What No One Is Amused Is My Solicitude

Since the 1980s, more and more researchers have paid attentions to Li Yu.The study on Li Yu and his works involves many aspects. whether studying the author himself or his works, the expects endeavor to make overall and profound explanation in a new way, and from a new perspective. They have achieved a bump harvest. This essay aims to explore the fundamental reasons of the comic styles from Li Yu's plays, and quasi-novelettes in vernacular Chinese, and provides objective and impartial explanation for the analysis of Li Yu's works, on the basis of previous research results, from the little-cornered perspective ,and in the light of Li Yu's comic mentality. For these following necessities: I. It can help deepen the understanding of Li Yu's works' thought and art style, and grasp the writing traits. II. It can help make clear some important clues about Li Yu's creation, and properly expounds some complex issues. III. It can provide the materials for the literature creation psychology, aesthetic psychology, and the entire aesthetics, through the study of Li Yu's comic mentality. What's the comic mentality? In a superficial view, It mainly refers to the psychic state and psychic word of the comic or quasi-comic creation. It refers not to objectively descriptive, concrete and enjoyable atmosphere, but to the subjective ideology obtained during the writing process of Li Yu's comic or quasi-novelettes in vernacular Chinese. It plays a governing and instructive role in the author's creation. In ancient China, the comic mentality in Li Yu's works was obvious and abundant. It was obvious in that he not only had a clear comic creative manifestation, for example, "The plays that only I wrote never make the audiences feel sad , what nobody is amused is my solicitude. ","I am usually desirous of a writing with a delightful mood, and I often embark it on with a kind of amusing strokes", but also had a systematical comic materials, the conception of works, the shape of the structure and characters, and the performance, appreciation and remark as well. It was abundant in that his works have its diversity in content. I. Non-heroicized, skeptical mentality; II. Non-emotional, intellectual mentality; III. Non-solemnized, amusing mentality. In other comic authors' works, one main mentality is dominant, the other mentalities are vague. However, in Li Yu's comic works, exists three mentalities, and thus his works seem diversified. Li Yu's diversified comic mentality is concerned with his day: the tumultuous situation, changing social idea, extravagant social psychology, frolicsome literary tradition, frustrated life. All these gave a profound on impact upon him. As it might be, the philosophical culture of Li Yu's comic mentality was grounded on the late-Ming Dynasty's personality emancipation and its culture tradition; the realistic foundation was rooted in the sudden transition from Ming to Qing Dynasty, and his own experiences and the ultimate formation of his comic mentality lay in the social psychology and his humorous personality. Li Yu's literature initiation came from his comic mentality, so his plays and quasi-novelettes in vernacular Chinese take on the following features: I. exaggerating comic atmosphere by means of the vivid plot arrangements. II. setting up the comic tunes through demure and cautious structure design. III. increasing comic result through verified artful ways. IV. prevailing comic interests through the expression of the humorous terse and vivid words. All this makes Li Yu's plays and novels pervade thick joyful compassion. As it might be, comedy is the prominent feature of Li Yu's plays and novels. His diversified writing techniques, no doubt, enriched the comic art in our ancient China.