Feng Menglong's life

Feng Menglong was born in the second year of Wanli in the late Ming Dynasty (1574) and died in 1646. When he was born, it was the Renaissance in the west of the world, echoing it from afar. In our big eastern country with thousands of years of civilization, there are also many deviant thinkers and artists, such as Li Zhi, Gu and Huang Zongxi. Li Zhuowu, Tang Xianzu, Yuan Hongdao and many other literati wrote brilliant chapters in the history of China's thought and literature with their shocking opinions, distinctive personality characteristics and outstanding artistic achievements. Wang Longwu of the Tang Dynasty in the Southern Ming Dynasty was two years old, that is, Shunzhi of the Qing Dynasty was three years old, at the age of 73. Around this year, many successful writers appeared, such as Ling Mengchu (1644), Hou Tongzeng, Huang Daozhou, Wu, Xia, Qi Biaojia, Liu (1645), Ruan Dalong and Wang Siren (65438+). A Chinese Renaissance with the embryonic stage of capitalism died under the iron hoof of the invasion of Qing soldiers.

Feng Menglong was born in Changzhou (now Suzhou), Wuxian County, Suzhou Prefecture, South Zhili. Born in 1574 (the second year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty), he was born in a noble family. His elder brother (Feng Menggui) and his elder brother (Feng Mengxiong) are called "Wu Xia San Shi". My brother Meng Gui is a painter and my brother Meng Xiong is a student. His works have been passed down to this day. In addition to writing poems, Feng Menglong mainly writes historical novels and romantic novels. His own poetry collection no longer exists, but fortunately, 30 works compiled by him have been handed down from generation to generation, leaving a group of immortal treasures for China's cultural treasure house. Besides Sanyan, which is widely known, there are New Biography, Supplementary Biography of Three Demons in Suiping, Romance of Ancient and Modern Heroines, Guangxiao Fu, Think Tank, Summary of Ancient and Modern Notes, Love History, Legend of Mo Hanzhai, etc., and there are many explanations and histories.

There are so many works in his life, which are closely related to his own interests and talents as well as his life experiences.

Feng Menglong likes reading since he was a child. In his childhood and youth, like many scholars in feudal society, he devoted himself to reading classics and history for the imperial examination. He once recalled in "Fa Fan" in the book "The Covenant of Lin Jing": "I was educated in my childhood, and everyone asked me, and the secrets of the four sides were sparse; After 20 years of painstaking efforts, I have learned more. " Wang Ting, a long-lost friend, said: "For thousands of years, the history of 2 1 century has been turned over." However, his road to the imperial examination was very bumpy, and he repeatedly failed. Later, he wrote a book at home. He fell madly in love with a geisha named Hou Huiqing and frequently contacted the life of Suzhou teahouse and restaurant, which provided first-hand information for him to be familiar with folk literature. His collection of folk songs "Guizhi Er" and "Folk Songs" was created at that time.

It was not until the third year of Chongzhen (1630) that he was recruited as Gong Sheng at the age of 57. The following year, an exception was made, and Dantu was granted. In the seventh year (1634), he was promoted to Shouning County, Fujian Province. I returned to my hometown four years later.

When the world situation was turbulent and the Qing soldiers went south, he not only actively promoted the anti-Qing, but also published a book "Zhongxing Lulve", and personally ran the anti-Qing cause at the age of 70. Feng Menglong is a patriot. When Chongzhen was appointed as the magistrate of Shouning County in 1999, he stated the reasons for the decline of the country. In the third year of Qing Shunzhi (1646), Chun died of grief and was killed by Qing soldiers.

Influenced by Li Zhuowu, Feng Menglong dared to break through the traditional ideas. He put forward: "Secular knowledge of reason is a model of emotion, who knows that reason is the dimension of reason?" ("Love History" Volume I "General Comment") emphasizes sincere feelings and opposes hypocritical ethics.

In literature, he attaches great importance to the sincere feelings and great enlightenment contained in popular literature. He believes that popular literature is "the voice of folk temperament", "the natural text between heaven and earth" and the expression of true feelings. In "Folk Songs", he put forward the literary proposition of "developing famous counterfeit drugs through the true feelings of men and women", which showed the characteristics of the times of breaking through the shackles of ethics and pursuing individual liberation. He attaches great importance to the educational function of popular literature. In Preface to Ancient and Modern Novels, he thinks that "reciting the Book of Filial Piety and The Analects of Confucius every day is not necessarily so quick and profound", and popular novels can make "the fearful people brave, the immoral people loyal, the thin people depressed, and the stubborn people sweating". These views are a powerful blow to the contempt for popular literature.

Throughout his life, although he had the ambition to govern the country, he did not want to be bound by feudal morality. His admiration for Li Zhuowu, who dared to preach chaos and mislead the people, his hanging out with prostitutes and his love for slang novels were all considered immoral, unconstrained and intolerable by Neo-Confucianism. As a result, he had to sink into the lower class for a long time, or work hard to make a living, or as an editor of a bookseller to support his family.

From the publishing point of view, these books compiled by Feng Menglong have an important feature, that is, they pay attention to practicality. His works recording historical events at that time were of great news value at that time; His textbook explaining Confucian classics is welcomed by scholars who study imperial examinations. His imitations, novels, novels, plays and folk songs have a larger readership for ordinary people and brought rich profits to booksellers. This makes Feng Menglong's editing work have some characteristics of the publishing industry under the modern market economy. In the book Think Tank, these characteristics are also fully reflected.