New Changes Of Chivalrous Novels In The Late Qing Dynasty And The Early Republic Of China

Chivalrous is a unique cultural symbol in China.In the history of chinese literature,the long-standing chivalrous culture has nurtured the unique chivalrous novels.Since the legend of Tang Dynasty,chivalrous novels have entered a mature period,and in the development,it presents a colorful creative state,till the chivalrous case-solving novels in late Qing Dynasty,chivalrous who have always been free and easy have been collected by the court,enter the mainstream political order,completed the identity transformation from the Jianghu man to the court man.From the opposition between chivalry and official,to the confluence of chivalry and officials,When chivalrous enter the officialdom and become the armed forces to maintain the orthodox ruling order,it also means that the traditional chivalrous literature has reached a point where it is necessary to find another way.During the Ming and Qing Dynasties,Chinese traditional martial arts entered a period of high prosperity,with a large number of martial arts monographs,a system of martial arts theories and the formation of martial arts schools.These changes provided many new elements for novelists’ creation.For example,because of the in-depth understanding of Wushu practice,novelists can describe the practice details in detail.Because of the progress of martial arts theory,there is a division between outside family and inside family.Because of the formation of martial arts schools,martial arts practitioners have the need to compete and the impulse to compete,and the factional feud begins.These have become the indispensable core elements of modern martial arts novels.In addition,the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China were the times of great social unrest and transformation in China.After the opium war,china’s history has undergone a major turn,great changes have not happened in three thousand years,have taken place in the literary creation in it.Especially the "novel revolution" triggered by the defeat of the Sino-Japanese War of 1894 and the Gengzi Incident,with the help of modern newspapers and periodicals platform,novel creation has experienced unprecedented prosperity.As an important type of novel,chivalrous novels are integrated with the new spirit of the times,the concept of martial arts and the content connotation,emerged many new variables and elements,show a completely different face from traditional creation,promote chivalrous novels into a new stage of development,also ready for the upcoming climax of martial arts creation in the Republic of China.In particular,the research object of this paper refers to the chivalrous novel creation in the 20 years from the "novel revolution" to the climax of martial arts in the Republic of China in 1923.For this stage of chivalrous novels,although scholars have already begun to pay attention to it,but the depth and breadth of excavation is always insufficient,even in many research works on the history of chivalrous novels,they have given relatively low evaluation.Until nearly ten years ago,special studies such as The Party Compilation of the "Chinese Modern Popular Literature History Martial Arts Association" and "The Theory of Chivalrous Novels in the Late Qing Dynasty and the Early Republic of China "began to appear,and realize its unique value of connecting the past with the future and transforming from tradition to modernity.This paper attempts to focus on the unique value of its transition from traditional chivalrous novels to modern martial arts,focus on the theme,image,theme,rivers and lakes and the influence of future generations,try to fully show its new changes relative to the tradition and its influence on later martial arts novels.The first chapter focuses on the analysis of the transformation from Jianghu to wushu/martial arts circles.Many new elements appeared in chivalrous novels in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China,such as learning skills,contests,sects,domestic skills,martial arts and so on.It is these elements that promote the transition from Jianghu to wushu/martial arts circles,therefore,martial arts circles grievances gradually replace chivalry and become the main content of chivalrous novels,it also makes it possible to compete for the narration of "martial arts circles supreme" and "martial arts circles leader" in the new martial arts novels of Hong Kong and Taiwan.The first section focuses on the analysis of the construction of martial arts circles in the novels of the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China from the perspectives of learning arts,contests and sects conflicts.For example,a detailed description of the process of learning art,the technical form of"competition for competition",and the construction and grievances of martial arts sects,etc.These are all new phenomena in this period,and they are also indispensable elements in the martial arts circles world.The second section focuses on the analysis of the new changes of martial arts and its historical significance.As the core element of martial arts novels,martial arts has undergone new changes in concepts,techniques,schools and other aspects in the creation of martial arts in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China.Among them,the emergence of domestic merit is the most influential factor,which makes the description of martial arts in chivalrous novels enter a new stage.However,there are still some misunderstandings about the study of domestic merit in chivalrous novels.This section tries to analyze its significance of change by combing its source evolution.If martial arts circles is the space for chivalrous men to survive and compete,and martial arts is the means of chivalrous men,then martial arts is the criterion for maintaining their communication.The third section focuses on the analysis of the cognition of martial arts in chivalrous novels and the cultivation of chivalrous men’s new morality and spirit in the special era of the conflict between the east and the west in the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China.The second chapter focuses on the new chivalrous theme types that appeared in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China.The first section focuses on the creation of novels about adventure in the open sea,which is a new novel theme influenced by western adventure novels such as Robinson Crusoe and Fifteen Little Heroes and combined with traditional chivalrous culture,although most of them are works of reference and imitation,they are not mature in art,but they still reflect distinct Chinese cultural characteristics and criticize western colonial thoughts,there is a fundamental difference between it and the imitation object-the western adventure novels with strong colonial thoughts,which is worthy of attention.The second section focuses on the creation of escort agency novels,which is one of the most common elements in the new martial arts.As the source of escort agency novels,at the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China,the novels with traditional escort agency industry as the main theme content have not been systematically studied so far.In the author’s opinion,the analysis of this theme type from the source is helpful for us to have a clearer understanding of its development context and the evolution of later generations.The third section focuses on the creation of underworld gang novels.The late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China were a period when the grass-roots gangs became popular,and also a period when the underworld gang martial arts theme was formed.On the basis of previous studies,this paper pays more attention to the evolution of novels of this theme type and the role of underworld gang elements in the construction of martial arts world,so as to better see the true state of its initial stage and the influence of later generations.In short,adventure,escort agency and secret society are novel themes that originated in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China and had a great influence on later martial arts.It is necessary to sort out and analyze their origins.The third chapter focuses on the concept of "chivalrous" in chivalrous novels in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China,and makes an overall analysis of the chivalrous image shaping under this concept.Traditional chivalrous men fight injustice and fight swords and chivalrous men mostly stay at the personal level,until after the late Qing Dynasty,under the double agitation of the invasion of foreign powers and the spread of the western tide to the east,modern nation-state consciousness began to awaken,patriotic salvation has become the main theme of the times,it also became the most prominent and vivid theme of chivalrous novels in this period,promote the transformation from "personal chivalry" to "national hero".The first section focuses on the analysis of the establishment of the concept of"chivalrous" in chivalrous novels in this period and its influence on novel creation,to see how "chivalrous" and "martial arts" with new era connotation are endowed with the mission of strengthening the country and the species.With this mission in mind,under the strong appeal of "be a hero instead of a little hero",shaping a "hero" for the country and the people naturally becomes the task of the times for the creation of chivalrous novels,resulting in a large number of patriotic chivalrous images.The second section focuses on three groups:ordinary civilians,martial arts masters and revolutionary youth,look at the patriotic spirit contained in it and the image presentation under the interweaving of new and old.The third section focuses on the "new woman" group,and looks at the awakening of women’s subjective consciousness,the plight of the times and the exploration for the future of this group,under the background of the call of the mission of saving the country and the rise of modern women’s rights.The fourth section analyzes the horse thief,a special refugee group.During the Russo-Japanese war,a number of novels with horse thieves as their creation objects were produced,they developed strong patriotism and nationalism when facing the invasion of foreign powers.They were portrayed as a patriotic hero against the invaders,and showed the awakening of patriotic consciousness of the bottom refugee group.The fourth chapter focuses on the analysis of new themes in chivalrous novels in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China.Under the theme of patriotism and national salvation,chivalrous novels in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China explored ways to save the country one after another,and new themes such as chivalrous patriotism,assassination to save the country and "reform"the powerful country appeared.The first section focuses on chivalrous man’s choice between love and patriotism,under the theme of patriotic analysis,the transformation of "love" from the gender perspective to the level of home and country,and the phenomena of alienation and vulgarization.Section second is theTheme of saving the nation by assassination,analyze the background and psychological factors of the so-called "assassination era",different from the essence of traditional chivalrous assassination,and the research value of this creative theme.The third section focuses on many explorations and descriptions of transforming China in chivalrous novels,look at his attempt and reflection in the Utopian narrative trend at that time.The last part of the conclusion focuses on the later influence and form innovation of chivalrous novels in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China.First of all,starting with the concept,we can see how the patriotic concept,the martial morality concept and the complex and tangled love concept influence the creation of later generations.Secondly,from a historical point of view,starting from novel historical materials of the novel material,plot,prototype and motif,reading chivalrous novels in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China,how to lay the foundation for the creation of martial arts in the Republic of China and new martial arts in Hong Kong and Taiwan.Thirdly,focusing on the innovation of narrative forms,we can see the exploration and application of new narrative forms in chivalrous novels in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China,and how chivalrous novels,as representatives of popular literature,apply new narrative means to strengthen plot patterns.Such efforts have been further carried forward in the new martial arts novels represented by Jin Yong and Gu Long.In general,in the twenty years from the revolution of fiction to the opening of modern martial arts creation,although the overall creation quality of chivalrous novels is not high,and there are few excellent works to be praised,significant changes are taking place in almost all aspects,such as chivalrous spirit,concept,theme type,rivers and lakes world,martial arts,martial arts morality,etc.,which not only stepped out of the first step of modern Chinese martial arts novels,but also made preparations for the upcoming climax of martial arts creation.