The first article, Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio, analyzes the application art and effect of irony.
Liaozhai is one of the outstanding romantic literary works in ancient China. Full of high exaggeration and rich fantasy, there are also many people and environments that entrust the author's ideals. In real life, Pu Songling is just a Confucian scholar who has "laughed all his life", but in the satirical chapter of Liaozhai, he is a warrior who can summon ghosts and gods. He invited gods, immortals, ghosts and foxes from faraway dreamland to human society, and used their unique skills to mercilessly punish and tease the despicable people and their ugly behaviors in real society. This is an important aspect of the satirical art of Liaozhai.
Pu Songling's "Elegant Love and Seeking God" endows fairy foxes with ordinary people's feelings, allowing them to express the author's wishes, represent the voice of justice, and satirize unreasonable things to the fullest. This creative method of positive romanticism. You can create a new world outside of realism and receive ironic effects that ordinary realism cannot receive.
Pu Songling can skillfully combine the characteristics of the fairy fox with the personality of ordinary people, "making the flower fox charming, affectionate and amiable, and forgetting that it is different, but occasionally seeing a stork, I know it is inhuman." (Lu Xun's A Brief History of Chinese Novels) Mr. Lu Xun's exposition should be said to be an important inspiration for us to understand the satirical art of Liaozhai.
The fox spirit in Rain Money turned into an old man and took the initiative to make friends with a scholar, who was "Mu Jungao's official son". The fox spirit in Wu Xiaolian, out of sympathy and pity, turned into a woman and took the initiative to save Shimou. However, once they find that the people they meet are despicable people, they will not hesitate to give them the punishment and teasing they deserve. The scholar tried to make a fortune by using the skill of the fox spirit. The fox spirit first used the skill to repay the kindness, so that the money "came down from the beam like a shower". The scholar went into the house to withdraw money, but it was "blocked". Shimou is ungrateful. After his promotion, he hated fighting for the life of the fox woman, who scolded him and used magic to make Shimou spit out the fairy medicine he had given before, which led to his "death for half a year". This is undoubtedly a strong satire on despicable psychology and ungrateful behavior.
Fairy fox has no ordinary people's fear of violence and evil forces. At the critical moment, they dared to satirize and make fun of feudal bureaucrats. Yangling in Changshan was "insatiable and robbed hundreds of people's livestock", but the man of God "proudly entered the business" and reprimanded "corrupt officials for peeling their skins" in the form of a wine order (ducks and birds); The Taoist priests, on the other hand, are the bureaucrats who take the opportunity to travel around and turn into eagles flying and pythons kissing and getting angry, and severely punish these local tyrants.
These extraordinary images have special skills and abilities. They can make the newly planted pears sprout immediately, "Russia becomes a tree ... and the flowers suddenly grow, but they are real", so that the pears full of cars "grow" on the tree at once and then pick them for the viewers to punish the greedy pear sellers (planting pears); They can also "fly in the air", throw students who claim to be bold on the internet to cover tigers well and ridicule those who brag ("born in eastern Zhejiang"); They can also burn the manuscript and smell it with their noses to tell the grade of the article, thus mocking the examiner's article: "You didn't know it at first, but suddenly you smelled it, and it would stab your nose and abdomen, beyond the endurance of your bladder, and come out directly from the lower part!" These skills and abilities have become effective weapons for their satire and ridicule.
It is worth noting that the superhuman skills of the immortal ghost fox often constitute a double and multiple satire on the stabbed person. For example, the crow bird mentioned earlier, Yang Ling became angry from embarrassment after being scolded, and ordered his hand to catch the teenager, but the teenager turned into a crow and flew away with a smile. This latter layer of irony shows a mockery of Yangling's fierce power and further strengthens the power of irony.
The article "Taoist" first exposed the contradiction between words and deeds of two shameless people and lashed their dirty and despicable souls. The author went on to write: "in the morning, I woke up with wine and dreams, and I felt cold and cold;" You look at lying under the green steps with feldspar. I am anxious to see that Xu has not yet woken up, and I saw the stone left by his pillow, sleeping soundly in the toilet. " I didn't expect that the two beauties of "Man Mei's Two Wonders" were actually two cold stones covered with a glittering "mother-of-pearl bed", which turned out to be a filthy "toilet failure"! This shameless person who is carried away by selfish desires is tantamount to pouring a bucket of cold water on his head. This double irony depends entirely on the superb changing skills of Taoist priests.
Ke Tong constitutes three layers of satire. Dong Sheng is "good at fencing, and each is generous and conceited". But when the thief tortured his father, he didn't have the courage to save him. This is a layer of irony. The so-called thief was changed by Ke Tong's illusion, and Dong Sheng felt sorry for himself, which was another irony. Dong's life is often "eager to be told by others", but today he missed it face to face. Only sigh and explanation, this is the third layer of irony. This kind of double or even multiple satire is often manifested as the regret of the satirist for the first layer of satire, the shame of being teased, the disappointment of the vested interests being eliminated, and the helplessness of the positive figures. It is the record announced after the victory of the positive character, which makes the satirized character understand his situation and causes his sense of shame and indignation. This is a powerful bombardment of the mind of the satirized person.
"Upholding public interests above all else, criticizing the shortcomings of the times, and being a pioneer is especially good; His works are harmonious and humorous, but gentle and ironic. The Scholars is a model of China's satirical literature, with profound ideological content and superb artistic skills. It simply summarizes the superb achievements in satirical art of Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio, in which one satirizes scholars and the other maps the world with a ghost world. One is cold and gives people a tragic feeling, and the other is warm and gives people a comedy impression. However, although both of them start from reality and criticize reality through exaggeration and deformation, their artistic effects are different.
First of all, in the choice of theme, The Scholars focuses on the theme with typical significance, while Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio chooses the theme of "small" to satirize the disadvantages of the times.
The Scholars is full of "Confucians among Confucians", and there are more than 10 million Confucian scholars in the world, so it is extremely important to choose a representative theme. Many human feelings were also common in society at that time. The author grasps these materials and supplements the typical generalization. For example, being left out in the cold before getting rich, borrowing money from butcher Hu, and being spat on his face by butcher Hu. Once he was promoted, Butcher Hu immediately changed his name to "good husband", praised him for his "high academic ability and good appearance", and turned from arrogance to respect, depicting the world at that time. Pu Songling is good at choosing "small themes" to reflect and expose the "big reality" of the dark society. Popularizing knitting is the most prominent one. Because "the palace is still promoting weaving and recruiting people when they are old", officials at all levels take this opportunity to collect money. Finally, it fell on Li Zheng's fame. He didn't catch up with the promotion, and he "didn't dare to accept the account". He was caught and beaten "bloody" and "only thinking about himself". After being instructed by the "witch", she was promoted by the Golden Wing, crushed to death by the quilt, and dared not throw herself into the well. And his son, who became a soul and rose to weaving, was "agile and good at fighting", so he recommended himself to the palace, became famous and made a fortune, and even "offered his horse to transfer ownership" The plot is ups and downs, thrilling. Through a little promotion, the works reflect the fatuity of the emperor, the darkness of society, the flattery of officials and the sufferings of the people to the fullest. This is no longer a general greed, but a stab at the supreme ruler-the emperor.
Secondly, there are differences in the use of irony. "The Scholars" adopts a wide and strong artistic contrast, satirizing from the front. Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio adopts a more tortuous approach and is more ironic.
By comparison, the ideas of the works will be sharper and hit the nail on the head. When portraying characters, they often do not directly explain their intentions, but reveal the profound meaning between the lines through sharp contrast, and guide readers to love what they love and hate what they hate. Wang Mian, Du et al. He is a figure in the author's ideal of "revitalizing world religions". Among them, Wang Mian appeared for the first time and became a yardstick to measure the characters in the book, striving to achieve the purpose of "covering Dayi Chen" and "covering the whole text". Du was born in an official family and was a rebel of the feudal ruling class. These figures have a prominent feature, that is, they hold a negative attitude towards fame and fortune and dare to despise the power of the feudal ruling class. Their opposites are Kuang Superman, Niu Pulang, and a group of degenerate Confucian scholars in Quanzhong and Yangzhi. Kuang Renchao forged documents, took exams for others, married his wife and remarried, and was ungrateful. In order to make friends with the government and covet fame and fortune, Niu Pulang pretended to be Niu Bu's family to cheat, but later his true colors were revealed. By comparison, it shows that these characters are the inevitable products of the social environment at that time, from which we can see the bad influence of fame and fortune on people's hearts. The ugly words and deeds of landlords and salt merchants are in sharp contrast with the noble character of ordinary people. The sons of Yan Jiansheng and Hu San, they are greedy for money and live a corrupt life. Salt merchants in Song Dynasty shamelessly declared that "at least seven or eight concubines a year" was arrogant. Just complain, open your joints, and the lawsuit will be won immediately. Chapter 55 describes four self-reliant wonders: Xia Ji who can write, Wang Tai who sells toilet paper tubes, Gaikuan who runs a teahouse, and Yuan Jing who is a tailor. They are not figures in the imperial examination, but they are self-reliant and noble in character, which is in sharp contrast with the former.
And Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio refers to cursing at mulberry, and innuendo refers to exposing nails and really cursing B, which is a very subtle and tortuous irony. It is innuendo, leaving no trace, full of helplessness, and the reader is tacit, so its "lethality" is extremely strong. Please look at the painted skin. Wang Sheng from Taiyuan, a girl from Lu Yu, was brought into the house to "sleep together". The Taoist priest told him that he was a demon, and he was dubious. Later, he "peeped through the window and saw a green ghost with a ferocious face ... spread human skin on the couch and painted it with a colored pen;" ..... put it on your body and become a woman. " Finally, this female ghost will eventually kill Wang Sheng. The work clearly describes female ghosts, but in fact, it secretly scolds those powerful people who are well dressed, occupy high positions and shine with aura. They rob the rich to help the poor and poison the people. They are all a group of evil spirits in "painted skins". Dream Wolf is also the masterpiece of this irony. In the government of the underworld, only "seeing the hall, the hall, sitting and lying down are wolves." Look, the bones are like mountains. ""Suddenly, a huge wolf caught the dead man. "Actually" chat fills the kitchen. "The author uses the yamen where the underworld wolves are in power to allude to the social reality of corrupt officials harming the people. In that reactionary dynasty, which wants to say but can't say it directly, but wants to write it directly, it is really exciting and wonderful to read.
Thirdly, in the characterization, The Scholars successfully portrayed typical characters with complex personalities. Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio created vivid characters.
This kind of description that reveals the complexity and duality of characters in The Scholars is rare. Not all positive people are good and not all negative people are bad. For example, Mr. Ma Er has different views, but it is hard to say that he is a villain if he does not pay attention to the main tendency of criticism in the book. As an "election scholar", he is keen on imperial examinations and specializes in the development of art. He must be called Zhu Zaiyu. He has a systematic theory about the imperial examination system and is bent on being an official and making a fortune. Especially when Mr. Ma Er visited the West Lake, he was afraid to look up when he met a woman. See the emperor, hurriedly kowtow; When he praised the beautiful scenery of the West Lake, he used a sentence from The Mean. I swallowed when I saw the chicken, duck and fish in the hotel. Mr. Ma Er is pedantic, ignorant and vulgar. When Mr Kyle was in trouble, he saved his friend Ma Xianfu from the lawsuit. Even the tolerance for cheating was moved by it. The novel borrows a character's mouth and praises him as a friend with flesh and blood, loyalty and courage. In Mr. Ma, the shortcomings are so prominent, and so are the advantages. It can be seen that Wu did not simplify Mr. Ma Er. He is also a typical character with complex personality. The author used this extremely "uncoordinated" brushwork to be realistic, which formed a strong irony. The Scholars often describes ugly things beautifully or pretends to be beautiful, but at the same time, it cleverly exposes its beautiful coat and lets readers see its ugly essence, and its satirical techniques are extremely diverse. Lu Xun called it "sincere words are wonderful, but it is difficult to attack them", which is very appropriate. The publication of The Scholars embodies the high achievement of realistic satirical art. ..
A large number of vivid characters in Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio are even more amazing. In The Taoist of Laoshan Mountain, Wang Sheng, who longs for Taoism and goes up the mountain to seek immortality, is naturally charming and lazy and can't stand the test of hard life. Soon after entering the mountain, he was "unbearable and determined." However, he didn't want to go home empty-handed, so he asked Master for some skills. Master taught him how to go through the wall and let him experiment on the spot. The result was "nothing". Wang Sheng was overjoyed. When he got home, he couldn't wait to blow it away in front of his wife, saying that he "met a fairy, and the impregnable wall couldn't stop him" and "rushed in a few feet to the wall" on the spot. The result is "I hit my head on a hard wall and tripped at once." Wang Zian in Wang Zian tried again and again not to sell it. "After entering the tomb, I have great expectations." I fell asleep when the list was published. Suddenly, when he heard that "the horse was reported", Wang staggered and said, "Ten thousand dollars!" Because he was drunk, his family lied to him and said, "But please sleep by yourself, you have been rewarded." The dream continues. After a while, someone came to report: "You are a scholar!" " Wang Daxi got up and shouted, "Ten thousand dollars!" The family lied as before. Finally, I dreamed that I was an academician who entered the palace for the exam, so I "had to leave my hometown" and shouted at the long class. When the long class comes a little late, he swears and even fights. As a result, before going to bed, my wife and children "suddenly laughed" and then "suddenly woke up like a dream, only to know the ridiculous things before." These two characters are very vivid, making people see and hear their voices, and at the same time enhancing the irony of the works.
Fourth, the two works have different atmospheres.
In The Scholars, there is almost a tragic undercurrent behind the satirist's comedy behavior, but the tragic brushwork of Wu's comedy is not as strong, sad and generous as ordinary tragedies, but a bitter and sad feeling. For example, Jin Fan's various gaffes when he went crazy because he won the prize made people feel funny and bitter. Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio is very artistic, full of humor and wit, and it is not only delicious, but also amazing. So as to achieve the purpose of criticizing the current disadvantages, restraining evil and promoting good. For example, the full text of "Scold Duck" is only 123 words, so as to punish a duck thief as much as possible. A citizen stole a neighbor's duck, cooked it and ate it. At night, duck hair grew on his skin, which hurt when he touched it. When I was asleep, someone told me that if I gain something, I will lose it, and I will be scolded. Neighbor Weng is generous and generous. He doesn't scold, but repeatedly persuades, "Weng scolded and got well." The ugly behavior of the duck thief who is rewarded with evil is really popular and is a satire and warning to all corrupt officials. The whole work has a strong comedy atmosphere.
From the above comparison, we can easily see that The Scholars and Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio are both satirical works, but their styles are different. Although the techniques used are similar, the artistic effects achieved are different. But in any case, they are the pinnacle of satirical art in China's classical novels, adding two wonderful pages to the history of China literature.
"Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio" The Second Ying Ning
Zhang Dai's "Tao An Meng Yi" says: "People are not addicted, so they can't communicate with each other because they are heartless; People are innocent, so they can't communicate, so there is no true qi. " During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, there were also many literary works with the theme of "delusion", such as The Peony Pavilion by Tang Xianzu. Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio came into being in such a literary trend of thought, and various types of "crazy women" images were also created in the book. Pu Songling's novel Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio can be described as the epitome of ancient infatuated female images, and has created many lovely infatuated female images. She is as pure as dew and as beautiful as a flower. He compared him to a kind of grass called "laughter" in the mountains. For Ying Ning, Pu Weng should be pampered. It's called "Worry-Free Girl", it's called "I'm the only one taking care of my baby", and "Jieyu Flower" is disrespectful to its posturing.
When I was a child, I was in awe of foxes, because my grandmother said, "foxes have sharp ears and you can hear everything three miles away."
First, perfection embodies beauty.
In Ying Ning, Pu Songling focuses on Ying Ning's beautiful appearance, her love for flowers, her love for laughter and her innocent character. Her novel "Beautiful and Smiling" describes the story of scholar Wang Zifu's infatuation with the pursuit of a fox woman, focusing on her charming and moving personality. Ying Ning's smile has a unique color in Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio. She has a beautiful smile: gorgeous and innocent. Her smile makes other characters in the novel forget their troubles, but sometimes it makes them embarrassed. However, the smile in Ying Ning's personality has actually become a part of Ying Ning's life. Ying Ning's smile sometimes ignores feudal customs, and sometimes it seems completely unreasonable to the world. She shouldn't laugh and laugh, laughing her head off. However, the author's Ying Ning has always given readers a fascinating aesthetic feeling, mainly because Ying Ning mocked the beauty of innocence, purity, kindness and innocence, and at the same time mocked the beauty of ignoring feudal ethics and sticking to purity and innocence. Her laughter combines loyalty to love, longing for an ideal marriage and longing for a better life.
As for Ying Ning's smile, it is not difficult to analyze it several times before and after the full text. On the one hand, the author created an innocent and delicate image of a fox woman, with the personality of "crazy without damaging her charm" and the external performance of "laughing as if she were heartless" From this perspective, the subtext of Ying Ning's smile is: sunny, bright and cheerful.
On the other hand, it is also a smile, which embodies Ying Ning's important personality characteristics, from scolding to coping with the diversity of the secular world, and then to coping with the world with a fake smile as a hiding place. For example, "Wu invited him face to face, and the mother entered the room, and the woman still laughed." When mother urged the bill, she laughed at it, but her face moved and she came out. Just a manifestation of worship, but I fell into it and laughed loudly. A room full of women were stunned. "Women in feudal society were bound and imprisoned by feudal ethics and cultural traditions, while Ying Ning ignored three sentences and three obedience, didn't know four virtues, ignored the order of the young and the old, and didn't have to advance and retreat. He despised everything with a smile and shook everything with a smile.
However, Ying Ning's smile is not a simple girl's innocent smile after all. Her smile is complicated. Ying Ning turned her smile into tears and said, "If you look at each other rashly, you will be shocked by what you say. Today, Chagu and Lang have been in love with each other and have not cheated. Can you just tell them? My concubine was born in forks. When my mother left, I entrusted Guimu to my concubine. We have lived together for more than ten years, and today is the beginning. I have no brothers, but I depend on you. Old mother cenji mountain, no one pity, Jiuquan need to mourn. If you don't hesitate to bother to let the underground people dispel this resentment, those who raise their daughters can't bear to abandon them. " It can be seen that Ying Ning's smile is her means to test life, cope with life and win. We should understand from Ying Ning's giggle that she is not only a naive girl, but also a precocious and knowledgeable girl. It is not easy for her to confide her true feelings to the lover she sleeps with. It is obvious how deep, meticulous and well-controlled her heart is before pouring out her inner wishes.
Second, the method of shaping Ying Ning
Mr. Lu Xun once said that novels are the art of shaping characters and the great hall of the times. Similarly, short stories in classical Chinese also shine brilliantly in shaping characters. The novel has its own characteristics in portraying Ying Ning: the object of its positive description is not Ying Ning, but a relatively minor character. The author observes the main character with the help of the eyes of the minor character and expresses the main character with the method of profile description. The author gives a positive account of Wang Zifu, Wu Sheng and Wang Mu. On the Lantern Festival, Wu Sheng invited the prince to an outing, and the prince's clothes met Ying Ning unexpectedly. Therefore, the novel depicts Ying Ning by observing the prince's clothes. After Wang Zifu brought Ying Ning home, he made a profile description of Ying Ning by observing and feeling Wang Mu, Wu Sheng and others. The advantages of contour description are:
First of all, Ying Ning is an orphan girl. If you describe the imaginary fox positively, you will often encounter difficulties, be full of flaws, be unable to justify yourself, or appear clumsy in brushwork and have to make up for it. The novel puts the characters in the real world in the light, pushes the fox into the dark field, lets people in real life deal with the fox, and makes the fox have traces to find and hide, thus avoiding difficulties and saving effort. Fox fairy is like a dragon in the clouds, sometimes showing scales and sometimes showing claws, rather than showing it in detail, which greatly enhances the magical color and makes the novel have a profound scene.
Secondly, Ying Ning has beautiful manners, magical skills and noble character. The novel does not describe her positively, but focuses on people's feelings in real life. "From the eyes of the characters" can make readers feel very real and feel the uniqueness of Ying Ning. When the prince first met Ying Ning, he was so absorbed that he forgot his worries. When I got home, I didn't talk or eat, and my muscles dropped sharply. This is an exaggerated expression of Ying Ning's appearance and behavior, which has great attraction. The whole article is about Ying Ning's laughter, and it is often a smile that appears in front of others. When others come to see it, they will hear it first. Neighbors found her "smiling and crazy without damaging her charm", so they all liked her. "Every time my mother is worried about getting angry, the woman will laugh it off." From this, we can imagine how beautiful her laughter and laughter should be. The author's pen closely follows the minor characters, but depicts the main characters everywhere. Although the narrative adopts the third person, it has many characteristics and advantages of the first person. Not only is the narrative angle relatively fixed, easy to cut in and concentrate, which makes the whole story in one go, but also the color sense is extremely strong, which makes the wizard ability and beautiful modality of the main characters strongly rendered.
In addition, the conception of "Ying Ning" also has the beauty of avoiding reality and attacking emptiness. The author's book with brothers and nephews talks about the method of writing, saying: "Cleverly covering the meaning and occupying the room (gap), strangely turning the pen out of breath, and reviving the situation, and searching for quotations from songs beside the words." Although ancient and modern masterpieces are like forests, no one can storm and write directly, but the writing is good. " This amazing method of avoiding reality and attacking emptiness is also used in this novel. In the novel Ying Ning, Wang Zifu went to the southwest mountains to look for Ying Ning, and what he saw was: "The mountains are covered with greenery, the air is green and fresh, there are no pedestrians, only bird paths. Looking at the bottom of the valley, there is a faint drop among the flowers and trees. Going down the mountain and entering the village, I saw that there were not many houses, all of which were huts, but they were very elegant. In front of the door in the north, there are many peaches and apricots in the wall, during which bamboo and wild birds are planted ... Baishi Road in the door is lined with red flowers falling on the steps; Twists and turns to the west, another level is opened, and the Doumen flower stand is full of courts. When the guest enters the house, the white wall is as bright as a mirror, and the Haitang outside the wall opens and explores the room. " Some sofas have been used by bacteria, but they are not clean. However, Minglun commented, "If you don't see him, but you see the flowers in front of his door, there will be a smiling flower picker in the wild bird lattice. "As you can see, this environment is branded with Ying Ning's character everywhere. At the end of the article, Ying Ning's son is feminine when he sees people smile, which is also a foil to Ying Ning's character.