A Study On The Characters Of Thieves And Robbers In "SanyanErpai"

Stories from a Ming Collection is the shortened form of three books written by Feng Menglong in Ming dynasty named Yushi Mingyan,Xingshi Hengyan and Jingshi Tongyan with the other two books called Chuke Pai'an Jingqi and Erke Pai'an Jingqi written by Ling Mengchu in Ming dynasty. Because of scattering of the original version overseas, Chinese scholars have studied this literary masterpiece for not a long time, just over one hundred years or so. Even though, the scholars received good harvest.As is known to all, character is not only one of main factors in the creation of fiction, but also a point at issue. The characters in Stories from a Ming Collection include: scholars, merchants, functionaries, prostitutes, slaves and so on. These characters mentioned above have been studied by some scholars. However, some characters in Stories from a Ming Collection are not studied by others, especially the thieves and robbers. The reason for this academic phenomenon may be explained as the difficulty to definite the thieves and robbers or these kinds of characters are not the main roles in this fiction. Such being the case, it misleads other scholars to believe that these characters can't be the quintessence of the fiction on one hand. On the other hand, it offers a new point for further research.The introduction and conclusion included, this thesis is composed of five parts:Chapter 1 is the current studies of Stories from a Ming Collection. It will focus on the research findings which have close relationship with this thesis or the achievements which can be cited in this thesis. Then it will move to explain the background, value and feasibility of this topic. In final, it will give a clear definition of the thieves and robbers and a general statement of the research methodology.Chapter 2 is the overview of the studies of the characters of thieves and robbers in historical fictions and other literary works. This part will mainly deal with the embodiment of the characters of thieves and robbers in literary works including historical biography, classic novels in Tang dynasty, novels in classic style and novels in Vernacular Chinese. Because of limitation of the sources, it only offers the most typical literary works for example.Chapter 3 is the description of the characters of thieves and robbers in Stories from a Ming Collection. It will classify the characters of thieves and robbers into distinct kinds. Based on the historical background of Ming dynasty, this thesis tries to study the personalities and destinies of various thieves and robbers in order to manifest the living status of thieves and robbers.Chapter 4 explores the underlying reasons for the emergence of the characters of thieves and robbers in Stories from a Ming Collection and the analyses the authors'original intensions and the ways in shaping those figures. It is the most important part of this chapter. Chapter 3 and Chapter 4 make the core of the thesis.Chapter 5 is the conclusion. It sums up the main points and aims of the thesis. There's a saying goes like this: Every problem is the problem in front of your eyes. We hope to highlight the practical value of the thesis through the theoretical study of those typical thieves and robbers.