Ming And Qing Dynasties "water Margin" To Accept

The Culture of Water Margin originated from the revolt of Song Jiang in the Late Song Dynasty. However, during the following hundreds of years, people adapted the story a lot by produced through artistic or imaginative effort so the story became quite different from the history. Different groups of people blended their understanding of the society, history and life to the acceptance and spread of Water Margin. Especially in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the publication of Water Margin made the acceptance more ardently and greatly enlarged the audience, manifold ways of spread. It could be said the golden age of the acceptance of Water Margin.According to their social roles and the cultural structure, the audience of Water Margin can be classified into three groups: rulers, liberators, and the mass.The attitude toward Water Margin of rulers constantly changed during the Ming and Qing Dynasties. In the Ming Dynasty, the rulers were comparatively tolerant of Water Margin, for example, adapting dramas, publicizing the novel and imitation, etc. Although they didn't publicize greatly, they also didn't prohibit restrict. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the social situations changed a lot. The contradiction and struggle among different classes had become intense, many revolts imitated the doings of figures in Water Margin, which intensified the hatred of rulers towards this novel. Then Water Margin was prohibited from being published. Rulers of the Qing Dynasty took more severe measures and even issued decrees to prohibit the publication of the novel. However, on the other hand, rulers liked reading Water Margin and its adaptations, some of them even loved to adapted dramas themselves. This contradictory phenomenon reflected the complex inner world of rulers. In terms of social role, they were the rulers of the country, so they must prohibit anything which possibly overthrow the government. On the other hand, as individuals, they also needed spiritual entertainment. The complex mien not only acting on Water Margin but also the whole culture.Literati's attitudes towards Water Margin were also quite complex. They wrote novels and dramas based on Water Margin, commented and adapted it, and even imitated it while writing their own works, which set off surges of the acceptance of Water Margin one after another. As a special group, literati were closely related to ruling class, so their attitudes towards Water Margin were greatly influenced by those of the rulers. Their cognition to Water Margin more came from politics .This reflected their strong sense of social responsibility and complex feelings towards politics. On the other hand, literati are direct successors of culture, so they enjoyed spiritual independence to some extent. They sung highly of Water Margin in terms of artistic value and greatly improved its status, which had a positive impact on the writing and comment of novels.The mass, in the low class of the society, were influenced little by the upper class. They attached importance to its practical functions while accepting Water Margin. Folks, dramas, vulgarism and the like were quite different from the works written by liberators. These works reflected their view towards the society, outpoured their long for improving their status and admiration of heroes. Besides, Water Margin was lively in the mass. Features in Margin Water existed in many kinds of games and performance. The mass lessened their hardships and tribulations in the material world in the process of accepting Water Margin in a humorous and joking way. Much more, revolters directly practiced the form and spirit of the rebellion described in the novel. Therefore, the mass was a special audience of Water Margin.Rulers, intellectuals and the mass bored different attitude towards Water Margin and they influenced mutually, which wrote a constantly changing history of acceptance of Water Margin...