Chapter 22 postscript

It is my second novel, written in 1956.The "Critical Biography of Yuan Chonghuan" attached at the end of the book was written later. There have been two major revisions in the past, increasing the length by about a quarter. This time, there are still many changes, additions and deletions.The painstaking effort to revise has been devoted to this book the most.The first edition and the current third edition are completely different. In the novel, it is written that Li Zicheng killed Cao Cao, Luo Rucai and Li Yan after a great victory, and pushed out Zhang Xianzhong, the "Five Battalions of Zuo Ge" and other companions.Mr. Wang Chunyu wrote many articles about Li Zicheng's style of work to give advice. Although my views are quite different, I still thank him for his comments.I am particularly impressed by the advice and encouragement of Professor Zhang Peiheng of Fudan University and Professor Yan Jiayan of Peking University.

The third rewriting, in addition to trying to change some unnatural places in the original novel (such as the part of Wudujiao and Yuzhenzi), also aggravated Yuan Chengzhi's ambivalence towards Ah Jiu, which is an eternal common occurrence in life. Theme: "Love may be damaged by one party's change of heart." Traditional Chinese novels generally focus on vertical chastity of love, except Tang Dynasty legends (such as Cui Yingying, Huo Xiaoyu) and Ming Dynasty novels (such as Du Shiniang, Pearl Shan) , Write less "change of heart in love".This time I tried to write the life topic of the contradiction between "ethics and morality" and "helpless change of heart", trying to add some ordinary people's lives and feelings into the strong political atmosphere of the book.

A review article in the Mainland emphasized that it was greatly influenced by the novel (Rebecca) by the British female novelist Du Maurier.It is inevitable that literary works are influenced by past Chinese and foreign literary masterpieces.But this novel is not of much value, and I don’t think it’s very good, just because Hitchcock made a good fantasy movie based on it, which is known to many Chinese audiences because the movie is popular in China (only Du , Marianne's novels, I prefer her other novel My Cousin Rachel, but this book has not been filmed, and there is no Chinese translation, so it is less known).Literary criticism is higher when it is based not on adaptations of popular films (as it is on films) but on the original.Du Marianne, as a writer, as a novel, is of no great importance in English literature.If you want to talk about the thrilling stories of British female novelists who use secondary characters to tell a character who rarely shows up as the protagonist of revenge, it is better to quote Emily Bronte's "Wuthering Heights" (Wuthering Heights) Heights), this is the first-rate figure among British female novelists, and the novel is also a first-rate excellent work. Only by talking about this novel can everyone who studies English literature know it, and there is no need to quote thrilling movies that are only popular for a while (although , "Roaring Heights" also made a good movie, but lesser known in China).

"Critical Biography of Yuan Chonghuan" is a new attempt of mine. The goal is to write history without directly quoting other people's words in the text. The writing style is relatively uniform, and I hope it will be easier to read.The main originality of this "Commentary Biography" is that the root cause of Chongzhen's killing of Yuan Chonghuan was not due to countermeasures, but the conflict between the two personalities and Chongzhen's abnormal psychology.This point has never been pointed out before (the character and psychology of the characters are usually the focus of novel authors, while historians pay more attention to the background of the times, material factors, systems, culture, etc.).Another reason is the scourge of autocratic dictatorship.

This text does not have much academic value, and the books I refer to are all in my hand, and I live in Hong Kong, so the number is very limited.Several materials from "Taizong Shilu", "Chongzhen Changbian" and other books are all indirect quotations, and the original sources cannot be checked, and there may be fallacies.If this text has any meaning, it may lie in its "readability".With considerable effort, I have avoided the obscurity and obscurity of ordinary historical texts.Compared with the first draft of "Guangdong Hero Yuan Manzi" published in "Ming Pao", the current appearance is smoother in writing.This article can be said to be the starting point and work of my formal study of history.

After the publication of "Yuan Chonghuan's Commentary and Biography", I received a lot of advice from historians, and I am very grateful. The great historian Mr. Xiang Da once wrote a letter to give teachings, which was quite proud of him and has been corrected accordingly.Now the third edition has been revised again, and more corrections have been made in the past. Among them, there are many references to Mr. Yang Baolin's "Yuan Chonghuan Miscellaneous Research" and "Yuan Chonghuan Data Collection" (edited by Mr. Yan Chongnian and Mr. Yu Sandong, published by Guangxi Minzu Publishing House). Quite a lesson, I would like to express my gratitude.The author's historical literacy is insufficient, and the errors in the article may still be unavoidable, and I hope that they will be corrected.

2002.7