I don't know when, we have been surrounded by a variety of chicken soup texts, not to mention the famous quotes of foreign celebrities, just the mottos used to motivate teachers and students in the reading era, many people have long been catchy, such as "the sword blade comes out of the grinding, the plum blossom fragrance comes from the bitter cold", "Spoiled and not alarmed, idly watch the flowers blossom and fall before the court; go to stay unintentional, and the clouds outside the sky are cirrus cloud Shu" and so on. We jokingly call such aphorisms or articles full of chicken blood "chicken soup text", but few people know that the popular chicken soup text today actually originated from the Qing dialect of the late Ming Dynasty.
So, what is a clear word? The Qing dialect of the Ming Dynasty is a kind of exquisite and beautiful aphorism-style sketch, its form is free, the combination of loose and scattered, concise and profound and elegant and popular, including the wisdom of life, the elegance of the situation, the discussion of Zen and the Tao, etc., can be described as the chicken soup text of the Ming Dynasty.
Why were the Ming Dynasty literati inkers extremely keen on boiling chicken soup?
General historians refer to the seventy years from the first year of the Wanli Calendar of Emperor Mingshen (1573) to the seventeenth year of Emperor Mingsizong's Chongzhen (1644) as the late Ming Dynasty. At this time, there were foreign invasions on the outside, there were spoiled eunuchs and traitors on the inside, the scourge of party strife intensified, the corruption and incompetence of the officials of the imperial court, and the continuous drought, flood, and locust plague, the Ming Dynasty could be described as a real internal and external trouble, although the inside was crumbling, but the people of the late Ming Dynasty were still intoxicated by the beautiful dream of the prosperity of the balance. In this context, a large number of literati in the late Ming Dynasty either failed in the imperial examination, or were frustrated in their careers, or lived in seclusion in the mountains and forests, resulting in a group of "mountain people and inkers", who called themselves "mountain people".
The mainstream literature of the Ming Dynasty is different from any previous era, and the popular novels in the Ming Dynasty are novels, mainly "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", "Water Margin", "Jin Ping Mei" and other chapter Hui novels. However, in addition to the novels of the Ming Dynasty, the mountain people began to admire Su Dongpo incomparably, and loved Su Xueshi's "Night Tour of The Chengtian Temple" and further developed them into the unique Qingyan sketches of the Ming Dynasty.
So what is the charm of Qing yan, which is in opposition to the Novels of the Ming Dynasty? Yuan Hongdao, the theoretical teacher of Qingyan, put forward the famous "sexual spirit" theory of "single lyrical spirit and informality", and the Qingyan written with this theory as an outline has the advantages of "short length, simple words, unique lyrical spirit, and timeless charm". The literati and inkers at the end of the Ming Dynasty vigorously advocated the newly invented Qingyan sketches, and commercially blew each other "short and distant, MoXi and Eternal", which shows that Qingyan is the proud work of the late MingShan people.
Confucian readers are the most convinced of the three immortals of "Lide, Meritorious Service, and Speech", believing that Lide is the most important, and that meritorious service is secondary, and that it is again. For many mountain people, Lide is too elaborate, meritorious service is too time-consuming, and it is easiest to make a statement. And there are Confucius "a word can rejuvenate the country, a word can lose the country" saints to prepare books, so the late Ming Dynasty mountain people group, gradually combined the "sexual spirit" and "liyan" skillfully, creating a popular Ming Dynasty Qing dialect style.
As a result, the literature of the late Ming Dynasty began to move out of the tradition of "literature to carry the Tao" advocated by Han Yu, and various collections of Qingyan sketches began to emerge in large numbers, and Qingyan writing became a custom in the late Ming Dynasty.
Chicken soup with everything you need!
The Ming Dynasty Qingyan Anthology, as a "chicken soup text" that transcends the times, has a wide variety of natural tastes, and each bowl contains a magical chicken soup flavor!
For example, Tu Long was proficient in literature and opera, especially good Buddha, and wrote "Qingyan of Shuluoguan" and "Qingyan of Shuluoguan", borrowing the Shuluo tree, one of the two "sacred trees" of Buddhism, and using the language of Buddha Zen to explain the philosophy of life, which was in line with the cultural needs of the people of the city at the end of the Ming Dynasty who believed in Buddhism, and was a popular bestseller at that time.
Chen Jiru, a famous scholar during the Apocalypse and Chongzhen years, was a typical representative of the mountain people at the end of the Ming Dynasty, who took the examination into the shi as an idle matter, loved to collect books, and carefully compiled the collection of Qing dialects such as "The Tale of the Little Window" and "Taiping Qing Dialect", especially the "Little Window Youji" is the most passed down. The book "The Tale of the Little Window" is divided into twelve volumes, mixed with Confucian Taoist interpretation of the three families, telling the way to settle down and establish a life, and together with the "Cai Gen Tan" and "The Night Talk of the Hearth", it is called "the three strange books of the world".
Lü Kun, a famous scholar during the Wanli Dynasty, was a squire of the Punishment Department who had served as a high-ranking official in Sanpin, and was a typical representative of scholars, who had worked hard for more than thirty years and finally wrote "Groaning Language". The book "Groaning Language" does not talk about Buddhist scriptures, does not preach Taoism, but is based on Confucianism, abandoning the shortcomings of the Ming Dynasty's acid Confucianism and good name, and is a real book for the use of the scriptures, and is known as "a rare guide book in ancient and modern times for self-cultivation and family governance and world peace".
As the most interesting book of the late Ming Dynasty, the most interesting thing about its author is that there are many opinions and disagreements, but the mainstream view is that the author of this book should be Hong Yingming. Hong Yingming, a self-proclaimed Chu Dao person, was a hermit during the Wanli Dynasty, whose place of origin and lineage are unknown, and are only roughly recorded in the "Four Libraries of the Whole Book" of the Qing Dynasty. The name of the "vegetable root" of "Cai Gen Tan" is said to come from the famous saying of Wang Xinmin, the great Confucian of the Song Dynasty- "People often bite the root of the vegetable, then Pepsi can do", which highly summarizes the principle of this book in simple words and deeds. Since "Cai Gen Tan" is a generation of divine books of the Ming Dynasty, naturally according to the plot setting of the divine books, it is also divided into two volumes, the first volume talks about the way of dealing with the world in the official public practice, and the next volume describes the self-cultivation of the city at home, which can really be described as "beautiful sentences, pairs of words, suitable for joint words, multi-wind and elegant words." As a generation of sacred books, Caigen Tan advocates the unity of the three religions and contains the wisdom of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, with a total of 356 quotations, of which more than 100 are aphorisms about Zen, so it is widely favored by readers in the Ming Dynasty.
The two books "Groaning Language" and "Cai Gen Tan" are typical representatives of the qing dialect collections at the end of the Ming Dynasty, which typically embody the Confucian thoughts of the late MingShan people who are worried about state affairs and want to use their words to benefit the world, and are by no means "literati-style disease-free groaning", but "a good recipe for dealing with the world"! However, contrary to wishes, the "Qing dialect" popular in the late Ming Dynasty, although warmly welcomed by the general public class, was regarded by the mainstream literary circles as literati miscellaneous notes and essays, which were worthless in literature and were not included in the "General Catalogue of the Four Libraries". Therefore, the qingyan of "Moaning Language" and "Cai Gen Tan" has not really received much attention in China!
Ancient and modern China and foreign countries, together to dry this bowl of chicken soup!
The "Cai gen Tan" in the late Ming Dynasty, as a generation of sacred books, has not been treated as it should be, and has been unknown since its inception, and has ended up in China with an ending of "hundreds of years, hidden from time to time, almost lost", but in Japan it is a typical case of "flowers inside the wall and incense outside the wall".
It was introduced to Japan in the middle of the Edo period and published by the famous Confucian scholar Hayashi Rinyu of the Edo period, and became the mother of the Japanese engraving. Interestingly, this book is gradually titled "Cultivation in the World" in Japan, and the original title of the book is not obvious, and it is respected as "a must for cultivation" and "a good recipe for dealing with the world", which shows the respect of Japanese scholars for the way of the Confucians in this book.
Since the Meiji Restoration, Japan has embarked on the road of total Westernization, and all the political systems, economy, science, law, and military fields in Europe and the United States have all been Westernized, and its national strength has gradually become stronger, and it has leapt from a small country to an Asian power. However, Japan, which is strong and powerful, is gradually facing the insoluble problems of the Western capital world: major problems such as the supremacy of money, moral confusion, and lack of spiritual beliefs, and how to rebuild the national morality of the Japanese people has become a thorny problem in this period.
As the shortcomings of the total Westernization of the first decade of the Meiji period continued to emerge, more and more people of insight in Japan began to gradually realize the importance of Confucianism for the reconstruction of national personality. Therefore, emperor Meiji issued an edict to restart sinology and promote Confucian education that was loyal to the king and patriotic, and even down to elementary schools and universities, Confucianism was regarded as a compulsory subject, and "Sinology" was gradually attached equal importance to "foreign studies". Therefore, from the middle of the Meiji era, around 1910, the whole of Japan launched a cultural upsurge called "cultivation", aiming at the materialistic modern society, dedicated to cultivating the independent personality of the people, which can be called the "era of cultivation".
Since the middle and late Meiji period, books that have been titled "cultivation" are really full of sweat and cattle, and the "CaiGen Tan" has become the most representative cultivation book among them. Japanese scholars call "Cai Gen Tan" as "Chu Shi Cultivation", its number of publications is second only to the "Analects", so far, Japan has published more than 195 kinds of books of "Cai Gen Tan", which shows that Japan has a great respect for it from the heart. "Cai Gen Tan" was unique in Japan for a time, precisely because this book is most in line with the spirit of the cultivation era. As the Japanese Takeko Kyo put it, "Based on Confucianism, the Caigen Tan "extracts the essence of Lao Tzu and Buddhism, and points out the method of spiritual cultivation in order to stand in the world." ...... It is actually a treasure book that awakens people's addiction with small words", and the modern Japanese intellectuals represented by Natsume Soseki have not concealed their favor for "Caigen Tan".
More importantly, since the collapse of Japan's domestic economy after World War II, the government and entrepreneurs have once again turned their attention to Confucianism in order to revitalize the economy. Japanese entrepreneurs believe that shopping malls are like battlefields, in order to survive in the cruel shopping malls, "Sun Tzu's Art of War", "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and "Caigen Tan" began to be warmly welcomed by entrepreneurs. Countless successful big entrepreneurs have the following consensus: "Sun Tzu's Art of War" is talking about shopping mall strategy; "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is talking about shopping mall tactics; "Cai Gen Tan" is talking about people, talking about people's self-cultivation, and talking about people's life in the world. Japanese entrepreneurs believe that "Cai Gen Tan" is a successful "book of business management", which is mostly a reasonable quote, giving people profound enlightenment, from which many truths of business management can be realized. In particular, the exquisite exposition on "the master of virtue and talent, the slave of virtue of talent", the integrity and morality of individuals are regarded as the first place in enterprise operation and management, and the vision cannot be said to be advanced.
In the final analysis, the re-popularity of "Cai Gen Tan" in the Japanese business circles after World War II is obviously aimed at absorbing the excellent nutrition of ancient Chinese culture and strengthening corporate management to achieve the purpose of prospering Japan's modern economy. At the same time, the "Caigen Tan", which was titled "The Cultivation of the World", with the connotation of the philosophical thought of the unity of the three religions, greatly revitalized the Japanese economy and was worthy of the favor of all the Japanese people.
Conclusion: Pure words are repeated and burned, and the truth will last forever
In 1915, Sun Zhen, a famous collector of calligraphy and paintings in the Republic of China, during his trip to Japan, saw that the Japanese people respected the style of "Cai Gen Tan", and purchased the "Pocket Vegetable Root Tan New Interpretation - A Cultivation of the World" annotated by Zhu Zigong and returned to China. As a result, the "Cai Gen Tan", which was lost in the old paper pile, was revitalized in the Republic of China era three hundred years later, and triggered a cultural trend of studying the Qing dialects of the late Ming Dynasty. Such as "Cai Gen Tan", "Moaning Language", "Small Window Dream", "Four Trainings of Fan", "Night Talk of the Hearth" and other qing dialects have begun to return to the vision of Chinese readers, and the cultural genes lurking in the blood have once again begun to reconstruct the cultural and moral realm of the Chinese people.
Confucius once said that "one word can rejuvenate the country, one word can lose the country", and the qingyan that contains the philosophy of life is the true portrayal of this statement: small to inspire oneself and enhance self-cultivation, to family satisfaction, neighborhood harmony, to enterprise management, social stability, "chicken soup text" such as "Cai Gen Tan" is adaptable to the times, can be carried forward, and can revitalize cultural inheritance!
Author: Yao Youzhi, our special guest author
Resources:
1. "Cai Gen Tan" and the Literary Trend of the Late Ming Dynasty, Wang Zhaoqing, 2012
2. "Studies on The Late Ming and Qing Dynasties and Confucian Culture", Ren Yishan, 2013
3. The Spread and Interpretation of Cai Gen Tan in Modern Japan, Wang Cheng, 2013