In The Late Ming Dynasty, Memoirs

In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, autobiographies were massive emergences. Compared to the previous generation, not only the amount increases, style also presents diversification, The kinds of styles were numerous, including preface, record, narrate, biography, epitaph, funeral oration, eulogy and so on, which showed more vivid self images of scholars and increasingly proficient narrative techniques.In terms of the prosperous of autobiographical essays, although some writings and papers came out, the research of academia relatively lagged behind, as the description was not clear enough, particularly the development of the late of Ming Dynasty. In view of this, the thesis will sort out the development skeleton of autobiographical essay through collecting collected works of the Ming Dynasty, which was based on the achievements of the predecessors.The thesis will be divided into five chapters. Chapter Ⅰ will probe the origin and the development of autobiographical essay of the late Ming Dynasty and date back to the development of the early Ming Dynasty and before it, which not only can discriminate the origin of it, but also test the inheritance and innovation as a reference. Chapter Ⅱ will summarize the general character of autobiographical essay by discussing self-description and narratives, which can pave the way for exploring below in detail. From chapter Ⅲ to chapter V, each of which discusses the middle, the late, the turn of Ming and Qing Dynasty respectively. Each period, as the major study object, concentrates on investigating the self-description and narratives, simultaneously balance the perfunctory and superior relationship between the early and the late period of the autobiographical essay, so that can show the trace of the late Ming Dynasty autobiographical essay’s evolution.