The literary giants of the late Ming Dynasty began by copying books

After dealing with a bunch of people's inquiries, Wang Wenlong excused himself to leave and was about to go have something to eat at the table next to him, when a British guy suddenly ran up to Wang Wenlong.

This Englishman is quite thin and has dark skin. He looks like he often travels on boats.

He stopped Wang Wenlong and said: "Mr. Wang Jianyang, my name is Thomas Adams, and I am the captain of the Hope, a five-hundred-ton sailing ship."

"Hope?" Wang Wenlong thought for a while and asked, "Have you ever participated in the Rotterdam Company's team that went to the Far East?"

The Rotterdam Company was one of the fourteen companies that was the predecessor of the Dutch East India Company. Its reputation was not too prominent. Thomas was quite surprised when he heard this: "Do you know that voyage? It's a pity that the trade to the Spice Islands was not successful. We sacrificed many people and lost a lot of money. My brother also died during this voyage..."

Sure enough, it was this fleet. Wang Wenlong nodded in his mind and said to Thomas: "I heard from my father-in-law that Japan's General Tokugawa Ieyasu discovered a merchant ship stranded on the coast of Japan two years ago. Most of the people on board were British. , maybe your brother is on the boat."

Thomas was quite surprised when he heard this and asked quickly: "Do you know the name of that ship?"

Wang Wenlong shook his head and said: "Based on the spelling described by the Japanese, I guess it is the merchant ship Mercy in Dutch."

Thomas Adams shouted: "That is my brother's ship. I wonder if he is still alive?"

Wang Wenlong knew in his heart that Thomas's brother was of course still alive. Li Dan had never told him about the stranding of the Hirado ship, but Thomas Adams's brother William Adams Wang Wenlong had heard about it: This gentleman was on a voyage to explore the Spice Islands Encountering a storm, the ship drifted to Japan and ran aground. It was later controlled by Tokugawa Ieyasu and built ships for Tokugawa Ieyasu.

Later, William Adams became Tokugawa Ieyasu's diplomatic adviser, married Tokugawa Ieyasu's youngest daughter, changed his Japanese name to "Miura Anzhen", even owned a territory of 250 koku, and became a member of the British East India Company. The consul is Japan's so-called "first Western samurai". Until the Tokugawa Ieyasu era film and television dramas that Wang Wenlong watched in his previous life, he was still a recurring supporting character.

Thomas was overjoyed when he heard this. He wrote down what Wang Wenlong said about the Japanese ports and planned to find his brother's whereabouts in a few days. Then he took out a cowhide-sealed "History of Portugal" and said to Wang Wenlong: "Mr. Wang Jianyang, you are The adventurers in the book are so great, and you have recorded many good stories that deserve to be passed down."

Thomas Adams and his brother William Adams were both navigators. When they were young, they served in the British Royal Navy and participated in the battle with the Spanish Armada. After retiring, they joined the Dutch Rotterdam Company.

Both brothers are adventurous characters. At first, they joined the Dutch company to do not even trade, but to explore the Arctic.

The Dutch hoped to rely on sailing ships to find the northeast route to Asia along the Siberian coast. Without icebreakers and wooden sailing ships, they also caught up with the Little Ice Age during the Wanli period, which was one of the few in human history. Such an adventure was obviously impossible to succeed and died. After recruiting many people, the two brothers returned without success, but they soon joined the fleet heading to the East Indies to open a new route.

Then the team encountered a storm again, William Adams was blown to Japan, and Thomas Adams narrowly escaped.

Such an adventure did not dissuade Thomas from exploring. His biggest feeling after reading "History of Portugal" was that he felt excited about the records of the Portuguese's opening of routes, and he also admired Wang Wenlong very much.

He said: "Did you know that your "History of Portugal" is now popular in the UK? From the elite to the ordinary people, everyone is fascinated by your book."

Wang Wenlong smiled and said: "I don't know how this book spread to the UK, and I was surprised to hear the news."

Thomas said: "I have been reading your book on the road. You quoted many European poems in the book. You are obviously a learned man and know a lot about European literature and art. I wonder what your favorite Who is your favorite European writer?”

Wang Wenlong answered directly: "William Shakespeare."

Thomas was surprised again: "You actually know our British Shakespeare?"

Wang Wenlong nodded and said: "I have read the plays written by him. The British have been obsessed with religion for too long. They need Shakespeare's writing style to face reality. Dramas that describe the lives of ordinary people are also a pioneering work for European literature. .”

Thomas fully agreed and nodded and said: "Shakespeare's plays are great works that open a new page in the history of art."

Wang Wenlong laughed and said: "It's hard to say that there are many dramas about ordinary people's lives in China. Many of China's dramas are very brilliant, but Europeans have no chance to understand them."

Only when Wang Wenlong traveled to this era could he clearly feel how deeply the world in his previous life was affected by Eurocentrism.

For example, in his previous life, Guan Hanqing was called "Shakespeare of the East" and Suzhou was called "Venice of the East". At that time, Wang Wenlong didn't think there was any problem, but in this era, Guan Hanqing was from the Yuan Dynasty, Shakespeare was from the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty; and Venice was from the Eastern Han Dynasty. Only then did people settle down, and Suzhou had already become the capital of Chun Shenjun's fiefdom as early as the pre-Qin period.

Calling Suzhou, which was founded at least four hundred years before Venice, the "Venice of the East", and calling Guan Hanqing, who was three hundred years before Shakespeare, the "Shakespeare of the East" is equivalent to calling Qin Shihuang "the Napoleon of the East" - isn't this nonsense? Shakespeare's lofty status in the history of European literature is mainly because he changed the way of writing ancient European dramas: he changed the rhythm and formula of the drama to make it flexible and changeable; he changed the subject matter and turned the brushstrokes originally used to write sacred stories to ordinary people; Change the language, the writing style is humorous, and various British slangs are used in the works, etc...

This is certainly an innovation for the rigid European literature, but it is nothing new for the world of literature: adapting rhymes, writing market literature, and using slang - this has been the practice of playwrights in China since at least the Yuan Dynasty. doing something.

The literature and art of the previous world have always been dominated by Europeans, so Shakespeare is directly known as "Zeus on Mount Olympus of human literature", but in terms of his contributions, he cannot stand on Mount Olympus. Less Zeus, the four masters of Yuan opera and a group of playwrights from the Ming Dynasty can all squeeze in.

Wang Wenlong simply started to popularize science for Thomas, telling stories such as "The Injustice of Dou E", "The Orphan of Zhao", "Handan Chronicles", "Guan Yu Goes Alone to the Meeting", etc. He explained directly in English, which quickly attracted the attention of everyone present.

After telling the story for almost half an hour, Wang Wenlong finally finished telling the story. The people around him either understood English through a translator or directly, and their mouths were all open at this time.

Fan Li'an said in surprise: "Chinese dramas are so interesting. So these are the operas sung by the Cantonese people?" - Fan Li'an also saw the plays performed on the stage when he entered Guangdong to preach, but he couldn't understand them at all. At this time Only then did I realize that Chinese dramas are so interesting.

Wang Wenlong suggested to Fan Li'an: "There is a certain difference between the aesthetics of ordinary Chinese people and the scholar-bureaucrat class. If Westerners want to understand China, it is not enough to just read the Four Books and Five Classics of Confucianism. The Jesuits can translate some Chinese novels and plays. "

Luo Mingjian's translation of the "Four Books" was time-consuming and laborious, but it left little influence in Europe. It is difficult for the Chinese themselves to understand this thing, let alone want to attract Europeans.

Wang Wenlong knew that Chinese literature did become popular in Europe for a while, mainly novels from the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Some of the Ming Dynasty novels about talents and beauties of average quality became popular in Europe.

It can be seen that cultural exchanges, whether in the East or the West, are not very effective through spring and snow. It is popular literature that resonates most with the people.

Fan Li'an nodded when he heard Wang Wenlong's words and wondered whether he should ask Luo Mingjian to translate some Chinese novels and scripts.

At this time, Thomas said: "The beauty of Chinese dramas is simply unbelievable. It's a pity that foreigners can't understand these twists and turns of the scripts. I think Chinese poetry must be more advanced."

Wang Wenlong said with a smile: "The translation of poetry is too difficult. If we directly translate Chinese poetry into European languages, I am afraid that most of the charm will be lost."

Even though some people sighed and said: "This is such a pity, it would be great if I could see the poems written by Mr."

Wang Wenlong thought for a while and said: "How about I write an English poem."

"Sir, can you also write English poems?"

Wang Wenlong came directly to the paper and pen, waved his hand and wrote the name of the poem "Ode to the West Wind" on the paper.

The five-stanza poem "Ode to the West Wind" is the representative work of the British romantic poet Shelley. In the original history, it would take two hundred years for the British to write it. Many of the techniques in it had not yet appeared in European poetry at that time. It must be a very novel work in the eyes of the British.

As for the great changes in English vocabulary in the past two hundred years, there will certainly be some obstacles, but standard English gradually matured after Shakespeare. It is not strange to change some English spelling methods in this era.

The different spelling methods of some words in the poem can easily be interpreted as Wang Wenlong's unfamiliarity with English, or that he deliberately changed the spelling method in order to make the poem rhyme, but the general meaning and rhythm remain the same.

As he was writing, people who could understand English gradually gathered around him, and those who couldn't understand were helped to translate.

The Chinese people present were all amazed when they saw Wang Wenlong writing in Latin characters, attracting a group of foreigners to watch.

Only halfway through writing this poem, Thomas said excitedly: "This poem is so beautiful and full of philosophical meaning. It is different from current British poetry."

"Ode to the West Wind" is a very long poem, and those who can stand around Wang Wenlong and read it all the time are basically poetry lovers. The more they read, the more they admire the author of this poem.

(End of this chapter)