A Study On The Image Of Businessmen In Vernacular Short Novels In Late Ming And Early Qing Dynasties

The image of businessman is a type that can not be ignored in Chinese ancient literature.Before the Ming and qing dynasties,under the influence of the concept of"emphasizing agriculture and restraining commerce",the literati were ashamed of speaking profiting from commerce,and most of them took a dismissive attitude toward"those seeking profit in business",resulting in the low status and small number of businessmen in literature as the last part of the "scholar,farmer,artisan and merchant".After the middle of the Ming dynasty,merchant images appeared in a large number of literary works with new features,especially in huaben novels in the late Ming and early qing dynasties.Merchant images not only were numerous,but also reflected the characteristics of merchant culture at that time,which became a unique window to observe the evolution of cultural history and economic history of the Ming and qing dynasties.Based on the types of research methods,from the late Ming literary novel scripts at the beginning of the qing dynasty merchant image as a unique image types,based on the merchant's identity,gender,it can be divided into Confucian merchants,official businessmen,civil commerce and business women four types,and placed it in a diachronic and sex of double coordinates,summarizes the features of image type and analyzes the cultural significance of the businessman image reflects the explore of the success or failure of its image.This paper is divided into three chapters.The introduction mainly addresses two issues:one is to sort out and comment on the research on merchants' novels and merchants' images,to clarify the significance of this research;the other is to explain the scope,content and methods of the research.In the first chapter,the merchant images in the huaben novels of the late Ming and early qing dynasties are sorted out and summarized.According to certain principles and standards,the merchant images are divided into four types:the Confucian merchant who abandoned literature and followed commerce,the civilian merchant of all kinds,the official and businesswoman who broke away from tradition.On this basis,the characteristics and evolution of the merchant images are further explored.The second chapter mainly from the values,the merchant culture thought,the official business relations as well as the author's merchant ideal four aspects,has probed and analyzed the cultural significance which the merchant image manifests in the vernacular book of the late Ming and early qing dynasties,excavates the author's merchant ideal from the merchant image mold.The third chapter analyzes the literary shaping of the businessman's image in the novels of Ming and Qing Dynasties.The businessman image creation story between Ming dynasty and early qing has obtained certain achievement,mainly displays in"the righteousness and benefit,the conflict between emotions and desires,in the performance of the complexity of the character" "in contrast to highlight the character's personality characteristics" and "the psychological behavior in the details of the characters,the spiritual essence of "three aspects,but there are also individual character distortion behavior logic and some defects of character image sector.The conclusion part summarizes the characteristics,value and the status of literary history of the merchant image in the huaben novels of the late Ming and early qing dynasties.