What three changes have the theme of China's traditional novels experienced?

There are many opinions on the miscellaneous biography of history department-what is a novel? This is hard to define. Western scholars generally believe that novels are fictional narrative works. For example, Wellek and Warren think that "imaginary literature is fiction and a lie", and Balzac also calls novels "solemn lies". [10] (p68) all point out the fiction of novel style; As a narrative work, it is generally believed that "plot" is an indispensable element of the novel. For example, scholars such as Liu Anhai and Sun Wenxian think that novels "must have a complete, complex, tortuous, vivid and typical plot", [1 1](P 148) If you hold such a novel concept, it is obvious. [7](P 174)

But these are the novel ideas of modern people, not the traditional novel ideas of ancient China. The word "novel" in ancient China was first expressed in Zhuangzi Outhouse: "It is far from great to great to decorate novels with county orders". In A Brief History of Chinese Novels, Lu Xun said: "The name of the novel is found in the cloud of Zhuang Zhou's" Decorating novels with county orders ",but the actual case is trivial and not Taoist. [1] (P3) The "novel" here is trivial and superficial compared with the "big", that is, the avenue and the big talk, and has not yet possessed the stylistic nature. Since then, the novel has gradually evolved into a style of "remembering trivial things". Huan Tan in the Eastern Han Dynasty said in the New Theory of Huan Zi: "Ruofu novelists have many words to write short books and manage their bodies and families." "Can Cong" means collecting trivial things, and "Xiaoyu" means small words and paths. Novelists use "Silkworm Cong Xiaoyu" as "analogy theory" and become "equivalent words". The "novel" here is stylistic at first, and its stylistic features are still "small" in the same strain.

On May 5, 2009, 13: 57, I replied to the class on the fifth floor of the paragraph, and I wrote "fifteen novels, 1,380" in "Yi", but at the same time I pointed out that "there are ten philosophers, and only nine people are impressed", and I think novelists are not very impressed.

On May 5, 2009 13: 58, the evaluation of the 6th floor in the reply section was not high. Ban Gu's understanding of the novel is as follows:

Novelists are mobile and official. Street talk, hearsay also has. Confucius said, "Although there are paths, there must be considerable people. If you are afraid of mud, be a gentleman. " However, it was also destroyed. What a little person knows can also make him forget. If one sentence is acceptable, it is also a discussion of a madman.

This passage by Ban Gu defines the novel from two aspects. First, from the process of writing, novels are the styles recorded and processed by intellectuals ("officials"), and the materials of novels are taken from dialogues in daily life. Secondly, judging from the value orientation of the novel, it is no different from the "path" of "gentleman's action" and divorced from the orthodox view of politics and religion. However, because it is composed of "a little knowledge of a small place" and "a madman's discussion", it has preserved materials from the people, so it should not be abolished without preservation (so-called "extinction")

By analyzing Zhuangzi, Huan Tan and Ban Gu's understanding of "novel", we can draw the following conclusions: in the early stage of its formation and development, China's ancient novel style refers to a literary style combining trivial words with high-quality and elegant style; Its subject matter is mostly daily trivia gossip, not fiction; Its text is short and does not pay attention to the story; It adopts folk gossip, and does not pursue the function of carrying words. As Gu Qing said: "The original novels in China are not only short in form, but also considered as shallow paths at that time. They are all talking about incredible legends spread by the people in history, such as Yi Yin, Huangdi and Zhou Kao. Li Yu is a ritual custom popular among civilians or in life. Yu Zi is a fable that is biased towards the eyes and ears, and has nothing to do with the road of governing the country and securing the country. " [ 12](P3)

As mentioned above, Shi Shuo Xin Yu is short in length and generally has no complete story, which can be described as "trivial words"; Nor does it pay attention to the tolerance of "Tao", which is far from practical and close to entertainment, which can be described as "where the Tao is"; This is all about personnel, and there is almost no fiction and imagination. It records the trivial quotations of scholars in Wei and Jin dynasties, and the source of the materials is talk and laughing stock. According to China's early novel concept, Shi Shuo Xin Yu is a typical novel text. Sui Zhi classified Shi Shuo Xin Yu as a novel instead of Ji Shen, which shows that the stylistic features of Shi Shuo Xin Yu accord with the editor's understanding of the novel style, and that the editor's understanding of the novel style is in the same strain as China's early novel concept.

From the above analysis, we can see that in the Tang Dynasty, at least when Sui Shu was written, people still inherited the traditional novel concept, that is to say, the word "small" embodied in the length of style, material source, literary interest and value orientation of the work is the main criterion to measure whether it is a novel. In the history of China's novels, classical Chinese note novels appeared in the Six Dynasties, such as Shi Shuo Xin Yu, which is undoubtedly the authentic novel of China. However, with the rise and prosperity of vernacular popular novels after Song and Yuan Dynasties, it finally lost its dominant position. Accordingly, China's traditional novel concept has been replaced by one that emphasizes plot, fiction, narrative and other elements.