<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="1" > the history of imagery and plot interpretation</h1>
Narrative literature attaches great importance to the plot, and the connotation of the plot is the characters and their actions. As far as historiography is concerned, historical works should show the historical process and social outlook of an era. Yan Fu and Xia Zengyou once said: "The discipline of books is called history." In this regard, literature and historiography have found their point of convergence. The history of image and plot interpretation refers to the historical picture shown in historical literature with the event plot composed of specific character actions. Of course, the oracle bones and Shang Zhou inscriptions can not yet be regarded as historical literature, but in terms of the form of historical records, they have shown a budding state of focusing on plot, which has influenced the formation of historical literature, and also shows the characteristics of ancient Chinese narrative prose from the beginning to be known for its plot rather than its argument. The plot is made up of events, and it is made up of a series of events.
Without events, there is no plot. In literature, the plot is inseparable from the character, gorky said: "The plot is the history of the character." "Plot and character are two aspects that complement each other. Looking at the historical and literary works from the pre-Qin to the two Han Dynasties, it can be said that the works of the pre-Qin Dynasty paid more attention to the recording of events and paid attention to the storytelling of the plot. Numerous historical events or historical stories form the backbone of the work, which is like what foreigners call a plot novel. It is composed of an event story, which is mostly concatenated, juxtaposed with a series of stories, strung together by one or several characters. The works of the two Han Dynasties focus on highlighting the characters and creating distinct characters in the narrative of the events and plots, just like the character novels said by foreigners. The reason for this difference is that the former is mostly a chronicle style, while the latter is a chronicle style.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="4" > the plot of a pre-Qin historical literary work</h1>
The author of "Left Biography" pays great attention to the plot. The Battle of Jin and Chu was an important battle for the king of Chuzhuang to dominate. Before the outbreak of the Great War, the author first organized a series of events to explain the reasons for the war, including the siege of Zheng by the King of Chuzhuang, the Zheng people seeking success, the Jin shihui controversy, the discord between the generals of the Jin army, the first disobedience to the military orders to march alone, Wei Kun Zhao Xu was angry with the Chu division to vent his private anger, the Chu people took the Jin division, and the Jin division was defeated and crossed in a boat. These plots constitute the backbone of the Battle of Shao. At the same time, the author also wrote in detail several plots in which king Of Chuzhuang did not show off his martial arts for the Wujun Jingguan, Zheng Guo killed shi zhi, and the death penalty of Xun Lin's father, the commander of the Marquis of Jin, making the Battle of Chu zhuang an independent chapter with a complete structure and consistent pulse, reflecting the heroic talent of King Zhuang of Chu.
However, the author was not satisfied with this, and after the great war, he interjected five trifles, including the Chu army riding on guangxianzuo, the Chu people teaching the Jin army to flee, the Feng Dafu saving Zhao Xu and losing his second son, the Zhizhuangzi looking for a son and capturing the second prisoner, the Jin army Xiao Ji, etc., such as a few tidbits, enriching the content of the war and making the plot more vivid. Examples like this are numerous in The Left. The author of "Warring States Policy" also pays attention to the plot. We look at "Qi Ce SI Qi Ren Has Feng Chen's Chapter", which consists of several plots such as "Playing and Singing", "Collecting Debts from Xue", "Please Xiang Xiang Liang", and "Please Zongmiao to Xue", which constitute the actions of the strategist Feng Chen, and how wonderful these plots are written. The same is Feng Chen's person, but in the "History", it is inevitable that it will be eclipsed. The reason for this is that the protagonist is Meng Yijun, Feng Chen is the foil character, and Sima Qian only summarizes the plot in the "Warring States Policy". The loss of the plot affects the style of the characters.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" Data-track="7" > the image and plot of the two Han historical literary works</h1>
In the Two Han Dynasties, with the establishment of the Ji biography centered on writing people, the plot became an important tool for shaping characters. Sima Qian attaches great importance to plot structure and is also a master of structural plots. We see how thrilling the "Feast at the Hongmen Gate" and "The Siege of Xiaxia" are written, how tragic and magnificent "Easy Water Farewell" is written, how fierce the "Battle of the Backwaters" is, and how much the dialogue of "the more the merrier" has aroused people's feelings. These are the famous plots in the "Chronicle of History" and are talked about by people. An important way for Sima Qian to structure the plot was to use the Lianzhu method. For example, "Xiang Yu Benji" is based on the main plot structure of hui ji uprising, the battle of Julu, the feast of Hongmen, and the siege of Xiaxia. Among them, the Hongmen Banquet, which is closely related to Liu Bang, was deliberately placed in the "Xiang Yu Benji", obviously in order to highlight the character of Xiang Yu. The "Biography of General Li" writes about Li Guang, who is good at riding and shooting and daring to be an enemy with the plot of killing Xiongnu archers and shooting tigers; writes about his brave battles with the plots of flying to seize horses and shooting and chasing horses; writes about his orders that are not complicated, simple, and loves soldiers with plots such as provincial shogunate documents and the diet of the pioneer soldiers; and many plots and events have built up the image of a generation of famous generals who have run through Changhong, bravely crown the whole army, and are famous.
Sima Qian wrote about characters, rarely using critical language to narrate or evaluate, and mostly used events and plots or the behavior of historical figures to express them. Sometimes other chores are discarded, one or two plots are highlighted, and one or two events are written specifically, which constitutes a biography of a character. For example, in the "Biography of Sun Tzu Wu Qi Lie", Sun Wu was written and concentrated on the practice of palace women, and many events that broke chu into The Yin were hidden one by one. Sun Wu's military ability and the quality of law enforcement have suddenly been visible. Writing about Sun Bin, there are more incidents, but only the plots of Pang Juan's broken foot and his face, Tian Ji's horse race, the Battle of Guiling, and the Battle of Maling are brought to life. In "The Biography of Tian Dan Lie", Tian Dan's intelligence is written with the plot of Fu Tie Cage at the end of the broken axle, and this technique of expressing the characters with individual plots or several plots is imitated by later novels such as "The New Language of the World".
Another method of Sima Qian's use of plot structure is the parallel interlacing method. Different characters are related to each other, and the plot is numerous and intertwined. Sima Qian first wrote about Dou Bao with four things: first, the incident of the imperial teaching; second, quelling the rebellion; third, the incident of the abolition of the crown prince; and fourth, the jing emperor did not need to be the prime minister. These four episodes write about dou babies' experiences in and out of the place. Then he wrote about Tian Qiao and also wrote three things: first, he was not expensive and "argued with a mouth"; second, "new use" was to want to be a face; third, he was arrogant after the prime minister. These three events have written how Tian Yu used nepotism, became inflamed, played with power, and performed conspiracies. Writing about the shuffler, he wrote that he had the courage to charge into the battlefield to quell the rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms, and won the official with military merit, and also wrote that he was just straight to the wine, good at what he did, and renewed his promise. Although there is a sequence of writing these three people, their events are parallel. When it came to Tian Qiao playing the irrigation and Xu Xing went to Wei Qi's banquet, the contradictions and conflicts of Dou, Tian, and Guan began to intertwine, and when it came to the two plots of "making the wine scolded the seat" and "arguing in the Eastern Dynasty", the contradiction developed into a climax, and finally wrote the ending of dou baby and douber being killed. With numerous parallel and intertwined plots, the author can skillfully combine and create a series of characters with flesh and blood and distinct personality characteristics.
When Sima Qian used many events and plots to interpret history, he did not pile up the plot alone, but centered on a character, so that the plot organically ran through with the development of contradictions. For example, in the "Xiang Yu Benji", after the Xiang clan uprising, the contradictions between the Chu State and the Qin State, the Zhao State, Xiang Yu and Song Yi became increasingly fierce, and finally the Battle of Julu finally broke out. Xiang Yu's name shocked the world, and he was a general of the princes, so the contradiction with Liu Bang was highlighted again, and Xiang Yu's life's behavior also changed from revolting to destroying Qin to fighting between Chu and Han. Therefore, after the "Hongmen Feast", Xiang Yu took a sharp turn for the worse due to strategic mistakes, which finally led to the end of the "Siege of Xiaxia" and "Wujiang Self-Destruction".
The same is true of the "Biography of Marquis Of Wei Qiwu", with the development of the contradictions between Dou Bao, Tian Fei and Shufu, the complex and intense plot unfolds one by one, and the characters' moods appear. Interpreting history with character images and event plots has been perfected in the hands of Sima Qian. Historians after Sima Qian all followed this method. Chu Shaosun's supplement "Ximen Leopard Zhiyi" uses such a technique, its structure is ingenious, the plot is tortuous, like a novel; and the sharp contradictions and conflicts are like drama, and the character portrayal of Ximen Leopard is also very successful. In Ban Gu's "Book of Han", "Huo GuangChuan" and "Oriental Shuo Biography", many storylines portray Huo Guang and Dongfang Shuo very impressively. Since then, Chen Shou and Fan Ye have also followed this tradition and written a history book that can be called masterpieces. Until Sima Guang's "Zizhi Tongjian", this was still the case.