The Overseas Countries' Images In The Travelogues, Novels And Dramas Of The Ming Dynasty

The ancient Chinese people had contacted with overseas areas long ago. At the same time, since the emergence of the Shan Hai Jing, there have been many works in the Chinese literature,which described or imagined overseas countries and their people.This type of literature become more prosperous with the commencement of Zheng He's voyages, to the Ming Dynasty.This paper analyzed the literature of the Ming Dynasty which described the overseas countries (regions) and its inhabitants totally and comprehensively by using the theories and methods of comparative literature.This paper first analyzed the overseas countries'images in the three books on Western Ocean firstly,revealed the ways of thinking on looking foreigners and deep cultural psychology of Chinese in the Ming Dynasty, which behind the overseas countries'images,then analyzed the overseas countries'images in the fictions and dramas of the Ming Dynasty,found out there are two different types of the overseas countries' image in the fictions and dramas of the Ming Dynasty,One type of works was influenced by Shan Hai Jing and other mythologies and ancient folk legends about overseas,still portrayed overseas countries as a mysterious and absurd world purely;another reinforced the discrimination against other countries and foreigner,stressed and even exaggerated the backwardness and barbarism of overseas countries, dwarfed other countries'international status lower,the third type of works was influenced by the prosperous foreign trade in the late Ming Dynasty, portrayed the overseas countries as a place which blessed with rich business opportunities.This paper analyzed the overseas countries'images in the different genres of literary works,outlined the track of the evolution of the overseas countries'images of the Ming Dynasty Literature,revealed the relationship between the social and cultural background and the changes of the overseas countries'images,explored how did the self of the literature of the Ming Dynasty shape image of the other,revealed the cultural psychological when Chinese of the Ming Dynasty describe or imagine overseas countries.