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Why is Bailuyuan called epic?
As a novel, epic contains at least two aspects, one is history, and the other is poetry. Critics' epic comments on White Deer Plain actually focus more on history than on poetry. For example, Bai Ye's Historical Records Implication Epic Style is very desirable to make a fuss about grasping the epic, but for one thing, talking about "history" basically does not involve "ambition", but also involves a hundred years of political entanglements. As for the "poem" of "epic", as a style, it has been ignored. In fact, there are many things to do here. In the dialogue with Qu Yajun and Li, Chang Guangyuan praised the writer's "straight historian mentality", saying that "Chen boldly wrote that Bering was wronged, Heiwa succumbed to death, and Bai Xiaowen succeeded, and presented the historical limitations brought about by the revolution dominated by small producers under the patriarchal clan system to future generations as readers, so that they could taste yesterday and judge the present. It should be said that this is a rather profound and keen judgment. However, Chen's White Deer Plain attaches great importance to history and consciously pursues the effect of combining poetry with history. As far as the cultural tradition of this land in Guanzhong is concerned, it actually has a purpose. Zhou Qin's hometown is the cradle of the Chinese nation. There are not only Jiangzhai cultural sites and Banpo cultural sites seven or eight thousand years ago, but also the earlier skull stone of Lantian Ape and the later skull fossil of Dali Man. In the early history of the Han nationality, although there was no literary form similar to Homer's epic, it was not without its own epic. Gongliu and Mian, which describe the legends and history of Zhou Xianmin in The Book of Songs, are at least epic in nature. The place where these poems were produced happened to be in Guanzhong area. Attaching importance to history is an important tradition of the Chinese nation. Gu Zhun called this culture "the culture of historians". Although he paid more attention to its negative aspects, he grasped the indisputable fact that he attached importance to history. Shangshu, an ancient book in the pre-Qin period, was listed as a history of "keeping words" in Liu Zhiji's historical theory work Shi Tong in the Tang Dynasty. His "Zhou Pan" is described by Han Yu as "bending and twisting", which is obviously earlier than the Spring and Autumn Annals compiled by Confucius based on Lu Shi. Zhou's "patents" and the like are all produced in the Zhou area centered on Guanzhong. The historical tradition reached its peak in the Han Dynasty. Its two representatives, Sima Qian in the Western Han Dynasty and Ban Gu in the Eastern Han Dynasty, are both from Guanzhong. One on the left and one on the right. Sima Qian, with his Records of the Historian (Taishi Gongshu) and his great personality, had a great influence on the literature and history of later generations and set the course for the hundred generations. Ban Gu's Hanshu is famous for its preciseness. Sima Qian and Ban Gu were both born in a historian's family. Sima Qian's father Sima Tan is a historian; Ban Gu's father Ban Biao is also a historian, while his talented sister Ban Zhao is the first successful female historian in China history. Because of this sister, Hanshu finally came to an end. Sima Qian once spoke highly of Qu Yuan in the Biography of Qu Yuan and Jia Sheng, and his Historical Records was also named "No rhyme and Li Sao" by later generations. In other words, when reading history from an aesthetic point of view, people realized the unity of poetry and history in Sima Qian, and read poetry from history. This is definitely a tradition that cannot be ignored in the history of Guanzhong regional culture. In view of this, I think that among contemporary novelists in Qin Dynasty, the pursuit of epic effect began in, and ended in Chen, at least dating back to the Han Dynasty, just like the name of Bailuyuan.