"jiandeng Words" Comparative Study

The so-called"San Hua"refers to Zai Zuo's Jian Deng Xin Hua, Li Changqi's Jian Deng Yu Hua and Shao Jingzhan's Mi Deng Yin Hua, which are called San Hua, namely a collection of three. The First Two writers lived in the transitional period of Yuan Dynasty to Ming dynasty. The third writer lived in the late Ming Dynasty. The collection of Jian Deng San Hua carried forward the similar theme and style. San Hua played an important role in the history of old Chinese novel as a link between the old Chinese style of writing and modern popular novel. But San Hua were seldom evaluated and even was forbidden and destroyed by the ruling class. In the past, the studies on San Hua were relatively small in number and its evaluations were not as high as it should be. Since 1990's, gradual attention has been paid to it again and it has become one of the focus of literary study. In the previous researches, it was obvious that researchers gave the priority to Jian Deng Xin Hua and there were less focuses on the other two. There were no relatively full-scale exploration and systematic analyses in terms of the comparative study of the three. Though the importance of San Hua has been acknowledged, the value of the collection and the studies on the collection are not as what they should be. Thus this thesis focuses on the fundamentally comparative study among the collection of the three in multiple aspects such as their themes, artistic achievements, narrative features, characterization and so forth. Thus, an exploration into their profound culture and an analysis on the creation could be made, which can explain the role of the collection in the literary history. The collection began with Zai Yuo's Jian Deng Xin Hua in the late Yuan Dynasty and the contemporary culture was fully embedded into the works and they were culturally profound. In the early years of Ming Dynasty, the confucianism was regulated as the official philosophy and was the only resource for imperial examination so it gradually desiccated to be the rigid doctrine and hypocritical ethic. The phenomenon caused a sharp contradiction between the ruling class and the populace, which aroused a peak of literary creation and the four Chinese classical works were created in the period. Meanwhile, two opposite culturalisms co-existed. The former spoke highly of the confucianism's doctrine"follow the justice and control individual desire."while the popular cultural was contrary to it. The popular cultural advocated individualism and opposed oppress, which became the mainstream for literal creation. Chinese classic narrative literature bloomed in Ming Dynasty. The narrative literature dominated by the massive civilian absorbed more and more men of letters so more colorful individual style was embodied in the works. Zhai Zuo's Jian Deng Xing Hua was one of the masterpieces in that period. Ling Yuhan wrote in its prologue"Nothing can match its creation and diction."The masterpiece preceded the legends of Tang Dynasty and initiated the new fiction of Ming and Qing. The other two fictions of the three imitated the first in style, plot and other aspects which displayed both the style of Tang and Shong, as well as the cultural and aesthetic feature of Ming.The multiple analyses of this study are not the present popular detailed researches but a comprehensive study on the effects of its theme, content and style on Confucianism and social literature, which would be helpful for the literal creation of our age.