"Dare to ask where the road is? The road is at your feet. Dare to ask where the road is? The road is under your feet..."
This is the theme song of the old VERSION OF THE TV series "Journey to the West", "Dare to Ask Where the Road Is", the lyrics of the popularity. As a TV series based on the literary masterpiece "Journey to the West", "Journey to the West" has accompanied Chinese has gone through a long period of decades, and it is still a popular program for the Chinese people today. With the broadcast of this TV series, the literary work "Journey to the West" has also been known to more and more ordinary people, and has become one of the most favorite topics for ordinary people to talk about after tea and dinner.
However, in addition to the Journey to the West, which is well known to the common people, there have also been three other literary works named after directional terms in Chinese history, namely "Journey to the East", "Journey to the South" and "Journey to the North". What the hell is going on with these three literary works?
Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea and Journey to the East
When it comes to the literary work "Journey to the East", many people do not know what is going on. However, when it comes to the words "Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea - Each Shows Divine Powers" and "Dog Bites Lü Dongbin - Does Not Know The Heart of a Good Heart", people who know something about traditional Chinese literature can roughly guess the content of "Journey to the East", and "Journey to the East" is closely related to the ancient legend of the Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea.
The author of "Journey to the East" is named Wu Yuantai, also known as the "Biography of the Eight Immortals of Shangdong", which takes the eight immortals as the main body and describes the process of cultivating the Eight Immortals such as TieQiu Li, Han Zhongli, Lü Dongbin, Zhang Guolao, Lan Caihe, He Xianggu, Han Xiangzi, and Cao Guoun. It tells the story of the Eight Immortals vs. the Dragon King, sun Wukong vs. the Heavenly Soldiers and Heavenly Generals.
In general, "Journey to the East" is a famous magic novel in Chinese history, the plot of the whole book is absurd and strange but logical, the suspense is endless, and its stories are closely related to the legendary magic, which makes people love it. The novel writing technique combines the creation of romanticism and realism, and renders the realm of the Taoist immortal while publicizing the boundless mana of the Taoist gods and immortals, which is a classic reading for the masses of the people to understand Taoism from a special level. As an entertaining literary work after tea and dinner, "Journey to the East" is very readable, and its overall content can be compared with the well-known "Journey to the West".
Journey to the South in the Longqing Period
Journey to the South is a novella written for Yu Xiangdou. The content of the narrative seems absurd on the surface, but the entire literary work reflects the author's lashing out at the dark society of the middle and late Ming Dynasties and the ideal pursuit of an equal society.
This can be found in the protagonist of the work, Hua Guang. Hua Guang's predecessor was the lamp flower of an oil lamp next to Rulai, and because it burned the King of The One Fire, he was driven out of Lingshan by the Buddha of Rulai and reincarnated in Ma'er Mountain, The Bullfighting Palace and Xiaojiazhuang successively. He successively whipped the Jade Emperor's crown prince, the second haunted the Heavenly Palace, defeated the Heavenly Soldier Heavenly General many times, and persuaded the gods and demons such as Clairvoyance, Shunfeng Ear, and Oolong King. After a series of arduous struggles that were not afraid of power, Hua Guang persuaded Rulai to return to Lingshan. The author's Huaguang is an image that dares to resist oppression, pursues equality, loves the people, and will repay with great respect. For Hua Guang's spirit of resistance, the author firmly supports it.
In addition to fighting against power, the author also writes about Hua Guang's opponent, the Demon Demon Monster. For example, the clairvoyant and downwind ears that appear in "Journey to the West", as well as the gods and demons such as the Oolong King. These demons have many common shortcomings in the novel - dominating one side, bullying men and women, and killing ordinary people and women. Although their power was not great compared to the Jade Emperor, the direct harm of these gods and demons was great. The battle between Hua Guang and the gods and demons to help the common people is, to a certain extent, in line with the people's psychology of punishing evil and promoting good, and reflects the people's reasonable desire to eliminate overbearing and corrupt officials and pursue a fair life.
The people-oriented ideology embodied in the work is extremely valuable in the context of the era when authoritarianism became stronger and stronger in the late Ming Dynasty. In fact, the prototype of reality represented by the gods and demons is the local officials who were corrupt and oppressed the people from the Jiajing to Longqing period. The novel fully shows the extremely corrupt local officials and the poor life of the masses of the people in the middle and late period of the Jiajing Emperor. And it was precisely because the local officials were extremely corrupt, after the Longqing Emperor ascended the throne and stabilized the situation, Longqing acquiesced to Gao Gong's drastic reform of the ming dynasty's integrity, laying a solid foundation for Zhang Juzheng's further reforms and laying a solid foundation for "Longwan Zhongxing".
In addition to exposing the gods and demons, the author also criticizes the feudal imperial power. The Ming Dynasty was an important period in Chinese history when feudal imperial power was concentrated, and because Zhu Yuanzhang abolished the prime minister system, the imperial power of the Ming Dynasty was strengthened as never before, and the rise and fall of the country often depended on the ability of the emperor. In the early jiajing period, the Jiajing Emperor made great efforts to govern the country, and the country made great progress; but in the later period, due to the corruption of Yan Song and other officials under the acquiescence of Jiajing, they betrayed officials and knights, the imperial court was miasma, and the official atmosphere was reversed in black and white. Officials have made flattery a common habit and corruption a common habit, and most of the national interests have been forgotten.
Regarding the inaction of the Jiajing Emperor and the corruption of the officialdom, there were conscientious officials like Hai Rui in the imperial court shouting. In the folk, there are novelists like Yu Xiangdou who have made a bitter criticism and satire of feudal imperial power by writing about the Jade Emperor's prince's flying and arrogant behavior, and even doing everything to make things difficult and bully Hua Guang.
All in all, combined with the background of the era from the late Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty to the Longqing period, we can deeply understand the intention of Yu Xiangdou in writing "Journey to the South". Due to the high pressure of the feudal imperial power, Yu Xiangdou could not openly attack the darkness of the imperial power, the greed of officials, and the hardships of the people, but he used the novel "Journey to the South" to expose the social environment and official environment of the middle and late Ming Dynasty for us with seemingly absurd and bizarre writing.
What is Journey to the North
Journey to the North is another literary work by Yu Xiangdou, and is also a divine and demonic novel. Its protagonist is the Taoist god Zhenwu, the god of the north. Formerly known as one of the three souls of the Jade Emperor, he was named Liu Changsheng because he was reborn into the Liu family. Liu Changsheng once went to Penglai Mountain to practice, but was taken to the palace by the king of the Gezhi Kingdom to provide for him, and because of the empress, he was reincarnated as the prince of the Gelai Kingdom and changed his name to Xuan Ming. After ascending to the throne, he married Li Xiangniang, the reincarnation of the former empress.
After ascending to the throne of the king, Xuan Ming guided Miaole Tianzun, re-entered Penglai, and threw himself into the prince of the King of Xixia Kingdom, under the leadership of Miaole Tianzun, he went to the Lingvulture Mountain to practice, and after completing his practice, he met the Jade Emperor and became a demon Tianzun and was in charge of the Sun Palace. However, the heavenly generals of the Sun Palace were all mortals, the protagonist asked the reason, and Miaole Tianzun asked the protagonist to practice in the human world again, and the protagonist reincarnated as the son of the Queen of Jingluo, and successfully returned to the celestial realm after practicing in Wudang Mountain. The Heavenly Court named him "Northern Xuantian God" and "True Martial General", eliminated demons in the Netherworld, collected thirty-six generals, and finally became an immortal after going through ups and downs.
The content of "Journey to the North" looks very strange and bizarre, and the protagonist has the experience of reincarnation many times and has practiced many times. The gods and demons inside were also boundless in mana. But combined with the details of the novel and the background of the times at that time, we can still appreciate the author's thoughts:
First, the novel begins to mention the Sui Dynasty. What was the sui dynasty? At the end of the Sui Dynasty, the world was in chaos, and due to the luxurious life of the Sui Emperor Sanzheng goryeo, the lives of the common people became increasingly difficult, and even cut off their hands and feet to escape heavy military service and military service. Through the background of this era, combined with the ideas embodied in the author's "Journey to the South", it is not difficult for us to feel that the original intention of the author to write "Journey to the North" was to lash out at social reality, expose the evils of feudal autocracy and imperial power, and express sympathy for the hardships of the people's lives. The protagonist Zhenwu (玄明), like Hua Guang, is also a righteous figure who dares to resist injustice and sympathize with the people.
This era background can be found in the ninth time: "This is the Middle Realm Sui Emperor has no way, the Emperor of the Middle Realm kills people, so there is this qi that does not disperse", and "it is a God general, who is in turmoil in the four directions of the Middle Realm, so there is a demon qi everywhere".
Even the Jade Emperor in "Journey to the West" is a more negative image in "Journey to the North". The Jade Emperor wanted to get the treasure tree of the Liu family in the human world, but because the Liu family passed the treasure tree to his descendants, he had the idea of reincarnating into the Liu family; but the Jade Emperor was afraid of being oppressed by the government in the human world, and he was unwilling to reincarnate. Under the persuasion of the Heavenly Court Minister, he reluctantly agreed to reincarnate into the human world. The contradictory personality and hypocritical image of the Jade Emperor represent the image of the ancient feudal emperor's mouth being contradictory, which is vividly reflected in the author's pen.
Second, the main idea of the article is somewhat close to Journey to the West: it is all to persuade people to be good.
For example, in the nineteenth time, when the people in Banzhu Village committed evil, the Jade Emperor sent people to poison the well to poison the whole village. There was only one good man who sold tofu, named Lei Qiong, and the Jade Emperor ordered the land lord to let him go. However, Lei Qiong wanted to rescue the rest of the village, so he told the land lord that he hoped to exchange his sacrifice for the lives of the whole village.
Lei Qiong ate the land lord's medicine and instantly contracted the plague and died, but Lei Qiong's soul was taken by the land master to see the Jade Emperor. The Jade Emperor was touched by Lei Qiong's act of saving the whole village with his life alone, and named Lei Qiong the "Marshal of the Plague of Welling". Reychonto dreamed to the whole village, exhorting them to be single-minded and do more good deeds. In the end, the whole village survived and became a good person according to Lei Qiong's hopes. This idea of karma and reform is very similar to "Journey to the West".