The 46-year-old Feng Menglong has a big deal on the stall.
One day in the forty-eighth year of the Wanli Calendar (1620), several men came to the county court to file a complaint.
They said that their sons were addicted to gambling because they were instigated by bad books, and they had seriously harmed the families.
Several of the bad books complained about by the population refer to Feng Menglong's "Yezi New Bucket Spectrum" (now "Thirteen Chapters of the Card Classic" and "Horse Hanging Foot Example"),a small game book summarizing the experience of card play.
Feng Menglong couldn't imagine that this little book written by hand would cause himself to get into a lawsuit.
But this is not the first time that Feng Menglong has been attacked by public opinion, nor is it the last time he has been attacked by public opinion.
Feng Menglong, who called himself the "Eastern Wu Deformed Man", struggled in the feudal etiquette throughout his life, acted wildly and uninhibited, and could become the focus of attention wherever he went, like the Ming Dynasty version of Killing Matt.
However, it was this "thorn" that was not accepted by most decent people, but became a brilliant meteor that illuminated the night sky of the East in the 17th century.
01
Before being sued this time, Feng Menglong had already been collectively criticized by the scholars.
The scholars called him "the son of a bad guy."
What was shelled that time was not the Card Classic, but the folk song collection "Hanging Branches" that he compiled and compiled.
In "Hanging Branches", 80% of them reflect the love life of men and women, most of which are not emotions that are "recognized" by people at that time: either the secret love of men and women when they are happy, or the condemnation of negative people.
Whoever licked the slave's window to break, the eyebrows came, the eyes went, and secretly sent Qiu Bo. How can I bear your kindness, want to hug you, only for the eyes of many people, I look at my good relatives, and obedient relatives look at me.
- "Hanging Branches: Peeping"
These slang songs and ballads from the folk, whether in content or form, are things that are not in the eyes of those literati who are full of poetry and books and abide by etiquette.
However, after the publication of these works, they were unexpectedly sought after by the public, especially those who were "not young".
The scholars were angry. Subsequently, they launched a public opinion attack on Feng Menglong.
Feng Menglong's arguments about these tongues have formed immunity. He didn't care what these people thought.
As far as he was concerned, the scholars looked down on him, and he didn't look down on those people.
For those scholars and doctors who abide by the etiquette and dare not have a little "fluctuation" in their hearts, Feng Menglong believes that their lives are actually "very bitter".
In the joke collection "Ancient and Modern Tan Outline" written by Feng Menglong, a story related to Cheng Yi, the founder of Rigaku, is recorded:
One day, on a whim, the emperor leaned on the railing to fold the hanging willow branches. After Cheng Yi, who had just finished his lecture, saw it, he hurriedly stepped forward and said, "Spring has just arrived, and you can't destroy the willow branches for no reason." When the emperor heard this, he was completely distraught and was so angry that he threw the willow branch to the ground.
In this regard, Feng Menglong thinks so: "When you meet Meng Fuzi, you can do well with good goods. When he met Master Cheng, The wicker could not move a bit. Bitter, bitter. ”
Since the rise of Song Ming Theory, the three principles and five constants and ethics and morality have gradually deepened the bondage on people. In Feng Menglong's bones, he was disgusted with these rules and regulations that stifled people and vitality.
He is more "emotional" than "reason".
"If the heavens and the earth are merciless, they do not give birth to anything. Everything is merciless and cannot be born together. Born without perishing, by love without perishing. The four are illusions, but the feelings are not false. ”
He believes that emotion is the foundation of all things.
"Hanging Branches" is what he compiled and sorted out little by little in the state of affection.
02
When Feng Menglong was young, he was a prodigal son. But it is precisely because of the courage to wave that he has lived another world.
His friend Wang Ting once said that he was "at ease, in the fireworks of the game".
In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the style of literati and prostitutes prevailed. The DPRK and China are politically corrupt, and those who are full of economy and economy are unable to achieve their aspirations and have no way to serve the country. Therefore, they had to get drunk in the Qinglou, interact with other equally undesirable scribes and learned prostitutes, talk about literature and politics, and dispel their worries.
During this period, the development of the commodity economy in the Jiangnan area also made the people's customs gradually open. Man's thoughts of self-interest and sensual desires are growing, and the wind of pleasure is very prevalent.
Feng Menglong, who was born in Suzhou, inevitably joined the experience of the city.
▲Suzhou Xiangmen. Feng Menglong was born in the Area of Fengmen, Cheung Chau. Image source: Photo Network
In the Qin Lou Chu Pavilion, he had close contacts with several women and gradually developed into a confidant with a red face. However, he always interacts with them with an equal and respectful attitude, exchanging sincerity for sincerity.
As a good friend of women, he is good at listening, and he can always detect the most sincere emotions of human beings from the pouring out of women. And from their songs, many stories were heard.
Feng Menglong wrote down the folk songs sung to him by the red faces, and at the same time, he kept collecting more folk songs, and after polishing them a little, they became the "Hanging Branches" that have been handed down today.
In all sorts of little songs, how real and cute human beings seem—there is love, there is hate, there is desire.
Pretty enemy, I treat you as gold and jade, you treat me like earth and mud, and now I am in favor. The delusional person is me, the negative person is you, some people say that I am also, and some people say you.
Let's say what the hearts are opposite. Often said, with me and who else. When you coaxed me to get started, you were confused again. The thief who has been blessed with a negative heart has suffered many losses from you. No more believe the granulated sugar in your honeypot, the mouth of a cotton-like child.
- "Hanging Branches, Negative Heart"
It is worth mentioning that Feng Menglong's perception of the feelings of various men and women is not just a bystander: he is also a person who has come over.
Others look at him with great affection.
He once had a relationship with Hou Huiqing, a famous prostitute in Suzhou. Soon after the two first met, Feng Menglong was impressed by her sober mind. After falling in love, he made a covenant with a white head and an old man.
But the good times did not last long, and it was precisely because Hou Huiqing was too sober that the relationship ended in the end - it was better to marry a rich businessman and live easily than marrying a Confucian priest and being criticized by the world.
After the two broke up, Feng Menglong was very hurt and wrote a set of songs to commemorate his dead love:
Suddenly think about the plot and less grind like a hero. There are thousands of bells in the book of rumors, and they are ultimately credited compared to merchants. Tell this to Sister Zhixian, I will lose weight after parting.
This case of lovesickness is endless, how to be depressed for most of the world. After all, if there is Yan Ruyu in the book, I read five cars in front of the window. Tell this to Sister Zhixian, can you also lose weight after saying goodbye?
——Feng Menglong, "Taixia New Song and Grievance Words" (excerpt)
Until the first anniversary of the two's breakup, he was still sighing:
Qiao wife village man, how much bitter complaining! It is a talented and beautiful person who is not complete, and tears ripple every year. Good shame, unrequited love is not worth half a penny.
——Feng Menglong, "Taixia New Song , Duan Er Reminiscences" (excerpt)
"The most miserable place in his life, the Mandarin Duck tomb wants to summon the soul", this fruitless love, let him heartache.
His friend Dong Sizhang said: "ZiYu (Feng Menglong) lost Hui Qing, so he was very good at Qinglou. It can be seen that Hou Huiqing is really the love of Feng Menglong's life, and he did not even go to the Qinglou after the love break.
Such a person with the most affection, it is no wonder that Feng Menglong's works always put "love" in the first place.
03
In addition to love songs and card classics, feng Menglong was most discussed in the society at that time, and there were also his examination scriptures - "Lin Jing Zhi Yue", "Spring and Autumn Heng Library", "Four Books Refer to the Moon" and so on.
To put it simply, it is the Ming Dynasty version of "Five Years College Entrance Examination Three-Year Simulation" and other things.
The year Feng Menglong was accused, he was 46 years old, and he happened to be invited to give a lecture in Macheng, Huangzhou. These examinations were written down during his lectures.
What does Feng Menglong tell others?
Speaking of "Spring and Autumn", his old line.
Born in a Confucian family, Feng Menglong's father gave him high expectations when he was young, hoping that he would embark on the traditional path of reading. Therefore, he followed Wang Renxiao to study "Spring and Autumn" since he was a child, and seriously studied various Confucian classics, including "Spring and Autumn", and as long as he met someone of insight, he would go to consult. This reading is more than twenty years.
But Heaven did not take care of his diligence. Since his youth, Feng Menglong's path to study has not been smooth, and he has repeatedly fallen behind.
Did he not learn enough?
Of course not.
Anyone who had a relationship with Feng Menglong or had listened to his lectures praised his talent:
The talent of the early years was astonished, and the famous field was not called a brother.
For a time, the scribes pushed the lord of the alliance, and the wind and currents of the ages led to the future generations.
——Wen Congjian "Zanfeng Yulong"
Some people speculate that Feng Menglong has been on the list, in addition to the fate of his lack of favor, perhaps, it is also related to his various "strange deeds": he lingers in the fireworks all day, and is good at gambling, drinking orders and other folk entertainment activities, horizontal and vertical is not like an orthodox literati who was cultivated in feudal etiquette and the imperial examination system, which greatly affected his wind evaluation.
▲Feng Menglong commemorative stamps. Image source: Network
The Qing Dynasty literary scholar Chu Renyu once wrote an anecdote about Feng Menglong:
When Feng Menglong and several young people drank, they carried out a liquor order, stipulating that the three points of flower names, personal names, and palindromes should be satisfied in the liquor order.
The first said, "Ten sisters, ten sisters, two or eight sisters, many sisters, ten sisters." ”
The second person said, "Buddha sees laughter, Buddha sees laughter, two eight beautiful people laugh, open their mouths to laugh, Buddha sees laughter." ”
When it was Feng Menglong's turn, he said: "Moon moon red, moon moon red, two or eight beautiful people through the water, through the water, the moon and the moon red." ”
The young man looked at each other, and for a moment he was speechless and could only obediently drink.
Although it is impossible to determine the authenticity of this anecdote, Feng Menglong's impression of the public is probably not ordinary "vulgar", not ordinary geeks.
Whatever the reason, if you don't get in, you don't get in. Whether Feng Menglong will be sad because of this, I don't know, only that he didn't waste his good skills in vain.
In the examination scriptures he compiled, there is a fairly clear idea of taking the exam:
Now, from the beginning to the end of the week, it will always contain the first and last, so that people can see it at a glance; it will record every year the first year of a certain king, the collapse of the pawn, and so on, for reference; if there is nothing in the scriptures, it will be omitted.
——Feng Menglong, "Spring and Autumn Hengku Fafan"
The familiar exam syllabus smells like you, don't you?
At that time, many students read his books and achieved the purpose of rapid memory. Feng Menglong therefore helped many people to succeed in the first place and become a "famous teacher in the college entrance examination". For a while, Luoyang paper is expensive.
This is about using magic to defeat magic. Although I didn't get in, my students got in.
From teaching to lecturing to writing the scriptures, Feng Menglong has attached great importance to the practicality of learning. This has always influenced his writing career.
04
Feng Menglong himself repeatedly failed to succeed, and the road to changing society through becoming an official was blocked. At this time, if you are still not dead-hearted, and you still have the obsession with transforming society and enlightening the people's wisdom, you can only rely on the pen in your hand.
Thus, the "three words" appeared:
"Yu Shi Ming Yan", "Cautionary World Communiqué", "Awakening the World Heng Yan".
These stories from real life or previous novels have been processed and sorted out by Feng Menglong to varying degrees, and have become chapters with realistic guidance significance. Feng Menglong is well versed in the art of reasoning in stories, and the stories are told frequently in golden sentences:
"Reputation is never heard, and right and wrong are always self-evident."
"Most people in the world have shallow eye holes, only see the skin phase, not the bone phase."
"We must know that we must study diligently, and we are afraid that people will not do anything."
……
His dedication to popular literature was therefore a great success.
Through one popular story after another, the needle is flawed, the satire is sour, and the freedom is displayed, in order to make more people aware of the various improprieties in society and fight back.
Although this kind of irony and persuasion has become another form of "enlightenment" in addition to the three principles and five constants, in the end, it is still very different from the increasingly rigid theory.
▲Feng Menglong's former residence. Image source: Figureworm creative
In that era, distant Europe was engaged in various discussions related to humanism. In the Ming Empire, fortunately, there were also "deviant people" like Feng Menglong, who called for the pursuit of human freedom.
As for the right and wrong that always revolves around him, laughing at it is his most common method.
A laugh is rich and false, and the arrogant trickery seeks the road to no end; a laugh and a false name, and the road to greed and discredit is absolute; a laugh and morality is also false, and the road to flaunting madness is absolutely ... Then it is necessary to see that the husband is serious, and the teasing must not be? It is better to be serious than to make fun of it, and there is no truth to be recognized in ancient and modern times. There is no truth to recognize, but I have to laugh; there is no truth to recognize and I want to be serious, I am only happy to laugh.
——Feng Menglong, "Ancient and Modern Laughter: Self-Introduction"
Everything is difficult to distinguish between true and false. That being the case, regardless of three seven twenty-one, laughed and said again.
Anyway, the real can't be fake, the fake can't be true. Time will surely give a fair answer.
bibliography:
[Ming] by Feng Menglong, edited by Wei Tongxian: The Complete Works of Feng Menglong, Phoenix Publishing House, 2007
Nie Fusheng: Feng Menglong Research, Xuelin Publishing House, 2002
Ma Busheng and Juhong: Feng Menglong, Jiangsu People's Publishing House, 2015
Xu Shuofang: The Collection of Xu Shuofang, Zhejiang Ancient Books Publishing House, 1993
Zhang Junlun, ed., A Brief Biography of Famous Chinese Writers of Past Dynasties, Chongwen Bureau, 2019