The Study Of The Tragic Elements Of Liyu's Short Stories

In many scholars'opinion, Liyu's short stories are comedic, in terms of the dextrous polt, jocose language and exaggerated art, especially the happy ending. However, this thesis expatiates on the deep tragic elements of Liyu's short stories.Through analyzing contexts of Liyu's works, Liyu paid attention to marriage and romance, society and politics, family and ethic. First of all, in the polygamic society, women were treated unfairly. Their positions in family were low. Women pursued equality and freedom of love, but they were fettered by feudalistic concept of chasteness. Therefore, farces happened frequently, and tragedy emerged as a result. In many families, wives were jealous and the couples didn't trust each other.Secondly, the classes of feudalistic society were distinguished strictly. Different class was treated in a different way. Lower class was discriminated. Right and wrong were reverse because of rulers'fatuity, and it also caused ethos become bad. Wars were caused by dynastic changes. In this condition, people became homeless and drifted miserably, which further deepened the tragic consciousness.Thirdly, with the development of Ming Dynasty's economy, money worship bourgeoned. Money was the most important thing in some young person's mind, so they didn't respect seniors and parents. It caused inheritors for the sake of property by fair means or foul.Then, it discusses the deep tragic elements of Liyu's short stories. On the one hand, Liyu made use of metaphor to reveal that the literati of Han nationality must endure humiliation in order to save the excellent culture of Han nationality when Qing Dynasty was established. Even though, the potentate of Qing Dynasty also didn't trust the literati of Han nationality. On the other hand, Liyu used the comparison of beauty and ugliness to reveal tragic elements of his short stories. In conclusion, Liyu reflected traditional Chinese literature of realism and romanticism.Why did Liyu choose the way in which he used comedic text form to hide the tragic elements? Liyu was educated by Confucianism. After undergoing the dynastic changes, he felt the social responsibility and begun to show his attention to the whole society and the life people suffered. There is no doubt that Liyu wrote his thoughts into his works. However, cruel surroundings forced him to use metaphor to express his real thought; so he chose comedic form. This is the mean when his responsibility and status were inconsistent.In conclusion, Liyu's short stories are not meaningless. The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate the influence of Liyu's short stories on Ming and Qing Dynasties'creation.