How do pillow stories and so on embody the characteristics of "legend"?

Literature in the Tang Dynasty also made some achievements in legendary novels. As Lu Xun said in A Brief History of Chinese Novels, novels "changed in the Tang Dynasty". Although this is not far from looking for strange memories, it is witty and flowery. Compared with Chen, the founder of the Six Dynasties, it evolved very clearly, and the outstanding people were interested in novels at that time. "

The reason why novels in the Tang Dynasty are called "legends" is that a large number of novel collections appeared in the late Tang Dynasty, such as Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio by Niu Sengru, Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio by Xue Yongwei and Legend by Pei Qi.

The popularity of legendary novels is mainly contributed by three factors. First of all, the improvement of social productive forces in the Tang Dynasty promoted the prosperity of cities and the development of commodity economy. Chang 'an, the capital with a population of one million, was the largest city in the world at that time. Yangzhou, Chengdu, Luoyang and Guangzhou are also famous big cities in China. The city is crowded with aristocratic bureaucrats, businessmen, craftsmen and citizens from all walks of life, and intellectuals are also seeking official positions in the city. The scope of people's social life has expanded, and the content of social life has become more complicated. Feudal literati also enriched their knowledge and experience. They are not satisfied with expressing their ideological life only by prose and poetry, but hope to expand the theme and create a literary genre that reflects more complicated social life, which promotes the creation of novels. Secondly, the ancient prose movement in the Tang Dynasty ended the long-term rule of parallel prose, improved the prose skills, and provided a new prose style with strong expressive force for novel creation, enabling legendary writers to make full use of their successful experiences, freely express their feelings and obtain more free forms of expression. Thirdly, in order to cope with the imperial examination, the scholars in the Tang Dynasty sought the first place in the imperial examination, and wrote a volume with their own poems and fu collections, which were presented as scrolls to dignitaries. A few days later, they published a new book called "The Warm Scroll" to remind important people not to be forgotten. If you are appreciated by the dignitaries, you are more likely to recommend the scholar to the examiner. The second time, in order to arouse the interest of dignitaries, the novel material is often very short, which is convenient for dignitaries to read. This is a short story. For example, cattle people, monks and Confucians like to read strange novels. Scholars cater to their interests, so they throw scrolls in, take more ghosts and compile a book, The Record of Mysteries. Because novels are "diverse in writing, which shows historical talents, poetic writing and arguments", with the prevalence of writing style in the middle and late Tang Dynasty, it also promoted the development of legends.

There are a large number of legendary novels in the Tang Dynasty, and dozens of them are widely circulated. According to its historical development, it can be divided into three periods:

First, the early Tang Dynasty: it is the initial development period of legendary novels. The number of works is small, the content is not completely divorced from the pattern of the Six Dynasties mystery novels, and the art is not mature enough, but the image description and structure are complete. His works include "Ancient Mirror", "Biography of the White Ape in Bujiang" and "Wandering Fairy Cave".

Second, the Middle Tang Dynasty: the golden age of legendary novels. The number of works is unprecedented, and the works reflecting real life occupy the main position. Even if we talk about ghosts and gods, we often have social reality, and our artistic skills have been greatly improved. The widely circulated works include Pillow Story, Biography of Taishou, Biography of Ren, Biography of Liu Yi, Biography of Yingying, Biography of Gao Lishi, Biography of An Lushan, Biography of Eternal Sorrow, Biography of Li Wa and Biography of Dongcheng Father.

Talk about strange gods, such as pillow story and biography of Conan satrap. In The Book of Pillows, Lu Sheng borrowed a celadon pillow from Taoist Lu Weng to sleep when he went on a trip in Handan. In his dream, he experienced the life of "going out into the phase" that he pursued enthusiastically. When he woke up, his master was cooking the yellow rice before others vomited, but it was not cooked well, so he realized that he was completely disillusioned. The biography of Conan's satrap wrote that he fell asleep after being drunk, and was recruited by Huai 'an as Ma Xu, becoming Conan's satrap, which was deeply loved by the people. Later, due to the failure of the war with Tanluo, the princess died. So he was pushed out and finally sent out of Guo by the king of Qi. Chunyuba woke up and looked around. He realized that Huai 'an and Tanluo were actually two ant nests. He deeply feels that life is illusory, a door to his soul, and he doesn't care about the world. Both of them reflect the feudal scholars' enthusiasm for fame and fortune, and also expose the ugly state of feudalism and officialdom, but they both promote the theme of life like a dream. Conan is interspersed with a lot, with neat structure, rich plot, clear context and a particularly successful ending.

Love-themed works include Ren Chuan, Liu Yi Chuan, Huo Xiaoyu Chuan, Li Wa Chuan and Yingying Chuan. Reached the highest achievement of Tang legendary novels. Most of them praised faithful love, condemned the persecution of women by feudal marriage and gate system, and created a series of beautiful female images. It is of historical significance for them to confront the "perfect match". For example, Biography of Li Wa wrote a love story between Li Wa, a prostitute, and the son of Xingyanggong. Li Wa has sincere feelings. When a student had no money, she was forced to abandon a student, even though she obeyed her wife's wishes. But when she saw a student beaten half to death by her father and hungry in the snow, she fought with the madam and saved a student. When a student was promoted, Li Wa felt the pressure of feudal gate valve. In order not to affect a student's career, she reluctantly gave up what she wanted to do. But Gong of Xingyang immediately recognized his son and daughter-in-law. The prostitute is noble in character, and the respectable "master" is hypocritical and vicious. Through the combination of a student and Li Wa, it tells people that the marriage principle of the gate valve can be broken, which is of strong significance to oppose the gate valve system. The idea that prostitutes can be named "founding wives" is also quite bold. The artistic expression of this novel is very distinctive, the characters are flesh and blood, the plot is ups and downs, the writing is beautiful and round, and the description is incisive.

Works with historical stories as themes, such as Biography of Gao Lishi, Biography of An Lushan's Deeds, Biography of Song of Eternal Sorrow, Biography of Old Father in Dongcheng, have not achieved much.

3. Late Tang Dynasty: As mentioned above, a large number of legendary picture books appeared. Although there are gratifying works in these albums, the general view tends to be strange, the legacy of the Six Dynasties is revived, and the realistic content is weakened. At that time, the vassal regime often kept assassins, so works describing new themes such as martial arts came into being. Although there are many legendary works in the late Tang Dynasty, their ideological content and artistic achievements are far less than those in the middle Tang Dynasty.

The appearance of legendary novels in Tang Dynasty is a leap in the history of China's classical novels. It leads the novel from the narrow world of describing monsters to the broad road of reflecting real life, exposing social contradictions and praising great ideals. It opened the prelude to China's realistic novels, reflected the prosperity and complexity of urban social life, and took opposing feudal gate system and ethical oppression as its basic theme. Legends of the Tang Dynasty have also made great achievements in art. Most of them are rigorous in structure, short and pithy; The language is concise, accurate, rich and beautiful; The plot is amazing and the imagination is bold; The characterization adopts the method of historical biographical literature in an all-round way, depicting a person's life, even his life experience, vividly exposing social contradictions and showing the subtle thoughts, feelings and personality characteristics of the characters. All these indicate the appearance of the legendary novels in the Tang Dynasty and the gradual maturity of China's novels. Since then, the novel has formally formed its own scale and characteristics, and has become an independent literary style.

The legendary novels of Tang Dynasty had a great influence on later literature, which not only opened the way for the development of later novels, but also laid the foundation for the development of later novels. Huo Xiaoyu, Li Wa, Hongfu and other vivid images. Their anti-feudal repression and their rebellious spirit of adhering to the ideals of love and freedom have become the theme of repeated praise in later novels and operas. In the Song and Yuan Dynasties, we can see the shadows of Li Wa and Huo Xiaoyu behind Xiu Xiu in Yu Nian Guanyin and Du Shiniang and Huakui Niangzi in Sanyan. In Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio, Pu Songling described a large number of love stories among people, gods, ghosts and foxes, and was obviously influenced by Ren Zhuan and his biography in ideological content and theme. Legendary novels in the Tang Dynasty have become an important source of materials for later novels and operas. Wang Shifu's The West Chamber of Yuanqu originated from Yuan Zhen's Biography of Yingying, Gao Wenxiu's Jacky and the Snowstorm of Fighting Pots, and Ming Dynasty's Embroidery were all adapted from Li Wa's Biography. The Palace of Eternal Life written by Hong Sheng in Qing Dynasty was based on the Song of Eternal Sorrow written by Tang people.

Of course, there are no works that profoundly reflect people's sufferings and class struggles in Tang legends, and there is no image of working people, which can't keep up with Tang poems and later novels.