The Study On Contradictory Thoughts Of Feng Menglong's Sentimental Education And Confucian Ethical Standards

Feng Menglong (1574-1646), the well-known writer of light literature in late Ming dynasty, had put forward the bold ideas that"I want to set up the Sentimental Education"(Qingshi? Preface), but when he carried out Sentimental Education, he never forgot the Confucian Ethical Standard. His expression of humanity, therefore, finally had returned to the feudal ethics, the feelings he mentioned always came with the intention of persuasion, and his thoughts had shown a kind of contradiction between Sentimental Education and Confucian Ethical Standard. Based on the limited material that is available, this paper preliminarily studies the Contradictory Thoughts of Feng Menglong's Sentimental Education and Confucian Ethical Standards, and expects to make a more objective evaluation of Feng Menglong's thoughts.This paper is divided into four parts. In the first part, it clearly defines the concepts of Sentimental Education and Confucian Ethical Standard, specifically explains the profound meaning of the Contradictory Thoughts of Feng Menglong's Sentimental Education and Confucian Ethical Standard, and further clarifies the four specific characteristics it embodied , including the concept of marriage, the concept of women as well as the concept of loyalty and filial duty. In the second part, it studies the reasons why Feng Menglong's contradictory thoughts formed from four aspects, which are the traditional Confucian thought, the philosophical thoughts of Ming Dynasty, the people's contradictory thoughts of late Ming as well as his own life experiences. The first two parts is the main body of the paper. In the third part, it discusses the specific characteristics of Feng Menglong's Contradictory Thoughts permeated in SanYan, which compiled by himself, and makes us understand why there are so many deep emotional stories mixed with Confucian Ethical Standard in SanYan. In the forth part, it introduces the impact that Feng Menglong's contradictory thoughts have on the thoughts of later people and the novel writing of later generation.