On QiuShui’s Studies Of The Golden Lotus

Tian Xiaofei, Harvard scholar, based on the perspective of contemporary female readers makes an interpretation of the The Golden Lotus, which is different from the traditional perspective. She is not constrained by academic requirement for paper, or subject to the author’s thought tendency in the text. Instead she respects more to the text itself and pays attention to the details of the text and the setting plots; she shows the sadness of all beings in the The Golden Lotus, especially the poor parts of the female characters in the book, based on three aspects of perception——the new criticism interpretation method, a close reading of the text of the female perspective and female body, thus arousing readers’ sympathy and compassion, and hoping that readers can associate themselves with the opportunity and fate of the characters from the book, and reflecting themselves from the ending of the book, to achieve the goal of cultivate one’s morality, purification.This article chooses Tian Xiaofei’s article On QiuShui’s studies of The Golden Lotus as the author object. Firstly, this essay gives a further interpretation to the On QiuShui’s studies of The Golden Lotus in the aspects of new criticism methods for The Golden Lotus of Tian Xiaofei, which is different from the traditional critics. Because she cuts the connection between the text with the original author and the social moral requirements and regards the characters from the book as imperfect social beings trying to survive. She doesn’t require them to do anything according to the criterion of the society’s words and deeds, but interprets the text and analyses characters from the secular human feelings, one’s character and opportunity, so that she reaches a conclusion——the compassion feeling from The Golden Lotus.Furthermore, Tian Xiaofei interprets The Golden Lotus, not only as a Western scholar, but also from a woman’s point of view. She knows a woman’s faint mind, as a result, she can appreciate women’s beauty from a contemporary woman’s standpoint. She is not like LanLingXiaoXiaoSheng, who definites the female characters in the book at the traditional moral points. Nor is she like Xia Zhiqing who represents male readers, simply deciding that women’s value is proportional to their appearance, which raises the role of women’s looks in marriage and determines the external conditions weights more in a marriage. Tian Xiaofei is able to observe the female characters in the book from small things and find their intelligence, wisdom, clemency, dignity and honor.Finally, from the angle of benevolence, Tian Xiaofei seems to be more empathy with female characters in the book. She finds out three types of body from The Golden Lotus including perceiving the world by the flesh of the body, and desiring body, especially sexual desire, and the body in different circumstance and characters. And she is willing to displace the tragedy in the book characters to feel the fortune of female characters in the book and even treat the characters with great compassion in the book.The book, On QiuShui’s studies of The Golden Lotus, is special not only because it returns to the Chinese tradition ---being more considerate and patient in the form of "commenting on every chapter" in today’s academic research increasingly western, external, professional, but also because she, to some degree, interprets women’s voices from their point of view, representing the female readers who has no rights to "voice". At last this wonderful book obtains a truly praise belonging to "woman". What’s more, compassionate view reminds readers to purify themselves when reading the book, rather than simply take the Golden Lotus as "an opposite article of self-cultivation". They should understand better that it is difficult for the characters in the book to control their fate and opportunities. They shouldn’t follow their examples and try to avoid the same pain and sufferings.