A Brief Introduction to the Development of China's Ancient Novels

The word "novel" first appeared in "Zhuangzi Foreign Things": "My husband seldom has a big fish, because he hates to show his extreme, which is intended to be blasphemous." It is far from Dada to decorate novels as a county magistrate. ""county "is an ancient word" hanging ",high; Order ",beauty," doing "and pursuit. Running between irrigation ditches with a small fishing rod and fishing line can only catch small fish such as loach, but it is difficult to catch big fish.

It is far from a mysterious road to seek high reputation by embellishing obscene remarks. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, a hundred schools of thought contended. In order to persuade princes to accept his thoughts and theories, many scholars and strategists often use metaphors, cite historical events, and skillfully use myths and fables to modify their speeches and enhance the effect of their articles.

Zhuangzi thought all this was trivial, so he called it "novel", that is, "trivial words are not where Taoism lies" and "superficial knowledge of Taoism", that is, trivial words and the meaning of small truth, which is the original meaning of the novel.

The biggest feature of China's novels is that there are two different novel systems, classical Chinese novels and vernacular novels, since the Song Dynasty. China's classical novels originated from the gossip in the pre-Qin period, which is a record of poor knowledge. After the long-term development of Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, Sui and Tang Dynasties, China's classical novels have made remarkable progress, forming two novel types: notes and legends.

Vernacular novels, on the other hand, originated from the speaker's scripts in the Tang and Song Dynasties, and the stories were based on folk materials, mainly expressing people's life and ideology. However, both classical Chinese novels and vernacular novels have a long history, showing their own different artistic characteristics.

Extended data:

The basis of the novel is the accumulation and precipitation of more than 800 years in the pre-Qin, Han, Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, and the novel was formally formed when history entered the Tang Dynasty. Dating back more than 800 years, the cornerstone was mainly laid in four aspects:

One is a fable. For example, Mencius, Zhuangzi, Han Feizi and the Warring States Policy have many fables with distinctive characters, which are novel-like.

The second is historical biography. Such as Zuo Zhuan, Warring States Policy, Historical Records and History of the Three Kingdoms, describe the characters' personalities and plots, or provide materials for novels, or accumulate narrative experience for novels.

The third is the literati notes. This was particularly evident in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, and most of the literati's notes recorded some anecdotes, anecdotes and materials.

The fourth is folk entertainment. In every dynasty, there were resident speakers and storytellers in teahouses and restaurants. They told a short story (novel) on the basis of scripts every day to attract guests to come back and listen to books every day, hoping to ensure a prosperous business.

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