Why can a "bad book" with a bad story and poor writing be popular in China for hundreds of years?

One: A "rotten book" that transcends history

1906 was a "great event" year in modern China: this year Han Jing Railway was opened to traffic, this year East Sichuan Normal School (the predecessor of Southwest University) was listed, and revolutionaries and royalists also struggled overseas. The activities of "preparing for constitutionalism" in the Great Qing Dynasty were very lively all year round, but by the end of the year, the "release of the new official system" also called people with lofty ideals all over the country and poured cold water on it. A few years later, the great changes in modern China were quietly buried in this year.

However, the most "beyond history" event this year was the publication of a 30-volume novel by/kloc-0 on June 9, 906.

In the last few years of the late Qing Dynasty, novel creation and publication were very popular. However, this novel seems to be a novel with many points: the writing is half written and half white, and the writing is very obscure and blunt. The story is even more chaotic, and many plots are seriously similar before and after. Such a flawed novel also attracted criticism after its publication. Many clean people in Old Master Q in the late Qing Dynasty denounced this book as a "myth". In many "famous artists" during the Republic of China, once they found that their children and grandchildren had circulated this book privately, they would immediately offer it in French, tear it into pieces and burn it. The name "rotten book" has been circulated all the year round.

However, it is this "bad book" that makes many people hate it. 1906,65438+10, after it went public on 9 October, it created a "best-selling miracle" in the history of modern book publishing: after it came out, it triggered a frenzy of buying, and many poor scholars would rather not eat for a few days than save money to buy a collection.

In the next 100 year, China experienced several wars and drastic changes, but only this "rotten book" remained a hot seller, inspiring countless young people who were confused about the future of the national movement to resolutely shed their blood. How many of the most influential people are die-hard fans of this book. Even when People's Literature Publishing House 1999 selected "20th Century 100 Novels", this book was even more powerful than many famous books, and its scenery topped the list. "Bad book"? This is an immortal classic of China literature in the 20th century.

Such a miracle-creating "rotten book" is the representative work of Li Boyuan, a writer in the late Qing Dynasty.

Then why does such a book full of slots bring such a magical effect? This has to talk about another special identity of the author Li Boyuan at that time: a media expert in the late Qing Dynasty.

Two: From Down-and-Out Scholars to Media Experts

Li Boyuan, whose real name is Garbo, 1867, is from Changzhou, Jiangsu. He lost his father when he was a child and was raised by his uncle Li Yiqing, who was an official in Shandong. Adult Li Yiqing, also a well-known official at that time, was eventually dismissed for pleading for the people. Li Boyuan, who was deeply taught by his uncle, made a simple wish when he was a teenager: he was determined to be the first person to shine in the examination room and do something for the country and the people.

Li Boyuan, full of such passionate ideals, won the top prize at the age of 26. After taking the examination room in the second year, he won the first place, but his uncle's old scores were dug up. Li Boyuan was also implicated, deprived of fame and reputation, and the road to scientific research was completely blocked, becoming a down-and-out scholar. Then he was sent to work in the business field of the French Concession in Shanghai by his guilty uncle.

However, after this ordeal, Li Boyuan was completely open-minded. After coming to economically prosperous Shanghai, his vision was broadened. Even with the well-paid job arranged by his uncle, he resigned a few days later and plunged into a hot new industry in Shanghai: newspaper.

When Li Boyuan arrived in Shanghai, the time was 1896, just after the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1896. The national economy and people's livelihood declined in Qing dynasty, but the new newspaper industry prospered all the way. New newspapers have sprung up like mushrooms after rain, and the streets and alleys are filled with loud newspaper sales every day. Li Boyuan, who is used to reading four books and five classics, is also optimistic about this emerging industry.

He first worked as an editor in a newspaper, and he learned the skills thoroughly in less than a month. Then I paid for a copy of "Game Newspaper". Every day I am both editor-in-chief and screenwriter. Every article criticizes the shortcomings in a humorous style and soon becomes very popular. The circulation of newspapers has soared from thousands to tens of thousands. Shen Bao, the "boss" of Shanghai newspaper industry, applauded Li Boyuan: "The hosting of the game newspaper is not as serious as the romance of the game."

In this way, Li Boyuan, a poor scholar, quickly became a celebrity after joining the newspaper industry and became a "media talent" with both fame and fortune. At the beginning of the 20th century, there were many newspapers under his name, such as World Prosperity and Game, which seemed to be the man of the hour in China's modern newspaper industry. However, his career is booming, but he still has deep pain in his heart. In his original words: "How difficult the nation is, how endangered the country is, how fatuous the court is, and how corrupt the officialdom is. As a passionate student, he has concerns, so what should he choose to do? "

Even after so many storms, Li Boyuan is still the Li Boyuan who cares about his country and people when he was a teenager. It was in these years when Li Boyuan's career was on the rise that the Great Qing Dynasty was defeated in the Sino-Japanese War, a series of treaties were broken, followed by the national disaster of Gengzi, the fall of Eight-Nation Alliance into Beijing, and then a series of tragic events of ceding land and paying reparations. The disastrous national luck finally made Li Boyuan, who was heartbroken, make up his mind to "arouse the people and let the whole country realize that China will be carved up".

He decided to write a masterpiece with his own pen to awaken the late Qing Dynasty and inspire China people to strive for self-improvement, instead of focusing on current affairs. Starting from 1903, Li Boyuan's "World Prosperity" began to serialize this work: "Officialdom in the Sky".

If writing "Officialdom in the Sky" is an indignant thing, then serializing "Officialdom in the Sky" in the late Qing Dynasty is a very hard thing.

Three: the classics completed with life

Serialized a novel, actually want to live? Look at the content of "Officialdom in the Sky".

According to many "literary critics" in modern times, the biggest problem of "Officialdom in the Sky" is the chaotic plot. The whole book refers to the chapter-by-chapter structure of Wu's The Scholars. There is no fixed protagonist, and several chapters constitute an independent story. But it is this "messy story". Since 1903 was serialized, the effect has been that Luoyang paper is expensive, and almost every issue of World Prosperity was robbed in minutes. The number of books published one after another is becoming more and more popular. The whole 30 volumes published by 1906 even triggered a snap-up-because this "chaotic" story was written about all the beings in the officialdom in the late Qing Dynasty.

In this novel, which was originally planned to be written 120 times, Li Boyuan wrote all the official scandals of the Qing Dynasty that he had been exposed to since childhood. Many lively plots are also the original narratives of real events, but the names of the protagonists have been changed. In the novel, He, the governor who paid for an official, flattered Yang, the magistrate of foreigners, gave his daughter to his boss as a concubine for promotion, burned and looted under the banner of playing bandits, and then made a fortune by bragging. Tong Shangshu, who talked about "patriotism" and wantonly demanded bribes and corruption under the banner of "patriotism". Zhang Zhang's ugly face is a vivid epitome of the yamen in the late Qing Dynasty.