Ming Dynasty Vernacular Short Story Plot On The Draft

According to the development of the conception of short stories and the course of creating works, we can find that the Chinese ancient short stories always focus on the "plot". Those short stories are good at description on plot. They represent the highly art level and form the unique aesthetic style. The vernacular short stories of Ming Dynasty paid much more attention to plot because it depended on "storytelling" skills in Song and Yuan Dynasties. So they are worth to be studied deeply and systemically.This article takes the "plot" as start point and keystone on studying the vernacular short stories of Ming Dynasty. The study objects are those following seven representative collections of vernacular short stories: "Three Words", "Two Stoppings", "Tales of the Worlds Examples" and "Second Collection of West Lake Stories ". Among the text, the author uses the American literary critic--Meyer Howard Abrams' "Four Elements of Literary Criticism" (works, universe, author and reader) to construct the basic theoretical frame.The whole article includes two main parts: preface and text. Then the text is divided into three chapters and eight sections.Starting with studies on the inside of the work, the first chapter draws a conclusion by analyzing the thread of development and the transverse relations between plots, characters creating and theme expatiating: the entire art level of the vernacular short stories of Ming Dynasty came down gradually from the peak which "Three Words " had reached. Characters creating and plots deducting changed step by step from benefiting each other greatly into breaking away from each other; in order to according with the dry sermonic theme, plots of short stories became more and more absurd, fantastic and even loosed their energies.The second chapter depends on studies of plot creating and accepting. It discourses at great length on how authors pay regards to plot; how readers accept plot and have self-identities; three concrete ways on how authors communicate with readers through the text. It also reveals the important significance of this successful communication on paper, which breaks through the monologue summary of traditional Chinese poetry and article creating.In view of studies on the scene of the world which represents by plot, the last chapter talks about these contents as follows which are declared in the vernacular short stories of Ming Dynasty: the living style of common people and scholars is full of the unique spirit of the times; the judging standards of moral problems become much more rational and humanistic; ideals and wishes of ordinary life that filled with practical meanings which correspond to peoples actual living style.