"An Arab colleague told me that Aladdin was Chinese. I came back and checked, and it was real..."
Text | Li Chonghan
Reprinted from: National Human History
（ID：gjrwls）
Recently, disney's live-action movie "Aladdin" was released, allowing many netizens to relive their childhood memories. Which country is Aladdin, and can the lamp god really fulfill the master's wishes indefinitely? What else do we not know about Aladdin and the Lamp, and to answer these questions, we have to start with "One Thousand and One Nights"...
Where did Aladdin's story come from?
According to legend, once upon a time, there was a Sassanid kingdom between ancient India and China, and the king Shanluar was just and honest, and was deeply loved by the people, and when he discovered that the queen had adultery with black slaves, his temperament changed greatly, not only killing the queen, the palace women, and the male slaves, but also the virgins recruited by him every day after that could not escape the bad luck of being executed. When the prime minister had a daughter, named Shanruzod, intelligent and erudite, in order to save innocent girls, he volunteered to go to the palace and attract the king in the way of telling stories every night, a story set with a story, so he told a thousand and one nights, touched the king, saved his life, and stories large and small were passed on by word of mouth in the Arab world, forming "One Thousand and One Nights".
No one knows who the author of the story is, whether it's Indians, Persians, or Arabs. Around the 9th century, manuscripts of "One Thousand and One Nights" appeared one after another, they were written in Arabic, and the story framework was similar, but there were differences in quantity, content, and order. Hundreds of years later, at the end of the 17th century, the Frenchman Antoine Garang took the Arabic manuscript of Sinbad's Voyages from Istanbul, translated it into a book, published it, and became very popular.
The success of Sinbad's Voyages allowed Garang to see the market potential of Oriental literature in France, when French readers were bored with classical literature, and some travelers wrote oriental travelogues that were more sought after. Garang had exactly 3 volumes of the Syrian manuscript of One Thousand and One Nights, which were translated into books, and the first printed version of One Thousand and One Nights was born, not in Arabic, but in full French.
In 1740, the first volume of Garang's translation of One Thousand and One Nights came out and soon became the most fashionable bestseller, and two years later, Garang published another 7 volumes, One Thousand and One Nights, which became popular in Europe, and according to Garang's translation, One Thousand and One Nights was retranslated into European languages. People read the stories of the Far East voraciously by candlelight, and many pedestrians even gathered under the window of Garang's house to cheer on his translation.
Aladdin's story followed Garland's version of "One Thousand and One Nights" to conquer Britain, France, Russia and other countries, and its English translation landed in England in 1723, which won the hearts of a large number of British readers, and in 1788, "Aladdin" was premiered at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London, and has been a popular theme of pantomime for more than two hundred years.
Where is "China"?
Aladdin's identity is also a problem.
In "Aladdin's Lamp", Aladdin is a Chinese who grew up in a "rich and vast province" in central China, and his father Mustafa was an ordinary tailor, "extremely poor, and the daily handicraft money is difficult to support his wife and son." Aladdin is mischievous, well-behaved, idle all day, and only knows how to wander outside with friends. One day, an African magician posing as Aladdin's uncle came to him, and Aladdin's life changed. The magician bought him good and beautiful clothes, took him to the most prosperous places in the city, "showed Aladdin the largest and most majestic mosque in the city, took him to the hotels and merchants where the giant merchant Fuja had settled, and led him into the Sultan's Palace, where he could freely enter..."
The magician did so much for Aladdin, but hoped to take out the lamp that had been hidden for many years through his hand, so he did not hesitate to "set off from the westernmost part of Africa to China." The road was long, windy and rainy, and finally reached the town closest to the treasure." And he took off the ring on his hand and put it on Aladdin's hand to dispel evil and protect him from evil and bless his peace.
Aladdin, in the process of taking the lamp, because of the pressure of various things, could not move, naturally took out the lamp without hand, handed it to the magician, the magician, in a fit of anger, buried Aladdin and the lamp together under the ground, Aladdin sat in the dark place for two days, and on the third day, when he prayed to the Almighty Lord to save him, he inadvertently rubbed his finger on the ring that the magician had put on him, and when he boarded, a tall, ugly-looking elf appeared in front of his eyes, claiming to be his slave, "Whatever you want, listen to the command."
Later stories are known to everyone, with the help of two elves (the ring god and the lamp god), Aladdin married the princess Baidulun, escaped the poisonous hands of the magician's brother several times, after the king's death, the princess legitimately inherited the throne, Aladdin ruled with him for many years, and the two descendants continued to pass on from generation to generation.
Although the story is set in China, but this China is not China, the streets are mostly Jewish merchants, rarely see the figure of gentry and Buddhists, the ruler is the sultan king, for whom the Arab doctor is treated, the name of the princess Baidulun, pinning on the Arab yearning for beauty, because in Arabic, Baidulun means full moon, is a symbol of beautiful imagery. Even when Aladdin proposed to the princess, the king's request for a dowry was not "Chinese":
As long as he paid tribute to forty gold plates filled with jewels, and the jewels were the size of the last time he had sent them. The plates were carried by forty black slaves, and the same number of beautiful and well-dressed white slave girls were escorted into the palace. Having met these conditions, I will certainly give him the princess.
Obviously, the story creators are not so familiar with China.
In fact, "The Lamp of Aladdin" is not the only reference to China in "One Thousand and One Nights", in another story, "Prince Kamal and Princess Baidulun", a Chinese king named Uyur rules the maritime archipelago, and he "fights day and night, brave and famous". He had a daughter, named Baidulun, born beautiful, Miao, her beauty is famous in the world, other kings in China have sent people to ask for relatives, the princess one by one refused, the king and the princess have a habit, no matter what they say, they will invariably take the "oath of allah", and meet again after separating from their lover Kamal, and princess Baidulun believes that "it is Allah that brings us together." Thank God..." After all, Kamal traveled long distances to reach his hometown of Baidulun, and he did not know how many days and nights he had traveled, and how many uninhabited places he had passed.
In the 10101-night universe, China is a very distant place, and it is impossible to reach this "far eastern land" without floating on the sea for ten days and half a month, or crossing mountains and mountains, crossing plains and crossing deserts. Going to China is a remarkable and strange thing for anyone in the story. For example, a West African traveler who has lived in China for a long time has a high reputation, because "during his travels, he has seen and heard a lot of things, and he has encountered many risks, which means indomitable."
China is not only remote, but also rich in products, vast and popular, and it is very rich to go there to do business. One of the stories tells that there was a poor and lazy man in Basra, and when his mother heard that there were elderly people going to China to do business, she took out 5 silver coins that she had accumulated over the year, took the lazy man with her to the elderly's house, begged him to bring some goods back from the East, and then did some small business to support the family. The elder agreed to his mother's request, and after half a month of arduous voyage with his companions, came to China, sold the goods they brought, and purchased some Chinese souvenirs, after finishing the matter, they set off to return, they sailed on the sea for four days, the elder remembered that he forgot to buy goods for the slacker, and had to buy a hairless monkey on the island as compensation...
Studies have shown that some of the stories in "One Thousand and One Nights" began to circulate as early as the 6th century, and after nearly a thousand years of collection, refinement and processing, they were basically finalized. During this period, China's economic and cultural exchanges with the Middle East have been uninterrupted, and a large number of foreigners, including Arabs and Persians, have come to China to trade or settle. Although there are many stories in "One Thousand and One Nights" that deal with "China", it is not an accurate geographical concept, but a collective name for China and many ancient countries in the South China Sea at that time, which is synonymous with a beautiful distant country. In fictional stories, it doesn't matter what kind of country Aladdin is.
How many wishes can the Lamp fulfill?
As for the lamp spirit that Aladdin got with his life, when he first appeared in front of Aladdin's mother and son, he really did not say things like "you can fulfill three wishes, don't fantasize that you can achieve more wishes", its fierce and evil face and rude tone directly frightened Aladdin's mother, there was no background introduction and gags, and the lamp god opened his mouth: "What do you want me to do?" I am your slave and the servant of the Lord of this lamp. I and other slaves are like this", simple and direct.
Aladdin, who had experience, quickly grabbed the oil lamp from his mother's hand and shouted, "I'm hungry, get me something to eat." The lamp god did not know where to go for a moment, and in the blink of an eye, he came back with a large silver tray, similar to the matter of feeding the master, and the lamp god later did it several times.
As the plot continues to advance, the lamp god completes an important task without complaint and quickly and accurately, such as preparing a bride price for Aladdin, luxurious pomp, beautiful costumes and horses, a splendid palace, a fine velvet carpet of high quality, etc., all the requirements of the master can be met immediately. Only once, under unknown circumstances, Aladdin asked the lamp god for an eagle egg, and hung it in the center of the vault, causing the lamp god to be angry, only to hear him tear open the loud, terrible voice and shout, and suddenly shake the mountain, which made Aladdin tremble and stand up:
You shameless person,...... I and the servants of the Lamp of God are waiting for you, are you still not satisfied? But you listened to the ungrateful man and ordered me to bring my master and hang you in the middle of the vault, and the thought that you, your wife, and your palace should be burned to ashes. However, neither of you is the mastermind, and you do not know the truth. I tell you now that the culprit is the younger brother of the African magician who destroyed you, the Little Magician. ...... It was he who instigated your wife to come up with this poisonous scheme. He is bent on killing you, so be careful.
After speaking, the lamp god disappeared into hiding. After Aladdin knew the plan, he personally turned out to be a little magician, but where did the lamp god go, will it appear again, and as the story ends, it all ends.
The question is, since there is no limit on the number of wishes in the original work, where does the "three wishes" come from?
There is indeed no shortage of "three wishes" in "One Thousand and One Nights", when did Aladdin's lamp and the three wishes be bound together?
Judging from the pantomime of Aladdin, which was performed in London in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the time will not be too early.
In the 1992 anime of the same name, Robin Williams voiced the "only three wishes" lamp spirit, which was originally inspired by the 1940 film Baghdad Thieves, and even some of the characters and plot elements in Aladdin (1992) directly referenced the latter. Both films have stupid kings and treacherous prime ministers, and they are similar in appearance.
In "The Great Thief of Baghdad", the thief Abu accidentally picked up a broken bottle on the seashore, opened the bottle cap, released the devil, the devil threatened to kill Abu, was tricked back by the witty Abu to go out, promised to fulfill the master Abu's three wishes, through the power of the devil, Abu successfully helped his friend Prince Ahmed to hold the princess, and finally ascended the throne.
In the Disney animation "Aladdin", Abu became Aladdin's pet monkey, the magic of the prime minister from Aladdin's hands after getting the lamp, pushing it into the ground, fortunately Abu chicken thief, the lamp from the arms of the prime minister, saved Aladdin's life, the lamp god guaranteed the realization of Aladdin's three wishes, but there are restrictions, for example, can not kill, can not make a person fall in love with another person, can not make the dead resurrection, is really not an almighty elf.
Nevertheless, the clever and resourceful Aladdin, with the help of three wishes, successfully reached the peak of his life, and the lamp god also regained his free body after completing the task, shouting "I am history, no, I am a myth, I don't care who I am, I am free", and embarked on a journey around the world.
Indeed, when Aladdin comes to us with the lamp and accompanies us through countless fantastic days and nights and endless adventures, who cares which country Aladdin is from, and how many wishes the lamp god can fulfill? The charm of myth is not that it provides unlimited possibilities, often changing and new, as long as the core of the story is still there, the dream can continue to do.
References: Lu Yingying's "<101 Nights > in Europe", Zong Xiaofei's "Garang and <101 Nights > and Others", Lin Fengmin's "Oriental Images and Imaginations of Others in <101 Nights>", Zhang Anqi's "Exploring the Source of "China" in <101 Nights>"
It only represents the views of the author and does not represent the position of this journal
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