A Comparison Between The Decameron And Sanyan Erpai

Comparative literature has long been considered as a useful practice for literary studies.With the rapid development of cultural communication, comparative literature has become ansuccessful initiative for academic research. The comparison between Chinese and Westernliterature can enhance people’s abilities for literary accomplishment and appreciation. As animportant literary genre, fictions in China and the West share something in common in termsof their course of development, even though they appeared in different period of time.Fictions in the West were not entirely regarded as an independent genre until the Middle ages.Around the time of the Renaissance, the class of citizens emerged in the urban areas. Fictionwriters began to follow greatly with interest the ordinary groups of people such as merchantsand citizens. Thus civic fictions which were rich in flavor of life came into being. During theearly development of Chinese fictions, orthodox scholars viewed them as “gossip” or “what isheard on the byroad”. Survival for fictions was maintained after a fashion though. However,fictions were intended to reflect what was needed for society then, therefore, they managed tostay alive. From “supernatural tales of the Wei and Jin Dynasties” to huaben of the Song andYuan Dynasties and to fictions and novels of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, they sustained asteady-going progress. The Ming and Qing Dynasties, in particular, witnessed drastic socialchanges and the appearance of the citizen class. This contributed positively to the ambiancefor production of fictions. In order to illustrate the civic attribute of fictions, a close readingwas conducted in this dissertation based on the texts of the Italian Renaissance TheDecameron and the vernacular Sanyan Erpai of China’s Ming Dynasty.The Renaissance in Italy was a period blessed with numerous masters and talents. Greatliterary and artistic works emancipated people’s mind immensely, and mobilized the people spiritually to get prepared for the later Bourgeois Revolution. Boccaccio composed TheDecameron, a collection of short stories. This book mercilessly castigates the mental slaveryof religion and sings high praise for the power of man. Happiness is believed to dwell in thehuman world. In the seventeenth century of China, the bud of capitalist productive relationsappeared in the Ming Dynasty. In the area of Jiangnan, a lot of workshops of the cotton textileindustry showed up. Commercial and business activities were profoundly prosperous, and thecitizen class experienced a robust growth. With the elevation of the citizen class’ economicstrength and social status, significant changes in literature and aesthetics were produced.Notions such as “Love of Women” and “Love of Material” were deeply rooted in the commonmasses. Gratification of human desires became top priority. Under this circumstance, FengMenglong compiled Sanyan and Ling Mengchu wrote Erpai. The appearance of these worksproves the fact of the growth of the citizen class. The literary works produced for the citizensexhibit the transformation of writing and appreciation, and corroborate the renaissance ofliterature. Accordingly, the close relationship between civic culture and fictions is manifested.In this dissertation, The Decameron and Sanyan Erpai are chosen as objects for acomparative study. Motifs are compared and analyzed in seven parts altogether. InIntroduction, biographies of Boccaccio, Feng Menglong and Ling Mengchu as well as theresearch objective and literature review of this dissertation are mentioned; in Chapter One, acomparison of “Love” is done; with the help of Feng Menglong’s “View of qing” andBoccaccio’s view of love, a clear picture of citizens’ pursuit of human nature is presented, andthe magic of love is extolled. In Chapter Two, a comparison of “Sex” is carried out; citizensare proved to consent to the aspiration after sex, which is essential to human nature. Thus therationality of sex is confirmed. In Chapter Three, attitudes towards belief are compared;through the depiction of people’s daily involvement in religious activities and their comments,the hypocrisy of religion is fully disclosed. This shows the freedom in thoughts during the age of the renaissance. Meanwhile, the complicated contradiction of people’s feelings towardsreligion can be seen through the writers’ ambiguous fragments of writing. In Chapter Four,cases of misdeeds to wife are analyzed. The brazen misogynous descriptions in the fictionscan be regarded as an outcry to the inequality of and discrimination against women in feudalsociety. Chapter Five includes an integral comparison; aspects such as “usury” are comparedso as to lay stress on the development of the citizen class and transformation of society. Thevital influence of civic culture upon fictions is accentuated. In Conclusion, limitation of TheDecameron and Sanyan Erpai is illustrated. The inseparable relation between fiction and civicculture is once more emphasized, and the latter’s impetus to the former is ratified through thecomparative analysis of The Decameron and Sanyan Erpai, which are representative works ofthe age of renaissance in Italy and China. Finally, the fiction’s attribute of civic culturebecomes self-evident.