Research On Images Of Deformed Characters In “Zhuang Zi”

“Zhuang Zi”, as one of the works with most literary value and highest literature status among Pre-Qin scholars’ prose, has become a unique wonderful work in Chinese literature history with its mysterious and profound philosophizing thoughts, strange and varied images, poetic language and treacherous style. Wandering in the literature world of “Zhuang Zi”, we can meet all kinds of people while deformed characters are doubtlessly the brightest artistic images in its figure corridor. The book utilized exaggeration, fiction and other deformation methods to create numerous bizarre and magic deformed images with distinctive features, which brought us with extraordinary reading experience. It is these unique and elaborate deformed characters that contribute to extremely high artistic of “Zhuang Zi”. This paper, starting with deformed characters of “Zhuang Zi”, discusses shaping of deformed characters, reasons of their presence and its significance and effect on later literature creation. The paper is divided into several parts:The first chapter is introduction. In this part, the definitions of deformation and deformed image are given. Then, concise description and analysis are conducted on research status and existing problems of studies on deformed characters in “Zhuang Zi”, which lays a foundation for the topic.The second chapter demonstrates the shaping of deformed characters in “Zhuang Zi”. In this paper, deformed characters in the “Zhuang Zi” are divided into three categories, i.e., beautifying the ugly, makeover and fictional character, and then the paper elaborates its creation and artistic charm. It is believed that the book, “Zhuang Zi”, shaped a series of bizarre characters via the ways of deformation, including the ugly, the disabled, the crazy, the historic characters, the dwarfed sages, reshaped images in myth, fictional ideal characters, skillful craftsman and the righteous… All of these images are not cold symbols, but embody the author’s full enthusiasm and emotion, revealing his inner world.The third chapter explores deformed characters in “Zhuang Zi” from value orientation and aesthetic ideal. This paper, from “Zhuang Zi” ’s thoughts and feelings and aesthetic ideals, discusses deeper reasons of the presence of deformed characters, thereby clearly reviewing aesthetic connotations. The author thinks, “Zhuang Zi” ’s thoughts are at the core of “Dao” and oriented at “calming and contenting oneself of nature”. He believed all things were equal and one should merely contact the spirit world. Such ideas determined “Zhuang Zi” ’s unique value orientation and aesthetic ideal, which affects the shaping of deformed characters. As far as value orientation is concerned, his “Dao” theory provides philosophical basis. “All things are the same” is the foundation for transformation from ugly characters to beautiful ones. “The Dao never does anything, yet through it all things are done” provides the thoughts basis for the transformation from historic figures to Taoists. The thoughts of A Happy Excursion lay a theoretical basis for his fictional characters. In terms of aesthetic ideal, “Zhuang Zi ” ’s unique aesthetics thoughts and ideals, such as “The Great Beauty of Heaven and Earth is Silence”, “It is beautiful, but not great yet” and “Virtue makes people forget physical defects”, determine the appearance, personality, temperament and spirit of deformed characters. At the same time, these characters also embody the author’s hot emotions and deep thinking. Both complement each other, making the book more vivid and unique.The forth chapter expounds deformed characters’ influence and significance on later literature creation. The paper respectively elaborates the influence of deformed characters in “Zhuang Zi” on the image creation in later literature history and its inspiration and influence on the creative techniques and idea of later writers.Finally, the conclusion part generally explains the shaping of deformed characters in “Zhuang Zi”, its reasons and inspirations.