Chapter 12 Postscript Meisheng: Fetish, Legend and Idealism

When I was writing this postscript for the fifth volume of "Enchanted Life", I rummaged through the bookshelves and found the magazines "Fantasy World" and "Kyushu Fantasy".After some careful reading, I have some thoughts.It has to be said that the books "Enchanted Life" happen to be related to the rise and fall of Chinese fantasy literature in recent years, and some details will become easier to understand after a little exploration of the so-called big environment. The earliest article "Farewell" in the "Enchanted Life" series appeared in the 9th issue of "Fantasy World" in 2005. There are a total of 8 articles until the April 2006 issue of "Empty Flame", which were collected and published in May 2007. (The book version comes with two character prequels and a side story).

The subtlety of this time period is that the July 2005 issue is the last issue of the Kyushu series to appear in this magazine. At the same time, the Kyushu system's own magazine "Dinosaur·Kyushu Fantasy" was also launched this month.If we do a little historical review, the 1999 college entrance examination composition incident (the national college entrance examination composition topic "If Memory Can be Transplanted" is very similar to the topic and article selection of the June 1999 issue of "Science Fiction World") led to the "science fiction craze". "And the ensuing golden age of "Science Fiction World" made this magazine for middle school students and junior college students gain the possibility of business development, and finally launched in 2003 as a supplement ("Science Fiction World·Fantasy Edition") It launched a fantasy publication, and officially launched it as "Fantasy World" in 2005, focusing on the novels set in Kyushu that originated on the Internet in 2002, and widely absorbed high-quality works from Internet fantasy writing, forming a very popular one. "Fantasy Fever".And this effect gradually spread. At its peak, the market could accommodate four to five mainstream fantasy magazines. Correspondingly, there were many books published, such as the Kyushu series of books, Yan Leisheng's "Tianxingjian" series to represent.However, in April 2006, "Fantasy World" experienced personnel turmoil. Editors such as Yan Yan, Atun, Zhang Jinjin and others collectively resigned and founded "Fantasy King" magazine (after being forced to change the cooperative issue number twice, it stopped publishing after publishing 4 issues) .The impact of this incident on the "Enchanted Life" series is that Chu Xidao's magazine partner has changed to "Kyushu Fantasy".

Chu Xidao was not a first-line author at that time, and had only published an article "The Enchanting Silk Silk" (No. 13, 2003) in "Legends of the Ancient and Modern Times".Also published at the same time as the "Charm of Life" series are Cang Yue's series, Lang Xiaojing's "Puppet Master" series, etc. "Charm of Life" is not very eye-catching.At the invitation of Jiangnan, Chu Xidao, who had no contact with the editor, published the prequel "Brown Charm" of the "Enchanting Life" series on "The Sun" in "Kyushu Fantasy" in April 2006, and the prequel series published thereafter also include "Liuyun" (published in "Xiuyu" in September 2006), "Xiange" (published in "Zichen" in December 2006), and published in October 2007 together with the unpublished chapter "Sleeve Snow".On the other hand, Chu Xidao has been serialized since May 2006 in "Genbai".As of the 2007 summer joint issue (July-August), there are 6 articles in "Selling Balm", and the unpublished chapters "Acacia Cut" and "Samsara Fruit" were published in August 2007.

What happened during this period, but all fantasy readers know a thing or two, that is the "Kyushu Gate" incident that has lasted for several years.I won’t dwell on the details here, there are abridgements on the Internet.Since the housework in Kyushu, Chu Xidao has been supporting the "Magic City" side, not only continuously contributing articles, but also participating in many planning projects of "South Kyushu", such as the Haiguo Zhiyi series, etc., and tested the Kyushu design in March 2007. After the finalization ("Kyushu · Cloud and Mountain Farewell"), in 2008 began to serialize the long work "Skylight Cloud Shadow" set in Kyushu.But a more important thing is the publication of the first three volumes of "Enchanted Life" (two main volumes and one prequel), making Chu Xidao officially among the important fantasy writers: In addition to the scale effect of the series of books in the short term , and more importantly, has its own setting system and story space.

In 2008, the first two articles "Dong Ming" and "Stealing the Sky" were published in the two volumes of "Four Seasons" and "Five Lakes Smoke" of the "Kyushu Fantasy" series of books, respectively, and the "Nirvana Volume" was published in June of that year.It says on the waistband that "Meisheng staged a gorgeous finale, interpreting the immortal legend", and the story is sad and moving.In the next three years, in addition to completing "Sky Light, Cloud Shadow" set in Kyushu, Chu Xidao also revised and published two volumes of the martial arts novel "Song of Tomorrow·Song of Mountains and Rivers". In January 2012, as a sequel, it was serialized in the magazine "Nanye Cinderella", and the story that both the author and the readers still wanted to continue was finally able to continue.

It should be said that Chu Xidao's creative process is deeply involved in the industrial model and development process of fantasy literature in mainland China.In general, most writers/authors/authors go through a network-magazine-book industry process. As far as industry norms are concerned, book editions should have at least 10% unpublished content, and the text should also Polished and tweaked.For booklets, the web and magazines are some form of book advertising.Coupled with the gradual popularity of e-reading and changes in the structure of the readership, the shrinking of the market seems unstoppable.In fact, in terms of commercial value, sequels are obviously easier to be recognized by readers (this is the status quo of the film industry today).Chu Xidao's creation and publishing process can just provide an entry point for interpreting the fantasy literature industry in recent years.

The plot mode of "Enchanted Life" at the beginning of its serialization can be clearly defined as a "unit drama" of the "Flower Fairy mode". The narrative method of "Flower Fairy" is a coherent core character and a relatively independent single-episode plot (this is also the feature that distinguishes "series" from "series"), plus the intellectual content "flower language" of each episode.About every chapter introduces the purpose of an incense, and if Zifu is regarded as a plastic surgery hospital, this is almost a "Nip Tuck" (Nip Tuck).This is the most effective plot mode of Japanese animation or American TV series - even if it is a masterpiece such as "EVA", while advancing the main plot, each episode still has to deal with a story of "defeating a new apostle" relatively independently . The serialization of "Fantasy Journey Volume" also follows this plot mode. What's more interesting is that although this book is presented as an adventure story, the title of each chapter is "object", or "object of desire".If the implicit narrative in "The Fairy Face" is the relationship between advertising creativity and customers, and it is still a white-collar class, "Magic Journey" has already undergone business expansion, and it is like a gold-collar class.The narrative mode of this unit drama reappears in "Nirvana Volume". As a prequel, "Fengming Volume" is different, and the narrative method is more similar to a mini-series or a single play.

The writing method of "fetish" lies in the detailed description of the details of the objects. In the series of "Meisheng", these details are clothing, spices, utensils and so on.It is possible to attribute the origin of this style of writing (Chu Xidao also used some poems in it), but in my opinion, there are at least three reasons for this emphasis and obsession with details: One is the pursuit of the uniqueness and quality of the text. Chu Xidao did not fabricate these details out of thin air, but did a lot of textual research, including in-depth research on clothing and spices.Not to mention the many huge volumes of color-illustrated documents and research monographs she read. Two years ago, she went to Beijing for a meeting and came to meet me for tea in half a day. Da Kele Archaeological Museum looked at an exhibition of costumes from the Liao Dynasty in detail and took a lot of photos.Needless to say, some details appear in the description of Beihuang's clothing in "The Scroll of Ten Masters".

The second is related to the professional identity of the characters in the book.Leaving sideways and 姽童 aside, Ziyan's disguise technique requires a lot of tools and utensils, not to mention that Chu Xidao's process of disguise is a process of psychotherapy, which requires the assistance of burning incense. After that, more clothes are needed.All the other masters are like this. The third is the most important point. Chu Xidao was born in the Department of Chinese, so she naturally knows how narratology analyzes plot patterns.To turn the theory upside down and use it in creation, you must face a dilemma: there are only so many narrative modes, and even the way the plot unfolds has long been determined (such as Propp’s research), so when there are no new stories, you can only rely on characters and Details are refurbished to find new possibilities.This obsession with the details of utensils is just a reflection of this mentality, and it is also a way of responding to the increasingly difficult "innovation" today.

In the text of the novel, objects that are regarded as "objects of desire" not only provide narrative motivation, but also carry value judgments.As far as the central idea is concerned, the "Enchanted Life" series can be summed up as that human skills depend on vision, knowledge and character, and they should not be stagnant in things. They try to achieve the state of "playing in art" during the training of skills, and the final competition It is a deep understanding of human nature.This is the transcendence of things.We can already see this clear expression in Ziyan's many shots, and in "Fengming Volume" and "Ten Master Volume", as the stories of other characters unfold, we have confirmed this judgment again.

Of course, the reason why Zi Yan is so powerful is not because of his aura of the protagonist, but because he is almost the only character in the ten divisions who has the possibility of surpassing.This is not because his profession needs to master multiple skills, but that he is not only a craftsman, what he does is not just about disguise, but he wants to focus on dealing with people.Textiles, calligraphy, utensils, architectural spices can all be handed down from generation to generation, and classics on medicine, geomantic omen and music will also be handed down. Spiritual masters are not in this world, only Yirong masters are closely related to people. Although "Meisheng" is a fantasy novel, the narrative tradition still needs to be continued into the so-called "early Chinese Internet writing", and another tradition parallel to this thread is "Mainland New Martial Arts".Chu Xidao's writing background is derived from "Under the Banyan Tree" and "Jinjiang Literature Network", and at the same time has a lot of relationship with "Legend of Jingu" which is the official newspaper of "Mainland New Martial Arts".I will not discuss the specific characteristics of these two traditions here, but only to find a clearer place for Chu Xidao's writing.If we go back to the question discussed in the first paragraph of this article, in fact, the composition of the authors of "Fantasy and Prosperity" is relatively complicated. Authors like Chu Xidao will have a certain common tendency, which is called "the legend of the text" here. change". The so-called "legendary" here includes, in addition to the tradition of ghosts and monsters from the legends of the Tang Dynasty, it also includes a certain tendency to search for a "big narrative", in other words, to establish a narrative relationship with politics, or "court writing".As one of the sources, Jin Yong often constructs a narrative mode of court-jianghu in his middle and late works (see Xin Yuanping's "Cambridge Relying on Heaven and Slaying the Dragon History"), whether it is the Jianghu structure as a political metaphor, or directly related to history like this Both political and political texts contain explicit attempts to engage with "grand narratives."And this grand narrative is built on the basis of perceived experience or acquired knowledge.As far as Jin Yong is concerned, the basis of the grand narrative is the geographical and historical setting of ancient China, on which a whole set of martial arts setting of the internal and external power system is established.The same is true for the time-travel novels that are all the rage.It is easy to find that the setting of the whole system was gradually developed during the writing process after reading "Enchanted Life".This is true for the life experience of the characters and the history of Gongdou.While it is true that the way the story unfolds needs to be appropriate, this state of growth is clearly not planned from the start.Why did this story, which at first glance was quite a unit drama, gradually move towards the current direction during the writing process?I am afraid it is still determined by the writing and reading mode of fantasy novels. In this sense, looking back at the background of the so-called "fantasy prosperity" and the function of fantasy novels, the initial Internet writing itself is a way of dreaming to escape the mediocre and trivial daily life, while fantasy novels provide a sufficient sense of distance. But the supporting logic in it can be used for daily experience, or the plot and motivation in fantasy novels can be regarded as a certain projection relationship in daily life.As far as "Meisheng" is concerned, the occupations of the ten masters, except for the spiritual mage, all have realistic correspondences; and the geopolitical structure throughout the book is the confrontation between the North and the South that readers are familiar with-a typical example is the Song Dynasty. In addition, the basic geographical and historical settings There are still traces to be followed in traditional China (similar writing methods such as "Tian Xingjian" or Chu Xidao's "Song of Tomorrow" series, all establish overhead dynasties after the dynasties of ancient China, but the historical geography remains continuous) .And this kind of setting will unconsciously lead to the big narrative—whether it is regarded as an emotional structure shared by the author and readers, or as a political complex and political imagination with "Chinese characteristics", this kind of orientation towards the big narrative The tendency of just reflects a certain collective mentality of this tense: longing for a certain possibility of transcendence. This is also the actual contact point of Ziyan's success.Regardless of his background, the whole story of "Enchanted Life" can be regarded as his graduation from college (the prequel supplemented the college entrance examination interview and college content, and the "Sleeve Snow" article is completely sideways preparing for the college entrance examination...) and started working on projects The story of the manager, because of his amazing craftsmanship, has been heard all over the world, and he has become the top in the industry and started to participate in high-level forums, which can even affect the political structure of the entire country.Different from the essence of TV series, which is a story that slides from a big narrative to office politics, "Enchanted Life" is a narrative process that is gradually extrapolated. After the increasingly legendary pattern unfolds, it is just a piece of imagination that readers can obtain from reality beyond experience. space. Nowadays, "feelings" has become an invalid name with slightly ironic and refutable connotations, but fortunately "idealism" is still a good word.After reading the five volumes of "Enchanted Life", the word "idealism" is the first thing that pops up.The characters are all naturally beautiful, delicate and gentle, possessing unique skills, and most of them have a history that is painful enough to leave a lifetime of shadows. In Ziyan's case, it is even more indisputable that male and female can reverse all living beings.If you want to make a film and television adaptation, maybe characters like Zi Yan have to be classified into the category of "cannot be played".Coupled with Chu Xidao's gorgeous rhetoric, "Enchanted Life" also has a certain tendency towards aestheticism.But as mentioned above, it is essentially an inspirational story, and it also describes the spirit and realm of personal struggle, which is more similar to idealism. To be more specific, if we analyze the simple dualism of good and evil, the good people in this book are really good. is the most; and the bad guys are not really bad, but are forced to stand on the opposite side.In fact, there is absolutely no such expression in Chu Xidao's writing skills, which was born out of narratology, but proceeds in the paradigm of "hero/protagonist-rival/opponent".I say this book is idealistic because although Chu Xidao provides a touch of reality, it does not really describe the painful reality and the uncomfortable "evil".This is not just a world where there is "no good or evil", but an ideal world without "evil".Of course, when it comes to this step, it is not a question of narratology. As far as the writing process of "Ten Masters Volume" is concerned, Chu Xidao is still quite unique.As far as I know, the ten stories in "The Volume of Ten Masters" correspond exactly to the ten classic narrative formulas.For example, "Dan Xin" corresponds to "Golden Fleece", "Side Side" corresponds to "Fulfillment", "Yuan Que" corresponds to "The Fool Succeeds", and "Purple Yan" corresponds to "Superhero".In the creation talk "The Story of Meisheng", Chu Xidao also wrote about the chapter arrangement of "Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter" and the structural arrangement of "marketplace-court" in the layout of "Yaoyanjuan".This kind of skill is not something the reader can detect, but there will be a faint feeling.For example, in "Ten Masters Volume", "Dan Xin", "Yuan Que", "Ji Yue" and "Su Ye" all have big scenes that require a lot of skill, while "Side Side" is written about dreams that require more skill.It is easy to arrange the narrative motif, but it is not an easy task to weave the whole story with full details from here.In fact, in the five volumes of "Enchanting Life", Chu Xidao has become more and more handy. In addition to the gradual clarity of the characters and the emergence of the big narrative as the story progresses, the more important thing is the gradual maturity of the skills. In "Ten Masters Volume", the perspectives are constantly changing, and big scenes and group dramas can be found everywhere. This kind of writing skills needs to be developed gradually. So for me, the most interesting part of "Enchanted Life" lies in the mutual growth of the author and the text.I can't help but imagine that if the market is more stable and mature, this story should be more dense and have more interaction with readers.It should be a carrier of youthful memories (such as the "Harry Potter" series).Furthermore, if the "Charming Life" series is arranged in the order of the stories, you can immediately see the growth issues it has been focusing on: whether it is Ziyan's "survival" or Changsheng's "truth", whether it is Suye's " "Seeking the Tao" is still the "seeking refinement" of the masters, and what they are fighting against is nothing more than the time like a knife——Compared with "Fengming Volume", "Ten Masters Volume" can basically be regarded as "Second Generation", while Chu Xidao does not avoid this question.This is the great article of idealism-the world changes with time, what remains unchanged is that these craftsmen pursue their ideals one after another, and with Ziyan present, even time cannot change their appearance. A few years ago, I did a piece of text planning for "Kyushu Fantasy", and then I persisted in writing reviews and book reviews for about four years.With the energy at that time, it was still able to cover most of the fantasy literature.Looking through my Douban page, I have devoted a lot of time to Mook in North and South Kyushu.In the process, I accidentally got mixed up with Mu Linguo, a "triad organization with a kinship nature", and had no choice but to enter the East Palace in the face of the cruel logic of "the East Palace only recognizes juniors, and the West Palace only recognizes elders", and sworn sisters with Chu Xidao My younger brother is listed in the Donggong Guojiu Group (there are as many as 13 Guojiu in total, ahem).Later, when Chu Xidao was writing "Skylight, Cloud and Shadow", she continued to provide her with consultation on the setting of secret techniques, and gradually became familiar with it.Because of writing reviews, Chu Xidao has read most of her articles (for example, "Charming Death", which some readers may not know), and I have a fairly good understanding of her style. However, according to the usual practice, writing postscripts or prefaces needs to be touted as the first purpose, and I have a good reputation as a "dead school", so I finally wrote such a commentary postscript.I think there is a very important prerequisite for my dialogue with Chu Xidao, that is, she does not reject the intervention of theory.This is rare in fantasy literature circles.Whether it is cultural studies theory, narratology or myth-archetypal criticism, as well as film screenwriting skills that are not theoretical, Chu Xidao can be trusted to turn it into writing.This method is rejected by many authors, but readers can also see the result—how the author writes a book is his own business, and what matters is the actual effect of the work.Chu Xidao is obviously not satisfied with only writing popular novels. This is not because of my deliberate exaggeration or wanton praise, but because of her appeal.I thought it would be an interesting attempt to point this out in the postscript.The last paragraph is that the writing process of this postscript is still an interaction with Chu Xidao. After writing an analysis, I send it to her. The feedback I often get is "Hey, how do you know that I think so?" !” This is about the highest appreciation an author can give a reviewer.In fact, to put it bluntly, it is nothing more than "sharing an emotional structure". I am just here to give a reminder. Of course, Chu Xidao's book is indeed a popular novel, but it does have more than one way of reading.