A Study Of The Concept Of "Jianghu" In The Novels Of Tang And Five Dynasties

In recent years, the research achievements of folk literature and folk ideology after the Song Dynasty are abundant. Folk ideology, especially the consciousness of homeless people who out of the administrative organization,is another clue to understand the China’s social environment. "Jianghu" culture refers to the homeless people, it flourished in the Song Dynasty, but the homeless population wasn’t appear in Song dynasty, this hidden space existed by attaching to the patriarchal society, the ideology of homeless people’s society before Song Dynasty could be called a concept of "Jianghu", and the research object of this article is about the “Jianghu” concept of the homeless people in Tang Dynasty. There are two finally significances of this research, one is to bring the research time limit of “Jianghu” culture forward to the Tang Dynasty, the second is to research the civil consciousness of Tang Dynasty by using literary narrative. The goal of these two points is to clear ideology of folk narrative and differences with the official ideology in Tang Dynasty. With the help of the research can let us understand the survival state of homeless people and their ideal, in addition, it can complement another society which the mainstream literature can’t reflects, and make us more comprehensively understanding about the Tang Dynasty.Before make a study of the concept of Tang and Five Dynasty’s novels, this paper analyzed the formation and evolution of the concept of "Jianghu" at first. The word "Jianghu" originally refers to the "natural waters", meanwhile it is a geographical meaning, namely, the waters of the Yangtze river and the waters in the southeastern area of Yangtze river. On this basis, it extended to two kinds of meanings——the elegant one and the vulgar one——the literati’s space and homeless people’s space, this paper make a especial effort to analyzes why the vulgar culture use “Jianghu” to represent its opposite from the mainstream social order. It related to the meaning of "natural waters", and closely related to the concept of "Yangtze river area" as well.The force binding of patriarchal clan system in the Tang Dynasty has began to decline, especially after the Anshi Rebellion, so the population movements in Tang middle-late period became the precursor of "Jianghu" culture that flourished in Song Dynasty. Homeless people in the Tang dynasty society formed many fundamental ideas: First, the concept of "Jianghu" in the Tang Dynasty showed great appreciate to people who support himself by his own ability even bully others, compared with the moral dimension, this was an evaluation criterion which used the viability as the standard, and the violence also gradually became the main characteristic of the "Jianghu" society in the late ages. Second, the survival ability determined a homeless people’s status and quality of life in the "Jianghu" society, but the violence could push a homeless to the peak of the "Jianghu" society, homeless people in the Tang Dynasty expressed cruelty and contempt to life, on the other hand, the behavior such as murderous、bloodthirsty and the action of killing one’s own child might be recognized as "justice". Third, "Jianghu" society in the Tang Dynasty attached great importance to the rule of man but not the rule of law, this was related to the characteristics of patriarchal society, the homeless often hoped that government could use the tolerant attitude to their behaviors which contrary to law. Fourth, society of homeless established the moral judgment criterion with the concept of "righteousness", but "righteousness" in Tang Dynasty has transformed from "benefits for others" to "benefits for oneself", and showed the anti-social characteristics gradually, the author of the novel in the Tang Dynasty made guidance to people about the "righteousness" of folk ethics, which make great influence to the popular literature in offspring.The concept of "Jianghu" in the Song Dynasty had both development and new changes. First of all, it developed as a dominant cultural phenomenon from a recessive folk concept, for instance, "ju rod rod" stories, which represented the homeless people’s living conditions and their values appeared in folk art "speak". Second, the pattern of homeless people’s activity has changed from "maverick" to "the curtain", "water margin" and "three kingdoms” stories reflected this change clearly. Third, the characteristics of "Jianghu" in the Tang Dynasty have continued deepen in the Song dynasty, it showed the extinction of the humanitarian?——more serious forms of violence and the imprisoned lusts. Finally, some mysterious factors in Tang Dynasty have been promoted in the novels in offspring.