"strange Tales" In The "official Memoirs"

Officialdom is the important component of Chinese feudal society. Pu Songling's booknamed Strange Tales of Liaozhai has quarter of writings relating to many fields ofofficialdom. Analyzing these writings about officialdom has important significance. Wecan understand the officialdom in the initial stage of Qing dynasty from them, and we cancomprehend deeper Strange Tales of Liaozhai and Pu Songling's political ideal.This text bases on grasping comprehensively the writings of Strange Tales ofLiaozhai and researches systematically the writings about officialdom in Strange Tales ofLiaozhai. The text proceeds from Strange Tales of Liaozhai and probes into the betrayalof officialdom in Strange Tales of Liaozhai. The text also probes into Pu Songling'spolitical ideal and the evaporation of the ideal.Full text can be divided to three chapters. The first chapter interprets the writingsabout officialdom in Strange Tales of Liaozhai and researches them classifiably.According to the different qualities of officials in writings, they can be classified to twocategories. The first category describes dark officialdom. The second category portraysthe ideal officialdom in writers' mind. When the text researches the first category, itinquires into the drawback of dark officialdom from two differentangles—macroscopically and microcosmically. The second category research focuseson two points: the model of ideal officials in Strange Tales of Liaozhai and the idealpatterns of punishing evil-doers and encouraging good-doers.The second chapter and the third chapter are the main body. These chapters combineversion to writer's experience to research further the source of writer's cognition aboutofficialdom and the progression or limitation of this cognition. The second chapterdiscusses the origin of Cognition about officialdom which Pu Songling showed off inStrange Tales of Liaozhai. It can be classified to two parts. The first part analyses theofficialdom of Qing dynasty's stage from the system of selecting officials and theadministration of local officials. It also explains the soil of reality where the cognitionabout officialdom came from. The second part expounds Pu Songling's familybackground and experience, and discusses the influence of writer's social attribute toofficialdom article's writing.The third chapter analyses the value of Pu Songling's cognition about officialdomand his officialdom articles. By mean of contrasting with other literati and thinkers, itresearches the profundity and progression of Pu Songling's cognition about officialdom.Meanwhile, it points out the limitation of Pu Songling's thought. This chapter also seeksthe source of Pu Songling's thought by relating to Qing dynasty's social environment andwriter's culture. It properly evaluates Pu Songling's creation and his contribution toliterature, too.