A Study Of The Image Of A Prostitute In Japanese Chinese Novels

As the most important exporting country of culture in East Asia,ancient China self-evidently had powerful influence on neighboring countries.Japan is one of the most important parts in the Sinosphere which is formed in East Asian countries and Japanese Chinese-character Novels are the product of the direct influence of Chinese culture and Chinese classical literature.Prostitutes,a vital group of women in society through the ages,attracted men of letters' attention in early time.Molding prostitute images by Chinese characters is not Chinese patent and there are a number of Japanese Chinese Character-novels in relation to prostitute images as well.The study on a series of prostitute images,not only helps us understand the regulation and custom of Japanese prostitution industry,the basic situation of prostitutes' life and spirit,but also reflects the cultural and literary interaction between Japan and China from one side.This paper mainly discusses from three aspects to the breakthrough on interpretation of the prostitute images in Japanese Chinese-character novels as follows: the first part is to have a general observation on the overall appearance of prostitute images in Japanese Chinese-character novels and make a rough classification.It is pointed out that prostitute images in the Japanese Chinese-character novels exist with commonality and individuality,positive and negative as a whole.When the novelists concentrated their efforts on depicting the famous prostitutes' both beauty and talent,they had a close-up view of their loyalty,filial piety,chastity,sincerity,crafty,unique gift,errantry,hidden bitterness and other elements of features in wonderful and vivid detail,thus a certain number of corresponding prostitute images come into being.The second part focuses on the question that how the style and theme of the Japanese Chinese-character novels have influence on the specific way to write and show the prostitute images.The style of Japanese Chinese-character novels involving prostitute images can be divided into four categories: notes,legends,colloquial stories and chapters.In spite of the same kind of style,authors' writing style and the emphasis on creating characters are not in complete accord because of different theme and plot.This paper attempts to generalize the respective characteristics and creative law that the way of writing prostitute images shows in each type of novels,and make a detailed case analysis of three novels:Chun Meng Suo Yan,Chun Feng Tie and Xin Qiao Ba Jing Jia Hua.Thethird part is to analyze prostitute images at cultural spirit level.The reason why some works highlight prostitutes' loyalty,filial piety,chastity,righteousness and the courage to sacrifice is that both the objects shaped in the novels and writers are bathed in the atmosphere of Chinese Confucianism.On the other hand,through the forging of the traditional Japanese spirit of Bushido,prostitute images who save the emperor and resist against foreigners in the novels are shining with glowing spirit of Japanese yamato people under the imprint of the times.In a word,the writing of prostitute images in Japanese Chinese-character novels are undoubtedly under the double influence of Chinese classical novels and traditional Chinese culture,and there is a closely relationship of textual and cultural origin in between.While emphasizing the influence of Chinese culture in the whole East Asian cultural circle,we should not neglect the native culture and spiritual core of Japanese Chinese-character novels themselves.Through the establishment of the Japanese Chinese-character novels' own achievements and characteristics,the unique charm with harmony but not sameness of the East Asian Chinese-character novels could be manifested.