On Wu Jingzi's Thinking About The Reality And Destiny Of Confucianism From His Storis Of The Confucian Scholars

Wu Jingzi, a novelist with the makings of a thinker, produced Stories of the Confucian Scholars, a great work embodied with his remarkable thinking. It is a work based on his strong sense of social responsibility and worries about a society marked with the declining of traditional moral standards, the disappearance of social norms and the enormous social crises under apparent quietness and peace.The main body of this thesis is divided into three chapters.The first chapter is a discussion on the thinking of Stories of the Confucian Scholars about the reality of Confucianism. It points out that, after a rational inspection into the living state of his contemporary scholars, the author objectively depicted the various abnormal personalities of the intellectuals under the negative influence of the stereotyped culture. However, his depiction is not simply cruel criticism or endless pity, but profound thinking about the cause of this phenomenon, namely, the mutation ofConfucianism------the stereotyped culture. This chapter is again divided into threesections. The first section, through an analysis of and comparison between several intellectuals deeply affected by the stereotyped culture, exposes the harm of this stereotyped culture to the sense and thinking ability of intellectuals. The second section, after an inspection into the process of the change of Kuang Chaoren from an innocent young man to a man of ruined morality and degenerate personality, points out that the excess pursuit of morality in Confucian culture is the main cause of the degeneration of intellectuals. The third section, based on an analysis of Du Shaoqing, points out that, in a society of waning Confucian traditions versus prosperous stereotyped culture, there are few moral norms observed by people. All in all, the stereotyped culture causes incomplete personalities and abnormal living state of intellectuals, who, as the successor and passer of culture, are bound to hasten the waning of Confucianism.The second chapter discusses the artistic reflection of the difficult state of Confucianism in the last feudal society by producing several ideal features. This chapter is further divided into two sections. In the first section, the author sculpturesDoctor Yu, an upright intellectual with high morality, who endeavors to rescue the degenerate society with Confucian traditional morality norms. However, the dismissing of the intellectuals indicates that the primary Confucian moral culture cannot be reconstructed; and the lack of accomplishments in the life of these people with perfect morality reflects the difficult state of the construction of moral personality. These are all the reflection of the inner contradictions in the development of Confucian culture on individuals. The second section points out the doomed failure of primary Confucian political ideal in real world by analyzing the life experiences of Xiao Yunxian. The contradiction between Confucian ideal and real politics again throw Wu Jingzi into a dilemma, a dilemma not only he faced, but all the ambitious people have no way to avoid.The third chapter sculptures the feature Du Shaoqing, an intellectual deeply influenced by Confucian culture. Though greatly dissatisfied with the reality, he has no way out. He tries to set himself free from the dilemma and set a fresh cultural atmosphere; however, he ended by returning to the life pursuit of primary Confucianism due to his incapability to see the future clearly. History determines his congenital defects; and reality causes the tragic result of his life pursuit. These are exactly vivid depictions of all the ambitious intellectuals in that age.