China's ancient novels are more mature than traditional operas in poetry and prose. In the long feudal society, novels have always been despised by feudal literati. It seems that China's ancient novels developed and prospered under the discrimination of feudal orthodox literati. This is also a kind of "rebellion".
When did China's ancient novels begin and what books did they come from? It seems that we can't stick to a book, because the narrative technique of novels doesn't require a high degree of integration of all kinds of literature and art like drama, but requires more and higher than poetry and prose, which can't be formed overnight, let alone marked by a book. It is only appropriate to generalize. We regard the Han Dynasty as the embryonic period of China's novels, in fact, because we don't think that this long historical period has produced novels that meet the basic requirements of novel style. As far as the actual situation is concerned, myths, fables, historical biographies and "unofficial history" legends in this period all gave birth to the factors of novel art and prepared the conditions for the formation of novel style; At the same time, it also reveals that China's novels have formed two categories of ambition and ambition in his childhood. However, it is an indisputable fact that it is difficult to completely separate China's early novels from his historical biography.
From the later Han Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty, it was the childhood of China's novels, or the initial period of China's novels. Mr. Lu Xun called the novels before the Tang Dynasty "ancient novels" in order to distinguish them from those after the Tang Dynasty. Because the novels of the Tang Dynasty are recognized as the symbol of the complete maturity of China's short stories in classical Chinese, while the novels of the Six Dynasties with rough outlines are obviously immature. It can be considered that "childhood novels" and "ancient novels" are similar and interlinked. The novels of this period have a common feature, that is, they emphasize the "truth" of things rather than the truth of art. Most of the works do not use "imaginary language", but what the author thinks actually exists, so the works are generally "landscape-oriented". As far as mystery novels are concerned, they don't use inhuman stories to reflect the world like later writers, but they are convinced that "Yin and Yang are different, and people and ghosts are true." Fundamentally speaking, the author doesn't know how to write a novel, let alone "intentionally write a novel". This prototype novel undoubtedly shows the characteristics of childhood. The rise of two kinds of childhood novels, represented by Liu Yiqing's Shi Shuo Xin Yu and Gan Bao's Ji Shen, is not only closely related to the civilized atmosphere and social habits of the times, but also a development trend gestated in the bud, which laid the foundation for the development and diversion of short stories in classical Chinese, and even influenced the creation of some novels.
Novels, like poems, changed in the Tang Dynasty. Judging from the development history of China's novels, the novels in the Tang Dynasty were a qualitative leap. There are more than 40 novels in the Tang Dynasty, and there are more than 40 special collections, about 1,000 novels, which are roughly divided into two categories: one is legend and the other is mystery novels. The reasons for the prosperity and development of novels in Tang Dynasty are not only the inheritance and development of childhood novels, but also the political prosperity and cultural development at that time and the wind of "writing papers" and "warming papers" in imperial examinations.
There was a fundamental change in the development of novels in the Song Dynasty, that is, the appearance of scripts. Since then, the history of novels with classical Chinese short stories as the mainstream before the Song Dynasty has gradually changed into that with vernacular novels as the mainstream since the Song Dynasty. At the same time, short stories in classical Chinese also developed along its track. In this way, the history of China's novels has developed from literary language and Bai nationality. They have their own characteristics, absorb and penetrate each other, and are beautiful in various ways. The climax of novels in the history of China literature is getting heavier and heavier, and their status is getting higher and higher.
With regard to the development of short stories in classical Chinese, in the Song Dynasty, short stories in classical Chinese can be roughly divided into three types: one is legendary, which is the remnant of novels in the Tang Dynasty; Second, short stories in the form of notes, which is the evolution of childhood chronicles; The third kind is strange style, which is the continuation of childhood strange novels. The achievements of legendary novels in Song Dynasty are far less than those in Tang Dynasty. "Tang people generally write current events; However, people in Song Dynasty talked more about ancient things, while novels in Tang Dynasty were less. There are many lessons in the Song Dynasty. " "Probably speaking freely in the Tang Dynasty, although writing current events will not be a disaster; However, in the Song Dynasty, there were many taboos, so scholars tried to avoid them and tell stories about the past. In addition, the Song Dynasty was very popular because novels were also more rational. " In a word, there are many historical legends in the Song Dynasty, and the overall achievements are not high, but there are also many scattered works, such as Tan Yi Ge Wei who plays alcohol, and the anonymous legend of Li Shishi. There are more notes in the Song Dynasty than ever before. Many of them are novels or approximate novels. At the beginning of the Northern Song Dynasty, many things happened in the Tang and Five Dynasties, such as Sun Guangkuan's North Dream. After the mid-Northern Song Dynasty, he recorded many important events of this dynasty, such as Sima Guang's Su Shui Ji; People in the Southern Song Dynasty still remember the old years of the Northern Song Dynasty, such as Hui Zhou's Qingbo Magazine. The records of the Song Dynasty are "unremarkable and lacking in literary talent". Although their achievements are not as good as those of Notes on Historical Records, there are several influential works, such as Hong Mai's Jane Yizhi and Wu Shu's Strange Records of Jianghuai. Although the achievements of Song people's short stories in classical Chinese are not very high, they are numerous and varied, and should occupy a place in the history of novels. Ning Ren's greatest contribution to classical Chinese novels lies in compiling a voluminous Taiping Guangji, and many classical Chinese short stories before the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty were mostly preserved.
The classical Chinese short stories in the Jin and Yuan Dynasties did not exceed the level of the Song Dynasty in terms of quantity or quality. However, the development clues have never been broken, and there are some influential collections, such as Yuan Haowen's continuation of Jian Yizhi, Liu Qi's Return, and Tao's Record of Dropping Out of Farming in Nancun.
Although short stories in classical Chinese in Ming Dynasty can't be compared with contemporary vernacular novels, they occupy an important position in the development history of classical Chinese novels. The famous collections of stories with stories, strange stories and clear stories are: Qu You's New Theory of Cutting Lights, Li Zhen's Talking about Cutting Lights, Shao's Searching for Lights, Juck Zhang's New Theory of Jade Beginning, He's Yu Lin and so on. There are many literary and emotional works in these collections. In addition, some famous prose writers, such as Song Lian, Liu Ji and Ma, occasionally write famous novels.
During the 600 years from the early Song Dynasty to the late Ming Dynasty, most of the short stories in classical Chinese were in the Jin and Tang Dynasties, but none of them could surpass the Tang Dynasty. Great changes have taken place in the Qing Dynasty, and short stories in classical Chinese flourished, resulting in Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio with world significance and influence, which pushed the development of short stories in classical Chinese to a peak. The legendary writer Lu Xun summed up the basic characteristics of the writing and content of Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio. The fundamental difference between Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio and the Strange Tales of the Six Dynasties lies in: Pu Songling's Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio does not believe in Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio, while people in the Six Dynasties believe in Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio; The Six Dynasties people's "ambition in strangeness" was to promote strangeness unintentionally, while Pu Songling's "ambition in strangeness" was intended to contain it. There is a cloud in Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio: "Many a mickle makes a mickle, and the ghost record continues in vain;" Floating white pen, only a lonely and angry book; It's sad to pin it on it! "A serial, go a long way. Although no one can compete with it, they also have their own achievements. The most influential ones are: Wang Shizhen's Occasionally Talking about the Red North, Yuan Mei's Midday Rain (that is, New Qi Xie), Shen Qifeng's Harmony Front, Manchu He Bange's Notes on Night Tan and Zeng Yandong's Little Bean Shed. Later, from the reign of Emperor Shizhi to Guangxu, there were Wang Tao's Dundong, Song Yin's Random Records, Song Bin Suohua and Xuanding's Night Rain and Autumn Records. Lu Xun commented on Ji Ziyun in this way: "His writing was purely for Liaozhai, which was circulated for a while. But the record has faded, and fireworks makeup is flourishing. "There are Cheng Zhixiang's" This Language "and Jia Ming's" Female Serial ". This shows the influence of Liaozhai and the grand occasion of its writing. After Liao Zhai became popular for more than one hundred years, Ji Yun's Notes on Yuewei Caotang came out one after another. Ji criticized Liaozhai, calling it "the pen of a gifted scholar, not a writer." see
(zhǐ bottom ruin) has the details of the legend of the Tang Dynasty and the shortcomings of the Six Dynasties. (Lu Xun's language) Lu Xun praised "reading micro" and said it was "a good opportunity to think about wonderful things; There are textual research and sentiment. The narrative is elegant and elegant, and the sky is richer. No one can take its back seat. " Yue Wei, on the other hand, focuses on taking notes and making sense, and the story is not rich enough, the characters are not rich enough, and there are too many discussions, so it lacks the strong novel meaning of Liaozhai, and its academic value is higher than its literary value. After reading Wei, believers joined in. Among the short stories in classical Chinese, note novels account for the largest proportion. But the notes are not all novels, and there are many works that meet the requirements of novels. Need us to identify and sort out.
Let's talk about the formation, development and evolution of vernacular novels since the Song Dynasty. The appearance of characters in Song Dynasty is revolutionary. Its positive intentions are at least as follows: ① From classical Chinese to vernacular Chinese, it not only enhances the expressive force of the novel, but also expands the audience, thus improving the social function of the novel. (2) The object described in the works has changed from the performance of feudal scholars to civilians, especially citizens, and the aesthetic taste of the works has changed accordingly. (3) It laid the foundation for vernacular short stories and novels. The rise of "The Story Book of the Sleeping Man" is indeed a great change in the history of China's novels. (Lu Xun)
The "script" is originally the speaker's script. "Telling" means telling stories. As a kind of geisha, it originated in the Tang Dynasty and flourished in the Song Dynasty, but its origin is very long. Before the Tang Dynasty, the activities of "talking" were limited to intellectuals, mostly for entertainment in the ruling stage. In the Tang Dynasty, "Tan", as a kind of geisha, had a tendency to develop into "citizen literature". Because of the classical Chinese novels and essays in the Tang Dynasty, the dialogue has an influence on both content and form.
In the Song Dynasty, "talking" was very harmful, spreading all over the tiles, Goulan, teahouses, wine cellars, streets, temples and official villages. In this way, a group of professional "orators" appeared, as well as groups that wrote scripts and "orators" associations. The "speaker" has a professional division of labor, called "home number"; Among the "families", the most influential ones are "novels" and "talking about history", especially "novels". There is an evolutionary process from "speaking" to scripted novels. In the early days, as a "speaker", the script was not for people to see, but for teachers and students to teach and tell people; Writing plays is not based on the purpose of literature, but on the needs of occupation. With the improvement of citizens' cultural requirements and the development of printing industry, the characters used by "speakers" have been processed and polished gradually, and printing has spread to people for reading. After the script-open circulation, vernacular novels were born. Since then, this word has been separated from storytelling in a sense.
Most of the scripts in Song and Yuan Dynasties were circulated in a single piece, mostly written by folk artists, and there were almost no signatures in the streets and lanes, which led to many works being confused about the specific writing time, especially in Song and Yuan Dynasties. So people who treat novels have to put them together and call them "Song and Yuan Stories". Up to now, there is no accurate statistics on the number of "Song and Yuan storybooks". Contemporary scholars believe that there are 67 story books, most of which are from the Song Dynasty. A script that tells history [also known as Pinghua (or Pinghua)]. Most of them came from the Yuan Dynasty. According to the records in Volume 46 of Yongle Dadian, 26 pieces of * * * have been lost. Today, there are only five kinds of comments, all-around comments, the posthumous works of the Great Song Dynasty, and lectures, which are only approximate novels rather than novels, but have a positive impact on the formation of Zhang Hui's novels.
The prosperity of "talking" in the Song Dynasty was closely related to the abnormal prosperity of the urban economy at that time, which can be clearly explained from various notes such as Tokyo Chinese Dream, Capital Prosperity, West Lake Old Man's Story, Dream of Liang, Wulin Old Stories and so on.
The Ming Dynasty was an era of flourishing vernacular lies. As far as vernacular short stories are concerned, the Ming people made contributions from three aspects: first, they polished the scripts with artistic defects in the Song, Yuan and Ming Dynasties; Second, they collect scripts and novels; Third, they created a lot of pseudo scripts. The most prosperous period of vernacular novels (short stories) in Ming Dynasty is after Wanli, especially in the south, where the urban economy is developed and the life of a scholar-bureaucrat is becoming more and more popular. Therefore, vernacular short stories with the main content of reflecting citizens' life are developing vigorously. The most representative collections are Tang Huaben of Qingping Mountain by Hong Kunbi, Sanyan by Feng Meng (Yu Ming Yan, Xing Tong Yan, Xing Yan) and Er Pai by Ling Mengchu (the first moment's surprise, the second moment's surprise).
The Story Collection of Qingping Mountain Hall was originally divided into 6 episodes with 60 stories, with a total name of 60 novels. There are only 27 left. There are many old works of Song and Yuan Dynasties in the book, which have not been polished. A few are works by Ming people. Sanyan begins with a hundred little lies in the vernacular, including a script polished by Feng Menglong and a fake script created by him, mostly in the Ming Dynasty. "Erpai" is a parody created by Ling Mengchu. Feng Menglong is an "all-round" popular writer, and he also has some opinions on the theory of popular novels. His Sanyan has a wide range of themes and many excellent works, involving all aspects of social life at that time, and has also created many works in art, which shows the outstanding achievements of plays in Song, Yuan and Ming Dynasties. Erpai is the earliest copy collection at the same time as Sanyan, with 80 copies in total. Ling Mengchu's thought is far less advanced than Feng Menglong's, and the dross in the book is much more serious than "Sanyan". But in art, "lyrical scenery, such as in the eyes and ears." (Sun) According to
At the beginning of the year, the old man holding the urn selected 40 works from "Sanyan" and "Erpai" and named them "Ancient and Modern Wonders". In the case that "Sanyan" and "Erpai" were once lost, we can understand the basic situation of vernacular novels in Ming Dynasty through this book. This anthology has produced a wide and profound influence among the masses.
In the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, under the influence of "Sanyan" and "Erpai", there was a creative upsurge of parody books, with more than 40 books. Although their thoughts and artistry are not as good as "San Yan" and "Er Pai", there are still works worth reading, such as Shi Nod published in Chongzhen, The Twelfth Floor by Li Yu in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties, The Mirror Cup by Li Yu, and The Second Episode of West Lake by Zhou Qingyuan.
Since the Qing Dynasty, the wind of textual research has prevailed, and scholars are not keen on novels. It was not until the late Qing Dynasty that this phenomenon changed and novels flourished.
In the early Ming Dynasty, The Romance of the Three Kingdoms and The Water Margin came out one after another, which marked that the history of China's novels entered a brand-new historical development stage. Since then, the history of China's novels has changed from short stories to novels. Although short classical Chinese and vernacular novels have been developing in accordance with the ontological law, sometimes there are good stories and sometimes there are climaxes, on the whole, their achievements and scale cannot be compared with novels. The romance of the Three Kingdoms is not only the first novel in history, but also a model of historical novels. "Water Margin" is not only the first masterpiece that comprehensively describes the peasant uprising, but also a model of heroic legend. The Journey to the West is not only the first full-length ghost novel, but also a model of ghost novel. Jin Ping Mei is not only the first novel about the world, but also the first successful literati novel. They each created a field of novel creation. The great achievements of the "Four Wonder Books" have deeply influenced the novel creation, and even formed several series of novel creation: Three Kingdoms series, Water Margin series, Journey to the West series and Jin Ping Mei series, which also influenced the whole society, cultural thoughts and people's spiritual life. This great subtle force is immeasurable.
During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, The Scholars was published. Before the two dynasties, although there were many satirical works in the history of China's novels, there were no models of satirical novels. Therefore, Lu Xun spoke highly of The Scholars: "The Scholars was published because it safeguarded the interests of the public and pointed out the disadvantages of the times and the desire of the machine, especially in the scholars. His writing is clumsy but harmonious, gentle and ironic; So there are satirical books in the Ministry. " (Chapter 23, A Brief History of Chinese Novels) Scholars have discovered a new way besides the "Four Wonders". It not only directly influenced the creation of condemnation novels in the late Qing Dynasty, but also influenced later Lu Xun's essays. As for the achievement and influence of A Dream of Red Mansions, it goes without saying. Whether it is ideological or artistic, it is the pinnacle of China's novel history and literary history, and it is also a masterpiece in world literature. Its great achievements can be regarded as a brilliant summary of the realistic creation art of China's ancient novels. If The Journey to the West in The Three Kingdoms and The Water Margin has great influence among the people, the influence of The Scholars and The Red Chamber is among the literati. In particular, the reading and speaking of A Dream of Red Mansions has become a habit and fashion among scholars: "When you are talking about A Dream of Red Mansions, you can understand each other after reading all the poems." This shows that there is not only a "Dream of Red Mansions" craze among intellectuals in the Qing Dynasty, but also whether a person understands the Dream of Red Mansions is regarded as the standard to measure a person's knowledge. Before A Dream of Red Mansions was circulated in the western world, some people commented on it. More than 200%, critics go hand in hand, many researchers, rich research results, unique in the history of China's novels. The study of a dream of red mansions has already formed a school-"Dream of Red Mansions", which has now become a worldwide knowledge. This is the pride of China people.
After A Dream of Red Mansions, due to the reasons of the times, the novel creation went to a low point, and it was not until the late Qing Dynasty that the novel flourished again. Due to the extreme corruption of the Qing court, the society was in a period of great change; Novel theory is highly developed, many magazines are founded and published, and the printing industry is also very prosperous, which provides convenient conditions for novel creation and publication. According to rough statistics, there are more than a thousand kinds of novels in the late Qing Dynasty. Among the "Four Great Writers" (Li Boyuan, Wu Jianren, Liu E and He), only He Wu (unable to type) has written dozens of novels. There are many new factors in the novels of the late Qing Dynasty, both in content and technique, which reflect the characteristics of the reform period. Mr. A Ying (Qian Xing Shield) made the greatest contribution to the study and arrangement of novels in the late Qing Dynasty, and Mr. Wei Shaochang also did a lot of basic work. Generally speaking, compared with the novel research before the Ming and Qing Dynasties, it seems to be still very weak. What can be recorded are The Officialdom Appears, Wu's The Present Situation of Wonders Witnessed in Twenty Years, Liu E's Travel Notes of Lao Can and Flowers of Evil.
To sum up, the development history of China's ancient novels is roughly as follows: before the Song Dynasty, it was a single-line development of classical Chinese short stories; During the Song and Yuan Dynasties, classical Chinese, vernacular Chinese, novels, short stories and multi-line development presented a colorful state.