An analysis of the task and background of Jin Yong's novel creation

Since Jin Yong published his first martial arts novel "The Record of the Sword and Anqiu" in the mid-1950s, he has been writing for more than ten years and has published fifteen works, including twelve novels and three short stories. For more than 40 years, Jin Yong's works have been widely circulated in China, first in Hongkong, then in Southeast Asia and Taiwan Province Province. In the late 1970s, the pirated versions of Jin Yong's works appeared in Chinese mainland. In the 1990s, the full set of triple editions was officially authorized to be distributed in Chinese mainland. It is no exaggeration to say that Jin Yong's works have the largest number of readers. Lin Yiliang, a famous Hong Kong redology expert, said: "Where there are China people and Chinatown, there is Jin Yong." According to incomplete statistics, there are more than 1 100 million readers of Jin Yong in Chinese mainland, Taiwan Province Province and overseas. At the same time, Jin Yong's works have also been recognized by academic circles. Yan Jiayan, a professor at Peking University, wrote that Jin Yong's works "are actually the success of transforming popular literature with elite culture", which is regarded as another quiet literary revolution after the May 4th literary revolution, "making novels rise from despised idle books to literary halls." Professor Chen Pingyuan said that Jin Yong "popularized China culture such as Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism, piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, so Jin Yong's novels can be read as introductory books for China culture." Mr. Feng Qiyong, an expert in redology, said: "The plot structure of Jin Yong's novels is very creative. I dare say that Jin Yong has reached the peak of the novel structure through the ages. " Jin Yong himself was awarded the honorary doctorate of the University of Hong Kong in 1988, was appointed honorary professor of the Faculty of Arts of the University of Hong Kong in 1994, and was appointed honorary professor of Peking University and dean of the Faculty of Arts of Zhejiang University in 1999. In China's library of 20th century literary masters, Wang Yichuan of Chinese Department of Beijing Normal University ranked Jin Yong after Lu Xun, Shen Congwen and Ba Jin, and before Lao She, Yu Dafu and Wang Meng. Jin Yong's great achievements shocked the history of China literature in the 20th century. This paper attempts to discuss Jin Yong's works from four aspects: characterization, cultural accomplishment, language style and creative mentality, so as to analyze the reasons for Jin Yong's success. Jin Yong's creation consciously inherited the excellent tradition of China's classical literature, and made efforts to explore and innovate in the new environment. Therefore, on the one hand, Jin Yong's martial arts novels have a unique taste created by a long literary tradition; On the other hand, he made many innovations, especially focusing on the description and expression of human nature, thus comprehensively improving the taste of this type of martial arts novels and reaching the realm of appealing to both refined and popular tastes. In the process of characterization, or in the process of depicting human nature, Jin Yong not only adhered to the value tradition of distinguishing good from evil and right from wrong, but also brought new contents of the times to express clear and concrete values. The core value of China's traditional literature is to be kind, pay attention to the distinction between good and evil, promote good and punish evil, and readers expect to experience the psychological pleasure that good and evil will eventually be rewarded in their works. As one of the traditional literary models, the value orientation of martial arts novels is no exception. In Jin Yong's works, it is not difficult to see many confrontation scenes between good and evil, beauty and ugliness, justice and evil, progress and retrogression. The result is that good triumphs over evil, and justice overwhelms evil. This writing is in line with people's psychological expectations and the aesthetic taste of the public. If this is all, then Jin Yong's novels are not much different from others' works. But the fact is that Jin Yong, while adhering to the traditional values of distinguishing right from wrong, has also reformed it with a sense of the times, which is manifested in the pursuit of truth in characterization. Therefore, in Jin Yong's works, good people also have such shortcomings, and the bright spot of human nature can be seen from the performance of evil people. In fact, human nature is complex and multifaceted. It is not correct to generalize people in real life with the simple label of right, wrong, good and evil. Moreover, real life is often not as simple and perfect as we imagined and expected, and there are not so many happy endings. Real life is "nine times out of ten". In Shu Jian's Record of Pleasure and Enemy, Chen Jialuo is full of heroism and justice, and shows selfishness and narrowness towards Huo Qingtong and Catherine in dealing with personal feelings. Yang Guo in The Condor Heroes is both chivalrous and extreme, with a surly personality. Zhang Wuji in "Eternal Dragon Slayer" is naturally kind-hearted, but lacks the courage of a leader who makes decisions on the occasion. Therefore, he can't hold a big post and has to give up his position as the leader of Zoroastrianism. In Jin Yong's novels, life can't be found in the real world, and there are not a few people who retire from the rivers and lakes, such as Chen Jialuo, Yuan Chengzhi, Zhang Wuji, Di Yun and Ling Huchong. From Jin Yong's novels, we realize the joys and sorrows of life, the success and confusion of career, love and hate, and love and hate are intertwined. Although Jin Yong's novels are all about ancient people, they do write historical situations and classical styles. But in spirit, it is ingenious, unexpectedly writing the charm of modern life, showing personal humanistic feelings and profound taste of modern life, and has extensive * * * contact with modern readers. It is precisely because Jin Yong used the traditional carrier form of martial arts novels to interpret modern people's feelings, or used modern methods to transform and upgrade the level of this traditional literary type, that he truly crossed the ancient and modern times and communicated elegance and vulgarity, thus winning the love of the vast majority of people. It is generally believed that the most outstanding achievement of China literature in the 20th century, especially China literature after the May 4th New Culture Movement, is the change of language form, that is, the vernacular Chinese overthrew the classical Chinese, which promoted the stylistic movement since the late Qing Dynasty, popularized the vernacular Chinese in the field of education, expanded the influence of the new ideological trend on the intellectual class, established a new vernacular literature language system, and completely changed the bad situation of the separation of language and literature in China literature for thousands of years. But in fact, the May 4th literary revolution created a new vernacular style, not a vernacular style in the general sense. It is closely related to the enlightenment thought at that time, and its remarkable characteristics are the use of a large number of transliteration or free translation of new words, Europeanized language expression and new ideological values. Due to the absolute mainstream position of new literature in the literary world, this Europeanized vernacular has become the mainstream of written language. In addition, the new literature takes the form of foreign literature such as new poetry, drama and short stories, which is more Europeanized. Even those who advocate new literature are not satisfied with the problems existing in the vernacular Chinese of new literature. In fact, China has a long history of vernacular Chinese, and China has a tradition of vernacular Chinese since the Song and Yuan Dynasties. Hu Shi's History of Vernacular Literature traces the origin of vernacular literature back to the Song and Yuan Dynasties, and the readers of vernacular literature have long been ordinary people in society. The popular language, popular form and popular taste are closely related to vernacular literature. Jin Yong inherited the advantages of China's traditional vernacular Chinese, and endowed it with new content of the times, which made the traditional vernacular Chinese shine brilliantly. In the early stage of Jin Yong's novels, the language was elegant, including a lot of parallel prose, such as "Li Ruochun's plum blossoms in the snow, the gods are like autumn flowers covered with frost, her cheeks are round, her eyes are crystal clear, and the moon shines on the cold river", while Flying Fox of Snowy Mountain and The Legend of Flying Fox in the middle stage are new, with many so-called "new literary talents". Generally speaking, the language of Jin Yong's novels is truly colloquial, fluent and integrated. The language is beautiful and vivid, which inherits the excellent language tradition of classical poetry and prose and integrates it into the narrative language of the novel, giving full play to the unique poetic advantages of Chinese; The language is rich and colorful, and idioms, dialects and common sayings are all classified as modern spoken language. At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, although a few vernacular Chinese in traditional literature were fresh and natural, most of them had a strong smell. In 1930s, Zhang Henshui appeared. His novels not only described fluency, but also described nature, which made the vernacular slightly unpopular. The vernacular Chinese in Jin Yong's novels inherits the characteristics that vernacular Chinese is close to the public, and eliminates its early flashy disadvantages, enriching the expressive force of vernacular Chinese, thus creating a treasure house of modern vernacular Chinese. Compared horizontally, the language in Jin Yong's novels is pure vernacular, without the Europeanization of vernacular and various political accents created by new literature, so it is more popular and accepted by the public. Today, with the west wind blowing in the ideological and cultural position and the traditional cultural value of China being severely challenged, Jin Yong's language choice of reviving the national cultural value gives us inspiration. The important difference between martial arts novels and romance novels, detective novels and other popular literature types is that martial arts novels have great compatibility, which can be compatible with politics and society, culture and history, and there is enough space for authors to gallop freely. This feature of martial arts novels puts forward quite high requirements for the writer's knowledge and accomplishment. Jin Yong showed people his profound historical knowledge and rich cultural accomplishment in his martial arts novels. Therefore, Mr. Feng Qiyong said: "It is very rare for a novelist to have such a rich knowledge of history and society. His articles are like flowing water and the plot is like a chain of Chihiro. They are closely linked and inseparable. They don't leave their books behind. They are not mysterious and dull, but their language is attractive and impossible. " Yan Jiayan said: "We have never seen any kind of popular literature with such rich traditional cultural connotation and such superb cultural and academic taste as Jin Yong's novels. Jin Yong's martial arts novels are simply cultural novels. Only writers and scholars with extremely rich imagination and profound cultural education can create such novels. " Jin Yong's novels run through Wan Li, and the characters run from south to north, running here and there, followed by them, which can make people travel around Wan Li and appreciate thousands of customs. Jin Yong gave an accurate, detailed and vivid artistic description of various natural and cultural landscapes of the motherland, such as the famous city, the old capital, scenic spots and historical sites, famous mountains and rivers, desert Gobi, grassland and ocean. Make people sit on mountains and rivers and wander around Gankun. Jin Yong's novels include not only poems and songs, calligraphy and painting, medical astrology, but also Buddhist scriptures, Confucian and Mohist classics, and even the classic customs of strange sects such as Manichaeism. As for the allusions in the article, they are handy and abound. Besides, Jin Yong's most outstanding thing is his overall grasp of China's history. Jin Yong's novels cover historical clues, ethnic contradictions, political system, cultural relics, unofficial history allusions, myths and legends in Liao, Jin, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties. The background of Jin Yong's novels is mostly dynasties, such as Song Liao, Yuan Ming, Ming and Qing Dynasties. At this time, fierce ethnic contradictions often gather. When dealing with ethnic conflicts, Jin Yong made full use of his profound historical knowledge and showed extraordinary talents and opinions. He broke through the orthodoxy of strictly observing the distinction between China people and foreigners. Jin Yong said in the preface of the triple edition of his works: "The novels I wrote in my early days have a strong Han Dynasty orthodoxy. In the later period, the concept of equal treatment among all ethnic groups of the Chinese nation became the keynote, which is also the reason why my view of history has improved. This is particularly evident in Dragon Eight Branches, White Horse Whistling in the West Wind and Duke of Lushan. " It is not surprising that historians hold this view. As a novelist, it is really commendable to be able to do this, and this is precisely a key to the success of Jin Yong's novels. Therefore, when describing the country, society and history, Jin Yong broke through the narrow nation-state boundary with modern consciousness, dispelled Han chauvinism, questioned the essential definition of "China people" popular at that time, and made Jin Yong's novels become the same language and dream of Chinese people all over the world. Fourthly, the lack of free spirit is the chronic disease of China's traditional writing. Regardless of ancient times, modern times or modern times, writers are mostly restricted by the concept of "writing carries Tao". No wonder Chen Yinque lamented the decline of spirit when he was more eager to save the world and less interested in creating real literature. Throughout history, including the history of literature, we can see that spiritual independence and freedom of thought are the prerequisites for the formation of great universities and the emergence of great works. Jin Yong maintained the free spirit of literature. Like his heroes, he is free, dare to love and hate, do things honestly and be a real man. He resisted the temptation of commercial interests and public tastes, preferring to give up huge commercial interests, resolutely sealed his pen at the peak of his creation, and then spent ten years completely revising the published works. This move is unprecedented in the history of martial arts novels, and Jin Yong's persistent belief in literature can be seen. Another thing that cannot be ignored is that Jin Yong himself writes martial arts novels as a sideline, and his main business is to write political articles for Ming Pao. His courage was evident in the refugee tide in Chinese mainland in 1960s due to the three-year natural disaster and the left-wing thoughts and practices during the Cultural Revolution. This courage is not only reflected in his actions, but also in his novel creation. A writer's works are always closely related to his personality. Jin Yong's spirit of freedom enabled him to relax his creative mentality, thus achieving the psychological realm and essential return in artistic creation. Intentionally or unintentionally, it combines the similarities between elegant literature and popular literature, combines their strengths, sublates their shortcomings, and builds a bridge between elegance and popularity. Many characters and plots in Jin Yong's novels are incredible to ordinary people, especially those so-called elegant writers. His novels sometimes pay more attention to the truth and credibility of details than realism, sometimes pay more attention to fiction and exaggeration than romanticism, sometimes more classical than classicism, and sometimes more modern than modernism. Stories, legends, myths, history, fables, his novels are refreshing, and get rid of the mediocre situation of China traditional literature. In terms of aesthetic connotation, it breaks through the one-dimensional phenomenon that modern literature in China only has country, society and history, and adds the content of magical world. At the same time, after breaking through the norms and taboos of predecessors, Jin Yong did not get carried away, but paid attention to exploring and creating his own artistic laws and grasping artistic discretion. Jin Yong's novels are legendary stories, but they are not just strange, just strange and seeking truth. His absurd plot constitutes a real world of art and philosophy and becomes an artistic fable in the real world. Look at art with a free mind, engage in creation with a serious attitude, truly unify games and art, and combine the freedom and pleasure of games with the pursuit of truth, goodness and beauty of art, thus creating Jin Yong's novels.