A Study Of Female Images In The Legends Of Late Tang Dynasty

Through the research on the social cultural appearance in late Tang Dynasty,the thesis attempted to unscramble the characteristics and changes on the writing of female images in late Tang Dynasty,and then dive deep on the social origins and cultural connotations which cause the changes.At last,the paper summarized the great influences of female images in late Tang Dynasty on the later fiction.The thesis is discussed from the following five parts:The introduction part combed the research achievements of predecessors and point out the meanings of the study and the problems need to be solved under the introduction of the research origin,and then illustrated the research methods.The first chapter discussed the creation situation of the legends in late Tang Dynasty from three parts: the first part defined the conceptions of “late Tang Dynasty” and“legend”;the second part clarified the general conditions of the creation of the legends in late Tang Dynasty by divided it into two periods;the third part analyzed the major changes and features in the shape of women female in the legends of late Tang Dynasty from two aspects: one is the emotive women images in the novels of love subject,the other is the chivalrous women images in the novels of chivalrous subject.The second chapter divided females in legends of late Tang Dynasty into seven types according to their different identities.The seven types are imperial concubine,concubine,maidservant,prostitute,chivalrous woman,woman in inner chambers and different kinds.The first part analyzed characteristics of Mei Fei and Meng Cairen who represent spoony imperial concubines in Legends of Late Tang and Yang Guifei who is modeled from different angles by different novelists.And then interpreted the double tragedies of the imperial concubines’ fates: on the one side,they can not protect themselves in the violent struggles in the harem;on the other side,they had always been understood as a beauty disaster.The second part analyzed the tragic images of concubines from their fate tragedy and love tragedy.The third part discussed the images of maidservants with the spirit of resistance in the legend of late Tang Dynasty from the two aspects of low status and not willing to humble fate.The fourth part analyzed three kinds of prostitutes: emotional prostitutes,talented prostitutes and virtuous prostitutes.The fifth part explained the chivalrous spirits of the three types offemale chivalrous images: revenge,justice and theft.The sixth part divided woman in inner chambers into three types: the type of abide woman’s morality,the type of love supreme and the type of filling with justice.And then analyzed the contradiction of the images of women in chambers: they were not only bound by the traditional ethics and morality,but also showed the contradiction of self-consciousness awakening to a certain extent.The seventh part interpreted the images of fairies,banshees and goblin of objects which were from life and higher than life.The third chapter interpreted the social causes and ideological connotations in different kinds of female based on the analysis of the seven kinds of women images.The first part discussed the “beauty disaster” thought contained in the images of imperial concubines of Late Tang Dynasty.The second part discussed the low-down family status of concubines and unreasonable concubinage system which led to the tragic fate of concubines in Late Tang Legends.The third part discussed the relationship between the images of maidservants in the legends of Late Tang Dynasty and maidservants’ legal status which is equal to animals and objections.The fourth part discussed the reasons of the appearance of prostitutes from three aspects: the developed prostitute industry in Late Tang Dynasty,the contacts between literati and prostitutes,the mentality of last phase.The fifth part discussed the social and cultural origins which rose the female chivalrous from five aspects: turbulent political situation in Late Tang Dynasty,the atmosphere of woman’s learning martial arts,the worship of chivalrous spirits,the prosperous of Buddhism and Taoism and the creation mentality of literati.The sixth part analyzed the reasons which transformed the images of women in chambers from respecting themselves into restrained themselves.It contained four reasons: the combine of Confucianism,Buddhism and Taoism,the patriarchal thoughts of discriminating against women,the publication of the female education books and the transformation of the legends’ function.The seventh part summarized the cultural connotations in the images of different kinds from five aspects: the thoughts of Buddhism and Taoism,the system of female Taoism priest,the literati’s thoughts of hierarchy,the literati’s thoughts of love and marriage and the literati’s anxiety of last phrase.The fourth chapter discussed the impacts of female images in late Tang Dynasty upon the later generations literary creation from characterization,image’s connotation and narrative paradigm.