Research On The Influence Of Li’s Comments On Mao’s Comments In The Romance Of The Three Kingdoms

“The Criticism of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms by Li Zhuowu” and “The First Kind of the Four Masterpieces”,which were revised by Mao’s father and son,are two extremely important and prominent commentaries in the evolution of the version of “The Romance of the Three Kingdoms”.They completed the tasks of text improvement,theoretical refinement,and canonization of “The Romance of the Three Kingdoms”in the Ming and Qing dynasties,respectively.In particular,the Mao Review version contributed immensely to the text finalization and criticism of “The Romance of the Three Kingdoms”.The two commentaries occupy a pivotal position in the history of Chinese novel commentaries and theories.The two commentaries not only reflect the acceptance of “The Romance of the Three Kingdoms” in the Ming and Qing dynasties,but also contain the spiritual outlook of social development.At the same time,they also represent the aesthetic tendencies and critical thoughts of literati at that time.It is worth mentioning that the two commentaries are not completely independent individuals,nor are they the kind of discordant and incompatible relationship described in Mao’s explanatory note.On the contrary,on the one hand,while criticizing the absurdity and impassability of Li’s version in Mao’s explanatory note,Mao’s version also absorbed a lot of essence from Li’s version,thus casting its own flesh and blood.It should be acknowledged that Li’s comments played a crucial role in Mao’s comments and deeply influenced the interpretation of his views.Its specific impact mainly includes three aspects:First,ideological tendencies.Firstly,most of the characters and events’ evaluation in Li’s comments takes “supporting Liu against Cao” as the basic position,while Mao’s comments actively absorbs this part of content,but also strengthens the “supporting Liu against Cao” color of his viewpoint;Secondly,in evaluating the excellent qualities of characters,the two evaluations reflect a high degree of aesthetic consistency.The praise and pursuit of loyalty,filial piety,benevolence and righteousness,both wisdom and courage,as well as the free and easy nature became an important emotional foundation for Mao’s comments to follow Li’s comments;Thirdly,in terms of understanding the details of specific events,Li’s comments often gave Mao’s comments profound inspiration.While inheriting these shining points,Mao’s comments also carried out an elegant and academic transformation of the comment language and content.Second,social criticism.Novel criticism has the characteristics of combining literary criticism with social criticism.This form of criticism leaves reviewers a vast space for social criticism,and they integrate their daily knowledge and feelings into their criticism work.The close birth time of Li and Mao’s versions determines the similar life experiences that the two reviewers have.In the criticism of the scholars and officialdom,reflection on family friendship,and admonition of the people of the world,many of Li’s views have aroused strong resonance with Mao’s comments.While accepting these views,Mao’s comments overcame Li ’s narrow concept of generalizing by one side,and expanded the social scope of criticism.Third,comment and analysis of art.In terms of characters’ criticism,one of the important enlightenments which Li’s comments gave Mao’s comments was comparative methods and the theory of environmental change.Although Mao Ping did not propose these concepts,the results of the review of the content of the two comments show that some of the characters’ comments’ concepts of Mao’s comments are derived from Li’s comments;In addition,in terms of narrative art and structural layout,Li’s comments also provided sufficient theoretical nutrients for Mao’s comments.Mao’s comments further deepened and theorized these critical highlights of Li’s comments.The term "influence" not only means that the pre text acts on the post text,but also illustrates the feedback and interpretation of the post text on the pre text.Therefore,the influence of Li’s comments on Mao’s comments is reflected in the process of Mao’s comments’ acceptance of Li’s comments.From the perspective of literary theory,there is an intertextual relationship between Li and Mao’s comments.The intertextual means of copying and misappropriating,rewriting and expanding,dialogue and refutation of Mao’s comments are just the intuitive reflection of its deep influence by Li’s comments.Therefore,we believe that Li’s comments has extraordinary enlightenment and significance in the development of “The Romance of the Three Kingdoms”,and its achievements should not be ignored and obliterated.