What's the difference between China's novels and western novels?

A Comparative Study of Chinese and Western Novels

(A) Comparison of the structural art of Chinese and Western novels

1, three major differences in the artistic structure of Chinese and western novels

First, China's novels often pay attention to the ending, which corresponds to the beginning and the end and has a complete structure; Western novels, on the other hand, pay special attention to the beginning and are fragmented.

Li Wachuan of the Tang Dynasty said that there is a beginning and an end, and the context is clear. At the beginning: "In Tianbao, there is a man who is the secretariat of Xingyang, Changzhou. His name is not written, and he is looking forward to it. His family is also very loyal. In the year of know life, there was a son who began to weaken. " At the end: "I moved to the Qing Dynasty, and in ten years, I went to several counties. My baby was named Mrs. Wang Guofu. There are four sons, all of whom are high officials; Its humble person is still Taiyuan Yin. The marriage of brothers is the door, and both inside and outside win, so it is better than Beijing. "

China's novels often pay special attention to the ending. There are poems at the end of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Water Margin and Scholars, which are very meaningful. White-haired fish and firewood in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, a hidden place in the forest in the Water Margin, and Four Wonders of the Scholars.

Western novels, such as Wuthering Heights, The Wasteland and The Melancholy Master, Pride and Prejudice and Boys, appeared in front of the mothers of five women to be married, and all of them were very particular at the beginning.

Generally speaking, western novels are cross-sectional and fragmented. Like many short stories by Russian writer Chekhov. French writer Dodd's novel The Last Lesson. They often don't have a complete artistic structure, that is, they don't pay much attention to the artistic structure itself.

Second, China's novels are often single-line development clues, even if they are double-line, they are clearly explained and have distinct levels, which are standard linear structures;

Western novels often have multiple clues that develop simultaneously and are intertwined; There is also a clue, but most novels, especially novels, are often complicated and intertwined, forming a dense structure like a spider web.

The representative style of China's classical novels is palindrome, with clear development level and distinct context. At the beginning of another clue, words such as "two flowers bloom, one each, and then stop talking", "Don't talk later, talk now" and "If you want to know what will happen, listen to the next explanation" are used to express it. It often explains complex real life very clearly through structure.

This is the case with Pu Songling's short stories such as Promoting Weaving. The same is true of novels such as A Dream of Red Mansions. According to statistics, Cao Xueqin * * * wrote 80 times, once * * * was 15 years; Journey to the West has been written for 14 and 8 days, ***5048 days, and the time clue is quite clear. Romance of the Three Kingdoms shows a very broad social life and a grand historical picture, but its artistic structure is not complicated. Several stories of several main characters.

Western novels, especially those novels, often depict a vast picture of the life of the times. Many characters are active on the stage at the same time, the story is very complicated and many clues are unfolded at the same time. Mao Dun said that he especially liked Balzac's and Tolstoy's novels, and people's attention was attracted by the complex structure, the broad picture of the times and the numerous characters. Many of the works of these two writers are often a kind of multiple structural clues.

Thirdly, China's novels often have an artistic pattern of a big story with a short story. There are often many short stories in novels, and there are also short stories in short stories.

Western novels, on the other hand, take the stream of consciousness as the main line and have the characteristics of inverted narration and cross-narration in time sequence. Western novels are often not good at telling stories, but mainly focus on the psychological description of characters and the description of natural scenery, and pay attention to the role of characters' psychology and emotions in novels.

In China's classical novel Water Margin, "Wu" and "Song Shi Hui" are taken as the framework, and these two ten chapters can be written independently with another title; The novel A Dream of Red Mansions also has many chapters, such as Two Lovers in the Red Chamber and A Little Red Gift for Pa, which can be written separately. Granny Liu enters the Grand View Garden, which is often independently selected as a Chinese textbook. Some novels are actually collections of short stories, such as Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio, which is even more so, that is, each novel is independent, but together it is a whole.

Western novels often have flashbacks, interludes and cross-narratives in chronological order, while some novels are not obvious in chronological order. There is no obvious transition, so many times we don't know when the story happened, and no one understands who came first. Mo Bosang's short story The Necklace, especially Joyce's novel Ulysses, and Rob? This is especially true of Ge Ye's novels and other so-called modernist novels or new novels.

2. Cause analysis

First, China's early novels are deeply influenced by Buddhist culture, while western novels are influenced by Christian culture.

Buddhist teachings often regard the universe as a cycle, and heaven and earth often run like a wheel. Therefore, it is understandable that China's novels often emphasize both the beginning and the end, clarifying the past life, this life and the afterlife, thus forming a circular structure.

Christian doctrine often thinks that the gods created heaven and earth. From the crucifixion, resurrection and final judgment of Jesus, it can be seen that the development of the world is tortuous and complicated. Therefore, the structure of western novels is more complicated, and many clues develop at the same time.

Western novels are also related to the linear time concept of past (original sin), present (repentance) and future (resurrection) in the history of western human spirit. Therefore, in structure, psychological time often replaces natural time, and stories are often told with the flow of character consciousness as the main line.

Secondly, China's novels are related to the aesthetic characteristics of China's traditional culture, and western novels are related to the aesthetic characteristics of western tradition.

China's painting art in past dynasties is often dominated by long scrolls of mountains and rivers, while China's ancient architectural art is often a garden-like structure. Such as Mr. Zhang Daqian's landscape paintings; Suzhou Garden, Yangzhou Slender West Lake, Beijing Forbidden City, etc. They usually have square, large, medium and small patterns.

Western novels are related to the aesthetic characteristics in western cultural traditions. Like Downing Street, Louvre, Roman Church, etc. They are often simple and prominent, although they also have symmetrical beauty, but they are full of changes. Western art often has a special charm, which makes people feel that westerners are resourceful and imaginative.

Thirdly, China's novels originated from historical narration and were directly related to folk speech art, while western novels were related to huge and complicated mythological traditions.

The so-called "history" is historical records, and the so-called "biography" is Zuo Zhuan. Historical Records often pays attention to the description of characters and the outline of the clues of event development; Zuo Zhuan often pays attention to the description of the complex relationship between characters, but also does not forget to comment on the characters in the writing or at the end of the text.

An important source of China's classical novels is the story of singing Buddha, which began in the late Eastern Han Dynasty. This is a folk art of speaking in China, which later developed into a storytelling novel in the Song and Yuan Dynasties. This art of oral expression, of course, pays attention to the clarity of plot development, and pays attention to telling big stories and short stories. The so-called "two flowers bloom, one for each table" and "If you want to know what will happen next time, listen to the next decomposition" all come from this.

Greek mythology has a complex and huge system, which is different from China's mythology in that it has a body of man and god, both human lust and gods. The myth of China is underdeveloped, not only in a small number, but also some people think that the myth of China is at a rather low level and has no system. In fact, as Confucius said, China people "don't talk about the confusion of Machamp", and the myth has long been submerged by history.

Therefore, this different mythological tradition also directly affects the artistic structure of the novel. China is simple, while the west is complex. Of course, the so-called artistic structure of novels should be understood in many ways: for example, there are plot structure, character structure, psychological structure and cross structure. We should pay special attention to one thing: in the world, novels after the 20th century often dilute three elements; China's novels are different after the forties, and Chinese and western novels tend to converge. The comparative study of the artistic structure of Chinese and western novels should not be absolute, but should take into account the complexity of their respective situations.

(B) the comparison of Chinese and Western novel character art.

1, the three major differences between Chinese and western novels in character art

First, China's novels focus on dialogue between characters, while western novels focus on inner monologues of characters, expressing their psychology and emotions. For example, in A Dream of Red Mansions, dialogue between characters is often the main way to express it. Like the dialogue between Lin Daiyu and Jia Baoyu, the dialogue between Wang Xifeng and the old lady, and the dialogue between Granny Liu and the girls.

Second, China's novels focus on expressing the emotions of characters through their actions, while the West has a very detailed psychological portrayal. For example, when Song Wu faced the tiger in Water Margin, his inner fear was expressed in the form of "breaking out in a cold sweat"; In Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the action descriptions of Zhang Fei and Guan Yu are really animated. In Mulan photographed by Americans, the army chased Mulan behind, and the snow collapsed. The actions of the characters speak louder than the words of the characters.

China's classical novels often have more characters than reasons. Literary novels often use "thinking in the heart", "suffering in the heart" and "great resentment" to simply explain the strong or long-term feelings of the characters. China's classical novels often express the hidden inner world of characters in this way, which is different from the direct psychological description in western novels and is omniscient.

Western novels pay more attention to expressing characters' personality, psychology and emotion through their inner monologues. Like Goethe's Young Werther, Dostoevsky's Idiot, etc. , often in the first person, have a very direct and touching psychological confidence. Western novels pay attention to the direct psychological portrayal of characters. /kloc-The French novel Princess Clive in the 0/7th century is known as the "father of psychological novels" in the west. /kloc-In the 8th century, the British sentimental novelist Sting believed that novels should focus on expressing the characters' personalities through their psychology.

Balzac's Gao Lao Tou pays special attention to the detailed description of the characters' inner feelings. Balzac tried his best to describe the process of characters' continuous development with the change of environment; Tolstoy always pays attention to reflecting people's changes through the psychological changes of characters, paying special attention to describing the intertwined complex feelings of characters, even involving the instantaneous changes of thoughts and feelings. And often reflect social conflicts through the complex inner conflicts of characters.

Tolstoy put the men and women in the novel in an unbearable position to test them. He not only stripped the white surface, but also tortured the evil hidden under it, and also tortured the true whiteness hidden under it. The psychological description and depiction in his novels are outstanding in the history of world literature. I think that Dostoevsky's novels have such a great influence in the world, mainly because of this feature.

The artistic techniques commonly used by western modernist writers, such as "stream of consciousness", "inner monologue", "psychological symbol" and "psychological dislocation in time and space", are all developed on the basis of attaching importance to psychological description in western novels. The artistic features of western modernist novels are not unreasonable. In the late 20th century, China's modernist novels also came from the West, while China himself had almost no tradition of psychological art. ..

Thirdly, China's novels often focus on discussing the living environment of characters and portraying them with poems. There are few poetic forms in western novels, and even if there are, they have little to do with the characters. For example, there are occasional ballads in Hardy's novels, which are not centered on the description of characters and only show social customs. Many poems in Cai Yijiang's Comments on Poems in A Dream of Red Mansions are highly generalizations of characters.

The opening words of Romance of the Three Kingdoms:

Rolling the Yangtze River eastward,

The waves washed away the hero.

The success or failure of right and wrong is empty;

Castle peak is still there,

A touch of sunset red.

White-haired fishing fires in Zhu Jiang,

I am used to watching the autumn moon and the spring breeze.

A pot of turbid wine is happily satisfying:

How many things have happened since ancient times,

All this is a joke. "

Conclusion: "things are infinite, and days cannot escape; The three-legged leg has become a dream, and future generations will complain. "

Western novels have a profound tradition of stream of consciousness. Joyce's Ulysses, Kafka's Metamorphosis and Woolf's novels are all the same. There are few summaries of characters in western novels, which are often presented directly through the stream of consciousness of that character. Westerners tend to pay attention to the process, while China tends to pay attention to the result. People in China often have a clear understanding of one thing and one person. However, both Chinese and western early novels tend to emphasize plots and actions, rather than characters. Apulius, a novelist in Roman times, is the "father of western novels", and his Golden Donkey was written according to the story. Decameron, written by Boccaccio in the14th century, still wins with its excellent plot. Rabelais's Biography of the Giant also won by virtue of its fantastic plot. People like watching it, mainly because the plot is fascinating and they can't stop. China's early novels of "Aspiring for the People" and "Aspiring for the Strange" are generally divided into two categories: The Story of an Ancient Mirror by Wang Du, which mainly narrates the strangeness of the plot. In the name of "biography", such as Shen Jiji's "Ren Zhuan", while emphasizing the narrative of the story, it also pays attention to the characterization of the characters.

2. Cause analysis

First, China has a tradition of attaching importance to groups rather than individuals. China's novels are good at writing about group actions, while western novels are good at writing about individual actions.

China has established a family-based and family-centered social system since ancient times. At that time, there were many vassal States, and there was never a tradition of individualism. It was believed that individuals should obey the country and the nation, and there was no need for individuals to exist alone. In feudal society, intellectuals can't say "I", but today they can only say "brother". The west is a society where the individual is supreme, and individual freedom, rights and values are respected. On the concept of individual and collective, China and the West are almost opposite. This directly affects the performance of individuals and groups in the novel. There are not many distinctive characters in China's classical novels, even like Four Great Classical Novels.

Secondly, in China's novel concept, people-centered consciousness has not been established for a long time, and only the events on which records are based are emphasized; However, the concept of western novels has a long history of human status.

China's traditional method of drawing lines in novels is related to the emphasis on expressing characters' attitudes and actions in Shi Shuo Xin Yu, a novel written by local people in Wei and Jin Dynasties. Western novels have a historical development process from myth to epic to legend to novel. Novelists of all ages have paid attention to immortals, heroes and figures in real society.

There is a tradition of humanism in the west, which praises people, just as Shakespeare said in his own Hamlet: "Man, what a great masterpiece you are". Since ancient Greece, the west has attached importance to people, and later, taking people as the center of society, God finally made way for people. There is only one person in the ancient Greek tragedy Prometheus, that is, "Io". Then, there is a human-centered feature in the novel, which is certainly not the case from the beginning.

Thirdly, China's traditional novel concept was established by Huan Tan and Ban Gu in the Eastern Han Dynasty, with events as the center. Western novels focus on human nature and spiritual expression.

Ban Gu in Hanshu? Yi said: "the novelist stream is established by officials, rumors and hearsay." In the late Qing Dynasty, Liang Qichao put forward the modern novel concept that "if you want a new national character, you must first develop a national novel".

Mr. Lu Xun said in A Brief History of Chinese Novels:

Novelists flow, because of the official, street talk, hearsay also. Confucius said, "Although there are paths, there must be considerable people, who are afraid of mud in the distance." And a gentleman. However, it was also destroyed, and it was within the ability of a little knower, so that it was not forgotten. If one sentence is acceptable, it is also a madman's discussion. (Shanghai Ancient Books,1998,2)

China's classical novels are deeply influenced by "history" and "biography", so they tend to pay more attention to events than people. The "superman" theory and "psychoanalysis" theory founded by Nietzsche and Freud also had an immeasurable influence on modern western novels. China has no such philosophical tradition and often opposes the existence of Superman. Before the rise of Wang Yangming's theory of mind, people in China paid little attention to people's feelings and the independence of their inner world, and demanded that people obey the literary sects of social and political orthodoxy and traditional culture.

Fourthly, China's novels are ethical, while western novels are carnival.

China is a traditional ethical society, which pays attention to "benevolence and morality", "self-denial and self-respect", "three cardinal guides and five permanents", "three obedience and four virtues" and "gentleman" and "villain". This profoundly influenced the theme of classical novels. Romance of the Three Kingdoms is about benevolence and righteousness, while Water Margin is about loyalty and treachery, which directly affects the quality of characters.

Western novels have a carnival tradition, which was established by rabelais's Biography of the Giant and Cervantes' Don Juan de. The characteristics are: paying attention to equal dialogue and individual independent will, and paying attention to secularizing solemn things. This also has a direct impact on the characters in the novel, which is directly reflected in the novel works.

The topic of comparison between Chinese and western novels is too big, and the object of comparative study may be the most in all styles. We can only choose one aspect to explain it, in order to give a way; Parallel comparison is often relative, not absolute, because every novel can only survive in a certain cultural background, and it is difficult to explain anything without its cultural and aesthetic environment, so it cannot be absolute.