Author: Jiang Junwei (Associate Professor, School of Arts and Humanities, Hubei Institute of Fine Arts)
The thousand-year-old imperial examination flourished in the Sui and Tang dynasties and flourished in the Ming and Qing dynasties. The "imperial examination stalks" that appeared in a large number of jokes in the late Ming Dynasty were developed against the background of the times. Through the fragmented form of texts, these texts depict a long scroll of social life centered on the imperial examination and education in the Ming Dynasty. Among them, especially the famous objects, textbooks, and stylistic "memes" of the imperial examination, can best reflect the generation context and appreciation barrier of such jokes.
In the jokes of the late Ming Dynasty, there are many articles that ridicule famous objects in the imperial examination. This kind of chapter is closely related to the daily life and spiritual world of Chinese scholars in the imperial examination era, and the style is mostly slang and shallow, so it has strong vitality in the dimensions of time and space. The more classic ones are: "A servant takes the exam with the master, and the towel box falls evenly, and he shouts: 'The turban falls to the ground.'" The master said: "Landing is not a good story, it should be called the first [land].' 'Servant'. When it was tied, it was replied, 'It will be too late in the future.'" ("Laughing Mansion · Turban") This article is later titled "And the first", included in "Guangxiao Fu", and also seen in the Qing people's "Xiaolin Guangji", although the text is slightly different, but the "laughter" is in the same vein. The headscarf is a clothing color that can only be worn by those who have meritorious service above the Ming Dynasty. Different from today's "school uniform", it not only helps to increase the sense of ritual and belonging of the subject name, but also is a symbol of various preferential treatment or privileges given by the imperial court to the student class. Take "Laughing House" as an example, among them, "The Rich Man Wears a Scarf", "Xilang", "Turban", "Broken Net Scarf", "Short Square Scarf" and other articles, all use "turban" as a mockery, or ridicule or irony, such as: "The rich man ordered the shepherd boy to dry the scarf, and the child dried on the horns." The cow looked at the water and fled in shock. Tong asked, 'Do you see a cow wearing a scarf?' This ox knows its own weight, but it is more than the master. Although the rich man is financially rich, he still can't help but envy the fame of the imperial examination symbolized by the "turban", which is classified as "the envy of the ancient people" (the frontispiece of "Xiaofu · Gu Yan Ministry"). What's more, he even used the Confucian Temple and Confucius Sage to "play stalks": "There are people who use wealth to pay homage to the Confucian Temple." Confucius replied, and the scholar said, 'Today is a disciple of the Master, and he should sit and accept it.' Confucius said, "You are a disciple of my brother Confucius, and you dare not be worshipped." ·In the dissolution of the solemnity and nobility of the famous objects of the imperial examination, the attitude of the people of the time towards donation is self-evident. Although this kind of joke about the famous objects of the imperial examination is appreciated by both the elegant and the vulgar, when people in the scientific field read it, they are afraid that it will be another taste: "The Confucian tablet pavilion is newly finished, and a scholar and a prostitute look at it." Seeing the burden, the prostitute jokingly said: 'Your father is here, why don't you worship?' The prostitute immediately bowed down, and the cloud said, 'My lord, seeing that you are rubbing like this, when will you be able to go out of school?' ·In the solemn Confucian holy land, Confucian students play with "turtles", and prostitutes laugh at them with their fame, ridiculing people's sore spots, and snakes hitting seven inches, how accurate! Such a joke, the onlookers at most clapped their hands and laughed, and the insiders read it, I am afraid that it is ridiculous and mixed.
The study of Confucian classics under the leadership of the imperial examination has made it possible to mass produce and disseminate jokes about "playing stalks" with imperial examination textbooks such as the "Four Books and Five Classics". The knowledge structure, especially the literacy of scholars, formed by the imperial examination and the education of official and private schools, constitutes the knowledge threshold for creating and appreciating such jokes. In the seventeenth year of Hongwu of the Ming Dynasty (1384), the "Imperial Examination Style" was promulgated, which clearly defined the content and form of the township and meeting examinations, and determined the status of the Confucian classics centered on the "Four Books and Five Classics" in the imperial examination and education system. Correspondingly, most of the articles involving classics and classics in the late Ming Dynasty jokes are based on the "Four Books and Five Classics", and only the three episodes of "Laughing House", "Guangxiao Mansion" and "Ancient and Modern Laughter" are counted, and there are nearly 60 articles. Among them, the "Four Books" are the majority, and the "Analects" are particularly popular, but it is not uncommon to use the "Five Classics" as a scorn, such as "Zhou Gong Poetry Ceremony" of "Guangxiao Mansion", "Three Lights, Sun, Moon and Star" and "Five Classics" of "Ancient and Modern Laughter". There is naturally no shortage of simple jokes in it, such as "The teacher likes to sleep in the day, and the disciple said: "How to interpret the four words "Zai Yu Day"? The teacher said, "Slaughterer, kill also; Giver, too; The day is also in the middle of the day; Sleepers, sleep also. Then he asked: 'How?' He said, "I can't kill me, but I will have to sleep in the middle of the day." ("Xiaofu · Day"), and "a disciple asked, 'The benevolent man is happy with the mountain, and the wise man is happy with the water', and the teacher said: 'Just read it as a word.'" The teacher asked Jing Keyun: "What is the news under the capital?" The guest said: "When I left Beijing, I saw that Duke Wen of Jin was poked and shot, and Duke Wei Ling was surrounded by a red scarf. The teacher said, "I don't know how the sergeants under my subordinates are?" The guest smiled and said, "The mountain that falls down, the water that falls into the water." ("Guangxiao Fu · Falling Mountains and Water") and so on, anyone who skimmed a few sentences of the Analects could not help but laugh. However, some articles may not, such as "Ancient and Modern Laughter · Waiting for Soup" said that Li Dongyang set up a banquet to entertain his fellow villagers who entered the Beijing meeting: "After a few lines of wine, the gentlemen told me and wanted to go to his banquet." Gong said: 'Let's live, there is a question of business: "The east and the west are resentful", and the monarchs also know why? The crowd was silent, and the public laughed and said, "I have no other intention, just wait for the soup." Li Shi used "the east and the west to conquer the grievances" ("Mencius· Tengwen Gongxia") to solve the problem, everyone was bluffed, silently pondered how to argue that Shang Tang's expedition "the world returns to the heart", but he only wanted to quote a sentence "to wait for the soup" to keep guests. Whether this kind of joke is funny or not has nothing to do with whether the joke is sufficient or not, and the reader's laughter mainly depends on the reader's educational background and knowledge structure.
Bagu Wen and Policy Theory were the main literary styles of the imperial examinations in the Ming and Qing dynasties. The experience of people in the field of studying the imperial examination style for many years is the catalyst for the emergence of this kind of "imperial examination stalk", and it is also the ticket to grasp its "laughing point". Policy theories mainly include political papers and official documents such as policies, theories, tables, judgments, edicts, and edicts. In the Ming Dynasty, the imperial examination township and the third session of the examination were all tested for current affairs, and the palace examination was only for the examination of current affairs, which was intended to integrate the history and current affairs into one of the words, and to view the scholars' "learning from the world". Compared with the eight-strand essay of "speaking on behalf of the sage", the relevance of the policy theory to reality is relatively high, so it is easier to give rise to some approachable paragraphs, such as: during the reign of Song Yingzong, the "National Study Trial Policy" asked the "Minister of Physical Appearance", and there were Jinshi Ce who said "If the text is public, the rich is public, and the ministers are all in the body; If Feng Dangshi and Shen Wentong are all ministers of good-looking people" ("Ancient and Modern Laughter· Shooting Mistakes"), it is spitting to read, and it is especially interesting to think about it. Different from the policy theory, the threshold for appreciating the "imperial examination stalk" with the eight-strand text as the scorn is relatively high, such as: "If there is a certain scholar, the meat fed by the person is a plague pig." Mr. ridiculed and said: 'Show talent gives gifts, words are shameful, lean side, Yao Shun is still good.' There are also those who take copper and silver as their subordinates, and they ridicule and say: "Vulgar gifts, but five points, open the seal and look at it, Yao Shun and people." Or break the clouds: 'The official of the time is also responsible for the door, and his words will be called Yao Shunyan.' ·Those who do not know "Yao Shun is still sick" ("Analects · Yongye") and "Yao Shun is the same as others" ("Mencius· Lilouxia"), it is really difficult to understand what the sages of Yao Shun have to do with the pig of plague and the silver mixed with copper; Those who are not familiar with the eight-strand chapter are also difficult to understand the fun of those who do good things to "break the problem". Another example is the article "Ancient and Modern Laughter · the Art of the Times", which states that Chen Xianzhang will try to write "The Old Man's Friend's Faith and the Young Person's Arms", the examiner took Chen's problem as "Everything has its own level, and the saint waits for it" as a ridicule, and criticized "If you want to be in the Jinshi, you must wait for a while", and said that "a scholar made the title of "Two Female Fruits", and the two pillars in the text: 'Yao Fei does not want to serve himself, and Shun Fei does not want to serve himself'." Familiarity with Confucian classics such as "Analects" and "Mencius" is the intellectual threshold to grasp their "laughter"; The familiarity with the methods of "Eight Strands of Small Questions" and "Dividing Columns" is the technical threshold for understanding why the "hearer" at the end of the article is "absolutely down" and why everyone "laughs". Of course, for Feng Menglong, who claims to be "a childhood experience, he asks people." The secret strategy of the Quartet is as good as it gets. Twenty years of painstaking work, but also more study and enlightenment" ("Lin Jing Zhiyue" Fa Fan), for joke compilers with rich experience in the study of Confucian classics and experience in writing the style of the imperial examination, such barriers do not exist. But this invisible barrier can indeed realize the screening of readers: only those who have studied the "Four Books and Five Classics" and the Eight Strands of Strategy for many years are their real confidants.
The unique emotional experience, knowledge structure and skill literacy of the imperial examination crowd not only constitute the basic generation context of the "imperial examination stalk" in the late Ming Dynasty jokes, but also build an invisible appreciation barrier. It's not that outsiders can't read or laugh, but that there are some cognitions, emotions and judgments, and only those who are trapped in the situation can easily gain a deep understanding. It has been more than 100 years since the abolition of the imperial examination, and although the lethality of such jokes has been greatly reduced by the "passage of time", its value of "preserving history" and "supplementing history" is particularly valuable. The so-called "no talk, no adult, no laugh, no talk." If you don't laugh, you don't talk about the world" (Mo Hanzhai's master "Laughing House Preface"), as it is.
Guangming Daily (2024-08-05 13th edition)
Source: Guangming Net-Guangming Daily