"Lao Can's Travels" is best at describing scenery, which was praised by Hu Shi. "Lao Can's Travels" is best at describing techniques. No matter when describing people or scenery, the author refuses to use clich¨¦s and bad tone. He always wants to mint new words and create new works. Real description. ¡ùTo point out, this book is unprecedented.
When Liu E was young, he did not want to take the imperial examination and become an official. Instead, he studied water conservancy, arithmetic, medicine, epigraphy, astronomy, music, and exegesis extensively. From the description of the freezing of the Yellow River at the beginning of his work "Lao Can's Travels", It can be seen that he conducted in-depth research on water conservancy and river engineering back then.
In 1880, he went to Yangzhou to study under Li Guangxin of the Taigu School. He would not resist Western knowledge and encouraged the use of foreign knowledge in China. He also founded an industry, but he was mostly accommodating to foreign businessmen. He was relegated to the world and regarded as a traitor.
In 1884, Liu E opened a tobacco shop in Shiqiao, Chengnan, Huai'an Prefecture, but it went out of business due to poor management. He later went to Yangzhou to practice medicine. He went to Nanjing to take part in the provincial examination and returned before the final exam. He also co-opened Shichang Bookstore in Shanghai, which also ended in failure.
In 1887, Liu E went to Henan to join Wu Dacheng, the governor of Donghe River, and served as the promotion officer of the River Map Bureau. It took Liu E three years to complete the five volumes of "Yellow River Map of the Three Provinces of Henan, Zhili and Shandong". After that, he went to Shanxi to mine coal mines and set up some industries one after another.
Because he used the character Gangbi in his work to allude to the cruel officials at that time, he was framed by Gangyi. In the 26th year of Guangxu (1900), the Eight-Power Allied Forces invaded Beijing. Liu E bought Taicang grain from the Russian army at a low price and resold it to the residents. Relieve hunger and poverty in Beijing.
In 1908, Liu E purchased land in Pukou on the other side of Nanjing to open a commercial port. He was accused of selling grain for private sale and was distributed to Dihua, Xinjiang (now Urumqi). He died of cerebral hemorrhage the following year and was buried in Huai'an, Jiangsu Province.
Liu E's famous literary work is "Lao Can's Travels", which is one of the four major condemnation novels in the late Qing Dynasty. It was first published in "Xiu Xiang Novel Semi-monthly", but was discontinued for some reason after 13 chapters. It was later republished in "Tianjin Daily News", with a total of 20 chapters. This novel has a profound description of many current ills at that time, but some experts believe that the second half is fake.
Liu E offered wine to Wang Yirong¡¯s family at the Imperial Academy and purchased a large number of oracle bones from the Yin Shang Dynasty. He wrote the book "Tie Yun Hidden Turtle", which was the first collection of oracle bone inscriptions and laid the foundation for subsequent research on oracle bone inscriptions.
Liu E also has masterpieces in mathematics and water conservancy, such as "Pythagorean Grass", "The Art of Solitary Triangle", "Illustrated Research on the Changes of the Yellow River in Past Dynasties", "Seven Essays on River Governance", "Continued Essay on River Governance", "Human Life" "Anhe Collection", "Tie Yun Zang Tao", "Tie Yun Ni Seal", etc.
The article "Listening to Books in Minghu Ju" turns music into specific parts:
"Wang Xiaoyu opened her red lips, opened her white teeth, and sang a few lines. The voice was not very loud at first, but she felt that there was an indescribable beauty in her ears. It was like an iron had been pressed on her internal organs, and there was no place where it was not pressed. There are 16,000 pores, just like eating ginseng fruit, there is not a single pore that is not feeling refreshed.
After singing more than ten lines, the song gradually got higher and higher, and suddenly it reached a peak. Like a thread thrown into the sky, I couldn't help but secretly exclaim.
Who knows that he is in that extremely high place. It can still turn around and turn; after a few turns, it is one level higher, with three or four stacks in a row, rising higher and higher, like the scene of climbing Mount Tai from the west of Aolai Peak: At first sight, Aolai Peak cuts the wall and climbs thousands of feet, and I think it is as high as the top. Tiantong; when I climbed to the top of Aolai Peak, I saw the Fan Cliff on the Aolai Peak; when I climbed to the Fan Cliff, I saw the Nantianmen on the Fan Cliff again - the more I climb, the more dangerous it becomes, and the more dangerous it becomes, the more strange it becomes.
After Wang Xiaoyu sang to the top of the third or fourth verse, he suddenly fell down, and tried his best to gallop the spirit of thousands of twists and turns, like a flying snake circling in the middle of the thirty-six peaks of Huangshan Mountain. Several times"
Hu Shi said: This section is a very bold attempt to write the phonology of singing. Music can only be listened to, not written down easily, so it cannot be used as metaphors without using many specific objects. Bai Juyi, Ouyang Xiu, and Su Shi all used this method.
Mr. Liu E used seven or eight different metaphors in this paragraph, using fresh words and clear impressions to make readers feel the beauty of the imageless music from these compelling impressions. This attempt finally succeeded It was very successful.
The two Qing Dynasty officials Yuxian (Yuxian) and Gangbi (Gangyi) in "Lao Can's Travels" are actually representatives of cruelty and perversity.
Lu Xun wrote in his review of "Lao Can's Travels": The so-called upright officials may be more hateful than corrupt officials, which no one has ever said, although the author is also very proud of it.
"Lao Can's Travels" is not completely realistic. For example, when Zhuang Gongbao alluded to Zhang Yao, the governor of Shandong, there was an unfair description. The book "Lao Can's Travels" also has some objections to the revolution. For example, he criticized Sun Yat-sen's leaderThe destiny is to control dogs, poisonous dragons, etc.
"Lao Can's Travels" is an accidental work. Xia Zhiqing, a Chinese American, believes that judging from Liu E's artistic talent in "Lao Can's Travels", it is not that he cannot write well-rounded stories, but that he is dissatisfied with the plot-centered novels of his predecessors and has Ambition embraces higher and more complex integrity to echo his personal views on the national economy and people's livelihood;
He also said: "Lao Can's Travel Notes", as its title suggests, is a third-person travel note of what the protagonist sees, thinks, says, and does. The layout of this travel note is more or less careless, and the content is partial or has a beginning and an end. Things that make it more similar to modern lyrical novels than any type of traditional Chinese novels. , Conclusion "Lao Can's Travels" is an almost revolutionary achievement.
In 1903, "Lao Can's Travels" was first published in "Zunxiang Novels". Since 1903 to 2003, a total of 186 Chinese versions of "Lao Can's Travels" have been published.
In "A Brief History of Chinese Novels", Lu Xun called Liu E's "The Travels of Lao Can", Li Baojia's "The Appearance of Officialdom", Wu Jianren's "The Strange Current Situation Witnessed in Twenty Years" and Zeng Pu's "Nie Haihua" as the four major novels of the late Qing Dynasty. Condemned novels.
In 1929, the foreign language translation of "Lao Can's Travels" had the third chapter of the original book translated by Arthur Waley, which was published in the November issue of "Asia" magazine with the title of "The Private Girl"; in 1939, Lin Xinjin and Ge Deshun The rstravelogue (medical insights) is a full translation.
In 1936, Lin Yutang translated the six chapters of two episodes of "Lao Can's Travels" under the title "The Nun of Mount Tai" (anunoftai kill n). Later, in 1951, Lin Yutang also translated an excerpt of "Lao Can's Travels" into san:se (widow, nun and surname). prostitute).
Yang Xianyi¡¯s: inanou Ting, the travelsoflaocan was translated by Yang Xianyi and Gladys in 1983, but it was not until the 1952 Cornell University Press translation by Xie Dick that the situation of not having a complete translation of the book changed.
This translation by Xie Dick has been published by Nanjing Yilin Publishing House in 2005 as one of the Greater China Library.
There is a Japanese version translated by Toshio Okazaki and published by Life Publishing House in 1941. The famous Czech sinologist Pu?ek published a Czech translation in 1946. The Russian translation of "Lao Can's Travels" (Moscow, 1958) was translated by Semanov. German Hans K¨¹bner published a German translation in 1989.