The influence of Zuo Zhuan on the conception of Chinese fictions

Judged from the above, in Zuo Zhuan's narration, there exist imaginary elements, which is a common feature of fictions.

Narrative Perspective: From «the Virtuous Man Says» to «the Writer Comments». The author of Zuo Zhuan in the middle or at the end of stories employs the phrases: «the virtuous man says», «the virtuous man knows by the following», and «Confucius says» to show his opinions on historical events or figures. There is a story concerning Duke Zhuang of Zheng, who struggled for leadership with his mother and younger brother. The Duke's mother disliked him for she suffered obstructed labor while giving his birth. She favoured her younger son and always tried to scramble for more interest for him. The Duke, who was hypocritical and crafty, pretended to meet all extravagant demands of his mother and indulged his younger brother, but in fact, he schemed to kill his brother. At last he even banished his mother to a deserted place and promised they would not meet again until they reached the Yellow Spring (the nether world). However, later, he regretted the oath, so he took the advice of Ying Kaoshu, asking people to dig a tunnel where yellow spring gushed out so that he could meet his mother. he said in verse: «My mind teems with joy in this dark tunnel.» The image of the Duke as a hypocrite is successfully built in this episode. In the end, the author commented that the virtuous man says: «Ying Kaoshu was not only a dutiful son, but he influenced the duke to treat his mother with filial piety. It is said in The Book of Songs (Shi Jing) that `A filial son's kindness will not end. The heaven will let you have great sons and grandsons.» [1, p. 16]. This passage gives Ying Kaoshu seal of approval while attacking the duke implicitly.

Under the influence of this tradition, Sima Qian (145-90BC) ends each chapter of Historical Records (Shi Ji) with «the Lord Grand Historian says», and Pu Songling concludes each episode of Strange Tales from Liao Zhai (Liaozhai Zhiyi), the peak of classical Chinese short stories, with «the writer comments». They are authors and at the same time they make their own comments on events and characters. For western critics, writers should avoid speaking out their personal feelings and appraisal in their works, but on the contrary it is a fashion for Chinese writers. That is to say a Chinese writer does not hesitate to show his voice or attitude in narration, which is a tradition set up by the author of Zuo Zhuan.

Creation of Flat Characters. E. M. Forest puts forward the conception of «flat» and «round» characters in his book Aspects of the Novel. The former refers to characters having a stark sense of good and evil, while the latter complex and life-like ones. He chose Mrs. Micawber in David Copperfield as an example. This woman impresses us with her line «I will never desert Mrs. Micawber.» The words will come to our mind as soon as we see Mr. Micawber, and vice versa [6, p. 48-49].

Wang Jingyu states that most characters in Zuo Zhuan are flat and still [14, p. 20-22]. His idea makes sense from a general picture. Again, take the story in 1.4 as an example, the Duke impresses people with his cattiness, his brother with his willfulness, the mother with her bias, and Ying Kaoshu with his filial piety. Interactions between these characters spark a chain of events and change their destiny. In the end, to preserve his image as a filial son, the Duke had to take Ying Kaoshu's advice, accepting his mother who actually did not love him. His mother also pretended to be nice to him only to live a decent life.

Zhang Gaoping delves into several dozens of characters of the good and evil in Zuo Zhuan [8, p. 182-185]. It is an important feature of Chinese tales of men to focus on one certain quality of characters. Later works such as Forest of Sayings (Yu Lin) and New Anecdotes of Social Talk (Shishuo Xinyu) start with certain personality of a character. And a later novel Romance of Three Kingdoms (Sanguo Yanyi) is well-known for Cao's treachery, Zhuge Liang's wisdom and Guan Yu' s loyalty. Lu Xun remarks that: «Luo Guanzhong (the author of Romance of Three Kingdoms) wished to make Liu Pei a kindly man, but draws a character who seems a hypocrite. Wanting to depict Zhuge Liang's wisdom, he makes him appear a sorcerer. His only success is in the portrayal of Lord Guan Yu, who is a gallant general to the life.» [17, p. 168]. All these shows that Zuo Zhuan started a tradition of creating plat characters, which is an important aspect of fiction.

Some Episodes in Zuo Zhuan Are Close to Fictions. Cases in Zuo Zhuan written similarly to fictions are ubiquitous. Here is an example, a short story that happened in 607 BC:

Duke Ling of Jin lost the way of a sovereign. He extorted taxes and levies from the people and used it to paint his palace. He shot the passengers with crossbow from a high tower and amused himself to watch them flee. He killed the cook because he failed to make a bear's paw done, placed his hand cut down from the corpse in a basket and asked a palace maid to carry it on her back to pass through the court. Finding the corpse's hand, Zhao Dun and Shi Ji asked the reason and then became greatly distressed. They planed to remonstrate with their sovereign. Shi Ji said to Zhao Dun: «If your advice is not taken, there will be no one to dare to do it. So let me go first. If he refuse to listen to me, then you go next.» Shi Ji had advanced three times and not until he reached the eaves of the palace did the Duke looked at him and said: «I know I made mistakes and I am ready to correct them.» Shi Ji replied with his head bowed to the ground: «No one is without fault. One who knows how to correct his faults is the most perfect. It says in The Book of Songs (Shi Jing) that any thing has its beginning but few its ending. So, there are few who may mend their faults. That you start and carry it through to the end is the security for our country's stability on which your subjects rely. It says again in that book that the ceremonial robe is damaged, and Zhong Shanfu can mend it. This tell us that when King Xuan of Zhou made mistakes and Zhong Shanfu, the prime minister, could help him to correct. Now you correct your fault sincerely, the ceremonial robe will not be cast away». However, the Duke did not change his way. Zhao Dun made proposals for several times and the Duke was annoyed with him. So the Duke sent Chu Ni to kill him. In the early morning Chu Ni stole into Zhao Dun's bedroom and found the door open. Zhao Dun was sitting dozing in his chair and ready to leave for the court in his court robes. Chu Ni went out of the door and thought with a sigh: «He is the true master of the people because he never forgets to be respectful in his duties. One who kills the master of the people is called disloyalty, and one who does not obey the sovereign's order is called unfaithfulness. If I cannot avoid one of the two crimes, the best way I choose is to die!» After that he dashed his head on a pagoda tree in the garden and ended his life.

In the ninth month during autumn, the Duke entertained Zhao Dun with wine and dispatched some soldiers waiting in ambush to assassinate him. This plot was found by Ti Miming, the right guard of Zhao Dun's chariot. He rushed into the hall and said to the Duke: «Let me attend you at the banquet. It will be my impropriety if I drink more than three cups.» This helped Zhao Dun to leave the court. The Duke immediately set his mastiff to hurt Zhao Dun. Ti Miming fought with the dog and killed it. Zhao Dun said with anger: «He used a dog instead of men. No matter how ferocious the dog is, it is useless! « Zhao Dun and his attendants fought their way out of the court. Ti Miming was killed there at the end.

Formerly, Zhao Dun was hunting at Shuyangshan Hill and he stayed for night under the mulberry trees, where he met Ling Zhe who starved to die. Zhao Dun asked him if he was ill. He replied that he had not eaten anything for three days. Zhao Dun gave him some food, but he ate only half of the food and kept the other half. Zhao Dun asked him why. Ling Zhe said: «I have been out to serve someone as a servant for three years. I don't know if my mother is still alive or not. Now my home is not far away, so I must take this food to her.» On hearing that, Zhao Dun let him eat all the food and gave him another basket of food, including rice and meat. Later this man became a guard of Duke Ling. During Zhao Dun's distress, Ling Zhe used his weapon against these guards sent by the Duke to kill Zhao Dun, helping him to be out of danger. Afterwards Zhao Dun asked him why he did that. He replied: «I was the man who starved in the mulberry forest.» Zhao Dun again asked his name and address, but he went away without answer. He fled to another place after that [5, p. 655-662].

In the story, when Shi Ji came to offer remonstrance, the Duke pretended not to notice him until he reached the eaves of his palace. The Duke did not follow the way of a monarch, because a wise sovereign would welcome his officials as soon as they arrive at his door. When Shi Ji cited Book of Songs (Shi Jing) to present his proposals, the Duke said he would correct his behavior but actually did not. As Zhao Dun came to admonish him again, he even issued an order to kill Zhao Dun but failed. Then he set his mastiff in the court to hurt him but failed too. Zhao Dun survived from the first assassination because the killer was touched by his diligence in state affairs and escaped the second because of his kindness to the hungry man in the mulberry forest.

Let's explore the basic elements of a fiction in this literary piece above based on the theories of narratives or fictions by scholars of this field. Robert Scholes and Robert Kellogg list four important elements of a narrative, namely, meaning, character, plot, and point of view [12, p. 4-20]. E. M. Forster listed seven elements of a novel, namely, story, people, plot, fantasy, prophecy, pattern and rhythm [7, p. 20]. He defined a story as a narrative of events arranged in their time-sequence. He claims that a plot is also a narrative of events with the emphasis falling on causality. «The king died and then the queen died,» is a story. «The king died, and then the queen died of grief» is a plot. In the latter case, the time-sequence is preserved, but the sense of causality overshadows it. That is the fundamental difference between these two aspects of the novel [7, p. 61]. The literary piece above has the following features:

Firstly, it is a complete story.

Secondly, it is mixed with chronological order, flashback and other narrative techniques. The story develops with relaxations and climaxes. Plot is the logical aspect of a novel, and it requires memory and intelligence to find it. In this story, Shi Ji and Zhao Dun remonstrated with the Duke Ling of Jin because of his departure from the way of being an enlightened sovereign, but the duke ordered to murder Zhao Dun. Therefore, «departure from the way of being an enlightened sovereign» is the cause, and «murder» the result. Then because of Chu Ni's righteousness, Zhao Dun survived from the first murder. Due to the sacrifice of Ti Miming and assistance from a man who had accepted his food in a mulberry forest, Zhao Dun avoided the two assassinations. So we can say that this literary piece has pattern, rhythm and rich plots.

Thirdly people in the story possess distinct personalities, such as the tyranny of the Duke, the loyalty of Zhao Dun, the righteousness of Chu Ni, the sacrifice of Ti Miming, the gratitude of Ling Zhe. There are some impressive scenes, some appalling, some hair-rising, and others sweet, such as the scene that Shi Ji and Zhao Dun found the cook's hands in a basket, the scene that the duke set his dog to hurt Zhao Dun, and the scene that the hungry man in the mulberry forest left half of the food for his mother. The author builds these characters with description of action, language, the fictitious monologue and impressive scenes.

Fourthly, as in other stories, Zuo Zhuan adopted the unchangeable third-person perspective of narration. The author shows his point of view through his narration.

Fifthly, the story has meaning. It's about the conflict between kindness and evil. It teaches the reader that the kindness always brings the good ends.

Sixthly, the author makes up internal monologue of characters, such as Chu Ni's inner thought before committing suicide. So there exist imaginative elements and psychological descriptions in the story.

And lastly, what's more important is that its plots contain causal relationship.

By analyzing fiction from the elements of meaning, character, plot, and point of view, we can conclude that this literary piece above is unquestionably a narrative. Beside that, this literary peace also has elements like story, pattern and rhythm put forward by E. M. Forster. So, though this narrative cannot be regarded as a fiction yet, it already has the basic elements of a fiction. Almost all later Chinese novelists have been influenced by Zuo Zhuan, and they have got inspired from the above patterns in the conception of fiction.

Conclusions

Ancient Chinese critics put forward an important viewpoint: historical writings account events with literary grace, while successful fictions invent events following artistic imagines. In ancient China, representing official and orthodox ideas, historians tend to belittle fictions. Fiction commentators adopted the imitated-history approach to lift up novel to official history so as to put a higher value on it. Western reviewers believe that historical works is based on facts while fictions on imaginary events. Traditionally, Chinese scholars consider novel as «the surplus of official history» or «unofficial history». The intimate connection between history and Chinese fiction endows the latter with features setting it apart from western one, and develops its most special category in the world: historical romance. Zuo Zhuan originates from The Spring and Autumn Annals (Chun Qiu). It focuses on recording historical events of this period. So it is unquestionably a book of history. At the same time, it is widely regarded as the origin of Chinese fictions. The writing strategies of Zuo Zhuan have gained wide popularity with later writers. From these, it is reasonable to say that Zuo Zhuan has great influence on the conspiracy of Chinese fictions.