Zhuangzi's novels are profound in artistic conception, full of charm, profound in meaning, full of philosophy and illusory mystery. Although there were many excellent novels in the pre-Qin, Han, Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, on the whole, they all seemed to be simple in artistic conception and profound in connotation, without the special charm of Zhuangzi's novels. Comparing Zhuangzi's novels with those in Zuozhuan, Warring States Policy, Spring and Autumn Annals of Yanzi, New Preface, Shuoyuan, Spring and Autumn Annals of Wu and Yue, Searching for Ji Shen and Stories on the World, we can easily see this situation. To illustrate the problem, we still study some specific works, from which we can get a glimpse of this interest. Everyone is familiar with Zhuangzi's novel "Wheel Flat Wheel" ("Zhuangzi Heaven"), but they may not remember the words clearly. For comparison, the original text of the novel is quoted as follows:
Huan Gong studied after class, and the class was even. He loosened his spine and chiseled it up. He asked Huan Gong, "How can readers who dare to ask the public speak evil?" Gong said, "The words of saints are also true." Say, "Do saints care?" Gong said, "I'm dead." Yue: "However, the readers in your place and the evil spirits of ancient people are already husbands!" Huan Gong said, "I'm studying, and it's my turn to discuss! Just say it, or you will die if you don't say it! " Lun Bian said, "I also regard it as a matter of ministers. Wheel Xu is sweet but not real, the disease is bitter but not into, not allowed to be not sick, from the hand to the heart, the mouth can not speak, there are several meantime. I can't compare with my son, and my son can't be influenced by me, so he is old at 70. The ancients can only be passed down after they die, but your readers, the evil spirits of the ancients have married! "
The so-called "bad spirit" is the dross. Like Zhuangzi's novels, Han Ying also wrote a novel of the Western Han Dynasty. Compared with Zhuangzi's novels, Han Ying's novels are self-evident. Han Ying's novels are as follows:
King Chu Cheng is studying in the temple, and Lun Ping is sitting next to him. He asked, "Don't judge what the Lord has read?" Wang Cheng said, "The book of sages." Lun Ping said, "I'll turn it around. Husband takes rules as a circle and moments as a square, which can be passed on to future generations. If husbands are integrated, they should be based on their hearts, and they can't get it and pass it on. Then all the faxes are broken. " Therefore, Tang's method can't be verified, that is, people can't reach it. "Poetry" says: "God lotus is silent and odorless." Who can get there?
In this novel, the author changed "Huan Gong" to "Chu Wang Cheng" and "Lun Bian" to "Lun Bian", and the artistic conception is quite different from Zhuangzi's novels. Zhuangzi's novels show that the skill of wheel-flat wheel is very subtle, which can only be understood, but not expressed. Rich in artistic conception, natural in rhyme and thought-provoking. In this article, Han Ying also wants to explain that the skill of edge wheel can only survive in people's hearts and cannot be passed on to others. But the author can't illustrate this purport through the story of On Debate. Among them, the key text of the novel reads: "The husband takes the rules as the circle and the moments as the square, which can be passed down to future generations." If a husband becomes one, he should be based on his heart and not pass it on. "Obviously, in this view, we can't say that Lun Bian has something to say. At the end of the novel, "Tang Yu's method" and "poem" are added, which has nothing to do with the story of Lun Bian. It can be seen that the theme of this novel is chaotic, lacking in artistic conception and boring.
Zhuangzi's novel Huan Gong Tian Yu Ze seems to be adapted from the novel Guan Zi. Yi Tong Customs quoted Guan Zi as saying: "Qi Huangong was proud of a purple dress, which was as big as a hub and as long as a shaft, so he stood hand in hand. I'm back, sleeping sick, and I haven't been out for months. When the emperor saw the public language, he was surprised and said,' Evil things can hurt the public! Open self-injury. Only the overlord can see this so-called deity. "So Huan Gong laughed happily and never recovered all day." This novel is rough and plain, with simple artistic conception and incomplete story. After Zhuangzi's rewriting, the plot of the novel is greatly enriched, the implication is more profound, and the characterization is more vivid. Compared with the original story, Zhuangzi added Guan Zhong as the emperor, Huan Gong caressed Guan Zhong's hand, and they had a good talk. Supplemented the plot that Prince Qi told Huan Gong: "The public will hurt themselves, and evil spirits can harm the public", and the public is the spirit of hatred "if you don't come up and down, you will get sick if you are careful"; Adding that "everyone I see is almost a tyrant", Huan Gong said with a smile: "What I see is also true." So I sat with my clothes on. "I wonder if I have been ill all day." After Zhuangzi's rewriting, it gives the novel a new connotation and a new look, and completely tells the image of Qi Huangong's desire for hegemony, greed and ugliness. Because the novel aims to explain the way of holding one's breath and keeping in good health, it makes the novel more attractive. It can be said that the stone turns into gold!
Compared with later novels, we can also see the advantages and disadvantages. Zhuangzi has a novel of "Keiko looking at the beam", and Liu Xiang also has a novel of "Keiko desiring the beam". Although the content is different, it can still be recognized from the artistic conception of the work. The full text of Zhuangzi's novel is: "Keiko looks at Liang and Zhuangzi looks at it. Or Keiko said,' Zhuangzi will take the place of the son.' So Hui Shi was so scared that he searched all over the country for three days and nights. Zhuangzi went to see it and said,' There is a bird named Hu in the south. What do you know? Husband's carp originated in the South China Sea and flew to the North Sea. It is not only a buttonwood tree, but also a practice of not eating. It is not a spring without drinking. So the owl caught the rotten mouse, passed by it, looked up and said,' Fear! Is this son trying to scare me with his son's beam state? "(Zhuangzi Qiushui) This article is an allegorical novel, which shows Zhuangzi's thought of" not being a martyr ". The author compares it to a rotten mouse, which shows Zhuangzi's noble sentiment. What is the realm of Liu Xiang's novels? The full text of the novel is: "Liang Xiang died, Keiko wanted Liang, crossed the river and fell into the water, and the boatman saved him." The boatman said; What does the son want? Yue: "Liang has no phase, I want to go to the phase." The boatman said, my son is trapped between two boats. My son will die without me. How can my son be harmonious?' Keiko said,' If my son lives between boats, then I am not as good as my son. My son is blind to the country and the whole society. "It is not difficult to see that this novel is vivid, but its style is not high and its artistic conception is shallow, which is quite different from Zhuangzi's novels.
The profound artistic conception of Zhuangzi's novels is endless, like an endless sea with no end in sight. This is closely related to Zhuangzi's fictions advocating illusory morality. This is one of them.
Secondly, the works of philosophers and Taoists are significantly different from ordinary writers in artistic style. Most of Zhuangzi's novels show the characteristics of wanton Wang Yang, which are magnificent, grotesque and ethereal, with romantic spirit between the lines. The novels of other writers in the pre-Qin and Han Dynasties and the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties are relatively unpretentious and unremarkable. This artistic style of Zhuangzi's novels is reflected in many of his novels. For example, in the novel "Confucius on Lvliang" ("Zhuangzi Sheng Da"), it is written that Lvliang's husband has extraordinary water. Hanging water for 30 miles, foaming at the mouth for 40 miles, the giant fish and soft-shelled turtle dare not swim, but Lvliang's husband dives. The man swam hundreds of steps, put on a song and swam to the bottom of the pond. Confucius was dumbfounded at such a scene and thought it was a "ghost". Another example is the romantic technique of Ren Gongzi is a giant hook, the incisive and dangerous scene of Lieyukou is a fool and no one shoots him, the amazing scene of teasing the "saint" to win an unexpected victory in Stealing the Foot to Teach Confucius, and the profound impact of Zhuangzi's dream of an empty skull (Joy of Zhuangzi) on the world's labor, etc. Other novels, such as The Spring and Autumn Annals of Yan Zi, have distinct political and ideological colors, and some chapters are also full of satire, but on the whole, most of them are plain and unpretentious, lacking in momentum. Another example is that in Zuo Zhuan, the meson can't talk about Lu, and Qu Shu cried over the teacher. In Warring States Policy, Qi people have new things. In Mencius, Qi people have wives and concubines. In Biography of Women, Qi people are emperors to their wives, and it is a custom to paint women in Lu's room. "Wu Yue Chun Qiu Wu Nv Yu Zi Biography" is also written with ups and downs, twists and turns and moving, quite dramatic. Some novels can't be said to have no artistic style, but they are not as magnificent and humorous as Zhuangzi's novels, forming a unique style. Zhuangzi's novels have this strange flavor, saturated with rich philosophical feelings and subtle mysterious and illusory morality. In a word, the difference between Zhuangzi's novels and other writers' novels in artistic style can also be said to be the difference between strangeness and righteousness.
If we compare the novels of the pre-Qin and Han dynasties with those of the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, we will find that there is a contrast between the novels of the pre-Qin and the novels of the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. In the history of China's novels, pre-Qin novels belong to early babies, so it is inevitable that there are some childishness, that is, some novels have less narration and more dialogues. For example, Zhuangzi advised King Wen of Zhao to stop fighting swords for fun (Zhuangzi said swords) and The Fisherman taught Confucius (Fisherman Zhuangzi), but they were still top grades. Of course, we can't generalize. Zhuangzi's novels, some of which are narrative and some are semi-narrative, such as Drawing a Picture in Song Dynasty, Ren Gongzi's Giant Hook, Lieyu Kou Fool, Zheng Shenwu's View of Lvliang, Confucius' Dream at Amen in the Midnight, are all excellent works in art. After the Han Dynasty, especially at the end of the Han Dynasty, the form of novels gradually matured. For example, some novels in Customs by Ying Shao and Spring and Autumn Annals of Wu Zhao by Zhao Ye have overcome the disadvantages of too much dialogue in pre-Qin novels and even early Han novels, and are more perfect in form. Although not as impressive as the legends of the Tang Dynasty and the novels of the Song Dynasty.
But strangely, in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, with the development of history and social progress, this literary form of novel should be more perfect. However, some novels of this period, such as Gan Bao's Search for the Gods and Liu Yiqing's Tales of the World, etc. There is no punch line or aesthetic value, no matter in artistic form or ideological content, but it is not as attractive as the works of the pre-Qin and Han dynasties and can give people an aesthetic enjoyment. For example, the Warring States policy, Qi people have Feng Xuan and Empress Dowager Zhao's new use, Mencius, Qi people have wives and concubines, Zhuangzi's wheel flat wheel, Huan Gong Tian Yu Ze, Ren Gongzi's hook, Lieyukou's stupidity, etc. Compared with some novels in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, it seems that. Therefore, we should admit that pre-Qin novels are the source of China's novels, and Zhuangzi is the ancestor of China's novels.