| Combined the transformation of scholars and literature with historical events which was reformation and abolishment of Ke-tsu system in Late Qing, this thesis tries to give a cultural explaination about the influence of Ke-tsu, which was the largest cultural background of Chinese tranditional society and tranditional literature, and so as to find the ralationship between them since1905th. The thesis focuses on four aspects:a. How the Scholars, which were the fundamental component of Ke-tsu society, had expressed their views and attitute towards the refomation and abolishment of Ke-tsu? And whether their conditions and mentality had changed much or not after that? b. How the writers, which were the subjects of literature, had a living before and after the reformation and abolishment of Ke-tsu of Late Qing? And whether it influenced on the literature or not? c. How the stereotyped writing style(八股文) had influenced on the literature of Late Qing around the abolishment of Ke-tsu? How to value the importance of the abolishment of Ke-tsu on the transformation of society and literature at Late Qing Dynesty? From these four aspects, I want to explore the root cause of the abolishment of Ke-tsu, and reveal how political reformation had deeply influenced on Chinese tranditional culture and literature, and uncover the truth about the scholars and literature at that time.First of all, Chapter I expounds Empress Cixi and Emperor Guangxu’s political activities and makes it as a background when describing the basic situation of the reformation and abolishment of Ke-tsu system, the idea which is learned from the greatest historical classics--<Shih Chi>. Chapter Ⅱ discusses the scholars of the upper class--the upper officals of empeor which had been benefited from Ke-tsu. It makes a investigate to their attitude towards the reformation of Ke-tsu and their remedial measures towards the reality after its abolishment. Chapter III is talked about middle class, which is the gentry in the imperial society. Firstly it discusses the radical innovationists such as Kang You-wei and Liang Qi-chao; secondly is about Yan Fu, Ye De-hui, Zeng Lian and etc. And members of the imperial academy also be included. It tries to make it prominent by contrast and individual cases about the historical significance of Ke-tsu’s reformation of Late Qing. Chapter IV is about the lower scholars in imperial society, which is included the students(童生, Tong Sheng), the scholars who passed the imperial examination at the country level(秀才,Xiu Cai). and those provincial graduates (举人,Ju Ren)who had never participated in the officialdom, and those scholars who had determined not to take the imperial examination. All of them made up the majority of Chinese tranditional intellectuals, expecially the former. Make an expeditionary research about them is beneficial to recover the most real being of the imperial society in the background when the rural education had been shrinking and Modern educational system had in a embryonic form.The second part is about the Ke-tsu’s influence on literature of Late Qing Dynesty. Chapter V is eptomizes the writers and literature around the period of abolishment of Ke-tsu when great changes had been taken in the writers’ living condition, phychology and emotions, etc. And the change also had affected the literature. The theory of "Innovation"and "Conservative","Elegant"and "Popular" had been through the whole process of the development of Late Qing’s literature. New communication medias such as newspaper and magizines prevailed, and it brought great changes to literature from contents to the manners of composition. Numerous and shoddy novels of the Late Qing reveals the trendency of literature and culture in this period. The essay and poems in this period are the contral content of Chapter VI and VII. In this section, I want to discuss the relationship beteen Ke-tsu styles and literature. Though stereotyped writing(八股, Bagu) had been considered as the root of the nation’s poorness and weakness, and people wanted to abolish it long before, the influence of Bagu was still clearly on the tranditional essay. Not only from the structure, verbal and rhyme can we see the influence of Shilv(试律诗) poetry on "rhyme style"&ancient style poetry, but also its elgent style had still shown the strong attractivity of the classical poetry. On the one hand, the classical poets of the Late Qing had corrected the deviation of frivolity and flirty style since Qian-Jia period, and still innated the laws of poetry’s development and did their best to learn from many ways in order to form their pecularity in classical poetry history. However, on the other hand some poets had tried to carved out a place which was different from the past and quoted some nouns, objects, sceneries of alien that formed a more unique and exotic style-which was called "new poetry" at that time. Different styles of innovation displayed different features in various genres of literature, which its lessons can be drawn and its successes can be learned by late generations.Chapter VIII is a conclusion of the thesis which correlated with the whole details. In this section I announces we should introspect the simple and crude attitude to Chinese tranditional culture and literature, and disgree the prejudice using the western way and the theory of evolution as a supreme standard (which is so-called "Modern Angle") to select and judge it. We also can recover the veil that covered up the truth of it and keep a level head towards the national culture heritage. |
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