Realism And Family Education In Qilu Deng

During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the emergence and development of capitalism and the booming commercial economy symbolized that Chinese society encountered the unprecedented crisis, in which the established feudal order had met with significant impacts and the traditional ethical system had been subverted. There was undesirable trend towards the worship of money. People’s material desires became higher and higher. Therefore, writers in Ming and Qing Dynasties painted a realistic picture in their works to express their sense of crisis toward the society.Though Li Luyuan lived in Kangxi-Qianlong period, he witnessed the decline of Chinese feudal society. As a civilian intellectual, Li Luyuan focused his attention on the social crisis, and mainly on the continuity of family line and the education of his offspring. Basing on his experience and knowledge in life, he wrote Qilu Deng, a colloquial novel, under a pseudonym in Jia-jing period of Qing dynasty, in which Kaifeng was the background. The novel realistically described a rise and fall story about the Tans, which fully demonstrated the social realities and the crisis of family education in the prosperous period of Qing Dynasty. We can see the author’s educational thought and his wish to save the society.The thesis discusses Qilu Deng’s realistic feature and its theme of family education from four parts. The first part is literature review. In the second part, the thesis discusses a civilian intellectual’s wish to save the society. In the third part, the thesis explores realistic feature in Qilu Deng from the point of view of realism and criticism and affirms its influence and its artistic value. In the last part, the thesis discusses the family education in Qilu Deng, which reflects the realistic significance and the value of Li Luyuan’s educational thoughts.In conclusion, centered on a story of the return of the prodigal son whose father is a government official in retirement, Qilu Deng is the only family educational novel with realistic feature in Ming and Qing Dynasties, which truly displays the social situations in the middle of Qing Dynasty, sharply criticizes the political corruption and expresses the author’s worry about the family education at that time.