Appreciation of Love Literature in Meng Jiangnv Crying for the Great Wall

In China, Meng Jiangnv can be said to be a household name. Her story has been widely circulated among the people for thousands of years, and it ranks as one of the four major folk stories in China, along with Legend of the White Snake, Butterfly Lovers and Cowherd and Weaver Girl. The value of this story is not only to provide people with interesting entertainment materials, but more importantly, it deeply affects people's moral beliefs and living standards, especially women's, which greatly exceeds the value and role of general literary works.

The story of Meng Jiangnv has a long history. It existed in the Spring and Autumn Period, and then it continued to develop and flowed in the feudal society of past dynasties. With the increase of rings, its shape has evolved several times, so that there is almost no similarity between the late form and the early prototype. No wonder some people have doubts about its historical origin.

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The story of Meng Jiangnv was originally recorded in Zuo Zhuan during the Warring States Period. "xianggong" twenty-three years, some people say:

Qi Hou was still from Jin, but he didn't advance, so he attacked the house, and the door went in and out, hurting his shares and retreating. Resume the war tomorrow and defend Shu. Qi Zhihua is still alive. He entered the tunnel at night and lived in the suburbs of Juxian County. Tomorrow, I met Juzi for the first time in Pu Hou, and Juzi gave him a large bribe so that he wouldn't die. He said, "Please have an alliance." Zhou Hua said to him, "It is also evil to eat goods and give up your life. I was stunned and ordered a little, and finally I abandoned it. Why should I be a gentleman? " Juzi played a new drum, so as to cut it and get Qi Liang. Living here is successful. When Qi Hou came back, he met Qi Liang's wife in the suburbs, hanged her and said, "What's the shame of colonization?" If you are forgiven, you still have your ancestral home, and I can't hang out with the suburbs! "JiHou hung in his room.

Obviously, this record is far from the story of Meng Jiangnv that we are familiar with today. Not only does it not contain the content of finding a husband to cry down the Great Wall, but even her husband is not a civilian worker who was recruited and sacrificed for building a city; But the generals who led the troops to fight and died in the battlefield. As for the time of the story, it is even more problematic. Qi, which happened during the Spring Festival, has nothing to do with the legendary Qin Shihuang era. The basic form of this story has not changed much until the end of the Western Han Dynasty.

In the above-mentioned records of Zuo Zhuan, Meng Jiangnv's name has not yet appeared, only that she was the wife of Qi Liang, which lasted until the Tang Dynasty. It should be said that Meng Jiangnv's character is distorted here. Looking at the simple words above, she seems to be indifferent to her husband's death, but she is keen to abide by the rules of etiquette, quite like a woman who lacks feelings and is too rational. This is because Zuo Zhuan was written by a historian, whose duty is to record people and things related to national politics. Therefore, it is inevitable that only the etiquette knowledge and teaching assistant knowledge of Qi Liang's wife are remembered, and personal feelings are omitted. In fact, as a flesh-and-blood person, no matter how strong his moral consciousness and etiquette concept are, it is impossible to be so calm and indifferent when he hears the news of her husband's sudden death. Therefore, The Book of Rites. Two hundred years later, Tan Gong supplemented this aspect with Ceng Zi's words:

Ceng Zi said, "You are not as polite as the wife of Qi Liang. He attacked Ju 'an and took Ju 'an. Qi and Liang died, and his wife greeted him and cried. Minister Zhuang hung it. It is:' If the monarch's ministers are inevitably guilty, they will go to court and the wives and concubines will hold them; If your minister is exonerated, he will have ancestors and will not disgrace his life. "

The basic idea of the account here is the same as Zuo Zhuan, except that the sentence "I met him on the road and my wife cried" reveals to people that Qi Liang's wife has deep feelings for her husband. Although this explanation is simple, general and general, its significance can not be ignored, that is, it injects human feelings into Qi Liang's wife and pulls her back from an idol who abides by etiquette to the ranks of normal people; Since then, people have evolved and developed this story along this basic trajectory. two

Meng Jiangnv's story has gone through about 200 years, from crying for the road to crying for her husband's collapse and martyrdom. This change was first described by Liu Xiang in the late Western Han Dynasty. In Shuo Yuan, he briefly mentioned the story of crying husband's collapse of the city twice, and the fourth volume of Female Biography described this legend in considerable detail. Its description can be roughly divided into two parts. The first half is the condolence of Qi Hou, which is the same as Zuo Zhuan and is omitted here. The second half of the record is as follows:

Qi Liang's wife had no children and no daughters, and the five families inside and outside had no relatives and did not return. At the gate, she fell on her husband's body and wept bitterly, and all passers-by wept for it. 10, the city collapsed. When he was buried, he said, "How can I come back? Husband and wife must depend on others: father depends on father, husband depends on husband, and son depends on son. Today, I have no father in the upper class, no husband in the middle class and no children in the lower class. I have nothing to rely on the inside to see my sincerity, and nothing to rely on the outside to build my festival. How could I be bad! Go to hell. " So he went to Zishui and died. Gentleman Wei: Qi Liang's wife is virtuous and polite. ("Liang's Wife", the first edition of four series)

There is no doubt that the character and style of Qi Liang's wife in Biography of Women have greatly developed and changed. Although limited by the theory of Zuo Zhuan, Liu Xiang's records still maintain her "knowing ceremony" characteristics, but at the same time give her "chastity", which is more prominent and powerful than "knowing ceremony". Judging from the words quoted above, the so-called "chastity", on the one hand, certainly contains the content of loyalty, but the single-mindedness of husband and wife is undoubtedly one of the important aspects, otherwise why should she cry for ten days while guarding her husband's body! This shows that since the Biography of Lienv, the love factor has become an important part of Meng Jiangnv's story.

The narrative of Biography of Women has made great progress in plot, which laid a basic framework for the later story of Meng Jiangnv. From then on, until the Tang Dynasty, the story remained at this level. Although there are differences between Qicheng, Cheng Ju and Liangshan, there is no great development and change in the basic plot. three

The Tang Dynasty is an era when Meng Jiangnv's story further developed and finally basically finalized. During this period, the story took a key step towards a more delicate, richer and more legendary direction. This progress is mainly manifested in three aspects:

One is that the story is officially linked to the construction of the Great Wall by Qin Shihuang;

Secondly, it is not limited to the wife's reflection after Qi Liang's death, but traces the plot back to the stage before her husband's death or even before marriage;

Thirdly, it broke through the generality and dullness of the narrative after her husband's death and added new plots and details, thus greatly enhancing the vividness and appeal of the story.

There are two most representative documents in this period: one is the description of children in Jade Collection of Tianbao, Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty. Qi Liang, a Yan man, was forced to build the Great Wall for Qin Shihuang. One day, he fled to Meng Chao's backyard and took a bath in Mencius' daughter's pool. When he saw Qi Liang, he wanted to marry him. Qi Liang refused, and Meng Po insisted on not letting her husband be seen by a woman's body. Later, I met Meng Fu and the husband and wife got married. After the marriage, Qi Liang returned to prison, angered him for escaping from prison, killed him, and built a corpse into the city. Meng Nv smells makeup and cries. However, the bones of the deceased were lying on the pillow, and the body was difficult to distinguish, so she pricked her finger and blood dripped from the bones, saying to herself, "Those who are good at bones can flow in." Wait until Qi Liang's bones are dripping and the blood and fruit are soaked. So I put the bones away and took them back to the cemetery. As can be seen from the above, at this point, the story is really much richer than before. And the whole story is shrouded in a layer of legendary and mysterious charm: look at their first meeting, a shower in the pool and a deserter who entered the park, so they came together by accident; Later, one insisted on being a wife, the other pretended to be real, and the tie soon became a couple; In this process, people can experience and feel the mysterious power of coincidence and appreciate the unique artistic charm of romantic literary creation.

Judging from the narrative text, it seems that Meng Nv proposed because her body was peeped by Qi Liang, and she was "not allowed to see her husband again", which of course belongs to meaning of etiquette. However, if she is really a faithful believer in ethics, her skin can be peeped and she can hang herself. Why did you force her to get married? Obviously, this can't be explained only by the sense of etiquette. So I think it is difficult to rule out the factor of love at first sight besides the sense of etiquette. This is China's love, which can only be wrapped or integrated into the etiquette, and can't exist independently as in the west. It is a special expression of love defined by the feudal etiquette society in China. Of course, this story is also quite impolite. China's marriage has two core standards: one is the right match, the other is the life of parents and the words of matchmakers; But Qi Liang in the story is a slave to build a city, and Meng Zhongzi is the daughter of a rich man with a backyard, which obviously has nothing to do with the family. The combination of the two is an accidental encounter. Zhong Ziqi decided to live for a living, so the media agreement naturally disappeared. As for parents' life, it's just a matter of preparing a case with his father after he decides. All these show that the love and marriage between Qi Liang and Meng Zhongzi contains some anti-ethical content.

Another noteworthy story of this story is the story of blood dripping at the end to recognize the body. This plot is full of mystery, legend and even superstition. Its significance lies not only in adding touching content to this ancient story, but also in revealing the depth of the emotional connection between the couple. As his wife, Meng Zhongzi heard the news of her husband's tragic death and ran away at once. The article doesn't say how many miles she walked, but when she arrived at the scene, it would take her husband at least a few months to become a white bone, so it should be thousands of miles. She has traveled thousands of miles to mourn her husband's bones, and her affection for her husband is self-evident. However, love goes both ways. After all, the above plot can only explain the wife's side. As for the spiritual fit between them, it is not clear. The story of blood and bone just supplements this deficiency. This bizarre method of distinguishing relatives is full of strong superstition, which is unbelievable; But its meaning is not scientific at all, but it strongly shows that there is eternal physical and mental communication between husband and wife, and there is mutual induction that spans life and death, and their love can not be destroyed by any force.

The second document is the lyrics of Dunhuang stone chambers, and the full text is as follows:

Meng Jiangnu's wife, Qi Liang, once went to Yanyuan Mountain and never came back, and no one sent her warm clothes, so she had to send her own clothes. The road to the city is really difficult. It snows under the cheese mountain, and drinking wine is a meal disease. I hope to return it as soon as I am strong.

Judging from the plot structure, this piece of music is incomplete. It only intercepts a part of the story, but this part is of great significance. For the first time, the content of sending cold clothes for thousands of miles was added, which highlighted the love implication of the story and provided an important and indispensable plot for Meng Jiangnv's later stories. In addition, Meng Jiangnv's name appeared in this song for the first time, ending the history of uncertain heroine's name. Since then, no matter what form of literary works, the name Meng Jiangnv has never changed.

In addition to the above two works, Meng Jiangnv Bianwen handed down from the Tang Dynasty is collected in Dunhuang Bianwen Collection published by People's Literature Publishing House. This is an incomplete work, and the words and poems already contain plot contents such as building bones into the city, crying down the Great Wall, bleeding to recognize bones, and sending letters by ghosts.

In a word, the Tang Dynasty is an important period for the development and evolution of Meng Jiangnv's story. It can be said that at that stage marked by Zuo Zhuan, the story basically maintained the nature of real historical materials. By Liu Xiang's Biography of Lienv, it began to evolve into a mixed form of historical materials and rumors, and obvious literary factors appeared. After entering the Tang Dynasty, novels completely replaced historical facts, and stories really became pure literary works, which was an epoch-making progress. four

After the Tang Dynasty, the story of Meng Jiangnv was widely spread and almost penetrated into all fields of popular literature. It is understood that there are dozens of works about Meng Jiangnv, such as essays, storytelling, opera, folk songs, tanci, drum lyrics, baojuan and Zidishu. The earliest opera was the Jin and Yuan version of Meng Jiangnu, and later the Yuan zaju Meng Jiangnu sent cold clothes, the Southern Opera Meng Jiangnu sent cold clothes, the Ming zaju Meng Jiangnu cried the Great Wall, the Legend of the Great Wall, and the legendary miscellaneous wife in the early Qing Dynasty. Unfortunately, they are missing or incomplete, which makes it difficult for us to elaborate today. Variations, baojuan, tanci, children's book, etc. Are relatively rich preserved works, uneven length, as short as folk songs, there are dozens of words; For example, the long biography of painting Meng Jiangnu Wan Li's tanci and the Great Wall Baojuan reach tens of thousands of words; They are widely circulated in all directions, and have played a great role in the spread and popularization of Meng Jiangnu's stories.

During the nearly thousand years from Song and Yuan Dynasties to the end of Qing Dynasty, although there were many kinds of works, the scale and level of the Tang Dynasty were generally maintained in the plot content. Of course, in some folklore, there have been some small waves. For example, Meng Jiangnv was born in a gourd, and branches and vines connected the two Meng Jiangnv who lived next door, hence the name Meng Jiangnv. There is another cloud: after Meng Jiangnu cried down the Great Wall, Qin Shihuang saw her beautiful and wanted to marry her. Meng Jiangnu put her in linen and Dai Xiao arranged the funeral for Qi Liang. When she did this, she threw herself into the sea. In addition, in some legends, Qin Shihuang threw stones into the sea with a mountain whip to beat Meng Jiangnv. For the above, please refer to Meng Jiangnv's Collection of Searching for a Husband in a Thousand Miles compiled by * *. These folk stories pinned people's praise for Meng Jiangnv's love and marriage, sympathy for their unfortunate fate, and condemnation of the cruel behavior of feudal rulers.

The story of Meng Jiangnv has been around for two thousand years. For two thousand years, it has been sincerely loved by the people, and it still maintains a strong vitality today. It can be expected that in the long years to come, it will continue to accompany our ancient nation and provide good spiritual food for our future generations.