Historical Imagination & Cultural Reconstruction

Ever since the May 4th Movement of 1919, the Old China as described in the vernacular fiction has been frequently regarded as dark, backward and unenlightened by the mainstream ideology. However, JinYong, deeply influenced by the traditional Chinese culture, has managed to depict an ideal prospect of the civilized China for us with his original imagination.Obviously, the "traditional culture" is the "root" of JinYong's writing, which embodies the influence of the traditional civilization, especially that of Confucianism. This thesis will try to develop this idea in three respects: (1) the cultural context of JinYong's artistic production, (2) the relationship between JinYong's fiction and the Chinese history as well as the cultural rebuilding process, and (3) the world of "chivalrous heroes" and the Chinese fashion of thought.The traditional Chinese culture suffered unequaled bewilderment and embarrassment in the modern times. In consequence of the marginal status of China in the world, the Chinese culture lost the qualification of conversing with the Western culture, so much so that the traditional intellectuals were baffled with an internal anxiety that the Confucian civilization would come to an end. It was under such a circumstance that JinYong made up his mind to rebuild the cultural China in his imagination.Based on the unofficial or less-known history, JinYong's stories, which are narrated in a discourse of folklore and, more often than not, happened in a period of convulsion, a period in which China still took the lead in the worldwide culture, thus have a peculiar cultural flavor. Aiming to preserve the prime of the traditional culture of China, his writing career experiences a process of psychological change: it starts with a faith in Pure Confucianism and Righteousness, which was first lost but later rebuilt, -then switches to a belief in Taoism and Buddhism\disbelief inConfucianism-followed by an ironical understanding of the traditional culture(as illustrated in LuDingJi)-and finally ends up with an attempt to return to the times of Original Confucianism (i.e. the Spring and Autumn Period), which, however, is already beyond the point of no return (as illustrated in YueNvJian). This sense of bewilderment and despair in JinYong's writing, together with his psychological change in the course of literary production and the constraints in the realistic society, decides that his "culture rebuilding " cannot but be a fancy. On the other hand, the process of the creation and acceptance of JinYong's novels also reflects the Chinese thinking pattern: JinYong successfully combines "kongfu" with "moral cultivation" by using "internal work" as a bridge, which fully demonstrates the influence of "moral cultivation" on the whole nation. In addition, the mode of China's moral cultivation, namely, from self to family and then to country and from inside to outside, is also the reason that the "Han chauvinism" is deeply rooted in his earlier works but the China-centered culture in his late works. The China-centered culture, in a certain degree, is a psychological compensation for the marginal nation.