A Study On Humorous Classics Jue Lai Xiao Shi

Jue Lai Xiao Shi was published in 1841,the Daoguang period of the Qing Dynasty.The book included thirty-six classical Chinese Fiction which is written by the man from Bijie city,Guizhou province named Chen Geng.The author took the1844 Imperial Examination and gained the identity of First-degree Scholar,and been a teacher for long in Bijie Songshan Acadamy,so is an educator.His students,relatives and friends wrote six prefaces to this book.His student Shen Liujie’s postil was collected on the page header in the thread-bound Xiaobutang Edition.From the perspective of sophisticate Chinese classical literature,the author of the book does not strictly abide by a certain stylistic norm which is closely resembles Pu Songling and other fictionists of the Qing Dynasty in style,it means his fiction genre was diversified.Some of them are long,twisted and detailed,which are legendary;Some of them are short,brief,concise which can be regarded as note fictions.In the classification of Si Ku Quan Shu,Ji Yun divided the fictions into two parts:Jibu(literature)and Zibu(philosophy).Zibu is characterized by argumentation and simplicity,as Shanghai Library classified Jue Lai Xiao Shi in the fictionist note of Zibu,which is in line with the characteristics of most texts.Judging from the overall background of classical Chinese fictions in the Qing Dynasty,Jue Lai Xiao Shi was not an accident.The book was still influenced by tradition.The prosperity of classical Chinese fictions in the Qing Dynasty touched Guizhou Province and gave the writers some prevalent characteristics such as writing in the classical style,focusing on the relationship between the imperial examinations and the intellectuals,writing allegorically,euphemistically,and ironically to satire the world and praise his meliorism,all have shown that there are inseparable relationships between Jue Lai Xiao Shi and the tradition of classical Chinese fictions.However,this fiction still has its distinctive features and unique achievements.one of its speciality is that it has relatively diversified subjects,which travels between history and reality,dreams and fantasy.Chen Geng,as a feudal teacher in the late Qing Dynasty,has written in varied subjects.There are some works about imperial examinations and the intellectuals,use fables from ancient to implicate the present or works depicted the society of this remote provinces and then turn back to criticize reality,as well as the works of fantasy love of life and death,works of the author’s ambition,emotion and self-deprecation.In general,the subject of this book comes from the ancient and present,the vast land and the remote Guizhou,so its view and subjects are not confined in this remote province but overlooking the nation,thus made it reflects the broader time and social content.Moreover,his creative and ethical intention of saving the world from degradation based on Confucian ideas also runs through the whole book.Chen Geng clearly revealed the intention in the selections and treatment of its fiction themes.There are a large number of ethical and moral stories conveyed the Confucian ethical thoughts of "Wulun Bade"(Five ethical relationships and eight virtues in Chinese tradition),and benevolence,righteousness,manners,wisdom,and sincerity.In the love story between men and women,Jue Lai Xiao Shi showed its outlook on passion and human nature that emotion will converge to ration,just as the word "human nature is expressed through emotion,and the expression will cause the formation of human nature".In addition,the fiction and its intention also convey Chen Geng’s meliorism by contrast vice and virtue.It not only showed the ideal of " encourage the virtuous and oppose the sinful " as a Confucian,but also thought goodness and kindness as a man’s inner cultivation.As an educator,Chen Geng also conveyed his educational and learning thoughts in this book,mainly as a life-long teaching concept in the modern sense and criticized the ethos of encourage "Shallow knowledge ".Jue Lai Xiao Shi is also a fiction with independent creative spirit and has made relatively high artistic achievements.The imaginative author travels between history and reality,dreams and fantasy,and has created a series of geeks and legends,which is innovative,readable and aesthetic.The fiction’s humorous utterance hit right on itsname--Jue Lai Xiao Shi,which means funny history stories.This intelligent and all-embracing author has seen through society and humanity clearly and created many funny and ironic stories that not only bring entertainment to readers,but also the author’s thoughts on society and human nature,his understanding of morals,and his wisdom of life were all conveyed to readers.The theme of the fiction is diverse,so is artistic techniques.Shen Liujie’s postil suggested that there are more than 20 kinds of artistic techniques been used in it,and has made lots of commentary on its unique plot structure and depiction.The characterisation of Jue Lai Xiao Shi is full of variety,and in language expressions,it has unique and noteworthy features either.It cited a large number of poems,ballads and proverbs,attribute to the wide citation,readers can attain a lot of fun when seeing those familiar quotations,paraphrases,and allusions.These made the fiction elegant,profound,poetic,academic,and classic.Summarize evaluations of the predecessor,the writing is "elegant and aesthetic" but also powerful in expression as The Tso Chuan: Selections from China’s Oldest Narrative History’s author made,with the diction of "Buddhist and Chuang-tzu’s",then mingled his "oral dialect",at last to be “Perfect and free”.It can be seen that although Jue Lai Xiao Shi is in line with the classical Chinese fictional traditions in the Qing Dynasty,there were not only the imitations of classics such as Liao Zhai Zhi Yi,but also innovations.There are a small number of preaching stories,but the greatest advantage of it is its fictionality,and the defects cannot cover up the merits.It should have its honor in the Liao Zhai Zhi Yi alike spectral and supernatural fiction,satire fictions,or imperial examination fictions in the history of classical Chinese Fictions in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.