A Study Of Male Image In The Legend Of Tang Dynasty

The Legend of Tang dynasty created a wide range of subjects, image vivid, art achievements, is a sign of maturity of classical Chinese novels. The previous researchers focused on the theme of love and the female image, and there is less research on male image. This article focused on the complexity and diversity of male images in Legend of Tang dynasty, about sixty classical works were selected, and the main subjects investigated includes the classification, characteristics of male image, and the reason of formation of male image. In the part of introduction, a clear concept of the novels in the Tang Dynasty and Legend of Tang dynasty were identified, the research situation of Legend of Tang dynasty were reviewed, and the research methods and ideas were established. The details are as follow:The first part is the classification of male image. In the present study,based on the existing stories in which the storyline is more complete and the main character describes more detailed, the male images can be divided into the following five categories: the literati, gallant, officials, merchants and other. These six types of male image were the highest frequency of character types in the works, covering all the male characters in Legend of Tang dynasty.The second part is the characteristic of male image. These male characters have different origin, situation, the characteristics of male images can be described as the following three aspects: faithful, kind, brave lady sex.Because of the contradiction of the particularity of the times and their own character, typically embodies two aesthetic features of legend were reflected,which are namely the tragic and legendary.The third part is the significance and value of male image. Compared with literatures before the Tang Dynasty, the male image in the Tang legend first won the focus of artistic expression, become rich and vivid. They truly reproduced the pedigree conception and imperial demands of Tang Dynasty,and typically embodied Tang people’s spiritual pursuit and the survival of the state. It has important significance in the Chinese literary language novelhistory.