Ancient Chinese legal literature works are called case-solving novels?

Case-solving novel is one of China's classical novels, which was formed by the romance of case-solving in Song Dynasty and prevailed in Ming and Qing Dynasties. The most famous and representative case-solving novels are the three chivalrous men and five righteous men in Qing Dynasty. Cases in the legal documents of the pre-Qin and Han dynasties and biographies of honest officials in historical books are the predecessors of the case-solving novel, or its gestation period.

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In Song Dynasty, Ned Weng wrote "Jingshi Jisheng", among the novelists who talked, there were "stories", which specifically told the story of chrysanthemum, society and abnormal rise. Obviously, it is adapted from the content of Jianghu chivalrous men, that is, chivalrous and brave. Wu Mengliang Lu called these cases and legends "case-solving legends". Legend was originally synonymous with novels in the Tang Dynasty, so case-solving legends also refer to case-solving novels.

Of course, the novels that belong to the chivalrous brave to suppress arrogance and save chaos are case-solving novels, and the rehabilitation of lawsuits and prisons is also the theme of case-solving novels. Most of the existing case-solving novels in the Song Dynasty are for the rehabilitation of criminals and imprisonment, such as Cui Ning's single-fault beheading, a simple posting by a monk and the trial of Shen Xiaoguan's seven lives. These novels also retain the form of "telling a case", that is, each story has a story, a text and an ending. The Yuan Zaju was composed of scripts such as Butterfly Dream and backyard flower, and put on the stage to sing. Long Tu Gong An in Ming Dynasty is a collection of short stories with the theme of Bao Gong's zaju in Yuan Dynasty. In the Qing Dynasty, Bao became a household name because of Shi Yukun's Three Heroes and Five Righteousnesses. In addition to Bao Gong's story, there are official case-solving and Xinmin case-solving of the harbor wind in Ming Dynasty. In the Qing Dynasty, there were Lu Zhou case, Shi Gong case, Gong Peng case, Gong Liu case, Gong Li case and Yugong case. Among the numerous case-solving novels, the most popular is the classic Three Heroes and Five Righteousness in Qing Dynasty (also known as case and case-solving), followed by stone case and case-solving. The reason why this kind of story can be widely circulated among the people is mainly because the book combines the contents of rehabilitating unjust imprisonment, chivalry and eliminating rape, among which Bao Gongan is the pioneer of this kind of novel. "Three Heroes and Five Righteousness" tells the story of Zhan Zhao, Ding and Ding. Fang Lu, Zhang Han, Summer Xu, mountain rat, Pingjiang and Bai Yutang trapped in an empty island, in order to protect the plot of fair and unfair imprisonment, "Pang Yu" and "excluding the vassal king", especially in the novel, the life story of Bao Gong, the origin of the three treasures of Kaifeng House (ancient and modern pots, Yin and Yang mirrors and fairy pillows) and three bronze spears are added in detail. Stories such as "Civet cats for princes", "Five Rats in Tokyo" and "Breaking into the Sky" have a far-reaching impact on modern storytelling, martial arts novels and even literature and art in China. The story of "Three Heroes and Five Righteousnesses" was dragged on and on, and it continued with the small five righteousness and the small five righteousness until the sixteenth. The stone case is mainly stone, supplemented by Huang Tianba; The case of Gong Peng is based on pengpeng (or Peng Yulin), supplemented by Huang Santai and OuYangDe. This kind of novel was very popular in the late Qing Dynasty. Perhaps the narrator's original intention is to help the public with chivalrous men and complete their feat of rehabilitating unjust imprisonment. But the story dragged on and on, and there were as many as 300 to 500 books such as Shi Gong case and Gong Peng case.

General situation of development

In the late Qing Dynasty, the feudal society declined, and the ruling class urgently needed to punish people's hearts, suppress disorder and purge discipline. Therefore, vigorously promoting feudal orthodoxy and strengthening cultural autocracy became one of the climax periods of banning books, novels and operas in the Qing Dynasty during the reign of Jia Dao. [ 1]

On the other hand, urban culture is prosperous, storytelling, tanci and drum ci are popular all over the country, local operas are erected, folk art, drama and novels are integrated with each other, and the market is popular. This not only makes the novel close to the people, but also develops the tendency of favoritism. Therefore, the development of early modern novels bears the double load of cultural autocratic policy and commercial kitsch tendency.

The perfect combination of chivalrous novels and case-solving novels lies in the "three chivalrous and five righteous", which has guided the novel creation in this period since then. People lost their lives because of political corruption. Therefore, the yearning and yearning for honest officials who punish evil and protect the people, uphold justice and chivalrous men who shovel tyrants to punish evil and help the poor has become an important mentality of the people. Chivalrous case-solving novels brought this mentality into the scope allowed by feudal ethics, and the chivalrous man was commanded by an honest official, which not only satisfied the wishes of the people to a certain extent, but also met the needs of advocating honesty and morality. Although this kind of novels have inherited the heroic spirit of Water Margin, their spirit has changed, and their humanistic meaning generally lies in returning to the secular world, showing a clear tendency to accept feudal legal rights and feudal ethics. Mainly reflected in: first, from force to break the ban into imperial power. The characteristics of ancient chivalry, Han Fei once pointed out that it was "using force to violate the ban" (

I did everything wrong.

), is to maintain justice outside the law, with the nature of challenging feudal legal rights. "Water Margin" said that "the sky breaks the water margin, and the land opens Liangshan" (the 36th time); Chivalrous case-solving novels integrate chivalry with honest officials and bring them into the operation mechanism of feudal legal power. Second, the loyalty of the rivers and lakes has been replaced by the love of the Lord. In the spirit of chivalry, the loyalty of Jianghu tends to fade, such as paying attention to promises, ignoring life and death, and doing anything for friends, while the concept of a scholar dying for a confidant tends to strengthen and develop into a love complex of losing himself.

Huang Tianba, the evil tiger village in the stone case, killed his brother and forced his sister-in-law to save the stone, which is an obvious example. Third, from heartless to childlike hero. Most of the ancient chivalrous men abandoned womanhood, and the first-class heroes in the Water Margin were "naked and carefree". Chivalrous novels introduce the mode of "children hero",

"Green Peony" describes the infatuation between Xia Nvhua in Jianghu and Luo Hongxun, the son who closed the door, and creates a heroic and beautiful atmosphere. Legend of Heroes of Children found a place for thirteen girls in a harmonious family in Yongxi. The combination of "true colors of heroes" and "true feelings of children" has opened up the atmosphere of martial arts and romance novels. The outstanding chivalrous case-solving novels in this period are "three chivalrous men and five righteous men". "Three Heroes and Five Righteousness" depicts sound and objects, and retains the characteristics of vivid, straightforward, vivid and colloquial storytelling art since the Song and Yuan Dynasties. It depicts characters and describes the environment, which can be closely combined with the development of the plot. In particular, the descriptions of chivalrous men and women have their own characteristics, many personalities and strong secular life. Mr. Lu Xun said that this book "wrote heroes in the wild, full of vitality, occasionally set off the world, mixed with humor, and made fools particularly brilliant every time" (A Brief History of China's Novels), which became the peak of chivalrous novels in the history of novels.