Yu in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, "Zhao Shi Cup" by "Master Yuan Heng", "West Lake Two Episodes" by Zhou Qingyuan, "Drunken Awakening Stone" by "Donglu Gu Kuangsheng", etc.
After the Qianjia period of the Qing Dynasty, the trend of textual criticism prevailed, and scholar-bureaucrats were not keen on novels. It was not until the end of the Qing Dynasty that this phenomenon changed, and novels developed vigorously.
In the early Ming Dynasty, "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and "Water Margin" came out one after another, marking that the history of Chinese novels entered a new stage of historical development. Since then, the history of Chinese novels has shifted from short stories to a new period of novels. Although short stories in classical Chinese and vernacular Chinese have been developing and advancing according to their own laws, and they have good times and climaxes, generally speaking, their achievements and scale cannot compare with those of full-length novels. The "Four Great Books" are among the best in their respective genres: "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is both the first novel in history and a model of historical fiction; "Water Margin" is not only the first masterpiece to comprehensively describe the peasant uprising, but also a model of historical fiction. A model of heroic legend; "Journey to the West" is not only the first full-length novel about gods and demons, but also a model of a novel about gods and demons; "The Plum in the Golden Ping" is both the first full-length novel about worldly affairs and the first one created solely by a literati successful novel. Each of them created a field of novel creation. The great achievements of the "Four Great Books" have profoundly affected the creation of full-length novels, and even formed several series of full-length novels: "Three Kingdoms" series, "Water Margin" series, "Journey to the West" series, "Jin Ping Mei" series, and so on. It affects the entire society, affects cultural thought, and affects people's spiritual life. This huge and subtle power is difficult to estimate.
During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, two masterpieces, The Scholars and A Dream of Red Mansions, were published. Two generations ago, although there were many satirical works in the history of Chinese novels, none of them could be called satirical novels. This is why Lu Xun praised "The Scholars" so much: ""The Scholars" was published with an open mind, pointed out the current ills, and pointed out the current trends, especially in the scholarly community; its writing was concise, humorous, and tactful. There are many satires; so it is said that there are only books that can be called satires in this department." (Part 23 of "A Brief History of Chinese Novels") "The Scholars" opened up another path besides the "Four Great Books". .
It not only directly influenced the creation of condemnation novels in the late Qing Dynasty, but also influenced Lu Xun's later essays. As for the achievements and influence of "Dream of Red Mansions", there is no need to say more. Regardless of its ideological and artistic quality, it is the pinnacle of the history of Chinese novels and literature, and is also a masterpiece in world literature. Its great achievement can be regarded as a glorious summary of the realist creative art of ancient Chinese novels. If "Three Kingdoms", "Water Margin" and "Journey to the West" have a great influence on the people, the influence of "The Scholars" and "Red Mansions" is among scholar-bureaucrats. In particular, the reading and speaking of "A Dream of Red Mansions" has already become a habit and fashion among the scholar-bureaucrats: "Don't talk about "A Dream of Red Mansions" when talking, and you can understand each other even if you read all the poems and books." This shows that among the intellectuals in the Qing Dynasty, Not only is there a "Dream of Red Mansions" craze, but also whether one is familiar with "Dream of Red Mansions" is regarded as a criterion for measuring a person's knowledge. "Dream of Red Mansions" was reviewed before the Western Dynasty. Over the past two hundred years, there have been countless reviewers and countless sequels. The number of researchers and the wealth of research results are unique in the history of Chinese novels. The study of "Dream of Red Mansions" has long formed a school of thought - "Redology", and now it has become a world-wide knowledge. This is the pride of Chinese people.
After "A Dream of Red Mansions", novel creation went into a trough due to the times. It was not until the late Qing Dynasty that novels flourished again. Due to the extreme corruption of the Qing court, society was in a period of great change; the theory of novels was highly developed, many magazines were launched, and the printing industry was also developed and prosperous, which provided convenient conditions for the creation of novels. According to recent rough statistics, there should be more than a thousand kinds of novels in the late Qing Dynasty. Among the "Four Great Novelists" (Li Boyuan, Wu Yiàn, Liu E, and Zeng Pu), Li Boyuan and Wu (can't type this word) alone have created dozens of novels. The novels of the late Qing Dynasty contain many new factors, both in content and technique, reflecting the characteristics of the period of change. Mr. A Ying (Qian Xingdun) made the greatest contribution to the research and arrangement of late Qing novels, and Mr. Wei Shaochang also did a lot of basic work. Generally speaking, compared with the research on novels of the Ming Dynasty and the pre-Qing Dynasty, it seems to be very weak. What can be recorded are the "four major condemnation novels": Li Boyuan's "The Appearance of Officialdom", Wu Ren's "The Strange Current Situation Witnessed in Twenty Years", Liu E's "The Travels of Lao Can", and Zeng Pu's "Nie Haihua".
To sum up, the history of the development of ancient Chinese novels is generally as follows: before the Song Dynasty, there was a single-line development of short and short novels in classical Chinese; in the Song and Yuan Dynasties, classical Chinese, vernacular, novels, short stories, and multi-line development were presented. A colorful state of affairs.