Gentle Temple: The Divinity and Humanity of Classical Novels

Author: Zhang Manjuan
Publisher: Lianjing Publishing House
Publication Date: 2006-06-01
Features: I want to complete such a project that every story from classical novels can relate to our modern life and reflect the depths of our souls. ── Zhang Manjuan. This magnificent and tenderly diverse world of fiction is more real than real life. They debate; they fall in love; they fight for life and death; they retire gracefully, and what about us? We are shocked and attracted. Those sparkling insights pass through our bones, making us stand firmer than the ancients; making us walk more beautifully than the ancients. We have our own pantheon, enshrined in classical novels. Every deity in that temple possesses both the spirituality of a god and the habits of a human. We can see our transcended selves and our fallen selves. This temple has no fixed shape, it can be touched, folded, and suitable for carrying around. It is not made of stone, but of flesh and blood, soft and warm, enshrining human nature. "Zhang Manjuan Novel Stream" is the new series launched grandly after "Zhang Manjuan Poetry Scroll"! For nearly two decades, Zhang Manjuan has taught classical novels in university courses, hoping to gently transform the classical Chinese, which is like a veil, into vernacular Chinese. So that friends who are amazed at reading classical Chinese and those who want to own the stories of classical novels can also possess this magnificent and tenderly diverse world of fiction. "Zhang Manjuan Novel Stream" is "The Soft Temple: The Divinity and Humanity of Classical Novels." In this book, Zhang Manjuan describes several aspects of human and divine nature in classical novels with intellectual and brushstrokes: for example, the ancient myths of the beginning of heaven and earth, including "Shan Hai Jing," the myths of Pan Gu opening the sky and Nuwa creating humans; fables and anecdotes, including "Helping the Plant Grow Faster" and "The Wife and Concubines of Qi"; the origins of demons in the Six Dynasties' strange tales, such as "Strange Stories of the World" and "Records of the Supernatural"; the characters and works of the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove in the Six Dynasties' biographies of scholars; even when reading Tang Dynasty legends, readers can almost feel the sweetness of grapes and wine and the coolness of nightlight cups. This dreamlike moment, because the fantasy and warnings, love and chivalry of the human world all coexist and depend on each other in this era; of course, the most popular is the Qing Dynasty's "Strange Tales of Liaozhai." Zhang Manjuan sees various ghost stories from Pu Songling's pen—those heard from the streets, those experienced firsthand, and those drawn from classics—among which, after leaving the book with lingering thoughts, she also opens the style of reading classical novels in the Chinese world.