There were many strange novels in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. Up to now, there are still more than 30 kinds of complete and incomplete preserved. Among them, the most important ones are The Magical Classics of Ten Kingdoms written by Guo Xian, The Story of Emperor Wu written by Ban Gu, The Biography of Liey written by Wei (Zhang Hua), The Natural History written by Jin Zhanghua and Wang Jia. Gan Bao's Search for the Gods is the highest achievement and the representative of this kind of novels.
There are also many strange novels written by Taoists and Buddhists, which means that scholars and historians have almost the same writing purpose. For example, Gambao's "Searching for the Gods" said that it was to "invent Shinto without falsehood". Therefore, many of these works talk about immortal Taoism, witches and ghosts, exaggerating foreign objects, or talking about Buddhist spirituality, with the aim of proving the existence of immortals and ghosts and the power of ghosts and gods and promoting religious superstitions. For example, Ruan Zhan in Search of Ji Shen tells the story that Ruan Zhan, who has always held the theory of no ghosts, was scared by ghosts, apparently to prove the existence of ghosts and gods. The article "The Death of Jiang Ji" wrote that Jiang Ji's death was a policeman of the underworld government and was obviously a propaganda for religious superstition. The function of this kind of works is to bring people into the illusion of religious superstition, paralyze people's fighting spirit, make people succumb to fate, and serve to consolidate the rule of reality. They are the dross in mystery novels and have a bad influence on later generations.
The excellent works in mystery novels may be folk stories. Although they are also stained with magical colors and take the form of superstition and backwardness, their ideological tendency is fundamentally opposite to the former. They reflect the thoughts and wishes of the broad masses of the people with the help of supernatural themes. Some directly exposed the ferocity of feudal rulers, showing the people's resolute struggle against rulers, such as Mo Xie in Su Ji Shen, which tells the story that Mo Xie, a skillful craftsman, was killed by the king of Chu after casting two swords for him, and his son avenged his father. It not only exposed the bloody crime of the feudal tyrant harming the people, but also showed the heroic behavior of the working people in ancient China against oppression. The heroic spirit of mountain travelers who sacrificed themselves bravely to report the death of their children also reflected the unity and friendship of the working people in the struggle against oppression. It's particularly thrilling to write a passage about a traveler who met the king of Chu with his head bare:
The guest held his head and went to see Wang Daxi, the king of Chu. The guest said, "This is the head of a soldier. It should be cooked in an iron pan. " As the king said, it won't rot after cooking for the first three days and nights. My head came out of the soup and my eyes were furious. The guest said, "This son's head is not rotten. May the king see for himself, but it will rot. " When the king came, the guest imitated the king with his sword. The king's head fell into the soup, and the guest imitated his own head, which fell into the soup again. The three songs are rotten and unrecognizable, but they are buried in soup and meat, hence the name Three Kings Tomb.
Although this plot seems bizarre and absurd, it profoundly shows the determination of the persecuted people to resist under the tyrant's rule. Another example is "Mr. and Mrs. Han Ping", which narrates the tragedy that Song Kangwang occupied Han Ping's wife, He Shi, and Han Ping and his wife committed suicide one after another, exposing the dissolute cruelty of feudal rulers, and praising Han Ping and his wife's unswerving love, especially He Shi's strong will not to admire wealth and fear violence. It embodies the noble quality of working people's poverty and unyielding power.
Author: 58.66.44. * July 25th, 200510: 51Reply to this speech.
-
Strange novel
The working people's spirit of kindness, courage, helpfulness and self-sacrifice is also touching in strange novels. For example, Li Ji Chopped a Snake tells the story of a poor girl, Li Ji, who risked her life to chop a snake to death. The image of Li Ji reflects the courage and wisdom of the working people to eliminate pesticides for the people, and also shows the cruelty and incompetence of officials.
The story reflecting the struggle of young men and women for love and happiness under the feudal marriage system can be represented by Yu Zi's Han Zhong. The work tells the story of Yu Zi, the youngest daughter of the king of Wu, who fell in love with Han Zhong, a teenager, and privately booked her life. She was rejected by the king of Wu and died of resentment. Later, Han Zhong wept bitterly at the grave, and Yu Zi's soul appeared and married him in the grave. This story eulogizes the firmness of their love and writes about the unfairness of young men and women's love life in feudal times. Wang Daoping's Jianghu Men and Women is also this kind of story. Other women, such as Wang Fuzhi in Biography, The Postscript of Searching for God, Pang A and You, all wrote tragic stories of young men and women who were not free in marriage in feudal society, praised young men and women who demanded freedom in marriage, and objectively exposed the evils of feudal ethics, which was of anti-feudal significance. In addition, a story named "Liu Chen Ruan Zhao * * * enters Tiantai Mountain" in Youming Road records a fairy tale about men's love. The legendary "Fairy Cave" in the Tang Dynasty was obviously influenced by it in concept. The visitors in Ren Fang's Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio also described a touching love story of a fairy under the background of labor.
It is worth noting that when Taoism and Buddhism make up a large number of ghost stories and publicize the magic of ghosts to scare people, there are some stories that are not afraid of ghosts among the people. The Story of Searching for the Gods in Song Dynasty and the Story of Catching Ghosts in Biography not only publicized that ghosts are not terrible, but also reflected the wisdom of the people through interesting ghost stories. There are several such stories in Looking for God. For example, Song held a fearless attitude towards all the terrorist means of Fox Fairy, and finally waited for an opportunity to catch and kill Fox Fairy. A scholar in the south of Anyang calmly and patiently inquired about the origin of each ghost, and didn't kill them one by one until dawn. This kind of story reflects people's courage and wisdom in dealing with bad people in real life. In addition, for example, Revenge Monument in Memories of Time Past and Hong Jia in Records of Murder have all exposed the sins of rulers and expressed people's protests, which are also good works.
Most of the mystery novels in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties adopt unrealistic story themes, showing a strong romantic color. However, novels promoting religious monsters and progressive folklore stories are by no means the same in essence. The former is negative romanticism, which greatly infects the strange effects of ghosts and gods, paralyzes people's thoughts and weakens people's fighting spirit. The latter is rooted in the real life of the people in the dark society, and expresses the people's will to resist rape and their desire for a better life in the form of fantasy. It inspires people to love life and fight resolutely to realize their ideals, so it is positive romanticism.
In the early stage of novel development, the strange novels are generally only sketchy in artistic form. However, there are also some works with relatively complete structures, detailed and vivid descriptions and rough short stories. For example, the characters in Han Ping's Couple and Li Ji's Cut the Snake are very distinctive. Another example is "Mo Xie", although the length is short, but the plot is full of changes. It is very gratifying to have reached this level in the early days of the formation of ancient novels.
Strange tales from a strange studio have a great influence on later generations. The legend of the Tang Dynasty was developed on its basis. Shen Jiji's Pillow Story and Li Gongzuo's biography of Conan's satrap both originated from the story of "Lu Fen dreaming into an ant's nest" in Liu Yiqing's Record of the Ghosts and Search. In the history of China's novels, the formation of the school of fox-ghost theory began with the strange novels at this time. For example, Jane Yizhi by Hong Mai in the Song Dynasty, Xinhua in Deng Jian by Qu You in the Ming Dynasty, Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio by Pu Songling in the Qing Dynasty and Yuewei Caotang Notes by Ji Xiaolan are all related to this. The story of "smoke powder ghost" in Renping dialect of Song Dynasty was also influenced by it. For example, Life and Death Field, Chicken Millet and Three Pagodas of West Lake are all stories with the same theme from Search for Ji Shen. Mystery novels also provided rich materials for later dramas and novels: Luo Guanzhong's Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Feng Menglong's Sanyan both absorbed some materials from Su Ji Shen; Guan Hanqing's Yuan and Tang Xianzu's Handan are the further development of Xiaohe and Jiaohu Temple Zhu in Donghai. For example, Mo Xie was adapted by Lu Xun into the historical novel Casting Sword, and Yong Dong is the earliest blueprint of the Fairy Couple in Huangmei Opera, which is well known.