The Scholars is a novel written by Wu in Qing Dynasty. It was written in the 14th year of Qianlong (1749) or a little earlier. It was handed down from generation to generation with manuscripts, and was first engraved in the 8th year of Jiaqing (1803).
The fifty-six chapters of the book depict different expressions of "fame and fortune" by various people in a realistic way. On the one hand, it truly reveals the process and reasons of human nature erosion, thus profoundly criticizing and mocking the corruption of bureaucracy and the hypocrisy of imperial examinations at that time; On the one hand, it enthusiastically praised the protection of human nature by a few characters in a self-centered way, thus embodying the author's ideal.
The use of vernacular Chinese in the novel is becoming more and more skillful, and the characterization of characters is also quite in-depth and delicate, especially the superb satirical techniques, which makes this book a masterpiece of China's classical satirical literature. This novel represents the peak of China's ancient satirical novels, and creates an example of directly evaluating real life with novels.
Extended data
The novel vividly depicts the decadent status quo of spiritual morality and cultural education of the intellectual class under the imperial examination system. It reveals the concept of fame and fortune, bureaucracy, interpersonal relationship and the whole social atmosphere through life.
The author starts with exposing the imperial examination system and the ugly souls of literati enslaved by this system, and then satirizes the fatuity and incompetence of feudal officials, the greed and meanness of landlords and gentry, the hypocrisy and meanness of arty celebrities, and the decay of the whole feudal ethical code system and the distortion of people's souls. Wu's satire obviously dealt a powerful blow to feudal society and vented the complaints of most like-minded literati about the meanness of human nature and the darkness of society.
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2. Questions and answers about scholars' knowledge of foreign history
Author Wu (A.D.1701-1754) grew up in a big family of "famous families" in Quanjiao County, Anhui Province on the north bank of the Yangtze River.
Great-grandfather and grandfather were both successful in their official careers. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, there was a period of "family wealth" for 50 years. But his own grandfather was not well-known among his peers and died young; Since he was a child, he has had an heir to his eldest son, Wu, who is his adoptive father. Wu was only a county magistrate for a few years, but later he lost his post because he offended his boss and died of depression.
Wu lost his mother at the age of 13 and his father at the age of 23. He is neither keen on fame and wealth, nor despises money. He is extravagant and generous. In a few years, the property left by the previous generation was squandered by him, so that "the fields were sold out" and "the slaves fled and the servants scattered" and "all the words handed down in the village were warnings to the children" ("The word Yulan Geng Xu, a guest on New Year's Eve, plus the defeat in the examination room, * * * is very heavy." Do I have to temporarily open my eyebrows? "After returning to my hometown, I moved to Nanjing in the eleventh year of Yongzheng because of the unbearable cold reception.
From this time until his death in Yangzhou at the age of 54, he mainly made a living by selling articles and giving alms to friends. It was also during this period that he completed his masterpiece The Scholars. Wu has been living in a noble social environment since childhood, but the family he grew up in has been declining, and suddenly fell into poverty after middle age.
In the process of his family's decline from "gradual" to "sudden", he lived in his hometown Quanjiao County, Ganyu County in northern Jiangsu (where his father worked) and Nanjing, and traveled to Yangzhou, Anqing and Wuhu. Judging from several generations of clan relations and his own interpersonal relationship, he contacted a wide range of literati classes and got to know and know many people. The faces he saw, the warmth and coldness he received, the people he experienced and the world he experienced were extremely rich and profound.
This cultivated his keen sense of justice and sober mind to observe reality, and made him see through the depravity and * * * of the literati class under the dark rule of the Qing Dynasty, and the ugliness of politics and the corruption of society. It is this life experience that has become the direct source of Wu's serious realistic spirit.
Scholars mercilessly lashed and criticized the literati class with tears. Mr. Lu Xun once said that "The Scholars" "advocates that public interests are above everything else and criticizes current disadvantages.
The direction in front of the plane, especially the stone forest; His writing is both harmonious and harmonious, and more ironic. "By exposing all kinds of absurd phenomena that are disharmonious, contrary to human feelings and common sense, we can inject boasting, boasting, being smart, self-defeating, deceiving the world, pretending to be lofty, self-contradictory and so on into the characters.
As Nikolai Gogol said, "Our liars, our monsters! ..... Let everyone have a good laugh! Laughter is really great. It doesn't take away life or land, but in front of it, you will bow your head and confess, like a tied rabbit. " The satirical art of The Scholars has a distinct purpose, that is, "the author's original intention is to wake up the world, not to scold it."
Although the author tries his best to be sarcastic, he wants to save the satirized group. As the saying goes, "Good people feel the kindness of others; Evil, punish and create people's ambitions. " With compassion, the author depicts the tragic fate of many literati under the stereotyped writing system, and then unfolds a picture of social customs in the feudal imperial examination era, attacking the decay of the system and the darkness of society, making The Scholars a sacred work in China's classical satirical novels.
The Scholars has always been rated as a masterpiece of classical realism, that is, realistic works, in which many stories and characters come directly from life. Mr. Lu Xun once said in A Brief History of Chinese Novels: "Most of the characters in The Scholars are real people, and their names are implied by pictophonetic homophones and slang words."
"The Scholars" is good at using the brushwork of "spreading the autumn", that is, "the mouth is open and the heart is praised and criticized". The author's point of view is not directly imposed on readers, but on the shaping of specific images.
The winning bid of Harmony, the transformation of Kuang Superman, Du's heroic act and Mr. Ma's pedantry all show profound and rich thoughts through specific plots. The author didn't praise or criticize us directly, but every image is full of great power and conveys the author's distinct view of justice. We must understand and recognize it from the correlation and development of various images in different periods and occasions.
This is a realistic narrative style. Another artistic feature of this book is the sketches and silhouettes of characters.
The Scholars is a novel with a changing protagonist, or a novel composed of countless short stories. Through the detailed description of the life experience of the characters, in the tortuous story, the character characteristics and spiritual world of the characters can hardly be expressed. Therefore, Wu focused on the most dazzling human characteristics, thus showing a relatively static life in depth and detail.
It's like intercepting a fragment from the long history of character development, and then turning it around in front of people, magnifying the "this one" here and now. This is an excellent way to sketch satirize the characters, which makes the colors of the characters bright and clear, and the plot flows quickly, as if the face of the characters was sketched 10%, and the story will come to an end, and it is these exquisite plots that leave a deep impression on the readers.
3. Primary literature knowledge related to the four classical novels and The Scholars.
Romance of the Three Kingdoms is a classical novel with chapters and chapters.
Author: (Late Yuan Dynasty and Early Ming Dynasty) Luo Guanzhong
Full name: Popular Romance of the Three Kingdoms
* * * one hundred and twenty times
The Water Margin?
Author: (Late Yuan Dynasty and Early Ming Dynasty) Shi Naian
The main theme of the book is to describe the peasant war, and it created Liangshan heroes such as Lin and others, revealing the social contradictions at that time. The story is tortuous, the language is vivid, and the characters are vivid, which has high artistic achievements.
[Literary Works] Journey to the West
Author: (Ming) Wu Cheng'en
* * * One hundred times
Introduction to Journey to the West: Journey to the West is based on the story of Tang Priest's scriptures, related scripts and zaju (written by Yang Ne at the end of Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of Ming Dynasty). Seven times before the Journey to the West, the Monkey King was born, and there was a story about the Palace of Heaven. After that, he wrote the story of the Monkey King following the Tang Priest to learn Buddhist scriptures and exorcising demons and overcoming difficulties along the way. The Tang Priest, the Monkey King, Pig Bajie and Friar Sand in the book are vivid, large-scale and complete in structure.
A Dream in Red Mansions
Original name: The Story of Stone
Author: (Qing) Cao Xueqin
A Dream of Red Mansions has * * * 120 chapters, the first 80 chapters are written by Cao Xueqin, and the last 40 chapters are generally considered to be written by Gao E. Cao Zuo's eighty chapters were circulated in the form of manuscripts in the process of writing and revision. In the fifty years of Qianlong (179 1), Cheng Weiyuan printed the first eighty chapters and the last forty chapters with movable type, which became popular from then on. But the words in the first eighty chapters have been changed.
A Dream of Red Mansions: A Dream of Red Mansions was written in the Qing Dynasty in the middle of18th century. Based on the love tragedy of Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu, it focuses on the whole process of Jia government and Ningguo government from prosperity to decline. The language of the works is beautiful and vivid, and he is good at portraying characters, and has created such distinctive characters as Jia Baoyu, Lin Daiyu, Wang Xifeng, Xue Baochai and You Sanjie. This book is large in scale, rigorous in structure and high in artistic achievement.
The Scholars
Author: Wu.
The Scholars is an excellent realistic satirical novel in Qing Dynasty, which mainly describes the activities and mental outlook of intellectuals, officials and gentry in the late feudal society.
4. What types of intellectuals are portrayed in The Scholars?
The author of The Scholars is Wu.
Wu (1701—1754), whose real name is a scholar, calls himself a Qinhuai guest and is from Quanjiao, Anhui. The Scholars is intended to depict a portrait of the scholars (that is, scholars and intellectuals). It mainly depicts several types of intellectuals: The first type is people who are keen on imperial examinations and struggle for power and profit, such as Zhou Jin, Jin Fan and Mr. Ma Er.
When describing this kind of people, Wu mainly shows how they realized the process of being an official through the imperial examination. Some of these people have finally achieved the goal of being an official through long-term efforts, but their spirit and personality have been completely distorted, and their body and mind have been greatly destroyed, and the price paid is heavy.
Such as Zhou Jin and Jin Fan. Some people work hard all their lives, but they still get nothing in the imperial examinations, and they become tragic figures who regret their lives, such as Mr. Ma.
The second category is intellectuals who are officials, such as Wang Hui and Xian. All they know is to climb up wholeheartedly. The official creed is "three years as a magistrate, 100 thousand snowflakes and silver." The third category is fake celebrities who seem unwilling to participate in the imperial examination as officials, such as Lou San and Lou Si Gongzi.
These people were also keen on the fame and fortune of the imperial examination at first, but they turned lofty after hitting a wall. They are all mediocre people.
The fourth category is people who are really far away from the imperial examinations, such as Wang Mian and Du Fu. In these people, Wu's life ideal is embodied, and they are the shining figures in The Scholars.
Scholars are most concerned about the influence of imperial examinations on intellectuals. Therefore, the most prominent idea of the novel is to vigorously attack the imperial examination system. On the one hand, through Jin Fan, Zhou Jin, etc. Through the third and fourth floors, he revealed the destruction of the imperial examination to people and reflected the destruction of the literati by the imperial examination.
On the other hand, through Wang Mian, Du, etc. It shows that only by not being influenced by the imperial examination and getting rid of the political power system can we maintain the healthy development of human dignity and personality.
5. The main content of scholars' history
The Scholars was originally only 55 times [1]. According to Cheng Jinfang's Poems of Feeling for the People, it can be proved that Wu wrote the manuscript at the age of 49 (1750), but it was not until more than ten years after the author's death that Jin became a professor of Yangzhou official studies and published The Scholars, which was contested by the people [2]. This print has been lost today. The earliest existing engraving is the Caotang edition of Wo County, which was engraved in the eighth year of Jiaqing (1803). At present, there are 56 kinds of block prints in circulation, the last of which is considered by some people to be forged by future generations [3].
The Scholars is an outstanding realistic satirical novel in the history of China literature. The content written in The Scholars is actually the Qing Dynasty under the guise of the Ming Dynasty, and the characters are real people in all likelihood. It truly describes the ups and downs of intellectual life, the ups and downs of circumstances, the gains and losses of fame, the rise and fall of official career, the noble and despicable sentiment, the advocacy and disillusionment of ideals, and the exploration and pursuit of the way out. Wu affirmed or denied the characters in the book with an attitude towards fame and fortune. For example, Kuang forged documents and took the exam under an assumed name, but he was "rated as an outstanding scholar by Wenzhou". Yan was evil, but he was selected as an "outstanding scholar" by his predecessor Zhou Xuetai. While mercilessly lashing ugly things, the author also praised positive people. Wang Mian is a first-rate figure in the book, and he is "upright". Zhuang Shaoguang pursues "educating people with rites and music" and "educating people with morality". Father Niu and Father Bu are also respected by the author. Cheng Jinfang said in "Touching Poetry": "Bachelor of Historical Records, what to describe; I feel sad for the people of Sri Lanka. I actually passed on history! "
In The Scholars, Wu wrote the decadent darkness of the imperial examination system, the vulgarity of fake celebrities and the meanness of corrupt officials in a simple, flexible and humorous local language. Hu Shi described the book like this: "... the country hangs the signboard of Confucius and Mencius every day. In fact, no one is allowed to talk about Confucius and Mencius, nor is anyone allowed to practice Confucius and Mencius. As long as people read stereotyped writing and try to paste poems; The rest of the' source of literary works' need not be concerned. If you pay attention to them, you can say,' Is that for your officials?' "
The Scholars had a great influence on novels in Qing Dynasty, although there was no pre-designed structure at the beginning. For another example, Hu Shi said: "This book is a satirical novel, with a little realistic technology, and there are no words of genies and heroes. Besides, the characters in the book are all scholars, and it is not understandable for ordinary people to talk about career promotion and political elections. Therefore, among the first-class novels, The Scholars is the least popular. It is of certain significance to castigate social injustice and promote people's independent thinking. Moreover, it has profound enlightenment to modern satirical literature. Another feature of The Scholars is its loose structure, which does not run through the trunk from beginning to end. " Everything starts with it and ends with it "[4].
Xia Zhiqing said in The Scholars, the sixth chapter of The History of Classical Novels in China, "Although The Scholars is an important novel reflecting the literati, it seems to be more like a custom comedy from the colorful description of the bustling world of his time." Hu Shi believes that the condemnation novels in the late Qing Dynasty, such as Adventures Witnessed in Twenty Years, The Appearance of Officialdom, Travel Notes of Lao Can, Flowers of Evil and Biography of Flowers on the Sea, are all remnants of The Scholars. [5]
The Scholars has been translated into English, French, German, Russian, Japanese and Italian. It can be a living and vivid reference for the whole world to understand the Chinese imperial examination system.
6. Brief introduction of The Scholars.
The Scholars is a novel of Wu in Qing Dynasty. 56 times. The book was written in 1749 (the 14th year of Qianlong) or earlier, and it was handed down from generation to generation by manuscript, and was first engraved in 1803 (the 8th year of Jiaqing). Describing various people's different performances in "fame and fortune" with realism, on the one hand, it truly reveals the process and reasons for the erosion of human nature, thus profoundly criticizing and mocking the corruption of bureaucrats and the hypocrisy of imperial examinations at that time; On the one hand, it enthusiastically praised the protection of human nature by a few characters in a self-centered way, thus embodying the author's ideal. The use of vernacular Chinese is becoming more and more skillful, and the characterization of characters is also quite in-depth and delicate, especially the satirical technique is superb, which makes this book a masterpiece of China's classical satirical literature. This book represents the peak of China's ancient satirical novels, and creates an example of directly evaluating real life with novels.
After the manuscript of The Scholars was published, a manuscript was handed down from generation to generation and was highly praised by later generations. Lu Xun believes that the ideological content of the book is "upholding public interests and criticizing the disadvantages of the times", and Hu Shi believes that its artistic characteristics can be called "refinement". In international sinology, this book has a great influence. It has been handed down in English, French, German, Russian, Japanese, Spanish and other languages for a long time and is praised by sinologists. Some people think that The Scholars is one of the masterpieces of world literature, comparable to the works of Boccaccio, Cervantes, Balzac or Dickens, and an outstanding contribution to world literature.
The Scholars is a novel with intellectuals as the main description object, and it is also a typical satirical novel. The Scholars describes some images of Confucian scholars who were deeply poisoned by the stereotyped imperial examination system, reflecting the corruption of the secular atmosphere at that time.
For example, Zhou Jin and Jin Fan spent their whole lives trying to be jurors in the exam, but they didn't become scholars in the exam until their beards turned white. Although life is extremely difficult, I still remember the imperial examination. Zhou Jin passed by an examination room and went in to watch. He touched the bitterness and pain of life and burst into tears. He was so sad that he died. Later, with the help of some small businessmen, I took the exam and won the sympathy of the examiner, so my luck changed. When he was recommended in the exam, all the people who laughed at him before flattered him and touted him as the most knowledgeable person. Another example is Jin Fan, who is so poor that he takes an old hen to the market to sell. When he learned that he had won the bid, he was ecstatic and turned into a madman. Fortunately, his father-in-law, butcher Hu, slapped him and brought him back to his senses. At this time, the local squire and other prominent figures looked at him with new eyes. Some people sent houses and some property, and Jin Fan's life changed immediately.
7. The general content of The Scholars
abstract
The Scholars is a novel with intellectuals as the main description object, and it is also a typical satirical novel. The Scholars describes some images of Confucian scholars who were deeply poisoned by the stereotyped imperial examination system, reflecting the corruption of the secular atmosphere at that time.
For example, Zhou Jin and Jin Fan spent their whole lives trying to be jurors in the exam, but they didn't become scholars in the exam until their beards turned white. Although life is extremely difficult, I still remember the imperial examination. Zhou Jin passed by an examination room and went in to watch. He touched the bitterness and pain of life and burst into tears. He was so sad that he died. Later, with the help of some small businessmen, I took the exam and won the sympathy of the examiner, so my luck changed. When he was recommended in the exam, all the people who laughed at him before flattered him and touted him as the most knowledgeable person. Another example is Jin Fan, who is so poor that he takes an old hen to the market to sell. When he learned that he had won the bid, he was ecstatic and turned into a madman. Fortunately, his father-in-law, butcher Hu, slapped him and brought him back to his senses. At this time, the local squire and other prominent figures looked at him with new eyes. Some people sent houses and some property, and Jin Fan's life changed immediately.
8. What is the main content of The Scholars?
An excellent satirical novel in ancient China, written by Wu in Qing Dynasty.
The satirical objects of the works are very extensive, which comprehensively and profoundly expose and criticize the decay and evil of the feudal system that is about to collapse. This criticism centered on opposing fame and fortune, imperial examinations and stereotyped writing, and influenced the bureaucratic political system, social atmosphere, interpersonal relationships, academic activities and customs at that time.
The characters described in the works are mainly intellectuals, ranging from Jinshi, Hanlin to street hooligans. The Scholars is an ugly portrayal of the scum of Confucian scholars in feudal society.
The satirical art of this novel is characterized by: starting from the strong feelings of love and hate, skillfully organizing and narrating the absurd and thought-provoking plot through refined, accurate and simple language, thus profoundly exposing and criticizing the ugly soul of the characters. Structurally, it is a novel composed of a series of short stories and paragraphs.
As the story goes on, the people and things that have appeared gradually fade away, and a new "fall" begins unconsciously. It has a clear theme throughout the book, with a head, a tail and a * * *. The plots are related, organized and complicated.
The language is concise and accurate, sharp and humorous, full of cartoons and satire.