| Content:Yan Song, who was a grand secretary lived in Jia Jing, Ming Dynasty, was sculptured as a traitor minister in literary works and on Ming, Qing stages. He was brightly characterised as a unpardonably wicked traitor minister in"Mingfeng","Feiwan","Yuwan","Hai Legal Case","Ming Historical Romance","Snow Jade Cup","Beat Yan Song",etc. He was a collection of all flaws of traitor ministers. He was extremely cruel, merciless, avaricious, selfish, cheeky, sinister, crafty. He manipulated power for personal ends, defalcated and extorted bribes, treated harshly and gave rare generosity. The treacherous image circulates among the people by the aids of vernacular stories and plays.However, the real Yan in history was distinguished from the one in our mind. First, considere from the peorty he left to us, Yan was a peot. Yan showed his tanlant in peoty when he was only a child. His works were fresh and lovely. What's more, he wrote peoms in his whole life. Yan's writing works is exiguous at that time. Thus, we can also say he was a rare calligrapher. Owe to the flaws in politics, Yan's achievments in other fields was ignored. Second, when he worked as an apresident, the leader of all grand secretary, Yan made a proposal called"open to foreign trade", which allowed the coastal citizens to carry on foreign trade and give an impetus to the legalization of foreign trade. The measure was effective to resist Japanese pirates and was a great achievement in his political career. When Yan was in power, the political condition was very complicated. But Yan still worked very hard, busy in dealing with complicating political affaires. Facing to the overbearing Shizong emperor, Yan did more than flattering. He had objected to the rebuilding of Yongshou Palace. Because of that, he lost the trust of the emperor, and finished his shinny official career.Besides, he was contributive for some bridges which were helpful for the public. He married only one woman in his whole life, that was rare for feudal officials. Therefore, the essay makes a relatively objective evaluation about if Yan is a traitor minister and corrupt official.In fact, Yan was sculptured as a traitor minister who flattered the emperor but persecuted the faithful and honest in literary and historical works and on stages. As a made-up character, Yan owned every characteristic of traitor ministers and had become a symbol of traitor ministe and corrupt official. The writer tries to analyze Yan's literary image from four Ming or Qing literary works,"Mingfeng","Shen Xiaoxia and Chushibiao","Hai Rui and Dahongpao"and"Beat Yan Song". It is because of the popularity of these works, Yan was so well-known as a traitor minister. The essay also analyses the great differences between Yan's images in Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty and the reason for the differences according to some Ming, Qing works.In conclusion, Yan was argumentative between literature and history. On one hand, he was full of talant, humble and cautious in history. On the other hand, he was a unpardonably wicked traitor minister in literary works. There are many reasons. The first reason lies on his personal facts including his belief that you should alter yourself according to the change of situation and his clever but avaricious and mean son called Yan Shifan. The second reason is political factor. Xia Yan, Xiu Jie, Wang Shizhen was undoubtly responsible for Yan's awful fame. The last comes to literature. There were so many literary works about Yan and they were followed by many plays come from them. All of them exaggerated Yan's mistakes and totally changed Yan's image. Since these works were widely and deeply accepted by the public and most readers took an approving attitute to the works, Yan's literary image as a traitor minister was accepted by nearly everyone.Finally, the writer makes a comparison between loyal officials and traitors and thinks deeply. In the writer's opinion, it is not easy for Yan to be an apresident minister for 21 years while the Jiajing emperor was so subject to changing moods, so wilful , so cruel and fierce. Because of Jiajing's bad temper, every official felt insecure. To protect himself, Yan had to fight with various enemes. His fame turned awful and was left to generation to generation in the complex situation. The thesis studyes a great deal of historical data , descants and yet again descants, tends to make an objective,scientific, reasonable appraisal. It will be effective for people to get an objective view of Yan Song... |
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