The Studies On Xingmeng Pianyan

Xingmeng pianyan is a collection of short stories composed in Middle and Late Qing Dynasty adapted on Liaozhai zhiyi. This thesis clarifies facts about its era, version, author, and studys about the fitness and contradiction among the components. On the other side, this thesis compares Xingmeng pianyan, which is a standard sample of Huaben Novels, with Liaozhai zhiyi, which is a model of Legends, about narrative methods, ideas and so on, to highlight the characteristics of the two kinds of literary styles.This thesis is divided into six parts.The introduction introduces the historical and present research about Xingmeng pianyan, as well as the research significance and method of this thesis. The first chapter researches on version and process of the book, including four sections, that Xingmeng pianyan is adapted from the Qingketing vertion of Liaozhai zhiyi, and research about Xingmeng pianyan’s versions, research about characteristics of materials selected by Xingmeng pianyan, speculation about the author. Xingmeng pianyan was writen in the declining period of Huaben Novels. The author was a intellectual who failed in imperial examination and lived in the countryside. The book was produced casually. The second chapter researches on ideas in Xingmeng pianyan. Comparing with Liaozhai zhiyi, it shows four characteristics, that values both destiny and manpower in marriage and official career, dreams of harmonious family life, believes in retribution, and pursues low level of morality. These representative concepts present common people’s selective absorption of official ideology, and reflects the weakening in inner truth and Philosophy. The third chapter researches on narrative methods about Xingmeng pianyan. It discusses differences between Xingmeng pianyan and Liaozhai zhiyi, some of which could apply to Huaben Novels and Legends as universal rules. Liaozhai zhiyi admit the fiction, while Xingmeng pianyan pursuit sense of reality. Liaozhai zhiyi only focus on the main characters, while Xingmeng pianyan descript numerous characters. Liaozhai zhiyi present a olive-shaped structure, while Xingmeng pianyan is more average. Liaozhai zhiyi tells stories in single file, while Xingmeng pianyan shows more complicated orders. Those four aspects reveal how Huaben Novels try to be credible, overall, balanced,and devious, and how they please ordinary people. The forth chapter regards the respective parts of the book as relatively independent entities, discussing the complex relationships between them. It showes how the titles, poems in front of the stories, discussions before the stories, discussions after the stories interact with storytelling, and how the texts, illustrations, and poems influence each other. The contradictions among each parts show that the novel failed in being harmonious inflenced by kinds of power. The epilogue concludes the difference between serious works writen by literati and popular works for commom people, and believed that the reason the two books appeared so differently was the norm of literary form.