"Ming Dynasty 1566" takes "Down with Yan Song" as the main clue, which comprehensively shows the unprecedented sharp contradictions and struggles in Jiajing period of Ming Dynasty, and based on the novel, the TV series "Ming Dynasty 1566" was adapted and filmed. Liu Zehua, a professor of history at Nankai University, once praised Liu Heping for "writing kingship into their bones". In addition, Liu Heping's other two historical novels, Yongzheng Dynasty and No War in Peiping, also gained a good reputation and high popularity.
Xie Youshun, a critic, commented in the dialogue that "Liu Heping's novels are thoughtful and thoughtful historical novels have vitality when there is a general lack of ideas in the whole China historical novel creation circle."
How to grasp the boundary between historical facts and historical novel creation? Liu Heping told Southern Reporter that his view of history is more explanatory history than textual research history. Historical novels are the creation of literary works, not the writing with history as a mirror, which is the most essential difference between them.
Liu Heping said: "Historical facts are all my mulberry leaves. I am a silkworm. I ate all the mulberry leaves and turned them into works of art like silkworms spinning silk. For example, when I adapted the Yongzheng Dynasty, I continued the Eight Ye Party, which was recorded in historical materials and fell in the third year of Yongzheng, to the thirteenth year of Yongzheng. For this adaptation, I asked two famous scholars of Qing history, Dai Yi and Wang Zhonghan, who all understood it very well and said that this is the essential difference between history and literature, that is, the independent value of literature and art. "
The most fundamental attribute of literary works is aesthetics, not historiography or science, which Liu Heping has always insisted on. In his view, existence is reasonable, and the creation of historical novels is to construct a world parallel to history. This parallel world needs to be built by two systems. One is its own logical system, which will use aesthetic means to restructure irrelevant things in historical materials. The other is the language system of literary logic, which must be used to construct the logic system. Many language dialogues do not appear in real life, but only in literary works. For the author, the most difficult thing is to express it in literary language so that everyone can feel the truth.
Liu Heping quoted Chen Yinke's famous saying that he should have "understanding sympathy" for history and historical figures. Xie Youshun pointed out: "There is a so-called spiritual truth, imaginary truth or human truth in Liu Heping's novels. Logical fiction and imagination, including adding many elements, are people-centered, and this history will live. "
Historical novels annotate history.
On the morning of the 22nd, Tang shared "Is it better to be a hero or a saint?" ? -don, talk about why zeng guofan himself when the emperor. His Trilogy of the Late Qing Dynasty is still the masterpiece of China's contemporary long historical novels, and it is even more praised as "the first person who studied Zeng Guofan in China".
Referring to the creation of historical novels, Tang said: "History has multiple expressions, writers have writers' expressions, scholars have scholars' views, and ordinary people also have their own understanding of history." When reading Zeng Guofan's lectures, Tang didn't mind taking some unofficial history records as supplementary materials for his analysis. "Historical novels are actually like adding notes to history," Don Hao Ming said of his own creation.
Historical novels are a supplement to official history.
On the afternoon of 22nd, a new book sharing meeting was held in Guangzhou Book Center, entitled "Reading the Great Changes at the End of Song Dynasty and Seeing the Character's Tolerance and Character at the End of Song Dynasty". Together with Ni Lasong, deputy editor-in-chief of Guangdong People's Publishing House, and writers Ai Yun and Dao, the author talked about a different Song Dynasty in the novel. According to the historical fact that Yu Jie, a famous soldier in the late Southern Song Dynasty, entered Sichuan to build a mountain city anti-Mongolian system with Sichuan Rightists to fight against Mongolian aggression, this paper describes the thrilling changes and trends at the turning point of history. Alai commented that this book "gives dignity to history, character to the end of Song Dynasty, and weather to Sichuan".
Although there is a lot of fiction and imagination in The Great Change at the End of the Song Dynasty, in Zhang Quansheng's view, the so-called official history, like the Ming History, has many distortions, but it is still helpful for us to understand the history of that period. Aside from fiction and imagination, the general framework and historical environment of historical novels can't be wrong.