On wuxia novels

When it comes to martial arts novels, people may first think of modern people Jin Yong and Gu Long. However, if traced back to the source, the history of martial arts novels can be said to be quite long. Martial arts novels have two origins: "First, the biographies of rangers and assassins in Sima Qian's Historical Records in the early Han Dynasty;" The second is the' Miscellaneous Stories' supernatural novels that prevailed during the Wei, Jin and Six Dynasties. "

? For the word martial arts, we can interpret it through disassembly. According to Han Feizi, the so-called "chivalrous man" is a person who violates the ban by force. Most of these people have a strong sense of justice, and they have the noble character of sacrificing themselves and saving others, but most of them do not abide by the law. Therefore, although they are very popular among the people, they are often hostile to the rulers because of their maverick behavior. It is worth mentioning that there is no concept of chivalry in the west, and a series of characters they created in movies all ended with people, such as Spider-Man and Iron Man. After being translated into China, they were all dubbed as chivalrous men, which is quite appropriate. As for "Wu", it is easy to understand. Before the invention and popularization of gunpowder, swords, spears and halberds were all called cold weapons. In the era of cold weapons, personal martial arts are very important, and if a knight wants to fight bravely, an excellent martial arts is naturally essential. A novel about the chivalrous actions of people with high martial arts skills is the so-called martial arts novel. Today, I will briefly introduce the well-known modern martial arts novels.

? There are many people in the field of martial arts novels. Unfortunately, I have only read through Mr. Jin Yong's works at present, and his works alone have been read a lot. Mr. Jin Yong died in recent years, and I was a little sorry when I learned the news. After all, he still has a great influence on us. The influence here is not limited to culture, but also tangible economic benefits. My hometown Shiyan is famous for Wudang Mountain. The name Wudang is so loud largely because of the description and introduction of Mr. Jin Yong in his works. Although the creation of martial arts novels can not be separated from Wudang, the selection of materials is also a win-win relationship. More importantly, in many of Jin Yong's novels, the description of Wutangmen is positive, while many other sects and even Shaolin Temple in the novels have a lot of black history. Thanks to Mr. Jin Yong's propaganda in his works, Wudang Mountain in my hometown can enjoy such high popularity, which in turn attracts many tourists and promotes the local economic development.

? Although I have heard about Jin Yong's works, and at that time, various TV stations were scrambling to broadcast TV dramas adapted from his works, it is a pity that I have never understood them in depth. It was not until high school that a classmate watched The Condor Heroes, which aroused my great interest, and then I came into contact with Jin Yong's book.

? For me at that time, it was one thing to want to study, and whether I could read or not was another matter. Fortunately, our high school library still has a certain collection of books. For me at that time, reading was the only entertainment, so I often wandered around the library. For example, those Ming Dynasty things I found in the library. Later, under my constant exploration, I finally found the whole volume of Legend of the Condor Heroes, Legend of the Condor Heroes and Dragon Slayer. For me at that time, it was like discovering a treasure house. Although I can only borrow two books at a time, so many novels mean that my spiritual life will be solved in a long time. However, at the beginning, reading obstacles were not small, because several sets of books in the school library were from the 1980s, which can be said to be full of sense of the times. Novels are not only all traditional Chinese characters, but also the typesetting method is very different from now. For example, the words in the book are not arranged horizontally but vertically, so I have to read the next line vertically and read it from right to left. Reading this kind of book is undoubtedly a very difficult thing for me, but there are no other versions to read. In the end, the attraction of the story overcame the difficulty of reading. After my continuous efforts, I finally got used to this strange arrangement, and I also surprised the students around me.

? Jin Yong's martial arts novels brought me great pleasure at that time, because his works were always framed in the framework of history, so it was a great satisfaction for me who loved history and literature at the same time. Although mixed with a lot of folk unofficial history and novelists, it is undoubtedly excellent in improving the reading experience. For example, Guo Jing, who was talking and laughing with Genghis Khan, and Zhang Wuji, who fought alongside Wang Baobao, left a deep impression on me at that time. After reading Jin Yong's novels, I found that many routines of online novels I had seen before were exactly the same as those of Jin Yong's books, which was obviously suspected of plagiarism. However, Jin Yong's novels are not online fast food culture. It is precisely because Jin Yong's book contains many historical and cultural elements, and because of Jin Yong's excellent historical and literary skills, he dares to take history as the material and put it away at will. For example, when I was in my third year of high school, my Chinese teacher mentioned that a kind of chrysanthemum was introduced in Eight Dragons, and its name was very strange. I immediately reacted that it was "scratching beauty face", because the chrysanthemum was white as a whole, with only a few red dots in the middle, just like a beautiful woman's face being scratched. This is the cultural heritage, which is really hard to forget after reading it. But when the Chinese teacher asked questions, only I answered them, and the rest of the students were basically forced. It seems that few people in our generation read martial arts novels, which seem to be the daily entertainment of the previous generation.

? In addition to martial arts scenes, Jin Yong's martial arts novels also depict emotional scenes. Zhang Min, Yang Guo, Girl and Guo Rong were created. I thought Jin Yong was also a romantic genius in real life, but it turned out to be a bit dull. On the contrary, his cousin Xu Zhimo is a prodigal son, which may be his influence on Jin Yong. In addition, the most admirable thing is Jin Yong's description of women's psychology, and Jin Yong has created many distinctive female images in his works. As a man, Jin Yong has a thorough understanding of women's psychology, which can be expressed by brush strokes. This skill can't be learned as well as the cultural background. I'm afraid it takes more love to realize it.

? Mr. Jin Yong's life can be said to be a famous work: flying snow shoots at Bailuyuan and laughing at Xia Yiyuan, the god of books. Although this couplet is not very neat, it properly covers most of Jin Yong's works. I have basically finished reading it now, and the Duke of Lushan left the deepest impression on me. For Duke Lushan, it can't be called a martial arts novel, but it is more appropriate to call it an officialdom novel, which has the feeling of reading the satirical novel "Officialdom in the Sky".

? First of all, Duke Lushan is Jin Yong's masterpiece. At this time, Jin Yong's creative skills have been improved day by day. In his previous novels, Jin Yong created many heroic images with unparalleled martial arts, including Guo Jing, who was too stupid, Zhang Wuji, who had such a bumpy life experience, and Duan Yu, who was so lucky. Although these people have different experiences and personalities, they are honest and single-minded, but in the end, Jin Yong did not intend to create such a hero again. Specifically, I chose Wei Xiaobao, who is greedy for money, lustful, afraid of death, and incapable of martial arts, as the protagonist of this book. Wei Xiaobao is not only tactful and full of lies, but even likes to swear at people easily: "If I lie to you, I am a son of a bitch." Just because Wei Xiaobao's mother is a prostitute, it is also true that he is a son of a bitch. At the end of the novel, Wei Xiaobao married seven wives alone, which is equivalent to the number of seven protagonists in the previous novel.

? At this point alone, this novel is really attractive to readers who are used to Jin Yong's creation. I have seen an interesting evaluation of the duke of mount deer before: Jin Yong used more than a dozen novels to describe the Jianghu stories, and created a Don Quixote-like image in Duke of Lushan to satirize the Jianghu created before. Wei Xiaobao itself is a satire on the heroes of previous generations.

? Although Wei Xiaobao's image is not perfect, it is better than reality. Here I would also like to mention a work: The True Story of Ah Q. When Jin Yong himself recalled the Duke of Lushan, he also mentioned the relationship between Ah Q and the image of Wei Xiaobao many times. He said, "When writing this book, I often think of the spiritual victory of China people emphasized in Lu Xun's The True Story of Ah Q". The idea of spiritual victory law is indeed quite long and common in China, but it is not unique to China. Sometimes when you travel abroad, you often find that people in almost every place have their own spiritual victory method. So I try to explore the unique character of China people from another angle. "They all depict the image of typical China people. I think Duke of Lushan is not as profound as The True Story of Ah Q, but as a novel, it is better in breadth.

? In addition, Jin Yong changed his previous political correctness in Duke Lushan's book. Before Jin Yong's works, the Han regime usually appeared as orthodox. Both the previous Song regime and the later Ming regime put them in an orthodox position. Although there are many people who are anti-Qing and regain their sight in this book, Jin Yong holds a positive attitude towards most of them. For example, even now, the enemy is still fighting among themselves, arguing about who established an orthodox emperor. The Qing dynasty lost itself before it started.

? For example, Chen Jinnan, the owner of Wei Xiaobao, is one of the few positive figures in Duke of Lushan. Before Jin Yong appeared in Chen Jinnan, others commented on him: It's useless to be a hero if you don't know Chen Jinnan all your life. When Chen Jinnan appeared, he was covered in cards: Wei Xiaobao, who had been lying to everyone, was stunned by his imposing manner, and he was scared to shake off all the details. Chen Jinnan is very much like Guo Jing, Xiao Feng and other heroes in Jin Yong's novels before, and he has strong martial arts. Once upon a time, he was in America. It is such a perfect figure as the protagonist, but in the end he died in his own hands, which makes people have to sigh. If the Duke of Lushan is compared to Don Quixote, Chen Jinnan is an idealist of Don Quixote. Although he cherished the ideal of anti-Qing dynasty and regaining sight all his life, he was finally crushed by the wheel of history, while the realistic Sancho like Wei Xiaobao was mixed. Therefore, readers may be angry if they substitute themselves into the position of anti-Qing and regaining sight, just like reading Jin Yong's novels before.

? In fact, this is also a historical reality. I once heard a saying: if you have a bad heart and want to live a few more years, you should not read the history of Nanming, which is even more irritating than the history of the late Qing Dynasty. After all, the social system in the late Qing Dynasty was backward, and failure was the general trend. Nan Ming played a good hand completely, because some unnecessary internal friction led to the collapse of the original excellent situation. The failure of these infighting people is naturally not worthy of sympathy, but the tragic fate of those with lofty ideals is really regrettable. After all, Manchu didn't expect to conquer such a big China by their own numbers and strength. They had intended to grab the tickets and leave, but they couldn't stop the enemy's madness.

? Therefore, if we look at Duke Lushan without looking at the original orthodoxy, we will find that Kangxi created by Jin Yong is a diligent and wise king, much better than the ruler of Nanming. Even so, in the book, Gu, Huang Zongxi and others chose to be emperors after realizing that the children of the Ming Dynasty were unreliable. Although uneducated and greedy for money and lust, in their eyes, Wei Xiaobao is more suitable to be an emperor than Kangxi, just because Kangxi is Manchu and Wei Xiaobao may be Han. This passage can be regarded as Jin Yong's ruthless satire on these old Confucianism.

? The duke of mount deer's ending is even more refreshing. As mentioned earlier, Wei Xiaobao may be a Han nationality, and the reason for saying "maybe" is that Wei Xiaobao's mother is a prostitute, and the ending is that Wei Xiaobao's mother actually took guests when she was pregnant with Wei Xiaobao. Finally, Wei Xiaobao may be a Han, Manchu, semi-finalist or Tibetan Lama. It is in this humorous style that Jin Yong subtly satirized some blind nationalists at that time, and also satirized the values expressed in some of his previous works. It contains the inheritance and criticism of predecessors' works, and also analyzes the spirit of China people from another side, which may be the reason why Duke Lushan's book is highly praised.

? Chivalrous novels seem to be a very novel product, although if the predecessors are discussed, chivalrous novels such as Elvis Presley may be grouped together. But in fact, it was mainly written by Jin Yong, Gu Long and Liang Yusheng in the last century, and these men didn't have outstanding martial arts novels before and after, so martial arts novels are actually the product of an era. If we understand it carefully, many of Jin Yong's martial arts novels are actually serialized in Ming Pao at the beginning, and then published in books after great success. Many martial arts novels of that era were like this, so it can be said that this is the product of the lack of spiritual life of urban residents in the 1960 s and 1970 s.

? Moreover, the martial arts novels at that time were all created by three masters, and the routines and processes were basically determined. It is difficult to create in the later period with intention. It can even be said that few books can break away from the routines of the three masters of this martial arts novel. In addition to the development of routines, more importantly, the spiritual core in martial arts novels has also been discovered by these famous artists. As far as Jin Yong's works are concerned, there are Guo Jing, a great warrior for the country and the people, the legendary swordsman and Ling Huchong, Xu Zhu, who is born stupid but lucky, Yang Guo, who is stubborn and maverick by nature, not to mention Wei Xiaobao with national characteristics.

? This is true, but as far as the protagonist is concerned, many supporting roles are more vivid. Therefore, there is no similar creation of martial arts novels in later generations, which is one of the reasons why most people will fall into the trap of their predecessors when they start writing. Fortunately, these three people left a lot of spiritual wealth to future generations. To borrow a word from Zhou Dunyi, it's good not to be ridiculous from a distance.