Daming Yinghua

Chapter 476 Postscript: Thoughts on the Creation of the Historical Trilogy

This article is about the creative background, process and feelings of my historical trilogy "The Evening Clouds of the Tang Dynasty", "The Joy of the Song Dynasty" and "The Glory of the Ming Dynasty". It is not part of the novel text. Readers who are not interested please do not subscribe to this chapter.

In 2018, I resigned from my stable public office of many years and became a freelancer. I then incorporated writing into my life. On the one hand, it helped relieve the pressure of starting a business. On the other hand, and more importantly, it also fulfilled my wish to write historical novels.

The first part, "The Evening Clouds of the Tang Dynasty", is set in the reign of Emperor Dezong of Tang. It was inspired by my schoolmate Professor Li Biyan's "Crisis and Reconstruction: The Tang Empire and Its Local Princes". The novel starts with the Jingyuan Rebellion in Chang'an in the fourth year of Jianzhong in the Tang Dynasty, and ends with a mutiny conspired by a fictional prince and a proud general of the vassal state.

Because of my previous reading of historical novels, mainly serious literary works such as "Li Ling", "The Broken Golden Bowl", "Zhang Juzheng", "White Gate Willow", and "Young Emperor", I am not very familiar with the style of online literature. I still write from the perspective of the so-called "indigenous people". My language style is also based on my favorite historical novelist Xu Xingye. Therefore, it may not be in line with the tastes of the current online literature readers with historical backgrounds, and it is not very popular. (This analysis comes from experienced industry observers and my readers. Thank you for your analysis, which is very valuable from a business perspective)

But personally, I like my first book, The Failed Tang Dynasty, the best. The core of comedy is tragedy, and so is the core of life? Digging into the cruel game and complex human nature in the power struggle between the central and local governments, stringing together the life tragedies of emperors to imperial tutors, from crown princes to military governors, from civil officials to military generals, from Han ladies to Tibetan princesses, and reflecting on what kind of attitude towards life we ​​should have to live our lives, is exactly what I want to write.

The second work, "Song Dynasty Qing Huan", is an attempt to switch from the male-oriented historical category to the female-oriented ancient Chinese category. Although this book has the largest number of readers' subscriptions on various platforms among the three works, it also received the most negative reviews.

As an author, I should not be arrogant and block out outside voices, so I will carefully read the feedback from many readers who give negative reviews. They basically focus on the following points:

1. The first half of the text contains too much historical background, which affects the reading coherence of the novel.

2. The two main male characters are poorly portrayed. One is a spy of the Liao regime that is in confrontation with the mainstream regime (Northern Song Dynasty), and the other is the prime minister's son who is obsessed with power in the group of civil officials. These two characters do not seem to be prepared for an ancient Chinese online novel with a comfortable reading experience.

3. The heroine's role runs counter to the "strong heroine" that is popular nowadays. The heroine has no inherent fighting power, is afraid to ask for help when in danger, and saves a spoiled concubine who is so arrogant and annoying out of the instinct to help the living. She is attracted to the ancient man because of her hormones. When she learns that the other party has a concubine similar to Xiren, she does not immediately issue a breakup letter, but hesitates. Although she finally relies on her own resistance and the help of the male lead to avoid humiliation twice, it is really too embarrassing for modern women.

4. The description of the relationship between Song and Liao is not from the perspective of the great and glorious Song Dynasty, and there is a suspicion of sympathy for the Liao regime. Moreover, the final outcome does not change the history of the Northern Song Dynasty being destroyed by the Jin regime's invasion of the south, which is not satisfying enough.

Regarding the first point above, my reflection is that, as a novel text, it is necessary to explain the historical background and characters that are closely related to the plot, but it should be presented in a more skillful narrative way, such as through character dialogues and plot conflicts, so that readers can understand it in a relatively less boring reading experience.

Regarding the second point, I do not regret my character creation, because I wanted to use the two male protagonists as a control group to express the influence of original family, the temptation of power, and social environment on the characters' personalities and life directions.

Thirdly, my idea for shaping the heroine is to first suppress her and then praise her. I don’t want to present her as a flat heroine, but to explore the shortcomings of an ordinary woman that coexist with her strengths, and then show her process and courage to break free from the barriers little by little.

But it turns out that this kind of writing is really, really unpopular nowadays. Even when the author tries to communicate peacefully with readers who give negative reviews, mainly by explaining some creative ideas and asking readers about the deep reasons why they dislike the characters (to help improve the quality of the next work), they will instead be attacked by readers who misunderstand and find faults, which is quite helpless.

The fourth point is very simple. The novel of Song Dynasty is not about the heroine killing people everywhere and destroying Jin to save Song Dynasty. The heroine has rescued some people of Song Dynasty (such as Su Shi, refugees from Hebei who were desperate due to natural disasters, and ordinary people on the border of Liao and Song Dynasty) through her own efforts. However, it is precisely the top figures in the Northern Song Dynasty regime who destroyed the heroine's ideals and achievements in her own country.

The third part of the historical trilogy, "The Glory of the Ming Dynasty", might not have been completed because the second part, "The Song Dynasty", gave the author too many negative emotions, and my main business happened to be entering its busiest time window.

Here, I would like to thank the audio drama producer and anchor of "The Joy of the Song Dynasty" on the Himalaya platform, "Ai Buzhun De A Shou", as well as the listeners who listened to the drama, left messages to discuss, and encouraged me in private messages. It was the well-made secondary creation and the inspiring words with a certain degree of ideological depth that made me turn on the computer again and start writing a new book "The Glory of the Ming Dynasty" which is also based on the real historical background. When the book was serialized for two-thirds, it won the silver medal in the competition sponsored by the Ministry of Culture.

At the same time, I must also thank a senior author: Ke Shanmeng. I am a loyal fan of his work "Late Ming Dynasty", and I admire his ability to write many three-dimensional characters with human nature in the shell of online literature.

Therefore, the historical period of the setting of "The Great Ming Dynasty" is ten years earlier than the historical period of "Late Ming Dynasty". "Late Ming Dynasty" is a story of two male protagonists traveling through time from a male perspective, while I am still trying to have a single female protagonist traveling through time from a female perspective, and the female protagonist has no emotional line.

The main plot of "The Glory of the Ming Dynasty" is very clear, that is, the heroine changes the outcome of the confrontation between the Ming regime and the Later Jin regime in Liaodong. The sub-plots are intertwined with court party struggles, the struggle for imperial power, the son's revenge for his father, women doing business and running schools, the development of Taiwan, anti-colonial aggression, and the maritime power strategy of the Age of Discovery. There are also many traditional cultural and intangible cultural heritage elements.

The heroine of Daming is relatively "cold", but her methods are not contradictory to her kindness. She has tenacity and courage, and she also has her own bottom line of humanity.

At the end of the book, I considered adding a dialogue between the heroine and the future decision-makers of the empire (Zhu Youxiao and Zhu Youjian), explaining that the concept of imperial power is bound to be crushed by the wheels of history and expressing the anti-civilization mentality that no man or woman should attempt to become emperor. However, I did not write it.

Those who are on the same frequency despise totalitarianism even more than I do. Those who are not on the same frequency will only say "it's smuggling private goods". Why write it? Everything is self-explanatory.

After finishing the trilogy, he turned to realistic themes.

Historical theme, see you later.