Chapter 3 Is it orderly or not?

Let me assume that I am dealing with more than one fiction lover at this moment - this kind of person has more worldly reading experience than the average fiction reader, and the novelists I know are not just frequent TV, occasional gossips, or sudden politicians Such novel lovers may have tried to write one or two or one or two novels themselves, and they are sometimes confused by the novel industry.This is a very light bewilderment!For it has nothing to do with the great problems of life (or the larger problems of life) of the lover of the novel; the novel neither solves nor diminishes those problems.Once the life problems of novel lovers come to the fore in a certain stage of their real life, they either forget about novels, or regard their liking for novels as a dream or a fantasy.It must be a very light confusion if we cannot understand dreams and phantasies—more precisely, if we are confused about dreams and phantasies.

So, let me assume that at this moment, I am facing the lovers of novels across this light confusion. Every person who writes a novel is doomed to face a whole history of novels that ends with him.If the distance between them had not been so great, he would not have been so confused by the novel.We can imagine this: a young man who can write flexibly begins to read the second chapter of Petronius (Petronius,? ~ 66) "Satyricon" on the day he decides to engage in novel creation and the (Metamorphoses) of Lucius Apuleius (c. 123-c. 180).Before that, he must have never read the works of Murasaki Shikibu (about 978~1016), Cervantes (Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, 1547~1616) or Shi Naian (1296?~1370?); Of course, he is not allowed to read Joyce (James AA Joyce, 1882～1941) until Wang Wenxing or Lu Xun (1881～1936) until Huang Chunming's works.In other words, we have created a reading environment and a huge educational project for this young man who aspires to become a novelist, so that he can discover a generation of How does another generation of novels continue to improve, or wither their branches and leaves.It is necessary to make it systematically understand the various techniques and even aesthetic principles of the succession of ancient and modern Chinese and foreign novels.In this way, the teenager naturally has (like stacking "LEGO [LEGO] toys") a fine-grained and measured understanding of the novel business.However, can this boy become a novelist who "stands on the shoulders of giants" and creates a new paradigm?I guess it's impossible.Even in the education system that Rousseau (Jean Jacques Rousseau, 1712~1778) designed for Emile, the author admitted in the preface of "Emile ou de 1' Education": " The content of this book is out of sequence and not very coherent; it is just to serve as a reference for a virtuous mother. At first I was writing some short essays, but I accidentally wrote a lot of them one after another, and finally made it into a book." There is no living person in the world who builds according to plans and grows up according to "Emile", and I am afraid that there will be no novelist who builds according to plans and cultivates according to the system of novels and novel theories.

However, this does not mean that those who write novels deserve to be far away from a history of novels, and only look at the novels from generation to generation in ancient and modern China and abroad.This only takes advantage of the lazy fiction writers who get away with it.If novel lovers don’t take novels as entertainment, don’t regard novels as dreams made by mistake in the youthful stage of life, and don’t regard novels as entering the cultural field to gain fame and profit in order to be crowned If the name of "novelist" is a tool to establish his social status, then one day, he will inevitably face such a question: what kind of influence has the novel had on the development of human civilization?Another layer of this question is: what kind of influence have the novels I like (whether I have read or written) produced in the history of fiction?

One day, novel lovers will encounter such a huge, complex, cumbersome and even seemingly disorganized system. It is said to be scattered and chaotic, but it is based on a phenomenon-level fact: the history of civilization is not just a set of addition calculations.Just as it is impossible to say whether the end of the 20th century or the beginning of the 21st century we live in is the best era in human history in terms of politics or economics, it is also impossible to say whether contemporary fiction has surpassed the achievements of previous generations.Many comparative studies, impact studies, genre studies, and theme studies that are becoming more and more delicate often tell us: in the development process of the novel system, a certain person's work is actually the legacy of a certain person's work, a certain piece Zhu Yuan is actually the reborn of a certain Zhu Yuan.Theories about the novel seem to claim that the history of the novel is formed by a set of subtractions.Without admitting that this set of subtractions really exists, it is impossible to face up to the fragmentation and chaos of the history of fiction.The so-called scattered and chaotic, to put it simply, means that the novel does not come out later and become better, learn more and become better, but have a directional and linear evolution.On the contrary, among the classic works that come out at any time or place in the history of novels, there are often long periods of stagnation, decline, reduction, and reversal.Countless works of fiction have never pushed and piled up to (or caused) a certain peak according to any natural law or scientific law, and the text world composed of novels is even more chaotic.The so-called "system of the novel" or "theory of the novel" can almost be regarded as an oxymoron.

However, there must be a way out of this chaos.Just like Rousseau's perceptual clues at the beginning of education, he even hinted at the impossibility of (man-made) education ("No matter what is created by nature, it is good, and it is broken by human hands." ), but Rousseau completed his education theory after all.It is speculated that at the beginning of his "disordered" and "incoherent" writing, he only had the first piece of the puzzle of the whole system in mind-following nature.The same goes for the possibility of trying to figure out a system for the chaotic world of the novel.Here's the first piece of the puzzle: alternative knowledge.

Zhuangzi must be unimaginable: he is not only the first person to use the word "novel" as a word, but also the first novelist in the history of Chinese literature.However, his so-called "novels" are not novels in the eyes of later generations; in his opinion, "decorating novels as Qianxian (press: suspension) orders is far from Da Da" ("Foreign Objects"). : To whitewash some superficial and trivial knowledge in order to obtain a high reputation (requisitioned by the power holder), then it is still far from the realm of mastery! Obviously, Zhuangzi looked down on "fiction".Many people who study the history of fiction or literary history in modern times have only mentioned it in a few words.Lu Xun's first article "Historians' Records and Discussions on Novels" said: "(Fictions) are trivial words, not the place of Taoism, and they are different from the so-called novels later." Liu Dajie's "History of the Development of Chinese Literature" Chapter Nine The first paragraph of the fourth section is almost completely copied from this statement, and there is no explanation.These historians probably do not believe that Zhuangzi is the first novelist in the concept of novels in later generations, or it is difficult to explain: the novels despised by the novelist who first coined the word "novel" are not in the concept of later generations novel.It is precisely because of this double entanglement of coincidence and misunderstanding that it is difficult for people to find the first piece of the jigsaw puzzle mentioned earlier, the "alternative knowledge" jigsaw puzzle, from Zhuangzi's contemptuous attitude.

Although the authenticity of the book is a mystery, and the attribution of each article is even more inconclusive, even "Waiwu" was written by Taoists in the Western Han Dynasty, supplemented by Zhuangzi himself, written by scholars between the Qin and Han Dynasties, and written by Han people after Zhuangzi learned anecdotes. However, in terms of Zhuangzi's overall academic purport, the attempt to fabricate stories to obscure the status of sages in the intellectual world is clear and consistent.To put it bluntly: Zhuangzi’s many fables and 卮yan works use the names of Yao, Shun, Laodan, Zhongni, Yanhui, Huishi, and even Lu Aigong, Liang Huiwang, Wei Linggong and other historical figures to create plots and dialogues. Either it completely contradicts the original knowledge of the creator of the theory, or makes those theories overwhelmed and overwhelmed by Zhuangzi's own knowledge under the confrontation of eloquence. Whether Zhuangzi's theory of Confucius in his works It can be said that he is not at a loss for being inconsistent and self-contradictory, because his works are infiltrating and resisting the knowledge that is popular in the world.To give an example: when the Confucianists all sang the abdication politics of Yao and Shun, "Zhuangzi Xiaoyaoyou" made Xu You teach Yao a lesson, and left behind the saying "Although the Pao people don't cure Pao, the corpse I wish you don’t go beyond the Zunzu and replace it with others”, a famous joke.

In the "Biography of Gao Shi" written by Huang Fumi of the Jin Dynasty, the jokes became even bigger.Huangfumi himself was a person who hated politics. Emperor Wu of Jin called him up many times, but he never agreed. Xu You in "Gaoshi Biography" is very unbearable.Huang Fumi described that Yao repeatedly wanted to give the world to Xu You and appointed him as the "governor of the Kyushu".At this time, a man named Father Chao brought a calf over and asked Xu You why he washed his ears. Xu You said it was because "Yao wanted to call me the governor of Kyushu, and I hated hearing his voice".Chao's father answered well: "If you are on a high bank and deep valley, and the human way is impassable, who can see you? You are floating around, and if you want to hear about his reputation, I will sweat my mouth!" After finishing speaking, he took the calf to the upper reaches of the river to drink water went.

"Biography of Gao Shi" is naturally not a biography, but a novel.Huangfumi expresses his views on real hermits and hypocritical hermits by means of biography.Xu You in his works is like Yao or Confucius in Zhuangzi's works. They are no longer just living people, but the embodiment of some common knowledge and contempt.On this point, no one can confirm or prove that Zhuangzi despises Yao or Confucius, and Huangfumi despises Xu You. We can only regard Yao and Confucius in Zhuangzi's works and Xu You in Huangfumi's works as the knowledge that the two novelists are fighting against. symbol.What novelists provide is alternative knowledge.In order to defend "correct knowledge", "orthodox knowledge", "mainstream knowledge", and "true knowledge"—such as ancient Chinese historians, they will judge like Confucius: "Although the way is small, there must be something impressive, and it will go far. Fear of mud." Only then will he be as dictatorial as Ban Gu in "Hanshu Yiwenzhi": "It is a gentleman who can't do it, but he can't destroy it; what the little savvy in the village reaches, he will never forget it. If or One word can be adopted, and this is also the opinion of a humble man."

So, let's take a look at what historians have made up. Sima Qian's "Historical Records: The Benji of Xiang Yu" narrates the siege of Gaixia. When Xiang Yu was left with only 28 defeated soldiers, he lamented "Heaven's death for me is not a crime of war".Under the siege of thousands of Han cavalry, in order to prove that he was not incapable of fighting, Xiang Yu "called his cavalry and said: 'I am the public and take the other general. ...It is said that the rider said: "How is it?" The rider fell down and said: "As the king said." So King Xiang wanted to cross the Wujiang River eastward."

But a few moments later, Sima Qian described Xiang Yu's words to the Wujiang pavilion chief as "he crossed the river with eight thousand people from the east of the river to the west, and none of them returned today." It can be seen that the last twenty-eight riders also It was wiped out by the Han army in an instant.Let me ask: How were the sighs of "non-war crimes", the heroic words of "I am the public and take the other general" and even the words of admiration "like a king's words" were recorded and passed on to Taishi after two hundred years In the public's ear?Wasn't Xiang Yu himself dismembered by the Han cavalry in the blink of an eye?And who said it? On the other hand, however, even a history as boldly written by a novelist as Sima Qian has, there is room for other "alternative knowledge" to infiltrate. "Historical Records" Volume 117 "Biography of Sima Xiangru" tells that Sima Xiangru used his "Qin Xin" to tease Zhuo Wenjun, a new widow, and made him run away with him at night: This is a delicate description. Compared with the more than 526,000 characters in the other 129 volumes of "Historical Records", the "little" story of Sima Xiangru defrauding sex and money can be regarded as a "little" story. It takes up enough space.However, when it comes to "Miscellaneous Notes of Xijing" (authored by Liu Xin), there are still unfinished meanings: If you are completely satisfied with the "historical knowledge" provided by "Biography of Sima Xiangru" (regardless of whether Sima Qian also added fictional pens to this couple who love and cheat money as he wrote "Xiang Yu Benji"), Liu Xin There is no need to make another miscellaneous note to record it.But what is there about Liu Xin's narration of "Historical Records" that he does not feel comfortable and valuable? First of all, he added the details of Xiangru taking the wine on credit and Wen Jun holding his head and crying for poverty.Secondly, he changed the place where Xiangru and his wife sold wine - because in "Historical Records", since Xiangru's family is already destitute, how can they sell a car for the two to go back to Linqiong first, and then buy a wine house?Secondly, Liu Xin also described Wen Jun's appearance, age and personality, as well as Xiangru's diabetes (even thinking that the disease was related to the sexual love between the two). Those who support "Historical Records" that a single word cannot be moved may think that Liu Xin is too busy, because the added details in "Xijing Miscellaneous Notes" seem to be irrelevant.However, the appendix of details can provide not only "known things", but also "credible evidence".In general, Liu Xin did not try to subvert the early texts like Zhuangzi and Huangfumi mentioned above. Instead, he increased the credibility of "Biography of Sima Xiangru" after embedding explicit and fictional details. We It seemed that Liu Xin could vaguely see Liu Xin holding a fringe fur and declaring to the readers of "Historical Records": "Tai Shigong is good, and this fur is the evidence that Xiangru's family is destitute and unable to drink wine." Sima Xiangru (179 BC-117 BC) and Sima Qian (145 BC-BC?) can be said to be contemporaries. Liu Xin (? 123) was born nearly a century later. How are the words of hugging the neck and weeping and complaining transmitted and regenerated?Since we can't find archaeological evidence, and we can't get Liu Xin underground and force him to hand over archaeological evidence, we can only attach importance to the story of Xiangru Wenjun described in "Xijing Miscellaneous Notes" as Liu Xin. A novel that "jumps into" official history and presents alternative knowledge.The novelist didn't believe that Xiangru and Wenjun couldn't even pay for the wine, and they still had bikes to sell, so he changed the business location of the restaurant.However, perhaps what Liu Xin did was not an addition, but a subtraction—because according to the "Historical Records", there is no such thing as taking Qiu credit wine; Already feel unhappy.According to the theory, it is not inappropriate to sell a house, buy a car, go to Linqiong, and open a wine shop.In other words: Sima Qian omits the details of the change of production and governance, which does not prevent Xiangru and his wife from going to Zhuo Wangsun's feet to swindle money with fame.Liu Xin's hands and feet made him look blacker and darker. Even if it is impossible to inject alternative thinking into the correct knowledge and real knowledge that has been made public and popular like Zhuangzi's "intrusion", Liu Xin still demonstrates the specific technique of "depicting details to increase credibility".How does "Xijing Miscellaneous Notes" compete with Qun Jing Zhong Shi in terms of traditional writing status?Being in the court academic field that only respects Confucianism, how does Liu Xin let the "wretched, careless, unreliable, unreliable, taboo and taboo" ("Xijing Miscellaneous Notes" Huang Xingzeng preface) Can mixed knowledge be believed? Or the novelist does not care whether the mixed knowledge he provides is regarded as correct and true as the mainstream and orthodox knowledge. There is another story in "Xijing Miscellaneous Notes" that goes like this: This is a very strange story.Because Liu Xin is no longer "sneaking into" the official history to fill in the branches and leaves, he actually fabricated the death of Liu Xu, the king of Guangling. According to the "Hanshu" Volume 63 "Biography of the Five Sons of Wu", Liu Xu, the Li Wang of Guangling, is indeed "strong, and he likes to enjoy leisurely travels. He carries a tripod with strength and fights bears and beasts with his bare hands. His movements cannot be controlled, so he will not be the heir of the Han Dynasty."And he lived in the country for more than sixty-three years, and finally sat down and condemned the curse, and was hanged by Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty.Could it be that Liu Xin's rewriting of this most convincing incident was just to spread a rumor that is "uncertain and unreliable".Wait a minute—if we read this story in "Zhuangzi Lie Yukou" carefully, we may be able to infer Liu Xin's intention: In Zhuangzi's view, Zhu Man's story can directly evoke the association of "life is wasted in an illusion".In Liu Xin's writing, this purpose has been reduced; but the traces of "learning to slay dragons" have become "student bears" are clear, and the rumors (or fictions) of "being injured by beasts and dying of brains" are more and more necessary. Comparing with Zhuangzi's purpose, we can see that Liu Xin used a novel with only 34 characters to satirize the life of King Li of Guangling, who wasted his life in fighting and fighting. Zhuangzi is the first writer in China who has the consciousness of a novelist—although the word "novel" he invented and used neither pleases him nor does it have the same meaning as that used by later generations; Liu Xin does not stand on his shoulders Set another example.That's because Zhuangzi had a pioneering view of the role that "alternative knowledge" can have in the realm of writing and textual tradition.He invented the Chinese novel. After Zhuangzi, the development of Chinese novels has gone through a long period of "subtraction", but this did not prevent Sima Qian from quietly bringing fictional techniques into the writing of so-called official history, nor did it prevent Huangfu Mi from setting up a so-called biography for an ideal hermit. It doesn't matter that Liu Xin is the first to process and combine the experience and scattered records that have no place to stay into a notebook novel-let us take another step forward: even the works of Liu Xin's stuttering father Liu Xiang, " Shuo Yuan, New Preface, and Warring States Strategy (the last three books are basically debate manuals compiled for ministers who descended from the court language in the middle of the Han Dynasty), so why can’t they be regarded as novels?Because in that era, the novel has not been stagnated, declined, reduced, and reversed by further "subtraction", and can only tell a story that is "complete from beginning to end", "with characters, actions, dialogues, and plots"! At a time when subtraction has not sufficiently deprived the novel of its vitality, the novel is like weeds, wild and free, able to grow on wet mud and gravel; it only has and needs only the first piece of the puzzle. Emile in the natural park created by Rousseau was not allowed to read the fables of Jean de La Fontaine (1621-1695).Because "children have read the story of La Fontaine, but no one knows his intentions; fortunately, no one knows, otherwise it will lead to moral confusion and lead to worse results."The first book that Emile was allowed to read was (Robinson Crusoe, 1719) by Daniel Defoe (about 1660~1731).The reason for this is that Rousseau has unconsciously established layer after layer of systems for what he calls nature. For example, the third volume of "Emile" says: "Children can neither understand social problems nor understand them." , do not draw his attention; but in relation to knowledge... it is imperative to know. Then, there is no need to show morality, but first turn his attention to the skills of craftsmen and machines." Then, fifteen-year-old Emile must not read Apuleius.This novelist who was born about 400 years later than Zhuangzi is one of the second ancestors in the history of Western novels. In the first chapter of his novel, Socrates breaks into a black shop and is raped by the shopkeeper Dong Miluo—a A witch who can make magic - make it into this miserable state: Even so, Socrates was not dead at the time.In the novel, another witch, Panthia, stops his bleeding with a sponge.At dawn, Aristomon, who had witnessed the entire witchcraft and poisoning, was surprised to find that Socrates had no scars on his body.Until the two went out on the road, Socrates ate a lot of bread and cheese, and he was thirsty.But the moment his lips touched the stream—the wound opened wide, the sponge rolled down, blood gushed out, and Socrates froze. If it is like Rousseau described La Fontaine's fable: no one knows his intentions, and I am afraid no one can accurately explain Apuleius's intentions to abuse Socrates in this way.And Socrates—as far as any sane man with some common sense is concerned—was he not condemned to commit suicide by drinking poison in defense of his truth? Why should fiction offend what we already know? "It's not just knowledge that novels can offend." With the first piece of the puzzle in hand, the novelist who has been reluctant to establish a system for his profession has only this sentence. Liu Xiang, who stuttered and compiled three sets of debate manuals for court debaters of the same generation, compiled such a story of "Chuwei Yongshi in May", which is included in the twenty-seventh volume of "Warring States Policy" "Han Ce".The general idea of ​​the story is: Chu State attacked South Korea and surrounded the Yong family for five months.Han repeatedly sent envoys to Qin for help, and the envoy Shang Jin also used the metaphor of "dead lips and cold teeth" to explain the necessity of Qin sending troops to rescue Han.Next is the section where the Empress Dowager Qin Xuan called Shang Jin into the palace for a conversation. The translation into vernacular is as follows: What a parable for humiliating gentleness!But it is sure to offend upright, moralistic scholars.In the Southern Song Dynasty, Bao Biao wrote in his notes: "The words of the Empress Dowager Xuan are very dirty!" Yes, while and after offending correct knowledge, orthodox knowledge, mainstream knowledge, and true knowledge, novels may also offend morality, human relations, customs, ethics, justice, politics, laws...offend everything that Rousseau set for Emile barriers and order.Offending them is not enough to show that the value of the novel lies in it, but the influence of the novel on the development of human civilization lies in this offensive force; it will find a new object from time to time, a human being who has not yet been realized by human beings. own boundaries. A fiction lover who becomes a true novelist will not care that he only has the first piece of the puzzle, nor will he anxiously desire to build a complete novel system.If Emile in the novel world wants to go on a journey of discovery in this line, he will not start from Robinson Robinson's deserted island, he will go further.He will not miss La Fontaine.He even knows: no matter in Apuleius or Chuang Tzu, there exists the precious freedom of the novel. When novels are well-written, when novels should reflect real life, when novels can only illustrate human nature and the world, when novels must conform to theoretical norms, when novels no longer invent alternative knowledge and offend public taboos When novels are orderly and not chaotic, novel lovers may even lose the lightness of confusion, and novels are dead.