Research On The Female Images In Fluorescent Window And Strange Grass

Fluorescent Window and Strange Grass is an excellent collection of Chinese classical supernatural stories from the Qing dynasty. However, since its launch, it has been considered to be an imitation work of Liao Zhai Zhi Yi. For this reason, it has been forgotten and ignored in a corner of mysterious literature. However, if the dust of history were brushed off, its color, which is just like pearl and jade, would still be shining. In recent years, the superb artistic achievement of this book has gained more and more attention from current scholars. In those artistic images shaped by this novel,the female ones are very special. And the reason why they are very special has a direct relationship with the author’s views on women. But the formation of the author’s unique views on women is the result of the dual influences of the author’s personal experience and the tide of liberation thought between the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties. Moreover, on the one hand, the female images shaped by the author are very distinctive and impressive; on the other hand, it can be seen clearly from those female images that the author’s mind-set is quite progressive, eg., opposition to the ascetic religious practice, respect to the talents and rights of women, subversion to the traditional female temperament, transcendence to the secular marriage patterns,revelation to the phenomenon of feudal women’s morality which was gradually internalized, and criticism to the tragedy caused by the loss of female subjectivity.In addition to the ideological values which exceeded its era, this book also has a superb artistic level, especially the unique depictionof female images, some chapters even surpassed the counterparts in “Liao Zhai Zhi Yi”. Despite the facts that the superb artistic value and progressive thought has made Fluorescent Window and Strange Grass a marvelous work, it is undeniable that its author Yin Qinlan, who was a member of the feudal literati, was influenced inevitably by some outdated ideas associated with that era. That conception of patriarchal culture has been reflected directly or indirectly in some stories of this book, which embodies the aesthetic expectation and polarized creation of a male-centered culture, serious didactic colour of feudal female morality, and the strong tendency of misogyny, etc.