| Li Yu(1610-1680) was an important writer in the history of Chinese literature, to whose dramatic theories great importance has always been attached; however, his short stories have been overlooked all the time. The author of this paper holds that the contents as well as the artistic forms of Li Yu's short stories are characterized by extremely distinctive originality, which determines to a great extent the important status of the writer in the history of Chinese popular literature. The author is probing into the theme here in the hope that more related research will be carried out.In the paper the originality relating to the themes and contents is first discussed. From the angle of the development history of the vernacular short stories it can be seen that there had been existing various problems with both the "Huaben" stories of the Song and Yuan Dynasties and the renowned San Yan and Er Pai. Furthermore, on entering the field of "Huaben" stories and finding that there had been little material left for literal and artistic creation; Li Yu, therefore, had to develop a way of his own-a switch from pure adaptation to real creation. Meanwhile, Li Yu, was in essence a highly creative person and it is natural that he could produce those splendid works.Three aspects of the originality in the themes and contents of Li Yu's stories are dealt with, including: 1) projection of unique personal flavor and experiences. All the short stories written by Li Yu are concerned with worldly affairs, such as household property, affinal relations, descendants, social communications, etc, from which one can see clearly the unique personal flavor and experiences of the author. In such a sense, Li Yu's works differ from those in San Yan and Er Pai; 2) renovation of the conventional themes and overthrow of traditional ideas. By employing therenovation of old themes and overthrow of traditional ideas, Li Yu had in his works created some novel worlds for the readers; 3) ideal state created by means of the combination of spiritual refinement and Neo-Confucianism In his stories, Li Yu made every effort to compromise the contradictions between the ideals and reality, accordingly putting forward an ideal state in which one's spiritual refinement and the traditional Neo-Confucianism are combined, as well as a correct way of achieving such a state. As regards the originality of the artistic forms of Li Yu's short stories, it is also explored in three orientations: 1) development of the structure of traditional Huaben stories. Firstly, in Li's stories, great changes were made about the introductory remarks and the First chapter; secondly, a great many quotations from poetry were greatly reduced, even including those at the beginning and end of a story; thirdly, many of Li Yu's short stories were in fact developing into medium-size novels; 2) strong descriptive interference. It mainly lay in two aspects: intense self-expression and strong urge on the readers' participation in the description; 3) unique comedian style. All the short stories of Li Yu were grounded in a comedian tone, which has in fact become a distinctive style of his works. In addition, Li Yu integrated the traditional idea of expostulation and the ultimate aim to entertain the readers, thus forming his distinctive comedian world. From his stories it is not difficult to see that what Li Yu aspired for indeed was anything but so-called moral expostulation, but entertainment-"My sole concern is to make sure that any one will laugh."The last part of the paper approaches the reasons why originality occurs in Li Yu's short stories, some of which are objective and some subjective: 1) the impact of the trends of thought in individual liberation of the late Ming Dynasty. Li Yu inherited the thoughts of Li Zhi, Tang Xianzu, Yuan Hongdao, Zhang Dai, etc., stressing individuality and worldly pleasures, striving in works for personal freedom, defying the feudal guidesand virtues. From the characters in Li Yu's short stories, people have always been able to find the shade o... |
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