Classical Novel Commentary: A Dialogue Between the Lines

Commentaries are the traditional way of literary criticism in the mainland, which is particularly prominent in the novels of the Ming and Qing dynasties, such as Jin Shengsi's commentary on "Water Margin", Mao's father and son's commentary on "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", Zhang Zhupo's commentary on "Golden Vase Plum", Yan Zhai's commentary on "Dream of Red Mansions", Cai Yuanfang's commentary on "Chronicles of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty", and Qixia's commentary on "Flower Moon Traces", etc., have become classics in the history of literary criticism. Recently, there are "Cai Yijiang's New Commentary on the Dream of Red Mansions", "Li Guowen's New Commentary on the Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and Bu Jian's "Shuangge Pavilion Re-school Appraisal and Approval of the Golden Vase Plum" and so on.

The main function of the critique is to raise the status of the novel. Critics compare "Historical Records" with "Water Margin", "Golden Vase Plum", "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", etc., which is an affirmation of these novels and a rise in status. For example, Jin Shengxian proposed in "Reading the Calligraphy of the Fifth Genius": "The methods of "Water Margin" all come out of the "Historical Records", but there are many places that are better than the "Historical Records". Zhang Zhupo also linked "The Golden Bottle" with the "Historical Records" in "Criticism of the Reading of the First Strange Book 'The Golden Bottle' Plum Bottle": "Those who can make words read the "Golden Bottle" purely to read the "Historical Records". Mao Zonggang proposed: "The good narrative of "Three Kingdoms" is similar to that of "Historical Records", and the difficulty of its narrative is twice as difficult as that of "Historical Records". ”

The principles and methods of Jin Sheng's commentary have influenced to this day. Jin Shengsian has three prefaces and "Reading the Fifth Genius Calligraphy" before the main text of "Water Margin", and there are comments before each time, and there are eyebrow criticisms and clipping criticisms in the text, forming a complete evaluation system. Jin Shengxi mentioned in the 12th review of "Water Margin": "The joy of the world is the first thing to read; The joy of reading, the first is to read "Water Margin". "What should I pay attention to when I am studying? Jin Shengxi mentioned in the 30th chapter of "Water Margin": "We need to take a closer look at the leisure of his pen, the details of the tip of the pen, the strict penmanship, the great power of the pen, and the other places of the pen." Jin Shengxian also mentioned in "Reading the Sixth Book of Talents 'The Legend of the West Chamber'", focusing on "where to come from, where to go, how to go straight, how to play, how to let go, how to pinch and gather, where to walk, where to steal, where to shake slowly, and where to fly". People can read the joys, sorrows, and sorrows of Jin Shengsi's sigh from the comments. After reading Jin Shengxi's comments, I basically understand the idea, structure, chapter, syntax, and wording of the novel, and its Chinese methods include inverted interpolation, sandwich narration, grass snake gray line method, big drop ink method, cotton needle mud pricking method, etc.

Feng Zhenluan believes: "Jin Renrui's criticism of "Water Margin" and "West Chamber" is a wonderful tongue, opening up the infinite horizons and infinite literary hearts of future generations. For example, in the 52nd chapter of "Water Margin", Li Kui heard "the sound of someone reciting what scriptures" through the window (Jin Sheng sighed: "The vulgar book is the Jade Shu Treasure Sutra, who knows, who remembers it?"). I saw Luo Zhenren sitting on "this thing" (Jin Sheng sighed: "Cloud bed also. It is written in the eyes of Dai Zong, and it is a cloud bed; From Li Kui's eyes, it is said to be something. I also saw the "smoke simmering" on the table (Jin Sheng's sigh: "Xiangye, but it is written in four words from Li Kui's eyes. The magic of the pen is almost out of the blue. ”）。 Starting from Li Kui's personality, it is natural that he can't understand the Yushu Treasure Sutra, and he can't see the cloud bed and the incense he lights. For example, in the 6th chapter of A Dream of Red Mansions, Grandma Liu enters the Rongguo Mansion and sees "a box hanging on the pillar, and a scale-like object falling from the bottom" (i.e., a wall clock), and in the 41st episode, Grandma Liu enters the Rongguo Mansion and sees the "lentil shelf" (i.e., the bamboo fence). Huang Xiaotian commented: "It's always good to get out of the countryman's mind and vision, so it's better." ”

The comments of Zhang Zhupo, Mao Zonggang and others were deeply influenced by Jin Shengsi. Zhang Zhupo compared his comments with Jin Sheng's comments on "Water Margin" in the second episode of "Golden Vase Plum": "Therefore, when I criticize, I only follow the theology, paragraphs, and chapters of this article, and follow my eyesight. Of course, there are also scholars who put forward different views on Jin Shengsi's comments, Lu Xun proposed in the article "On Jin Shengsi": "He raised the legend of the novel, and "Zuo Chuan" and "Du Shi" were juxtaposed, but he really picked up the salivaness of Yuan Hong's predecessors; And after a batch of him, the honesty of the original work is often turned into a joke, and the layout of the text is also dragged to the practice of eight shares. This lingering shade has caused a group of people to fall into the mud pond of "Dream of Red Mansions" and the like, always seeking a hidden line and finding fault with flaws. ”

The comments allow readers to more deeply understand the author's intentions in writing and improve readers' appreciation ability. In the first chapter of "Journey to the West", when the Bodhi Patriarch lived in Lingtai Fangcun Mountain, Li Zhen wrote in the side commentary: "A "Journey to the West", this is the purpose. Li Zhen also reminded readers when commenting on the three-star cave of the oblique moon: "The oblique moon is like a hook, and the three-star is like three points, which is also the heart." Yan Xuexian doesn't have to be far away, only in this heart. Jin Shengsian mentioned the reader's status in reading in the review of "The · Wedge of the Water Margin": "The reader's spirit is not born, and the author's meaning is completely lost." Zhang Zhupo proposed to use comments to explore the author's original intention in "The Allegory of the Golden Vase Plum": "The author's intention is as curved as a snail and as thin as hair. It is not said that there is a bamboo slope in ancient times, and it is carefully pointed out. In the 54th chapter of "Dream of Red Mansions", Yan Zhai commented on Shi Taijun's criticism of the novels of talented and beautiful women, which is to "persuade the gentlemen who have no organic axis in their chests not to write books". Of course, criticism is not the only interpretation of the novel, and many subjective comments require readers to look at them with a critical eye. Mao Zonggang proposed in "Reading the Law of the Three Kingdoms": "I think that there are three wonders in the Three Kingdoms, which can be called three uniques: Zhuge Kongming is a must, Guan Yunchang is a must, and Cao Cao is also a must." Lu Xun believed: "As for writing people, it is also quite wrong...... Zhuge is wise and close to demons. ”

When critting, the reviewer will also revise and improve the text of the novel. Jin Shengsigh "cut the Water Margin in half", deleted the content after the 71st episode of "Water Margin", and set "Water Margin" as "a big book with 70 episodes" at the beginning of the first review. In the 13th commentary of "A Dream of Red Mansions", Fatty Yanzhai mentioned that "this time there are only ten pages, and because the section of Tianxianglou is deleted, four or five pages are missing", and this part of the content is "deleted by Qinxi".

Lu Xun believes that when Mao Zonggang commented on "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", in addition to changing, adding, and cutting the original text, there were also five ways to revise "one to rectify the repetition, two to correct the rhetoric, three to remove the praise, four to add and delete trivial matters, and five to change the poems". Mao Zonggang mentioned 10 types of deletions and alterations in "Romance of the Three Kingdoms· Ordinary Cases", such as: "The text of "Three Kingdoms" is excellent, and those recorded in the "Anthology", such as Kong Rong's "Recommending You Heng Table" and Chen Lin's "Seeking Cao Cao's Table", can actually be passed on together with the previous and later "Teacher Table", and the vulgar texts are all missing. Today, it is added according to the ancient book, so as to prepare for the ancients. Mao Zonggang also listed "Linjiang Immortal" in Yang Shen's "Twenty-one Historical Bullet Words" as the opening words of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", in fact, "Linjiang Immortal" is about the history of the Qin and Han dynasties, but it is very consistent with the content of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms". Yang Shen wrote "Xijiang Yue", which was divided into three points and two Jin, and was put by Feng Menglong in the opening chapter of "Chronicles of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty".

The ones that are evaluated are generally famous works, which has higher requirements for the ability of the reviewers, so although many novels have a variety of reviews published, not many can be passed on to future generations. The precise commentary makes the text language fluent, the plot ups and downs, the characters are distinct, and the artistic standard has been significantly improved. These commentaries and the revised text have been passed down to the world and are still popular today. The critic conveys the feelings of reading to later readers and forms a dialogue relationship, which is also helpful for literary critics. Of course, readers will also comment on the comments of the ancients, and this kind of silent communication between the lines is the inheritance of culture.

Editor-in-charge: Wu Yue