I have been keen on the imperial examination all my life, but I have failed. I didn't make up the tribute students until I was 72 years old, and I have a deep understanding of the irrationality of the imperial examination system. Bi Yisheng completed "Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio" with 8 volumes of 49 1 article, with about 400,000 words. The content is rich and colorful, and the stories are mostly taken from folklore and anecdotes of unofficial history, personifying and socializing things in the world of flowers, foxes and ghosts, fully expressing the author's love, hate and good ideals. The works inherit and develop the excellent tradition and expression techniques of the legendary literature of strange stories in China literature, with fantastic plot, ups and downs, concise writing and orderly narration, and are regarded as the highest achievement collection of China's ancient short stories. Mr. Lu Xun said in "A Brief History of Chinese Novels" that this book is "the most famous one in the special collection"; Mr. Guo Moruo wrote an inscription for Pu's former residence, praising Pu's book "writing ghosts and writing demons is superior, stabbing greed and stabbing abuse". ?
After Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio was written, Pu Songling was unable to publish it because of his poor family, and it was not published until 1766 (the thirty-first year of Qing Qianlong). After repeated reprints, there are more than 30 versions at home and abroad. Famous versions include hanger-on Pavilion Edition and Zhu Xuezhai Edition, and nearly 20 countries have published their translations. There are 100 publications of Liaozhai in China, and 160 dramas, movies and TV series with the story of Liaozhai as their content. ?
In addition to Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio, Pu Songling has a large number of poems, plays, folk songs and works in agriculture and medicine. Collection 13 volume, more than 400 articles; Poetry 6 volumes, 1000; Word 1 volume, 100 Yu Tan; Three scripts (textual research on nine resellers, Zhong Mei's birthday, making a scene); Folk songs 14 kinds (wall stories, ancient songs, compassionate songs, songs, disasters, harp music, Penglai banquet, Junye tea, poor Chinese words, ugly Junba, fast songs, envious spells, lucky fairy songs, and buxing Yunge), as well as Nongsang Sutra and Nongsang Sutra.
one's early years
Pu Songling seldom traveled abroad in his life. He comes from a poor family and lives in poverty, but he often stays in Jinan. During my stay in Jinan, I left a lot of words, including a poem entitled "Cooking for guests in the morning":
"There is a mist on Daming Lake.
I am a writer and have three jobs.
Xiaomi draws water and cooks rice in rice porridge.
The vegetables in the garden are full of yellow flowers. "
In just a few words, the vivid scene of Pu living and cooking by Daming Lake in the early morning was made clear. In particular, the last two sentences talk about boiling millet porridge with spring water and cutting vegetarian dishes, including day lilies, on the chopping board to match snacks. You can imagine that Pu Songling cooked by himself at that time, and the breakfast was delicious.
Pu Songling described that cooking millet porridge with vegetables for breakfast is also a daily dietary custom in most parts of Shandong. Shandong people like to eat porridge in the morning. There are many kinds of porridge, such as millet porridge, rice porridge, millet mung bean porridge, jiangmi porridge, bean juice porridge, red bean porridge, lotus leaf porridge and so on.
Pu Songling and Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio —— Professor Ma Ruifang's Speech at Shandong University
If I ask you a question, which is the best novel in ancient China? There is no doubt that the vernacular novel A Dream of Red Mansions. If we ask again: Which novel is different from A Dream of Red Mansions in artistic form, but its achievements are comparable? The story of the lonely studio, a collection of short stories in classical Chinese. Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio, with a short story and a long story, constitutes the twin peaks of China's ancient novels.
Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio is not only the pride of China literature, but also a very influential work in world literature, which often surprises sinologists. In the 1980s, Jodi Tsai, a professor at the University of Chicago, was a Jewish lady. She once told me that there are all kinds of articles in American newspapers and magazines: teaching women how to keep their sexual charm in front of men. And three hundred years ago, in such a feudal and closed China, Pu Songling actually wrote a novel "Heng Niang", about how a wife defeated her competitors with her sexual charm and held her husband firmly in her hand. /kloc-It's amazing that China writers in the 0/7th century wrote novels for American women in the 20th century.
The family is surrounded by women who are worried about poverty.
Pu Songling struggled on the poverty line all his life. He tried his best to get enough food and clothes; He has been taking part in the imperial examinations for decades all his life, and he has been defeated repeatedly. He suffered a lot to write Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio.
Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio is a very magical novel, and the birth of its author is somewhat magical. In the 13th year of Chongzhen in Ming Dynasty, on the night of April 16th of the lunar calendar, Pu, a businessman from Pujiazhuang, Zichuan, Shandong Province, had a strange dream. He saw a monk dressed in cassock, bony and ill walking into his wife's inner room. When Pu woke up, the monk had a copper plaster on his bare chest. He heard the baby crying. It turned out that his third son was born. Holding the baby on the couch, the bright moon leans against the south wing. In the moonlight, Pu was surprised to find that the newborn third son had an obvious mole on his chest. The size and location of this mole are completely consistent with the plaster cast of the sick monk he saw in his dream. The sick monk entered the room, which is Pu Songling's description of his birth when he was forty. Ancient writers in China like to tell their birth very mysteriously. The great poet Li Bai said that he was born when his mother dreamed of Taibai Venus. Father dreamed that a sick monk entered the room and Pu Songling was born. He also explained that I was so frustrated and poor all my life, probably because I was reincarnated as an ascetic. The reincarnation of an ascetic monk is a story made up by Pu Songling in Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio, but we can see that Pu Songling's life is really bitter. He lives in poverty, he always struggles on the poverty line, and he tries his best to get enough food and clothing; He has been taking part in the imperial examinations for decades all his life, and he has been defeated repeatedly. He suffered a lot to write Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio. Therefore, we say that Pu Songling has three hardships-life, examination and study.
Let's see how hard his life is. When Pu Songling was young, life was not very bitter, because his father abandoned Confucianism to do business and his family was well-off. Under the protection of his father, young Pu Songling can study with peace of mind and start a poetry club with friends. But it didn't last long, because he separated. Why do you want to separate? Because of family conflicts. Pu Songling's two brothers are both scholars, but both sisters-in-law are bitches. Pu Songling once said in the book: "Every family has a hag at the bedside." His two sisters-in-law are really typical bitches. They often make trouble at home for a little thing. Pu Songling's father had to separate his son. It is unfair to separate, because two sisters-in-law can fight, make trouble and rob, while Pu Songling's wife Liu is virtuous and taciturn. As a result of the separation, Pu Songling was assigned to three old farmhouses, which were so broken that there were no doors, so Pu Songling had to borrow door panels to install them. Give him 20 mu of fertile land and 240 Jin of grain, which is only enough for three months. In this way, Pu Songling had to fend for himself, and he began his career as a private school teacher for 45 years.
Private school teachers are rural primary school teachers, and they teach in private schools with low pay. Calculate a specific account, how much salary can you get as a private school teacher every year? Eight taels at most. What is the concept of eight taels of silver? At that time, a family of four in the countryside needed twenty taels to maintain their life for one year. This account was calculated by Grandma Liu when calculating the crab feast in the Grand View Garden of A Dream of Red Mansions. Therefore, our great writer Pu Songling worked hard to teach for a year, and the money he earned was not enough for half a crab feast in Grand View Garden. After the age of 30, Pu Songling had to support his old mother because of his father's death. How poor is he? "This family is surrounded by women who are worried about poverty." He has a poem called "Japanese Lunch", in which he wrote that the wheat harvest is coming, and there is no food at home, so he has to cook a pot of porridge. At that time, he had three sons and a daughter. The eldest son grabbed the spoon first, went to the bottom of the pot to find the thickest one and put it in his bowl. The second son quit and went up to snatch it from his brother. Pu Songling's daughter stood there, looking piteously at her father from a distance. Pu Songling is very distressed. How can I feed my poor child? Pu Songling also wrote an article called "Sacrificing the Poor God". He said, "Poor God, poor God, what do you have with me?"