Power Archetype And It’s Performance In Literature From Myth Totem To The Narrative Of Corrupt And Upright Official In Chinese Literature

The theory of archetype has three major development process:Cultural anthropology which represented by Fraser; Analytical psychology which represented by Carl Jung and Frye as the representative of the literary criticism. Archetype has three main meanings: ritual, collective unconscious and literature image. Archetype is multi-level and can be divided into archetype and archetype image. The former like collective unconscious; the latter is literary images.Power archetype has four major characteristics:mandatory, universality, godhood, dual characteristics. Dual characteristics which lead one archetype image split into two after "Axial Age" is that those in power enjoy benefits of the power and have to bear the risk of it. For example, God was divided into gods and demons. Power archetype differs greatly in archetype image layer in different cultures. The main archetype images are kings, heroes, God and demon, knight and dragon, corrupt and upright official, money and law.The main power archetype image in Chinese literary works is bureaucracy. This image divided into upright and corrupt officials in Song dynasty. Corrupt and upright official seem incompatible. In fact, they are two different aspects of power archetype. The corrupt official is the expression of free use of power. Upright official is to avoid the failure of power. The ritual of upright official kills corrupt official reflects dual characteristics of power archetype.The images of corrupt and upright official are enduring in the Chinese literature. The story of BaoZheng and HaiRui is the most obvious example. In Chinese modern literary the main performance of power archetype is still corrupt and upright official. From the prosperous of anti-corruption novel we can see that. These novels are still not out of a simple mode and still express an ancient ritual that corrupt official be killed by upright official. More and more literature works no longer describe absolute upright and corrupt officials; the personality of upright and corrupt official tends to be complex. With the development of globalization, the western factors of money and legal infiltrated into upright and corrupt officials.