The Adventures of the Braggadocio King

"The Adventures of the Bragg King"

Author: Rasper (1737-1794) was born in Hanover, Germany, and came from a noble family.

Translator: Cao Naiyun Xiaosheng

Pricing: ￥15.00 VIP member price: ￥12

Book code: YL003184 Publishing code: D00690

ISBN: 978-7-5447-0489-2

Edition: 1st edition, February 2008 1st printing, February 2008

Shelf date: 2008- 03-28

Book type: Paperback

Binding: 880x1230 mm 1/32

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Introduction:

Baron Munchhausen He is a happy adventurer and a famous braggart. His strange stories may be jokes and madness, but they are full of imagination and wit. Don't take it seriously, but don't take it false either. Just laugh with him and you will get unexpected happiness in his thrilling adventures. This adventure book includes "Baron Munchhausen's wonderful travels and interesting adventures on sea and land", "Baron Munchhausen's land and water adventures" and "Baron Munchhausen's land and sea travels and final fate", which is the first in the country. The most complete translation.

Introduction:

A treasure of children's literature, a monument of satirical literature

The absurd and bizarre stories and imaginative magical fairy tales not only made other children's literature works at that time Eclipsed and popular all over the world for two hundred years!

In the eyes of some literary masters, "The Adventures of the Bragg King" is a great work alongside Goethe's "Faust" and Lessing's "Prometheus Unchained".

Translator's Foreword

Translating "The Adventures of the Bragg King" has been our wish for many years. Today, we are happy to see that the cheerful braggart Munchhausen has come to the readers with a new look and lively attitude. Judging from the content of the book, our translation includes two parts of the creation story of the brothers Bürger and Kupper. The former was translated by Comrade Xiao Sheng, and the latter was translated by Comrade Cao Naiyun. Among them, The Adventures of Munchhausen, written by the Kuppel brothers, is introduced for the first time in China, and it accounts for almost half of the book.

Chinese readers are no stranger to Munchhausen. They had read many strange stories about Munchhausen in various translations. The question is, are the many stories fabricated by Munchhausen really told by him? In fact, I am afraid that the Germans to this day are still not sure whether Munchhausen told a story when he was "full of friends". Although these stories Munchhausen has won great honors around the world. People know this is a special book of bragging rights. However, publishing and publishing such stories did not receive his own approval and support. Munchhausen was not happy about it. On the contrary, he was very upset and painful about it.

Baron Hieronymus Carl Friedrich von Munchhausen was a real person. He was the owner of a manor in the Hanover area of ??Germany in the 18th century and came from a distinguished family. During his lifetime, the most authoritative figure in this family was not the Munchhausen we are familiar with, but Gerlach Adolf von Munchhausen (1688-1770). He was a statesman who founded the University of G?ttingen during the reign of George II and served as prime minister to the Elector of Hanover. He appointed Albrecht von Haller to work at the University of G?ttingen, and recruited the famous Bernard to work in his hometown.

As the owner of the manor, Hieronymus von Munchhausen’s life and career were not sensational.

People only know based on the name in the work that he seemed to have participated in the Russian war, was busy hunting, was good at telling stories, etc. On May 10, 1720, he was born in the Munchhausen Manor in Bodenweilt, his hometown is located on the Wessel River. Bodenweilth is an enclave of Hanover in the state of Braunschweig. Hieronymus was sent to Wolfenbüttel at the age of thirteen to serve the Count of Brunswick as a court page. When he was eighteen years old, he went to Riga with Prince Anton Ulrich of Brunswick, where he served as a trumpeter and flag bearer in a Russian cavalry battalion. In 1740, Queen Anna appointed him a second lieutenant, and in 1750, Queen Elizabeth promoted him to captain of the cavalry. Between 1740 and 1741, Munchhausen participated in the Turkish War twice. In 1750, at the age of thirty, Munchhausen returned to his hometown and spent his spring and autumn in Buddenweilth. He enjoyed hunting and stayed with "friends, hunting dogs, and horses" all day long, just like a local nobleman.

Munchhausen is good at conversation and has a humorous nature. He was generous and respected by his friends. At the end of the 18th century, the Germans, intentionally or unintentionally, transplanted many jokes and funny stories into his name, making him a third-class partner with Cervantes' "Don Quixote" and Defoe's "Robinson". It is divided into three parts: European entertainment, which clearly reflects the changes of the times and the development of humanities.

After 1744, Munchhausen began a sweet marriage life, but failed to pick the fruits of love. His knees were desolate and he had no children. His wife was a woman of considerable family and property, but unfortunately she passed away before him. Four years after his wife's death, Munchhausen could not bear the loneliness and married an eighteen-year-old girl. This woman was demanding and frivolous by nature, so the second marriage showed many disasters from the beginning. Munchhausen, who was nearly 70 years old, was later entangled in a protracted, expensive and exhausting divorce case. On February 22, 1787, Munchhausen, a talented comedian in German folklore, suffered emotional torment and slept calmly on the "bed of honor."

In 1781, August Milliworth published "Min-Hao-Sen Stories" in the magazine "The Happy Man's Guide" published in Berlin, Germany, with a total of sixteen stories. "Funny jokes" and "funny humor". The author remains anonymous. Two years later, the magazine excerpted "Two Articles from Min's Cow Hide". These stories are loosely arranged and all use the first person as the narrator, that is, "my story." This artistic style exactly reflects the characteristics of the magazine and the Rococo literary and artistic period. People want to tell the story as interestingly, elegantly, and as exciting as possible. The stories collected in "The Happy Man's Guide" laid the foundation for the world-famous "The Adventures of the Braggadocio". To this day, people don't actually know who the author of the Min story in "The Happy Man's Guide" is. In the past, people generally thought of him as the poet Bilge; now he is more commonly regarded as Professor Rasper.

Rudolf Erich Rasper was born in 1737 into a noble family in Hanover. This is an uneasy figure. He is knowledgeable and intelligent, and has studied minerals, geology, volcanoes, and linguistics. In 1767, Rasper served as librarian and conservator of ancient art relics in Gasser, Hesse, and as a university professor. He lived a squandered life, but faced adversity and a meager salary. Unknowingly, he ended up in deep debt. In the end, he took desperate risks and stole and sold many precious cultural relics and gold coins. People discovered his misdeeds from the documents he carefully produced. In 1775, Rasper fled to England in fear of crime. In England, he experienced various encounters. In the spring of 1794, Rasper was commissioned to build a coal or copper mining site in southwestern Ireland. His mind was filled with many new plans and hopes, but a scarlet fever finally claimed his life.

Rasper was an outstanding figure who shone with literary genius. He learned many foreign languages, translated Lessing's "Nathan the Wise" into English, and enthusiastically introduced the Russian Prime Minister and Thomas Percy (1729-1811) to German readers.

Percy is a famous British poet, antiquities collector, bishop, and editor of "Ancient Poetry in England". He founded the folk revival movement in the 18th century and had a huge influence on romantic poetry in Germany and Britain. Rasper's achievements were appreciated by Herder (1744-1803). In addition, he also discovered the articles of Leibniz (1646-1716) during his lifetime and published a series of papers on natural science and ancient numismatics. Rasper's academic papers also left a deep impression on the German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804). In 1768, the Royal Society appointed him a member of the society. In 1775, the Royal Society expelled him again after learning of his crime of stealing ancient coins.

Through hard and unremitting efforts, Rasper won new honors in Britain for his translation and research achievements, and of course he also suffered new shame: in 1788, he was listed among the five hundred outstanding writers in Great Britain. He was "an outstanding philologist with high honors." However, he had to endure the threat of hunger and cold at the same time. Because he could not repay his debt, he had to go to court with the tailor and was eventually detained for trial. Another employer simply fired him because he lied.

After various efforts and research, the German academic community concluded that the author of "The Adventures of the Braggadocio" anonymously published in 1786 (perhaps at the end of 1785) was no one other than Rasper. The book was reprinted in England at least seven times by 1789, with parts added, expanded, and new stories added. Several of the stories are titled "The Resurrection of Gulliver," and one has the subtitle "The Bad Habit of Lying." The original version of this little book in 1786 had fifty-six pages. The book stated that the place of printing was Oxford, and the subtitle of the book was "Baron Munchhausen's Travels and Battle Adventures in Russia." The new Gulliver is mentioned in the preface of the book. This is to make Baron Munchhausen in the book more suitable for British reading tastes. In 1786, when the third edition of the book was published, the content of bragging and lying was obviously added. In addition to the adventures on land in Russia, here are five adventures at sea. Obviously, these contents are no longer Rasper's handiwork. They form the second part of the book, perhaps catering to the special interests of the British island nation. Later editions continued to add stories of adventure at sea, while retaining the general structure of the two major parts of the book. Even the German translation published anonymously by G. A. Bilger in 1786 maintained the characteristics of the original book, although he also added many new contents. Following the English version, the German translation quickly achieved success and found a market. (But the translator Bilge and the author Rasbe remained poor as before.) This shows that Rasbe's works catered to the fashion of the times. Munchhausen is still warmly welcomed by hundreds of millions of readers around the world today, reflecting the need for joy in folk life. This is the natural taste of human beings.

Gottfried August Bürger (1747-1794) was a famous narrative poet during the Sturm und Drang period in Germany. Like Goethe, he had multiple modes of expression in literary and artistic creation. His narrative poems are concise and magnificent, based on emotion and reason, and they are profound. Sometimes the plots he concocted in his poems were downright terrifying. However, his Munchhausen stories are elegant, exquisite, lively and beautiful, with cheerful, clear, concise and humorous language. It vividly embodies the Rococo literary and artistic trend, and together with "Erens Spiegel" and "Hilde Burgher", it forms a wonderful series of German folk tales in the 19th and 20th centuries. In this sense, "The Adventures of the Bragg King" is not only a vivid children's book, but also an interesting social book, which is open to readers at all levels of society.

Looking at Bilger's life, it is not difficult to find that he was actually no luckier than Rasper. He lives in poverty and is heavily in debt. He is a mid-level local official with a meager salary and a teacher at the University of G?ttingen with no fixed income. Bilge played with the lottery and lost a lot of capital. Later, he was ill in bed for a long time. In his later years, he unfortunately encountered a third marriage, which caused a lot of scandals and jokes, and finally divorced. In 1791, the great German poet Schiller anonymously commented on his poems and described him as useless.

Bilge was so ashamed that he finally died of tuberculosis due to poverty and illness. He was 47 years old and died young.

Rasper published the "Munchhausen" book anonymously because he was worried that this bold and funny story would affect his serious and scientific reputation and ambitions. Of course, he may also deliberately want to play tricks on the Munchhausen family and the wealthy Germans. Because Gerlach Adolf von Munchhausen had tried to prevent him from publishing articles about Leibniz, he was very upset and added the title "Cowhide Baron", which was obviously related to Hieronymus.

However, the reason why Bilge concealed his name may be because he had to take care of his reputation as a professor. It seems that he still had a reason to hide it. His "Munchhausen" was described as "poor writing" by newspapers and magazines at the time. Over time, people's evaluation of this book has fundamentally changed. However, it was only after his death that Bilge was finally confirmed as the translator or author of the German version of "Munchhausen". During his lifetime, he neither gained fame nor benefited from this successful book. Bilge gave the book to the publisher free of charge, and just thanked the publisher for providing him with many kinds of help when he was living in poverty.

Bilger's version maintains a certain classical form. Many translations in the world today have noticed this phenomenon. Folktales have long been popular across Europe. In addition to adding new stories to "The Adventures of Puff King", they also significantly expand the folk spoken language that appears widely in the book, because some of the adventure stories are fictionalized by the storytellers or drawn from their own life experiences. . However, almost all Munchhausen stories have precedents in 16th-century European buffoonery. Therefore, "The Adventures of the Bragg King" is actually a new compilation of scattered folk tales. Fairy tales, jokes, funny stories and other folklore provide a steady stream of material.

G.A. Bilger translated part of Rasper's story word for word, while the other part was freely used, consciously added and expanded to form a new "Complete of Lies". It needs to be stated and pointed out that the terms "lie", "cowhide", "bragging" and "lying" involved here are all the same concept. They are the translations of the word lügen in German with multiple meanings. The question now is, what are the characteristics of the book "The Adventures of the Bragg King"?

On the surface, this is a collection of stories about hunting, war and travel. The story contains a strong sense of exaggeration, boasting, and bragging. In fact, this type of literary and artistic genre already has a long history and tradition. There are many incredible contents written in some ancient European travel stories. But the author often swears repeatedly that the stories he tells are all true. In the 2nd century AD, the Greek Lucian (120-180) wrote "Dialogues of Gods", "Dialogues of Hades", etc. In these satires, he called the explicit satires "true stories." It is these "true stories" that add reliable blueprints for the poet's fictional travels on the sea and the moon. "The Adventures of the Braggadocio" will naturally not deviate from this scope. Rasbe puts the Baron in the role of being punished for lying. His travels by land, sea and air in a series of exaggerated descriptions and innocent lies that put the smoothest braggart to shame.

Of course, what fascinates readers about the Munchhausen stories created by Rasper and Bilge is not the irony, but the bold imagination. They cultivate and perfect the art of bragging in literary and artistic works, bringing the vast world to the forefront. Kamibuki nonsense has been elevated to a perfect literary and artistic form. What's interesting is that on the one hand, they make up happy lies with many flaws, but on the other hand, they follow ancient customs and repeatedly emphasize that every word of the story they tell is true. In China, this is called not asking for help. To put it more politely, it is called "there is no three hundred taels of silver here." Without losing the funny look of old age and innocence.

Judging from the core content of Munchhausen's stories, they tend to use the form of "I" in the story, allowing "I" to tell "my story."

The land adventure stories and concise maritime adventures in the first part of the book are mainly characterized by "my stories", while some "his stories" are inserted into a small amount of content in the second part, using other people's mouths to narrate anecdotes about Munchhausen's adventures.

Munchhausen, he is just a literary character created by Rasper and Bilge in "The Adventures of Bragg King", but Munchhausen, who is a real person in history, should be given his own name." Hieronymus" to show the difference. This kind of plot is suitable for use in the form of "my story". Munchhausen is almost always a one-man horse, going alone, experiencing various dangers and tests. Hunting, travel, and war are done purely for appearance reasons and through which to develop the storyline. As a storyteller, Munchhausen narrates a series of personal adventures in heaven and earth. He is a lucky man who succeeded through his own efforts. His rich imagination, decisive perseverance, dexterous skills, and strong physique helped him achieve unparalleled achievements. Looking at it from another perspective, since exaggeration and boasting constitute the vital core of Munchhausen's story, "my story" is a suitable form of expression to attract readers. Sometimes, just to change the mode, he would tell his own story through other people's mouths. This person seemed to be his hunting buddy, traveling companion, and brother in times of crisis on the battlefield, but in fact, his mind was like a spinning wheel, and he alone spun many wonderful scenes from the imaginary spinning wheel. , finally formed a collection of endlessly interesting stories.

Munchhausen's friends regarded him as half a genius and half as a charlatan. Of course, he himself, without exception, immersed himself in modest and polite words, emphasizing that he was a genius. Munchhausen was not only a spiritual genius, but also a genius of strength. It makes people clearly see that the literary and artistic characteristics of the German Sturm und Drang period are heading towards the Rococo artistic period.

The form of "My Story" makes the two characteristics of Munchhausen's artistic image form a pair of close brothers: inner monologue and exaggeration.

Munchhausen is a wonderful interior monologue. Sometimes, the title of the book is printed with the words "A crowd of friends, a glass of wine in hand" and so on, which is really a lot of ridicule. No one ever spoke in this gathering. There was not a single cheer or question from them, which seemed a bit unusual from human society. The general impression the book gives people is that Munchhausen is sitting on a tall, bouncing, extremely comfortable sofa chair, reading or telling stories to a group of silent people. "Everyone was silent and listened quietly, without even blinking." The story he told was very different from the fairy tale. There was no dialogue here. And in the long interior monologue, one can hardly hear a direct quotation. In fairy tales, legends and farcical stories, dialogue is a vital and indispensable story ingredient. It doesn't work at all in Munchhausen's collection of stories. In addition to being a form of literary and artistic works, this is also closely related to the way, occasion, time and audience of storytelling. It was a lively and hilarious occasion, and a group of well-fed and well-fed country listeners could not help but laugh. They cannot spare the energy and mind to appreciate many delicate psychological descriptions. They are not used to this. Therefore, the description of the lonely life of the baron and the unique scenery are unique at the beginning of the book: Munchhausen, wearing thin clothes, rode a horse through the cold and windy land of the North. It was so white that it was hard to distinguish rivers, houses and roads. Munchhausen traveled alone and hurriedly day and night. It's really lonely but still alive.

Exaggeration is also common in the My Story format. Munchhausen is a typical person who boasts and brags. He took all the tasks that should have been completed by seven or eight regiments of troops under his own name, and at the same time emphasized that he was a humble person who loved the truth. His story reflects a caricature of the human space, revealing that life always longs for independence and the ability to control one's own destiny. Munchhausen was like a perpetual motion machine dreamed of by physicists. He grabbed his own braid with one hand and pulled it up with all his strength, getting out of the swamp and out of trouble.

Mixing elements of absurdity and reality, adding a little possibility to the completely impossible main plot, and placing logic in the unbelievable reality. This is common in jokes and funny stories. method of expression. Munchhausen's stories focus on allowing multiple literary and artistic features to play a comprehensive role, which prompts the protagonist to quickly obtain favorable accidental conditions, calmly get rid of adversity, and achieve a victorious ending. Munchhausen remained calm and composed in any situation and responded sensitively to things. In "The Adventures of Puff King", not only Munchhausen and his animals are "incredibly fast", but even the storyline is developing at a rapid speed, which is dizzying.

Although Munchhausen basically does not need the advice of friends, does not need help, and does not ask for help from God or gods, he has formed a friendly alliance with fate. Happiness always smiles at him and never abandons him. It extended a helping hand to Munchhausen from all directions. Of course, Munchhausen was also the architect of his own happiness: in desperation, he collided with the door, and the pain made stars pop out of his eyes. This common life phenomenon gives the braggart many opportunities to think. When he later needed a flame to fire the shotgun, he suddenly struck a quick blow to the eye with his fist, and the spark in his eye finally helped him win. "Accident and happiness can often make up for many defects in life." Not only the spirit of the times in the 18th century, but also the fairy tales produced in various historical periods are also trying this transformation, so that good men and women can avoid danger and find their own happiness. . "Sleeping Beauty" is like this, and "Cinderella" is like this.

Shakespeare once said that a broken leg is sometimes stronger than before after healing. This reflects that people extracted good medicine to save the world from the poison. People strangely find here that there are many experiences and concepts that transcend time and space hidden in Munchhausen's story, but they are all hidden under the cloak of absurdity. Some stories may seem like lies, but actually reflect real reality and the future. They helped Munchhausen achieve a string of successes. Therefore, this kind of literary phenomenon not only contributes to the vitality of the book "The Adventures of Puff King", but also profoundly reveals the purpose and purpose of literary and artistic works.

There is also a familiar inversion in high literature and folk literature, such as the rabbit chasing the hunter with a firearm; the frivolous knight in the comic story of the 16th century picked up the road under his feet and armpits, and put the spear under the horse's hooves; the humorous knight experienced the political career of several dynasties before he was born, and so on. This kind of consciousness and expression techniques gave Munchhausen the basis for further inheritance, imitation and development. "The Adventures of the Braggadocio" is indeed like a European fairy tale. Bragging and lying are some kind of relaxed art in the book. It hopes to bring the listener or reader into the atmosphere of cowhide, where human longing floats, hoping to transcend all time and space. Exaggeration and gleeful words are therefore only a striking and sometimes changing veneer.

Bragging, lying, telling lies, and joking as a form of expression have a long history and ancient tradition in literature. The Odyssey in Homer's narrative poem is a braggart, although he is different from Munchhausen in many ways. For example, only part of the content in the bragging book "The Kingdom of Conspiracy" comes from his hobby of bragging, while many other lies are all conscious fictions. The characters there, such as the loud-mouthed soldiers, bear a striking resemblance to Baron Munchhausen. Sailors have always liked to brag endlessly, and hunters still maintain the ancient custom of speaking Latin to this day. Thus, Hieronymus von Munchhausen, Rasper and Bilge did not all rely on their own fertile imaginations. There are countless such examples in the history of literature:

Among the Munchhausen stories collected in the magazine "The Happy Man's Guide", there is the theme of "frozen voices". Rasper and Bilger placed this story at the end of the book as a wonderful finale, which shows their importance.

At the end of the first century AD, the ancient Greek legendary writer Plutarch (46-120) mentioned in his famous book "Moania" that there was a disciple or critic of Plato Quotes from Andy Farnes. It turns out that Andifanas once jokingly said that once upon a time in a certain city, it was freezing cold, and sometimes the words people spoke were frozen solid by the ice as soon as they finished speaking. Until summer, the frozen words begin to melt. Therefore, people can often hear winter speech in summer. However, as time passed, this interesting subject of consciousness and language was later shelved and forgotten.

During the European Renaissance, people thawed Plutarch's "frozen language" themes again. The French writer Rabelais (1483-1553) emphasized the topic of Antifanas-Plutarch. He described life's adventures in exaggerated terms, on his own terms. In the book "The Life of Giants", Rabelais describes a ship sailing on the frozen ocean. There were storms and waves on the sea, and the ship was about to sink. Suddenly, the passengers on the boat heard a loud noise. The voices were male and female, old and young, mixed with the din of war. The horns were loud and the horses neighed, but the travelers saw nothing in front of them. The coward Baruch was very scared. The helmsman of the ship explained to him: In the Arctic, there was a bloody war in the winter, and all the noise, words and sounds floating in the air formed thick ice. Now in spring, when the ice thaws, all these noises, words, and sounds are unleashed. Another character in the book, Pantagruel, throws a lot of frozen words that have not yet thawed on the deck. The strange thing is that these language ice cubes have different colors according to their respective categories. For example, obscene words are always yellow. Rabelais used his genius imagination to make the frozen words vivid and colorful, visible and tangible, and extremely strange.

Most of Munchhausen's stories come from ancient European legends, and some of them are the original creations of G.A. Bilger and the Quasi brothers. For example, when Munchhausen was stuck in the mud and couldn't extricate himself, he grabbed his own braid and lifted himself up. This is a typical bullshit or lie topic. Similar concepts and themes can often be seen in the fairy tales of the Nordic countries.

Munchhausen's story is full of jokes and crazy words, but through the absurdity, people can see a little bit of truth. As the French Enlightenment thinker Voltaire (1694-1778) emphasized, any disaster or misfortune will bring benefits. This is a Western interpretation of the consciousness of "Misfortune lies on the back of blessings, and blessings lie on the back of misfortune" in "Laozi Chapter Fifty-Eight". Munchhausen turned many unfavorable conditions in life into favorable conditions. At the same time, he hid the value and meaning of life in a series of boring jokes and bullshit. This is why he held on to his braids in the hope of jumping out of the quagmire. The truth lies. Perhaps, here lies the true literary value of "The Adventures of the Braggadocio".