Chapter 12 Section 2 Romance of the Three Kingdoms

During the Jin Dynasty and the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the stories of the Three Kingdoms have been widely circulated among the people.The notebook novels at that time, such as "Yu Lin" by Pei Qi and Liu Yiqing's, had already recorded some anecdotes about the characters of the Three Kingdoms.During the Liu and Song Dynasties in the Southern Dynasties, Pei Songzhi annotated "Three Kingdoms", citing a large number of historical materials from the end of Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period. These historical materials provided rich materials for the later creation of the stories of the Three Kingdoms.During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the stories of the Three Kingdoms went deeper into the folk and the court through poetry and miscellaneous dramas.In the Northern Song Dynasty, the stories of the Three Kingdoms had become an important theme for folk artists to tell and sing.At the latest at this time, a tendency to respect Liu and demote Cao had already formed.There are a large number of Three Kingdoms dramas in Yuan Zaju.Among the more than 700 repertoires of Yuan Zaju, there are nearly 60 repertoires of Three Kingdoms Opera.Famous dramatists of Yuan Dynasty, such as Guan Hanqing, Wang Shifu, Gao Wenxiu, Wuhan Chen, etc., have created influential Three Kingdoms dramas.The Yuan Dynasty also left a long storybook about the stories of the Three Kingdoms - "Three Kingdoms Pinghua". "Three Kingdoms Pinghua" has a strong color of folk literature.The tendency to support Liu and oppose Cao is very clear.This long storybook provides a blueprint for the overall structure and characterization of the novel.The story of the Three Kingdoms is brewed through various popular literature and art, and at the same time draws on relevant historical materials. The fictional elements are becoming more and more important, and the characters are becoming more and more vivid.During the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, Luo Guanzhong finally wrote a long historical novel after arduous re-creation on the basis of long-term mass creation.This is the best historical novel in ancient my country and the first novel in the history of ancient Chinese novels.Luo Guanzhong, a novelist and dramatist in the late Yuan and early Ming Dynasties.The name book, the character is Guanzhong, and the name is Huhai Sanren.A native of Hangzhou, his ancestral home is Taiyuan, Shanxi.Legend has it that he once participated in the anti-Yuan struggle and entered the court of Wu Wang Zhang Shicheng.After the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, Luo Guanzhong left politics and devoted himself to the creation of novels and operas.The existing novels signed and edited by him include "Popular Romance of the Three Kingdoms", "Biography of the Sui and Tang Dynasties", "San Sui Pingyao Biography", "Biography of the History of the Remnant Tang and Five Dynasties".In addition, volume six of "Baichuan Shuzhi" records one hundred volumes, titled "the book of Shi Naian in Qiantang, compiled by Luo Guanzhong".The Tiandu Foreign Minister's Xuben and Yuan Wuya's published version are both signed by Shi Naian and Luo Guanzhong.Based on these circumstances, it can be considered that Luo Guanzhong may have participated in the writing of the book.

After more than a thousand years of writing process, it has undergone countless revisions, additions and embellishments by anonymous persons.The critical period for writing the book was the Song and Yuan dynasties when ethnic conflicts and class conflicts were very sharp.The text material mainly comes from Chen Shou's "Three Kingdoms".The strong Confucian historiography and ethical concepts in the history books will inevitably permeate into the novel.The stories of the Three Kingdoms have been circulated among the people for a long time, and the audience of the Three Kingdoms drama is mainly the public.These stories and plays have been judged by the people and have absorbed rich nutrition from the people's language, imagination and life experience.To a large extent, it reflects their love and hatred.As a historical novel, the basic historical facts are respected, but the wonderful part of the novel is often the part of fictional imagination.For example, the history books about Liu Bei asking Zhuge Liang to come out of the mountain are very briefly recorded.However, the author of the novel perfunctorily reproduces a large section of beautiful words written by Liu Bei Sangu Maolu.For another example, there are very few materials related to Guan Yu in the history books, but the novels describe "Warming Wine and Cutting Huaxiong", "Three Heroes Fighting Lu Bu", "Passing Five Passes and Killing Six Generals", "Going to the Meeting Single-handedly", "Water Wars". Drowning the Seventh Army" and a series of evocative stories.Most of these wonderful chapters in the book have a solid foundation of folklore.

The long process of writing a book, and its extremely diverse sources of material directly lead to the complexity of thinking tendencies.As mentioned above, when Luo Guanzhong was compiling, the materials he faced were extremely complex.There are official histories, unofficial histories, folk legends, dramas of the Three Kingdoms in Yuan Zaju, poems and proses about the characters of the Three Kingdoms chanted by literati in the past dynasties, ghost stories and novels about people in the Three Kingdoms, and poems and essays left by the characters of the Three Kingdoms. . "Three Kingdoms" has annotations by Pei Songzhi, and there are more than 200 references in Pei's annotations.These materials span historical time and space from the Wei, Jin to Song and Yuan Dynasties, and reflect the likes and dislikes of countless authors and readers of different ages, statuses, and educations.Huge and complex materials poured in with their own ideological tendencies, and it was difficult for Luo Guanzhong to transform them one by one into descriptions with completely consistent ideological tendencies.This makes the ideological tendency of the author quite complicated.

In all fairness, there is still a tendency, which is "supporting Liu and opposing Cao".This tendency is prominently reflected in the descriptions from folklore, and also in the descriptions provided by those unofficial histories with a clear tendency to derogate Cao.For example, "Cao Man Biography" has a lot of exposure and ridicule about Cao Cao, and the descriptions taken from "Cao Man Biography" naturally have a tendency to derogate Cao Cao.When Luo Guanzhong absorbs various materials, he pays attention to reducing the contradiction between materials. Although this kind of work is not detailed enough, on the whole, most of the descriptions in the book, at least after the Battle of Chibi, were written in Yong Liu. Under the tendency of anti-Cao, roughly coordination and unification have been achieved.The side of Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang directly and indirectly reflects the people's yearning for a benevolent emperor and benevolent government; the description of Cao Cao's side reflects the people's hatred of treacherous and powerful officials.Before the Battle of Chibi, Cao Cao's opposites were Dong Zhuo and Yuan Shao, and the author wrote more about his "capable minister" side.After the Battle of Chibi, the confrontation between the Liu Bei Group and the Cao Wei Group became the main line of the novel description, and the author wrote more about Cao Cao's "treacherous" side. The tendency to "support Liu and oppose Cao" became more and more obvious.

The description of the war is excellent.The annexation wars during the Three Kingdoms period were complicated and complicated.The author chooses Liu Bei and Cao Cao as two main opposites to organize the material, and let the Sun Quan Group serve as the foil for the struggle between Wei and Shu.In terms of writing, it inherits the traditional methods of describing war in "Zuo Zhuan" and "Historical Records".The author regards war as a comprehensive social phenomenon, not as a simple military confrontation.It does not simply pursue the tension and excitement of war, but writes about war with the characters as the center, combining the personalities of the characters, highlighting the role of people, and highlighting the reasons that lead to the victory or defeat of the war.Focus on writing "in the midst of strategizing" instead of "deciding to win thousands of miles away".There are many battles written in the book, among which the description of the Battle of Chibi has reached the point of perfection.This is a battle in which Sun Quan and Liu Bei joined forces to resist Cao Cao.The strength of the two sides is very different.The result of the battle was that the coalition forces won, and the weak defeated the strong.The author describes in detail the whole process of mutual transformation between advantages and disadvantages, initiative and passivity, strong and weak.Zhuge Liang's policy is to first establish and consolidate unity within the coalition forces.He fought against the Confucian scholars, stated and fought against interests, and stabilized the Soochow Group, which contributed to Sun Quanbei's determination to reject Cao Cao.Zhou Yu used the advantage of the navy to repeatedly dampen the spirit of Cao Jun.When Cao Cao's full attention was attracted to the "water" issue, Zhou Yu and Zhuge Liang prepared a "fire" trap for Cao Jun.The leaders of the navy, Cai Mao and Zhang Yun, were divorced and even killed, Huang Gai's feigned surrender, and Pang Tong's series of schemes gradually matured the conditions for the fire attack.There are eight consecutive chapters of huge space to write such a battle, but the final battle is only a small proportion of the text.Through the previous description, readers have already drawn the conclusion that Cao Jun must be defeated.So when it comes to burning Chibi, there is really no need to spend too much ink.The battle of Chibi was interspersed with the battle of wits between Zhou Yu and Zhuge Liang, which reflected the contradiction between Sun Quan and Liu Bei within the coalition forces.Through the description of the internal contradictions of the coalition forces, it is written that Zhuge Liang is better than Zhou Yuqi in every way, giving people the feeling of "the green hills outside the mountains, the buildings outside the buildings", and "the stronger the middle, the stronger the middle".The description of the Battle of Chibi also adopts the writing method of "moving with stillness", which describes the war of swords, lights, swords and shadows in a tense and harmonious way.There are Cao Mengde's "Henglong Poetry" and Pang Shiyuan's "Light Night Reading".When there is no time to warm up, there is a place to relax and enjoy leisure.Sneaking in between busy schedules adjusts the rhythm of the novel, so that the plot will not be blindly tense, and the description of the war is dense and dense, showing its twists and turns and vividness.

While describing the military and political struggles, it created a series of lifelike characters.Among them, the portrayal of the three characters Cao Cao, Zhuge Liang, and Guan Yu is particularly outstanding. As soon as Cao Cao appeared on the stage, he gave people a complicated impression.He was wanton and debauched in his youth, however, he was different from the general playboys who only knew about sensuality.At the beginning of his official career, he strictly enforced the rule of law and abolished bad governance, showing the courage and talent of a future great statesman.The author's sympathy is undoubtedly on the side of Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang, but the author did not simplify the image of Cao Cao because of this.What is presented to the readers is a double image of "a capable minister who governs the world, and a traitor in a troubled world".At times he is treacherous to the extreme, and at other times he is astonishingly frank.Unfathomable when treacherous, like a child when frank.Sometimes he is hidden and deep; sometimes he is emotional and fierce.He can be outrageously cruel, but also considerate and humane.He has a self-willed, arrogant and authoritarian side, as well as a modest and kind-hearted side.One day he will retaliate, and he will not tolerate the moment, and tomorrow he will be open-minded, let go of the past, and put aside the great hatred.He is very suspicious and doesn't trust anyone, but sometimes he can tell his heart and talk about everything.He is a talented politician, but also a shameless and selfish mediocrity.He is scheming and often wins battles, but sometimes he loses his helmet and loses his armor and suffers complete defeat.The poet who sang impromptu and the hero who killed people and dug graves were actually the same person.A series of sharply opposed thoughts and characters, harmoniously, naturally and convincingly appearing in the same person.The encounter between Xu You and Cao Cao is a good example.The old friends met at the time when the army and horses were heaving, they were unrestrained and warm and intimate. However, Cao Cao refused to reveal the details about the fact that Cao Jun's food was about to run out.It wasn't until Xu You showed Cao Cao's secret letter to Xun Yu [yuyu] that Cao Cao had to admit the fact that the military rations were about to run out.A character like Cao Cao is a product of the turbulent era at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty.Only this kind of "capable minister in governing the world, traitor in troubled times" can clean up the chaotic political situation.Cao Cao was a soldier all his life and unified half of China.Sima's father and son followed to unify the country.And Sima and his son are the shadow of Cao Cao.Cao Cao's philosophy of life "I would rather teach me to bear the world than to teach the world to bear me", combined with his wisdom, talent and political skills, constituted a famous example of an exploiting class politician in the history of literature.The complexity of Cao Cao's image is caused by the following three reasons: Cao Cao in history is a complex figure in itself, and the official history's description of him cannot help being concealed, and all records that are unfavorable to Cao Cao cannot be regarded as Slanderous false statements.This one.The material itself is very complex, and they have different attitudes towards Cao Cao. Luo Guanzhong is eclectic and harmonious, and the work of unifying the ideological tendency of the material is not detailed enough.This second.Luo Guanzhong consciously wants to create a complex image of a capable minister and a traitor.This is the third.In the description of the image of Cao Cao, the people's deep and rich understanding of the ruler is condensed.

Zhuge Liang is a typical virtuous prime minister.Zhuge Liang only appeared in the thirty-seventh chapter of the novel.As soon as he appeared on the stage, he immediately changed the situation and played a role in turning the tide and turning the tide.He borrowed arrows from a straw boat, captured Zhou Yu three times, outsmarted Hanzhong, Anju Ping Wulu, captured Menghuo seven times, and captured Jiang Wei wisely. Mindfulness.After Liu Bei's death, Zhuge Liang faithfully carried out the established policy.He directed every campaign with painstaking efforts.He is strict with himself and loyal.He is the actual soul of Liu Bei Group.His decision is related to the life and death of Shu Han.Judging from the whole book, after Zhuge Liang came out of the mountain, he looked so dynamic and brilliant.From the perspective of character description, Zhuge Liang is at the center of the book.To put it simply, all the characters related to him in the book, including Cao Cao, Sun Quan, Liu Bei, Xu Shu, Zhou Yu, and Sima Yi, are Zhuge Liang's foil.In this kind of foil, Zhuge Liang naturally gives people the impression that "the devil is one foot high, and the Tao is ten feet high".Zhuge Liang has insight into everything, but he prefers to strike late; Zhuge Liang has made great achievements, but he is not aggressive; Zhuge Liang is extremely wise, but he is not arrogant;Even though the army is overwhelming, he is still so calm and calm.This is the charm of Zhuge Liang.

Mao Zonggang, the revisionist of Mao Zonggang, once said: "I think there are three wonders in "Three Kingdoms", which can be called three wonders: Zhuge Kongming is unique, Guan Yunchang is unique, and Cao Cao is also unique." Mao Zonggang's so-called "Three Wonders" refers to Zhuge Liang. Wisdom, Guan Yu's justice, Cao Cao's treachery.Mao Zonggang's understanding of the characters is naturally not without doubts.However, the three characters Zhuge Liang, Guan Yu, and Cao Cao really made the author write absolutely.Cao Cao and Zhuge Liang have been mentioned above, and Guan Yu is also an immortal literary model.He is brave and good at fighting, with extraordinary martial arts, and made immortal contributions to the rise of Liu Bei Group.His righteousness is as heavy as a mountain, he has gone through hardships, and never betrayed.However, his "righteousness" focuses on personal grievances, which has great limitations.On Huarong Road, in order to repay Cao Cao's past kindness, he can let Cao Cao go regardless of the overall situation.He takes credit for himself, is arrogant, narrow-minded, and flattering.Finally, because of his impulsiveness, he destroyed the alliance between Wu and Shu, called for a murder, and caused serious losses.

In addition to the "Three Wonders", Zhang Fei, Lu Su, Zhou Yu, Sun Quan, Zhao Yun, Lu Bu, Chen Gong, Huang Zhong and other characters are also vivid and unforgettable. The description of the characters takes the fierce and complicated political and military struggles as the background, uses rough outlines, exaggerations, contrasts, and contrasts, and grasps the main ideological and personality characteristics of the characters to render them."Warming the Wine and Killing Huaxiong" in the fifth chapter of the novel is a good example.For Guan Yu, this was his first battle to emerge.However, the author was not in a hurry to write about the confrontation between Guan Yu and Hua Xiong, but wrote about Hua Xiong's bravery in a leisurely manner, and how the generals of the coalition army were defeated by Hua Xiong one by one.First, Bao Zhong "closed down and fought", but was "beheaded by Hua Xiong with a knife in his hand and fell off his horse"; then Hua Xiong attacked Sun Jian's camp at night, chasing Sun Jian and fleeing.Sun Jian's red headband [ze blame] fell into Hua Xiong's hands, and his subordinate Zu Mao was "slashed under the horse" by Hua Xiong.Taking advantage of the victory, Hua Xiong pursued, "Using a long pole to pick up Sun Taishou's red headband, he came to the stronghold and yelled at him for a fight."The author writes about Hua Xiong's arrogance here, and fully describes the atmosphere before Guan Yu's appearance.After Bao Xin and Zu Mao, Yu She and Pan Feng followed suit.The princes from all walks of life looked at each other, helpless.After writing enough about Hua Xiong's bravery, the author arranged for the protagonist Guan Yu to play.However, the author does not directly write about how Guan Yu and Hua Xiong fought, but instead avoids the facts and writes that the glass of wine that Cao Cao respects Guan Yu is not cold yet, and Guan Yu has already lifted Hua Xiong's head and returned victorious.This describes Guan Yu's superb martial arts with minimalist and provincial pen and ink.Hua Xiong had already been beheaded and the wine was still warm, Guan Yu's speed and ease of beheading Hua Xiong was self-evident.Cao Cao's toast and Yuan Shu's angry reprimand of Guan Yu formed a sharp contrast.One is to recognize heroes in the reckless, showing the courage of a great statesman; the other is to have a small belly and a snobbish vision, showing the mediocre conceit of a declining nobleman.At the same time, the contradictions within the coalition forces have also begun to emerge.This makes readers mentally prepared for the subsequent disintegration of the coalition forces and even Yuan Shao's demise.

"Liu Xuande visits the thatched cottage three times" in the thirty-seventh chapter of the novel is another successful example of exaggeration, contrast, and contrast.Zhuge Liang is the proud person in the author's chest.The author paid special attention to his appearance, and wrote it with ten folds. The so-called "comes out after a thousand calls".Among the Three Kingdoms, the establishment of Shuhan was the most difficult and tortuous.Before he got Kongming, Liu Bei ran around and lived under the fence of others, so he couldn't become an independent force.He has no base and does not form a strong core.There are very few talents around Liu Bei. Although Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, and Zhao Yun are a group of powerful generals, but civil servants such as Sun Qian, Mi Zhu, etc., are at best third-rate talents.It is impossible for such a team to formulate a far-sighted strategy.At this stage, Liu Bei is far from having the conditions to rule the roost separately.The victory of Kong Ming in Nanyang and the defeat of Cao Cao in Chibi were the turning points in the rise of the Liu Bei Group.It is from such a height that the author views Zhuge Liang's coming out of the mountain, so he writes so carefully and patiently.First, in the thirty-fifth chapter, the author used Mr. Shui Jing's words, "Fulong and Fengchu, the two get one, and the world will be safe", to falsely describe Zhuge Liang's reputation.Then, he used Shan Fu (that is, Xu Shu) to echo Mr. Shui Jing's praise of Zhuge Liang.Shan Fu assisted Liu Bei in a surprise attack on Fancheng and defeated Cao Ren.However, when Shan Fu and Liu Bei broke up, he said that compared with Zhuge Liang, "it's like a nasty horse with a unicorn, and a jackdaw with a phoenix ear." ".After hearing Xu Shu's words, Liu Bei went to visit Xu Shu.Unexpectedly, things were not as smooth as expected. The result of "taking a look at the thatched cottage" is to learn from Cui Zhouping's pedantic remarks. The result of "Two Visits to the Thatched Cottage" was to meet Zhuge Liang's two friends.Although the two visits were fruitless, Liu Bei's eagerness to seek talents and Zhuge Liang's prestige and charm have been fully written. "Three visits to the thatched cottage" finally did not run in vain, but it is a pity that Zhuge Liang did not wake up from his nap.In this way, the author made the last test of the sincerity of Corporal Liu Bei Lixian.If Zhuge Liang doesn't come out, he will be the protagonist of the stage as soon as he comes out.His every frown, every smile, every gesture of his hand makes the readers hold their breath.He is in a high position, stays at home, but knows the general trend of the world like the palm of his hand.He properly estimated the strength of the enemy, ourselves, and friends, analyzed the future situation, and formulated a strategic policy for Liu Bei to seize Jingzhou first, and then Sichuan and Shu.Later, Liu Bei basically implemented this strategy and won the three-legged situation, which fully proved Zhuge Liang's foresight and sagacity.

It is the pinnacle of ancient Chinese historical novels.Although the subsequent historical romances emerged endlessly, they failed to surpass the heights achieved.Long historical novels with vigorous style, rich imagination, good at exaggeration and rendering, and good at describing wars have had a profound impact on later historical novels.