A Research On Theme Novel About Fortuitous Journey Experiences Of Unsuccessful Scholars In Taiping Guangji

Originated from Sui Dynasty,flourished in Tang Dynasty and ended in Qing Dynasty,imperial examination system is a system to elect government officials.The rise of the system brought hope to millions of impoverished students to become officials as well as numerous excellent talents to a centralized country.However,there were countless candidates who had tried actively but failed in the imperial exams could only carry the result of the failure powerlessly.The imperial examination didn't only give their distinctive feelings,but also left them a more profound understanding on China's imperial examination system and its literature.The imperial literature also became the indispensable important part of Chinese literature for which numerous celebrities and writers had writings like poems,compositions and novels to reflect this vital literature phenomenon.Because of the loose cultural policies and strong national strength,the Tang Dynasty literature had made brilliant achievements.Classical Chinese short stories,reflecting both the unsuccessful intellectuals' life reality and the mentality of many scholars,got fully development in Tang Dynasty.There are four parts in this paper.The first part gives an overall situation of Tang Dynasty intellectuals and focuses on the analysis of their living conditions,activities and their mentality.The imperial examinations began from Sui Dynasty,provided more social scholars the chance from underclass to go into the national management and the opportunity to step into the society of upper class.The system,with its institutional and universal level in Tang Dynasty,changed the fate of many scholars and affected their literary creation profoundly at that time.Names and the choosing system of Tang Dynasty are the same in Sui Dynasty and were more perfect and developed than before.It was a process of gradual accumulation for the failed intellectuals who were of a social group that was totally from the exam system.There were usually two choices for the failed intellectuals.One was to remain in the capital to expect to get the flying colors and the other was to travel around for more experiences in the course of the journey from which could win them a high reputation.The scholars' points of view,including the positive and motivational attitude for high official positions and wealth,the spiritless condition from the exam's failure and the reclusive thoughts of life,were reflected in the novels.The second part,analyzing intellectuals' various adventures of traveling around with details,researches about the fortuitous meetings which has a certain influence of the result of the scholars.The third part is on the analysis of the unique artistic charm of the scholars' adventures of “Taiping Guangji”.Marriage stories and the stories of the immortal cultivation were for its content.Dreamland and prediction were for its plot and structure.Flexible and varied narrative points of view were for its artistic techniques.The fourth part is to analyze the cultural value of this kind of novel.It is said to possess the unique cultural value from the special identity of the intellectuals and have a significant impact on later novel development.The last part of the paper is the epilogue which summarizes the ideas of the whole thesis and points out the intellectuals' travel adventure novels in “Taiping Guangji” are an important part of the imperial literature that should be taken seriously by academia.The intellectuals' journey adventure novels,compared with the novels in Tang Dynasty,are a bright pearl which deserves further research and exploration.