A Study On Image Of Concubines In Family Novels Of Qing Dynasty.

Traditional Chinese society is an ethical society, which regards the patriarchal family as its basis. Men are the absolute rulers in the family while wife must be subordinated to husband. In the feudal polygamy marriage system, concubines are in the family structures of ancient Chinese society for a long time. Furthermore, they are of rich cultural values and worth investigating in the literary world. Family Novels of Qing Dynasty characterize a series of concubines images, which shows the unique culture of Chinese traditional ethics as well as moral connotation and reflects social reality at that time.This thesis consists of six parts as follows:The first part is the introduction, where previous studies on concubines of Family Novels in Qing Dynasty are reviewed and the significance of the present study is presented.The second part explains the building of concubine marriage system in the traditional Chinese society. It begins with origin and development of building of concubine marriage system and further elaborates status and characteristics of concubine in late Qing Dynasty.The third section explores the image of concubines in Family Novels of Qing Dynasty. First, the author defines the scope of the Family Novels of Qing Dynasty in order to select the specific work as the research object of the present study. Secondly, the current study investigates various origins of concubines and the complex causes of concubinage in Family Novels of Qing Dynasty.The fourth section explores the great value of exploring image of concubines characterized in Family Novels of Qing Dynasty. It reveals a unique Chinese traditional culture and moral meaning. Moreover, the influence of filial piety culture on people could be reflected indirectly. It could be inferred that the feudal hierarchy and moral constraints are so harmful to concubines. Furthermore, several envious and lascivious concubines are portrayed. The rebellious words and deeds indicate the imbalance of their mindsets and express their resentness and resistance of unequal status of men and woman as well as irrational patriarchal institution of marriage. In addition, it may be inferred that feudal society would collapse to certain extent. And it reveals the corruption phenomenon in official circles and evil fighting between people. Novels of Qing Dynasty. The concubine images described in Family Novels of Qing Dynasty are successful to some extent, in which personalized characters, delicate inner characterization, the finishing touch of detail and description of plots are of great help to shape the image of concubines.The present study is concluded with the summary of viewpoints obtained by analyzing and investigating the image of concubines in Family Novels of Qing Dynasty.