In a deep sense, the history of literature is actually the history of human soul. Observing the popular novels in the late Ming Dynasty from this angle, we can clearly grasp the rise of citizen consciousness and the change of characters, which is a flowing track that deepens from the inside out.

The so-called civic consciousness here refers to citizens' moral refuge, personality ideal, outlook on life, value judgment and aesthetic ideal; The transformation of characters means that the ideal characters and rigid images in traditional popular novels have undergone great changes.

As far as social and historical development is concerned, the rise of citizen consciousness and the transformation of characters in popular novels in the late Ming Dynasty were determined by the prosperity of urban commercial economy at that time. In ancient China, since the Tang Dynasty, the urban economy has been quite developed, and in the Song Dynasty, some big cities have been quite prosperous. From the description of Liu Yong's poem "Looking at the Tide of the Sea", we can see a characteristic of the city at that time: "The southeast is invincible, and the three cities of Wu will be victorious. Qiantang has been prosperous since ancient times. Smoke willow painting bridge, wind curtain and green curtain, interlaced with 100 thousand people. Clouds and trees surround the dike sand, and the raging waves roll frost and snow, and the natural hazards are endless. Pearl in the city, Luo Qi in every household, competing for luxury. " In the Ming dynasty, especially in the late Ming dynasty, capitalism began to sprout, and the mode of production and people's lifestyle in feudal society had a structural revolution. Therefore, as a relatively large and independent social class, urban citizens with emerging businessmen as the main body came into being. Their way of life, ideology, behavioral characteristics, life thoughts, value judgments and emotions clearly mark their independence and differences from other social classes in the past. Under the influence of the specific situation of this era and society, novels, as the artistic carriers of people's lives and emotions, naturally show such great changes in the ideological field, and their display happens to be realized through novels at that time, especially the characters in popular novels. So there was the rise of citizen consciousness in the late Ming Dynasty and the change of characters in popular novels. As far as the history of novel development is concerned, this is undoubtedly a historic expansion and update.

Although there were some changes in characters in China's ancient novels before the Tang Dynasty, they were basically realized and produced under the influence of feudal agricultural production mode and its spiritual life style. Of course, there are also the evolution of literature itself, novel concepts and aesthetic thoughts, but the role of the latter is not significant. In the Song and Ming Dynasties, with the germination of capitalist mode of production and the rise of the civil class, these social factors had a profound and direct impact on novel creation. This has caused great changes in the novel, some of which are the changes of the creative subject. In other words, novelists have changed from a group of literati before the Tang Dynasty to a group of laymen, especially in the creation of popular novels. This point was discussed by Hu Yinglin in Ming Dynasty. He said: "Before the Tang Dynasty, the novel description was in vain and the algae painting was considerable. After the Song Dynasty, the theory was more realistic, but less colorful. Before Gaitang, he was a scholar, and after Song Dynasty, he talked about it. " Feng Menglong also said: "People who eat peaches don't spend any money on apricots, which is only suitable for the times. ..... On the whole, the Tang people chose words to enter the text; Song people are popular and harmonious. There are few literary minds in the world, but many ears. Try to let the speaker describe it on the spot, with joy, sadness and tears, and be good at singing and dancing; I want to grab a knife, worship, fight and donate money; People who are afraid are brave, immoral people are virtuous, thin people are depressed, and stubborn people sweat. Although Xiao Yong's textual research and The Analects of Confucius have flooded in, they may not be so confusing. Hey, not popular but capable? " Narration of ancient and modern novels; Some of them are changes in writers' aesthetic orientation. For example, Ling Mengchu said: "Take more fresh things in the alley ... to be close to words, which is intended to persuade irony", and then pointed out that "today's people, except for the strangeness of their eyes and ears, do not know why, and the strangeness of their daily lives is not unreasonable." (Preface of the first edition of Surprise) Xiaohua's owner also said that the fictional novel represented by Sanyan "is extremely similar to the differences of human feelings and the world, and is extremely prepared for joys and sorrows." "So the husband is really a wonder in the world, and no one is extraordinary." (Preface to Ancient and Modern Wonders). There are also changes in creative themes. "It is a problem of family and father's daily diet, so it is small; Its text is a trivial chat between men and women in a corner, so it is called a novel. However, the simplest and easiest person to understand is a novelist. " ("Luo Qing Fu Ju Shi Yu")

As can be seen from some of the above explanations, popular novels began to enter the civil society from all aspects around the Ming Dynasty.

With these changes in aesthetic taste, language form and writer's material, the novel theory of "popularity" which directly points to the citizen class was also put forward loudly in the late Ming Dynasty. Popular novels originally developed from the speech of folk artists, while parody in late Ming Dynasty inherited the tradition of "speaking". In addition to focusing aesthetics on the citizen class, it also emphasizes the popularity of the work itself in language and form. The so-called "words must be popular and far-reaching, and words must be accepted and moving."

These changes in popular novels in the late Ming Dynasty were reflected in the characters, which led to the prominence of citizen consciousness and the transformation of the characters in popular novels.

two

The citizen consciousness highlighted in the romance novels in the late Ming Dynasty is more complicated. First of all, it is mainly reflected in the concept of marriage and love in popular novels at that time.

Love has always been one of the most emotional areas in people's psychological world, which can best reflect the internal conflict between moral and ethical norms and human feelings, which is more prominent in women. The Confucian orthodoxy imposed on women by China's long feudal society is particularly harsh. Women are always attached to men not only in economic and social life, but also in love and marriage. As far as the value orientation of life is concerned, men pursue a rich career and make contributions; Women, on the other hand, are almost deprived of their desires and pursuits in social life and personal life. The sustenance and realization of their life value mostly depends on marriage and family, specifically the attitude of parents and husbands, which is a very accidental opportunity. Therefore, as a special cultural phenomenon in feudal society, women formed a tragic consciousness of concentration, persistence and helplessness in love. This collective unconscious psychological accumulation gradually solidified and strengthened in the development of feudal economy and lifestyle, thus staged many tragedies in which good hearts and beautiful spirits were destroyed.

The change of this situation looks forward to the opportunity of new social change. In the field of love and marriage, the symbol of liberation is that women have risen from "material" attachment to human independence, and the insulted and damaged inhuman relationship has changed into "human relationship" in which lovers have equal personality and mutual respect. This liberation, of course, is not caused by the good wishes of some people; The first is the result of the change of social structure and the renewal of ideas. From this point, we can clearly feel that the information of liberation has begun to appear in the consciousness of the citizen class, thus impacting the feudal distorted sexual relations. correct

The descriptions of "the oil peddler monopolizes the flowers" and "Yu Tang Chun meets her husband in trouble" well explain the emergence of this kind of civic awareness. Prostitution, as a supplement to monogamy, continued to exist in China feudal society. It takes the loss of female personality as a heavy price, and gives the ruling class the privilege to vent their lust at any time outside the legal marriage. Xu Yuerong, a prostitute recorded in The Whole Tang Poetry, said in Memories: "What is the use of this body for human relations?" Although life sends me every day, I long for Chai Jing and cloth skirts. "This can well explain the persecution of women by this system; In the Ming Dynasty, Wang Shizhen also recorded a woman's poem in "One Yuan Two Words", saying, "A cold turns into a face and a heart. Since it has been defiled, throw it now. The legend of Huo Xiaoyu in the Tang Dynasty reveals the psychological trauma of women in this respect and their hard struggle for human dignity. The artist's conscience is always inclined to the injustice of the world and the misfortune of the weak. However, the feudal oppression and the shackles of ethics and proprieties created the tragedy of this struggle. It was not until the city residents broke into the literary hall that new bright colors flashed in this dark hell. Light the spark of liberation. This is just as a philosopher said: "There was such a class in the feudal middle ages, and it was destined to become the representative of modern equality requirements in its further development. "

The "monopoly" and "falling victim" in the above two novels are not only the general strokes of the title, but also the aesthetic connotation determined by the plot development and artistic structure of each article.

Oil vendors monopolize the flower base and set up a set of contradictions and three forces. At the two ends of the contradiction, one end is a hawker selling along the street, and the other end is a "famous" "Miss based" in Lin 'an City. The former has nothing to do with the romantic scenes described by rich and powerful people, while the latter, though wrong and well-intentioned, never thought of combining with an oil seller. The third force involved in this group of contradictions is the children of powerful families, who "envy their looks and are ready to meet them with big gifts." Monopoly, with a distinctive competitive color, suddenly shows that the ultimate winner of this brothel emotional competition is actually Qin Zhong, who sells oil. Whether it is status or wealth, according to the standards of judging figures in feudal society, Qin Zhong is obviously at a disadvantage. Then, why did he walk such a long distance in this respect, which made this disparity tend to his own side? The novel grasps the logic of history and life, and in the real description of daily life, the ending of this comedy is gradually led out by the persuasiveness of the image.

Qin Zhong met Huakui by chance and was fascinated by her "beauty and lightness". Although the feudal ethical code suppressed the psychology of * * in line with human nature in the deep subconscious of the bottom people, once the attraction of the opposite sex appeared, it still had to be stubbornly demonstrated. And its power can be powerful enough to drive people to try their best to create opportunities to get close to their loved ones from unrealistic situations. For this reason, the business of Qin was bleak, and it took the ascetic more than a year to gather enough money to meet Mrs. based-a dozen taels of silver. Self-esteem made him make other strenuous preparations, such as changing into decent clothes. These preparations show that the essence of selling oil is to hold the pious psychology of pilgrims and admire and cling to the favor of based. On the night of hospitalization, Hua Kui deliberately "ate more than a dozen cups in a row" and snubbed him with a very contemptuous attitude, while Qin Zhong still treated all this with a childlike heart that loved and valued beauty. Obviously, this has gone beyond the general sense of "cherishing jade as gold" and feudal "enjoying the success". Through Qin Zhong's sleepless nights, the author of the novel takes care of the unique plot of "sick wine" of Huakui, thus vividly showing the love consciousness of the citizen class. In particular, he highly praised the noble spirit and sentiment of the humble. Expressed the aesthetic consciousness of citizens in marriage and love.

The creation of based image also contains more complicated life consciousness and new aesthetic concept. The writer first treated Qin Zhong with a condescending attitude. This situation is determined by the environment of her "big head", but in the life of debauchery and low drunkenness, she did not indulge in theory. She cried for a whole day, but never touched her tea and rice. Influenced by the concept of chastity, her dignity and love were deeply hurt by obscene reading. The insult completely destroyed her life, which was already humiliating and embarrassing. Only when Si Liu's mother enlightened her and Xu Tu accepted good advice did she manage to survive in the trend. Based on character: on the one hand, keep your mind clean; On the other hand, it also shows that she stayed in the abalone shop for a long time and didn't notice the environmental pollution caused by its odor. The latter point limits her vision of "being a good person" to the scope defined by Si Liu's mother. It was not until Wu Yazi raped and plundered that she really realized that the prostitute, even a famous prostitute in Kyoto, was just a doll for guests to take part in accidental amusement. Therefore, she finally decided to pay attention to "food, clothing, housing and transportation as an example" with Qin. In the comparison and recognition of feudal culture and civic culture, she saw the truth of emotion, the goodness of morality and the beauty of human nature in the strange world of citizens where she was born. In the author's view, Qin's attention to the realm, touching and awakening the subject are the beautiful side of the civic spirit and the holy water to purify and save the soul struggling in the sinking, which makes this work break through the ethical and aesthetic imprisonment of the feudal middle ages and germinate the aesthetic bud of historical progress.

From another angle, that is, men attach importance to and cherish love, which encourages this bud.

three

Life values and moral aesthetics of the citizen class. This is another aspect of citizen consciousness expressed in popular novels in the late Ming Dynasty. This is first manifested in the process of craftsman's restoration depicted in Shi Runze Tan Que Yu You. This article is a new dawn of China's classical novels in the gloomy process of long-term wandering in feudal society. For thousands of years, the traditional thought of "emphasizing the foundation and restraining the end" has quietly changed its direction under the impact of commodity economy. On the other hand, historical inertia still condenses people's emotions in the psychological construction of emigration. This is just as "Yang Ba Lao Yue Guo Encounters Wonders" wrote: "The most bitter thing in life is to be a businessman, leaving his wife and children behind and leaving his hometown. Although men are proud of their distant behavior, as long as they are flesh and blood, it is better to get together. " This reflects people's inadaptability to social changes. However, the evolution of civilization has made some people look for a new world. Shi Fu is one of them. In addition, Wang Sheng of Suzhou, in the first chapter of Wujiang Dingyi, wrote "A Glimpse at a Glance", the same is true. Wang Sheng was born in a business family and was robbed several times when he went out to sell goods. He was disheartened and didn't want to go away again, but his aunt repeatedly advised him not to "become a monk twice." The rise of this "business-oriented" atmosphere has gradually merged with the change of life value orientation. The traditional values of life have been shaken, so although "only reading high" is still regarded as the orthodox standard, at the same time, some people think that "business is also a good business, which is not cheap." Moreover, Huizhou Customs even "takes merchants as first-class merchants, and the first is second."

It is from this historical change that the writer realized the renewal of aesthetic consciousness and life value. Under the irradiation of this new ideology, the characters' behavior, psychology, morality and the living environment around them are all integrated with new qualities. Shi Fu's hometown, Yi Sheng Town, has a prosperous business, which complements each other. The way of thinking and behavior of the protagonist in the novel also reflects the changes of social life and social psychology in that era. Stone restoration picked up a few taels of silver and was overjoyed. Around the pursuit of wealth, it made a careful commercial calculation of these taels of silver. It involves the expansion of production stimulated by the psychological influence of commodities and money on individual workers. A powerful driving force for the development of family business. However, Shifu is not an exploiter who gets something for nothing. The moral code formed in the long-term labor career practice does not allow him to hurt hardworking and kind people in the same situation as him. On the one hand, it shows Shi Fu's indifference and even hostility to the rich, on the other hand, it shows his deep sympathy for his brothers in the same class who have a hard life. In his imagination, cutting off this "root of life support" may cause various tragedies. This heavy guilt and remorse is unbearable for him. He would rather give up the opportunity of further "career success" in order to gain inner peace. Based on human sympathy, especially the concern for the unfortunate people in the lower class, the spirit of giving back has been brought to the realm of moral goodness and human beauty. This kind of goodness and beauty is not a thrilling heroic feat, but shows an ordinary and real life scene, explores a simple psychological feeling of a citizen, and is a specimen of the ideal morality of the citizen class. The works have also been proved by comparison and discrimination: "among well-dressed gentlemen, many people forget their righteousness, but fools have such knowledge." In novels and literature, it shows the refuge of citizens' morality and the brilliance of aesthetic implication of emerging citizens' class.

four

Related to the expression of the above viewpoints, as another manifestation of people's consciousness, the aesthetic interest of "harmony but difference" was also highlighted at that time. Since the late Ming Dynasty, with the changes of social economy and ideological trend, novelists as novelists and citizens who accept novels have shown strong interest in defamiliarization in daily life, and it became a tendency at that time to regard defamiliarization in daily life as an appreciation interest. Such as sleep village lay said:

There are hundreds of people who travel in the world today, but distorted diseases begin with curiosity. It is strange to know what is strange, and it is strange not to know what is strange. Give up what can be disciplined at present, and rashly ignore whether to discuss the countryside. For example, the painter who begged ghosts, dogs and horses said, "I stopped listening in horror." Husband Liu Yueshi can still make everyone cry and clear the field. Today, the material state and human feelings have given up, but people can't help crying. This is not surprising, because you don't wait for the wise to know (preface to the second moment's surprise)

This aesthetic taste of seeking novelty in the ordinary not only makes some writers consciously implement it in their novel creation. For example, under the influence of this aesthetic taste, Meng Ling-Zhu "can smell the new things in ancient and modern times, supplemented by those who talk about peace, and can perform smoothly, and get several volumes ... whatever is strange at the moment is ubiquitous." At the same time, it is also an appreciation standard advocated by some novel critics. The owner of Gusu Xiaohua said in the preface to ancient wonders:

I know that Yan Lu has nothing to do with corridors and temples, and Li Hua's words are not in line with the official history? If we take Xia Bing as an example, it will attract people's attention, which is nothing. I hope he can read novels well.

Novelists' aesthetic taste was also reflected in the novels of the separation of husband and wife at that time, such as "Stone Nod", with ten words:

Some people say that it is not surprising that after separation, it is very common to think about righteousness and never be together again. It's not news that the marriage didn't break up, but it's still in pairs.

At the beginning of Meng's adaptation of Lotus Screen, he even said:

The fly in the ointment is that although Mrs. Wang suffered misfortune, she was a concubine and lost her virginity. She never found out that the traitor had followed in her footsteps and got revenge, and the husband and wife reunited. This is a good statement. ("Surprise" Volume 27 into words)

This is quite a means of competing for heights in times of peace.

five

As mentioned above, the independence of the civil class and the rise of its consciousness in the late Ming Dynasty are shown in some popular novels, and this kind of novels mainly accomplish this content through characters. Therefore, compared with the previous period, one of the most remarkable differences in popular novels in the late Ming Dynasty is the transformation of characters, that is, emperors and princes, talented people and beautiful women, and heroes in rivers and lakes are the main bodies, and they are transformed into businessmen and farmers, men and women, women and husbands among ordinary people.