Chapter 62

Thus, the power of literary dissemination is immense. Everyone here studies Chinese, and Chinese includes both language and literature. People often wonder, what use is studying literature? Just look—how powerful can literary dissemination be? It could take a story of robbery and abduction and, by quoting it out of context, turn it into a beautiful myth, then make more than 99 percent of the people in China believe in that beautiful myth. That was truly remarkable. This phenomenon of dissemination showed, on one hand, that literature catered to a psychological need among ordinary people; on the other, it showed that the story of Zeng Lei had been built up layer by layer through literary dissemination. While the story of Zhuo Wenjun and Sima Xiangru gave us a certain sense of satisfaction, we might also wonder: Why was it so? Was it really that legendary? Throughout history, had no one ever questioned the story of Sima Xiangru and Zhuo Wenjun? Please listen to the next lecture. Thank you, everyone. Mm, mm, I—mm! Today, we will discuss the fourth lecture. After the story of Zhuo Wenjun and Sima Xiangru was recorded in Records of the Grand Historian, it underwent two waves of literary dissemination. Those two waves, especially the dissemination through popular literature since the Song and Yuan dynasties, established Sima Xiangru's status as a saint of love and Zhuo Wenjun's lofty status as the foremost talented woman in the world to elope. Since the Song and Yuan dynasties, all those popular literary works had continuously sung and praised the love story of Sima Xiangru and Zhuo Wenjun. Yet the real relationship between Sima Xiangru and Zhuo Wenjun had already been recorded with great accuracy in Sima Xiangru's biography in Records of the Grand Historian more than two thousand years ago. Although