Yu shiteng

Yu xiangdou

Yu xiangdou (from the middle of the 16th century to 1637), a native of Santai mountain, is also known as Yu shiteng, Yu Junzhao, Yu Wentai and Yu Xiangwu. He is a native of Jianyang Shulin (now Shufang Township, Jianyang District, Nanping City). He was a famous bookseller, block printing publisher, popular novelist and critic in Ming Dynasty. It is one of the representatives of "Jian Ben" or "Min Ben".

Yu xiangdou is both a bookseller and a book editor. He presided over book engraving for decades, which promoted the development of ancient Chinese publishing industry, and left a large number of precious books and printed materials for later generations. His contribution in novel creation and comment also had a profound impact on the development of Chinese popular literature, especially chapter novels.

Yu xiangdou's famous novels include a journey to the South and a journey to the north.

Life of the characters

Yu xiangdou's life experience can hardly be found in any historical materials and biographies of the Ming and Qing Dynasties. He can only make a general guess and sort out through a few words in Jianyang block printed edition and other documents.

Early experience

Around 1548 (1560), Yu xiangdou was born in Jianyang, Fujian Province, where the engraving and printing industry was highly developed. He became a new member of the Yu family of Jianyang calligraphers (also known as Jianyang Yu family and Jian'an Yu family) who started the engraving business from the Northern Song Dynasty. According to the records of Shulin Yu's revised genealogy compiled in the late Qing Dynasty, Yu xiangdou is the 34th generation of Yu's family in Jianyang. His father's name is Yu Menghe, and his name is Shuangfeng. My mother's surname is Liu. Yu xiangdou's grandfather, Yu Ji'an (1492-1562), bought a lot of land in his hometown in the first half of the 16th century to accumulate family capital. He also built a "Qingxiu Temple" for the convenience of giving lectures to his descendants and printing books, which laid the foundation for the revival of the family's relatively declining calligraphy industry in the early Ming Dynasty. Yu Menghe and Yu xiangdou grew up in such a scholarly atmosphere. According to Yu xiangdou's account, he studied Confucian classics when he was young and devoted himself to gaining fame. He was once a Confucian student in Shaowu county. At the same time, he was also very interested in the study of Canyu.

Abandon your studies and go into business

Yu xiangdou got married at the end of the 13th year of Wanli (1585) at the latest, and his eldest son, Yu Yingjia, was born the following year (1586). before he was officially engaged in the book engraving industry, Yu xiangdou had been influenced by his family for several times. For example, in the 16th year of Wanli (1588), he published the book "micro mirror of pingxue cave handed down by the grandson of wantianguan IV" under the title of "santaiguan". In the same year, he also published Xiong Damu's novel biography of the whole Han Dynasty under the pseudonym of Yu shiteng. These are the earliest two kinds of books carved by Yu xiangdou. The name of "Santai Pavilion" has been used by Yu xiangdou all the time. As one of the titles of his bookshop, he often calls himself "master of Santai Pavilion" or "Santai Shanren". This name was passed on to Yu's descendants and was used until the early Qing Dynasty. In addition, he also used the name of "shuangfengtang", which should be taken from his father's name "Shuangfeng". In the 19th year of Wanli (1591), Yu xiangdou formally gave up his studies and engaged himself in Book engraving with all his heart and soul. He hired a large number of bureaucrats, gentry, scholars, etc. to participate in writing. According to the existing data, in the 19th year of Wanli alone, Yu xiangdou published more than ten kinds of imperial examination oriented books, as well as some "miscellaneous books" such as novels. Yu xiangdou also actively established contact with the book engraving industry in other regions. In 1591, he began to re engrave some books of Jinling (Nanjing) edition.

Life of bookshop

In the 20th year of Wanli (1592), Yu xiangdou published the biography of the Three Kingdoms criticized by Xinke Jujian Quanxiang (Biography of the Three Kingdoms). This book is an important version of the famous book romance of the Three Kingdoms. From the 22nd year of Wanli to the 23rd year of Wanli (1594), Yu xiangdou's books include Huang Ming Yao Kao (Huang Ming Yao Kao) and Ping Lin (commentary on outlaws of the marsh). The latter is the earliest and complete version of Shuihu Zhuan, the earliest critical version of Shuihu Zhuan, and even the earliest of all the existing complete versions of Shuihu Zhuan. It has very important research value. In the 26th year of Wanli (1598), Yu xiangdou compiled and printed the novel "the case of the Emperor Ming's various secretaries of honest and clean government" (hereinafter referred to as "the case of honest and clean government") (later there was a sequel "the case of the Emperor Ming's various Secretaries of honest and clean government"). This is the earliest record of Yu xiangdou's novels. Around the 30th year of Wanli (1602), Yu xiangdou compiled and printed the fairy tales, which were adapted from the folk mythology, namely the biography of the origin of Xuantian God, the founder of Zhenwu in the North (journey to the North) and the biography of Huaguang, the great emperor of the five eminent officials (journey to the South). In the 34th year of Wanli (1606), Yu xiangdou and his cousin, Yu Zhangde, jointly printed the important supplements of ancient and modern Yunhui, and the biography of nations by Yu Shaoyu. Hou Yu xiangdou's prequel "biography of twelve dynasties before the founding of nations" is the earliest known prequel of a novel in China. In the 47th year of Wanli (1619), Yu xiangdou published his travels to the south, to the north, to the east by Wu Yuantai and to the west by Yang Zhihe as four travels. However, there are also views that this kind of combined edition actually appeared in the Qing Dynasty. In 1631, Yu xiangdou traveled to Guangdong, and compiled the great book of Canyu studies, the complete book of geographical unification of the zhengzhuan of keyangzhizi canding (not published by Yu xiangdou himself), from 1628 to 1635. In 1637, Yu xiangdou engraved the book "five engravings of Li Qi, detailed argumentation and compilation of the authentic book of Santai bianlan Tongshu", which is the latest engraving activity known to him. In his later years, Yu xiangdou was highly respected in Jianyang and Shaowu. He was praised by the government for many times and was once given "Confucian official Zhang Fu". the year of Yu xiangdou's death is not recorded, but according to the above information, it can be inferred that he died after 1637, and he lived about eight or ninety years old. His career of carving books and writing classical novels has spanned half a century.

Main works

Besides being a professional book engraver and publisher, Yu xiangdou is a popular novel writer, publisher and critic. When he published literary works, he often had the above identities, so the copyright ownership of his works was actually vague (this is also a common situation in Early Novels). The following is a list of the most important literary works under Yu xiangdou's name.

Novels and fiction collections

there are five novels written by Yu xiangdou as the author: these five novels involve three major categories of Chinese Classical Novels: Official case novels, supernatural novels and historical romance. In addition, Yu xiangdou has compiled a collection of novels, such as wanjinqinglin.

Comment on works

Yu xiangdou's important comments on novels are mainly included in the following editions. According to the research, in fact, he also made some modifications and editing on these novels

Other works

Yu xiangdou also compiled many kinds of books and miscellaneous works, including the complete book of geographical unity of Keyang Zhizi and canding zhengzhuan (hereinafter referred to as the complete book of geographical unity).

Creative features

Yu xiangdou is a character in the early and middle period of the development history of Chinese classical chapter novels. Under the social background at that time, although novels had been widely welcomed by people from all walks of life, the status of novelists was not very high. Yu xiangdou himself thought that miscellaneous books such as novels could not be compared with the imperial examination bibliography, so it was natural that his attitude towards writing novels was not very serious I don't know. the owners of Jianyang bookshop in Ming Dynasty wrote their own novels before Yu xiangdou, such as Xiong Damu. The main purpose of this kind of novel creation is to make profits, so the consideration of artistic quality is not placed in an important position. Yu xiangdou's novels are often of poor literary quality, hasty compilation and poor writing. On the one hand, the low level of Yu xiangdou's works is due to the mentality and actions that are not conducive to creation, such as seeking speed and following the trend. On the other hand, the main audience of these works are readers with low cultural level. Naturally, the book engravers feel that it is not necessary to improve their literary level too carefully, and prefer to attract customers from the aspects of illustrations and form innovation. In addition, Yu xiangdou himself is only a scholar, and he has been dealing with books for family reasons all the year round. First of all, he is a businessman, and his writing talent may not be high. Under such circumstances, Yu xiangdou's literary creation is unavoidably crude, but his keen sense of business makes his works often exude the innovative atmosphere that is not easy to appear in ordinary novelists. For example, the creation of "sequels" in the form of "prequels" for the old bibliography, the extensive collection of folk story materials into books, and the creation of "forest review" novel review mode are prominent examples.

Character influence

As a cultural figure with multiple identities, such as bookseller, novel editor and literary critic, Yu xiangdou has a great influence on the development of Chinese literature and art. First of all, as a publisher with a large number of popular novels, Yu xiangdou has provided an important platform for the dissemination and distribution of popular chapter novels, including water margin, romance of the Three Kingdoms and other famous works. Although these books have some defects such as rough deletion and correction, due to Yu xiangdou's commercial operation, they can be popularized to a larger readership at a faster speed It is an indispensable link in the history of the development of the version of. Many jianben books, represented by Yu xiangdou's block printed edition, have been handed down to the present day, and they have become important materials for the study of ancient novels and even literary and cultural history. Secondly, Yu xiangdou created or developed some marketing means for commercial interests

Chinese PinYin : Yu Shi Teng