A Study On The Aesthetic Conception Of "Fantasy" In The Comments Of Ming And Qing Dynasty Novels

The description of fantasy is a very important artistic device in early Chinese fiction, and has had a great impact on the aesthetic sensibilities of the Chinese people, embuing Chinese fiction with richer artistic meaning. The aesthetic concept of "fantasy" in the comments and annotation of Chinese fiction occupies a central position in the system of Chinese classical literary criticism, and plays a central role in the esthetic conceptual system.Chapter one: The development and evolution of the esthetic concept of "fantasy" in Chinese classical literary theory and criticism may be summarized as follows: its germination in the pre-Qin and two-Han Dynasties; its birth the Wei Jin and South-North Dynasty; its development period in the Tang and Song Dynasty; and the flourishing and deepening period in the Qing and Ming Dynasties.Chapter two: Fantasy as an aesthetic category, contain more than a hundred kinds aesthetic words and phrases basing the fiction, they constitute an enormous discourse system, fully revealing the linked "tendons" and circulatory "arteries" of artistic fiction as classical literatary criticism. The aesthetic contents of artistic fiction are manifested as follows: First, it is a way of conveying the imaginary content of the fiction. There is a rich vocabulary denoting imaginary subject matter in the literary criticism, such as "fantasy", "dream/illusion", "supernatural being", "monsters", "demon", and so on. Second, it denotes the artistic methods of fiction. Artistic discourse of fantasy fiction concentrates on descriptions of fantastic characters, complex plots, and the artistic conceptions. Third, it manifests a fabulous aesthetic style, embodying otherworldliness,exoticism, and a subtle romantic style.Chapter three: Analysis and argument of Ming and Qing fiction in unearthing and bringing to light the aesthetic domain of "fantasy". Literary critics took the principle of "realism within fantasy" as the highest esthetic standard of fantasy. The novel commentators discuss this proposition from three points of view: Firstly, the protagonists display realistic emotions in the midst of the fantasy scenario. Secondly, realistic social phenomena are reflected in the imaginary world. Thirdly, the authors emotions are expounded in the fantasy world. These implications of the principle "realism within fantasy" represent the esthetic sense of "fantasy" for the Ming and Qing literary critics, and represent three important themes in traditional Chinese literature: the depiction of characters through emotion, artistic realism, and the expression of authors' feelings in the work of fiction.Chapter four: In Chinese classic literary systems, we see a mysterious and fantastic artistic world, with gods, ghosts, demons, dreams, illusions and human foibles. Writers and critics have the same aesthetic culture background assumptions and patterns, and these cultural tropes create a fusion of fictional space and real space; humans in the real world are paralleled with ghosts and demons in the fantasy realm. There are a host of ethnic cultural thought patterns that have a great impact on esthetics and taste of fiction commentators: First, everything in nature has its own anima or spirit; second, the philosophical thinking of human beings; third, the religious faith and fiction.Taking all the above-mentioned aspects into consideration, we can conclude that a multi-dimensional description and the multi-level discussion of fiction in novel commentators of the Ming and Qing Dynasty, has enriched the appreciation of artistic fabrication. Furthermore, it plays a crucial role in the framework of the aesthetic theoretical system.