The Development of China's Classical Novels in Ming and Qing Dynasties

To find out how many Tang legends spread to the Ming and Qing Dynasties, we must first find out what legends are, that is, make a relatively accurate definition of the genre of Tang legends. Mr. Zhou Lengjia said: "Although all stories have dates, most of them are fictional and fictional" [2]. Only those who meet these two conditions are truly legendary novels. According to this standard, even works like "Biography of Mao Ying" by Han Yu should be included in tang legends's novels. How many legends existed in the Tang Dynasty is unknown. So far, few people pay attention to how much it has been handed down. According to the author's incomplete statistics, the Ming and Qing Dynasties

There are as many as 200 kinds of classical novels in China, about one third of which include all or part of Tang legends, plus some other series and books, and the number of Tang legends circulating here is considerable. Take this collection of classical Chinese novels as an example, try to make an analysis and discussion.

(A) the basic overview of tang legends's novels

According to the investigation of relevant data, there are more than 100 pieces of Tang legends, most of which are famous. There are about 50 kinds handed down in the form of collections (all lost by later generations), including Legend by Pei, Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio by Chen Han, Notes by Liang Sigong, Notes by Li Mei and Notes by Zhong Kui. The remaining episodes are legends and anecdotes, and the number of articles collected varies, more or less, dozens or even dozens. Such as Niu Su's Moon Hee, Dave's Guang Yi Collection, Zhang Jian's Ghost Collection, Shao Chen's Tong, Niu Sengren's Mystery Record, Li Fuyan's Continued Mystery Record, Li Deyu's Mystery Record, Zhao Lu's Yi Shi, Xue Yusi and Zhang Du's Hedong Collection. Among the works included in the above anthology, there are not less than 100 legendary novels besides the original single circulating and recurring titles of the same name. From this point of view, the number of Tang legends circulating at that time was about 200.

(2) An overview of selected Tang legends in Ming and Qing Dynasties.

There are more than 65,438+000 classical Chinese novels in Ming Dynasty, more than half of which are included in tang legends's novels in whole or in part. The above-mentioned single articles and various forms of communication in the Tang Dynasty were almost all collected during this period, but the specific articles collected far exceeded the number circulated in the Tang Dynasty. This issue contains a large number of Tang legends, including Lu Ju's Talking about the Sea in Ancient and Modern Times. There are 65 legendary stories about the sea in ancient and modern times. In the Song Dynasty, 62 kinds of works are legendary novels of the Tang and Five Dynasties, and most of them are widely circulated chapters. Such as Biography of Wu Baoan, Biography of Kunlun Slave, Biography of Zheng Deyu, Biography of Li Zhangwu, Biography of Zhao Hechuan and Biography of Nie Yinniang are well known. Secondly, it should be counted as "Three Stories of Carving" (actually "Seven Stories") by Hua Bing, which contains 55 kinds of legendary novels, most of which are rare in other books of the same period, expanding the number of legends circulating in the Tang Dynasty. For example, Han Yu's Legend of Road flyover Chivalrous Man, Xu Tang's Legend of Chivalrous Man, Lu Guimeng's Biography of Three Aliens, Du Guangting's Biography of Vendors, li yanshou's Biography of Mad Slaves, Sun Li's Biography of Goddess, Wang Jia's Biography of Li Wa, Niu Xiji's Biography of Demons and Duan's Biography of Nightfork. Wang Yuncheng's "The Story of Wonder" is divided into 93 novels, including 54 legends of the Tang Dynasty, which is second only to "Three Stories of Qi Diao", but all the works are familiar and can be seen in other collections.

However, Lu's Biography of Yu Chu is different. Although there are only 29 collections (single articles), they are all works of the Tang and Five Dynasties, and most of them are famous articles, such as Away from the Soul, Biography of Campus, Biography of Liu Yi, Biography of Red Line, Biography of Long Hate, and Journey to Qinzhou. In addition, there are two collections of novels (namely, The Collection of Continued Harmony and The Collection of Different Stories), among which there are also several legends. It can be seen that the compilation and selection of Yu Chuzhi has achieved good communication effect in enhancing the literary status and popularity of Tang legends, thus expanding the influence of Tang legends at that time and later generations.

Other famous legendary works in the Tang Dynasty include Wang Shizhen's Biography of the legendary swordsman, Deng's The Beginning of Guangyu, and the anonymous Orange of Hawthorn Tree (according to the publishing house, it seems that it was compiled by Koreans). According to ancient and modern anecdotes, the legend of swordsman includes old ape-man, Fu Zhu, Jiaxing rope skill, woman in the car, monk, shopkeeper in Jingxi, old man in Lanling, Nie Yinniang, Jing Shisanniang, Red Line, Kunlun slave and so on. Wenyuan Hawthorn Tree Love contains articles such as Campus Guest, Red Line, Kunlun Slave, Advocating Daughter Country, Cui Yingying, Zhao Yanfei, Pei Chen, Wei Baosheng and Liu Yi. Apart from The Legend of the Wolf in Sun Yat-sen, the early Guang Yu Ji was mostly a legendary masterpiece in the Tang Dynasty.

In addition to collecting famous books, there are also some that are circulated according to special topics, among which Mei Dingzuo's "The Story of the Green Mud Lotus" is the representative. This episode is dedicated to telling the legendary stories of female artists with low status in the whole department, such as Li Wa Chuan, Chuan, Taiyuan prostitute, Zhang Jianfeng's concubine, Yang Chongchuan, Duan Dongmei, singer's wife, dancing with women, Changzhou musical prostitute, Wu Erniang and Xue Tao.

The large-scale collection of novels in this period also includes novels of the Five Dynasties, novels of the Tang Dynasty and hundreds of novels of the Tang Dynasty. Except for a few different titles, most of the titles included in the two books are basically the same. However, there is a phenomenon worthy of attention, that is, the title of the book is clearly marked "Novels of the Tang Dynasty", but the book contains legendary works of the Song Dynasty, such as Lost Tower, Seamount, Talk, Biography of Yang Taizhen, Biography of Mei Fei, etc., which are recognized by future generations, but the Grand View Edition lacks a biography of Yang Taizhen. This phenomenon directly influenced the series, stories and six novels of the Tang Dynasty in the Qing Dynasty, because they also included the above-mentioned masterpieces of the Song Dynasty.

Other collections of classical Chinese novels in Ming Dynasty, such as Feng Menglong's Tai Ping Guang Ji Chao, Zi Haozi's Deng Jiancong Hua, Wang Shizhen's Yan Yi Bian, The Legend of Swordsman, Zou's Biography of Woman, Lu Shusheng's Gong Yan, Gu's Reading Novel, Forty Novels and Huang Luzeng's Three Biographies of Han and Tang Dynasties.

The publishing industry in Qing dynasty was still very developed, and a large number of classical Chinese novels were selected and published. However, the specific situation of the collected works is obviously different from that of the Ming Dynasty. For example, most of them are notes or note novels, and even some of them are specially selected legendary novels, most of which belong to contemporary works, such as Juck Zhang's New Notes on Songs of the South. There are only a few collections of Tang legendary novels selected in this issue, such as Tang Renshuohui and Tang Series. None of them are Chao, novel Changguan and Minister, among which Tang Renshuohui and Tang Series are the largest. However, the relationship between Tang people's stories and Tang series, like the two collections of novels in the Five Dynasties, is basically the same except for a few different titles. The anthology is as arrogant as the two novels of the Five Dynasties, and it is also true that the legendary works of the Song Dynasty were mistakenly accepted as masterpieces of the Tang Dynasty.

Secondly, some problems about the spread of Tang legendary texts in Ming and Qing Dynasties.

First, the era of some works. As mentioned above, the titles of the novels of the Five Dynasties of the Tang Dynasty, Hundreds of Novels of the Tang Dynasty, Novels of the Five Dynasties of the Tang Dynasty, Series of the Tang Dynasty and Six Novels of the Tang Kaiyuan are clearly marked as "Novels of the Tang Dynasty", and they have included the legendary masterpieces of the Song Dynasty recognized by later generations. Of course, for example, Lost Tower, Talking about the River and Seamount were all written by Han Wo [Tang], while Biography of Yang Taizhen was written by Yue Shi [Song] and Biography of Mei Fei was written by Tang [Tang] (but now Lu Xun's title is [Song]). This is almost a difficult case to solve, but the biography of Yang Taizhen, as a work of the Song Dynasty, is no problem. This obvious contradiction or mistake is not difficult to find as long as you pay attention. However, it is difficult to find the same problem in some selected books that do not play the "Tang Dynasty" signboard. Such as Gu's novel Gu Zhixue, his 40 novels and the Qing Dynasty's All-Must-Be-Money. It is understandable that they selected the works of Song people as a collection of contemporary works. The problem lies in their arrangement position. Judging from the works listed before and after, their contents are arranged in chronological order, but these novels of the Song Dynasty are actually mixed in the works of the Tang Dynasty. It can be inferred from this that the editors of these collections, no matter under the signboard of "Tang people", choose the age or the generation, all mistake these famous Song legends for Tang legendary novels and include them.

What do you think of these collections of famous Song novels mixed with Tang legends? Is it really a mistake or another reason? This is also worth thinking about and thinking deeply. I think there are two understandings about the title of "novels of Tang Dynasty". One is that all the authors are from the Tang Dynasty, and the other is that the characters in specific works are from the Tang Dynasty. If the second understanding conforms to the editor's original intention, there will be new problems, because not all the characters in the story belong to the Tang Dynasty, but Zhao belongs to the Han Dynasty. Otherwise, the so-called works of Song people need to be re-identified, because it is not known whether the author or the book came from the Tang Dynasty. However, there is no doubt that Mei Fei and Yang Guifei came from the Tang Dynasty and were influential figures (concubines of the Tang Dynasty). The editor intentionally or unintentionally mixed it into it, which objectively expanded the influence of Tang legends.

Second, the number of Tang legends circulated in Ming and Qing Dynasties exceeded that in Tang Dynasty. Through the comparative study of relevant bibliographies and specific chapters, it is found that the contents of Tang legends circulated in Ming and Qing Dynasties actually exceeded the number circulated in Tang Dynasty. There are many reasons for this. For example, some of the titles mentioned above are rare in other books, and some titles belong to more than one title, especially those unfamiliar to people. One more title often makes people feel that there are many articles. For example, Han Yu's Biography of the Strange Taoist priest has a name in Three Records of Heke, while in other books, there are Biography of Xuanyuan Secret, Preface of Shi Dinglian and Cuifen. There are many such cases, such as Biography of Li Zhangwu and Jasper's Fog Leaves, Biography of Wu Baoan, Biography of Strange Man, Narration of Fairy Solution and Fairy Solution in Smoke, Records of Fireworks in the South, Records of Daye, Records of Sui Dynasty, etc.

In addition to the increase in the number of articles caused by many articles, the titles of many similar stories have also caused an increase in the number of articles in the sense. In other words, for example, the editors in the Ming and Qing Dynasties selected a certain kind of works by a writer in the Tang Dynasty, or reprinted a certain kind of works in the Collected Works of the Tang Dynasty and summarized them with a new title. Its name looks like the name of an article, but it is actually a name, that is, the name of a cluster. For example, The Legend of Ghosts was written by [Tang], with a total of five articles, all of which are strange ghost stories. The Biography of Lei Min was written by Shen Jiji [Tang], with a total of six articles, all of which were thunder events. "Phantom Biography" was written by Xue [Tang], with a total of 8 articles, all of which are Taoist stories. There are five articles written by the department of selling ghosts [Tang]. The first article is Zong's Selling Ghosts. Biography of Immortals is a collection of hermits collected by Emperor Tai Shang [Tang Dynasty], with four articles, all of which are immortal officials. Biography of Heroes was written by Tao Yong [Tang Dynasty], with a total of four articles, all of which were heroic deeds of the Tang Dynasty. The Biography of the Vendors was written by Du Guangting [Tang], consisting of three articles, all of which were about vendor affairs. There are dozens of such stories, such as Biography of Corpse, Biography of Demon Witch, Biography of Crazy Slave, Biography of Different Monks, Biography of Goddess, Biography of Hag and Biography of Demon.

The same title or topic refers to different authors in different times, which is also the reason for the increase of articles. For example, a story, a story, a story, a story, a story, a story, a story, a story, a story, a story, a story, a story, a story, a story, a story, a story, a ghost story, a story. Today, Shi Mei's Ghost Story is It is obvious that the recompilations of Shuo Ba and He Ke San Zhi were all taken from Shu Mei, but they were wrongly written to supplement ancient books. Another example is The Legend of the Swordsman, and The Catalogue of Sikuquanshu contains two volumes, with the old name of the Tang Dynasty and no name. Three Records of He Ke, Re-editing and Interpretation of the cymbals, Novels of the Five Dynasties, Interpretation of Hui by Tang People, Secretary Rowen, etc. It's all written in paragraphs. There are four volumes on this topic written by Wang Shizhen. According to Yu Jiaxi's textual research, the four volumes are Wang Shizhen's collected works, with a total of 33 articles, including 20 Taiping Guangji and 4 Duan Youyang Zayu. There is also a biography of Sun Yat-sen's Wolf, which was written by Yao He [Tang] (see Three Stories of Qi Carving) and Xie Liang [Song] (see Novels of the Five Dynasties), while The Story of the Ancient and Modern Seas was written by Ma Ming, because the fifth volume of the Anthology contains the biography of Sun Yat-sen's Wolf. There are many such things, so I won't list them one by one.

Third, some famous articles were not valued by many editors at that time. This paper takes the collection of novels in Ming Dynasty, such as Yu Chu Zhi, Tai Ping Guang Ji Chao, Gu Shi's Novels, Forty Chapters, Novels of the Five Dynasties, Yi Shi Souqi, Biography of the Chivalrous Man, Ancient and Modern Seas, Three Stories of He Ke and The Story of Ni utpala, as examples, and makes a comparative analysis of their information. As mentioned above, some famous novels compiled by the Tang, Ming and Qing Dynasties are not only circulated in a single part, but also in many selected books, showing the compilation characteristics of mutual understanding and complementarity. In the above 1 1 collection, you can find more than one article in eight collections. For example, Biography of University Guests, Notes in Taiping Guangji, Gu Fang's Novels, Forty Articles, A Grand View of Novels of the Five Dynasties, Novels of the Five Dynasties, Stories of Yi Shi's Search for Curiosity, and Biography of Swordsman. Another example is Biography of the Red Line, which is also found in Jade at the Beginning, Tai Ping Guang Ji Chao, A Grand View of Novels of the Five Dynasties, Novels of the Five Dynasties and Biography of Swordsman. There are biographies, travel notes, ghost stories in Guangling, the biography of Mrs. Wei in Nanyue, the biography of Wu Shuang, the biography of Dongcheng Father, the biography of Li Wa, the biography of Gao Lishi, the biography of Ghost Record, the biography of Ren, the biography of Yingying, the biography of Zhao Hechuan and the biography of Liu Shenjun. However, some other well-known works today were ignored by the editors at that time, such as The Story of Pillow, The Story of Conan, The Story of Ancient Mirror, The Biography of Yang Prostitute, The Biography of Li Zhangwu, etc., which were only included in two selected books. In addition, there are some famous works, such as The Story of Flying Smoke, The Story of Dongyang Nightmare, The Story of Song Yue Marrying a Wife, The Story of Cui Shaoxuan, The Story of Jiang Chen, The Story of Xie Xiaoe, The Story of Eternal Sorrow, The Story of Wei 'an Daoism, Away from the Soul and so on. These are only included in Chu Zhi. Only Tai Ping Guang Ji Chao can be found in Lancaihe, Lujiang Fengwei and Peiling. Old News of Liu's Family and Zhuo Yi Collection can only be found in the novels of Ancient Study. Liu Binke's story collection only looks at Jiong Yuan's forty novels; Only Wang Shizhen's Biography of the Old Ape Swordsman, Jiaxing Rope Skill, Woman in Car, Monk, Jingxi Shopkeeper, Lanling Old Man and Jingshi Sanniang. Biography of Zheng Deyu, Biography of Cui Wei, Biography of Ling Ying, Biography of Luoshen, Sleepwalking Record, Biography of Luoshen in Liaoyang, Biography of Wei Zidong, Biography of Ephemera, Biography of Banqiao, Biography of Yuhu, Biography of Yao Chuan and Biography of Li.

Judging from the neglected articles, it is basically a single circulated work; Except for Xie Xiaoe's Biography, Zheng Deyu's Biography, Sleeping in a Pillow, Conan's Biography, Gu Jing's Biography, Away from Soul, Long Hate, Yang Prostitute's Biography, Li Zhangwu's Biography and Dongyang Nightmare, the rest are basically second-rate works. Based on this situation, many editors in this issue no longer choose, or avoid duplication, or become fashionable, or omit unknown. Influential articles such as Xie Xiaoe's Biography, Zheng Deyu's Biography, Sleeping in a Pillow and Conan's Biography are probably not included, which is probably due to the literati's preference for fashion, and the possibility of omission cannot be ruled out, because influential works such as Nie Yinniang's Biography and Kunlun Slave Biography, which were widely circulated in the Ming Dynasty, were also neglected in the Qing Dynasty.

Third, the social background and cultural significance of the spread of Tang legendary texts in Ming and Qing Dynasties.

The Chinese nation is a nation with a long history, ancient civilization and rich cultural heritage. In such a country with excellent national cultural heritage, kings of past dynasties attached great importance to the protection and excavation of cultural heritage, such as the Four Classics compiled in the Song Dynasty, the Yongle Grand Ceremony compiled in the Ming Dynasty and the Sikuquanshu compiled in the Qing Dynasty. As a part of cultural heritage, Tang legends can be widely spread in Ming and Qing Dynasties, mainly due to the economic development and the progress of printing technology in Song Dynasty and the attention paid by Song people to literary heritage. Among the "Four Great Books" compiled in the Song Dynasty, Taiping Guangji is a large book compiled by Li Yun and others. It collected and sorted out the novels before and after the Tang Dynasty, which preserved them to a great extent. Most of the novels in the Tang Dynasty that we see now are compiled by Guangji. In addition to Guang Ji, there are Yao Zeng's Lei Shuo and Zhu Shengfei's Zhu Ji Ji. Many tang legends novels are also selected from these two books, and some can supplement Guang Ji. However, these two books have been greatly abridged, so it is difficult to see the whole picture, and the quotations are not noted, which objectively reduces their literature value, brings a lot of trouble to later researchers, and also lays the seeds of forgery for the Ming Dynasty. However, their contribution to the preservation of the excellent cultural heritage of the Chinese nation is undeniable.

In the Ming Dynasty, especially during the Yongle period, in order to win over intellectuals and dispel their nostalgia for Emperor Jianwen, the emperor not only imitated the Song Dynasty, but also ordered Jie Jin and others to revise the Yongle Dadian, wrote a book on county records in the sixteenth year, and sent officials to visit counties to collect stories and old records. Under such a big cultural background, the book engraving industry in Ming Dynasty was very developed. The Neifu, North and South imperial academy, and the Ministry of Education all carved books, and local officials also devoted themselves to carving books because of their good names. In the Qing Dynasty, Wang Shizhen's "Ju Louis" said: "In the Ming Dynasty, I made a suggestion, toured salt tea, studied politics, worked as a minister and bought books. It is also rare today. " They also regard book carving as a gift, calling it "book handkerchief", which is extremely prosperous in Jiajing and Wanli; Moreover, books in the Ming Dynasty can be privately engraved, and there is no step-by-step review procedure in the Yuan Dynasty. As long as you have money, you can publish and engrave at will, and the engraving salary is low and paper and ink are easy to get, so engraving and publishing has become a fashion. Coupled with the economic prosperity of the Ming Dynasty, a large number of new citizens appeared, and they had great demand for books and periodicals for entertainment. At that time, there was a folk proverb circulating in the society, "It is better to sell classics than novels, and it is better to sell novels than classics". Booksellers saw that carving novels was profitable, so they carved a lot of novels, and some of them were engraved repeatedly, as many as dozens of editions, so the atmosphere of making novels in Ming Dynasty was particularly prosperous.

The Qing Dynasty was ruled by Manchu. Although literature is strictly prohibited, culture still flourishes and literature still flourishes. This is mainly due to the fact that his ancestors studied ancient prose and right prose, and the sage was particularly clever and rich in writings, which was enough to inspire Confucianism, trust Han people and reuse Han Confucian ministers. In the year of Bingwu, Kangxi opened the subject of erudition and macro-speech, and recruited talents from all over the world. However, although scholars Sun Qifeng and Gu lived in seclusion in the mountains, they resumed their diligence in writing and set an example for future generations to learn. In addition, a special secret room was set up to search for rare books all over the world, and seven pavilions were built to store them, Jiahui Stone Forest. Ji Yun and others were ordered to compile Sikuquanshu, which imitated the compilation of large-scale ancient books in the Song and Ming Dynasties, so in 268 of the Qing Dynasty, "once literature flourished, it could follow the example of the Song and Tang Dynasties and trace back to the Han Dynasty" [4], which shows that literature in this period is unprecedented. Under such a big cultural background, it is natural to select a large number of novels and books.

However, as we all know, novels, as a kind of literature, reached the peak of vernacular Chinese in Ming and Qing Dynasties, and storytelling and Zhang Hui's novels also flourished and became the mainstream of literature. As a classical novel of China, The Legend of the Tang Dynasty has become a historical relic. Compared with the vulgarity of popular vernacular novels in Ming and Qing Dynasties, the legends of Tang Dynasty can be regarded as "appealing to both refined and popular tastes", and their words are euphemistic and elegant, which is the representative of refined and popular novels. However, in the Ming and Qing dynasties, when novels were still "vulgar", why did the legendary texts of Tang get such rumors? I'm afraid the answer is not just to preserve the heritage. In this regard, the author believes that there may be other purposes besides preserving cultural heritage. Because as an excellent cultural heritage, Tang legends can only reflect their value if they continue to play a role in later generations; Otherwise, it can only be a pile of garbage.

(A) the popular spirit of the times

The breath of life in the social era is the big environment and climate in which literature and art can flourish. Historically, Emperor Wu of the Qin Dynasty and Song Zuli of Tang Zong have built a foundation for thousands of years, casting the glory of China history; Especially in the Tang Dynasty, its social development, economic prosperity, national harmony and the high-spirited prosperity of the whole country attracted people's attention and yearning. On the other hand, the literati of past dynasties cast great words of escape, sang songs of peace in prosperous times, and left many immortal chapters; The fertile soil of the prosperous Tang Dynasty gave birth to the magnificent and colorful culture of the prosperous Tang Dynasty, especially the poems of the prosperous Tang Dynasty, which were praised by all previous dynasties. The legend of the Tang Dynasty, which can be compared with the mainstream poetry in the prosperous Tang Dynasty and is called "a generation of strange people", is also appreciated by future generations like Tang poetry. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the continuous development of society, the sustained prosperity of economy and the further integration of nationalities required a humanistic environment and social atmosphere like that in the prosperous Tang Dynasty. However, the extensive selection, reproduction and dissemination of the legends of the Tang Dynasty by government and non-governmental anthologists and publishers deeply implies their beautiful motives of yearning for the prosperous Tang Dynasty, admiring sages, boosting morale and inspiring people to create miracles. At the same time, it is the thought of the supreme ruler to catch up with Han and Tang Dynasties and flaunt the prosperity of Han and Tang Dynasties.

(B) the integration of different genres of novels

In any society, at any time, its literature can not be a single development, but should be a hundred flowers blooming and birds singing together. The history of China's literary development tells us that various literary styles influence, penetrate, promote and develop together. Although vernacular novels dominated in Ming and Qing dynasties, they did not exclude the continued creation of classical Chinese novels. In fact, in the case of the extraordinary prosperity of vernacular novels in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, classical Chinese novels also kept advancing, and reached the peak of creation in the Qing Dynasty, that is, masterpieces such as Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio and Yuewei Caotang Notes were produced. China's ancient novels, both classical and vernacular, reached their peak in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, which is also due to the mutual reference of various literatures, especially the reference of Tang legends. For example, in Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio, not only the themes of many stories are directly drawn from the legends of the Tang Dynasty, but also many specific chapters are "strange in legendary ways". This is only the inheritance and reference between classical Chinese novels; In fact, storytelling and Zhang Hui's novels also absorbed the nutrition of Tang legends, especially Zhang Hui's novels with historical themes, whose structural characteristics, description means of replacing scenery with poems and the characteristics of interspersed discussion in the text all borrowed from the writing methods of Tang legends; Even the great romantic masterpiece A Dream of Red Mansions is often summarized as "historical talents, historical writing and historical discussion". It can be seen that the novel creation has reached the aesthetic realm of alternating literature and white, appealing to both refined and popular tastes, and realized the great integration of literature itself. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, official and folk anthologists and publishers extensively selected and recorded Tang legends, which were widely circulated because "documents have various styles, showing historical talents, historical pens and discussions", which greatly promoted the mutual penetration, mutual integration and common development of documents with different themes and styles.

To sum up, the legends of the Tang Dynasty can be widely circulated in later generations, which has greatly promoted the enrichment and improvement of literature, especially novel art. In addition to its unique literary value and cultural significance, it also benefited from the selection, printing and publication of three pronouns and public and private publishers in Song, Ming and Qing Dynasties. Legendary novels have been circulated to the greatest extent because of their extensive selection of materials and repeated publication. No matter what their purpose is, although they are not rigorous or even fraudulent in the selection process, their actions objectively preserve the excellent literary heritage and spread the essence of Chinese culture. The Tang Dynasty has an important position in the history of China, and its prosperous weather has great attraction for later generations. In the eyes of foreigners, "Tang" is synonymous with China and the Chinese nation. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, a large number of Tang legends were selected, engraved and widely circulated, which not only contributed to the culture of the Tang Dynasty, but also contributed to the culture of China.

Precautions:

[1] The so-called Tang Legend in this article actually includes the works of the Five Dynasties.

[2] The Legend of Pei Yi, edited by Zhou Lengjia, Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, 1980, p. 9- 10.

[3] Xue Hongji's History of Legendary Novels',' China Novel History Series', Zhejiang Ancient Books Publishing House, 1998, p. 156- 157.

[4] Xu Zhongke's The Reasons for the Most Prosperous Literature', The Commercial Press 19 17 Edition.

Original: A Study of Novels in Ming and Qing Dynasties,No. 1 2009 (total No.9 1 2009)