A Study On Those Things Of Ming Dynasty In The Approach Of Five-Factors

Those things of Ming Dynasty, a book written by Dangnianmingyue, was brought out on internet at first, and was warmly welcomed by a lot of internet surfers. Once it was published in 2006, it became hot almost right off, and became one of the Ten National Best Sellers of the Year. The book is an adaptation of the official history documents with literature narrative techniques, which makes it a fitting example for us to analyze the contemporary literature activities in China.It is widely believed that a general literature critic should be made on the ground of the social, economic and political situational backgrounds of a work. Internet history literature is deeply trapped in a net intertwined with many matters such as consumption society, popular culture, post-modernity and national ethos. In order to transmit human thoughts and experiences, internet history literature tries to narrate history in the tone of literature. Such a sort of writing style can not only represent values and worth of history, art and literature, but also some meanings and values of institution, culture and ordinary life. In such a way, it can display the contemporary Chinese cultural status to so extent, and give a mirror to the mass cultural psychology of this time. Since there have been few systematical literature critic on internet literature activities, the study on Those Things of Ming Dynasty can be of certain realistic meaning as well as academic worth.Based on the"four factors"of literature activity as a framework with"the fifth factor"in addition, which was proposed by Shan Xiaoxi, efforts are made in this paper to inspect the interactivities among universe, artist, work, audience and mass media, especially internet, around Those Things of Ming Dynasty written by Dangnianmingyue. The critic in this paper is based on the above five-factor theory together with other relevant theories such as consumption theory, popular culture theory, post-modernity theory and culture critic theory. From approaches of literature essentialism, writing theory, constitutive theory and acceptance theory, this study tries to illuminate the characteristics of literature activities in China when this country is approaching a commercial society.The structure of this paper is as follows: The aim and significance of this research as well as study approaches and methods are enlisted in the preamble.The literature Universe of Those things of Ming Dynasty is tried to be delved in Chapter One. Firstly, at a time of reform and putting outward, China is boosting into a consumption and mass society. As a result, characters of consumerism and mass culture are becoming increasingly obvious. Hedonism is the main tone of culture consumption of this time, therefore, literature activities are becoming more and more of consumerism and entertainment features, which is the basic social cultural causes that coins the affluently attractive style of this book. Secondly, with the booming of Chinese economy, we Chinese people are caught with a culturally unroofed feeling mingled with strengthened confidence in traditional Chinese culture. As a response, cultural conservatism has arisen in China. The mass fervor about popular history is an expression of this social change. The work of Dangnianmingyue is foam of this fervor.Work is analyzed in Chapter Two. The changes of opinions on the essence of literature are analyzed in the first place so that we can have a better understanding of this book. Then, the evolution of history writing styles is sort out. In this way, we find that history indeed can be written in a narrative way. In fact, the writing style of Dangnianmingyue is inherited from Sima Qian and Huang Renyu, especially the latter in A Year of No Significance. The influence of Huang on Dangnianmingyue is an example to show that a former writer can change the literature universe and the mind of audience of a time through his work, so as to affect later literature writing and acceptance. In a commercialized China, cheerful reading is a projecting feature of popular literature. Some post-modernism writing tricks exposed in postmodernism literature study are wielded skillfully, maybe in ignorance, by Dangnianmingyue, which makes his book so attractive that it becomes successful nearly at once.Discussion turns to the writing on internet and publishing of Those things of Ming Dynasty. Thereby we can have a better view of the influence of the fifth factor of literature activity, namely mass media, especially internet here, on universe, artist, audience and work of literature. As an unprecedented character, the interaction between artist and audience on internet has totally changed the traditional relation between them. Internet writing text is exactly the outcome of this interaction. The mass participation of internet writing can logically leads to carnival, which in turn either makes the internet writing hot or results in conflicts. An internet work cannot become a traditional book in paper for ordinary readers until it is chosen by a publisher with capital aiming at profit. The intrusion of capital can bring internet literature both prosperity and serious problems, which cannot be resolved in the future without languish hard working of all those involved.A short conclusion is made at the end of this paper to sum up the main themes of this study.