A Study On The Matchmakers In The Nihuaben Novels In Ming Dynasty

The matchmaker,as the product of marriage system,well reflects people's marriage status.There are many matchmakers in the Nihuaben novels in late Ming Dynasty.They act as matchmakers for a variety of purposes,and their matchmaking activities reflect the life situation and complex ideas of common people in the late Ming Dynasty,with distinct characteristics of the times.In view of this,this paper takes the matchmakers in the Nihuaben novels in the Ming Dynasty as the main research object,and attempts to make detailed analysis of the numerous and complicated matchmakers from the perspectives of the urban life of Ming Dynasty,people's idea and the author's creation thought,hoping to better understand the concept of marriage and cultural change of the matchmaker in Ming dynasty.This article mainly discusses the matchmakers in the Nihuaben novels in late Ming Dynasty from five parts:The introduction part makes a literary review of the existing researches on matchmakers in vernacular novels in Ming Dynasty,so as to choose the elaborate analysis of matchmakers as research objective and focus on nun matchmaking phenomenon.The first chapter mainly introduces the function and importance of the matchmaker in the marriage system in ancient China.The second chapter presents the classification of the matchmakers in vernacular novels in Ming Dynasty,namely,occupation,non-occupation matchmaker and inhuman matchmaker by the group characteristics,and non-occupation matchmaker "nun matchmaker" is the spotlight.The third chapter probes into the reasons of matchmakers' diversity and persuasive nature by combining with the living conditions of both common people and Buddhists and ideological state in Ming Dynasty,spies on the living conditions of the populace in Ming Dynasty and the reaction of literati to the disorder of etiquette and law.The fourth chapter mainly analyzes the role of matchmakers' literary function and cultural significance by means of novel significance.