Research Of Yangzhou Novelists Group At The Beginning Of Min DynastyChinese

Yangzhou novelists are an important group with remarkable literary achievements in the literaryworld at the end of Qing Dynasty and the beginning of Min Dynasty. Yan Fusun thinks theirachievements are equal to the writers of "Suzhou School" The individual of the novelists in this articleis known by the literary world. Li Hanqiu, the representative figure, enjoys the good reputation of"novelist of the first class"(Zheng Yimei) by his social novels such as Guang Ling Chao and so on.Professor Fan Boqun, the expert of modern literature research, claims Mr. Li as "the transmissionperson of modernizing social novel"; Bi Yihong promotes the humanization of evil novels by Ren JianDi Yu, which was well-known in Shanghai and had been "people's topic at table" for a long time; WangZhongqi contributes a lot to the theory of novel history. Historians of literary theory Wang Yunxi and GuYisheng claim his work as "the first novel history compiled consciously in China" in History of ChineseLiterary Criticism; Cheng Shanzhize's short stories are spoken highly by Chen Pingyuan and Yuan Jin,researchers of modern literary history, who even thinks his short stories are equal to "the new novels ofthe May Four in art". But, these novelists are evaluated and understood individually. They have neverbeen observed as a group or an entity. We observe these novelists according to the connection of theirnative states and we can find that Yangzhou novelists group not only has outstanding creativeperformance but also has a comparatively concentrated period of their literary activities. The "link"which holds this novelist group together also has era and regional characteristics. What's more, theliterary course of this novelist group plays a landmark role in the modernization process of Chineseliterary. They have experienced deep changes of the political, the social and cultural production methodsfrom the end of Qing Dynasty to Min Dynasty. They start the literary activities from the half old andhalf new city (Yangzhou) along the river, pass the city (Wuhan) with political and cultural hot spots andfinally join the comparatively modern city (Shanghai) and realize the modernization transform of inlandurban scholars along the river. Therefore, their creation period is as long as30years. This group ofnovelists who have contributed works of tens of millions characters and thousands of novels have beena meaningful phenomena in the history of modern literature. The development and creation of thisnovelists group has its special value and significance. This article takes it as the research object, makesresearch of them as a group and would like to make some exploration in this aspect.The first half section and second half section in this article discuss the group and the individualrespectively. The first half section makes general description of the development and creation of Yangzhou novelists group; the second half section makes basic academic evaluation of the individualrepresentative among Yangzhou novelists which has not been well recognized by the academic world inthe method of discussing writers.Yangzhou novelists at the end of Qing Dynasty and the beginning of Min Dynasty realize themodernization transform from traditional scholars to professional writers, which is the commonoutcome of the ear context, regional culture and force of media along the river. The social and historicalcontext of abolishment of imperial examinations and the flourish of national revolution vibrate theiridentities and thoughts. The profound regional cultural resources provide materials for their creationunceasingly. The strong force of modern media along the river brings them to the literary world. Thedevelopment of Yangzhou novelists is not only called by the ear but also the activating of tradition inthe modern context. The activity space and path from being along the river to being costal inevitably getthem together in the offshore literary world. By the activities and creative practices of their ownjournalists in Shanghai, they have diversified and changed the pattern of the offshore literary world andbecame an important literary force which is distinguished from the writers group in Suzhou and otherareas.Yangzhou novelists group at the beginning of Min Dynasty stresses novels' functions of "savingthe nation and helping the world" while they also emphasize novels' function of "pleasing the mind".The birth place and traffic conditions determine that their visual field is within the cities along the river.The stories narrated by them are also from these areas. They integrate the elements of love, history andevilness and so on in the social novelist and makes important contribution to the development of thecategory of social novels. They pay attention to the urban social life along the river, record the situationof the Revolution of1911along the river, disclose the corrupted political field at the beginning of MinDynasty, criticize the warlord wild wars year after year, object despotic dictatorship, support democraticrepublicans and fully show the political preference of the democratic scholars. They also disclose thedanger of old family system, are against arranged or mercenary marriage and propose the modernmarriage based on love, which reflects the modernization of the consciousness in social life. As for theissue of the modernization of social life, they are neither the simply westernized nor just defend thetradition. Instead, they try to compromise the tradition with the modern, which is reflected in the novelsas the efforts of mediating the conflict between individual love and the family. They are often willing todescribe the coincidence of individual love and dictates of parents, which realizes their own wishfulthinking without abolishing the three cardinal guides and the five constant virtues while meetingmodern requirements in ethical perspective. In the aspect of building up the image of girl students, theyare both traditional and modern. The ideal females with both oriental virtues and modern individualityare the "models" of the females in their mind. As the scholars experiencing historical changes, erahistorical impact, they have deep experiences. Therefore, the diversity and complexity of the responsesto the social changes made by the scholars of different types at the beginning of Min Dynasty hassignificant thought and cultural meaning. It can also easily find that their tendency of humanism, asscholars, in the miserable stories of the females and labors at lower social class. The section of discussion of writers mainly discusses the six persons including Gong Shaoqin, LiBotong, Wang Zhongqi, Cheng Shanzhi, Bi Yihong and Zhang Biwu.The short or long novels of Gong Shaoqin focus on the current politics at the beginning of MinDynasty, which have strong patriotic and progress consciousness. The description of interfering sociallife by clear social political consciousness in the novels can be claimed as the representative of the earlyYangzhou writers; besides social novels, Gong Shaoqin also writes a large number of literary sketches.His literary sketches are famous for the memoirs which not only have the instantaneity and authenticityof news and are incisive and frank but also are humorous and funny. Literary sketches such a traditionalliterary type, achieve comparatively strong literariness in this hand and are well received among thereaders. Li Botong is good at poems at his early years. Li Hanqiu shows extreme admiration for him; LiBotong's novel Cong Ju Lei is guided and affected by Li Hanqiu in return. Li Botong's circumstancesfrom achieving reorganization of poems to being devoted to the creation of modern literary novels andfrom being respected by his pomes to learning to write novels from others verifies the modernizationtransform of Yangzhou scholars. The narrative time of Cong Jul Lei is from the end of Qing Dynasty to1926when national government was established, which reflects the situation of the inland during theperiod of warlord wild wars. The revolution and love in his novels both inherit and develop the patternof Li Hanqiu's social novel of Guang Lin Chao.Both Wang Zhongqi and Cheng Shanzhi have studied Confucian classics and they are deeplyimpressed with traditional culture. They are the writers with revolutionary tendency. The time of theirappearance in the literary world is short. They appear when revolution starts and die or withdraw afterthe revolution cools down. They have complicated relationship with revolutions, which reflects thecomplexity of the dispute between Yangzhou novelists group and the society of that era. The aims ofmost of their novels are saving the nation from subjugation and ensuring its survival. They activelyinterfere in social reality and promote the political idea of democratic publicans. They write novels inthe form of articles which has made contribution to Chinese modern and contemporary light literature.Cheng Shanzhi's short stories are in the leading position of the era both in the expansion of literary typeand in the exploration of form of short stories. Wang Zhongqi's novel theory not only borrows Westernmodern thought but also gets resources from the tradition, which tries to combine different ideas ofChina and the Western, strives for power of theoretic words for Chinese modern novel theory. Theirachievements and significance shall be evaluated carefully.Popular writers of "Yangzhou School" join Shanghai in an unique method, which can be taken as atypical case that inland writers go to the city and become modernized in the modernization process ofChina. Bi Yihong and Zhang Biwu are the outstanding representatives in this aspect. They have receivedmodern education and they are not as fond of scenery in hometown as their seniors. Instead, theyactively merge with Shanghai. Their experience of life in Shanghai has become the main theme andunlimited creative source of their creation of novels. In Shanghai such a big city with fierce competition,though they view writing just for a living and as hardship, they also make success by writing for a living.Depending on their pens for a living, they rank into the middle class in Shanghai. Such life experience is the sample of the life of new-generation Yangzhou novelists. Their novels do not discard entertainmentand relaxation. But they also pay more attention to "the fracture of life" and "afflictive families" of themiddle class. They do not give up the responsibilities of scholars, neither. They focus on the lower classwhich reflects their feelings of humanism. Their works show the styles of the public making a living.The meaning of benefiting mankind and awakening the public is also reflected in the description ofvarious forms of citizens' life.