Other novels after the middle of the Ming Dynasty

The novel creation of the Ming Dynasty, after the appearance of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms and the Water Margin, was silent for more than a hundred years. By the middle of the Ming Dynasty, due to the rapid development of commercial and handicraft production, the civic class had grown even stronger. In order to widely adapt to the needs of their cultural life, all kinds of popular literature have become prosperous. Li Yan, Zhong Yi and other literati juxtaposed novels with orthodox literature, affirmed the role and status of novels, and engaged in activities such as commenting and adapting popular novels, which played a role in promoting the creation of novels at that time and in the future. In addition, at this time, the printing technology was developed and there were many bookstores, which provided convenient conditions for the wide publication of books, so the creation of novels entered a prosperous stage. "Journey to the West" first appeared, shining with the brilliance of romanticism. Then other novels were produced, and over a hundred years, fifty or sixty were handed down. Although their achievements are generally not high, they have a considerable position in the development of china's classical novels. They not only directly or indirectly reflected the social life at that time and expressed the people's thoughts and feelings to a certain extent; they also provided many themes in the creation of novels, accumulated a lot of experience, and prepared conditions for the further prosperity of qing novels.

The first section of historical interpretation and heroic legendary novels

After the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the largest number of novels are historical interpretations and heroic legends. They all fall within the scope of historical fiction, but the former is mainly based on depicting the evolution of historical events, while the latter focuses on historical heroes. The large number of historical interpretations is inseparable from the social background at that time. After the middle of the century, class contradictions and national crises deepened, and the rule of the factory guards became increasingly brutal, and the literati felt that it was difficult to directly express their thoughts and feelings. Therefore, it borrows historical themes to support the past and the present, and to pin ideals. Secondly, China has a long history and a large number of historical books, which objectively provides a wealth of creative materials for such novels. After the Song and Yuan dynasties, the development of the "telling history" novel, especially the outstanding achievements of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, set a brilliant example for them. But also because the authors of these novels are far away from the people and lack of life experience, they try to use the history books as the source of creation and take the light road. Therefore, their achievements cannot be compared with the Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

There are more than 20 historical interpretations produced after the middle of the Ming Dynasty, from ancient times to the Ming Dynasty, and almost every dynasty has a popular interpretation of history. In the Chronicles of the New Nations, Wu Men keguan Daoist gave a brief account of the situation at that time:

Since Luo Guanzhong's book "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", with the performance of national history as a popular interpretation of more than a hundred times, it is still known to the world, and it is the successor of the Japanese people, so there are "Xia Shu", "Shang Shu", "Nations", "Cruel Tang", "Southern and Northern Song Dynasties" inscriptions, and its Haohan and Zhengshi are signed and crossed...

To varying degrees, these historical interpretations have tortuously reflected the people's thoughts and feelings, been welcomed by the broad masses, and have had a certain impact on the extensive dissemination of historical knowledge. Yuan Hongdao's "Preface to the Popular Interpretation of the Eastern and Western Han Dynasties" Yun:

Today, from the crown of clothes to the village brother li woman, from the seventy-year-old man to the three-foot boy, reading about Liu Jiqi Fengpei, Xiang Yu not crossing the Wujiang River, Wang Mang's usurpation of the throne, Guangwu Zhongxing, etc., all of them can not be counted upside down, detailing his surname Liju, from the dynasty to twilight, from dusk to dusk, almost forgot to eat and sleep.

It can be seen that its circulation is grand. However, there are not many such novels that have a certain literary value. Although their editors consciously asked the Romance of the Three Kingdoms to study, they were limited to their own life experience and artistic accomplishment, most of which were just the connection and interpretation of the material of the main history, lacked the portrayal of the characters, and at the same time there was a strong feudal consciousness. Among the better and representative works are novels with national themes.

"Biography of the Nations", written by Yu Shaoyu, consists of eight volumes and twenty-six sections, published in Ming Jiajing and Longqingjian. The work began with the charm of the Daji Yitang, and finally qin unified the world, and more comprehensively recorded the stories of the nations. Several of the chapters intersperse the myths and stories that have been circulated in the folk, such as "Su Daji's Yitang was charmed" and "King Mu's Journey to the Kunlun Mountains in the West", but they did not change the simple appearance of historical interpretation.

On the basis of the "Biography of the Nations", Feng Menglong compiled the "New Chronicle of the States" (Note: Wu Men Keguan Daoist: "The Chronicle of the New States") compiled the "Chronicle of the New States". For three hundred years, this is the most widely circulated and influential popular historical interpretation besides the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. The Chronicle of the States of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, printed in the name of Cai Yuanfang during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, is actually the commentary version of Feng Menglong's "Chronicle of the New States". The narrative of the work began with King Xuan of Zhou and Qin Shi Huang, deleted some fictional plots in the "Chronicles of the Nations", corrected the fallacies, and was more in line with historical facts, while "perfunctory is not without additions, descriptions are not without embellishment", the text of the novel is simple and vivid, clear and clear, and some plot descriptions are sound and colorful. For example, the 102nd description of Zhu Hai's righteous and courageous behavior:

The King of Qin wanted to seal Zhu Hai's official position, but Zhu Haijian resigned, and the King of Qin was angry, so he ordered Zhu Hai to be placed in the tiger circle. There are colorful tigers in the circle, and when they see people coming, they want to grab it. Zhu Hai shouted, "How dare the animals be rude!" Bursting open his eyes, like two blood cups, his eyes were cracked, and his blood splashed tiger. The tiger crouched down and did not dare to move for a long time. Left and right are compounded. King Qin... The more you want to force your surrender, the more you will not obey. Destiny is confined to the inn, and its diet is cut off. Zhu Haiyue: "I have been trusted to know the encounter of lingjun, and I should repay it with death!" It is the head that touches the pillar of the house, and the pillar is broken and the head is not broken. So he probed his throat with his hand and died of swallowing.

In such an exaggerated description, he successfully created a rough and courageous character image. Other stories, such as "String High False Fate To Treat the Qin Army", "Siege of the Palace Cheng Infant Hidden Orphans", "Ximen Leopard Qiao Sending The River Bo Woman" and other stories show the beautiful qualities of the Chinese people's tradition and are of positive significance. However, the author originally intended to write it as a historical interpretation that made people "quote as a commandment", and did not pay enough attention to its literary nature in general, so the main achievement of the work was to popularize the historical knowledge of this heroic era.

The better historical interpretation of this period is Zhen Wei's "Western Han Dynasty". Some of the descriptions in the "Romance of the Western Han Dynasty" are very meaningful, such as writing that In the process of cutting down the Qin Dynasty, Liu Bang won the hearts of the people and finally won the victory because of his recruitment of talents, the cultivation of politics, and the strict military discipline; while Xiang Yu was arrogant and arrogant, arbitrarily killing and plundering the people, and greatly losing the hearts of the people, he could only end in failure.

In terms of heroic legend novels, many of the works produced during this period shaped the heroic image of the series through the peasant revolt at the end of the Sui Dynasty, the division of the five dynasties at the end of the Tang Dynasty, and the war against the Liao and Jin in the Song Dynasty. These heroic figures were originally widely circulated in the folk and were loved and respected by the people. After the book was written, most of them preserved the wonderful parts of folklore, and to a certain extent expressed the people's thoughts, feelings and wishes. Among them, the more influential "Northern Song Zhi Biography".

Xiong Damu, the author of the "Biography of the Northern Song Dynasty", the owner of the Jiajingshi Bookstore, is the earlier author of the heroic legendary novel, and in addition to the "Northern Song Zhi biography", he also compiled the "Western Han Zhi Biography", "The Eastern Han Zhi Biography", "The Tang Shu Zhi Biography", "The Great Song Dynasty Yanyi Zhongxing Heroic Martyrs Biography", etc., which played an important role in the development of heroic legend novels. The "Chronicle of the Northern Song Dynasty" stereotypes the story of the Yang family that has been circulating since the arrival of the Southern Song Dynasty, and preserves a wealth of materials for the re-creation of the story. The novel praises the national heroes of history through the loyal deeds of the Yang Ye family in the Northern Song Dynasty who resisted the Khitan for generations, and condemns the betrayal that undermines the cause of resistance against the enemy. The novel includes stories such as the Great Battle of Youzhou, Yang Ye's collision with Li Lingbei, Yang Liulang guarding the Three Passes, and the Twelve Widows Zhengxi, depicting many heroic images. Such as the old hero Yang Ye, Xiao Yong is good at war, and the power is all over the place, and even empress Xiao of the Khitan praised him: "I have long heard that this old yang is invincible, and his name is worthy of the legend." Later, because of the framed by the traitor Pan Renmei, he was trapped and besieged, and his head hit Li Lingbei and martyred the country. However, the Yang family was stronger and more optimistic, not asking about men, women, old and young, and stepping on the front line of defending the country and killing the enemy one after another. The work not only focuses on rendering the heroic deeds of Yang Liulang, but also prominently depicts the group portraits of Yang Men's female generals, which is a valuable creation in China's classical novels, especially yang Lingbo and Mu Guiying's bold loyalty, wisdom and courage, shining with the ideological brilliance of patriotism. In the book, Meng Liang and Jiao Zan, who are outstanding in the green forest, are also the images of the grass heroes that people love.

However, the patriotic ideas expressed in the "Biography of the Northern Song Dynasty" and the idea of loyalty to the king are closely intertwined. These princes and generals and commandmented ladies, their service to the country is based on the concept of loyalty to the king, which is still different from the patriotic ideology expressed by the masses of the people. The whole book is relatively rough in art: the characters are not clear and vivid enough, the plot is not refined, and there are even inconsistencies, as well as some superstitious and absurd descriptions, which affect its literary value.

In addition, the better heroic legendary novels include the "Sui Historical Relics" by Ji Yi's master and the "Biography of Heroes and Martyrs" by the anonymous family. The Sui Shi Testament belongs to the "Speaking of Tang" novel system, which takes the chaotic hero Qin Qiong as the central character, and places the Sui Emperor, Tang Taizong and other emperors in a secondary position, marking that the Story of Tang has entered a new stage. In the speech of Zhu Yuanzhang's story of becoming tai, the "Biography of Heroes and Martyrs" writes about some heroic acts of him and the founding ministers before his departure, which also has certain positive significance.

The second verse is the Evolution of the Gods and other divine and demonic novels

The ethnic and class contradictions at the end of the Ming Dynasty were particularly acute. The division within the ruling class is also even more severe. The "Fushe" headed by "Lou Dong Er Zhang" (Zhang Pu and Zhang Cai) was a continuation of the Donglin Party' struggle against the castration party. In the struggle against the Qing Dynasty, most of the fushe figures were martyred heroically, or retired to the mountains and forests and did not cooperate with the Qing court, showing a lofty national integrity. In literature, the Fu Society advocated retro and advocated the "Seven Sons", but the actual struggle caused many writers to change their style and write passionate and brilliant patriotic works.

Zhang Pu (1601-1640) was the founder and leader of the Fu Society. Zi Tianru, Taicang people, Chongzhen four years into the soldier. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, there were many literary societies; the Fushe Society was "roughly based on the Ying Society", which was formed by gathering many small societies. It called for the revival of ancient learning and the use of services, and was founded at the end of the Xizong Heavenly Revelation. Its scale is very large, "the collection of spring and autumn, the crown of the road". "On the day of the social gathering, between Xu Lu, the six or seven miles of Weizhou, the Pingguang can be crossed, and the city is out of sight, and there are all those who do not know that there is a revival of the society" ("Seven Records of the Zhai Ji · National Table Sequence"). The people who participated in the restoration of the society considered themselves to be the successors of the Donglin Party and were very authoritative. "The voice is flowing to the right, and the title of the product is A and B, which is quite capable of honor and disgrace", and "the ruling staff, hence the evil". Therefore, some people continue to use the excuse to persecute and charge the crime of "chaos in the world". The Restoration Society is a cultural society, with a broad mass base and combined with political struggle, which is a rare phenomenon in history. In literature, Zhang Pu maintained the proposition of the seven sons before and after. In fact, his retro is to make ancient learning serve reality, which is very different in spirit from the pseudo-archophesis of the seven sons before and after. His "Tombstones of five" praises the heroic citizens of Suzhou and the great struggle of the castration party, emphasizing that the death of Pifu is "heavier than the social order", far beyond the reach of the "gentry", and is a very political prose.

Chen Zilong (1608-1647) was a native of Songjiang Huating. He "read books since childhood, was not good at chapters and sentences, and liked to talk about the reasons of the world" ("Preface to the Classics"). He and Xia Yunyi, Xu Fuyuan, Wang Guangcheng and others formed "several associations" to echo the "restoration society". "A few, there are a few revivals in the study of extinction, and a few are known for the righteousness of the gods" (Du Chundeng, "The Beginning and End of Social Affairs"). He also called for the revival of ancient learning in an attempt to save the Ming Dynasty from its crisis. In the eleventh year of Chongzhen (1638), he and Xu Fuyuan and Song Zhengbi selected more than 500 volumes of the "Huangming JingshiWen Compilation", which contained many works on "Discussing the Food of the Soldiers and Discussing the Situation" and "the great plan of the country", which shows his aspirations for the use of the world. After the death of the Ming Dynasty, in the struggle against the Qing Dynasty, he was martyred heroically. Chen Zilong also agreed with the "Seven Sons" and opposed the "Public Security" and "Yiling". But unlike the blind zungu of the "seven sons", he respected the gu from the perspective of realpolitik. His time no longer allowed him to detach himself from reality and completely imitate the ancients. In his early works, there were poems reflecting the suffering of people's lives, such as "Liaoshi Miscellaneous Poems", "Little Car Line", "Selling Children's Line" and so on. After ming's death, he composed ten poems in WuZhong, "Miscellaneous Feelings of Autumn And Suns", expressing his deep feelings of nostalgia for his homeland and mourning the martyrs of the martyrdom, and here are two poems:

The mountains and rivers were full of sorrow, and Zhou Yuanhe was wandering heavily. Danfeng Brocade Tree Three Autumn Li, White Goose Yellow Cloud Wanli. Night rain thorn hazel even MaoYuan, sunset elk down Xutai. Zhen Yi was going to leave the tomb alone, weeping bitterly and raising a glass to the new pavilion.

The line groans and sits alone in the autumn, and the sea fog and rivers and clouds cause twilight sorrow. Unbelief is often drunk, and the most pitiful place to bury sorrow. There are many new ghosts in the barren Aoi well, and the lonely melon field knows the old marquis. See said that the five lakes are for drinking horses, and the waves are protected by fishing boats.

Direct lyricism and loneliness, boldness and tragedy are the characteristics of his later poetic style.

Xia Wanchun (1631-1647), Zi Cungu, Songjiang Huating people. Father Yun Yi, who has a mentor-friend friendship with Chen Zilong, and Quan Chun takes Zilong as his teacher. He was born precocious, able to write poetry at the age of seven or eight, and at the age of eleven or twelve, he "talked about the police and the situation on the nine sides, and could be heard." After the death of the Ming Dynasty, he "unveiled the pole to serve the country and tied his hair to join the army" and enthusiastically participated in the anti-Qing struggle. Defeated and enforced, heroic and righteous, only seventeen years old. Xia Wanchun is a young patriotic hero and an outstanding writer. Some of his works, influenced by pauvialism, are relatively thin in content; after the Ming Dynasty, his poems are written in prose, expressing the grief of the destruction of the country and the death of the family, washing the simulated face, with a unique style full of blood and tears, tragic and magnificent. "The Great Lamentation" denounces the decay of the rulers, mourns the fall of the homeland, and expresses the ambition of resisting the Qing Dynasty and saving the country with "both the ambition to avoid the people and the loss of the yuan", and the generous and tragic songs, the poignant and passionate, and the strong patriotic spirit. Poems and sentimental works, such as "Six Lamentations" and "Six Junyong", praise many patriotic martyrs of the Anti-Qing Dynasty. Another example is "Remembering Shao Jing in the Boat and Sending Zhang Zi To Retreat":

Climbing the ze kingdom half of the thorn hazel, the war fell every year ghosts cry new. A clear wave of water, a lone lamp twilight rain white scarf. When to reward the Lord with great ambition, a few days to float and cry for the deceased. There is still a road to soaring, and there is no need to worry about the wind and dust in the world.

By hanging the homeland and mourning the dead, it also shows an optimistic and positive fighting spirit. "The Night Cry of the Thin Forest" is a tribute to his teacher and comrade-in-arms Chen Zilong:

...... But I remembered the year of the fine forester, Meng Gong four seas article Bo. In the past, I used to visit Baiyun, and the leaves were full of mountains and could not be found. I know the sea people of Menggong Lake, and the ancient moon of the barren terrace is sparkling. When they meet and cry about the world, they are drunk and angry. Last year Pingling drum sounded dead, and crossed the Wu River with Gong Tong. This year, the dream breaks the nine peaks and clouds, and the flag reflects the purple of the twilight mountain. Qin Ting's tears were already waving, as if Liaocheng Ya was flying more. The Yellow Crane wants to lift six folds, and the vast sea will return safely. ...... I want to return and shake my wings, who knows in one fell swoop into Luo Yi. The family lineage can pity the Zhao clan lonely, and to this day he is a field yokotor. Whimpering and caressing Jiang Yunkai, who was in the net and mourned. Gong Hu built a room for me to stand on the night platform, and the frost and cold moon asceticism came.

Narrating their mutual respect and love, their sympathetic combat friendship, and the heroic scene of the defeat of the Anti-Qing Dynasty and their common sacrifice for the country, the tears were shed and the mourning touched people. Essays such as "TheOry of the Remnants of the Earth room" and "The Book of the Mother in Prison", such as the dying statements, "hate does not extinguish this pilgrimage", and "swallow the sound and return to the ground, laughing into the ground"; and do not forget "Zhongxing reconstruction" and "for the act of Northern Cyprus", which are all patriotic masterpieces that have never been erased.

Other patriotic writers of the late Ming Dynasty included Qu Shiyan (1590-1650) and Zhang Huangyan (1620-1664). Style 耜字 Qitian, Jiangsu Changshu people; Huangyan character 玄撰, number Cangshui, Zhejiang QinXian people. After the death of the Ming Dynasty, they all persisted in the anti-Qing struggle, especially Zhang Huangyan, who used the boat as a base area, organized the anti-Qing rebel army, went in and out of the coastal Yangtze River, and constantly threatened and attacked the Qing army for nineteen years. Many of their poems also express the spirit of patriotism that is indomitable to death.

brief summary

The outline of the development of Literature in the Ming Dynasty is very clear. Taking the middle ye Hongzhi and Zhengde years as the boundary, it can be divided into two periods before and after. In the early period of literature, except for the excellent novels "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and "Water Margin" that appeared at the time of the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, the achievements were not great. After the middle of the century, a prosperous situation began to appear in the literary world. This was inseparable from the socio-economic and cultural changes of the time, and was closely related to the flourishing of urban industry and commerce, the budding of capitalism, the increase of the public masses, and the advanced philosophical trends and their great influence on the ideological circles.

The achievements achieved by various literary genres in the Ming Dynasty were quite uneven. To sum up, prose and poetry are in a state of decline compared with previous periods, while novels, operas and folk literature that adapted to the socio-economic and cultural ideas of that time have made great achievements, producing many excellent works and becoming the mainstream of Ming Dynasty literature.

Famous works such as the Ming Dynasty novels "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", "Water Margin" and "Journey to the West" were processed and recreated by writers on the basis of the collective creation of the masses of the people. It has achieved high achievements in both ideology and art, and has an important position in the history of chinese literature. The series of heroic figures created in these novels have a strong artistic charm, and they effectively inspire and educate the working people of the time and future generations, and have a multifaceted influence on later literature. "Jin Ping Mei" is China's first literati original novel, but also the first family as the theme of the novel, although there are serious shortcomings in the ideological content, but it opened up a new field of novel creation, for the later novels, especially "Awakening marriage legend", "Dream of the Red Chamber" and so on played a certain reference role. Although the achievements of other novels of the Ming Dynasty are not great, they have also accumulated a lot of experience and lessons in artistic creation, which has prepared certain conditions for the new achievements achieved by qing dynasty novels. In terms of short stories, the emergence of "three words" and "two beats" is the inheritance and development of Song and Yuan dialects, and they are another important aspect in the field of Ming Dynasty novel creation. Their ideological content is more complex than that of song and Yuan dialects, reflecting the characteristics of the times; artistically they are also more mature, and have a certain influence on novels and operas in terms of themes, storylines and artistic techniques.

In terms of opera, the early Ming Dynasty was relatively poor in terms of ideological content and art form, not only was there no new creation, but even the excellent traditions of Yuan miscellaneous opera and Song yuan southern opera were not inherited. Especially as far as the ideological content is concerned, most of them are negative and backward. But in the later period, in terms of content and form, new changes have taken place. In terms of miscellaneous drama, there was an excellent writer Xu Wei. The legendary achievements are even more brilliant. The Ming legend in the history of opera is a new stage of development after the yuan miscellaneous drama, and Tang Xianzu is an outstanding writer of that period. His masterpiece "Peony Pavilion" is one of the best works in the history of Chinese opera, and its strong anti-feudal spirit has made it have a far-reaching influence on the masses of the people.

In terms of prose and folk literature, many achievements have also been made, and these works reflect the distinctive characteristics of the times.

Poetry is inferior to novels, plays, and other achievements. They have moved forward in a tortuous manner in the repeated struggles between the pseudo-archopeists and the anti-archoptics, and no outstanding writers' works have emerged. However, the progressive literary ideas of the late Ming Dynasty public security school had a great influence on literary creation at that time and in the future.

The ideological content of Ming Dynasty literature is very complex, and its characteristics are also very distinct. Works that express democratic ideas, pursue freedom of marriage, curse the world, and oppose hypocrisy and vulgar ideas account for a large proportion of novels, operas, essays and folk literature, and many of them have achieved high achievements. This is inseparable from the social characteristics of the middle Ming Dynasty, especially from the growth of civic consciousness after the middle period. At the same time, feudal preaching, pornography and negative decadence tendencies are also more common, and even in a few works they are very serious. This is first of all due to the decline of the feudal ruling class, which is a reflection of the absurd life of the emperor, the aristocracy, the bureaucrats, and the landlord class at that time; it is also related to the vulgar and backward side of the thinking of the citizen class, so it exists in large quantities even in folk literature.

In terms of creation methods, realism and romanticism have developed greatly in the Ming Dynasty, and the creative methods that combine realism and romanticism have also made new achievements in the Ming Dynasty, especially in novels.