Romance of the Three Kingdoms is a historical novel accumulated from generation to generation, which has been recognized by many scholars since the story of the Three Kingdoms appeared. Su Shi's "Zhi Lin" contains: "On the major events of the Three Kingdoms, I heard that Liu Xuande was defeated and there were people crying; As soon as I heard that Cao Cao was defeated, I liked fast songs. " This is largely due to the art of storytelling, showing a tendency of "respecting Liu and belittling Cao". In addition, since the Song and Yuan Dynasties, wars have been frequent, and "people think" and "wise men and good ministers" have become the eager expectation and pursuit of the people. Therefore, the special historical background restricts the shaping of the characters in the works to a great extent, so as to conform to the public's psychology and satisfy the public's good wishes and ideals.

At the same time, the Romance of the Three Kingdoms should be considered in the development of China's ancient novels. Generally speaking, characterization has gone through a process from characterization to character. At the beginning of the novel, The Romance of the Three Kingdoms can't be matured at once in the artistic techniques of characterization, and it must have the characteristics of a hero in an epic, that is, "noble and simple". Later, Jin Ping Mei showed this change, and scholars basically realized that A Dream of Red Mansions had made fruitful changes in more aspects.

More importantly, in feudal society, the feudal autocratic system and feudal consciousness seriously bound people's personality politically and ideologically, and were often positioned by moral quality, so personality could not shine. Rationalism prevailed in philosophy, and Confucius controlled his whole political ideal with "courtesy". Luo Guanzhong is a great scholar, and his guiding principle is very clear, that is, the political ideal of Confucianism is "benevolent government", the monarch is mainly "benevolent government", and the soldiers and crabs will be mainly "loyal to the monarch". Therefore, this determines that his creation must focus on the abstract "political quality" and "moral quality".

Based on the above reasons, we know that Luo Guanzhong's creation is "preconceived", so it is natural to see the "face" in his works: simple and clear.

The second section "Concept first" leads to characterization and characterization.

The author constructs the characters according to his own ideal, which reflects the main characteristics of the characters and gives a very strong impression. On this point, predecessors have had in-depth discussion. But I think that the so-called "three unique skills" of Mao Zonggang and his son are basically a kind of "political quality" or "moral quality", and it seems that another unique skill can be added, that is, Liu Bei's "benevolence". This quite prominently shows the unique character of the characters, which can be regarded as the concretization and visualization of "abstract ideas". The following article makes a brief analysis of the "four absolutes".

"Rape" Cao Cao. "Treason" is its essential attribute. In order to show its characteristics, the author repeatedly renders it from multiple angles and levels. As soon as he appeared, he wrote that he lied about "stroke" and falsely accused his uncle, giving people a kind of thinking guidance of "thinking big from childhood". Later, he wrote that he killed someone in his dream and killed the Lv Boshe family by mistake, which was full of cunning in his paranoia. Later, he wrote that he killed grain officials and deceived the whole army, also to highlight the cruelty of treachery. He also directly wrote about his treachery in his works, such as loving talents instead of killing Chen Lin, not chasing Guan Yu wholeheartedly, letting his subordinates collaborate with the enemy but burning them and cutting his hair without studying them. Although we can objectively see Cao Cao's outstanding political vision and broad mind, in fact, Liu Bei's "self-leading Yizhou animal husbandry" and his "relying on the emperor to make princes" are essentially the same, and the difference is only the surname. But there is no denying that the author did write him and Liu Bei as opposites. There is a saying in the work: "Cao Cao is my enemy in fire and water today." Fuck with urgency, I am wide; Fighting violence with violence, I am benevolent; Cao Cao's loyal minister: Every time you disagree with Cao Cao, things can be heard. "

"Ren Jue" Liu Bei. "Benevolence" is a political and moral requirement for the monarch. From the beginning, I wrote his extraordinary words and deeds of "playing with the children in the village under the tree". Moreover, Liu Bei has been holding the ideal of "serving the country and living in peace and prosperity" since he took the oath in Taoyuan. Throughout his life, he was "different people have different opinions", "innocent with the people" wherever he went and "full of food", so he was widely loved by the people. Later, Cao Cao marched south, and hundreds of thousands of people accompanied Liu Bei in trouble. Although the situation was very urgent, he refused to abandon the people temporarily. He loves people and talents, and treats people sincerely and generously. Therefore, heroes such as Zhuge Liang and the five tigers and generals can live together for life, and the relationship between the monarch and the minister is "fish and water." It can be seen that the author wrote him as an ideal emperor of "benevolent government and loving the people". But if we look at Chen Shou's Three Kingdoms, we will find that Liu Bei in history is actually lustful and greedy. It is only here that Mao Zonggang and his son thoroughly purified and sublimated his morality, so extreme that, as Lu Xun said, "Liu Bei's thickness is almost false".

"Wisdom" Kong Ming. "Wisdom" is necessary for courtiers. Only in this way can we save ourselves and be a stable and good slave in the days of "accompanying you like a tiger". Of course, we can't look at Zhuge Liang like this. "Biography of the Three Kingdoms and Zhuge Liang" said: "A brilliant talent is better at governing Rong, shorter than intrigue, and better than governing the people." The novel, which not only describes his political ability to govern the country, but also makes him have a high strategic chance of winning, undoubtedly entrusts his ideals to readers and authors of all ages. At the same time, his "role model" is permeated with the tragic spirit of knowing people and being good at their duties, flashing touching personality charm. Bai Juyi once felt deeply that "the legacy of promoting learning before and after is there, which makes people cry at a glance." However, on the whole, Luo Guanzhong did not show the characteristics of "critical autumn" in his novels, nor did he show his pessimism about the political situation and the war situation. He just wrote his clever tricks, borrowing the arrow of the straw boat, borrowing the east wind, using the empty plan to capture Meng Huo seven times, so as to maintain his aura of "wisdom". Moreover, we can clearly feel that writing "wisdom" is subordinate to "loyalty", to "dedication" and even to "foolish loyalty". This reminds us that the author is shaping a model of a virtuous minister who has devoted his life to the corporal of the Lord.

Guan Yu is "absolutely righteous". The dilemma of "loyalty and righteousness" is complete, and Guan Yu is no exception, but it is rare for him to make "righteousness" so unique. Therefore, the author pays special attention to his praise, and even boldly replaces historical details and steals the column. The reflection records that Liu Bei killed Wen Chou, but Luo Guanzhong passed it on to Guan Yu. Similarly, "Gu Chenghui beheaded Cai Yang" was originally written by Liu Bei, but in Luo Guanzhong's works, it became a wonderful display of Guan Yu's "release of his brother's suspicion". Even the most classic "one-knife meeting" that has always been praised by people has been transformed. Historically, Lu Su's trip to Guan Yunchang was a banquet, but in his novels it became an immortal plot that best expressed Guan Yu's courage. "Putting Cao Cao on Huarong Road" enriches Guan Yu's "righteousness" and is more human. Although he was unfaithful to Shu Han, he deepened the description of "righteousness" at a deeper level. It is in this sense that we respectfully call him "a must".

As can be seen from the above concrete elaboration, the author deliberately portrays the characters in this way and tends to be "imagistic". It seems more appropriate for us to attribute the personality characteristics of these characters to "personality".

The Defects, Functions and Influences of "Thinking First"

Due to the limitation of the author's creative thinking, we can't see the vivid individuals in the works, but only the diagrams of the thoughts in the author's mind. Therefore, there is a lack of in-depth and meticulous psychological analysis in the text, the thoughts and behaviors of characters are almost not restricted by the environment, and language actions are often stylized. In this way, the characters are in a classic state of silence, with little change.

In terms of time, Cao Cao's treachery hardly changed from childhood to his death at the age of 66. Vicissitudes and great changes, political turmoil and sinister, life and death on the battlefield, all seem unable to shake its nature. It can be seen how much the author pays attention to depicting this "villain". Zhuge Liang's wisdom is also solid, and "one-third decision in the world" is the brilliant crystallization of his life's wisdom. Later, a series of military actions were the concrete deduction of this wise decision, and the war was not written to show and excavate his personality, but to use a comprehensive writing method, which fully showed that the author was borrowing such a character to make an unprecedented summary of various struggle experiences and wisdom in the ancient history of China.

Of course, there are some changes in the characters, but they are not caused by the internal imbalance of personality. For example, since Cao Cao was reprimanded by the imperial edict, he has become an out-and-out traitor and traitor. This is because his behavior has undergone important changes and violated the orthodox feudal ethics. In addition, the sudden change of personality quality is also incomprehensible. Cao Cao was famous among the heroes in the late Han Dynasty for knowing people and being good at their duties. The profit didn't drive Zhang Song, and wanted to dedicate it to Cao Caoshi. I didn't expect that "Cao Cao didn't like Zhang Song. I heard the words collide again, so I started kissing my sleeve. " Will this be the case with Cao Cao's political mind? And the change of characters' feelings is sometimes centered on ethics. Wolong mourned, laughing first, then mourning. Pang Tong was "happy" after telling the truth.

These details mentioned above make the characters look unreliable, and we can also see how the development of the characters is subject to the author's subjective decision. The author often does not let us grasp the essence through phenomena, but directly explains the essence with phenomena, which can be said that everything sees the essence. Guan Yu's response to Zhang Liao's "three crimes and three stools" is actually the author's explanation of the objective situation and the particularity of Guan Yu's situation from the rational concept and moral concept, which naturally stipulates Guan Yu's follow-up activities, rather than letting the characters develop freely according to their internal logic. At the same time, the author also uses the rational concept to clearly identify the outpouring of feelings and even persuade them at any time. "Kongming shed tears and beheaded Ma Su" cried three times, but every tear was promptly interpreted as flowing from rational concepts and norms. Zhuge Liang was loyal to West Shu, and Zhu Gejin lived in Dongwu. Therefore, in their decades of living together, the two brothers never let their brotherhood go beyond the meaning of the monarch and his subjects. Sometimes they even use brotherhood to decorate their organs and calculate each other. Even in the daily life fields such as family, marriage and relatives, it is rare to see their "instant" true feelings, which shows how lacking the tension of life is in the hearts of the characters.

Of course, we can regard this defect as "the omission of experience". Because as mentioned above, these characters are in line with the psychological needs of the public. It seems that people can only guess their psychological process by expressing their own behavior. However, as we mentioned earlier, the author's writing time is still in the early stage of the novel, so it is impossible to have such a conscious creative concept in the modern sense.

However, just as Achilles and hector in Homer's epic are radiant, Zhuge Liang and Guan Yu in The Romance of Three Kingdoms are also brilliant artistic models in China literature. Although there are great differences between them in characterization, the effect is basically the same. People who have read the works and understand the history of literature will admit this without hesitation, so I won't go into details.

Since the effect is so good, it is natural to attach importance to its influence and treat it dialectically. On the one hand, we should understand its historicity, and don't stick to a corner and exaggerate this creative method too much. The absurd and rigid image of "Gao Daquan" in the seventeen-year literature must be avoided. To learn to analyze and appreciate, if possible, we can continue to explore the specific evolution of characterization in ancient novels. On the other hand, we should learn useful creative experience and skills from it, such as portraying the characters' personalities to the point and highlighting the characters' personality characteristics with vivid details and legendary stories. This point has actually been almost perfectly reflected in A Dream of Red Mansions.