Chapter 7 Preface to "Eight Variations of Song People's Verbal Versions"

Preface to "Eight Variations of Song People's Verbal Versions" -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Qian Zeng's "Yi Yuan Bibliography" includes twelve kinds of operas in "Song People's Ci Hua", and its items are: The lantern flower mother-in-law wind blows the sedan chair Feng Yumei's reunion planting melons Zhang Lao Miscutting Cui Ning Jiantie Monk Violet Hijab Xiaotinger Li Huansheng five showers of revenge West Lake Three Towers Small Money Few people have seen these twelve kinds of books, and those who have seen them look down on this kind of books, so "Ye Ye Yuan" has not been recorded in the records since then.

Mr. Wang Guowei wrote the first draft of "The Original Opera" (published in the fiftieth issue of "Guocui Weekly", which is different from the final version in "Chenfengge Series"). When referring to these twelve kinds of books, he said: ... Although the books If it does not exist, if you say "words", there will be music; if you say "words", there will be white.Its title or like sets, or like Zaju. Essentially, it must be similar to Dong Xie Yuan Xiansuo's "West Chamber". Later, Mr. Wang revised the old manuscript and separated a part as "Qulu" ("Morning Wind Pavilion"), which also quoted these twelve kinds of words. Into the opera department, the title is "Song people's words".Zun Wang (Qian Zeng) has a very rich collection of music, so his words should be supported.Moreover, its title is different from the style of the Yuan opera, but it is similar to the number of episodes of the official version of the Song Dynasty drama, and the title of the Jinrenyuan version contained in Tao Zongyi's "Stop Genglu", so it is undoubtedly written by the Southern Song Dynasty. ("Qulu" 1)

In the tenth year of the Republic of China (1921), I wrote "The Post-examination of Outlaws of the Marsh", because there was an article in the hundred and twenty chapters that said: In ancient books, there is a saying from Luo Shi, it is said that "Denghua mother-in-law" and other things will never be seen again. Therefore, I suspect that Mr. Wang Guowei's assumption is wrong.I said: "Grandma Lantern Flower" is the "speech" of the ancient version of "Water Margin", so it may not necessarily have a "tune".Qian Zeng classified these works in "Song People's Cihua". The "Song people" level is naturally wrong. The words in "Ci Hua" are probably Pinghua, not necessarily Qu.

Therefore, I think these twelve kinds of words are probably the introduction of storytelling, and have nothing to do with lyrics and music.In the later novels of the Ming Dynasty, for example, each main text was often preceded by something else as an introduction. Perhaps the introduction of this kind of prose is the evolution of the greetings such as "Denghua Granny". (Volume 3 of the first edition of "Hu Shi Wencun") There are also pros and cons in my passage: (1) I don’t think these words are written by Song people, I was wrong; (2) I said that the words of "Cihua" are probably Pinghua, which is right ; (3) I thought that these words were mostly introductions for storytelling, but I was wrong again. ——What I said that day was just a hypothesis, and it all depends on the evidence later.But the evidence soon came out.

The first is the discovery of "Grandma Lantern Flower".In February of the twelfth year of the Republic of China, I found the revised version of "Ping Yao Zhuan" by Long Ziyou (that is, Feng Youlong's pseudonym). The introduction at the beginning of the volume is the story of "Grandma Denghua".It suddenly dawned on me that what Fafan said in the 120 chapters of the book, "there is a speech from Luo Shi in the ancient book, and it is said that there are such things as Denghua mother-in-law" was a mistake in memory for a while. The story of "Grandma Denghua" was used as a tribute to "Ping Yao Zhuan", but Yang Dingjian mistook it as a tribute to the ancient version.According to legend, "Ping Yao Zhuan" was also written by Luo Guanzhong, so Yang made this mistake. (Mr. Xie Wuliang also mentioned this introduction in his "Two Great Writers of Civilian Literature", but Mr. Xie's conclusion was wrong.) Later Zhou Lianggong said in "Book Shadow" that "an old rumor, Luo Shiyi Each of the hundred chapters is crowned with a strange language of demons", which is also based on Yang's one hundred and twenty chapters of Fafan, because of one mistake and another mistake.Years of mysteries have only been resolved here.

What is used as the introduction to "Ping Yao Zhuan" is not the full text of "Denghua Granny", but only a general outline. The full text cannot be seen, and the story in this excerpt is worth preserving, so I copied it at the end of this preface as an appendix. The most important evidence is the appearance of "Jingben Popular Novels".This matter is the great achievement of Mr. Miao Quansun (Jiangdong Laozhi), and it is considered a major event in the history of Chinese literature. During the Lantern Festival in the 11th year of the Republic of China, I bought "Yanhua Dongtang Essays" at Huoshen Temple in Beijing, and first saw seven kinds of "Jingben Popular Novels" in it.Among them, there are two kinds, "Wrong Cutting Cui Ning" and "Feng Yumei Reunion", which can be found in "Yieyuan Bibliography".Originally engraved with the short postscript of Jiangdong Lao Yimao (the fourth year of the Republic of China), it records the

See the origin cloud of this book: Yu took refuge in Shanghai, where he lived alone, and heard that there were old banknotes and books among his relatives, which were similar to Pinghua, and they were fake.Miscellaneous among "Tianyuhua" and "Phoenix Flying", four volumes were searched, and the tattered and obliterated ones were Yingyuanren's manuscripts.The first line is "The first volume of popular novels in Beijing".The whole body is reduced to lowercase, which makes people laugh out loud.There are still three volumes of Qian Zunwang's books, which are old things in the "Yeyi Garden". "Wrong Cutting Cui Ning" and "Feng Yumei's Reunion" are found in the bibliography. ...

There is also one episode of "Three Monsters of Dingzhou", which is too broken; two volumes of "Jin Zhuliang's Desolation" are too obscene and dare not be copied. There are some coincidences and disagreements with "Ye Ye Yuan", and I don't know why. Later, "The Debauchery of King Jinlu Hailing" was also engraved by Mr. Ye Dehui.Therefore, there are eight kinds published successively, and the original volumes are as follows: Volume 10: Grinding Jade Guanyin Volume 11 Bodhisattva Man Volume 12: Ghosts in a Cave in Xishan Volume Thirteen Director Zhicheng Zhang

Volume Fourteen Volume 15 Wrong Cutting Cui Ning Volume Sixteen Feng Yumei Reunion Volume 21 Looking at the first volume, we can imagine the number of such novels at that time, but the rest are invisible. In the postscript of Jiangdong Laozhi, it is said that "there are still three volumes of Qian Zunwang's books".Only the frontispiece of "Bodhisattva Man" has the seal of "Yushan Qian Zeng Zunwang Collection". None of the "Bodhisattva Man" is found in the "Yiyuan Bibliography", which shows that these several articles are all collected by Qian Zeng. When the bibliography was compiled, there were only twelve kinds, so the rest are not in the bibliography.

After reading these kinds of novels, we can know that these are the plain language of the Southern Song Dynasty. The chapter "Feng Yumei" says "in the reign of Jianyan in the Song Dynasty"; "Prime Minister", and said "my Song Yuanqi was destroyed by the Xining Reform"; these all prove that the era when these novels were produced was in the Southern Song Dynasty. Both "Bodhisattva Man" and "Feng Yumei" are called "Gaozong". Gaozong died in 1187, which was at the end of the twelfth century, so we know that these novels are dated to the thirteenth century.

The age of "The Debauchery of the King of Hailing" can also be tested.Jin Zhuliang (later abolished as Hailing King) died in 1160, but the book mentions Jin Sejong's posthumous posthumous law, and also says that "Sejong reigned for twenty-nine years"; Sejong died in 1189, Two years after Song Gaozong.It is also said in the book: I destroyed the Kingdom of Jin in the court of Emperor Duanping and took Sanjing directly.When the sergeant returned to Hangzhou, he brought a lot of books from the captives. Duanping is the reign title of Emperor Lizong of Song Dynasty (1234-1236); at that time, the people of Song Dynasty made an appointment with Mongolia and sent troops together to attack the Jin Dynasty, and then destroyed the Jin Kingdom.But forty years later, Mongolia aggressively invaded the south, and the Southern Song Dynasty also perished.This book was written in the middle of the thirteenth century after Duanping. However, there is a sentence in the article "The Licentiousness of the King of Hailing", which made me doubt the age of this book when I first read it. Brother Gui said in the book: Except for the walking beads from Western countries and Burmese bells from Myanmar, only human beings are living treasures. This sentence is too similar to the tone of the people of the Ming Dynasty, which makes me very suspicious.Myanmar is not found in foreign biographies in "History of the Song Dynasty", but this does not prove that there was no commercial trade between Chinese people and Myanmar at that time. "Yuan History" volume two hundred Ten says: In the eighth year of Shizu Zhiyuan (1271), Dali, Shanchan and others sent Qitate Tuoyin and other envoys to Myanmar from the Marshal's Mansion of Xuanwei Sidu to invite their king to be attached. At that time, the Song Dynasty had not yet perished.This shows that the Chinese in the 13th century should be able to have traffic relations with Myanmar. And "History of Ming Dynasty" Volume 315 said: During Song Ningzong (1195-1224), Myanmar, Persia and other countries entered white elephants.Since then, Myanmar has been connected to China. This matter is not found in "Song History Ningzong Benji". "Ningzong Benji" records that in the first year of Kaixi (1205), there was a statue of Fuguo Gongrui in Zhenli.However, the "Song History" volume 489 recorded this incident in the sixth year of Qingyuan (1200).Zhenlifu is in the southwest of Chenla. I don't know if it is Burma or not. "Song History" records foreign affairs in detail in the Northern Song Dynasty, but slightly in the Southern Song Dynasty, so the communication between the Southern Song Dynasty and foreign countries cannot be tested.If the record of Myanmar's connection with China in "History of the Ming Dynasty" is valid, then it is not surprising that Myanmar is mentioned in novels after the middle of the thirteenth century. In the year when Emperor Shizu of the Yuan Dynasty summoned Myanmar (1271), that is, the Italian Marco Polo (Marco Polo) The year of the East Tour.The communication between China and the "Western Ocean" is just beginning.But the so-called "Western country" at that time was not very "Western".Probably the "Western Ocean" that Brother Gui refers to is just the countries on the Indian Ocean. So we don't have to doubt the age of these novels.The internal evidence of these novels allows us to infer that they were produced around the end of the Southern Song Dynasty, the middle of the thirteenth century, or later.Some of them may be earlier, but the earliest one must not be before the death of Emperor Gaozong of Song Dynasty, and the latest one may be as far after the Mongol extermination of gold (1234). There is no doubt that these novels are all spoken by speakers in the Southern Song Dynasty. (See Chapter 12 of Lu Xun's "A Brief History of Fiction") According to Guan Yuan Naideweng's "Capital Ji Sheng" and Wu Zimu's "Meng Liang Lu" and other books, there are four schools of speakers in the Southern Song Dynasty, each with its own style. Storybook: (1) Novels. (2) Tell history. (3) Puppet. "The storybook is like Zaju, or like Cliff Ci, mostly empty and little real." (4) MOVIE. "His script is quite the same as that of the narrators of history books, and it is probably half true." this problem) Probably "fiction" covers the most, with the following various subheadings: (a) Legends of smoke powder ghosts. (b) Said koan. "There are stories of fighting with knives and clubs and getting rich and abnormal." (c) Talk about cavalry. "It's called the Golden Drum of Shima." (d) Speak the scriptures. "It's called lectures on Buddhist books." (e) Say please. "It is said that the guest and the host have practiced Zen and enlightened the Tao." The eight kinds of scripts we have now are probably the two scripts of novels and history. Both "Hailing King" and "Yu Xianggong" should belong to the category of "telling history". The volume of "Feng Yumei" is between "Shuo Gongan" and "Tie Qier". "Avalokitesvara Grinding Jade", "Ghost in a Cave in Xishan", "Director Zhicheng Zhang" (and the appendix "Grandma Lantern Flower") are all "spiritual legends". The volume of "Wrong Cutting Cui Ning" is a kind of "koan", which opened the way for many later detective novel-style "koan" ("Bao Gongan", "Shi Gongan" and the like). Cui Ning was wronged and killed, starting with the fifteen strings of money. Later, "Fifteen strings" became a "motif" of detective novels, such as "Fifteen strings" by Kuang Taishou in Kunqu Opera, which is an example. Although the volume of "Bodhisattva Man" is not purely "speaking the scriptures", it is a very progressive novel "speaking the Buddhist scriptures". In the early days of "Shuo Jing" it was only in common language, such as the vulgar text of "Fa Hua" in the Dunhuang fragments.Later, when I made some progress, I paid more attention to some of the most novel stories in Buddhist scriptures, such as "Eight Aspects of Enlightenment", "Mulian" story, "Vimalakirti" Bianwen, etc. in the Dunhuang fragments.In a more advanced period, they left Buddhist books and used secular stories to explain the meaning of Buddhism. "Bodhisattva Man" is an example. These novels can remind us of the look of the "speaker" at that time and the situation of speaking. Lu Fangweng has a poem of "Traveling Near the Village in a Small Boat": Zhaojiazhuang, an ancient willow in the setting sun, is working in the field. Who cares about right and wrong behind the scenes?Mancun heard about Cai Zhonglang. This is village talker.The speakers in the capital are much richer.They have the "Book Club" and the "Eloquent Club" (both see Zhou Mi's "Old Stories of Wulin").At least they have a regular storytelling field.They call themselves "speakers" (see "Bodhisattva Man").When they tell a story, there is always an introduction in front of it, and this introduction is called "Victory Head Back".The volume of the book "Wrong Cut Cui Ning" says: This time the book list said that an official just because of a joke while drunk, he killed himself and broke his family, and lost several lives.Let’s start with the next story, let’s be a “victory first time”. Mr. Lu Xun said this kind of script system: Shijiu first uses gossip or other things, and then combines them to enter the text. ...... Most of the poems also use old facts, or take similarities, or take differences, but mostly current events.Those who are different from the reverse to the positive; those who are similar are shallower and deeper, and suddenly lead to each other, and then turn to the ability.Therefore, the narrative begins, but the idea is clear. ...The upper half of it is called "the first round of victory".Going back for the first time is like going back in the clouds; there are many soldiers and civilians who listen to the speaker, so it is called victory in auspicious words. Mr. Lu Xun said that the role of the introduction is the most clear; but when he explained "the first time to win", there seems to be room for discussion. "Victory Order" is the name of the tune.Originally, before the storyteller began to speak, the audience had to beat the drums to start the speech. "The Order of Victory" should be a commonly used drum lyrics.Later, when storytellers began to speak, they often had to speak slowly to the main text because the audience was not complete, so they used poems or stories, and "the right to be the first time to win". "Jade Avalokitesvara" uses poems as the introduction, and "A Ghost in the West Mountain" uses fifteen poems as the introduction in succession, but "Wrong Cutting Cui Ning" uses the story of Wei Jinshi as the introduction, and "Feng Yumei" uses the story of Xu Xin's husband and wife reunion as the introduction As an introduction, this is the opening "victory first". This method—using an identical or opposite story to introduce a story to be told—later became almost a formula of the novel.Short stories such as "The Drunk Awakening Stone" often preserve this method.Long novels often have such introductions. There is a section of "Grandma Denghua" before "Ping Yao Zhuan"; "Awakening Marriage" is even more strange. First, the long story of the Chao family is narrated, and then the story of the Di family is introduced. After introducing the main text, the story of the Chao family continues to be told.The novels created by scholars in the Qing Dynasty later such as, such as, such as, such as, such as, each have an introduction.This introduction is sometimes called a "wedge," but this name is inappropriate.In the zaju of the Yuan people, a section is often inserted between the two folds, called "wedge", like a wooden wedge.The "wedge" of Yuan Qu is not placed at the beginning of the chapter.How can "wedge" be used at the beginning of the article? Not only the genre of this introduction can indicate the traces of the evolution of Chinese novels, but there are other evidences that can make us understand that "Zhanghui novels" are based on this kind of script.The introduction to this book "Ghost in a Cave in Xishan" said: Today, I also said that a scholar was selected in Lin'an Prefecture, and it became a dozen strange novels. The whole story of "The Ghost in the Xishan Cave" is only 6,000 words, so how about "a dozen chapters"?Probably the person who spoke at that time added more branches and leaves at any time, and made a story very long. "Ghosts in a Cave in Xishan" is originally a piece of nonsense, adding a few ghosts is not too much, and subtracting a few is not too short, so it can be lengthened and finished with "a dozen chapters".But when it was written into the script, many of the added details were deleted, so there were only 6,000 characters left. A "back" is not a chapter, but just a "time", such as the word "back" in the Ming Dynasty poem "A high-rise building with a bright moon and a singing night, this is the first time in life".The storyteller talked about a most critical moment—a good man was bound to the killing field, and at three o'clock in the afternoon, the executioner raised his knife and was about to cut it down; Jumping off the cliff,—at this moment, the listeners are concentrating and staring anxiously——at this moment, the storyteller suddenly beat the drum, "boring, boring, boring", he stood up and read a few sentences In the closing poem, he arched his hands and said, "You want to know what will happen next, and listen to the next chapter to break it down."He said this, closed the drums, closed the booth, shook his head and left.This is called "one book". This book's "Jade Guanyin" is divided into two chapters. At the end of the last chapter, it is said that Cui Ning and Xiuxiu fled to Tanzhou to live together. On this day, Cui Ning went to the official residence of Xiangtan County to undertake jade work, and returned home. In the middle of the line, I saw a man with a bamboo hat on his head... carrying a high shoulder bag, he came forward and took a look at Cui Ning.Cui Ning did not see the face of this man, but this man saw Cui Ning, striding after Cui Ning from behind.It's exactly: Whose childish son slams the clapper, which makes the mandarin ducks fly in two places! This is the critical juncture of the whole book, but the speaker stopped suddenly after reading two lines of the closing poem. The "first time" is over.The next time the speaker started from a distance in a poem by Liu Liangfu, and slowly talked about Cui Ning's Dongren County King who sent Guo Paijun to send money to Liu Liangfu, and met Cui Ning on the way.This segmentation method is exactly the same as the "hui" of the later novels.For example, at the end of the eighth chapter, it was written that Lin Chong was tied to a tree, Xue Ba raised the water and fire stick, looked at Lin Chong's head and struck the future.Poor hero died without a fight!Exactly: there is no hotel in Huangquan, who will the three souls go tonight? After all, what is Lin Chong's life, let's listen to the next chapter to break it down. Another example is that at the end of the thirtieth chapter, it is written that Wu Song and the gentleman in the nunnery were fighting.But see: people's heads fall in the cold light, and blood rains in the murderous clusters. After all, who was the one who killed one of the two? Let's listen to the next chapter. Let's compare these two examples to the division of "Nianyu Guanyin", and it can be seen that "Zhanghui novels" evolved from these short stories. One day I asked Mr. Wang Yuanfang: "Among these novels, which one is the best?" Yuan Fang said: "I think the article "Aoxianggong" is the best. The author wants to scold Wang Jinggong's new law and write about a "Yaoxianggong", so he fabricated a story, writing about the new law harming the people everywhere, and writing a kind of The atmosphere of anger and resentment, while writing about a stubborn Wang Jinggong everywhere, can finally achieve the author's purpose, so I say this is the best." The original words are quite insightful.Among these eight kinds, "Yu Xianggong" must have been written by someone from the intellectual class. What I personally experienced on the way back to the south after leaving the post made readers deeply feel an atmosphere of anger and resentment. There is also a long section of scolding Wang Anshi in "Xuanhe Legacy", but it has no literary meaning. Compared with this article, it is really far away.Today we may fight for Wang Anshi and defend him, but we cannot deny that there was such a public opinion against him in the Southern Song Dynasty, and we cannot deny that this "Yu Xianggong" has a bit of literary interest.The cleverness of swearing at others has become an art.In this article, it is written that Wang Anshi traveled on the moon and spent the night in an old woman's hut.The next day——the next morning, the old woman got up, with her hair disheveled, and with her barefooted stupid servant girl, she drove the two pigs out of the house.The maidservant brought chaff, the old woman fetched water, stirred it in the wooden basin with a wooden ladle, and said in her mouth, "Luo, Luo, Luo, come here!"When the two pigs heard it, they ate in the basin.The maid called again, "Hey, hey, hey, Wang Anshi is here!"All the chickens are here. Jiang Ju and the others were all surprised when they saw it.Jing Gong became more and more unhappy, because he asked the old woman, "Why does the old man call him chicken and pig like that?" The old woman said: "Don't the officials know that Wang Anshi is the current prime minister? Mr. Yixiang is his nickname. Since Wang Anshi became a minister and made new laws to disturb the people, his concubine has been a widow for twenty years, and he has no daughter-in-law. At the office, the two women also need to pay for "exemption from labor" and "assistant labor". After the money is paid, the servants will remain the same. The old concubine uses mulberry and hemp as a business. Before the silkworms can sleep, they borrow silk money in advance; Borrowing cloth money and using it. Sangma failed, so they had to raise pigs and chickens, waiting for Li Xu Libao to come to conscript money, or allow him, or cook to entertain him, and I have never tasted a piece of meat. Therefore, the people resent the new law into the bone marrow, Raised chickens and hogs are called obstinate men: in this life, there is nothing to do with him, but in future generations, he will be turned into a different kind, and he will be cooked and eaten to satisfy the hatred in his chest." Duke Jing wept secretly, not daring to speak. ... Although the old woman's political opinions were the opinions of the scholar-bureaucrats of the day, they may not necessarily represent the public opinion of the people, but they may not be completely fabricated.Wang Jinggong has implemented many new laws in the past few years, and the intentions may be very good, but not all the people who implement them are good people: the ministers are trustworthy, but the small officials may not be reliable; .In the Middle Ages, if one tried to use interventionism to govern a large empire, it was inevitable that many small people would suffer greatly.The spirit of intervention may be good, but not all the people used by the state are worthy of interference.People who are not worthy of interference but want to interfere will naturally suffer.Therefore, Wang Anshi's daring and courageous actions can naturally be admired; but the opposition of a group of honest gentlemen to the new law may not be completely without factual basis. There are many stories slandering Wang Jinggong in the article "Yu Xianggong", all of which were fabricated by Yuanyou's descendants in the early Southern Song Dynasty, readers should not believe it.For example, Su Laoquan's "Discrimination of Traitors" is all fake works of later generations, which was once confirmed by Li Fu and Cai Shangxiang.Another example is that Jinggong sees his son Wang Yu suffering in the underworld in a trance, like Shao Yong sighs when he hears Du Yu on the Tianjin Bridge, like the story of "swallowing bait by mistake" is all fake.If readers are interested, they should refer to Li Fu's "Mutang First Draft" (Volume 46), Cai Shangxiang's "Wang Jinggong Chronicle", (this book is not easy to get, there are excerpts from Yang Ximin's "Nine Family Chronicles") and "Wang Jinggong" by Liang Qichao. From the perspective of the structure of the novel, "Yu Xianggong" is certainly good, but this one is just a clever political propaganda, and it is not really a "popular novel".From a literary point of view, "Wrong Cutting Cui Ning" is the first masterpiece among the eight.This is a purely story-telling novel, and it is very delicate and interesting, making people read it in a hurry and refuse to let go; there is no unnatural interlude of ghosts and superstitions in it, it all depends on the story itself. in the end.Among them, the paragraph related to the layout of the whole article is the best written, with good narration and dialogue: Liu Guanren carried the money and went to the house step by step to knock on the door, and it was already time to light the lamp.The second sister of the little lady was alone at home, with nothing to do, so she kept watch until dark, closed the door and dozed off under the lamp.Liu Guanren knocked on the door, where did he hear it?After knocking for a long time, I finally realized it, and promised: "Here we come!" Get up and open the door. Officer Liu went in, and when he arrived in the room, the second sister took the money for Officer Liu, put it on the table, and asked, "Where did the officer transfer this money? What is it for?" Then Officer Liu had some wine when he came; Secondly, I blamed him for opening the door late; I frightened him with joking words, and then said: "If you say it, I'm afraid you will be offended; if you don't say it, I have to let you know. It's just that I was helpless for a while, and I had nothing to do, so I had to Pawn you to a guest. And because I don't want to part with you, I only got fifteen pennies. If I have some benefits, Jiali will redeem you; if it is not smooth as before, just ask for it!" The little lady heard this, and if she didn't believe it, she saw fifteen coins piled up in front of her. If she wanted to wait for the letter, he didn't have a word with me for no reason, and the eldest lady lived well, so why did she act so cruelly?Undecided, he had to ask again: "Even so, you must inform my parents." Liu Guan said: "If you inform your parents, this matter will definitely not happen. You will arrive at his house tomorrow, and I will slowly ask for help." Talk to your parents, and he has to blame me." The little lady asked again: "Where did the official come to drink today?" Official Liu said: "It's because I pleaded you to someone, wrote a document, and came to eat his wine." The little lady asked again: "Why didn't eldest sister come?" Liu Guan said humanely: "Because he couldn't bear to see you separated, he didn't come until you left the house tomorrow. This is what I have no choice but to make a decision." , I couldn't help laughing secretly; I didn't take off my clothes, I slept on the bed, and I fell asleep.The little lady couldn't get rid of it for a long time: "I don't know what kind of family he sold me to? I have to go to my parents' house first to find out. Even if someone comes to ask for me tomorrow, if he finds my home, he must have a whereabouts." He pondered for a while. Yes, but he piled the pile of fifteen pennies behind Guan Liu's feet.While he was drunk, he packed up his clothes lightly, opened the door and went out, slammed the door behind him, but went to a familiar neighbor on the left, called Zhu San’s old man’s house, and spent the night with Zhu San’s mother , Said: "My husband betrayed me for no reason today. I have to go and tell my parents first. Please tell him tomorrow that since I have a customer, I can go to my parents' house with my husband to discuss the matter. I also need a customer." Whereabouts." The neighbor said: "The little lady is right. You just go on your own, and I will tell Liu Guanren what you know." After one night, the little lady said goodbye. Such delicate descriptions and beautiful dialogues are the era when vernacular prose literature was officially established.Comparable to this passage is the passage in "The Ghost in a Cave in Xishan" where Wang Po talks about matchmaking, and the section in "The Debauchery of the King of Hailing" in which Brother Gui and Brother Ding talk about style.These three paragraphs all represent highly developed vernacular prose; there is no such fully developed vernacular prose in "Five Dynasties Shiping Hua", "Xuan He Sui Shi", and "Tang San Zang Qu Jing". I used to have doubts about the degree of development of vernacular literature in the Song and Yuan dynasties.In my "Water Margin Textual Research", I once said: The literary skills of Yuan Dynasty writers were very naive, and they could never produce what we have. I said again: I also misunderstood the position of Yuan people's literature in the history of Chinese literature.In recent years, when I studied the literature of the Yuan Dynasty, I realized that the literary level of the people of the Yuan Dynasty was really naive. I realized that the Yuan Dynasty was only the era of the creation of vernacular literature, and it was by no means the age of adult vernacular literature. (Volume 3 of the first edition of "Hu Shi Wencun") I doubted the vernacular literature of the Yuan Dynasty so much at that time, so I naturally doubted the vernacular literature of the Song Dynasty even more. But now that I have read these several Southern Song vernacular scripts, I have to admit that the speakers in the late Southern Song Dynasty (thirteenth century) were already able to write novels in a well-developed vernacular.Their thoughts may be naive (such as "A Ghost in the West Mountain"), their views may be wrong (such as "Yu Xianggong"), and their materials may be messy (such as "The Debauchery of the King of Hailing", such as "Xuanhe's Last Event"), but Their tool—living language—has already been used, the foundation of living literature has been laid, and great novels are about to be produced. The night of September 10, 1928 Volume 8 of "Three Collections of Hu Shi's Essays"