Detective Fiction In The Ming Dynasty

Courtcase story is a genre which deals with all sorts of cases. It is a kind of language art in which the objects are crimes, inquests and the social lives connecting with them. In narrow sense, it only means the courtcase story in Ming Dynasty.Chinese courtcase story has a long tradition and posesses lots of writings. There are many great works, such as: Cuozhan Cui Ning, Longtu gongan, and Sanxia mtyi. They are widely known and most Chinese people's favorites. Because of some social and cultural prejustice, e.g.: Confucius saving nothing about the supernatural, and the faults during its development (e.g.: The theme is stale, the narrative methods are obsolete.), the courtcase story has never obtained its "legal" status in both the traditional Literature history and other works about it. Most scholars pay no attention to the courtcase stories and 'very few people studied it systematically until 1979'. When somebody discussed it, he/she always blamed it. Even in Lu Xun's Short History of Chinese fiction, there are still some inappropriate comments.As far as we know, there are few courtcase stories of Song and Yuan period or any materials in the catalogues of that period. However, all kinds of courtcase stories in Ming dynasty flourished, especially after the Wanli period. They developed .quickly and enjoyed a good harvest. The most important is that a lot of courtcase story collections came forth after the Wanli period, such as: Bmjia gongan, Longtu gongan. Hoi Gangfeng gongan, Xinmin gongan, Xiangqing gongan, Xiangxing gongan, Lutiao gongan, Lianrning gongan, Zhusi gongan, Shenming gongan and Ming/ing gangan, etc. They made courtcase story arriving its peak. The publication of the short story collection, Bao Longtu baijia gongan, indicated that the inferior genre, courtcase story, had become important.The reasons that courtcase stones flouished in Ming dynasty include: l.The prosperous economy in Ming period stimulated the civilians' desires. Until the late Ming period, the morals debased and the whole society pursued the material satisfaction and the feast for their lusts. The courtcase stories narrated a great many of murders, rapes, and crimes which catered to the civilians' appetite. 2. Since the middle period of Ming, some capitalistic elements developed ui the corrupt system. Meanwhile, the trend of enlighten thought was developing. Ever since Li Zhi and Xin school(Xin xue) emerged, the trend of enlighten thought became effective. It was really a rebellion to the New Confucianism (Chengzhu school). It admited that the desire and selfishness were reasonable in the field of Philosophy and Literature. 3. With the beginning of the capitalism and the development of business, the civic culture was prosperous in the middle age of Ming. The courtcase story is a part of it. 5. The publication business was prospering. It contributed to the issue of the literature books including courtcase stories. Also, what the Ming government advocated is one of the important factors which led to the prosperity of courtcase stories in the late Ming period.The courtcase stories in Ming period includes three aspects of contents: l.the death trap in the dream of money; 2. the desire cofusion which broke through the courtesy; 3. the scenes of lives in cities and countries. Actually, the hero was not the judges or officials in most stories. They seemed as the symbol of the morality, or the mask which represented the courtesy and authority. Certain!),there are some basic themes which praised the smart judges, such as: Baijia gongan and Langtu gongan. The fair judges especially Judge Bao were the focus of these stories. The story of Judge Bao recurred in many courtcase stories since the Song and Yuan period. As an ideal official, Judge Bao is the synonym of justice and uprightness. The study of Judge Bao is as important as that of Sherlock Holmes in the western detective stories.However, Judge Bao is quiet different from Sherlock Holmes. Sherlock Holmes managed to find out the truth of the death riddle which the cri...