"historical Records" Research, The Narrative Impact Of The Four Famous

Historical books and novels both are narrative works. Due to their equally important position respectively in the historical field and the field of ancient Chinese classic novels,Historical records and The Four Famous Chinese Classics are taken as examples to explore the influence of the traditional historiography upon the formation of the Zhanghui Novels represented by the Four Famous Chinese Classics.From the perspective of overall narration, the biographical structure in Historical Records is similar to the traditional Chinese game_Nine Linked Rings, which is composed of three parts:a set formed by a ring and a post which attached to the former on one side, a transom and a platband. Time and plot are just like the transom and platband, which attached to the set of the ring and the post. In Historical Records, the chronological chapters and ten tables are just like the transom and platband:one focuses on plot and the other on time. Characters and things (books) are just the small rings in it. Historical Records is an organic unit, with each chapter as a part of the whole while keeping its independent artistic structure, like a ring in Nine Linked Rings, which is linked to the other rings nearby, the transom and platband. The biographical structure in Historical Records has an apparent effect upon the structure of The Four Famous Chinese Classics, which is quite similar to the structure of the Nine Linked Rings. Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Water Margin entirely borrow the structure of the Historical Records, while Journey to the West artistically transforms it and A Dream of Red Mansion partially borrows it.The narrative concept in Historical Records is classification based on types and the classification of Historical Records is highly stratified. The Overall classification of Historical Records into annals, genealogies and biographies is base on types and characters are classified into emperors, dukes and officials based on their social status. Moreover, the same concept is followed in the link between different chapters or within the same chapter. This concept exerts great influence upon the latter novel writing, which combines commonality with individuality and creates a lot of vivid characters. However,the classification in Historical Records is mainly based on characters, though some chronological chapters in annals and genealogies are based on the events, which are, in fact, rough chronologies of significant events and not so eventful. In The Four Famous Chinese Classics, in spite of the characterization, the scene, the plot and even the narrative mode are classified based on types. The narrative concept in Historical Records, which is to classify based on types but not in total sameness, greatly influences the writing of The Four Famous Chinese Classics.The cross-reference in Historical Records, on the one hand, highlights the major characteristics of the characters in biographies, which put emphasis on the unity of the characters and all events serve for this unity to mould a typical character. This method affects the characterization in Romance of the Three Kingdoms. On the other hand, a person's character is profound and complicated, so the aspects, inappropriate to be written in this person's biography, are described in others', thus, throughout the book, the characterization is complete and real, and this method influences the characterization in Dream of the Red Mansion, in which the characterization of a character is never completed in one chapter, instead, it is made well-developed, vivid and reliable through cross-reference in other chapters.Nine-Linked-Rings are narrative structure. Classification based on types is narrative thinking. Cross-reference is narrative method. From the above we can see the historiography mass effects on the Zhanghui novels quite far.From the perspective of specific narrative methods, Dreams, prophecies, The Phenomenon of odd birth and anthroposophy, in addition to their function of flash-forward, are involved in the narration and become an inseparable part of the narration, developing the narration and helping the characterization. In those aspects, The Four Famous Chinese Classics also inherits from the Historical Records. Especially, the method of flash-forward is a unique narrative mode shown in traditional Chinese novels represented by The Four Famous Chinese Classics, This type of narration can manipulate the plot development and predict the direction of the plot by summarizing the whole plot and highlight the clues in the narration, thus maintains a hidden sequence, cross-reference and a complete structure in which the ending is correlated with its beginning. Moreover, the flash-forward, typified by dreams, prophecies and odd birth and anthroposophy (of course, there are more than the listed four aspects, such as divination etc.),is not explicitly pointed out,Instead, it takes on an implicit style. The formation of this type of narration is inextricably tied to the historical books represented by Historical Records.Therefore, the Zhanghui Novels represented by the Four Famous Chinese Classics, under the Nine- Linked -Rings structure, with its unique national features, such as grand setting, numerous characters, classification based on types, writing biographies for the characters by focusing on their major characteristics, as well as the unique narrative method of flash-forward and the quality of true record, that is the spirit of calling a spade a spade, are quite different from any western novel. Its formation has a profound connection with the traditional historiography represented by Historical Records.