"Sad fog enveloped the whole hualin. Breathe and understand, only Baoyu? " Selected from A Brief History of China's Novels.
Source: From Lu Xun's A Brief History of Chinese Fiction, article 24, Ren Qing Fiction of Qing Dynasty.
The novel of human feelings is a big family in China's novel and art circles. It was Lu Xun who established the literary view of human feelings novels.
He said: when ghost novels are popular, people who remember people stand out. They are based on the "silver characters" in the novels written by Song people, which are mostly about parting, joys and sorrows, abnormal development and karma, but they are not very clever. They describe the bleak world and see the bleak world, so they are also called "love letters about the world" (the novel in Qing Dynasty is A Dream of Red Mansions).
Extended data:
(1) The author does not put the novel creation outside the social and cultural environment, but regards it as the product of social reality and ideological culture in a certain historical stage. Therefore, Shilue did not observe and study China's ancient novels in isolation, but paid early attention to novels, social and political background and ideological and cultural trends.
And the relationship between social customs and habits, and explain the development of China's novel history from the perspective of sociology and culturology. For example, in the seventh chapter, the author developed from "scholars in the late Han Dynasty, emphasizing interest and discrediting, relying on words" to the social atmosphere of "expressing illusory family background but relaxed manners" in Wei and Jin Dynasties. From the prevalence of Buddhism and Laozi and Zhuangzi at that time, it finally formed a fashion of speaking freely among literati to explain the social and ideological background on which Wei and Jin novels came into being.
For example, when the eighth chapter discusses the reasons for the prosperity of Tang legends, it can be pointed out that the examination at that time emphasized "writing papers" and even had the social habit of letting novels be published in order to show their historical talents, poems and argumentations. For example, in Chapter 12, when discussing the rise of Songhuaben, it emphasizes the development of urban economy with "the people are rich and the country is strong" and "more pastimes".
Another example is Article 16, which discusses that the prevalence of ghost novels in the middle of Ming Dynasty is closely related to the prevailing social atmosphere of respecting Taoism at that time. All these can provide insight into the author's broad academic vision and superb theoretical accomplishment.
⑵ The author pays special attention to artistic originality and regards the existence of artistic innovation as an important yardstick to evaluate the level of novels in past dynasties.
He said in the Record of Soviet Printmaking Exhibition that "relying on and imitating can never produce real art", in fact, the author's evaluation of the novel is the same, so Shilue severely criticized all kinds of imitative and uninspiring sequels, such as criticizing some sequels of Shi Shuo Xin Yu: "There is no difference in compiling old news, but it is harmful to describe current events."
He also criticized more than ten sequels of A Dream of Red Mansions. However, the author still affirmed the artistic creation of the sequel to this novel. For example, The Journey to the West, who commented on the sequel to Journey to the West, said, "Only by doing things and telling stories will it be rich and colorful, and it will be amazing for a while, and never dare to watch it at the same time."
In the twelfth book "Song Legend", the author attributed the fading of Song Legend to the lack of artistic originality. The so-called "Song literati are eccentric, plain and lacking in literary talent, and their legends are also relying on the past to avoid the new, imitating the past and far from grasping, let alone originality."
Baidu Encyclopedia-A Brief History of China's Novels