I watched the TV series Yongzheng Dynasty, then watched Kangxi the Great at my friend's house, and finally bought a full set of three films.
Today, a friend of a publishing house lamented that fewer and fewer people worked so hard to write historical novels after February River.
In writing these novels, Er Yuehe used the oldest novel structure in China, which was not to the taste of some young people. However, if you dare to write ancient history in modern vernacular under the style of quoting classics, you must be an expert. If nothing else, just writing the title of each chapter is a great challenge to the cultivation of ancient Chinese and phonology. This threshold will stop many people who dream of becoming writers but have no language accumulation. I remember an episode in Emperor Qianlong that Jiaqing ascended the throne, but Qianlong claimed to be the emperor's father and also intervened in government affairs, but the eunuchs in the palace made a snobbish distinction. One year, after the spring tea came down, the eunuch cooked new tea with the spring water from Yuquan Mountain, and Jiaqing personally sent it to the palace to show his filial piety. But after drinking the first sip, Qianlong immediately recognized that the water belonged to Yuquan Mountain, but the tea belonged to last year, and Jiaqing realized it in an instant. After that, Ganlong realized that it was completely decentralized. In this chapter, the title of February River is: "Human feelings are too warm, and the world is watered with new tea and old tea".
Not only that. For example, I often divide writers into two categories:
One kind is that when the enemy's fortified castle is encountered on the way to attack, it can't be captured and the firepower is not enough, but it is unwilling to sacrifice its troops and too lazy to assemble heavy weapons. Then simply bypass it, such as stealing treasures and crossing the sea. Most modern writers like this because not all writers are scholars. Gu Long likes to write martial arts with freehand brushwork and ingenious artistic conception: the carrot doesn't see the cactus, and the white radish has been stabbed to the ground.
The other is that when you encounter an enemy fortress on the way to attack, you can't attack it. You can mobilize stronger firepower to storm it until it is captured. So all the way to wyndell dichinson, casualties may be high, but it is completely flattened, such as the fortress in Wei Qing and Pingqiang in Duan Jiong. In other words, such writers must solve the knowledge obstacles in their writing through textual research. For example, when Jin Yong writes about martial arts, he will clearly write about human acupuncture points.
Imperial edicts, memorials, judgments, court structure, patrol lines and even recipes for royal dinners cannot be made up, but must be made clear through history books and archives. These are all textual research efforts. It doesn't matter if you write about other subjects. You can't write a historical novel without this kind of kung fu. By this standard, February River is a master of historical novels.
Just because he writes in a relatively traditional way does not mean that he lacks cutting-edge imagination. In fact, the novels of the Three Dynasties are full of his own plot design and reasonable imagination. There are various legends about the death of Yongzheng, describing the death of an emperor as all kinds of thrillers and suspense. February River is unwilling to give in to public opinion, and is unwilling to be slow and steady. Finally, he weaved the death of Yongzheng with his early sufferings, love and power struggle, and made an unexpected ending: he committed suicide because he married the concubine of his political enemy, but this concubine was actually the love he left when he was living in the folk.
The novel of the Three Dynasties is a cultural museum, with mountains and rivers, folk customs, costumes, products, architecture, water transport, grain policy, disasters, poems and songs, scientific research, pen and ink of talented people, ups and downs of beautiful women, prime minister Wen Tao, general's art of war, royal regulations and so on, all blooming in the plot. Reading a dream of red mansions, such as reading an encyclopedia and reading February River, also has this feeling. Whether you like it or not, he is willing to make such efforts, and the final display is brilliant. Yongzheng traveled the Yellow River incognito and talked with migrant workers at night. The migrant workers brought a big teapot, which was yellow and covered with sesame seeds. The guards didn't want the emperor to eat it, so Yongzheng tasted it and thought it was delicious. This is camellia oleifera. Qianlong's guards carried a kind of paper with them, which was used when the emperor sent them meat. As a result, the guards soaked the soup in paper every time, dried it for later use and gave the meat. When this paper is soaked in soup, the meat is delicious. This is not a food problem, this is a political problem.
The biggest criticism of February River is that he sang the hymn of Gan.
They don't know the February River.
Although there is the emperor's hard work in February River's works, on the whole, it is more the emperor's last helplessness. The fate of the dynasty is to fall, and no one is spared. Whether Kangxi, Yongzheng or Qianlong closed their eyes, they all saw the power that they could not win. This power originated from the genes of the dynasty, which created palace fighting, corruption, shameless and incompetent people, injustice and ambiguity, and created the trajectory that a crab is not as good as a crab.
Tian Wenjing, one of Yongzheng's confidant ministers, asked Li Hong, who was not even a prince at that time, to the effect that the lonely and loyal ministers who were not afraid of offending people were in a difficult situation, while those who were flattering, flattering and good at gaining jobs had yellow official careers. Li Hong can't answer. First, Tian Wenjing was right. Second, even the so-called monarch doesn't like Tian Wenjing in his bones.
This has reached the root of culture.
It's hard to say who's positive and who's negative about the characters written by February River. San huang can be called a wise king by ancient standards, but they all have a lot of things that are hard to put on the table. The nine kings are ruthless, but each has its own bright spots; Pearl, Soetu, Ronkedo, Ao Bai and Suksaha fought for power and interests by hook or by crook, but they were all able to rule the world. Shi Lang, Zhang and Ma Qi, including the invented Mr. Wu, are all capable people and wise men, but they are familiar with the way of officialdom struggle.
Three dynasties, countless figures, one blood, in a word: the imperial court is a cave of all evils.
This sentence was said by Montesquieu. Huang Zongxi, a thinker in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties in China, also made a similar statement.
February River agrees with this conclusion.
I have heard some of his remarks, so it is not convenient to write them here. These words confirm my judgment on the ideological realm of his novels.
Formerly known as Ling Jiefang, he was born in the year of War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression's victory.
His original name bears a distinct imprint of the times, and he surpassed that era with his creation.