On The Narrative Techniques Applied In Historical Novels Of Ming And Qing Dynasties

Historical novels, which are considered as the novel style that first appeared in chapter books of Ming and Qing Dynasties, are characteristic of outstanding narrative techniques. The paper will expound on the narrative techniques employed in historical novels from three aspects, namely, narrative time, perspective and structure.For the narrative time of historical novels, there are three different types in timing sequence:sequential narration, flash-forward, and flashback. Sequential narration is firstly founded on the perspective of macro-history and in the next place, it is obviously embodied in time cataloguing and arranging and counting the years for the story timeline. Flash-forward is categorized into two kinds, namely, outer and inner. The former is usually used at the end and the latter involves oneiromancy, astrology, aeromancy, divination, physiognomy and the like. Flashback falls into first-person narration and second person narration. As for the rhythm, Ming-Qing historical novels contain fast, slow and pausing patterns. The fast pattern is often found at the beginning and end of the novel; the slow pattern is used in the depiction of fighting scenes, digressive and fictional parts; the pausing pattern is utilized in formula language, historical documents, descriptive contents and critical words.Generally speaking, the narrative perspective of historical novels mainly resorts to editing omniscient perspective. The narrator, who is the combination of intellectuals, storytellers and historiographers, takes on the fun from the intellectuals, folk characters, and styles of historical biography. The narrative voice belongs to the public voice which is mainly the voice of storytellers and historiographers. Several narrative lines constructing the entire historical scene, the narrative focus switches much quicker than that of other novel types. Locally, the historical novels also employ limited angle of view, which is mainly shown in the following aspects:the auditory and visual description, the narration of the concrete implementing of tactics, and the description of the characters’ innermost feelings.The narrative structure of historical novels is classified into skill of structure and Tao of structure. For skill of structure, macroscopically the compilers of Ming-Qing historical novels take advantage of skills of chronologization, biography, and chronicle ins and outs; microscopically they use skills of inquiries, foreshadowing, and correlation. For Tao of structure, the surface structure of historical novels is monolithic structure while the deep structure belongs to composite construction. From the perspective of ideology and cultural intention, Ming-Qing historical novels commonly apply the historically and morally united structure of official history. However, the excellent ones, such as Romance of the Three Kingdoms, also take historically criticizing structure besides official-history structure. From the perspective of folklore, historical novels take over the motif of the struggle between the loyal and the treacherous, swom heroes, the omen of the hero’s born. From the perspective of mythology, historical novels include prototypes of characters, symbols and spirits.