What Deserves Savoring

Literature of Yuan Dynasty gives much description of women's living condition of those days. Yuanqu, especially Yuan Zaju announces the improvement of women's position and the slacking of Confucian ethical codes, which is the most noticeable and most concerned by people. While the exploration of the women in other types of literature, such as the orthodox men's poems and proses, the women's works etc, seems to be treated coldly. In this paper, the author attempts to describe the woman's world in literature of Yuan Dynasty by analyzing Yuan Zaju, the orthodox men's poems and proses and the women's works.This paper is divided into three parts: preface, body and conclusion.In the preface, the author puts forward the reason of the topic and the visual angel of the demonstration.The body is made up of four parts. After tracing back to the women's experience before Yuan Dynasty in the first part, the author discusses the topic from three different angles in order to get overall understanding in the contrasts of them.I The women's experience before Yuan DynastyThis part explores the women's experience from the Pre-Qin period to Song Dynasty. The gradual strictness of the Confucian ethical codes had caused the gradual dwindling of women's free space. On the whole, it was the course that the woman is fettered day by day, in which there were still some other tides that didn't accord with the mainstream.II The persons who range on the edge of the Confucian ethical codes--Thewomen in Yuan ZajuThe writers of Yuan Zaju in lower levels created a women's world different from tradition, because of suspecting the traditional Confucian culture and familiarizing the women lived in lower levels. In this world, the writers of Yuan Zaju speak out what women want to speak and idealize women's life. So, women in Yuan Zaju are scarcely fettered by the Confucian ethical codes, which they are usually against. Because of the limitation of era, the writer can't find the outlet for them, but to let them range on theedge of the Confucian ethical codes. The women, when step out of the Confucian ethical codes once in a while, are still retracted in the hedge of it by the writer finally.III Sacrificial offerings on the altar of Confucian ethical codes--The chastewomen in the orthodox men's poems and proses of Yuan DynastyThe women's world made up of the chaste women in Yuan orthodox men's poems and proses is completely different from that of Yuan Zaju. The orthodox scholars, in order to assimilate the Mongolian ruler with traditional Confucian culture, regarded pursuing Confucian culture as their own duties, besides, based on "cardinal principles between married couple and between the monarch and his subjects are the same", they recommended women's chastity and personal integrity in a more cost-effective manner, so they left a place for the women in their own poems and proses. These chaste women become the victims of maintaining the Confucian ethical codes and advocating Confucianism, at the same time, they oppressed women in reality as a kind of words power.IV Confession under the curtain of Confucian ethical codes--Women'sself-writing in Yuan DynastyCompared with the riot of color of men's world, the women's world shows dull somewhat in reality. The body and mind of accomplished women is all restrained by the Confucian ethical codes. Because the life is dull, the women's works, are full of loneness and depressed sense, are mostly after-tasting to their own daily life. No matter graceful girls, or prostitutes, both display their discontent to life in the works; the abundant content hid in this kind of discontented mood is exactly what we will excavate.In conclusion, the author summarizes the paper and points out how the characteristic women's world in literature of Yuan Dynasty can exist: the natural show of the individual instinct under the lax ideology environment.