The Formation and Development of the Three Kingdoms Novel Story (VII) - The Birth of the First Of the Four Strange Books in the Qing Dynasty (Part I) ‖ Liu Chang

The Formation and Development of the Novel Story of the Three Kingdoms (VII)

The First of the Four Great Strange Books of the Qing Dynasty was born (Part I)

Liu Chang

The Ming Dynasty already had many comments on the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and by the early years of the Qing Dynasty, Mao Zonggang reorganized and revised Luo Guanzhong's novel to form the first of the Four Great Strange Books, which had a major impact on future generations.

Ming Dynasty criticism emerged

Criticism refers to the use of theoretical methods to sort out works. After the romance of the Three Kingdoms came out, it was widely welcomed, and there was criticism of the novel. In the early days, criticism was sketchy, lacked thoughtfulness and systematicness, and was mainly carried out through two aspects: prologue and small-character annotations to the text.

In terms of the preface, in the seventh year of Ming Hongzhi (1494), when Jiang Daqi wrote the preface to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, he commented that the book was "not very deep, the words are not very vulgar, and the chronicle is actual"; In the first year of Ming Jiajing (1522), Zhang Shangde's "Introduction to the Popular Interpretation of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms" said: "Those who do good things are implicitly compiled in common phrases, and they want the people of the world to enter their ears and understand their affairs, to understand their righteousness because of things, and to feel happy because of righteousness"; Ming Jiajingjian Gao Ru's "Hundred Rivers Book" commented that "according to the main history, the collection of novels, the testimony of words, the good and good, not vulgar and not virtual, easy to see and easy to enter." In terms of the small-character annotations of the text, the earliest criticism of Imami comes from the preface to the first year of Ming Jiajing, which explains the pronunciation, allusions, geography and other issues in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and is also mixed with comments on some people or things, such as criticizing Cao Cao's cruelty and jealousy, while also affirming his wisdom and virtue.

After the twelfth year of the Ming Dynasty (1592), with the popularity of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, criticism became more professional, and some special critical writings appeared. Yu Xiangdou was the first periodical to formally publicize "criticism", so it was also called "Criticism of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms", followed by "Mr. Li Zhuowu's Criticism of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and "Mr. Zhong Bojing's Criticism of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms". These works reviews are relatively objective, and more systematic and comprehensive than the initial reviews, involving multiple angles such as novel creation ideas and character shaping, and even use novel stories to attack reality and express the author's attitude. However, it is still not deep enough, and it lacks insight.

In the Qing Dynasty, the first of the Four Great Strange Books was published

In the eighteenth year of the Qing Kangxi Dynasty (1679), Mao Zonggang's revised edition of the First Of the Four Great Strange Books (hereinafter referred to as "Mao Ben") was published. Since then, Mao Ben has gradually replaced luo Guanzhong's original book of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and other Ming periodicals, becoming the most popular version in more than three hundred years, and even until recent years, the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" has often been based on it. Therefore, it can be said that the birth of Mao Ben is an important milestone in the history of the development and criticism of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

Mao Zonggang

Mao Zonggang mainly did two tasks: revising the text and commenting on the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms".

In terms of text revision, Mao Zonggang mainly followed Confucian ideas. Luo Guanzhong's "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" tends to praise Liu and degrade Cao, basically using shu Han as orthodox, but there are still unfinished points. Mao Zonggang also agreed with Emperor Shu's orthodox thinking, and at the beginning of the "Reading the Romance of the Three Kingdoms", he proposed: "When you know that there is a difference between orthodoxy, leap luck, and usurpation. What is the Orthodox? Shu Han is also. Who are the tyrants? Wu and Wei are also. Who is the leap carrier? Jin is also. Therefore, Mao Zonggang adopted a chinese strategy, using Confucianism as a criterion, highlighting the thoughts of Emperor Shu when evaluating and revising the novel, and the "Reading of the Three Kingdoms Chronicle" records: "Compromise in the Ziyang "Outline", and specially in the "Yanyi" with the correct", Ziyang "Outline" is the "Zizhi Tongjian Outline" written by Zhu Xi, the master of Confucianism.

For example, in Mao Zonggang's "The First of the Four Great Strange Books", some of the fierce words of Hua Xin, Wang Lang, and others forcing Emperor Xian of Han to be located in Wei were omitted. In the sixteenth volume of the Ming Jiayuan Preface, "Abolishing the Emperor Cao Pi usurping the Han Dynasty", it is written that Hua Xin said that "Han Zuo has ended" and forced The Han Emperor to "use the mountains and rivers to sheji Zen and the King of Wei". When Emperor Xiandi expressed his reluctance, Hua Xin also said: "In the past, the Three Emperors and Five Emperors gave in with virtue, and without virtue, there was virtue... The world under heaven is not the world of one person, but the world of the world of people. If Your Majesty's ancestors inherit the world, it is advisable to retire early, not to be doubted for a long time, and to be late will be born and change. Wang Lang also said: "Your Majesty's Han Dynasty has been passed down for more than four hundred years, and his luck has been extremely good, and you must not be obsessed with yourself and cause trouble." In the eightieth episode of Mao Ben, Hua Xin's remarks such as "No virtue makes you virtuous" and "The world is the world of the world" was deleted. He also changed Wang Lang's phrase "do not cause trouble by self-obsession" to "late is a change" in an attempt to weaken the excessive color of anti-orthodox thinking in writing.

This article refers to the "History of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms < >", written by Chen Xianghua.