The unofficial history of the forest of scholars
The unofficial history of the forest of scholars ( Chinese:儒林外史 Rúlín wàishǐ) is a novel by Wu Jingzi from 1749, which deals satirically with the life and work of the scholarly and civil servants' upper class in imperial China and the imperial examination system.
content
The action takes place in the cities of the Yangzi Delta, particularly Nanjing , Yangzhou , Suzhou and Hangzhou in the early Ming dynasty . It consists of a loose sequence of self-contained, loosely interlocking narratives, each grouped around a central figure, which illuminate various aspects of Confucian scholarly life. In total, 35 main and more than 200 secondary characters appear in the diverse epic universe of the forest of scholars.
In the prologue, the simple shepherd boy Wang Mian is introduced, who gains an unusually high level of education through diligent self-study. However , he turned down the official post finally offered by the emperor and retired to the mountains as a hermit.
Despite his great talent, Zhou Jin cannot afford to take part in the imperial exams and therefore leads a meager life as a village school teacher. As a result of generous donations from befriended merchants, he finally took the position, rose to the highest academic honors and in turn became examination commissioner. In this function, he reciprocates the benefits received through understanding and forbearance for the examinees.
Fan Jin , who also comes from a small family, is generally laughed at and despised during his studies and even abused by his father-in-law, the rude village butcher Hu. His fate also changed abruptly when he obtained his master's degree and doctorate and rose to the highest offices.
The privileges associated with academic status are abused by Yan Zhizhong . He cheats ordinary people by refusing to reimburse the expenses of a farmer Wang, who looked after a pig that ran away from Yan, or by demanding interest payments from Huan Mengdong on a loan that was never granted, citing an erroneously issued promissory note. Yan's younger brother Yan Zhihu is less sympathetic ; his stinginess goes so far that he makes sure on his deathbed that two oil wicks don't burn in the lamp where one is enough.
The different ways in which one can exercise public office is illustrated by two prefects from Nanchang . According to a provincial judge, only three noises could be heard in the yamen under the regime of the passivity and laissez-faire Magistrate Qu : the murmur of poems, the clatter of chess pieces and the humming of songs. The noises were quite different under Zhu's energetic successor Wang Hui : the clank of the money scale, the clatter of the abacus and the clap of the cane. Later, however, Wang joins the rebellion of the so-called "Prince Ning", has to flee and finally enters a monastery under a false name.
Qu's grandson Qu Laixun showed great literary talent even as a child and was therefore chosen by the famous Hanlin professor Lu as the husband of his equally talented daughter. After the wedding, however, much to the annoyance of the ambitious Lu family, he refuses to pursue an academic career and thus drives his father-in-law into a fatal stroke. Purified by this, Qu Laixun turned to science.
In the course of this he made friends with Ma Chunshang , who - although never got beyond the licentiate backlog - is considered an expert in the field of the eight-part essay . In the "Tower of the Educational Sea " in Jiaxing , he is working on the publication of a collection of examination papers.
The Lou brothers (“3rd and 4th Mr Lou”) are always on the lookout for “interesting” and “original” personalities . Of course, they fall for all sorts of charlatans and cream puffs , such as the eccentric "scholar" and robbery of girls Quan Wuyung , who lives in the Xiang Mountains, or the swordsman Tianbei , who puts a bloody pig's head in front of a party and presents it as a human head. Your idealistic commitment to Mr. Yang, who was wrongly imprisoned, met with limited gratitude.
The young scholar Kuang Hui is drawn ambiguously : At first he shows an example of Confucian filial piety by interrupting his exams and returning home to devote himself entirely to the care of his ailing father. He not only appeases his uncle, who energetically demands the evacuation of the house that belongs to him, but in the end even saves his father from the burning house. After the district bailiff, who was touched by this, enabled him to successfully take part in the licentiate examination, Kuang got into the circle around the merchant Jing and the doctor Zhao , at whose poetry competitions Kuang was only able to shine with his skills but only moderately. With a secret double wedding, he drives his first wife, the daughter of the official Zheng , to her death. Kuang is also involved in the dishonest machinations of the third Mr. Pan , who has been put in place by him as a front man for the licentiate examination of the stupid official's son Jin Yua . After Pan is thrown in jail for this and numerous other crimes such as woman robbery, forgery of seals, tax evasion, usury of credit and others, he renounces him regardless of proven benefits.
Finally, Niu Pulang , the grandson of a poor candle and incense dealer , appropriates the identity of the late famous scholar Niu Puyi . He was just as ungrateful to the neighboring Pu family, who supported him after his grandfather's death and to whom he was connected by marrying their daughter, as he was to his unexpectedly found great-uncle Niu Yupu . Niu Pulang also secretly takes a second wife. A blackmailer finally sends the widow of the real Niu Puyi on his neck, who pulls Niu Pulang - albeit ultimately unsuccessfully - in court.
In the middle part of the novel the actor family Pao plays a central role. Old Pao Wenjing , out of compassion, adopts the son of the instrument maker Ni , who was forced to sell his children one by one to strangers due to his lack of resources. Thanks to the favor of Prefect Xiang , he later succeeds in marrying his adoptive son Pao Tingxi to the court master's daughter Wang , who dies in childbirth. Both pauses temporarily assist the prefect as a supervisor during the exam exams, but are lenient despite the various unfair tricks of the candidates. After the death of the adoptive father, he marries a woman Hu , who turns out to be a true Xanthippe and despises Tingxi for his acting status, but nevertheless uses up large parts of his meager earnings on supposedly vital medicines. Finally, he unexpectedly meets his eldest brother from the Ni family, who was sold as a child and who has made a profitable position in the provincial administration; but he too dies. Nevertheless, Pao Tingxi makes a number of friends and has a tolerable livelihood.
The Du brothers are marked in opposite directions, although both are outstanding scholars. Du Shenqing is passionate about both acting and handsome men; Friends play a prank on him by praising the virtues of the temple scholar Lai Xiashi - who turns out to be a hulking monster. Later, on the shores of Mochou Lake in Nanjing, you held an actor's competition that has been talked about for a long time. He referred the chronically numb actor Pao Tingxi to his extravagant brother Du Shaoqing and gave him advice on how to stimulate his willingness to donate .
When he arrives at Du Shaoqing , Pao Tingqi competes for Dus's funds with a number of other people who, for example, lower the price of rice fields sold by Du, want money for the repair of their house or the care of their ancestral graves, or want financial support from Du for their official examinations Expect sons. Nevertheless, Pao Tingxi manages to get hold of a hundred silver ounces to build up his own acting troupe. Du Shaoqing ignored the admonition to be more frugal on the part of his dying uncle Lou . In view of the beauty of Nanjing, you do not obey a call to the imperial court in Beijing .
The scholar Zhuang Shaoguang also refuses to serve at court . On the way to the capital, the shooting skills of the famous slingshot shooter Xiao Haoxian protect him from robbery by highwaymen. In the imperial palace he knows how to package his refusal so politely and skillfully that the emperor not only forgives him, but also gives him Lake Yuan near Nanjing as personal property. On the way back he buried two total strangers who had died while staying with them during his overnight stay. Most recently, he even obtained an amnesty for his guest, Lu Sinhou , who was captured by imperial henchmen for possessing forbidden documents. Together with Du Shaoqing and a certain Qi Hengshan , Zhuang is planning the famous Taibo temple , the inauguration of which by the exceptional scholar Dr. Yu represents a highlight of the novel.
Guo Tiashan is a respectful son who is looking for his missing father in great danger. After fighting a wild tiger, a unicorn and highwaymen, he finally found his father as a monk in the Buddhist monastery "Klause zum Bambusberg". The father denies the son, who finally travels on. Six months later, the abbot, moved by so much love for his sons, wants to visit Guo Tiashan on a trip to Emei Shan , but is ambushed by the robber Wu Da , who was once turned away at the monastery gate and who has nothing less to do than to end the abbot's brain eat.
The abbot is freed by slingshot Xiao Yunxian . Later he excelled as a military leader against savage barbarian tribes and as a town builder, but nevertheless reaped the ingratitude of the imperial court because he exceeded the budget.
Shen Qiongzhi is one of the few main female characters in the novel. Contrary to custom, the teacher's daughter protests against the marriage to the rich salt merchant Song when she realizes that she only wants to make him a concubine. After the bribery process brought about by her father to the disadvantage of the Shens, she flees into the distance. There they keep afloat selling poems they have written themselves, but given the unusual nature of this venture, they fall into disrepute for secretly engaging in prostitution. She receives support from Du Shaoqing.
The military governor Tang earned considerable merits by suppressing the uprising of Miao chief Bia Zhuangyan with the Battle of the Wild Goat Pond .
His sons, however, are already heralding the decline of the family: they regularly fail their exams, spend their time performing plays and, in particular, visiting brothels, where they describe in detail the intricacies of the imperial examination system to the joy girls. The scholar Yu Yuda turns down an offer to work as a tutor for the Tang sons, because they do not treat him with the necessary respect.
Brothers Yu Yuda and Yu Yuzhong are upright scholars. They stand out positively from their numerous brothers and cousins when they do not flatter the Peng and Fang families, who set the tone in their home country and who have become rich through usury loans . They show their child patience through the care taken in the funeral of their parents, especially with regard to the geomantic suitability of the burial site.
The athletic Feng Mingqi combines scholarship with enormous physical strength as well as integrity . After board member Jin got into trouble because he had innocently housed the impostor Wan , who also pretended to be board member , Feng saves his head by unceremoniously giving Wan a real board title. He also accepts torture in his place - and enjoys seeing the tools smashing into his muscular body. He gets his money back from a young merchant who has been robbed while having sex by kidnapping the thief on his boat with the promise of sexual pleasure. He turns the shop of the fraudulent pawnbroker Mao into kindling.
Towards the end of the novel, the second female protagonist, Pingniang, appears from the Laibin Tower. She is literary, an excellent chess player and dreams of one day marrying an official. Disappointed by her shabby and stingy suitor Chen Muan , who even cheats a ginseng dealer and his landlady for their money, she ultimately turns away from the world and enters the monastery of Abbess Benhui as a novice .
By the twenty-third year of the reign of the Ming Emperor Wanli , however, the novel concludes, all famous scholars from Nanjing had disappeared. The pursuit of money and success has taken the place of true education. Those who were poor were despised regardless of their talents. And yet there were still four outstanding men in the city: the calligrapher Ji Xianan , the fidibus seller Wang Tai , the impoverished poet and painter Gai Guan, and the master tailor Jing Yuan . The novel ends with a wistful poem by a resigned scholar who, like Buddha, “renounces all lust in the world”.
interpretation
intention
The central theme of the novel is the satirical examination of the scholarship and examination system of the 18th century. The fact that the action was moved to the Ming period is due to the strict censorship of the authorities and, above all, the prohibition of any criticism of the prevailing conditions.
In particular, Wu Jingzi castigates the pursuit of office, fame and money instead of true education in the sense of the sages of antiquity, as well as the mismatch of words and deeds of academics. The novel is teeming with would-be scholars, impostors, curmudges, swindlers, hypocrites and schemers of all kinds who superficially adorn themselves with the values of Confucian culture , but trample on its ethical principles. Again and again in the course of the novel comes to light the cruelty with which the judiciary ruled by scholars treats the common man. There are also figures who represent nonsensical and inhumane concepts out of subjectively good intentions, such as Wang Yuhui's daughter-in-law, who, out of misunderstood piety, follows her deceased husband through starvation, and Wang Yuhui himself, who approves of this.
Only a few figures are mostly positive. One of them is Wang Mian, who rose from a shepherd boy to a scholar, but who ultimately renounced the world. In the main part, positive ideals are represented in particular by Du Shaojing, Zhuang Shaoguang and Dr. Yu, who even modestly reject honors expressly offered to them by the emperor. Du Shaoqing also advocates the emancipation of women to an unusual degree for the time , especially for the ostracized teacher's daughter Shen Qiongzhi. It is not for nothing that the three gentlemen are the main actors in connection with the inauguration of the Taibo Temple, a key scene in the novel. Finally, the four scholars in the final chapter are also positively described, who uphold traditional virtues even in the Wanli era, which drove materialism to the extreme .
The novel also criticizes the system of imperial exams. The highly formalized examination material is caricatured in the endless discussions about the correct writing of texts, the activity of the essay collectors and editors or the "poetry competitions", in which all participants have to align their contributions to a certain rhyming word. Significantly, Wu Jingzi had Messrs Tang describe the details of the exam system in a brothel of all places. Actors Pao Wenjing and Pao Tingxi, who assisted Prefect Xiang with examining the candidates, are already familiar with the candidates' various methods of deception and disguise; Kuang Hui even has to make himself available as a front man for an ambitious and underperforming candidate. After all, the author also repeatedly lets his characters complain that the examination system is the only way to public office - which is why Ma Shunshang, for example, has to lead a modest private scholarly existence despite his academic achievements.
To the title
In view of the cumbersome and somewhat incomprehensible translation of the Chinese title Rúlín wàishǐ in most western languages , various simplified versions are used in addition to the verbatim version "The Inofficial History of the Forest of Scholars". In German these are u. a.
- The forest of scholars
- The scholars
- The Unofficial History of the Scholars
- Stories from the forest of scholars
- Scholars' private lives
- The way to the white clouds
u. a.
Literary classification
In view of the episodic narrative style and the lack of a uniform storyline, some sinologists deny that the forest of scholars can be classified as a novel . In view of the common basic idea that connects the individual episodes, it is nevertheless counted as part of this genre by the dominant literary scholarship. The narrative technique of the work has often been compared with a Chinese picture scroll, of which only a single section is visible at a time.
The forest of scholars is considered to be the first significant satirical work of Chinese literature and has influenced numerous later works of this genre.
Autobiographical
According to the general opinion, the author Wu Jingzi himself is behind the figure of Du Shaojing . Both have largely refused the official examination system and have instead turned to true Confucian values. Similar to Du Shaoqing, its author also received a call to the imperial court in Beijing , which he turned down.
Furthermore, both show a generosity bordering on extravagance, which puts them in considerable financial distress. There is also a parallel to Du's financial contribution to the Taibo Temple, as Wu donated a considerable sum at the time for the construction of the Temple of the Wise Men of Antiquity on the Flower Rain Terrace in Nanjing .
After all, the author and his creature also have an unusual attitude towards women at the time, who are viewed as equal partners. Wu Jingzi, for example, has Du Shaoqing walk hand in hand with his wife to the general outrage - this scene is also modeled on his own life.
In other characters in the novel, Wu has sometimes portrayed friends, acquaintances and contemporaries.
literature
- Jingzi Wu: The way to the white clouds , from the Chinese by Yang Erlin and Gerhard Schmitt with an afterword by Irma Peters, Leipzig 1989
- CT Hsia: The classical Chinese novel: an introduction , translated from English by Eike Schönfeld with an afterword by Helmut Martin, Frankfurt a. M. 1989, ISBN 3-458-16052-3