Research On Boudoir Scene Of The Secular And Domestic Novel In The Ming And Qing Dynasties

The secular and domestic novels are not only the largest and most influential in the Ming and Qing dynasties,but also the most capable of intervening in other subject types.This type of novel mainly describes the secularism and human relationship,and has a very high “sense of simulation”.In particular,“the scene” in the book can often be viewed as text images of real-life situations.It provides us with an excellent literary specimen for examining and analyzing the psychological state and action patterns of women in the boudoir,as well as the public’s understanding and imagination of this group.The boudoir refers to the living space of women in the feudal era,and further refers to the group of women who live in it.According to the etiquette and social customs of the time,the family house was divided into two living spaces,separated by ceremonial doors:One outside and one inside,one before and one after,one is the relative public sphere,and the other is the purely private sphere.This is not only a spatial division,but also represents the ethical order of the family.Based on the dogma of“men are breadwinners,women are homemakers”,the women in the family house mainly live behind the ceremonial door,they are relatively isolated from the “outside world”,have limited ability to receive external information,and have few opportunities to participate in public affairs.The environment and atmosphere of such a closed space were also relatively obscure.The concepts,thoughts,and actions of the women living in it were difficult to be seen in the elite writing system.Occasionally,it was also a stereotypical description,which showed the discipline of elite morality to the boudoir group and an ideal type described.On the contrary,in the secular and domestic novels of the Ming and Qing dynasties,we can see the vivid images of women in the boudoir,and their makeup,clothing,diet,and utensils are explained in detail.More importantly,their words,actions,and moods are meticulously portrayed one after another,as in the current scene.We can not only use the novel to see the activities of the women in the boudoir at that time,but also take this opportunity to peek into the psychological basis of their activities.However,the boudoir scene in the secular and domestic novels is the result of a narrative,a literary image,not a pure historical truth,which is “faithful to life” rather than the historical truth itself.The study of boudoir scenes is the study of literature,not the study of history,rather literary criticism and narrative analysis.This is the basic position of this topic.In addition to the conclusion,the text of this paper consists of five parts:The introductory part explains the reason and significance of the topic selection at first,and defines the concepts of “the secular and domestic novel”,“boudoir” and“scene”,so as to clarify the research object.Then,the history of relevant research is sorted out,and its basic appearance is presented,so as to highlight the significance of topic selection.Finally,based on the philological method,combined with the methods of literary criticism and narrative analysis,this paper systematically and perspectiveally investigates the boudoir scenes of the secular and domestic novels in the Ming and Qing dynasties,organizes and discovers the literature,introduces the general grasp of the aesthetic characteristics of the boudoir scenes,and then discusses the spatial exploration and narrative function on the basis of classification.The first chapter begins with an overview of boudoir’s literary tradition and historical truth.The former is a brief historical combing of the writing of the boudoir in ancient China,reflecting the ubiquitous existence and orderly inheritance of the boudoir writing in all ancient Chinese literature,whether lyrical literature,narrative literature,whether poetry,novels,operas,combined with their own artistic traditions and performance conventions,the boudoir world has been embodied in different dimensions,different focuses,and different forms,which provides rich experience for the construction of the boudoir scene of the secular and domestic novels in the Ming and Qing dynasties;The latter is a concrete restoration of the historical environment of the boudoir space in the Ming and Qing dynasties.On this basis,this paper takes the Golden Lotus as an example to discuss the relationship between philological methods and literary criticism and narrative analysis.In the results of thematic edition comparison,important phenomena required for literary criticism and narrative analysis can be found.The second chapter summarizes the general aesthetic qualities of the boudoir scene of the secular and domestic novels in the Ming and Qing dynasties.It is embodied in multi-sensory combinations,poetic embellishments and white sketches.The three qualities are the three manifestations of the most rich national artistic characteristics of ancient Chinese literary narrative.They did not appear only in the Ming and Qing dynasties,nor were they exclusive to the secular and domestic novels in the Ming and Qing dynasties,but they were organically combined with the construction of the boudoir scene,and became the basic means for novelists to construct the boudoir,restore the boudoir space,and present the boudoir scene.The third chapter classifies the boudoir space of the secular and domestic novels in the Ming and Qing dynasties.It is divided into three categories: outside space,public space and private space.The outside space mainly includes traffic scenes and trade scenes;The public space mainly includes prayer scenes,banquet scenes,talk scenes,and entertainment scenes;Private spaces mainly include solitary scenes,private conversation scenes,and secret play scenes.This not only takes into account the spatial layout of the family building at that time,but also respects the focus of the novel’s narrative.The fourth chapter provides a spatial analysis of the boudoir scenes of the secular and domestic novels in the Ming and Qing dynasties.Starting from the focus problem,from the environment of the scene,into the space of the scene,analyze the objects and image organization in the space.The fifth chapter follows on from the previous chapter,and conducts an in-depth study of the narrative function of the boudoir scenes of the secular and domestic novels in the Ming and Qing dynasties,which is mainly manifested in three aspects: deepening the expression of the theme,serving the shaping of characters,and promoting the development of the plot.It can be seen that the boudoir scenes of the secular and domestic novels in the Ming and Qing dynasties are not only a vivid reflection of the lives of women at that time,but also very closely integrated with various narrative structures.