The Study On Banquet Scene Of The Chivalry And Crime Novel In The Qing Dynasty

The chivalry and crime novel is a combination of chivalrous and crime novels put forward by Lu Xun and Wu Xiaoru et and established because of identification of educational circles.Most chivalrous and crime novels appeared during the middle and late Qing Dynasty.As swordsmen are the main characters this type of novel,its banquet scenes are unique.This paper studied banquet scenes in chivalry and crime novels,including Mysterious Cases of Lord Shi,The Three Heroes and Five Gallants,Ernv Yingxiong Zhuan,Green Peony,Yongqing Shengping,Shengchao Dingsheng Wannianqing(also known as Qianlong Nanxun Ji)and Thirteen heroes with Seven Swords etc.On the basis of reasonable classification,it carried out comparative analysis and in-depth discussion.This paper includes five parts except the Introduction.The first part defined banquet by comparing “feast”,“party” and “food and drink” and “banquet” and reviewed definition and research on ancient Chinese novels conducted by scholars.On the basis of definitions by Liu Yongqiang,analysis was conducted to draw a conclusion that a scene should contain subjectivity and cultural implication.In the end,compared to realistic novels with many banquet scenes,it analyzed basic characteristics of banquet scenes in chivalry and crime novels and their main differences were in food and drink,banquet standards and description focuses.The second part focused on private sites among banquet sites.Unlike family sites,private sites involve a wider scope.According to purposes and properties of banquets,banquets were divided into three types,namely social communication,celebration and reward and family reunion.Then,it discussed the narrative function of banquets in private places as a type of "static" event that most of them were tools for display with auxiliary ironic function.In contrast to Part two,Part three discussed banquet stories in publish places.According to service types,banquets were classified and basically characterized.Banquet stories were divided into four types,namely helping the weak,inquiry,occasional access to information,chance acquaintances,going for brothers and sudden misfortune,and characteristics of each type of story were analyzed.Then,the narrative function of banquets in public places were discussed.The expressive function included social contact and exchanges etc.the structure function manifested as introducing and ending a story,providing a “stage” for performance of swordsmen and connecting different narrative space and characters etc.In Part four,separate discussion of alcohol,the element which is closest to swordsmen in banquets,was carried out.First,physical forms of alcohol in novels were analyzed and compared to the alcohol in historical contexts in respect of types,drinking vessels and alcohol instrument etc.Second,it discussed the importance of drinking scenes for character shaping.Third,effects of alcohol in plots were analyzed,where it motivates characters as catalyst and sometimes shows a countereffect of rejection.Finally,it focused on alcohol and drinking vessels running through novels.As topic objects,they play an important role in promoting plot development,text structure and theme expression.Part five analyzed relations between banquets and swordsmen from the perspective of macro-chivalrous culture.Starting with the importance of banquets for swordsmen,the first section discussed acceptance of special food by swordsmen and hearts and livers of swordsmen eaten by forest outlaws.The second section discussed secularization of banquets in chivalrous detective novels during Ming and Qing dynasties on the basis of diachronic chivalry and crime novels.In other words,those swordsmen break through their barriers with common people and have no difference from them.