What is the concept of metaphysical fiction?

Metaphysical novels from the broad sense is fantasy, fantasy, magic of the collective name. In a narrower sense, it is a novel built on the idea of metaphysics, which can also be said to be built on the basis of the Oriental elements of the novel, no matter where the place of occurrence of the use of skills encompassing the Oriental elements or the Chinese elements of the metaphysical novel.

Metaphysical novels are also fantasy novels

Three major types of fantasy novels

When I come across something I don't understand, my habit is to look up the Dictionary. There is an entry for "science fiction" in the Dictionary, but there is no entry for "metaphysical fiction" or "fantasy fiction". This suggests that "science fiction" and "fantasy novels" are new terms that are popular nowadays and have not yet been included in the Dictionary entries.

Fantasy literature is divided into two categories, namely, fantasy novels and fairy tales. As far as fantasy novels are concerned, they are divided into three major categories, namely, science fiction, magic novels and fantasy novels.

Science fiction is well known for its fantasies based on science. The world's first science fiction novel, Frankenstein (also translated as Frankenstein), published in 1818, was written by Mary Shelley, wife of the famous British poet Shelley. Since then, France's Verne, Britain's Wells, America's Asimov, the Soviet Union's Belyadev, Japan's Komatsu Zokyo and Hoshi Shinichi created many excellent science fiction novels and became the world's masters of science fiction. Science fiction has a long history and has become a mature genre.

The fantasy of magic fiction is built on magic. With the help of magic wands, magic rings, magic, magic, magic spells, magic novels are endlessly changing, boundless magic, fully exerting the charm of magic. Harry Potter, written by the British author Rowling, is one of the masterpieces. Harry Potter" in the mysterious "magic stone", the magic of the magic novels show to the fullest.

Besides science fiction and magic novels, there is a third category of fantasy novels, which has the most names and ambiguous definitions, but is the most popular and the hottest in China today. This third type of fantasy novel, the most common name has three: "big fantasy novel", "mystery novel", "fantasy novel", commonly known as " Fantasy novel".

The origin of metaphysical fiction

The term "grand fantasy novel" comes from Japan, and is represented by the works of Japanese female writer Naoko Yasuhiro. In Naoko Yasuhiro's writing, "It's a fantasy land, a world infested with elves, where there are fox windows, where the branches of the trees are full of white parrots, and where the souls of the girls can be heard crying ......" Some people call Naoko Yasuhiro's "big fantasy novels". Some people call Naoko Yasuhiro's "Grand Fantasy Novel" a "contemporary Liaozhai". According to this reasoning, it seems that the Chinese writer Pu Songling's "Liaozhai Zhiyi" can be regarded as the originator of "big fantasy novels".

The term "fantasy novel", as far as I know, comes from Hong Kong, China. The earliest metaphysical fiction I have seen is Huang Yi's "Moon Demon" published by Hong Kong's "Gathering of Sages" in 1988. At that time, the Gathering of Virtues was also preparing to publish my work, and the publisher, Mr. Zhao Shanqi, gave me a copy of a novel by Hong Kong writer Huang Yi. Mr. Zhao Shanqi wrote in the preface, "A new breed of novels that combines metaphysics, science and literature is born, and this breed of novels we call 'metaphysical' novels." This is the first time that the term "metaphysical fiction" has made its debut with a clear definition.

Huang Yi's metaphysical novels, which form a series, all feature a character named Ling Duyu as the protagonist. Ling Duyu has a storied past; he grew up in Tibet and then studied in the United States, earning two doctorates. He also practiced Tantric Buddhism and had superhuman psychic senses, so he was invited to participate in the exploration of many supernatural mysteries in the world.

Huang Yi's series of mystery novels, 100,000 words each, are printed in compact pocket-sized books. Huang Yi's series of fantasy novels quickly became popular in Hong Kong and Taiwan after they were published because of their suspenseful, twisted storylines and their display of all sorts of strange metaphysical realms.

Huang Yi's metaphysical novels are said to be "a combination of metaphysics, science and literature," and it is not known how much science is involved. However, metaphysics is woven throughout the novels, with Zhao Shanqi claiming that "Huang Yi is a master of metaphysics, with expertise in feng shui and fortune telling, as well as astrology".

Of course, Huang Yi's so-called metaphysics is only a shallow form of feng shui and astrology, and is not a part of the "Three Mysteries" laid down in the three books known as "Zhou Yi," "Lao Zi," and "Zhuang Zi," but rather a part of the "Three Mysteries," as they are called. The "metaphysics" is also known as "metaphysics".

Huang Yi's concept of "metaphysics, science, and literature in one" is not only inaccurately reflected in Huang Yi's work itself, but is also far removed from the popular metaphysical fiction in China today. It can be said that today's metaphysical novels in China, represented by "Legend of the Little Soldier," are not only unscientific, but also metaphysical!

I think, China's today's metaphysical novels, just along the shell of the metaphysical novels created by Huang Yi, and abandon its core. The "xuan" in Chinese metaphysical fiction today no longer refers to metaphysics, but can be interpreted as metaphysical thinking.

I really admire that our ancestors gave the word "xuan" a magical and mysterious color. Xu Shen's "Shuowen" explains: "Xuan, faraway. The word 'xuan' comes from Lao Zi's Tao Te Ching, which says, 'The mysterious and mysterious is the door to all wonders', which means that the Tao is profound and subtle." It is "Xuan" means "profound and subtle", so it also gives the metaphysical novel to the infinite world of metaphysical imagination!

In "Ye Yonglie's Review of Metaphysical Fiction Fever," I said: "Metaphysical fiction is a recent development, which is built on metaphysical thinking, emphasizing the word 'metaphysical', and its content goes further than magical fiction, and from the level of creativity, the authors of metaphysical fiction are more free and do not need to be influenced by the scientific basis. free, do not need to be bound by the scientific basis, there is more room for play."

In addition to "Legend of the Little Soldier", the metaphysical novel "Windy Story" is also very popular on the Internet. 2004 October, I attended the "metaphysical literature of the Chinese market" seminar in Beijing, China Publishing Group Oriental Publishing Center in the meeting launched a 20 kinds of signed " The "fire car" of the mystery novels, mystery novels of the heat can be seen.

An overview of fantasy novels

I noticed that "Legend of the Soldier" and "The Story of the Wind" are also often referred to as "fantasy novels". The terms "fantasy novel" and "mystery novel" are used interchangeably. This suggests that the term "metaphysical fiction" today, the "metaphysical" can also be interpreted as "strange", and has nothing to do with metaphysics.

Fantasy novels are not like metaphysical fiction is limited to China, fantasy novels in foreign countries, and often confused with magical novels, and even Harry Potter is also categorized as fantasy novels. People trace the history of fantasy novels to the early 19th century and even earlier Greek mythology. The masterpiece of foreign fantasy novels is The Lord of the Rings trilogy by British author Tolkien. Taiwanese translator Zhu Xueheng coined the term "fantasy novel" when he translated The Lord of the Rings into Chinese, and since then the term "fantasy novel" has become popular in the Chinese-speaking world. Zhu Xueheng founded the "Fantasy Culture and Art Foundation" in Taiwan.

There is no strict definition of fantasy novel. In the opening declaration of the Muse Fantasy Museum written by Taiwan's Hsu Ching-Wen, it is stated: "We need imagination, not to abet escaping reality and drowning in nothingness, but to encourage the conversion of horizons and stretching of the mind, and the unique and mysterious nature of fantasy stories and unlimited space for fantasy are precisely the source of imagination. The unique mystical nature of the fantasy story, the infinite space of fantasy, is the very source of imagination." This passage has been regarded as giving a broad definition to "fantasy novel", but in my opinion, the characteristic of fantasy novel is "strange", with magical, strange, weird and peculiar fantasies throughout the novel. This kind of fantasy has nothing to do with science.

The masterpiece of Chinese fantasy novels is Guo Jingming's "City of Illusion".

Guo Jingming thought that the phantom city "is a castle in people's hearts, is your dream", "everyone's heart of the phantom city are not the same". Guo Jingming heart of the "phantom city", full of magical colors: fire and ice tribes are incompatible, the city of flames and the phantom snow empire between the holy war. In the Phantom Snow Empire, "people have white crystal pupils, long white hair, a thousand-year lifespan and nightmarishly magnificent illusions", and in the "distant imagination about the holy war, mixed with fragmented love. Fantasy from the sky, light, romantic, wild and uninhibited, leading you to open the mysterious door of fantasy in your mind, letting the imagination roam freely, the spirit of thought wandering in the world of the infinite, and wherever you go, the scenery is infinite".

Cao Wenxuan, a writer and professor at the Chinese Department of Peking University, pointed out in his evaluation of The City of Illusions, "The City of Illusions is mysterious. This mystery may not be the result of the author's deliberate pursuit. But this mystery has been attracting us forward through the dense forest of words ...... Until the end, we do not see the world, the mystery remains."

This "mystery" is what makes fantasy novels both strange and fantastical.

Another fantasy novel, Chen Siyu's "The Book of the Alien's Pride of the World," which has been published in 26 volumes in Hong Kong and Taiwan, is also an influential fantasy novel in recent years. This fantasy novel was first published under the pen name "Mingmei" on original websites such as "Illusory Sword Book League", "Dragon's Sky" and "Novel Channel". It was published under the pen name "Ming Mei", and received nearly 10 million hits!