What are the classical novels of China?

The Development of Classical Novels in China

Ancient Chinese novels, after a long road, did not really have the elements of novels until the Tang Dynasty.

1. The pre-Qin and two Han dynasties - the budding period of the ancient novel. This period of myths, fables, historical legends, "wild" legends, religious stories, etc. are pregnant with the artistic elements of the novel, for the formation of the novel to prepare the conditions, but also revealed the novel in childhood to form the end of the two major categories of Zhiren Zhiqi.

Myths: such as "Jingwei fill the sea", "Nuwa mending the sky", "Kuafu chasing the sun" and so on. Myths have simple storylines and characters with certain personalities, which are the artistic elements of novels in the budding period.

Fable is a short, concise and satirical style of literature, characterized by the use of false stories to illustrate an abstract truth. The pre-Qin fable, which dared to intervene in life, contributed to the formation of the tradition of realism in ancient Chinese novels, and its art of satire was directly inherited and borrowed for later novels. The art of satire in the novels of later satirical novels was positively influenced by fables; it was one of the earliest narrative literatures, and pioneered the conscious fictionalization of storytelling, and its artistic experience in narrative, writing, anthropomorphism, simulation, and exaggeration was drawn upon by the novelists.

The Records of the Grand Historian (史记), which pioneered China's biographical historiography, changed the previous tradition of chronicle or country-by-country account of historical events, and centered on characters to illustrate history through the historical activities of the characters. In terms of the influence on the novel, in addition to the realism of the creative method, but also lies in the twists and turns of the detailed description of interesting story scenes, but also to express the identity and character of the characters. The vivid stories and realistic characters, rich in drama and novel meaning, not only provided a rich subject matter for later novels, but also, more importantly, directly provided the artistic experience of writing storylines and shaping characters for the formation of the novel genre.

The relationship between ancient Chinese novels and religious superstitions and legends is very close, and it can be said that they have formed an inseparable relationship, so that two categories of ancient novels, namely, the language of the strange and the chronicle of the strange, have been formed. In the pre-Qin era, religion was mainly expressed in the form of witchcraft.

2. Wei, Jin and North and South Dynasties - the childhood of ancient novels. At this time appeared "Zhiren" "Zhiqi" novels, collectively known as notebook novels. During this period, China's novels took shape, Liu Yiqing "Shishu Xinyao" (Zhiren) Ganbao "Search for God" (Zhiqi), these novels are not mature enough artistically, just "rough outline": describe the characters can not be written out a complete image of the story written, most of the nature of the factual record, the lack of artistic fiction, the authors only The authors were only searching for strange anecdotes rather than consciously creating novels, but its influence on later novels and dramas was enormous.

3. Tang Dynasty - the maturity of the ancient novel. The Tang Dynasty saw the emergence of the Tang Legend. The emergence of Tang Dynasty legends marked the maturity of China's classical novels. Compared with the works of childhood, Tang novels have made great progress: conscious of making novels, from ghosts and spirits, strange stories and escapades to real life, and great creation and improvement in art. Famous Tang biographies include: Jiang Fang's Huo Xiaoyu Biography, Yuan Zhen's Yingying Biography, Li Chaowei's Liu Yi Biography, and Bai Xingjian's Liwa Biography.

4. Song Dynasty - the production of vernacular novels. In the Song Dynasty, the vernacular novels appeared - the book of words, also known as the "novel of words". From then on, the history of the novel, which was dominated by short stories in the literary language, gradually changed to the history of the novel, which was dominated by novels in the vernacular language. At the same time, the novel in the vernacular language still existed, and it was only then that the novel was used as a special name for the genre of storytelling. The emergence of the novel is "a major change in the history of the novel"; from the literary language to the vernacular, not only enhanced the novel's expressive power, but also expanded the readership, and improved the novel's social function; the object of the works depicted by the feudal scholars turned to the common people, the works of the ideological point of view, the aesthetic interest of the changes that occurred; to lay the foundation of the vernacular short story and the long story. His representative works include "The Wrong Beheading of Cui Ning" and "The Plain Language of the Three Kingdoms".

5. Ming Dynasty - vernacular novels flourished. In the Ming Dynasty, there appeared the "proposed book". That is, the Ming Dynasty literati imitated the system, the form of novels. Such as "Yutang Chun in search of a husband", "Du Shiniang angrily sunk the treasure box" and so on. Ming Dynasty is the era of vernacular novels flourished. Famous writers: Hong (2), "Qing Ping Shan Tang Talking Book", Feng Menglong "Three Words" ("Metaphors", "Cautionary Tales", "Awakening the World"), Ling Mengchu's "Two Beat" ("The First Beat", "The Second Beat".).

The Ming and Qing dynasties appeared "chapter book novel". Its characteristics are divided back to mark, often take one or two central events for a time, each time the length of roughly equal, the plot before and after the connection, the beginning and the end of the commonly used "words" "and listen to the next decomposition" and other verbal, interspersed with poems and rhymes, and the end of the suspense to attract the The reader is attracted by the suspense at the end. During this period, China's ancient novels reached their peak and produced a large number of immortal masterpieces. At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the successive release of Romance of the Three Kingdoms (Luo Guanzhong) and Water Margin (Shi Nai'an) marked a new stage in the history of Chinese novels. From then on, the Chinese novel shifted from being dominated by short stories to being dominated by short novels. The "Four Great Wondrous Books" dominate all kinds of novels: Romance of the Three Kingdoms is the first full-length novel in the history of novels, and a model of historical novels; Water Margin is the first work depicting a peasant uprising, and a model of heroic legends; Journey to the West (Wu Cheng'en) is the first full-length novel of gods and demons, and a model of divine and magical novels; and the first novel of gods and magical novels, and a model of divine and magical novels. and a model of divine and magical fiction; The Golden Lotus is both the first novel written about worldly affairs and the first novel written solely by a man of letters.

6. Qing Dynasty - the climax of the creation of long novels. In the Qing Dynasty, the introduction of "The History of Confucianism" (Wu Jingzi) and "Dream of Red Mansions" (Cao Xueqin) pushed the creation of long novels to a climax once again. Famous short stories in the literary language at this time include Pu Songling's Liaozhai Zhiyi.

After the Dream of Red Mansions, due to the reasons of the times, the novel creation into a low state, to the late Qing Dynasty to flourish again, the late Qing Dynasty, there are more than 1,000 kinds of novels, famous for the "four great novelists of the late Qing Dynasty" Li Boyuan, "the present situation in the officialdom", Wu Wu Woyao, "twenty years of witnessing the strange current situation", Liu Osprey, "the old man traveled to the story", Zeng Park, "Sinful Sea Flower". The Sinful Sea Flower.