The Colorful Late Ming Civil Daily Life

Daily life is one of the research topics in western literature and philosophy. However, the academic inquiries concerning daily life is yet to be carried out in China, for instance, studies on the common people's daily life in later Ming dynasty is not well developed. This thesis intends to do a deeper and more detailed study on common people's daily life during that time on the basis of preceding researches, while focusing on clarifying and analyzing raw materials in corresponding novels, and combing materials from other historical works or records of contemporaries. Based on the above discussion, the thesis analyzes the feature, motivation and significance of common people's daily life in later Ming dynasty.The thesis consists of introduction, six chapters and conclusion. The introduction describes reasons of choosing such topic, and briefly sheds light on preceding researches and studying methods as well as contents in this thesis. The first chapter expounds the background of daily life in later Ming dynasty, from three aspects such as the weakening of centralization of authority and changing of national policy in earlier Ming dynasty, diversification of economy and booming of cities and towns, changing of sense of hierarchy and wavering of traditional regulations and rules. Chapter two to five fully and vividly illustrate daily clothing, food, shelter and transportation in later Ming dynasty, combing descriptions of tales during that time, in order to show the differences between Ming dynasty and other times. Chapter six probes the characteristics of daily life in later Ming dynasty and reveals how the novels affects daily life, then analyses why the luxurious and overriding phenomena occur in daily life and the social significance of these phenomena. The conclusion reaffirms the attitude and research method and also emphasizes the significance and value of investigating and returning daily life on the basis of preceding novels.