Social Critique And Playing Words

In the history of Chinese literature, Yuan Mei, as a talented poet, not only writes a great deal of poetry, but also proposes a systematic poetry theory -- "Spirit Theory"; and as a novelist, his representative work, a ghost story collection "Zibuyu", shares the same status with Pu Songlin's "Liaozhaizhiyi" and Ji Yun's "Yuewei Caotang Notes". This thesis focuses on Yuan Mei's " Zibuyu", analyses this story collection from system theory and reflection theory, summarizes its significance and arts features, and discusses the causes.The thesis consists of five chapters. The first chapter is the introduction. The second chapter introduces the background of Yuan Mei's " Zibuyu ". The third chapter expounds the ideological significance of " Zibuyu " from three aspects: the critique on Neo-Confucianism and the Confucianism, the critique on feudal imperial civil service examination, and the exposure and whip on the ugly phenomenon of feudal society. The fourth chapter analyzes the art features of"Zibuyu"from the pursuit of shocking aesthetic effect, humorous cynicism, and concise narration language. The fifth chapter discusses the relationship of Yuan Mei's personality, his literature thought, and the writing of "Zibuyu ".Yuan Mei makes a breakthrough on the novel's history, who holds that the novelists are great, and writing novels is not a dirty act, but a noble behavior. Novel is a game, which not only belongs to the author, but also supplies pleasures to readers, making all kinds of emotional stimulation. Ghost stories, which collects various experiences in the world, may widen the field of vision; the humorous language may enlighten the people; the scene of horror and resist to the stupid, can frighten the wrongdoers.