Old Texts (18)
Ben Yan: Since the mid-1980s, I have successively written hundreds of thousands of words for several ancient novel reference books, which laid an important foundation for me to write the "Compendium of General Bibliographies of Chinese Literary Novels" later. However, most of these entries were written in handwriting on paper, and the original manuscript was handed over to the publisher without a manuscript. Fortunately, now that there are advanced technical measures, it is no longer too difficult to copy the text in the publication into a document. Therefore, I hope that these words will be re-collected, preserved, and made public. It can also be regarded as the loss of the east corner, the harvest of mulberry elm.
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II. Appreciation Dictionary of Classical Chinese Novel Art (all one volume)
Editor-in-Chief: Duan Qiming, Beijing Normal University Press, 1991
Associate Editors-in-Chief: Watson, Tang Zhihui
I am on the editorial board, writing twenty-six articles, and organizing the preparation of some entries.
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Laughing Forest
Written by the Three Kingdoms of Wei and Handan. This is the earliest collection of chiren novels and jokes in China. Later generations believe that this book was written by Handan Chun under the edict of Emperor Wen of Wei. The book is mainly based on humorous stories, with a strong folklore color. The characters recorded are nothing more than "so-and-so", "so-and-so", "Wang", "Chu people", "southerners", etc., showing traces of legends and stories. On the other hand, many stories proceed from the standpoint of the working people and ruthlessly ridicule and pungent satire on the various ugly deeds of the aristocratic rich.
For example, "The Old Man of the Han Dynasty" writes about a rich man who has a million yuan, but he is not kind to the rich and miserly. After death, all the property was not officially owned, showing the people's incomparable hatred for such people. Another type of story shows the wisdom of working people through the satire of some stupidity. For example, "Chu Ren" tells that a person vainly tried to learn invisibility and blatantly stole, and after being sent to the official, he laughed and released it; "Entering the City with a Pole" uses the clumsiness of those who enter the city with a pole to persuade them to cut off their own cleverness, reflecting the people's ridicule of such behavior.
Unlike the joke stories in the pre-Qin fables, the jokes in the Laughing Forest are no longer an auxiliary means of expounding philosophical truths, but are simply for the purpose of entertainment and entertainment, which requires it to be more mature in artistic expression. "Laughing Forest" has two characteristics in artistic techniques: First, it is good at capturing representative character behaviors, accurately portraying characters, and expressing content. For example, the "Old Man of the Han Dynasty" records that "or those who ask for beggars from them, they have no choice but to go inside to take ten money, come out of the hall, and reduce with their steps, compared to the outside, only half of them are left, and close their eyes to give the beggars", portraying the image of a miserly ghost who loves money as his life and regards grass as gold to the fullest.
Second, use exaggerated techniques to achieve the purpose of laughter. For example, the behavior of the two people in "Sticking to the Pole into the City" is difficult to find in life, but people can see the life inspiration contained in this exaggerated stupid behavior, so as to avoid repeating the same mistakes. Another example is the article "A and B Struggle" that after A and B bite the B nose, the official wants to break it, and A calls B self-gnashing. Guan Yunren must not bite himself from his nose, Jia Yun: "He will bite when he steps on the bed." These arguments and obsessive attitudes that violate physiological common sense make the reader easily find it ridiculous in exaggerated and deformed behavior, and then deny the arbitrariness and ugliness of A. Inheriting the story factors and expression techniques of the pre-Qin and Han dynasties, historical legends, myths and folklore, "Laughing Forest" shows the face of Zhiren novels and jokes for the first time, and has a profound impact on the Zhiren novels and joke literature of future generations. (Ning Jiayu)