A New Investigation Into The Ideological Connotation Of Zi Bu Yu

Yuan Mei’s Zi Bu Yu is an famous note-style novel of grotesque. In recent years with the increasing attention to the study of Zi Bu Yu, the exploration of Zi Bu Yu has entered a new phase. In this thesis, based on the specific age and circumstances in which Yuan Mei composed Zi Bu Yu in combination with Yuan Mei’s life experience as well as his state of mind, the author classified and analyzed the texts of Zi Bu Yu in order to have a profound discussion of the unique ideological and cultural connotation of this work.This thesis consists of four parts.The first part is aimed to explore the official management ideology implied by means of officials’ images in Zi Bu Yu. The author classifies and reorganizes officials’ images in Zi Bu Yu, and analyzes the images of competent officials, oppressive officials, as well as corrupt officials, through which it can be summarized that the official management ideology of Zi Bu Yu is concerned with the eagerness for fair and clear politics, and the concern for the weal and woe of civilians. The author also delves into its origin from the perspective of official management ideology in Confucian culture and Taoism culture.In the secend part, the author analyzes the life-and-death view and the human-and-ghost view of Zi Bu Yu. Through the analysis of the texts in Zi Bu Yu, it can be revealed that the life-and-death view of Zi Bu Yu is optimism and naturalism. People should love life and be stoic in front of death, which has also absorbed the life-and-death view of Confucianism and Taoism. As far as the author is concerned, the human-and-ghost view presented in Zi Bu Yu is also influenced by this rational life-and-death view. It is analyzed and stated that ghost in Zi Bu Yu is another form of humans. In addition, it can be summarized that humans’ power always overcome ghosts’ intrigues.In the third part, the Buddhism-and-Taoism view of Zi Bu Yu is investigated. The author classified the Taoist and Buddhist images into three types, including superlunar god-man with anima, saviour who eliminates disasters, and wicked Taoists and Buddhists who murder others for money. The attitude toward the third type of Taoist and Buddhist image in Zi Bu Yu is mainly discussed and the Buddhism-and-Taoism view is further analyzed in combination with Yuan Mei’s other works.In the forth part, the ultra-time-and-space nature and backwardness of Zi Bu Yu are analyzed. In the author’s opinion, the attitude of not judging individual life’s quality by means of species and class has the ultra-time-and-space nature; and the contradictory view of respecting and despising women, and the excessively obscene content of some texts in Zi Bu Yu reflect its backwardness in life value.From the foregoing analysis, the unique ideology of Zi Bu Yu is investigated. The ideology of Zi Bu Yu is not only equipped with the characteristics of Yuan Mei’s own personality, but also is influenced by the traditional ideology. Furthermore, it is also endowed with the brand mark of age. This ideology has the ultra-time-and-space nature ahead of contemporaneity as well as backward factors originated from the age and the author Yuan Mei. We should dialectically regard these in order to better read and comprehend this work.