What is Pu Songling's life like?

Pu Songling, born in 1640 and died in 17 15, was an outstanding novelist in Qing Dynasty. His name is Liu Xian, a swordsman, and his nickname is Liu Quan Jushi. Known as Mr. Liaozhai, he was born in Zichuan, Shandong (now Zibo, Shandong). Pu Songling became famous as a teenager and was highly praised by Shi and Wang Shizhen. But after repeated provincial examinations, he failed, and he became a tribute student at the age of 7 1. In addition to being a screen guest in Baoying in middle age, I have been a teacher in my hometown all my life. Living in poverty, sympathizing with people's sufferings. Pu Songling is a poet and good at writing folk songs. It took more than 20 years to write a collection of short stories called Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio. There are also Collected Works of Liaozhai, Poems and popular books written for farmers.

Pu Songling's Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio represents the artistic peak of China's classical novels, which has had a great influence on novel creation since the early Qing Dynasty. Yuan Mei's New Qi Xie and Shen Qifeng's Harmony Duet are both imitations.

Pu Songling was famous for his talent and intelligence when he was young. When he was a teenager, he studied with his father and was able to read classics, history and poems. /kloc-at the age of 0/9, he participated in the three-level scientific research in Zichuan County, Jinan Prefecture and Shandong Xuedao, and won three firsts in a row, which suddenly attracted the attention of Shandong people. Shi, the examiner at that time, was a famous writer in the early Qing Dynasty, and was sometimes called "Southern Song Dynasty". Shi "loves talents like life", so he appreciates Pu Songling very much, praising his article "Smells strange fragrance in the air, and is like a god for a hundred years", "Reading like the moon, writing like the wind, and having the joy of marching without arms". This shows that Pu Songling's articles have a good literary foundation.

He won three firsts in a row, became a scholar and gained a special reputation. This should be said to be the time when Pu Songling was brilliant and sharp-edged, and it was also the time when his spring breeze was proud. However, he was unfortunate. It was not until he took the exam for the last time at the age of 72 that he failed. He once wrote a poem lamenting his experience. He felt that he was brilliant, just like Bian He, who was chopped off his feet and offered jade in the Spring and Autumn Period, and could not have a chance to display it. What hindered him was the decadent imperial examination system. He had no choice but to write a book in a desolate village.

However, it was in this poverty that he spent all his life and energy to complete the immortal masterpiece Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio. Perhaps this is the different mission given by history to China ancient writers, top scholars and juren.

Because of repeated attempts, Pu Songling knew that Qingyun had no way to go, and there was discord in his family, so he separated and made his own living. He makes a living by teaching. During this period, two things had the greatest influence: one was to be a guest, and the other was to teach in Gaby for 30 years.

Pu Songling was separated from his brothers when his father died. In order to make a living, he taught for some time. Later, at the invitation of fellow countryman friend Sun Hui, he made a guest appearance for one year, writing books, official documents and advertisements for him. This is the only trip in Pu Songling's life that is far from home. Baoying, located in the Huaihe River valley, can travel to many places, which not only broadens his horizons and enriches his experience, but also allows him to witness the darkness in the officialdom and have a personal experience of corrupt officials' management and rich life.

During Baoying, Pu Songling also expressed his love for the mountains and rivers in the Jianghuai area and wrote some beautiful, fresh and verve poems.

However, looking for a body outside is not a long-term solution. After staying in Baoying for a year, he resigned and returned to his hometown. Since then, due to family planning, Pu Songling began to live in xipu for 30 years. Bi was demoted to the prison army in the third year of Shunzhi (1645) and later promoted to Tongzhou, Jiangnan. In the second year of Kangxi (1663), he was dismissed from office for solving the problem of accumulated grain money, and lived a secluded and leisurely life after returning to the field. There is a curtilage garden in the west of Bi, which is called Garden. There are beautiful flowers and trees in it. Pu Songling moved to this garden in midsummer. The students he teaches are all eight grandchildren of Biji, teaching them to read four books and five classics and artistic writing. Here, he leads a relatively stable life of reading, teaching and writing.

The Bi family not only has a garden like a garden, but also a building with thousands of books. What he saw and heard in Yin Shi Garden made him accumulate rich materials. The collection of books in Wanjuanlou gave him the opportunity to read many rare books, which opened his eyes. All these provided convenience and conditions for him to create Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio. For example, in Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio, Bici's historians are often mentioned (referring to Biji's well-known title of Tongzhou), and some works provided by Bici's master and servant are retained. For example, the article "Bamboo Weng" was told by the servants of the Bi family. At the end of the article, it is clearly stated that Dr. Wu and Mrs. Chen were described by Mr. Bi Zaiji.

After Bi died, Pu Songling and his son Bi Shengju still maintained deep feelings. He spent 30 years in Gaby, which is a long time, and spent nearly half of Pu Songling's life. It was not until the age of 7 1 that he ended his decades of teaching career and returned to his hometown. From then on, he began to live at home in his later years.

Soon, his wife died of illness, which was undoubtedly a heavy blow to Pu Songling, who loved his wife deeply. From then on, he was unhappy and seldom laughed.

Pu Songling's wife is a wife. It is said that Pu Songling was thin and sickly from childhood, and he was still in poor health when he grew up. Coupled with his poor family, he concentrated on his studies, hoping to win fame and find a way out as soon as possible. Who knows, after having obtained the provincial examination, he failed in Sun Shan several times. He is often laughed at by outsiders when he proposes. But he was lucky enough to marry a virtuous wife, help him with housework, share his worries, and give him time to write books and make achievements in literature.

Pu Songling's wife Liu, gentle, simple and modest, is deeply loved by Weng Gu. His eldest sister-in-law, Han, is insidious and cunning, so she is at odds and often makes noise. Later, they separated, and he was assigned to a shabby house in a thin field. Life was very difficult, and Pu Songling could not manage this family. Therefore, the poor family life depends entirely on Liu's diligent textile and frugality, and he has worked hard to raise four sons.

Pu Songling sits outside the pavilion and goes home every New Year's Eve. Although there is not much delicious food, the family is sitting together, laughing and making noise, and the atmosphere is very warm. He is satisfied with this kind of family happiness.

Sometimes, because Pu Songling is happy, he drinks his own yellow wine cup after cup and feels like a fairy. Sing an impromptu song to your wife when you are in a good mood.

Time flies, and in a blink of an eye, Pu Songling is over 50 years old. Even so, Pu Songling has not forgotten his fame. Liu saw through his mind and said to him, "Don't think about fame any more. If you are destined to be famous, you should go to the cabinet to pay homage now. The mountain forest has its own joy, why must it be tired of fame? "

Pu Songling breathed a sigh of relief when he heard his wife's considerate words, and thought what she said was reasonable. Seeing that children and grandchildren have entered school, there is still hope of winning glory, so they often show some pride. One day, Pu Songling proudly said to his wife, "Don't people with dignity want to be ladies?" Liu replied: "I don't have any special skills." There are four sons, 1 grandson, all of whom can inherit the career of studying, and will no longer be hungry and cold. God's reward can't be said to be generous. The so-called contentment is always happy. Why don't we keep this happiness for a long time, but let nothing happen? "

The poverty of life and the failure of the imperial examination dealt a great blow to Pu Songling, making him overwhelmed, forcing him to set up an account for teaching reading in his spare time, pinning his grief and indignation on the pen and focusing on the creation of Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio. He started writing at the age of 20 and became a book at 40. Legend has it that when he was teaching a private school in the village, in order to collect stories, he and his wife carried a magnetic poppy with a big mouth and a small belly, filled it with bitter tea, and took a handful of tobacco leaves to the roadside at the entrance of the village every morning to sit down and entertain passers-by for free. Those passers-by are mostly vendors, porters and vagrants. When they are thirsty and tired, it is really comfortable to have some tea, smoke a pack of cigarettes and sit down and chat for a while.

Pu Songling, dressed in shabby clothes, sat there smiling at everyone. Someone thanked him and asked him to tell the stories he heard and the new things he saw in his hometown and trip. Those pedestrians criss-cross north and south and are well informed. The stories they tell are of course novel. Pu Songling took out the pen, ink, paper and inkstone prepared in advance, listening and writing. This way. As time went on, he collected many interesting stories. After more than 20 years of cold and heat, Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio was finally completed.

There are more than 490 articles in Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio. Liaozhai is the name of the author's study. Most of the works in the novel are ghost stories, so they are called "ambition". Due to the strict ideological control at that time, the author could not publicly expose the dark reality, but only used the story of the fairy ghost fox to expose and ridicule in a tortuous way to express his loneliness and anger. Therefore, although Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio is a legendary novel, it truly reflects real life, especially in breadth and depth, which greatly exceeds all its previous and contemporary similar works, such as the Six Dynasties' strange stories. Although Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio involves whipping the cruelty of the ruling class, reflecting the wishes and sufferings of the working people and exposing the evils of the feudal marriage system, the works touching on this aspect are not only more numerous, more concentrated in content, but also more profound in reflection and exposure. Just like exposing the cruelty of the ruling class, its length exceeds the sum of Ji Shen, Yi Shu Ji and Qi Xie Ji, among which famous novels such as Promoting Weaving, Xi Fang Ping, Dream Wolf, Beauty, Gong Sunxia, Lu Ling and Cui Meng describe.

Through such a typical example, the work reveals the social reality of official corruption and points the finger at the emperor. Destroyed the people for an emperor's plaything. Zhu Zhanji, Emperor Xuanzong of the Ming Dynasty, liked fighting to promote knitting. According to Lu Ya's Ming History, "Xuanzong promoted weaving and drama, and took Jiangnan expensive." And record similar incidents at that time. Of course, Promoting Weaving is not a documentary, but a novel with typical significance written on the basis of folklore stories. There is also "Ji", which writes that Lian offended Yang. The sheep died first, bribing the ghost collector to let Lian die. Xi Lianzi, Xi Fangping, went underground to avenge his father. After accepting bribes, the city god, county magistrate and hades used all kinds of torture against Xi Fangping, which truly described the bribery and cruelty of the feudal government to the people.

Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio not only exposes the darkness of feudal politics and condemns the crimes of corrupt officials oppressing the people, but also exposes the drawbacks of the imperial examination system in feudal society and its poison to intellectuals. For example, Si Wenlang, Get rid of evil,, Jia, etc. Love and hate are distinct, life is strong, and ideological and artistic achievements are high.

"Si Wenlang" is about a blind monk who can smell it with his nose after burning the article to ashes, mocking the examiner as blind. "Wang Zian" laughed at those who were obsessed with fame and fortune in the imperial examinations. Wang Zian was teased by a fox in a drunken dream after the exam, thinking that he was a high school student, so he flaunted his village, abused his long class and exposed all kinds of gaffes. The work vividly depicts a scholar's various psychological states when he eagerly waits for the result after taking the imperial examination.

The ideological content of Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio is also manifested in opposing the shackles of feudal marriage and feudal ethics. Describing the love and marriage life of men and women is another important theme in the book, and it also occupies the most space in Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio. Such as Ying Ning, Bai Qiulian, Yu Xiang, Abo, Wang Gui and Liancheng.

Created an innocent image of Ning. She is a little girl who is not bound by feudal ethics. She is beautiful, naive, silly and affectionate, giving people a deep impression. Bai Qiulian wrote that merchants longed for the moon and Bai Qiulian to fall in love, and they were lovesick because of poetry. They also read poems to each other to cure diseases, fall in love and get married. "Yu Xiang" is about Huang Sheng falling in love with Yu Xiang, a fairy in Bai Mudan, in the Qing Palace under Laoshan Mountain, and becoming friends with Jiang Xue, a winter flower. Unfortunately, Yu Xiang was removed, and Huang Sheng's infatuation touched the flower god and brought Yu Xiang back to life. After Huang Sheng died, his soul became a flower, born beside Yu Xiang and Jiang Xue. Liancheng wrote that Liancheng and Sheng Qiao opposed the intervention of feudal forces in love and marriage and praised their persistent love as bosom friends.

Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio not only has profound ideological content, but also has unique artistic achievements. Mr. Lu Xun once commented: Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio was like a similar book at that time, but it was nothing more than a story about ghosts and monsters. But it describes twists and turns, tells stories in an orderly way, and uses legendary methods, but it is strange and changeable, just like the present; Or it's easy to change tones and strings. Don't say abnormal people are different. Out of illusion, they will enter the world; The occasional anecdote is concise and makes readers feel refreshed.

Most of the protagonists in Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio are monsters and foxes, and the author uses his rich fantasy to organize these unrealistic things into real life. All kinds of fantastic and unpredictable contradictions and conflicts in the works are the reflection of countless realistic contradictions. For example, Dream Wolf was written from Weng Meng's dream about his eldest son Jia's office. When he saw a huge wolf in power at the door, he entered another door. "See its kind, its sit and lie down, all wolves also. Look again, white bones are like mountains, which is good for fear. " One side told the waiter to prepare food. "Suddenly, a huge wolf killed someone. Weng got into a fight and said,' Who is talking nonsense?' A said,' chat and fill the kitchen.' The "golden warrior shining later" stepped out of the black rope armor. A robot turned into a tiger, and its teeth were full. "All this seems to be a dream, not real life. In fact, these are the portrayal of social reality. As the author said in the final discussion, "there are many people in the world who sigh the official tiger and accept the wolf." Even if the official is not a tiger, the official must be a wolf, and the situation is fiercer than the tiger! These works express the loneliness and anger in the author's heart and pin his personal ideals on him.

In addition, Pu Songling creatively inherited the tradition of China's ancient narrative literature and formed an elegant and lively language style, thus breaking through the solemn pattern of China's ancient language and greatly enriching the expressive force of the language. Not only that, he is also an outstanding master who is good at creating literary language. He created a large number of vivid and beautiful literary words, which greatly enriched the treasure house of language and art in China.

Pu Songling never became an official in his life, which helped him. He kept writing, and when he died at the age of 76 (54th year of Emperor Kangxi of Qing Dynasty, AD 17 15), he left a wealth of writings. In addition to Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio, there are more than 1000 poems, 100 words, 400 essays, as well as "folk songs", scripts, novels and popular daily readers. As the precious heritage of our national culture, these works will always be cherished by people all over the world.