arabian nights(tiān fāng yè tán)

The one thousand one night

The synonym Arabian Nights (Arabian Folktales) generally refers to Arabian Nights (ancient Arabian Folktales). Tales from the thousand and one nights is a collection of Arabian folktales, also known as Arabian Nights.

It is said that there was a kingdom of Sasan between ancient India and China. King shanruyar was cruel and jealous. He killed the queen because of her misconduct. After that, he married a girl every day and killed her the next morning to show his revenge. In order to save the innocent woman, shanluzod, the daughter of the prime minister, voluntarily married the king and attracted him by telling stories. Every night, she talked about the best part of the story. It was just dawn, which made the king love to kill. She was allowed to continue to tell the story the next night. Her story has been told for one thousand and one nights, and the king was finally moved to grow old with her. Because of its rich content and large scale, it is praised by Gorky as "the most magnificent monument" in the history of world folk literature.

content validity

It is said that in ancient times, on the ancient Arabian Island, there was a kingdom of Sasan, and the king's name was shanua. One day, shannuya and his brother Saman came to a grassland close to the sea. When they were resting under a tree, a black water column suddenly appeared in the middle of the sea. A girl came to them and told them that all women in the world were untrustworthy. when the king shanua and his younger brother Saman returned to the kingdom of Sasan, they found that the queen had misbehaved, so they killed her. From then on, shanua deeply disliked women and killed the maids. He retaliated and began to marry a woman every day for one night. The next day, he killed and remarried and became a tyrant. This went on for three years, year after year, killing more than a thousand women. Shanluzod, the eldest daughter of the prime minister, told her father that she would marry the king and that she would try to save thousands of women. After entering the palace, shanluzod told the king a story every night, but she told it every night, and only told the beginning and the middle, not the end. In order to hear the end of the story, the king delayed the date of killing shanluzod day by day. In this way, shanluzod told a story every day. Her story was endless, and one by one was more wonderful. Until the 101st night, she finally moved the king. Shanua said: "by the name of Allah, I am determined not to kill you. Your story moves me. I will record these stories and keep them forever. " So, there is the book "one thousand and one nights".

Catalogue of works

Creative background

background of times

Arabian Nights is the product of the formation and establishment of the Arab national spirit after the establishment of the Arab Empire. Muhammad founded Islam and unified the Arabian Peninsula in the 7th century. After that, the Arab Empire continued to expand around and spread the Islamic doctrine. There are three sources of stories in Arabian Nights: one is the Persian collection of stories herzor evsanai, the other is the popular stories in Iraq, that is, the Abbasid Dynasty centered on Baghdad, and the third is the popular stories in Egypt during the zhimalik Dynasty. This in itself shows the openness and inclusiveness of the Arab nation. After processing, these stories are integrated into the Arab national spirit and into the Arab spiritual and cultural system. This also reflects the expansion ambition of the Arab nation. From the description of distant China in Arabian Nights, many businessmen bravely engaged in business and trade activities. It can also be seen that the Arab nation is a nation with great spirit of exploration. In the story, they warmly eulogize and praise those brave, smart and adventurous people.

Forming process

It mainly comes from Persia and India; the other part comes from the story of the Abbasid Dynasty (750-1258) with Baghdad as the center; the third part comes from the story of the Egyptian mamalik Dynasty (1250-1517). In fact, this book is not the work of any writer. It was collected, refined and processed by a large number of market artists and scholars in the middle and Near East over hundreds of years. It is the crystallization of the wisdom of the vast number of Arab and Persian people in this region. The story of the Arabian Nights has long been circulated orally among the people in the Arab region. Early manuscripts appeared at the turn of the 8th and 9th centuries. By the 12th century, Egyptians first used the title of the Arabian Nights, but it was not until the end of the 15th century and the beginning of the 16th century that it was basically finalized. Once the story of the Arabian Nights came into being, it was widely spread. It spread to Europe during the Crusades.

Personage introduction

Shanluzod, the daughter of the Prime Minister of King shanua. She tells all kinds of novel stories to the king every night to comfort the loneliness of the king after he lost his princess. She is a young and beautiful girl full of wit. Alibaba the protagonist in the story of Alibaba and the forty thieves. He was born in a humble family. Later, by chance, he learned the curse of entering and leaving the thief's treasure house. Thanks to Machina's tact, he skillfully killed all the thieves, made a fortune and lived a happy life. Sinbad the protagonist in the story of Sinbad the navigator. He is adventurous by nature and often travels by sea. Although he was in danger of losing his life many times, he was never disappointed and finally got rich. Aladdin the protagonist in Aladdin and the lamp. He was full of hope to go to Baghdad to do business. However, he encountered an unexpected disaster. He was falsely accused and fled far away. He was not acquitted until the villain was arrested.

Appreciation of works

Theme of the work

Exposing the darkness of reality many stories in Arabian Nights reveal the darkness and misfortune of medieval Arab society, describe the sufferings of the masses, reflect their dissatisfaction with real life, and reproduce the historical reality at that time to some extent, which is the embodiment of the realistic expression of the story set. "The story of the fisherman" is small. The fisherman has a hard time, but he is empty handed. So he is full of indignation and denounces the injustice in the world: "I went out to make a living, but I found that the source of food has been cut off. Many rude and foolish people have soared to the sky. " This is a tragic portrayal of the life of the working people in the middle picean Arab society. Only when we stand in the position of the working masses and share weal and woe with them, can we write such a story. In terms of exposing the darkness and injustice of society, the Arabian Night does not stop at describing the sufferings of the broad masses of the people or reflecting their dissatisfaction with real life. Instead, it points the spearhead at the caliphate, the ruler of the Empire, and makes a heartless response to their fatalism, despotism and fraud. The introduction of one thousand and one nights, the story of King's mountain ruyar and his brothers, is a very typical example. After the king killed the queen who had an affair with others, it was so absurd that he asked the prime minister to catch a young girl every night to have fun for him and put them to death at dawn. This story fully exposed the king's cruel nature and left a deep impression on the readers. Although one thousand and one nights has the basic characteristics of folktales, in the long-term spread process, through the tampering and processing of religious priests and literati, it has mixed a lot of exploiting class consciousness and religious ideas. The Arabian Nights is popular in the middle ages. Therefore, it has a strong Islamic color, "Allah is the only master", "I trust myself to Allah", "there is no way but to rely on the assistance of the great Allah" and other words fill the whole book; the fatalism of Islam is more prominent. There are also praises to emperors, especially to Harlan Rashid. In addition, the book also publicizes the "Virtue" of the rich merchants, the "mystery" of getting rich, the thought of belittling women, vilifying slaves and other exploiting classes. concept of power the social background described in one thousand and one nights (hereinafter referred to as night) is mainly the heyday of the historical development of Arab Islam. The feudal rulers with the characteristics of centralization changed their consciousness of power from the "deliberative system" initiated in the Chengsheng era to the totalitarian autocratic rule of everything "authorized" by Caliph, the supreme leader of the Empire, forming a social and political system with power as the core. Since its establishment, Islam has highlighted the exemplary role of leaders and maintained social order with the power of example. Islamic society should advocate the great personality and historical role of Mukden and orthodox caliphs, and regard wise leaders as the ideal model of leading the country and nation. In the early days of the Abbas Dynasty, the central unified imperial power emphasized the supreme position of the core leader (Caliph) in ruling the country and managing the people. Therefore, the people's expectation of how to use the power of the ruler can only be passive, that is to say, they hope that the ruler "himself" can take the initiative to govern justly and enforce the law, and become a "model". This is actually a kind of helplessness of begging for gifts, and has no role in restricting and supervising the power. At the beginning of the night, Li persuades the tyrant shanruyar to treat women fairly, and ends with the king's confession. As described in the last chapter of the night, the king said, "sanluzod, I have pardoned you long before these children were born.". Because I see you pure and sincere. Allah bless you, your father and mother, your ancestors and relatives. I swear in the name of Allah that I have forgiven you from all kinds of harm. In essence, these remorseful words are the essence of the country

Chinese PinYin : tiān fāng yè tán