China's classical novels in Yuan Dynasty, such as Yanbei Magazine by Lu You, A New Story of Mountain Residence by Liu You, Tales of Rivers and Lakes by Wu, Tianshu by Yi Shizhen, etc. This kind of works are generally mixed with stories and anecdotes about ghosts and gods, with simple plot, vague content, poor conception and few attractive places, which have no important influence on future generations.
Popular novels developed from the art of speaking can be divided into short stories and novels. Talking about history was called Pinghua or Pinghua by Yuan people. In the Song Dynasty, storytelling skills in cities gradually declined in the Yuan Dynasty, while the art of visual zaju flourished unprecedentedly. In the Yuan Dynasty, only the Hu brothers and sisters in Hangzhou, as well as Zhu in the Jianghu, all talked about history books. In addition, when the children were young, their mother and daughter would tell novels.
According to the records of the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, the authors of novel scripts were Lu Xianzhi of the Capital of Song Dynasty (now Kaifeng City) and Jin of Hangzhou, but the number of novels that can be identified as Yuan Dynasty today is very small. The scripts of novels in Song and Yuan Dynasties that have been preserved so far are mostly changed by Ming people, so it is difficult to determine their dynasties. Lu Xianzhi edited "My Good Son Zhao Zheng" and Jin edited "When caught". Haoer is the noisy soul Zhang contained in Song Sigong's ancient and modern novels. "When caught" also quoted the quotation of "Du Feng's visit to Hu Mu" in "Ancient and Modern Novels". In addition, Pei Xiuniang's Night Tour of the West Lake (Wan Jinlin Lin Qing Volume 2), Qiantang Dream (the appendix of the new edition of Kuiben and the wonderful notes of The West Chamber), Wang Kui (the remnant book published in the Ming Dynasty, without title, is divided into two columns, the upper column is a novel and the lower column is a legendary opera), and as for Death, These works widely reflected the social life, especially the life and ideological outlook of citizens, and were recorded in popular language close to the spoken language at that time, which opened up a brand-new situation for the development of China's classical novels. However, because it is difficult to determine the dynasty attribution of most novel scripts, they are generally called "Song and Yuan Plays" in the history of literature.
The Yuan Dynasty to Five Kinds of Panoramic Pinghua 15 published in Xin 'an shows the special position of the Yuan Dynasty in the formation and development of classical novels. These five kinds of Pinghua are: ① The Book of Cutting Weeks (3 volumes), ② The Collection of Local Atmosphere after the Spring and Autumn Period (3 volumes); (3) Three volumes of Pinghua in the Six Kingdoms of Qin, Three Volumes of Continuation of the Book of Han Dynasty and Three Volumes of Pinghua in the Three Kingdoms. All the books are in the same format, up and down, which is obviously for people to read. The narrative is concise, the wording is sloppy, and there are many typos, retaining the original appearance of storytelling from the folk without being processed by literati.
Five kinds of Pinghua tell the historical events of a generation from generation to generation, but they are not exactly the same in content, writing and style. The story of King Wu's Cutting Zhou tells the story of cutting Zhou. In the book, Zhou Wang dotes on da ji, mutilates ministers and people, and even makes people miserable. With the help of Lv Wang, King Wu launched a Crusade, killed Zhou Wang and da ji, and established the Zhou Dynasty. However, ghosts and gods are attached to the article, interspersed with many strange plots of fairy witchcraft, which is far from the true colors of history. "After the Spring and Autumn Period, Le Yi Local Customs Collection" focuses on Sun Bin and Le Yi, and describes the internal contradictions between the Yan and Qi wars and the ruling class. It is also full of absurd and bizarre plots, most of which are inconsistent with historical facts. In Pinghua, the stories of Qin's merging into six countries and Qin's demise are all described. These stories are based on historical books, and some even copied directly from historical records. The Book of the Former Han Dynasty tells the story of the ruling class killing heroes and killing each other after Emperor Gaozu unified the world. It is generally faithful to history and rarely adopts absurd rumors and weird rumors. The History of the Three Kingdoms tells the story of the dispute between Wei, Shu and Wu, which is not only taken from the official history, but also absorbed unofficial history's miscellaneous biography and folklore.
Yuan dynasty novels
The above five novels about history can be divided into two types in writing and style: the first two types of writing history are not limited to historical facts, bold fiction and supplement, full of grotesque plots; Although the latter three stories are also different, they are generally in line with historical facts, and there are few arbitrary nonsense incidents. These two writing methods and styles developed in the Ming Dynasty, opening up two paths for novel creation: ghost stories full of absurd and bizarre plots and historical romances that are basically faithful to historical features. The evolution of this book from the King of Wu to the Biography of the Ming God, and from the Three Kingdoms Pinghua to the Popular Romance of the Three Kingdoms in the Ming Dynasty is very clear.
Researchers believe that there should be more than the above five kinds of publications published by Yu Jia, and at least there should be two kinds of publications, Qianji and Ji Zheng, which match the Tuqi Seven Kingdoms and Hanshu Xuqian after the Spring and Autumn Period respectively. It is very likely that a set of systematic historical works was printed at that time. These works were not completed by one person at a time, and it is not excluded that some of them may be works of the Southern Song Dynasty. However, it has been about 50 years since Zhi Zhi was founded in Yuan Dynasty, and it is also a large-scale engraving, so it is generally certain that many of these works were made in Yuan Dynasty.
Storybook is just a novel that has begun to take shape. The story is simple, the structure is messy, and the language is crude; However, it has a generally complete story, which has accumulated artistic experience for the emergence and development of novels in the Ming Dynasty in terms of organizational structure, narrative methods and characterization. Therefore, the most remarkable achievement of novels in Yuan Dynasty is in novels and stories.