A Comparative Study On The Writing Of "Reason And Desire" In Jin Ping Mei Ci Hua And Qi Lu Deng

"Reason" and "desire" are important propositions discussed in the history of philosophy.Neo-Confucianism in Song and Ming Dynasties has raised this proposition to an unprecedented height,which has been lasting ever since,affecting all aspects of social life.Jin Ping Mei Ci Hua and Qi Lu Deng,are the representative works of the novels of the Ming and Qing dynasties.Both of them construct the whole story through the ups and downs of the two families,shape various characters,and expose the darkness and abuses of social reality.Jin Ping Mei Ci Hua,as the pioneering work of the world novel,has a far-reaching impact on the later world novel such as Qi Lu Deng,so comparing the two works will have an important value and significance.The two works have obvious traces of "reason and desire" writing in terms of characters and structures.Influenced by the environment of the times,political thoughts,and social thoughts,the expression of "reason and desire" is different..Reason reflected in the novel refers to the etiquette and moral standards and norms of feudal society."Desire" is human desire,referring to the pursuit of materialistic desires and passions beyond normal survival needs.According to the different attitudes of the characters to "reason and desire",the characters in Jin Ping Mei Ci Hua can be divided into three types: indulgence and abandon reason,restraint desire and comply with reason,pursuit of desire to satisfy and fear of being disciplined,and the characters in Qi Lu Deng can be divided into four types: hiding desire with reason,revealing reason in mind,losting in the pursuit of desire and returning to reason.Jin Ping Mei Ci Hua writes about the complexity of human nature,the contradiction between "reason" and "indulgence".By contrast,the characters in Qi Lu Deng are not obvious and weak in personality,focusing on the aspects of "reason" or wandering between "reason" and "indulgence".The structure of the two novels is quite similar.They are all based on a family structure.Among them,the writing of desire runs through Jin Ping Mei Ci Hua from beginning to end,while,the alternation of reason and desire plays a dominant role in the novel Qi Lu Deng.Through the analysis of the characters and plots of Jin Ping Mei Ci Hua and Qi Lu Deng,we can see that the similarities between the two works are: affirming the existence of human desire and exposing the evil consequences of indulgence.This is because the two works share the same exhortation theme,but Jin Ping Mei Ci Hua adopts the way of "use kinky to curb kinky",and Qi Lu Deng takes the approach of "explain the thought of reason from the front ".There are also great differences in the writing of "reason and desire" between the two works.In Jin Ping Mei Ci Hua,there is a contradiction between " indulgence of desire to oppose the bondage of reason " and " use rational thought to control the indulgence of desire ",while in Qi Lu Deng,there is an obvious thought feature of " use rational thought to control the indulgence of desire ".The reason is that,social turmoil in the late Ming Dynasty and the rise of the theory of mind had a certain impact on Neo-Confucianism.At the beginning of the Qing Dynasty,the rulers adopted the policy of reviving Neo-Confucianism.These social realities will inevitably affect the creation of the literati.