Author: Juck Zhang
Number of rolls: 20 rolls
Creation time: early Qing Dynasty
Main contents:
China's collection of classical short stories. Named after Yu Chu, the novel first appeared in Han Shu written by Ban Gu? Yu Chu contained in Yi Wen Zhi and Xijing Fu by Zhang Heng said that "900 novels originated from Yu Chu". Yu Chu, who used Ming Shi, was an alchemist during the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. Later generations regarded him as the ancestor of "novelist", and Yu Chu became synonymous with "novel". However, the Ming people collected eight stories that were in harmony with the novels of the Tang Dynasty, and carved them into a book named Yu Chu Zhi, and the catalogue of Siku Quanshu was named Lu Yu Chu Zhi, with Yu Chu as its title. Later, Tang Xianzu had four volumes of Continued Yu Chu Ji, and Deng had four volumes of Guang Yu Chu Ji, which were generally collected by predecessors, not written by himself. In the early Qing Dynasty, Zhang Chao's "New Records of Jade Beginning" also collected articles from people in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties, and compiled them into one volume, totaling 20 volumes. After Zheng Shuruo, Yu Chu continued to write (12). All kinds of Yu Chu Zhi are collections of short stories.
The chapters included in New Records of Jade Beginning are different from previous anthologies. Most of them are true stories, not all of them are false. For example, Wei's Biography of Mr. Jiang, Wang Siren's Biography of Xu Xiake and Wu's Biography of Liu Jingting are all real things. For example, the Epitaph of Guo Laofu is a true record, while the stories in New Knowledge at the Beginning of Jade have a wide range of themes, usually with some bizarre plots or unusual events and characters, such as Wang Shizhen's Legend of the Sword and the Chivalrous Man and Peng's View of Jiuniuba's Arriving at the Opera. , are the most prominent.
Many chapters included in "New Records of Yuchu" write extraordinary character stories in the style of essays, which is fascinating.
Representative works:
Pipa Trip, Yi Hu Collection, Biography of Badashan Man, Biography of Catwoman, Biography of Strange Woman, Taishou of Leizhou, Tale of Nuclear Ships, and Stomatology.
Carving:
There are engraving in Kangxi period and typography in Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House. Now it has been written into the story of China's classical literature.
Since the Western Han Dynasty, Zhang Heng wrote in his "Xijing Fu" that "there are nine hundred novels, starting from crisis; After the sentences of "relax, save it", Luoyang Yuchu, the assistant alchemist of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, almost became the name of the novelist. By the end of the Ming Dynasty, Wu's Records of the Early Jade, Tang Xianzu's Selected Comments on the Records of the Early Jade and Deng's Records of the Early Jade came out one after another, and the word "Early Jade" became the first choice brand for writers to edit classical Chinese novels. It was not until Zhang Chao of Huizhou in the early Qing Dynasty published A New Record of Yuchu that the novel of Yuchu Style was given a brand-new content.
Juck Zhang, a native of Zishan, is from Shexian County (now under the jurisdiction of Huangshan City, Anhui Province). His ancestral home was Wuyuan (now Jiangxi), and the tenth ancestor moved to Putian in the sixth year of Tiansheng in the Northern Song Dynasty (1028). After a move to Jianping County (now langxi, Anhui Province), since Shiqiaofu Army (? -1607) Nanjiang Guo Village (now Gujiang Village) in Buzhu County. Fu Jun gave birth to two sons, and the elders raised two sons. One of his sons is Kong (1606-? ), a French empty (1610-1640), the former is Juck Zhang's father. Confucius' name is Huang Yue, which is difficult to learn. At the age of eleven, he lost his father and suffered from hunger and cold. As an adult, he was "poor and boring, but he returned to the emblem." During the Chongzhen period of the Ming Dynasty, Shunzhi of the Qing Dynasty was a scholar for six years (1649). Since then, I have embarked on my official career and my family has fallen. He worked as a doctor of punishments, a doctor of provincial hospitals, and a scholar in Shandong, when he was nine years old (1652). Unfortunately, only a few months later, I began to worry about my mother. "Since then, I have seen the world and I am never willing to go up." I live in Yangzhou and devote myself to running my family business. Zhang Chao was born at the age of 45, that is, seven years of Shunzhi (1650).
Juck Zhang grew up in a rich environment of "Tian Zhai Feng Shui, handmaiden utensils, books and cultural relics" 1. Because of his father's strict family education, he didn't catch the common dandy habits of officials and rich children. From an early age, he was "brilliant, good at reading, Bo Gu is a general history, weak in the world, and famous all over the country". Although he comes from a well-known family and has a wealth of money, he is "quiet, lustful, and does not like to eat thick food over fat, but he loves guests and has enough to eat." The wealthy businessmen in Huainan are still arrogant and extravagant, and all the wise men are proud of refusing to see him. However, if the layman opens the door to extend guests, people from all directions will stay to drink and write poems, and they will be tireless for years; The poor used to have more money, but their pockets turned to help: Gai Jushi was never rich and hospitable, so he was exhausted. "It's a pity that he tried his best." If you are an Hanlin Lang, don't be an official, Dumen will write a book. " He has written dozens of volumes of poems, songs, notes and miscellaneous works, and compiled them into medium and large series such as Tanji Series (published in the thirty-fourth year of Kangxi) and Zhao Dai Series (published in the thirty-sixth year of Kangxi). In the middle and late period of Kangxi, people called him "a famous writer, famous all over the world." Although Guizhou, Yunnan, Guangdong and Sichuan are desolate places, it is well known that Jiangnan has the meaning of Zhai Jushi. "2. Before and after his death, it was the compilation of" A New Record of Yuchu "that brought him fame at home and abroad. As soon as this book came out, it established its historical position as an editor and critic of China's classical novels.
The New Records of Yuchu consists of 20 volumes. The first volume is Autobiography and Ordinary Cases in the 22nd year of Kangxi (1683), and the last volume is General Postscript in the 39th year of Kangxi (1700). However, according to scholars' research, there are only eight volumes in the postscript, and then twenty volumes have been published one after another, which is about forty-three years (1704)4. It took more than 20 years to finally write a book, saying that it took Juck Zhang half his life's effort. There are about 150 articles in the book, all compiled by people in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, most of which are celebrities such as Qian, Wu, Wei, Zhou Lianggong, Li Yu, and Wang Shizhen. There are legends, anecdotes and figures in the genre, but the legends with twists and turns, rich literary talent and long length are the main ones. Legends are mostly good at shaping characters, from princes and ministers to ordinary people, with vivid descriptions and vivid descriptions. The publication of this book has taken on a brand-new look in the history of China's ancient novel compilation, created a unique novel genre, and marked the official birth of "Jade Kitchen" novel.
The collection of novels named Yuchu before Yuchu New Knowledge has three common characteristics: in form, they are all collections, not exclusive works; From the content point of view, most of them are works of Han and Tang dynasties, and no one has done them; Judging from the material, most of them come from novels and books, and few are selected from writers' collections. Therefore, Yu Chu Zhi, which came out at the end of the Ming Dynasty, and its continuation and extensiveness, not only lacked new ideas between them, but also had no features compared with Yang Xunji's series Tan Yi at Snow Window and Wang Yuncheng's series Yi Shi Souqi. If Yuchuzhi is compiled along this road, no matter whether it is mixed with words such as "new" and "continuation", it can only be selected from notes and legendary novels of Han, Wei, Tang and Song Dynasties; In the long run, it is also difficult to sustain (the works of the ancients always have an end). However, Juck Zhang, who is different from his predecessors in artistic pursuit, publishing vision, cultural tradition and business consciousness, will never follow the old road of "Yu Chu Zhi" in the Ming Dynasty. As far as artistic pursuit is concerned, Juck Zhang thinks that scholars usually get money through writing and reading, which is nothing more than "passing on the history of the classics" or "telling the officials about the world". This kind of literature is "too rare to talk about", and it advocates "curiosity and realism; Searching for different gods is never the same. " His artistic preference is: the image of freedom and loneliness has a realistic basis; The theme is magical and weird, try to avoid similar predecessors. As far as cultural tradition is concerned, from the middle of the Ming Dynasty, Huizhou people entered the publishing field with abundant wealth and were good at editing. In the compilation and publication of China's classical novels, his achievements are particularly outstanding, such as Searching for Curiosity in Yi Shi, Yan Guang Yi Bian and Tong Hua Lu written by Wang Yuncheng, Wu Dazhen and Cao Chen respectively. In addition, only one version of the second edition was edited to enlarge the signatures of "Edited by Wang Shizhen" and "Edited by Yan Yi", both of which have good publication records. Next to Juck Zhang, he lives in Yangzhou, a prosperous cultural and commercial city. Drawing on the experience of predecessors in editing and publishing, he decided to use the old bottle of "Yuchu" to hold the new wine of the times, which is the so-called "Yuchu Selected Works" ... the same old tune. Specifically, compared with the previous anthology of Yuchu, Xinzhi has the following obvious characteristics:
First, "many words make a wise man" and "many things are modern"
The authors of New Records of Yuchu were all in the early Qing Dynasty, and the earliest candidate who can be tested today seems to be Zhang Mingbi (1584- 1652). Others were born during the Chongzhen period of the Ming Dynasty, and some seemed to be in the same year as Juck Zhang. Among them, there are writers and celebrities who were shocked by the sound for a while, and there are also poor scholars and poor Confucianism that have never been seen before; And Zhang's good friends (such as Wu Sugong, Chen Ding, Lu Ciyun, etc. ) and a friend's son (Wang Yunzi said), and there is a so-called "anonymous", whose name has not been tested: so "the selected person is as unknown as possible; People who teach catalpa in the future should always know each other. " There are about 80 authors with surnames and 5 "nameless" authors in the book, which shows that Juck Zhang's editorial vision is quite broad. Accompanying "versatility" is "many things are modern". About one-third of the novels selected in this book describe the personnel in the late Ming Dynasty, about two-thirds describe the current affairs in the early Qing Dynasty, and there are more novels such as The Story of Big Tie, The Story of Lin Siniang, The Story of a Guest Window, Qiao Shu, The Biography of Shao Shimei, The Record of Doctor Liu and Hui. What is commendable is that his books boldly incorporate relevant articles reflecting the grief and indignation of the adherents of the Li Dynasty (such as Biography of Mr. Jiang) and articles related to people's displacement (such as Shu Qi), which shows a departure from the mainstream social orthodoxy. In addition, we should pay more attention to the selection of works that praise animals' loyalty and fierceness, such as the stories of righteous monkeys, righteous tigers, righteous dogs, fierce foxes and righteous cows. This is similar to the novel Yi Jie by Wu Sugong, a adherent of the Ming Dynasty. Its intention is just like Juck Zhang's comment on writing after an article in Ji Xiang: "When you smell an elephant, you are clean and polite, kneeling three times and knocking nine times;" The only old elephant who can't do it is still a Han Chinese who obeys. Because this article is recorded, it is attached here. " Although the cloud is a "postscript", its theme is clear.
Second, the protagonist of the novel is more than the lower class.
As a book written by people at that time, the editor paid attention to collecting the images of all beings in an era, and at the same time deliberately adopted non-mainstream social figures and lower-class people at that time. Most of the articles occupy a central position, such as The Big Hammer, The Story of the King, Qinhuai Athletes, Leizhou Thief, Thief of Celebrities, Wan Fuxiong, Chivalrous Man, You Joined the Army, Baoding Famous Arrest, etc. Dong Xiaowan, Chen Xiaolian, Liu, Wang Cuiqiao, Chen Yuanyuan, Li, etc. Geisha-based artists, such as ventriloquists in the Preface to Autumn Poems, storytellers in Tang Pipa Biography, Burning Biography, Little Weng Biography, Liu Jingting Biography, micro-sculptors in Wu Fengzi Biography, doctors in Yi Daoren Biography, notes, and so on. Lonely strangers, such as Xu Xiake, Sheng Gonggong, Gu Yuchuan, Song, Si Shizi, Lu Dian, Huayin Taoist, Jiang, Geng Yunzi, Li Yizu, Shen Fuzhong, railway lover, dog skin Taoist, living dead, Peng, Zhang Nancun, etc. Little people who go to the toilet, such as the bartender in Biography of the Wine Soldier, the drinker in Biography of a jiaozi, the flower seller in Biography of the Flower Selling Old Man, the beggar in Biography of the Beggar Wang Weng, the beggar in Biography of Filial Piety and Gary, the servant in the Epitaph of Mrs. Guo, and the biography of the bearded woodcutter in Biography of Dumb Filial Piety. For the literary images that are rarely involved in these traditional novels, especially those that are rarely reflected positively, the authors of A New Record of Jade Beginning generously give them the praise of being dedicated and free from vulgarity, the appreciation of maverick, the appreciation of knowing and doing things secretly, the pure praise, the sympathy for poverty and hardship, the acquiescence of heresy and abnormal behavior, the love of landscapes and sounds, and the admiration of insect carving skills. It is not difficult to see that Yangzhou, a land with prosperous commercial economy and developed citizen class, is a new place.
Third, "there are many collections and occasional notes."
Although some titles in New Records of Yuchu were taken from people's notes at that time, such as Huang Hualu, Strange Letters from the North, Notes from the Guest Window, Notes from Wen Jian, Notes from Shu Qiao, Miscellaneous Notes on Huzhi, Notes on Poetry, etc. This breakthrough not only opened up the connection between itself and the previous works of the same name, but also found a rich context for the compilation of the later novels of Yuchu. Generally speaking, the writer's superb literary accomplishment and innate creative personality of epitaph endow Yu Chu's novels with simple and simple writing style and narrative style of biographical novels. This attempt to spread strange articles mainly by selecting books has since become the same way of compiling Yu Chu's novels. For example, Yu Chu Xu edited by Zheng Zhuoruo in Jiaqing and Yu Chu Chronicle edited by Hu in the Republic of China claimed to be "a collection of famous national scholars and their deeds" or "a lot of collections" respectively. In the novel circle of Qing Dynasty, which is dominated by the legendary "Liaozhai" style, the "Yue Wei" style with the combination of ambition and strangeness, textual research and debate, the "Yuchu" style (including Chen Shizhen's Qiu Minxuan series and Yu Yue's Bian Hui series without the word "Yuchu") can be unique and rank among the "three great writers". Of course, the reason why "New Records of Yuchu" was selected as "multiple copies" is also in line with the literary atmosphere of the times. Mr. Lu Xun's A Brief History of Chinese Novels once pointed out: "Literati have never had a chance with novels. For strangers, children, slaves, and even tigers, dogs, insects and ants, they are always handed down and concentrated. Covering the legendary charm, it really spread all over the world in the late Ming Dynasty, and it was only in the Li Dynasty that it was changed. " 8. What I said is very consistent with the creation facts of the collection in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties. For example, in addition to Xu Fang's notebook Nogo Ko Guang Zhi, the anthology he hung on the couch contains a group of words entitled "Beyond the Mountain". Specifically, there are 23 articles about Ji Bao, 16 articles about Qin Lao and 9 articles about Ji Meng. There are 25 essays in volume 16 of Chen Yuxi's Collected Works of Xuewentang, most of which are quite innovative novels. Even a collection of novels is not an exaggeration.
Fourth, the preface and postscript comment on writing, "explanation and praise"
Although the author's creation is the premise of reading appreciation, editing and publishing is also a necessary bridge between the author and the reader. Especially sporadic works scattered in personal collections. Whether there are special people to gather and delete them according to certain standards, horizons and methods, its social influence is definitely different; However, the level and value of an excellent collection of works depends largely on the editor rather than the author. The editor's overall design and aesthetic evaluation of many novels will give the book a unique aesthetic personality. A remarkable feature of Zhang Chao's compilation of New Records of Jade Chu is that he not only shows his material selection requirements, artistic standards and aesthetic feelings through prefaces and postscripts, that is, editing thoughts, such as "his works are modern and his writing is wise; Things are strange and nuclear. Wen Juan's works vividly depict them and imitate Bi Xiao. It is true that there is no need in ancient times, no need in ancient times, and no need in reason, so it is the master of things; Reading is unprovoked joy, unprovoked embarrassment, unprovoked crying, and it is true, not just like it. " With the help of the comment at the end of the article, I can publicize my attitude towards life, literary concept and novel concept at any time, that is, the so-called "eye-catching, few words at the end of the article; Flattery, suddenly adding superfluous words to the rest of the picture; Or comment on it impassioned, or praise its articles, sing and sigh. "As can be seen from the preface and postscript, Zhang Zhaoxiang has the nature of" exploring strange things, especially testing strange things ". After encountering family difficulties in the thirteenth year of Kangxi (1674) and the thirty-eighth year of Kangxi (1699), he came up with the idea of "writing books because of poverty", thus strengthening the subjective tendency of "being curious and affectionate". With the help of the compatibility of related prefaces and postscripts, notes at the end of the text and selected articles, many people also wrote the same articles. Juck Zhang's creation of novel criticism theory is also shown by the preface and comments at the end of the article, especially his dialectical relationship with the theme of "singularity and core", the aesthetic principle of characterization based on "vivid description and imitation of bishops", and the pleasant function of novel appreciation oriented to "happy release". Although Tang Xianzu made several brief comments at the end of the book when he continued "Yu Chu Zhi" It can be said that Juck Zhang stereotyped the comment on writing at the end of the article written by the editor as "Yu Chu".
Fifth, organize the records and prepare them in detail.
From a historical point of view, The New Record of Yuchu is evaluated in style, and it is rarely criticized. Its literary consciousness is still worth learning today. Since the mid-Ming Dynasty, the expansion of business concepts has led to the proliferation of book editing industry, which has resulted in a variety of books, copying things everywhere, pretending to be celebrities, and criticizing at random. As far as the compilation and publication of novels are concerned, the obvious disadvantage is that the selection of articles does not pay attention to the source to supplement the new content. Juck Zhang intends to break through this pattern of 1 1. He tries to indicate the source of the selected articles in the catalogue before the volume, such as six articles in the volume 17, which are respectively marked as: Sheng Yuan's Encounter with Immortals, Gao Song Wen Chao, Biography of Min Xiaozi, Retirement from Ancestors and People. The value of this record is various, that is, on the basis of this volume, the "Retreat to the Temple Draft" written by Wu Jin of Shangyuan (it seems that it has not been handed down); "Continued" is the preface of the forty-first year of Kangxi (1702). The source of Biography of Famous Capture is unknown: it may be helpful to understand the existence of collected works in Qing Dynasty, or to research the compilation and publication process of Xinzhi, or to explore the author of Biography of Famous Capture (the author Yao is a friend of Zhou Lianggong, for the full text, see Volume 8 of Shuying). Judging from its annotations, A New Record of Yuchu has four sources: selected from this book (that is, the title of the article is the same as that of the book, with many annotations), selected from general collections (such as bronze inscriptions and ancient and modern pictures), selected from other collections (the largest number of such collections), selected from "postal manuscripts" or "handwritten manuscripts" (positive and ordinary), and secondly, with good style. For example, the seventh volume, under the same author's name, is tied for three articles, the story of the tiger, the story of the dog and the biography of the strange woman, which are written as "Zhang Yu Xufang", "Jiang Yun Xufang" and "Jianchang Xufang"12 respectively; In the description of font size, Juck Zhang also intends to expand the amount of information. For example, there are three articles in Volume 15, such as "Before the Women's Pavilion", which are written by various departments as "Zhou Lianggong", "Zhou Lianggong Oak Garden" and "Liang Zhou Gongjianzhai", which fully explain Zhou's words and numbers. In addition, a good style is also reflected in the detailed introduction of the content characteristics, editing ideas and publishing methods of Ten Cases of Fan Fan, so that readers can have a basic understanding of the style of the book at the beginning of browsing.
The compilation and publication of New Knowledge at the Beginning of Jade lasted for more than 20 years because there was a process of "on-the-spot comment", on-the-spot engraving and supplementary printing. Due to the lack of historical materials, it is difficult to describe the detailed features of his last published or selected version. Considering that Zhang Chao's wealth has increased in his later years, the Book Xi Preservation Gold, which was written in the forty-five years of Kangxi (1706), has been "silent" for 13 years, so there is no need to make a preliminary compilation of "Faith" to show the world the price of "self-reliance". As far as the existing literature is concerned, we only know that the so-called "Qing Kangxi Engraving Edition" today is not the original publication: it must have been written from Wang Shizhen after Yongzheng; According to Fang Bao's comments, gold (1718-about 1789) should come from the early years of Qianlong (see Deng Changfeng's article). But the word "autumn" is not taboo, and it seems to be nothing after three years of Yongzheng. After Qianlong, although the money was destroyed by the "extracted edition", it still flourished in the world and was reprinted from generation to generation. By the early years of Jiaqing, it had reached 14. It soon spread to Japan, and it was passed down from generation to generation in block print (there was a block print of the capital of the Japanese government for six years [1823]). At the same time, the sequel continued from Jiaqing to the Republic of China, which became a major landscape of "Yuchu" novel series. As for the founder Juck Zhang, I don't know when he passed away quietly. He said it was in the forty-eighth year of Kangxi (1709) 15. However, compared with many old-time literati who have fallen into poverty, Zhang Chao is still very lucky. Not only have more than ten kinds of personal works, such as A Tale of Happiness in a New Village, A Wandering Essay, A Collection of Poems and Songs of Zaju, etc., but the books he compiled have long enjoyed a good reputation, among which Yu Chu Xin Zhi is still valued by people who love and study classical Chinese novels in the Qing Dynasty.