The Dream Of Xi Yi’s Research

The Dream of Xi Yi is fantasy novel with distinct characteristics in the Qing Dynasty. The novel uses more than half a million characters to describe the protagonists’ dream of achievements in more than 50 years, which is different from short stories on dreams before. It not only inherits, develops and represents the fantasy theme of ancient China like “Mr. Lu’s Dreams”, “the ideal of utopia”, “life is but a dream”, etc. but also have some pioneering and innovation in text system, dream and dream approach, the intermixing of reality and dream.The Dream of Xi Yi was written in early Qing Dynasty and influenced by the thoughts of practical learning during this period. The authors focus on the question of reality and have devoted much of his writing in the ruling, river management, economy, military, which showed remarkable insight, especially the effective strategies in comprehensive treatment of rivers and the combined regulation mode of both government and market behaviors which showed from “cut down the price of Guan Sha to compete Si Sha” and later “Wu Guan Wu Si”. The measures to punish corruption and degeneration in administering the country. The author also promote the trade between countries. All of that shows the writer was a novelist who has way ahead of his time in many way. There is also described a large number of overseas strange scenery in detail, especially the wonderful narration for western firearms "Fo Lang Ji" and "Chun Gang Xin Ju” which was invented to resist it shows the author’s erudition.The Dream of Xi Yi is a typical literary novel. Influenced by the culture at that time, the book has obvious pedantry and deep historical disillusionment. As a sorehead literati who lived in early Qing Dynasty, the author deeply influenced by sentimental literature, so his creation also typically embodies the mentality of literati in this period.