Novels from the early Qing Dynasty to the middle of the Qing Dynasty

From the beginning of the Qing Dynasty to the middle of the Qing Dynasty, there were many long vernacular novels, and the excellent works reflected the characteristics of the times to varying degrees. In addition to the special chapters such as "The History of Ru Lin", "Dream of the Red Chamber", other more influential works are described in the following sections on the nature of their content and the order of their production.　　

Section 1 Water Margin Later Transmission, Yue Quan Biography and others　　

Chen Chen, the author of "Water Margin", is a chinese poet, a character of jingfu, a yan gong shanqiao, and a native of Wuxing, Zhejiang. The "Shocking Hidden Poetry Society", which had anti-Qing tendencies with Gu Yanwu and Guizhuang and other organizations. Throughout his life, he was poor and destitute, "selling for self-sufficiency" and "dying of poverty and hunger" (Wucheng County Chronicle). According to the prologue poem "White Hair Lonely Lamp Continues the Old Chapter" sentence of the "Afterword", it seems that the novel may have been written by him in his later years.　　

Forty times, "Water Margin" writes the story of thirty-two undead heroes of Liangshan who raised the banner of righteousness, heroically resisted foreign invaders, and finally went overseas to establish a foundation.　　

At the beginning of the novel, it is written that Ruan Xiaoqiliang Mountain feels old, zhang ganban with a hand blade and Li Juntai lake fishing, and rebelling against the bashan snake. It was the cruel persecution of the "Liangshan Yu Party" by the ruling class, the fish and meat people, so that the good men of Liangshan scattered everywhere quickly gathered under the banner of righteousness and established a rebellion stronghold of Dengyun Mountain and Drinking Machuan. At this time, after some liangshan heroes experienced various harsh struggles and accepted the lessons of the failure of the Liangshan uprising, their understanding improved and their personalities also developed. "On that day, without being summoned, the brethren joined hands to break through Tokyo, kill all the traitors who were jealous of the talents, and seek redress with the people of the world. This passage by Ruan Xiaoqi is very representative, indicating that he no longer has any illusions about the ruling class. Tie Zilehe used clever tactics to rescue Hua Fengchun's mother and nephew, Li Jun, Fei Bao and others from the well-guarded Drinking Rainbow Bridge Villa and Changzhou Capital Prison. Later, when the rebels started their own business overseas, he has always been a think tank for advice and advice, worthy of Wu Yong's regeneration. Li Jun, on the other hand, went from being a leader of the Liangshan water army to a popular rebel leader in Defu. The author of "Later Biography" not only takes care of the character characteristics of these characters in "Water Margin", but also writes about their growth in the real struggle.　　

Living in the early Qing Dynasty, when ethnic contradictions were very acute, the author, with the sad feeling of "a lonely subject who had subjugated the country," reproduced the scene of "the four wildernesses were depressed and all the people were ruined" after Jin Bing went south, and also exposed the crimes of Jin Bing's murder of good people and human trafficking; he enthusiastically praised the patriotic struggle of Li Gang, Seed Shidao, and Tai students, and denounced the dimwitted incompetence of Huizong and Qinzong, and the calamity of Cai Jing, Tong Guan, and others. These descriptions are very meaningful in summing up the lessons of the Ming Dynasty by borrowing the history of the last years of the Northern Song Dynasty. As for the author's letting Cai Jing's father and son, Gao Li, and Tong Guan finally fall into the hands of the heroes of Liangshan and die one by one, it clearly shows the people's desire to avenge the innocent heroes and punish the culprits of the country. In the "Sequel", Guan Sheng, Zhu Tong, Hu Yanzhuo, and others were at the forefront of the national war, and they still fought alone under the situation that the enemy was strong and we were weak, dealing a serious blow to the enemy. These inspiring depictions, while giving play to the spirit of "Water Margin" to resist the oppression of the government, also combine the characteristics of the times and prominently express the theme of patriotism.　　

Inspired by the legend of the 119th and Li Junpan to the Siamese Kingdom in the 19th "Water Margin", the author of the "Afterword" has been greatly performed since the thirteenth time. This is actually to arrange a happy ending for the heroes of the Water Margin to comfort people's hearts; at the same time, to a certain extent, it vaguely reveals the author's hopes for the anti-Qing struggles of Zheng Chenggong, Li Dingguo and others. As for his "Later Biography", he let Le He stand on the Yuhua Platform, "looking at Zhongshan, the king's qi is lush and lush, and he does not feel that his chest is suddenly clear", it is even more obvious that he is eager to restore the Ming Dynasty regime. But it also illustrates the author's limitations: like many patriotic widows of the Ming Dynasty, he also pinned his hopes for the restoration of the country on the emperor. The "Later Biography" writes that Yan Qing presented Qingzi and Yellow Mandarin to Emperor Huizong, and Li Junli still respected the small court of the Southern Song Dynasty as orthodox overseas, which was also a manifestation of such feudal consciousness. For the same ideological roots, the author ends the book with Li Junjunchen's poems and "World Glory", which not only seems vulgar, but also dilutes the fighting atmosphere that has been emphasized earlier.　　

During the Kangxi and Yongzheng dynasties, Qian Cai and Jin Feng processed and revised the "Complete Biography of Yue" into eighty times on the basis of various "Yue Biographies". The story of Yue Qi was widely circulated during the Southern Song Dynasty, when ethnic contradictions were sharp, and became one of the important themes of the speaker. After the middle of the Ming Dynasty, when power and treachery were in power and the country was in increasing danger, various "Yue transmissions" that conveyed the ideas of si liang generals and evil ministers came into being, and books such as Xiong Damu's "Wumu Yanyi" and Zou Yuanbiao's "The Complete Biography of Jingzhong" appeared successively. This enabled Qian and Jin in the Qing Dynasty to create on a better basis. They describe "the loyalty of Yue Wumu, the adultery of Qin Juniper, and the transverse of Wushu", not only to comfort the loyal souls who died on the Pavilion of Wind and Waves (Note: See "Self-Narration" and the last opening poem of the "Complete Biography of Yue"). There is also the intention of using the historical lessons of the Southern Song Dynasty to publicize national consciousness, mourn the patriots of the Ming Dynasty, and condemn the traitors and foreigners. Therefore, it was banned during the Qianlong period.　　

Based on the history and legends, the author portrays Yue Fei as a national hero and patriotic commander. He grew up lonely and poor, but he was good at making righteous friends. His mother-in-law tattooed him on his back and encouraged him to "be loyal to the country." "Promise the country with your own body, and you will restore the Central Plains, although there is no hatred in death", is his confession of determination to resist Jin. The author concentrates many advantages on the historical figure Yue Fei: he has strict military orders and treats people with leniency, and often uses patriotic ideas to educate the ministry of education, so that everyone in the Yue family knows the purpose of resisting the enemy. What is even more remarkable is that he can wait for people equally, and unite many green forest brothers to protect the Song Room. Although this kind of assumption has a certain historical basis, what is more important is that the author conforms to the requirements of the times and gives Yue Fei the outstanding insight of attaching importance to the people's resistance to the enemy through image depiction. This point has never been so prominently described in any kind of "Yue Chuan" in the past.　　However, the author's national heroes still carry serious feudal ideas. Yue Fei's foolish loyalty, foolish filial piety, and foolish benevolence were all very prominent: at the urging of the twelve gold medals, he did not dare to accept the suggestion that "the king's life will be outside, and the king's life will not be affected", and finally brought irreparable damage to his career and personal. Even Yue Fei's death as a ghost hindered his subordinates from taking revenge on Emperor Xuan and Quan. Cao Ning killed his relatives in righteousness, but he was forced to commit suicide with "filial piety". He knew that the jun's side was unclear, but he took Leniency as his heart and easily let go of Wan Qian, Luo Ruyi, and others who had violated the order. All these things may be true or purely fictional, but the negativity is even more prominent after the author has vigorously rendered it.　　"The Complete Biography of Yue Yue" presents itself as a sequel to "Water Margin", and describes many folk heroes with heavy brushstrokes. The author deliberately unites their anti-oppression struggle with Yue Fei's anti-Jin struggle, and greatly praises the righteous act of fighting with the enemy. This not only reflects the historical reality of the peasant rebels and the landlord armed forces in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties to resist the Qing Dynasty, but also shows that some patriotic literati at that time, under the education of reality, had changed their blind hatred for the peasant rebels and began to attach importance to the strength of the people. The elderly Hu Yan fought hard and sacrificed his life for the country; Yang Zaixing mistakenly walked the Xiaoshang River, was shot into an archer, and died heroically. Many fictional descendants of Liangshan, such as Ruan Xiao'er's son Liang, Guan Sheng's son Ling, Dong Ping's son Fang, Zhang Qing's son Guoxiang, Han Tao's sons Qi Long and Qi Feng, also carried forward Liangshan's inherent fighting spirit under the new situation of foreign invasion. There is also a Li Kui-style hero in the work - Niu Gao. He once went to the gold camp alone and delivered a war book, which made Wushu have to show admiration. However, he was not as foolish and loyal as Yue Fei. Niu Gao dared to rebuke Emperor Huizong: "That plague emperor, Taiping has nothing to do without us, he uses his sword soldiers, he comes to find us to fight for him, but he is happy in the palace." "When Yue Fei returned to the south, he could not stop it, and after hearing the news of Yue Fei's murder, he first sent troops to take revenge; if the revenge failed, he fell back into the grass to show confrontation with the corrupt imperial court. The bloody facts educated him and made him more aware of the face of the ruler. He said, "When a great man becomes an emperor, he is ruthless and unjust. I Niugao is not deceived by the emperor and is not invited to be recruited. This breaks the bitter lesson of the failure of the peasant uprising in the past, and is consistent with the spirit of "Water Margin". But at the moment of the great enemy, he still went to war, and said, "Am I afraid of vultures?" I was recruited to go and kill Wushu, and then I went back to the Taihang Mountains. It can be seen that his resistance to gold is not to serve the Song lord, but to contribute to the country. He fought jointly with the rulers, not in humiliation and surrender, but in a strategy of unity and insult. These depictions not only highlight the spiritual outlook of the characters, but also show the author's improvement of ideological understanding after experiencing the great changes in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties.　　

As for some of the negative characters in the work, such as the arrogance and cunning of Wushu, stubborn and confident; the sinister and vicious, vulgar and shameless of Qin Juniper and his wife, they are also written vividly and heinously. However, the author attributes the contradiction between Yue Fei and the powerful and the treacherous to the unjust retribution between the roc bird, the red-bearded dragon, and the female earth bat, which not only weakens the political significance of this fiery patriotic struggle, but also promotes the superstitious idea of karma. Twenty times after the work, it is written that the group rape was punished, and the little heroes under the leadership of Yue Lei filled in the yellow dragon, killed the horse, and laughed at the cow gao. This is purely a reflection of the people's good wishes, but because of the lack of realistic basis and the crude depiction, it has not succeeded in expressing that romantic fantasy.　　

The author of "The Complete Biography of Yue Yue" holds the creative attitude of "it is not appropriate to be full of fiction, and it is not necessary to be full of reality", and absorbs the essence of the relevant stories in Yuanming opera and rap, thus making the work full of life and legend.　　

The "Complete Biography of Yue Yue" has a great influence, and many related stories have been written as operas and circulated in the folk. Scenes such as "Cow Gao Pulling The Will", "The Edge of the Cabinet", and "Picking the Scooter" have gained a long life on the stage.　　

During this period, there were also some novels that directly described the political life of the late Ming Dynasty. The authors of these novels, feeling the fall of the Ming Dynasty, demanded that the blame be held accountable, and often took the castration party as the target of attack; for the Qing people, they did not dare to criticize. The Commentary on the Idle Tales of The Han Dynasty (Fifty Times) writes about Wei Zhongxian's life and deeds, and severely condemns him for colluding with the Ke clan, hoodwinking the emperor, and suppressing the Donglin Party and the progressive literati of the Fushe Society. The depictions of social events and customs in the late Ming Dynasty are quite true and vivid, but they often misinterpret political struggles as retribution for wrongs. As for the anonymous "Popular Interpretation of the History of Qiao", although it also wrote similar historical facts, it was extremely slanderous to Li Zicheng, and there was nothing desirable in art, but it preserved some valuable historical materials.　　

In addition, there are many literati or folk artists who process some historical interpretations of the broken generations that have not yet been finalized. During the Kangxi Dynasty, Chu Ren was written a hundred times according to the Sui Shi Relics, the Sui and Tang Chronicles, the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the Sui and Tang Dynasties, and other folklore. The works focus on the "marriage of the two generations" of the Sui Emperor, Zhu Gui'er, Emperor Ming of Tang and Yang Guifei, and describe in detail the life of many palaces. The author beautifies the famous Emperor Of The Dark Emperor in history as an amorous benevolent sage, and also blames women for the decline of the Tang Dynasty, which is obviously a distortion of history. However, the book also retains a lot of folklore, such as Qin Qiong selling horses, Shan Xiongxin was tortured, these descriptions, quite see the author's processing achievements.　　

Fang's anonymous "Complete Biography of the Tang Dynasty" represents another tendency. It has a strong flavor of folklore, and it is more typical of the evolution of historical evolution into heroic legends.　　

The works range from emperor Wen Pingchen and the peasant revolt at the end of the Sui Dynasty to the Tang dynasty king Ping Qunxiong and Taizong ascending the throne; it more clearly reveals the social roots of the uprising, and reproduces the turbulent era of the eighteen-way anti-king and the sixty-four-way smoke. Unlike any kind of "tang talking" in the past, it does not follow the right historical track, but centers on the gathering and dispersion of the good people in Wagang Village. Hilarious plots such as robbing the king bar, anti-Shandong, taking the Golden Causeway, and taking wagang, which are purely out of imagination, are greatly exaggerated by the author and are full of healthy fighting atmosphere. It also denounced the absurdity of Emperor Jue and the ferocity of the Yuwen clan, and did not deliberately cover up the sins of these evil courtiers as in the Sui and Tang Dynasties. Obviously, the author of the "Complete Biography" created by combining the history and the legend.　　

The book also depicts Qin Qiong's generosity and kindness, RenXia's good righteousness, Shan Xiongxin's brash temper and unyielding death, Luo Cheng's youthful heroism, Wei Chigong's bravery and decisiveness, and Cheng Yaojin's roughness, bluntness, humor, and thickness. The creation of the personalities of these characters, which has no sufficient historical basis, is completely enriched in legends; therefore, the romantic color is very strong.　　

"The Complete Biography of Tang Dynasty" is also like all other historical interpretations and heroic legends, and there is a glorified "true son of heaven". Supporting Li Shimin or not has become the fundamental condition for the success or failure of all heroes, and the absolute criterion for evaluating their merits and demerits. All the heroes of the uprising who opposed Lee were denied. Even when describing Shan Xiongxin, who is the author's favorite, he also praises and denounces through Li's generosity and Xiongxin's narrowness. This is in fact a justification for the crime of the ruling class in seizing the fruits of victory in the peasant uprising.　　

After the "Complete Biography of The Tang Dynasty", there were sequels such as "The Later Biography of the Tang Dynasty", "The Three Biographies of the Tang Dynasty", and "Anti-Tang Yanyi". Their common feature is that they depict the struggle between loyalty and adultery, propagate the idea of fame and fortune, and simulate it artistically far more than creation. As for the "Ten Thousand Flowers Lou Yang Baodi Yanyi", "Five Tigers Pingxi Prequel", "Five Tigers Pingnan Sequel" are more mediocre. After Daoguang, this kind of novel lacked new works, and what was all the rage was a reactionary chivalrous novel.　　

Section II: Awakening to the Inheritance of Marriage and Others At the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, feudal society gradually disintegrated. Thus novels that explore social issues from various standpoints came into being. Marriage and love, ethics and morality, have become the content of repeated expressions in such works.　　

Inheriting the legacy of the Ming Dynasty, many talented and beautiful novels also appeared in the early Qing Dynasty. For example, "Yujiao Pear", "Pingshan Cold Swallow", "ChangshengLe", "Ten Beautiful Pictures", etc., under the impetus of the "Smallpox Hidden Master", Xu Xia and other people, were all the rage. They write love stories of young men and women in the upper class, "and they are interspersed with elegance and elegance, and their merits and fame meet each other as the masters, starting or disobeying, and finally being more than satisfactory" (Lu Xun's "Historical Outline of Chinese Novels"). If there is a slight desirable, there are only one or two parts. "The Tale of the Good Sect" and a "Biography of chivalrous wind and moon", only eighteen times, write that Tie Zhongyu and Shui Bingxin met by chance, and they helped each other in hardship, although there was a small human rights adultery to provoke destruction, the two eventually became married. Shui Bingxin is a "witty and stubborn" woman. She single-handedly resisted the forced marriage of her sons, so that her greedy uncles, fearful county officials, and favoritism all failed one by one. The dry and spicy characteristics of Miss Shui are actually taken by the author from the women in the city. In this comedic struggle, the greedy and lustful and stupid inferiority of the ruling class was exposed, and they were also condemned for their crimes of bullying the people. However, the author is deeply influenced by the science of science, and the positive characters in the book talk about "famous teachings": "The one who cares is also the text, the great unkindness, the self-giving shield" (the first time in "Dream of the Red Chamber"). Thus even the positives contained in the marriage event itself have been greatly weakened. "The Complete Biography of the Second Degree Plum", where forty times, the plot twists and turns, although it reflects some real life, but it can not get rid of the shackles from suffering to reunion, and cannot write the spiritual outlook of the characters. As for the many other reprints of the novels of the Talented Lady, there is nothing to be desired.　　

In the novels with marriage issues as the theme in the early Qing Dynasty, it is worth mentioning "The Legend of The Awakening Marriage". The original title of the book was "The Marriage of Evil". The earliest surviving Tongzhi Geng noon engraving is titled "Western Zhou Sheng Ji"; and Yang Fuji's "Dream Of Trivial Pens" quotes Bao Yiwenyun: "Liu Xian still has a novel of "Awakening to the Marriage of the World". "Bao Yiwen, that is, Bao Tingbo, was a person during the Qianlong period, close to the time of Pu Shi, and once carved the "Liaozhai Zhiyi" on behalf of Zhao Qi, and his words must have a basis. At the same time, the character plot of "The Tale of the Awakening Marriage" is also very similar to the "Jiang cheng" and "Ma Jiefu" of "Liaozhai Zhiyi"; and the "Wei Shi" recorded in the Qing codex "Liaozhai Zhiyi Excerpt" is the story of the forty-second "Demon Fox False Evil Ghost Murder" in the "Awakening Marriage Legend". According to this, "Western Zhou Sheng" may be Pu Songling's pseudonym.　　

"The Legend of the Awakening Marriage" is another long vernacular novel after "Jin Ping Mei" that focuses on a family. The book is a hundred times long and a million words long. It is mainly to depict a marriage story of two generations of revenge, and the historical background is from the orthodox years of Emperor Yingzong in the Ming Dynasty to the chenghua of Xianzong. The first twenty-second time is the marriage of the previous life, it is written that Chao Yuan, the son of the bureaucratic landlord of Wucheng County, shot a fairy fox, and then married the prostitute Zhen Ge as a concubine, and abused his wife, so that his wife Ji Shi threw herself to death. Twenty-three times later, for the marriage of this world, the location was moved to Mingshui Town, Xiujiang County; ChaoYuan Tosheng was Di Xi Chen, Xian Hu Tuosheng was his wife Xue Sujie, Ji Shi Tuosheng was his concubine Tong Zhijie, and Zhenge Tuosheng was a concubine Pearl. Pearl eventually forced her sister to die, and Di Xichen was abused by Sister Su and Sister Su, and Sister Su's cruelty was particularly unusual, and she used everything to imprison, needle prick, beat, and burn Holmium Xichen. Later, after the senior monk pointed out the cause and effect, Di Xichen recited the Diamond Sutra ten thousand times before he was relieved of his sins.　　

The phenomena of life depicted in the work are of practical significance. On the one hand, it explains the evil of the feudal marriage system, especially polygamy, which is the root cause of this "evil marriage relationship" of "family rebellion against the house"; on the other hand, it also reflects the "often sluggish" human relations when feudal society tends to disintegrate, and the concubine abuse of wives and wives abuses husbands, indicating that feudal etiquette has begun to lose the power to maintain people's hearts. However, due to the backwardness of the author's world view, he not only stood on the stand of safeguarding polygamy and gangchang etiquette, criticized this phenomenon of "yin and yang inversion, rigidity and weakness, and hens repaying it", demanding that wives should be "virtuous" and "tolerant of concubines"; concubines should be "honest" and know the difference between "concubines"; and wives and concubines should understand "husbands, the heavens of women", and "show great respect" to their husbands. At the same time, he also uses the buddhist superstitious idea of causal reincarnation to explain the cause of this "evil marriage", believing that "great resentment and great hatred cannot be repaid, and all are worthy of husband and wife in this life", which is acted as karma. This makes the whole story accentuate the propagation of feudal moral concepts and the superstitious ideas of cause and effect, and become a decadent and backward thing in terms of basic ideological tendencies.　　In order to straighten out the program, preach the Tao of Goodness, and reconcile class contradictions, the author also beautified Lady Chao. In view of the evil consequences of her husband and son, she wholeheartedly believed in Buddhism and practiced "goodness", not only to help solve difficulties and disasters, but also to influence others, but also to get good rewards herself. This attributes many social sins to the ideological roots of individuals, weakening the practical significance of the work in exposing the evils of the feudal family.　　

The value of "Awakening Marriage" lies first and foremost in the fact that some of its storylines expose the dark decay of realpolitik. For example, Chao Sixiao, by paying bribes, took the path of castration, and obtained the fat shortage of Beitong Prefecture Zhizhou, and after his arrival, he wantonly embezzled and perverted the law, and his son Chao Yuan also took advantage of his wealth and did no evil. After he and his concubine Zhen Ge forced Ji Shi to die, the Ji family sued the officials, and he bought the county order with a large amount of money and went unpunished. Later, Brother Zhen was sentenced to death and imprisoned, and he bribed the canon history, built a blessing hall on death row, and put on a birthday feast. After Chao Yuan's death, Zhang Ruifeng, the scribe of the execution room, took a fancy to Brother Zhen and set fire to the prison, burning another woman to death, and exchanging Brother Zhen for a concubine at home. Although these things are so appalling, they are a true portrayal of feudal society.　　

Secondly, the novel also objectively reflects the gradual rise of money power at the end of feudal society. The concept of the supremacy of money has been tearing apart the ethics and feelings of the feudal family, so after the death of Chao Yuan's father and son, the clan came to rob the property, and Su Jie was afraid that the concubine of the father-in-law had "given birth to a son and taken his furniture", and even wanted to castrate the father-in-law. The supremacy of money also permeates all social relations, the filth of officials is to greed for money, the purpose of misdeeds is to cheat money, the three sisters and six wives pretend to be gods and ghosts in order to deceive money, and the silversmith and tailor adulterate and earn cloth in order to get rich. In social life, it is true that "money can understand the gods", as long as there is silver, whether it is good or foolish, good or evil, it can be done by officials; no matter how many evils are committed, they can be murdered and transformed into auspiciousness. Therefore, the author said helplessly: "The first patron is 'wealth', and the second is counting 'potential'." Even the 'potential' cannot get rid of the 'wealth' to be collected. If there is no 'wealth', this 'potential' is also useless. "　　

The whole of "The Legend of the Awakening Marriage" is written in the Shandong dialect and has a strong local color. The language is fluent and cheerful, and the tone of the characters is bishaw, witty and humorous, vivid and interesting. The whole book revolves around the main line of marriage, and depicts a large number of portraits of characters from all walks of life, old and young, and each specific state; the life area reflected is quite broad, and the front and back are well-taken care of, and the structure is very strict. These all express the artistic achievements of the novel.　　

Section 3 Mirror flower edge and others　　

Inheriting the "Journey to the West Supplement" with the novel to send the rest of the riddle, there were also some satirical novels at this time. Liu Zhang's "Legend of The Ghost Slayer" (Ten Times) writes that Zhong Kui fell to the first place, died of anger, and was named the ghost king, specializing in suppressing all kinds of evil ghosts in the world. The so-called tricksters, dirty ghosts, deceitful ghosts, rotten ghosts, etc., are actually the embodiment of corruption in the city. However, the author does not deeply expose the social reality that produces these "evil ghosts", and there are many meaningless gags in the book and the author's own ghost borrowings, and even Zhong Kui is described as quite frivolous, which is very different from the image of justice and humor in folklore.　　

The "Master of Smallpox Tibet" compiled the "Complete Biography of Master Ji Chuan Drunken Bodhi" (twenty times) by Anonymous, writing the story of Ji Gong's living Buddha punishing stubbornness and eliminating violence. The various ugly acts of the upper-class figures in the book are exposed, ridiculed and satirized, and the style is witty and interesting, so it is widely circulated in the folk. However, the book promotes too much the ideas of karma and superstition, the writing is sloppy and protracted, it is not refined enough, and the satire is extremely unserious.　　

"Mirror Flower Edge" during the Jiaqing period is a relatively excellent novel after "Dream of the Red Chamber". Author Li Ruzhen (1763?-1830?) A native of Daxing County (present-day Daxing County, Beijing), he served as a county magistrate in Henan and never reached him. He was highly learned and proficient in phonology, side and miscellaneous arts, and wrote the Li's Yin Jian (李氏音鉴). "Mirror Flower Edge" is his later work, originally intended to be written two hundred times, but only completed a hundred times.　　

The work writes that empress Wu Zetian of the Tang Dynasty ordered a hundred flowers to bloom in the cold sky; the gods of flowers did not dare to disobey the will, and after flowering, they were condemned by heaven and were praised as a hundred women. The Flower God Leader Hundred Flower Immortals were entrusted with the birth of Tang Ao's female Xiaoshan. Tang Ao ke was in the first place, in a depressed mood, and traveled with his wife and brother Lin Zhiyang to the sea, and after being guided by the helmsman Duo Jiugong, after observing the strangeness of foreign people in various overseas countries, he entered Xiao Penglai to seek immortality. Xiao Shan Si was very close to his heart and went to the sea to look for his father, but unexpectedly recorded a "Book of Heaven" in the Red Pavilion of Xiao Penglai. After returning to China, it coincided with the female examination and the admission of hundreds of girls, which actually made the god of flowers reunite in the human world. The women and the queen, worship the guru, drink feasts, poems, and games for days, disperse with joy, and the hill re-enters the Immortal Mountain. In the end, Emperor Zhongzong was restored, and Zun Zetian was made the "Great Saint Emperor", and Zetian issued a new edict announcing the reopening of the female examination next year.　　

With the seventh year of Yongzheng (1729), after the "great opening of the ocean and the prohibition of the southwest ocean, the xianlai of the southwestern ocean countries" (Wang Zhichun's "Rouyuan Ji", vol. 4), people's horizons began to expand, and more and more demands broke the closed situation. This kind of thinking also influenced Li Ruzhen to a certain extent, enabling him to gallop his imagination according to the "Classic of Mountains and Seas" and the records of his notes and miscellaneous works since the Han, Jin, Song, and Yuan dynasties, and arranged many overseas strange countries in the eight to forty times of the "Mirror Flower Edge", focusing on depicting the strange stories and different views of these countries, one to convey his own social ideals, and the other to ridicule the dark phenomena of the contemporary era.　　

These countries, similar to the "Luochahai City" in "Liaozhai Zhiyi", each has its own unique customs. A gentleman's kingdom is good enough to let go of no dispute, preferring to harm itself rather than harm others. The adults and the people are gentle and generous, and they all embody the author's political ideal of "leveling the world" in a hypothetical form. On the other hand, the two-faced country is suspicious of the poor and loves the rich, fraud is the norm, and a cordial smile greets people, but the true appearance hidden behind the Haoran scarf is vicious and terrible. This is the portrayal of the hypocrisy and cunning of feudal society. The black tooth country people are intelligent and studious, and the two girls talk about rhymes, which actually makes Duo Jiugong sweat, which shows the importance of educating women since childhood. However, the Republic of China has a pedantic way to read "young and young, and the young of man" as "cut me, cut against others". Lady State pretended to be Sven, and the bartender actually used "Wine to a pot?" Two pots? A piece of cake? Two discs?" Go and ask the customer. The old Confucian who used vinegar as wine chewed words, and used fifty-four "zigzag" words in a daily conversation. This is precisely the author's sharp satire on the unlearned and sour pedantry in Rulin. He opposed the Eight Strands of Literature and advocated examinations in different subjects, recruitment according to materials, and the use of one skill for the elderly to get what they wanted. This demand is obviously adapted to the development trend of the increasingly detailed division of labor in society. In addition, the author also wrote about the mean pickles of the intestinal country, feeding the slaves with feces for the sake of the rich and unkind; the stinginess of the Mao Republic of China, which is not plucked; the delicious laziness of the breast-bound country, the cool flattery of the Wing Republic of China, and the good lying of the beak country. In this way, in these fictional kingdoms, the author expressed his hatred for the cruel exploitation of feudal society and all kinds of vices with a smooth and sharp brushstroke, which has a certain practical significance.　　

"Mirror Flower Edge" strives to express opinions on all social issues, from the "extravagance of loss" of "dowry, funeral, diet, clothing, and household use", the unkindness of superstitious customs such as feng jian and divination, talking about belongings, choosing feng shui, etc., all commented on one by one and proposed reform methods. However, there are many phenomena listed, less in-depth exposés, and no contact with the essence of the problem; and the atmosphere of the feudal scholar is very heavy: anti-eight strands rather than anti-examination, anti-feng shui superstition but filial piety-based; his Uto gang thought still cannot jump out of the Confucian category, and all ideal overseas paradises still have emperor Zaifu, and their social structure is still feudal.　　

The demand for the advancement of women is a very prominent theme of "Mirror Flower Edge". This is related to the further development of capitalist factors at that time and the rise of social enlightenment ideas in pursuit of individual liberation. The author said in the forty-eighth "Crying Red Pavilion": "The master of the cover said that he had explored the history of the wilderness poorly, tasted something, and regretted that he had lost no knowledge, and the mourning of the crowd was not passed on, because of his pen. This more or less reveals the author's creative motivation for women to raise their eyebrows. Therefore, at the beginning of the novel, the myth of "the northern half of the female queen star" and "the hundred flowers are condemned to drop red dust" is written to show that "today's lingxiu" is for the sake of the woman. He demanded that women have the opportunity to study from an early age, and when they grew up, they took the same exams as men, and opposed men's monopoly on culture. Therefore, some of the hundred talented women in my pen are amazingly talented, some are deeply familiar with medical science, some are proficient in mathematics, some have courage, some have chivalrous intestines, in a word, they are all wizards. In particular, he opposed the vices of foot binding and piercing ears, which harmed the body; opposed the unfair treatment imposed on women such as marriage and concubines; and even Empress Wu Zetian, who was rejected by feudal historians and literati, praised her moral government of improving women's status. This idea of sympathy for women and respect for women's rights is epitomized in the depiction of the "daughter country". Here, "men wear dresses as women to rule internal affairs, and women wear boots and hats to rule foreign affairs." In feudal society, all the cruelty suffered by women was transferred to men. The depiction of Lin Zhiyang entering the palace and wrapping his feet is actually to let men put themselves in the shoes of women to experience the pain of women. This kind of hazy democratic ideology has similarities with "Dream of the Red Chamber". But the women in "Mirror Flower Edge" are no longer the protagonists of love stories, but participants in social activities. In classical fiction, this is groundbreaking.　　

However, after all, the author lived in the feudal era, and his views still have a lot of feudal overtones. When women were in power, he still could not accept it, and Wu Zetian and his daughter the king did not write as positive characters. Wu Zetian's reign was "Heart Moon Fox" and "Confused Yin and Yang"; Xu Jingye's rebellion failed, but the author expressed deep sympathy. None of the talented women of the first century interfered in politics, but merely accompanied the emperor's courtiers. Parents arranged marriages, men and women do not receive intimate, these feudal customs, the author did not object. It can be seen from this that the author's anti-feudalism is incomplete.　　

After the middle of the Qing Dynasty, the style of examination and study became more prevalent, and the author "looked at everything in learning" and was deeply influenced, so that even his creation followed the requirements of the "primary schooler": although most of those fantasy countries were based on the writings of their predecessors, the depiction of those details of life was also full of the smell of academic research. In many places, argument and preaching have replaced image portrayal. There are a hundred and dozens of characters in the book, only Lin Zhiyang and Duo Jiugong have thick silhouettes, and Luo Hongruo and Lian Jinfeng have a limited number of women who are slightly characteristic. Many other "talented women" are mostly pale, and they are actually just the spokesmen for the author's talent and show offspring. In the second half of the work, there are twenty-seven times of writing calligraphy, painting, piano, chess, medical rhyme, as well as wine orders, lantern riddles, double land, horse hanging, grass fighting, throwing pots and "all kinds of hundred plays", which greatly obscure the description of real life. It should be pointed out that the artistic value of "Mirror Flower Edge" is not high. And because of many fantasies in the book, it lacks a basis for life, and is often exaggerated and untrue. For example, the gentleman's country buys and sells for the noble, lets others benefit, and even fights with each other, which contradicts itself and gives people the feeling of making a false impression of the wall. For some negative phenomena, there are often more reprimands and less irony, and the meaning is shallow. Although he seems to have the intention to study the "History of RuLin", he gives people the impression of "The Legend of Slaying Ghosts".　　

The essence of "Mirror Flower Edge" is mainly in the first half, and the second half is not so much a novel as a novel to boast of knowledge and knowledge. However, in the era when vulgar and reactionary novels such as "Wild Sorcery Exposed" and "History of The Dragon" flooded the literary world between Daoxian and Xian, it could not be regarded as a better work.