What is the development history of Chinese classical novels?

The development process of Chinese classical novels

After a long road, ancient Chinese novels did not truly possess the elements of novels until the Tang Dynasty.

1． Pre-Qin and Han Dynasties - the budding period of ancient novels. The myths, fables, historical biographies, "unofficial history" legends, religious stories, etc. of this period all gave birth to the artistic factors of the novel and prepared the conditions for the formation of the novel. Clues.

Myths: such as "Jingwei reclaims the sea", "Nuwa mends the sky", "Kuafu chases the sun", etc. Myths have simple plots and characters with certain personalities, which are the artistic elements of novels in their infancy.

Fables are a short, concise and satirical literary style, which is characterized by illustrating an abstract truth through false stories. Pre-Qin fables, which dared to intervene in life, contributed to the formation of the realist tradition of ancient Chinese novels. Its satirical art was directly inherited and used as a reference for later generations of novels. The satirical art in later satirical novels is all positively influenced by fables; it is one of the earliest narrative literatures, and pioneered the conscious use of fictional stories. The novelist has learned from various aspects of artistic experience.

"Historical Records" pioneered the biographical historiography in my country. It changed the previous tradition of narrating historical events in a chronological or country-specific style. It centered on characters and explained history through their historical activities. As far as the influence on the novel is concerned, in addition to the realistic creation method, it also lies in the twists and turns and detailed description of interesting story scenes, and the vivid expression of the identity and personality of the characters. The story is vivid, the characters are lifelike, and it is full of drama and novelistic meaning. It not only provides rich themes for later novels, but more importantly, it directly provides artistic experience in writing storylines and shaping characters for the formation of novel style.

The relationship between ancient Chinese novels and religious superstition legends is very close. It can be said that they have formed an indissoluble bond, which has led to the formation of two major categories in ancient novels: strange language and strange stories. The main form of religion in the pre-Qin era was witchcraft.

2． Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties - the childhood period of ancient novels. At this time, novels about "Zhiren" and "Zhiguai" appeared, collectively called notebook novels. During this period, our country's novels began to take shape, such as Liu Yiqing's "Shishuoxinyu" (Zhiren) and Qian Bao's "Sou Shen Ji" (Zhiguai). These novels were not mature enough in art and were only "crude outlines": description The characters cannot write a complete image. Most of the stories written are of a factual nature and lack artistic fiction. The authors only collect anecdotes rather than consciously create novels. However, its influence on later novels and dramas is huge. of.

3. Tang Dynasty - the mature period of ancient novels. Legends of the Tang Dynasty appeared in the Tang Dynasty. The emergence of legends in the Tang Dynasty marks the maturity of Chinese classical novels. Compared with the works written in childhood, Tang Dynasty novels have made great progress: they consciously wrote novels, moving from ghosts and gods, anecdotes and anecdotes to real life, and made great artistic creation and improvement. Famous legends of the Tang Dynasty include: Jiang Fang's "Huo Xiaoyu's Biography", Yuan Zhen's "Yingying Biography", Li Chaowei's "Liu Yi's Biography", and Bai Xingjian's "Li Wa's Biography".

4. Song Dynasty - the birth of scripts. Vernacular novels—Hua Ben, also known as “Hua Ben novels”—appeared in the Song Dynasty. From then on, the history of novels, with short stories in classical Chinese as the mainstream, gradually shifted to the history of novels with vernacular novels as the mainstream. At the same time, classical Chinese novels still existed, and only then did novels become the proper name for the storytelling genre. The emergence of scripts is "a major change in the history of novels"; from classical Chinese to vernacular, it not only enhances the expressive power of novels, but also expands the readership and improves the social function of novels; the objects of description of the works shift from feudal scholars to common people , the ideological viewpoint and aesthetic taste of the work have changed; it has laid the foundation for short stories and long stories in vernacular. His representative works include "The Wrong Killing of Cui Ning" and "Three Kingdoms".

5. Ming Dynasty - Vernacular novels flourished. In the Ming Dynasty, "Huahua script" appeared. That is, novels created by literati in the Ming Dynasty that imitated the system and form of scripts. For example, "Spring falls in Yutang and it is difficult to find a husband", "Du Shiniang sank her treasure chest in anger", etc. The Ming Dynasty was a time when vernacular novels flourished.

Famous writers' works: Hong Zhen's "Qingpingshantang Huaben", Feng Menglong's "Three Words" ("Yu Shi Ming Yan", "Warning Words", "Awakening Words"), Ling Mengchu's "Er Pai" ("Chu Shi") "The Surprise on the Case" and "The Surprise on the Case Two" appeared in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. They are characterized by chapter headings, often taking one or two central events as one chapter. The lengths are roughly equal, the plots are connected one after the other, the beginning and end often use spoken words such as "Speak" and "Listen to the next chapter to break down", interspersed with poems and rhymes, and the ending is designed to attract readers. During this period, the development of ancient Chinese novels reached its peak, and the novel was born. A large number of immortal masterpieces. In the early Ming Dynasty, the publication of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" (Luo Guanzhong) and "Water Margin" (Shi Naian) marked that the history of Chinese novels entered a new stage. From then on, Chinese novels were dominated by short stories. The main focus is on short stories. The "Four Wonderful Books" dominate the novels of various genres: "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is the first full-length novel in the history of novels and is also a model of historical novels; "Water Margin" It is not only the first work describing a peasant uprising, but also a model of heroic legend; "Journey to the West" (Wu Cheng'en) is both the first full-length novel about gods and demons, and also a model of a novel about gods and demons; "The Plum in the Golden Ping" is both the first It is also the first novel written by a scholar alone.

6. The Qing Dynasty - the climax of novel creation in the Qing Dynasty, "The Scholars" (Wu Jingzi) and "A Dream of Red Mansions". The emergence of "Cao Xueqin" once again pushed the creation of novels to a climax. The famous short stories in classical Chinese at this time were Pu Songling's "Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio"

After "A Dream of Red Mansions", due to the changes of the times. The reason is that the creation of novels fell into a low state and flourished again in the late Qing Dynasty. There were more than a thousand kinds of novels in the late Qing Dynasty. The famous ones include "The Appearance of Officialdom" by Li Boyuan, one of the "Four Great Novelists of the Late Qing Dynasty", and "Twenties" by Wu Woyao. "The Strange Current Situation I Witnessed in Years", Liu E's "Lao Can's Travels", Zeng Pu's "Nie Haihua"