Chapter 35 Appreciation of works

The novel describes the series of reforms adopted by Shunzhi, the first emperor of the Qing Dynasty, after entering the Central Plains, and the conflicts and struggles with the Manchurian aristocratic forces. A soul-stirring love story.One of the successes of this novel is the description of the characters. The original intention of literature is human learning, so the author always takes the young emperor Shunzhi Emperor Fulin as the center of creation in the process of creation.All the characters, plots, and clues in the book revolve around him and are written for him; and it is through his fate, struggles, successes and failures that he tries to reflect the basic features and characteristics of the era in which he lived. feature.Therefore, the author has a clear theme in this 700-page novel: trying to describe Fulin, the emperor at the junction of Manchu and Han.However, the author's method is successful, trying his best to use all available artistic means to complete the image of this character.It writes both the majesty of the emperor and human nature; it writes about political struggles and fiery emotions; it writes about the appearance of the voice and smile and the inner world; Emperor Shunzhi in the eyes of Han ministers, scholars and common people, etc., also describes the different performances of Emperor Shunzhi when interacting with various characters, reflecting the various aspects of Fulin's character from multiple angles, thus forming the core of Fulin's character. There are two important contradictions: self-esteem and inferiority; self-willed and fragile.Multiple personalities make Fulin a person who is determined to cure and has great ambitions.But the supreme emperor who is violent, self-respecting and moody is also a smart, studious, gentle, warm and passionate young man.And how does the author make this contradiction achieve a natural and harmonious unity in the protagonist?Let’s take the Jinling Incident as an example: Before entering the customs, the Manchu society was undergoing the process of transforming from a clan society to a slave society and then to a feudal society, and its economy and culture were very backward.After entering the customs, they actually want to rule a Han nationality with a history of thousands of years, a developed economy, a profound culture, and a large population.However, the inferiority complex has always been suppressed by the arrogance of the conqueror and the majesty of the emperor. In Fulin's mind, it is only a subconscious mind. He will never admit it, or even think about it.When the news of Zheng Chenggong's siege of Jinling arrived, it happened at the time when the post-official framed Wu Yunzhu with the help of the "anti-shining" incident, which made Fulin psychologically unbalanced. Coupled with the sudden trigger of the long-standing subconscious, Fulin, who was always moody, suddenly fell into a rut. Unable to control himself, his inferiority complex was exposed, and he was so frightened that he ran to his mother and yelled to escape from the gate.Empress Dowager Zhuang's scolding greatly hurt Fulin's extremely sensitive self-esteem, aroused his rage, and suddenly made a 180-degree turn, recklessly marching in person.He wants to save face with the heroic image of his own conquest, and wash away the shame of the "coward".Afterwards, all kinds of excessive and self-willed behaviors such as breaking the throne, intimidating the nurse, and refusing to listen to anyone's dissuasion were all self-respecting reactions to his mother's scolding.Fulin is a smart person, of course he understands that running away and conquering by himself is wrong, but he didn't take the opportunity to step down until Tang Ruowang, who was well-known and in high position, came forward to dissuade him.Concubine Kang's remonstrance not to flee back to Liaodong exposed Fulin's shortcomings again. Fulin was so angry that he violently wanted to kill Concubine Kang, and even triggered a coup d'état by Prince Jane.Although the coup was shattered, Fulin felt disillusioned with his ambition and felt extremely weak physically and mentally, so he wanted to escape into Buddhism to seek relief.He asked Monk Yulin to give him a dharma name, "you must choose the ugliest word", which was his psychological reaction at this time.Finally, in front of the seriously ill Wu Yunzhu, his confession finally poured out the inferiority and fragility in his heart... The thinking logic and psychological process of writing characters in this way are more reasonable, and it is easier to achieve the organic unity of contradictory personalities, so that the image of Fulin Fuller and more complete.

The second feature of the novel is that its success lies in its rigorous structure, without overhanging branches and vines, and without overwhelming the main character.The main thread of the book is the contradiction and struggle between the monarchy represented by Fulin and the Manchu aristocratic forces, that is, the contradiction and struggle between the reformers and the conservatives.Fulin's fate and character development run through this main thread. Apart from the main thread, it also describes the factional struggles within the palace; the conflicts within the Manchu nobles; Contradictions with outsiders; conflicts between Manchu and Han ethnic groups; conflicts between rulers and ordinary people, etc.But no matter how various contradictions change, one principle must always be followed when structuring works, that is, all other contradictions are attached to the main contradiction, fluctuate with the ups and downs of the main contradiction, and follow the sharpness, intensification, relaxation, and relaxation of the main contradiction. And each change the form and degree of contradiction.This structure of the whole work is more in line with the objective laws of interpersonal relationships under the feudal autocratic monarchy system, and this structure is particularly beneficial because the protagonist of the novel is the emperor.As far as the whole article is concerned, Fulin's career develops along the path of pursuit-success-struggle-failure-struggle-failure-depression-disillusionment.The third feature is that the novel has high aesthetic value, not only gold and iron horses but also piano, chess, calligraphy and painting. The description of love makes the novel have a tragic beauty.At the same time, the author portrays a series of characters such as Wu Yunzhu and Queen Mother Zhuang deeply.It is a novel of historical figures that is more faithful to historical facts and higher than historical facts.

(Written by Chen Li)