Study On The Evolution Of Yuewang Goujian's Image

The late Spring and Autumn period,Gou Jian,the king of Yue,beared the shame and worked hard,with a small southeast coastal state defeated the strong country of Wu,and dominated the central plains.The inspirational story of "Sleep on the brushwood and taste the gall" has been enduring.The literary image of Gou Jian going through the pre Qin classics,"Historical Records" of Western Han Dynasty,to unofficial history of the Eastern Han Dynasty,poems of Tang and Song Dynasties,and then to the Yuan,Ming and Qing Dynasties folk literature,has been developing gradually perfect.The acception of Gou Jian's image mainly benefited from the spread of "Historical Records" and "Wu Yue Chun Qiu" in the poetry of the Tang and Song dynasty and the Ming and Qing Dynasties' legends,drama and novels.Affected by the works view of "Denouncing Emperor",in the "Historical Records",basing on maintaining the original sage monarch image of Gou Jian,Gou Jian was formed a man with the conspiracy and treachery by Sima Qian.Later literary played the works of Gou Jian's image basing on the plot of "Historical Records".With the change of the times,the revenge consciousness of Gou Jian has strengthen in the literary works gradually,the behavior of killing loyalty are more active and Machiavellian,showing the unique cruelty and authority of the feudal rulers.Out of yearning to the flourishing age,wise monarch and virtuous officials,the authors of the successive dynasties and thus in the process of shaping the Gou Jian's image has taken comparative method to form the image of GouJian.Or to make contrast with Gou Jian and Fu Chai,which highlights Gou Jian's correcting mistakes and listening to advice;Or to make contrast in the vengeance with Gou Jian and Wu Zixu to show the reasonable and thorough revenge;Or to make contrast in the relationship between the monarch and his subjects of Wu and Yue,which show the harmonious situation in the country of Yue at fighting enemy collectively.However,the popular literature writers did not talk about the King in the centralgovernment,but to use the past to satirize the present,so in the interpretation of the story of Wu and Yue,they reflected the virtuous officials such as Fan Li and Wu Zixu,but maked Gou Jian the costar.They were not satisfied with the single beared image in the shape of the Gou Jian's literary image,but assisted by the complex characters,which is the personality weakness with mercenary and sensual,grin and bear,submissive,weak without seeking and so on,made the image more plump and smart.In a word,researching on the Gou Jian's image of literary works in different periods,is also to reflect one aspect of the literary recipients' era and the social psychology of literati.