A fool's fantasy

As we all know, the so-called "authors" of many stories in the Middle Ages are actually just "recorders". Before they recorded them, these stories were circulated among the people in oral form. For example, according to Gambao himself in the preface of this book, the story of this book comes from two aspects, the first is from previous books and documents, and the second is from recent events obtained by interviewing an old acquaintance. The second part of the fact is not Gambao's personal experience, but is recorded by * * * Bao after oral circulation. And in the process of recording, he tried to be faithful. He said: "If there is anything wrong with the interview of Modern Times, I would like to encourage with the sages and former Confucianism." In other words, if there are any mistakes, it is likely that the sages and the former Confucianists told us that there were problems, but they were willing to take responsibility with them. Thus, Gan Bao acted as the recorder of oral stories. This is true not only of Sue Ji Shen, but also of other medieval novels. Therefore, many ancient folk stories are often preserved in the novels of this period.

In folk stories, there is a story called a fool. As the name implies, the content and plot of such stories are stupid behaviors of fools. It exists widely all over the world, and the number is amazing. In China, it is also the most important kind of folk story. For example, Zheng Man buys shoes and waits for a rabbit in Han Feizi, and Lu Chunqiu's Stealing a Clock and Carving a Boat for a Sword all belong to the stories of fools. In India, there are many such stories and they spread widely. The plot of Waiting for the Rabbit and Carving a Boat for a Sword mentioned above is similar to the Indian story. I suspect it was spread to China from abroad.

The concentrated source of many jokes about fools in China's medieval novels is the Hundred Similes Classic. According to Volume 9 of the Tales of Sanzang, a wandering monk, the Hundred Similes Classic was copied from the Twelve Classics of Master Zhong Tianzhu's Asking Nabi to Become a Monk and Repair Duoluozang. We don't know if there is any purpose in copying these metaphors, but throughout the book, most of them are stories of fools, almost a collection of stories of Indian fools. In other Buddhist fables, there are also many stories of fools. The translation, introduction and dissemination of Buddhist fables, such as the Hundred Similes Classic, have contributed to the enrichment and development of China's fool stories.

For example, the joke that "fools cure people" was widely circulated in the Northern and Southern Dynasties. In addition to the stories recorded in Yin Yun's novels, there are also records in Continued Talks and Laughing Forest:

Plain people are easy to treat, saying, "You are not good, one hundred people have one ear." Some people bend eight feet and straight six feet, which is thick goods for treatment. You said, "You can be subdued." Want to step on the back. The monk said, "You will kill me!" He said, "If fun makes you straight, how do you know about death?"

This folk joke is a fable used by Jiang Yingke, a man of Amin Dynasty, to criticize those stupid and cruel salesmen who ignore people's lives and blindly ask for money and food. The plot is slightly embellished, but it basically retains the original appearance of the story. This story is recorded in Xue Tao's novel, named "Cui Ke", and its cloud:

There used to be a doctor who could cure the camel's back by his own media. He said: "If you are a bow, if you are a shrimp, if you are a curved ring, if you extend your treatment, you can treat it like an arrow." One believes in how to cure camels. There are two rope boards, one is placed underground and the camel is placed on it; Another kind of pressure. That is to step on it. The camel is straight, and he will die again. His son wants to call the official. The doctor said, "I cure camels, but I control people's straightness, and I control people's death."

But this story may not be original by China, but its original source should be Indian. The third volume of Baiyujing has the metaphor of "healing and rolling back":

For example, someone died of rickets and asked for medical treatment. The doctor applied a crisp coating, put the board up and down and pressed it hard, and I realized that my eyes came out at once.

Compared with Laughing Forest, Jiang Yingke's fable came out later, but it is closer to the original Indian story.

1949, Kunlun Film Company made a film called Crow and Sparrow, which contained a classic performance. Zhao Dan's "Xiao Bo" was lying on the cold chair and thinking: borrow money to roll gold, raise a house, raise a house and then roll gold, raise a house after rolling gold, and then dance and say, "I'm rich." As a result, the recliner collapsed and the small radio suddenly fell off the chair. The design of this plot stems from an old joke. Yin Yun's novels, volume 5, article 1, GA996, article 7:

As the saying goes, poor people can only run the urn and spend the night in it, and do the math and say, "This urn has been sold several times and the interest has doubled." I get double interest, so I can sell two urns, from two to four, and I get double interest, so there is no room for profit. "I danced with joy, but I didn't think the urn was broken.

This article is quoted from the previous episode of Shi Wen Lei Ju, and it is similar to the content recorded in Her Flat Sea. Yu Jiaxi may also suspect that Kobayashi wrote the original text. This joke is widely circulated. Su Dongpo has a poem with a very long title, which is called "There are too many seas and rivers, you have to send books and wine, and you can write a distant poem, which is impressive." The son has a book to celebrate each other, so he wrote an article with its rhyme and sent it to all the sons and nephews. One of the couplets reads: "He is full of beds in the middle of the night, and he is dancing in the middle of the night." Shi commented on this poem and said:

A short story on earth: "There was a poor man who only had an urn at home. Keep sleeping at night. One night, I thought to myself: Dog Fu Gui, when you spend money to buy a batch of farmhouses and a batch of prostitutes, they are all equipped with tall cars and big covers. Going back and forth in my arms, I didn't feel happy when I danced, so I stepped on the urn. " So today's custom refers to a paranoid schemer, called Weng Ji. (History of Su Shizhu, Volume 38)

It can be seen that this story was widely circulated among the people in the Song Dynasty. Jiang Yingke's novel Xue Tao also contains this story. Of course, the plot is greatly enriched: it is said that a citizen is extremely poor. One day, he accidentally picked up an egg and said excitedly, "I have a family." The wife asked, "Where are the belongings?" He took out the egg and said, "Here it is. But it will take ten years for a family to camp. " Then my wife and I made a plan: "I'll take this egg and borrow my neighbor's hen to hatch chickens." When the chicken grows up, I will find a female to lay eggs and then hatch the chicken. I can raise fifteen chickens a month. Within two years, the chicken gave birth to another chicken. You can get 300 chickens and sell them for ten gold. Ten gold buys five cows, and cows regenerate cows. In three years, you can get 25 cows and sell them for 300 gold. I use this 300 gold to get a loan, and I can get 500 gold in three years. Two-thirds for the farmhouse and one-third for the servants and concubines. I can swim with you all my life, isn't that fast? " When his wife heard that he wanted to buy a concubine, she flew into a rage and immediately broke the egg and said, "Don't leave such a disaster!" " "

Ji Xianlin pointed out that this joke was originally an Indian folk joke, which came from the seventh chapter of Jiping and the seventh chapter of Shu. We quote Shu's record as follows:

Somewhere, there was a Brahmin named Bo Li Po Bona. He filled a jar with the leftover big cereal, hung the jar on a cork, put a bed under it, looked at the jar for a while, and fantasized at night: the jar is now full of big cereal. If you encounter a frugal year, you can sell it at 100 yuan and buy two goats. A goat born every six months can become a group of goats. Goats were replaced by cows. I sold the calf so that the cow could be replaced by a buffalo. If buffaloes change into mares and produce horses, I can have many horses. You can get a lot of gold by selling these horses. I want to buy a four-bedroom house with this gold. A man came into my house and married his most beautiful and best daughter to me. She gave birth to a child, and I named him Sumo Shemo. Because he always wanted me to swing on my knees, I took the book and hid it in a place behind the stable, but Sumo Shemo saw me at a glance. Because he likes to sit on people's knees and let people swing around, he struggled out of his mother's arms and came to my horses. In a rage, I called my wife and said, "Come and take care of the children! Come and take care of the children! " But because she was busy doing housework and didn't hear me, I immediately stood up and kicked her. In this way, he came out of his fantasy and really kicked it. The jar broke at once and the big cereal in it was empty.

In fact, this kind of fool story is a common motif, which is numbered as motif J2060. 1 and J2060 in AT classification, and the type is 1430. The usual plot of this kind of story is this: a couple or a fool made various plans for future actions, but in the end they complained about all the specific projects in the plan, so they ruined the wealth they had been expecting to bring to themselves. In a state of excitement or extreme nervousness, a fool will break a honey jar or a glass box, or break an egg he wants to sell. The milkmaid union suddenly raised its head and stopped the milk being milked. These folk stories are widely popular in oriental literature and medieval literature, and appear repeatedly in the folklore of many countries such as Europe and Asia. There should be the origin of oriental literature. In Ding Naitong's Index of Folk Stories in China, the number of such stories is 168 1, and the title is "Fool's Fantasy". Ding Naitong found as many as 15 cases, which shows that this is a widely circulated genre story.

(Author: Nanjing Normal University College)