Analysis of Literati Image in Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio

During the Ming and Qing dynasties, literati often told stories about the ghost of smoke powder. Among China's classical novels characterized by ghosts and legends, Pu Songling's Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio in the early Qing Dynasty is the most creative and literary achievement. Pu Songling was poor all his life, and spent most of his life struggling on the imperial examination road. It can be said that Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio [1] is his only comfort. There are three main sources of creation of Liaozhai: First, based on ancient books, Liaozhai has more than 100 novels, such as the Taoist of Laoshan, which was adapted from the novels of the Six Dynasties, and tang legends's three short stories: Paper Moon, Taking Moon and Leaving Moon; Second, the quartet snoops, no matter what anecdotes friends hear, they must understand and write them into their works; Thirdly, according to legend, Pu Songling set up a tea stall next to his hometown of Liu Quan, invited passers-by to tell stories, collected them and polished them. The stories in Liaozhai are mostly male and female characters, and later generations have made more analysis of the ghost fox fairy among them, but less attention has been paid to the scholar image. Below, the author will focus on the systematic analysis of the image of scholars.

2. Personality characteristics of scholars

In Liaozhai, the protagonist usually appears as a scholar. Even if he is not an official's son, but a merchant family, he can write well and play well. We call this kind of hero who likes elegance and reading poetry books a scholar. The author summarizes the scholar in Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio, which has the following six personality characteristics.

2. 1, knows books, is proficient in reading, and is good at chess, calligraphy and painting. At first, the scholar in the story was poor and down and out, but he was self-motivated and studied hard, so even if he was penniless at the moment, he could still get the favor of the ghost fox fairy. For example, in "Eliminating Disasters", "Peiping's pottery is against Yu, a corporal. During the Shunzhi period, I went to the provincial examination ... I saw a person with a negative attitude ... his words were very famous. " Another example is "Bai Qiulian", "Zhili has Mu Sheng, the son of a businessman Mu Xiaohuan, who is smart and easy to read". Good reading, whether you win or not, can serve the article center.

2.2, eager for fame and home. Scholars study hard at a cold window in order to gain fame. As the saying goes, "People are in Tian Shelang and enter the palace at dusk". This is the ideal of every intellectual. In China, many scholars are trying to catch the exam in a serial studio, and some of them have tried every time, but most of them are trying to be the top scholar. Song Sheng in the article "Si Wenlang" is unforgettable and eloquent. But as soon as the list came out, "recommend students, the king is the first." Song Sheng and Wang Sheng both failed, and the monk heard that they were "out of place, but they were forced to accept them; Burning it again will be evil. However, you can go to high school, which shows the decline and decay of the imperial examination. On the other hand, most of the scholars have been promoted to titles and titles for various reasons, such as Ning in Nie, "In the next few years, Ningguo became a scholar"; Gu Sheng in Woman is not famous, but his son is a scholar at the age of eighteen. And the list goes on.

2.3. Desire for sexual satisfaction. Some scholars are surrounded by families and cannot get married, but the primitive sexual impulse of human beings has not changed because of wealth. Some scholars have wives at home, and their sexual desire is not satisfied when they go out; Or because of curiosity and philandering, this phenomenon is not unusual under the social system of polygamy in ancient times. In Ruiyun, He Sheng "always admired Ruiyun, never dreamed of spending his honeymoon with him, but tried to get a glimpse of Fangze", but Ruiyun looked at him affectionately and gave him a poem. When we met again, "Ruiyun met Liang Huan, moved closer to life and whispered: Can we get together overnight?" There is also an article "Redjade". Feng Weng has a son with similar words. Both father and son were born (scholars). Like two of a kind, a woman next door, "every night, about half a year." Scholars only long for sexual satisfaction, but they also write that women take the initiative to show kindness and throw themselves at each other, which is another unique feature of Liaozhai.

2.4, eager to meet financial desires. Fame and fortune are always closely linked, and so are debauchery and wealth. Moreover, the economic base determines the superstructure. It can be said that wealth is the foundation of everything. Learning is no exception, even power. Scholar, not far from wealth. With a powerful woman, money is at your fingertips. In "Cao Lei", Le Sheng meets Cao Lei, saves a ship's cargo, and his hometown is showered. Chen Bijiao in Lord of the West Lake, born in a poor family, took Jia Wan as a document with the army, because she saved a crocodile, and finally went home in gorgeous clothes, and her luggage was full of gold and silver.

2.5, feel at home. The ancients said: there are three kinds of unfilial, and there is no big after. For the feudal society that ruled the world by filial piety, children are indeed one of the problems that intellectuals need to solve urgently. Liaozhai scholars fall in love with the ghost fox fairy, and most of them can have children. Or take Lord of the West Lake as an example. 1978, Chen Sheng returned home dressed in gold and gave birth to five sons with the daughter of the king of the Yangtze River. The prince in Ying Ning married a scholar at the age of fourteen, married a ghost Ying Ning, gave birth to a son, was not afraid of strangers, and laughed at everyone. Kei Ma, who likes singing and dancing in Haicheng, Luo Cha, entered the county seat at the age of 14, and became the captain of the Dragon King Horse Team when he arrived in Haicheng. He married Qin Jin, the dragon girl, and gave birth to a boy and a girl, named Fuhai and Dragon Palace. Among these scholars, we can find that although their marriage is not perfect, they all keep their children intact.

2.6, eager for social justice and political clarity. The Ming and Qing dynasties have reached the late feudal society, and social injustice, human injustice, social moral decline, official corruption and other phenomena are very serious. It is reasonable for intellectuals to be persecuted, so they are very eager to rule the world. "Liaozhai" has a great reflection in this respect, and at the same time lashed the ugly social phenomenon. In the article "Si Wenlang", Song Sheng, who is rich in knowledge, can't be an official, while the mediocre people rely on the relationship between mentor and apprentice to be the top scholar. Through the mouth of the monk, the author tells us that "people in the curtain are blind with their noses". In Rouge, a scholar from Hubei was put in prison without help. Thanks to the wisdom of martial arts, he married Innocence and Rouge. In the twists and turns, it is not known how much suffering the scholar has. As the saying goes, "it is unreasonable for a scholar to meet a soldier", not to mention that E was born humble and shy as a teenager.

3. The source of scholars' personality characteristics

The literati personality in Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio is not a fiction of Pu Songling, but an artistic representation of social life. Therefore, the author probes into the source of the above-mentioned series of literati images, and expounds the root of Pu Songling's portrayal of literati images.

3. 1, Pu Songling's life experience and personality characteristics. 1) Pu Songling's birth is legendary. It is said that his father Pu Pan dreamed that a sick monk entered the room, but Pu Songling was born. Pu Songling was poor and bumpy all his life. After the separation, he only got more than 20 acres of thin land and 240 kilograms of grain, and he could only support his family for three months. I want to go out and be a private school teacher for 45 years. Half a lifetime of scientific research, from 19 years old to become a scholar, to 72 years old to become a tribute student [2]. It's not hard to imagine why there are so many stories in Liaozhai, and the literati are on the gold list and return home dressed in gold. Freud said: some wishes in life cannot be realized because of social or natural reasons. Literature gives them a different kind of satisfaction, so that their tired souls can be nourished and rested. There is a sense of fame and fortune in the bones of China literati, which can be seen from "reaching for the best and helping the world". Pu Songling is a typical representative of intellectuals. (2) Pu Songling sat in the library to teach students during the day and sat alone in the desolate study at night. The moonlight outside the window is dim, the trees are swaying, the voices are dancing, and the fox's cry is mixed. At this time, Pu Songling is prone to fantasy. He imagined that there was a scholar in the management Committee, so he told him that he was poor and frustrated, and that Meretrix meretrix was very talented and emotional. Sitting in the study, a beautiful woman pushed the door and entered. Do you study here? I study with you, write poems and write lyrics together, and I comfort you, a poor and lonely scholar; Do you want to be husband and wife I take the initiative to attract you; Do you need fame? I help you to be the first; Can't your wife have children? I'll give you a child to carry on the family line. I don't need parents' orders, matchmakers' words, wife's birthright, money or even money for you. We know that a woman who gives unconditionally like this cannot exist. So the author turned to imagine that she came from the bottom of the sea, from deep caves, from the underworld, from flowers and birds, or even just a paper man, from books. For example, Yan Ruyu in the book "Idiot" is good at fantasy because of his long-term famine. ③ The reflection of "delusion" in Pu Songling's personality characteristics. Pu Songling's life is simply an infatuated life. A lifetime of imperial examinations, a lifetime of serial. The former mainly represents the pursuit of fame, while the latter mainly represents the persistence of the cause. Pu Songling's "infatuation" was injected into the creation of Liaozhai, which produced immortal figures with the author's own temperament. It can be said that marriage is one of the cutest and most successful images in Liaozhai. Ying Ning likes to laugh. Wang Zifu's mother said Ying Ning was "too stupid", and "stupid" means "stupid". Wang Zifu was so obsessed with Acacia in Ying Ning that he believed Wu Sheng's lies. Unexpectedly, Sun in "Po" was obsessed with eroticism, mistakenly believed in jokes, and "cutting off his fingers with an axe" became a reality. ④ The embodiment of "madness" in Pu Songling's personality characteristics. [3] Pu Songling has a high degree of confidence. He also appreciated and developed the self-level madness of "Yue Ming Jiao let nature take its course", giving it a strong aesthetic significance. In Liao Zhai, he created a series of crazy images and affirmed Yue Mingjiao's love and behavior. One of the most vivid and dynamic artistic images in Liaozhai is the image of "crazy life", which is the image of a person with a crazy state.

3.2, the real situation of Ming and Qing society. Pu Songling was a native of the Qing Dynasty, but his stories came from a wide range of sources, which could reflect the social situation in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. (1) China literati believe in "being an official by learning to be excellent", and they study hard to be an official. However, the declining imperial examination system could not select talents for feudal countries, and a large number of talented people were submerged in the middle and lower classes, such as Song Sheng in Si Wenlang. Therefore, in Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio, there are a large number of stories in which literati win prizes. Even if they die, they must realize their long-cherished wish to win prizes, such as Judge Lu and others. (2) The tried and tested scholars are generally in financial difficulties and can't help but fantasize about how to realize their dream of getting rich. Liaozhai can be said to reflect the worries of middle and lower intellectuals at that time. (3) Social injustice and official corruption are the roots of Liaozhai. When analyzing the love triangle among Chinese, prostitutes and businessmen in Song Dynasty literature, a scholar said: Almost all literary works show that the literati are more attractive and can win back the beauty in the end. However, according to the inspection, the fact is just the opposite. The literati finally ran away, and it was the businessman who won back the beauty. Therefore, the story about the scholar's escape from prison in Liaozhai is either a satire on reality or a scholar's social ideal. As the saying goes, "writing ghosts and writing demons is superior, stabbing greed and stabbing abuse to the bone", is it water without a source and a tree without roots?

3.3 The conflict between feudal ethics and human nature. (1) In feudal society, women were more oppressed and bound, and the behavior of many ghost fox fairies in a serial was not tolerated by society. When a person (including a scholar) reproduces his desire for Excellence, wealth and attack, but he can't justify it, he says that "fox worship" is caused by a fox demon, which makes him lose his nature. Because the ghost fox fairy is not bound by human morality, hydrogen becomes human and promotes the development of the story. This does not violate the traditional ethics, but also completes the characterization. Freud divided people's psychological structure into three parts: id, ego and superego. "Id" contains all primitive genetic instincts and desires, the most fundamental of which is sexual impulse, which is also called "Llbido". "Self" represents ideal and judgment, which should conform to the requirements of "ID" and "reality" and adjust the conflict between them. Scholars and women both have the desire of "ID", but social repression cannot satisfy them. As a means of "ID", the ghost fox fairy has become a synonym or scapegoat for "ID", thus satisfying the primitive desires of scholars and women and conforming to social reality.

3.4 Cultural influence. (1) Confucian teaching has a depressing effect on desire, and the Confucian position of not dealing with ghosts and gods lacks the "supernatural" component of religious belief. The appearance and popularity of the fox demon story also represents the compensation and reaction to the above Confucianism. On the one hand, it satisfies the public's curiosity and demand for "supernatural" and "Machamp's confusion", on the other hand, through desire. . The mentality that a man can marry a fox demon (or live with it) is the basic model of the relationship between people and different kinds in Liaozhai. In male-dominated families and societies, men can absorb the females of wild animals and bring them into the existing system. Liaozhai preaches the idea that beasts are human beings, not because they were equal yesterday, but because they want to be included in their own system and become a tool to satisfy their desires. This is the "chauvinism" tone of Liaozhai.

4. Summary

China has said since the Tang Dynasty that "there is no village without fox charm", and the rendering of literature by folklore is the fundamental source of Pu Songling's creation, thus creating the peak of China's classical novels. The literati in Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio is an important literary image in the history of literature, and it has also become a mirror for us to spy on the real picture of social customs in Ming and Qing Dynasties. Aristotle said: novels record history, except pseudonyms, everything else is true.