A Study On The Literary Sketches Of The Qing Dynasty During Shunzhi-qianlong Period

As one of ancient Chinese Xiao Shuo(usually,it's named as novel,a concept from European literature accepted by the dominant Chinese academic circles now)classifications,bijixiaoshuo(the literary sketches)has the fundamental properties of Zixue(the school of Zhu Zi)and thus improving the political and moral responsibility of people?enriching knowledge and providing entertainments for them.Its content was presented by recording?discussing?researching and narrating,making sketching as its basic form with various aesthetic styles.Currently,its name varies from biji(??)xiaoshuobiji(????)shuobubiji(????)to zibuxiaoshuo(????)and guoxuexiaoshuo(????).Although it has different names,it owns the general feature,i.e.,all works were presented individually.Also,most of them were select within Zibu(??)and relatively less were in Shibu while Shibu belongs to Zibu.We can conclude that bijixiaoshuo is a collection of different genres rather than a certain genre.Also,bijixiaoshuo is a kind of narratives together with the other three traditional stylistics of chuanqi,huaben and zhanghui.On the basis of researching nearly 500 works of bijixiaoshuo during the Shunzhi-Qianlong(some works were written in Jiaqing)period of Qing dynasty,this paper aims to discuss some topics,ranging from changes with the development of time?classifications?genres?thoughts.The paper's framework is as follows:The introduction illustrates the nature of bijixiaoshuo.After summarizing?reviewing and analyzing of the previous research of bijixiaoshuo before the year of 2010,especially probing into those terms occurred in the period of Qing dynasty and and the Republic of China,this section concentrates on the classifications?genres and thoughts of bijixiaoshuo,proposing that we should return back to the original context if we would like to get a specific,correct and deep knowledge of bijixiaoshuo.This part also introduces the significance?methods and framework of the whole paper.The second part(Chapter 1)is about the changes of bijixiaoshuo in the early and middle Qing dynasty.This section has two times node,i.e.Kangxi forties and Qianlong thirties,then it was divided into three periods.In the three periods,the genres of the literary sketches presented different appearance in its developing process.This is a brief history of the literary sketches in the early to mid-Qing dynasty.The third part(Chapter 2)is a research of bijixiaoshuo classifications(maybe called the existence form).The literary sketches could be broken down into four types: Yeshibiji(mainly related to historiography),Zajiabiji(mainly related to Confucian classics and literature works),Dilizaji(mainly related to natural scenery and folk customs)and Baiguangushi(mainly related to folktale).In this research process,scholarly exchange and characteristics of categories derived from the literary sketches are discussed and commented.The fourth part(Chapter 3)is a research of bijixiaoshuo genres,or can be perceived as an process of using the theory of stylistics to study the literary sketches.In this chapter,"Yuyangshuobu-style"(originated from Wang Shi-zhen's literary sketches)? "Banqiao-style"(originated from Yu Huai's literary sketches)? "Shuo Yue-style"(related to the south of China geography?products and local customs)and "Ghost-style"(originated from Pu Song-ling's novel Strange Tales of Liaozhai)are selected to research about their genre characteristic?process of formation?the origins of style and so on.The fifth part(Chapter 4)is about thought of bijixiaoshuo,including some criticism of the Qing dynasty(from Shunzhi to Qianlong).Ancient bibliographiesy? prefaces&postscripts of the literary sketches and pingdian(annotation and marking)are three kinds of important research objects in this chapter.Ancient bibliographiesy used to investigate the literary sketches' distribution and some sporadic comments in their summaries;prefaces&postscripts of the literary sketches used to refine Xiaoshuo's thought,i.e.classifications?natures?function?style of the sketchbook.Pingdian part mainly talk about 8 kinds of works' criticism.The conclusion part summarizes the chapters all above,putting forward to a research paradigm that the study of bijixiaoshuo during the period of the late Qing and the Republic of China should be based on the Xiaoshuojia of Complete Library of Four Branches of Books(??????).