"Genesis of the Gods"

Author: Xu Zhonglin
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 1973-12-01
Features: Reading Fengshen Yanyi for the first time might make people feel that the characters and events in the book have no connection to the social life of that time, not even a trace of reality can be found—we only see the author's fantastical imagination. However, it is this kind of imagination that captures the readers' interest, gradually revealing deeper meanings, and ultimately made this novel popular both at home and abroad, enduring for centuries. After the Jiajing era in the Ming Dynasty, the feudal autocratic system had developed to an unbearable extent. Corruption among officials, oppression of the people, and growing social crises became increasingly severe. Meanwhile, capitalist economy was further developing in the southeastern coastal regions of China, and the urban class was beginning to show its strength in places like Suzhou and Hangzhou. Against this backdrop of widespread public discontent, Xu Zhonglin used the Yuan Dynasty's storytelling ballad Wang Wang Fazu Pinghua as the basis, referring to the Western Zhou part of the later-circulated Lie Guo Zhi, and compiled a hundred chapters of Fengshen Yanyi by combining folk myths, legends, historical anecdotes, and Buddhist stories, adding many brilliant fantasies. Through criticizing the tyrannical King Zhou of Yin, he indirectly critiqued the autocratic Ming Dynasty. This is precisely the ideological significance of Fengshen Yanyi. Some plotlines, such as the description of Nezha's bone-removing and meat-restoring, critically touch upon the feudal moral and ethical order.
In terms of ideological content, Fengshen Yanyi also has its shortcomings. Throughout the entire book, we can see that every story and every character's fate is inevitably bound by the "fate" of destiny, with the ending being "predestined." No matter how hard people (including the immensely powerful gods and immortals) struggle, it is largely in vain, helpless against the predetermined outcome. This fatalistic ideology is the dross of the entire work, and undoubtedly has a negative impact on readers. This should be pointed out and noted.
Fengshen Yanyi is a romantic fantasy novel rich in fantasy, using absurd imagination to shape characters, present stories, and arrange details. The author's imagination is astonishing.