Studies On The Honest And Faith Sense In The Short Stories In Vernacular Of Ming Dynasty

The short stories in vernacular of Ming Dynasty are important components in thehistory of the Chinese novel developments, particularly in the middle and late Ming,the production climaxed with short stories in vernacular, among which theoutstanding works are "SAN YAN" written by FENG MENGLONG and "ER PAI"written by LING MENGCHU. Regardless of narrating forms or ideological contents,these two collected works are the masterpieces in Chinese ancient short stories invernacular, and they are also the symbols of prosperities of short stories in vernacularof Ming Dynasty.Ming society was severe unrest;feudalism was on the decline, the newlyemerging rudiment of capitalism was seeking soil for life and development,commodity economy was on the upsurge and developed very fast, townspeoplestratum was unceasingly expanding, all of these made people's ideological mentalitychange, and the changes of ideological mentality conversely promoted commercialflourishing and economic development.The social reform of Ming Dynasty caused tremendous affect in people'sideology, therefore the honest and good faith sense in novels contained multi-culturalorientations of value. Under such social circumstance, the traditional Confucianismand moral ethical conception were severely affected. However, did the honest andgood faith sense as the base of Confucianism mainstream of the Chinese traditionalculture and morality not exist? The answer is positive.Confucian doctrine as the main school of ancient Chinese traditional thinking hadextremely far-reaching influence for the ideological mentality, particularly values ofMing people. The values of Confucian studies basically represented the values ofChinese traditional culture, summarizing in the main aspects of affirming life, layingstress on human relations and extolling morality. This kind of traditional moralprinciples and ethics sense of Confucian studies had great impacts and restriction onshort stories in vernacular of Ming Dynasty.What is the most importance of the short stories in vernacular of Ming Dynasty isthe revelation of the most praiseworthy negative value – the cost of honesty. Thehonor behavior subject is fully aware of the cost to be paid, yet bring about honesty,making the strength and beauty of personality, and promotion and purification andmorality clear to all. It is of tragedy, at least of tragically significance, or eventragically purifying function for the honor behavior subject paying cost for honesty.The short stories in vernacular of Ming Dynasty, particularly "SAN YAN" and"ER PAI" from beginning to end permeate the traditional Confucian ideology,"honest", "faith", "loyalty" and "justice" penetrate through the novels, becomingspirit essence of the novels. At the same time, the motifs shown in the novels get closeto townspeople stratum, reflecting aesthetic aspiration and interests of townspeople.The love and marriage, society of valuing money above everything else andexposing social evils are the basic motifs of the short stories in vernacular of MingDynasty, the influence and restriction of traditional morality and honest and faithsense on the novels embody in these motifs. As heroes and heroines of the shortstories in vernacular of Ming Dynasty, the characters of townspeople hold a largeproportion;among them are merchants, scholars, prostitutes living in the bottom ofthe society, three kinds of middle-aged women and six kinds of elderly women, aswell as thieves. Through these different characteristic images, the novelists reappearthe history of Ming Dynasty, deduct the social trend of thought and public morals andmores of Ming Dynasty, and expound novelists' good and evil ethics ideas, repeatedlyelaborate the importance of honest and faith sense in people's social lives and socialcontacts in many ways, fully giving expression to the basic belief of China's ancientcivilization and ancient culture and vividly annotating the honest and faith senseadvocated by the Chinese people of past dynasties.There exists inevitable relation between the honesty and revenge theme in the short stories invernacular of Ming Dynasty. This is showed by the contorted honesty, when honesty is discarded,moral mentality is also forfeited. The violation and subversion of honesty of perfidious partycertainly result in hurting another party, this creates the intention and cause of revenge in certainextent, and it is one of the important reasons of causing revenge in a certain sense. This alsoformulates the characteristics of revenging thematic literature of Ming Dynasty. However, theindividual revenge without permission causes beat against legal system, and also makes a certainhonesty of revenging subject in the cost paid for with blood clear to all.Once more observing carefully the honest and faith sense in the short stories invernacular of Ming Dynasty from the angle of the people of contemporary era, weshould not neglect the profound historical significance and realistic significance, inaddition to fully approving their important values of literature, ethics and aesthetics.