"the Scholars" Structure Of The New Theory

By studying on Wu Jingzi's background, the development of his concept and the works itself, this thesis arrives at a viewpoint that The Scholars inherited and developed the structure of Huaben and Nihuaben novels since Song Dynasty. In order to defend himself on the edge point of central society, Wu Jingzi utilized Nihuaben novels' arranging pattern, way of subjective intervention. In this novel, he expressed his resentment towards Bagu imperial examination and his disappointment to the moral quality of most scholars. His standpoint determined his pattern of surveying the society, collecting writing materials and his way of arranging all the materials in logical and time sequence. His way of surveying and thinking was directly reflected in his novel, which can be divided into five parts: prologue, chapter 2 to chapter 30, chapter 31 to chapter 37, chapter 38 to chapter 54, chapter 55 to chapter 56. The novel started from the description of the scholars' moral integrity and their literary talent, and compared two kinds of scholars. The author's emotion flew in undercurrent and then emerged directly in chapter 55, also, his profound thinking brought the novel a rational style. So, The Scholars had dual endings: chapter 55 mainly to draw an end to the emotion, and chapter 56 to focus on revealing his writing intention and to wind up the whole works. Besides, Wu Jingzi drew lessons from the structure of two other novels: Anecodote and Outlaws of the Marsh. But Wu Jingzi greatly changed the traditional Chinese novel structure in plot arranging, which in turn gave the novel a totally new structure which I call simulate huaben.