Literature is human learning, and "the direct, natural, and inevitable relationship between people is the relationship between men and women"1.
"Book of Rites·Liyun" says: "Eating, eating, men and women, the great desires of human beings are there." Because marriage and love are the primary topics of human development and reproduction, and the love between men and women is the deepest and most basic emotion rooted in human nature among all human emotions, the issue of marriage and love has become an eternal theme of literature.
Modar, a modern psychoanalytical literary critic, once said: "In fact, the greatness of poetry and literature lies in sex. Because sex accounts for an important part of life, these literatures are the most real to life"2.
is a bit extreme, but it expresses the indissoluble bond between sex (including marriage and love) and literature in one sentence.
Literature, as a mirror of social life and a carrier of human civilization, will inevitably include it in its own field of expression, which has been proven by the process of literary development.
"Book of Rites"
(I) A simple retrospective of classical literature marriage and love works
Trace the origin of marriage and love works in the history of Chinese literature, and the three hundred poems in "Poetry" can be the beginning. "Wei Feng·Rang" and "Ye Feng·Gu Feng" first recorded the unfortunate experiences of a woman in her married life.
"The silence of a scholar can still be said; the silence of a woman cannot be said."
The grief and anger of a abandoned woman is a complaint of the injustice of the patriarchal society and a condemnation of men's "two and three virtues" in their marriage and love life.
Qin destroyed the Han Dynasty. In the field of ideological , after the cultural integration of "stop the hundreds of schools and respect Confucianism alone", Confucianism has become the official consciousness that holds a dominant position.
In Dong Zhongshu's theory of heaven and man, the body of men and women was compared with the concept of yin and yang for the first time. The so-called "the meaning of the monarch and minister, father and son, and husband and wife all take the way of yin and yang. ... The husband is yang, and the wife is yin" 3. Yin and yang have the main and secondary. The husband and wife talk about noble and humbleness. "The evil belongs to all yin; the good belongs to all yang", "Although the husband is practiced, they are yang, and even the woman is noble, they are yin" 4, "The wife is ordered by the husband" 5, etc.
This preaching of "husband as the wife" has become a mandatory and legalized social moral norm, and plays an important role in the marriage and love life of men and women.
Men are the masters of marriage and love life, while women have no right to be independent or independent.
If Liu Lanzhi's misfortune in my country's first long narrative poem " Peacock Flying Southeast " is caused by Jiao's mother, the representative of feudal ethics, and Jiao Zhongqing still has a certain degree of attachment to Lanzhi, then the chapters "Song of Whiteheads", "Song of Resentment", "Running the Pond", and "Cleaning Miwu up the Mountain" are completely the sorrowful flow of abandoned women after being abandoned, their resentment towards innocent people and their helpless lament.
During the Wei and Jin Dynasties, a social trend of thought that was completely contrary to the Han Dynasty classics hikes in the ideological field, "signifying a kind of awakening of people, that is, the rediscovery, thinking, grasping and pursuit of their own life, meaning, and destiny under the conditions of doubting and denying the old traditional standards and values of beliefs."6.
However, this "human awakening" and "literary consciousness" 7 seem to be just the patent of the male world. It has failed to arouse ripples of female self-consciousness in marriage and love life, and it seems to have failed to attract much attention from people - "people" as a part of human beings.
Women are still burial objects in marriage and love life, and are victims of feudal marriage system , which can be seen from "Su Shen Ji Zi Yu". When marriage, the family members are required to be of equal status and the common people are not allowed to intermarry. At this time, the rulers determined that the purpose is nothing more than to safeguard the rulers' privileges and ensure the "purity" of their patriarchal blood ties.
For example, in "Book of Wei: Gaozong's Records", there is a rule that "higher and inferiority should be distinguished. ... In this system, royal family, master, king, duke, marquis, bon, and scholars and people shall not marry hundreds of craftsmen, skillful, or humble surnames, and those who commit crimes shall be punished."
Tang Dynasty (especially the mid-Tang Dynasty) was an important turning point in ancient feudal society, but in the field of cultural creation, the interpretation of the teachings of the family became the ultimate destination for people to write and write articles.
Although the proposition "The articles are written together for the times, and the poems are written together for the things" 8 itself has nothing worthy of criticism, people's understanding of the connotation of "time" and "things" is largely reflected in the conscious recognition of the Confucian tradition of education, and has also become a common pursuit of the creation of literati at that time.
Han Yu , Du Fu , Yuan Zhen , Bai Juyi and others all fall into this lonely mortal.
In a sense, literature and art have become a military policeman with feudal ethics and political harmony. In famous works that reflect marriage and love problems, such as " The Biography of Huo Xiaoyu " and "The Biography of Yingying", the heroine mostly appears as a grieving weak person. Faced with the beginning and end of men, she either begs for mercy, or resents but does not angry in the past. She acts as a doll for men to mercy in her marriage and love life, but lacks the awakening of subjective consciousness.
Song Dynasty Neo-Confucianism was very prosperous, and the theory of the "Three Bonds" was even systematic and theorized by Cheng and Zhu, and rose to the height of the world's ontology.
The oppression and constraints that a woman suffers in her daily life have developed to an unparalleled level, and her status in her marriage and love life is getting worse and worse.
We can see a slight hint of the physical and mental constraints of women at that time through Sima Guang "The Legend of the Shui Family":
Anyone is a palace, inside and outside must be distinguished. The deep palace is firmly connected to the door, and there is no well inside and outside, there is no bathroom, and there is no toilet. Men treat external affairs, while women treat internal affairs.
A man does not stay in his private room for no reason during the day; a woman does not look at the middle door without reason. When a man walks at night, he uses candles, and when a woman goes out of the middle door, she must cover her face. If a male servant does not have repairs or repairs, he will not enter the middle door; if he enters the middle door, the woman must avoid it; if he cannot avoid it, he must cover his face with his sleeves.
日本站站 but mainly talks about inside and outside, and conveys things inside and outside.
Cheng Hao . Cheng Yi's requirement for a woman's chastity is simply to the point of inhumanity. "Jinsilu " records:
or asks: "Widows are reasonable and seem undesirable, how about it?"
Mr. Yichuan said:
"However! Anyone takes it to match the body. If you take it to match the body, it is to lose the body."
again asks:
"However! l0 "Can a person who is a widow who is poor and has no custody, can he remarry?"
said:
"It's just that later generations are afraid of cold and hate death, so it's said. However, starvation is very small, and loss of integrity is very big."
In marriage and love life, women can't talk about self-reliance at all. They absolutely have no right to love, and the happy marriage they yearn for can only be put into privacy.
Yu Xiuxiu in "The Jade Guanyin" and Zhou Shengxian in "The Love of Fanlou Zhou Shengxian" have all paid the price of life for love, and their wishes can only be put into the underworld.
From these works, we can see the ruthless deprivation and cruel stifle of feudal ethics on women's rights to marriage and love.
By the Yuan Dynasty, although the status of Confucian scholars plummeted and the rule of Confucianism relaxed with the entry of the iron hoof of alien races, women's sense of autonomy in marriage and love was still minimal.
" West Chamber " expresses the progressive marriage ideal of "I hope all sentient beings in the world will become relatives", but the framework of the story is still built on the basis of ultimate compromise with ethics.
The feudal economic structure of the Ming Dynasty was fission to a certain extent, and the coexistence of the diversified social operation mechanism of has prompted some qualitative mutation in the ideological field. The works of marriage and love reflected in the literary field highlight the literary world with a new attitude, showing a distinctive anti-traditional humanistic quality.
Unfortunately, the emergence of this new cultural quality soon died with the invasion of The Qing Dynasty, so it was extended to the Qing Dynasty. The independence and independence of women in marriage and love could only be entrusted to the underworld and fairyland (such as "Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio").
Generally speaking, most of the marriage and love works in the feudal era show the suppression and stifling of human nature by feudal morality and ethics.
reflects the feudal social and cultural characteristics under the deadly and stubborn ideological autocracy. The ending of marriage and love is either human nature’s compromise with etiquette or law, or the self-pity of abandoning women, or the various consequences that a woman should always give to those who are unfaithful, or the ideal of harmonious marriage and love between men and women to dreams and underworld.
This typical marriage and love model in classical literature reflects the feudal social and cultural characteristics under the deadly and stubborn ideological autocracy.
Unlike this, the description of marriage and love in "Jin Ping Mei" which was born in the context of the 16th century China's urban economy achieved certain development and the emergence of capitalist production relations, but overall it presents a situation that is very different from feudal traditional culture, showing a value orientation and new cultural quality that is very different from feudal marriage.
It not only has the significance of literary history, but also cultural history.
"Jin Ping Mei Ci" photocopy set
(II) The new cultural quality of marriage and love description in "Jin Ping Mei"
"Jin Ping Mei" describes various marriage and love relationships, among which the most noteworthy are official marriage, prostitute marriage and widow marriage.
The description of the marriage of an official family in "Jin Ping Mei" mainly includes the marriage of Wu Qianhu, the daughter of the left guard of Qinghe, Wu Yueniang, and the owner of the pharmacy shop, Ximen Qing , the marriage of Chen Jin, the son of Chen Hong, the son of Yang Jian's party member in the court, and the rich young master of the feudal bureaucratic family, and the daughter of Ximen Qing, the daughter of Ximen Qing, the daughter of Ximen Qing, the marriage of Zhou Xiu, the garrison of Qinghe, and Pang Chunmei, the sales girl in Ximen Qing's mansion, and Zhou Shoujie's "wife cousin" Chen Jin, and Ge Cuiping, the daughter of Ge Yuanwai, who runs a satin shop, etc.
The feudal autocratic political rule in China for two thousand years has greatly strengthened the awareness of official .
is reflected in marriage issues, and "matching good matches" often becomes the only criterion for measuring marriage. The concept of family status especially dominates the feudal bureaucracy's marriage.
However, the marriage of an official family described in "Jin Ping Mei" completely presents a characteristic that is contrary to the traditional marriage model.
First of all, it marks the disorder of the traditional marriage order.
When Wu Yueniang, the daughter of Wu Qianhu, married Ximen Qing as her second wife, Ximen Qing was just a "good boxing stick and good at gambling, and she is familiar with the word "Shuanglu, chess, wiping cards and Tao", "has made a fortune and was responsible for some official affairs in the county, and has been involved in the affairs of others, and has been in the traffic officials", "focusing on the wind and playing with the moon", "the "descending rich man" and "floating children" who run a raw medicine shop.
Whether it is based on the traditional prejudice of the "Shangs" or personal moral cultivation, or identity and social status, Ximen Qing should not become the marriage partner of Qianhu's family. The reason why Wu Qianhu wanted to marry his daughter Ximen Qing was probably mainly because of Ximen Qing's "making a fortune and being rich."
The eldest son of the Chen family, Chen Jing, is willing to marry a philanthropist daughter, Sister Ximen, as her wife, probably based on this consideration.
Pang Chunmei, who was booked as the garrison wife, chose marriage for her fake cousin Chen Jing. She chose to choose the daughter of a lady Zhu Qianhu family in the city and the "nothing accompanying" Ying Count . Finally, she chose the daughter of a businessman with "millionaire money", which is a typical footnote to the marriage orientation of Chinese society in the mid-16th century.
This marriage characteristic is in line with the poor Confucian scholar Han Shiyu who married his daughter to the "full article" in Volume 29 of "The First Cave Pai Ban", "The Strong Heart of the Lights, and the Flag Bell of the Prison in Wu's Marriage Book", in Volume 10 of "Han Xiucai takes advantage of the chaos to hire a beautiful wife, and Wu Taishou loves the master's marriage book", and later regrets it very much. In Volume 29 of this book, "The Heart of the Boudoir is Strong, and the Flag Bell of the Prison is Good News", the businessman Luo family is unwilling to marry the Zhang family of the old family of the official family.
This disordered marriage model marks the relaxation of the feudal patriarchal blood ties.
Secondly, this marriage marks the emergence of new qualities in the history of Chinese marriage, and has a new cultural connotation, namely, from the pursuit of family status, to the change of proportionality of status, to the exchange of power and money in marriage, and the transfer of official position to the gold standard.
It shows that the feudal orthodox marriage value judgment system has been questioned under the conditions of the era of money raging and money worship fanaticism, and the traditional thinking and value standards have been challenged by a new consciousness that has emerged within the feudal shell.
Again, this concept of marriage also has obvious pragmatic principles and secular tendencies. Both parties to the engagement will choose each and make two-way choices.
is either the mutual satisfaction of rights and wealth, or the exchange of wealth and sex; the feudal concept of reputation and honor and disgrace all retreat to the secondary position, or is simply excluded from the considerations of both parties in the engagement, and reality and affordability have become important leverages for marriage choice.
In "Family, Private Property and the Achievement of the State", Engels pointed out that marriage in ancient Europe was a "political behavior" and "an opportunity to expand his own power through new marriages." This proposition is also suitable for the actual marriage in ancient feudal society in our country.
The marriage and love life in my country in the 16th century shown in "Jin Ping Mei" shows some variation, which also gives people the indication of social change:
The feudal powerful class has become increasingly declining, and although the feudal building has not yet collapsed for a while, the increasingly tight economic situation forces the feudal aristocracy to seek economic funding from the emerging class, and the economic foundation determines the laws of the superstructure, which will inevitably lead to the growing growth of new ideology and value orientations, which will ultimately lead to the weakening of the ruling power of patriarchal traditional ideology.
The emergence of prostitutes is a unique social and cultural phenomenon. Unlike the Lehu Juan prostitute system since the Tang and Song dynasties, there were a large number of Juan prostitutes who specialized in physical sex in the Ming Dynasty.
prostitute industry has changed from the original service to the official entertainment industry and the jurisdiction of Jiaofangsi to a commercial and privatized industry managed by Ministry of Rites.
On the one hand, in order to satisfy their shameless lust, the feudal ruling class visited prostitutes and sought flowers and asked for help, and recognized the legal existence of the prostitute system; but on the other hand, in order to maintain their own rule, they often regarded themselves as defending the way, advocated the weather and advocated moral integrity, and made the Xing Bi religion, strictly prohibited the bureaucratic class, feudal literati and Juan's prostitute.
The behavior of staying in prostitutes and being involved in prostitutes is not only taboo by the venerable, but also often despised by the world and is unwilling tolerated by laws and regulations. For example, in the late Tang Dynasty, Wen Feiqing, , once went to and from singing halls and brothels, and often wrote "spoken words"9, which was called "slight in behavior, no limit"10.
Northern Song Liu Qiqing was also denounced as "being inferior to conducting" because of his friendship with singing girls, "traveling around the Qin Building in the prostitute, without any re-examination rate." If you have to take such a risk when making a prostitute, you can imagine the consequences of marrying a prostitute as a wife and concubine.
《Tiaoxi Yuyin Cong Talk》
After the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, Science was extremely strengthened. The court once repeatedly issued orders and formulated various laws and regulations, strictly prohibiting officials from visiting prostitutes, and dismissing violators from prostitution, and also strictly prohibiting feudal officials and their descendants from marrying prostitutes.
"Anyone who marrys a person who is a wife and concubine will be 60 years old and divorced; if an official's descendants marry, the punishment will be the same." ("Ming Hui Dian" Volume 163 "Marriage").
But in fact, the legal provisions of the Ming Dynasty seemed to be not very binding on the officialdom and scholars, and the secular judgment standards were also very different from those issued by the ruling people. The act of visiting prostitutes is not only not considered a shame, but on the contrary it becomes a glory.
such as one of the "Eight Talents of Jiajing", the official Taichang Temple Shaoqing Li Kaixian Once a prostitute was a prostitute, he had a scabies, the seven sons leader, the minister of the Ministry of Justice of Nanjing Wang Shizhen once made a long song to He Yuanlong with a "shoe cup" and praised him 12. The great writer, opera , the former doctor of the Imperial College in Nanjing 1 Zang Maoxun , the former doctor of the Imperial College in Nanjing, and the opera gangster who was a doctor of the Ministry of Rites Tu Long and suffered from sexually transmitted diseases, etc., are all regarded as "beautiful talk" of "arts".
Feudal literati "holds prostitutes and dances, and they keep dancing all day long, men and women sit together, and the words of the turbidity of the tassels are noisy, and it is common for officials to visit prostitutes and prostitution. According to Shen Defu "Wanli Yehuo Bian":
Liaocheng Fu Jinsha (Guangzhai) ordered Wu County to govern with literary talent and romantic style. He was also honest and kind to Wu Shiwang, and he was kind to him. He passed by his vegetarian food and drank a small drink in his vegetarian food. Because the king had anonymous prostitute in the Qu Room, he went out to recommend the pillow after drinking, so he thought he was always there.
Why is the intermediary's request for help, he filled it with it. During the period of Guiwei and Jiashen, Linyi Xingzi (Dong) was appointed as the censor to Jiangnan. Suzhou had a prison for wealthy people, Pan Bicheng, and the prostitute Liu Ba who married him was also in the verdict.
Liu Suyouyan said that he called the book to the top of the day and looked at it carefully. The beauty shines brightly. Because the screen was secretly closed and ordered, he was about to leave the office and met with a certain place, so he mistook his guilt and sent it to the Samantabhad. After a while, he left, and sent people to sneak into the boat from Nanzhong and arrived at home for a long time before leaving.
Gongs are both from the East Province, and are famous throughout the country. They are both in the world, and they are both in love with officials, but they are not proud of the qu and honest. 14
"Jin Ping Mei" truly reflects the reality of officials visiting prostitutes and even marrying prostitutes as wives and concubines in the Ming Dynasty society.
Ximen Qing, a thousand households in Shandong Examination Institute, openly entered and left brothels, and was indecently lustful. He "cuffed Sister Li Gui's cage", "makes a big fuss in Lichunyuan", prostitutes Wu Yin'er, and takes possession of Zheng Aiyue. Among his wives and concubines, Zhuo Diorer and Li Jiaoer are both brothel prostitutes.
Ximen Qing's mansion has even become a refuge for prostitutes.
The 51st chapter of the novel reads that Huang Chuyun, the wife of Wang Sanguan in Xuanfu and the niece of the Six Huang Taiwei of Tokyo, were dissatisfied with Wang Sanguan's abusive behaviors such as combing Qi Xianger and prostitution in the brothel, prostitution Li Guijie, and complaining to the Six Huang Taiwei of Tokyo. Her husband immediately ordered Zhu Taiwei to criticize Dongping Prefecture and capture several scoundrels and prostitutes who helped prostitution in Qinghe County.
Li Guijie was in a panic and hurried to Ximen Mansion to avoid the disaster. Ximen Qing only used twenty taels of silver to make Li Guijie escape from justice. What's more, Ximen Qing actually hired prostitutes to accompany the inspectors who came out of the capital. This made Censor Cai very grateful, saying that if he made progress in the future, he would "not dare to have good virtue" (Chapter 49 of "Jin Ping Mei Cihua").
These official scandals certainly reflect the corruption, debauchery and spiritual depravity of the ruling class, but as long as we put aside preconceptions and examine all this with a historical rather than moral perspective, it is not difficult to see that the feudal etiquette and law and law provisions in the middle of the Ming Dynasty have gradually lost the binding effect on society, and it is precisely this relaxation of the constraint mechanism that has exacerbated the final overturn of the feudal edifice.
, especially Ximen Qing, an emerging businessman with a wealth of ten thousand assets, was even more unscrupulous after intervening in the officialdom, and ignored the feudal concept of patriarchal law, openly took prostitutes and trampled on laws and regulations, which marked the depreciation of the patriarchal tradition in the face of raging money.
At the same time, we also see the serious penetration of materialism in secular marriage life after the middle of the Ming Dynasty: the status of giant businessmen is far higher than that of elegant talented men, and business women have shifted from the past to the trend of making friends with Confucian scholars and scholars.
Yu Yonglin of the Ming Dynasty once said in "North Census Words" that "Hangzhou prostitutes marry salt merchants." Lu Rong "Shuyuan Miscellaneous Notes" Volume 4 records that Liu Yinjing, a prostitute in Nanjing, wore mourning and cried to pay tribute to the death of a merchant lover. "Jin Ping Mei Cihua" reflects this social reality.
The marriage of a widow was a secret question in the Song and Ming dynasties.In the Song and Ming dynasties, Neo-Confucianism's restraint on people's thoughts and behaviors reached its peak, and the concept of "chastity" was also emphasized to an unprecedented level.
"Ming Dynasty: Preface to the Biography of Women" says:
"" Liu Xiang biography of women (referring to the Biography of Women) can be used as a warning, and there is no one left. Fan's clan (referring to the Biography of Women in the Middle Ages) also uses talent and outstanding talents, not only the noble and strong moral integrity. The Wei and Sui Dynasty surrendered, and historians often took on troubles and were killed and sacrificed for justice."
"The daughter of a remote family can also be honest and strong, and the moral integrity is the most important." It can be seen that Confucian 's requirements for women's morality have gone through a process of development from diversity, broad to single and narrow.
uses the concept of rigorous restraint of women's body and mind, and it has become increasingly fierce with the increasing decline of the feudal dynasty.
"The Book of Changes· Heng Gua" says: "To keep your virtue, chastity, the woman is lucky, and the Master is inauspicious." The "Xiang" interprets "to keep your virtue" as "a woman is chastity, good, and it is in one way and ends; the Master is to make righteousness, and it is inauspicious." The inequality between husband and wife in marriage is equal to this origin.
But the real emphasis and promotion of chastity was made after the Han Dynasty. This can be proved by the incompleteness of women and the remarriage of widows recorded in pre-Qin classics.
"Total like the biography of the ancient and modern women"
obeys the needs of unified rule, The concept of Han Dynasty tutoring was formally proposed and strengthened. In this ethical system with strong political colors, the status and value of women are further lost.
" Three Obediences and Four Virtues " has become an invisible shackle that restricts women's body and mind. "After marrying, follow the husband", "not change for life" 15, "Women have three meanings to follow" 16, "The husband has the meaning of remarrying, and there is no two words to be appropriate for women" 17, "The husband is the heaven. Heaven cannot escape, and husband cannot leave" 18, and other series of concepts that require women to "marry chickens and follow the chickens, marry dogs and follow the dogs and "not to change the second husband" have been repeatedly strengthened by orthodox Confucians.
However, although "Han Shu " and "Later Han Shu" have many commendations of women with chastity, and Liu Xiang, Fan Ye and others have also tried their best to set an example for the world, the secular world did not seem to have too much criticism for the remarriage of widows in the Han Dynasty. From the empress and princess to the village women, most of them did not regard remarriage as a mistake.
Zhuo Wenjun elopement Sima Xiangru has become a legend throughout the ages, and the Cai Wenji is still famous in history 19.
Wei, Jin and Six Dynasties, social turmoil, Confucianism declined, and women were required to keep their integrity. There was no market in those scholars who despise etiquette and law and were unruly. It was common for widows to remarry and would not attract any criticism. 20.
In the Tang Dynasty, women's moral textbooks such as "Female Rules", "Internal Training", " Female Analects of Confucius " appeared. The official history "Biography of Women" also commends those who keep chaste and keep chaste, but the whole society is not ashamed of women's remarriage ( Fang Xuanling When he was seriously ill, it is sufficient to prove that Lu's wife was urged to marry).
This concept has undergone a fundamental change in the Song and Ming dynasties. Neo-Confucianists shouted "Preserve the laws of nature and eliminate human desires" and strongly opposed the widow's remarriage. Cheng Yi said: "It is extremely small to starve to death, and it is extremely large to lose one's integrity"21.
chastity has been emphasized to an unparalleled level. Even a man “if he takes the person who loses his integrity as his own virtue, it is his own loss of integrity” 22, opposing a man’s choice of widows as his wife and concubine. The court commended women with chastity and formed a system. For the typical example of chastity, "the most important ones are given temple sacrifices, and the next is the tree table, and the aconite wedges shine on the wells" ("Ming Dynasty: Preface to the Biography of Women").
Just like Li Zhuowu, an outstanding thinker with a rebellious spirit, he inevitably showed his prejudice to the world when he advocated the remarriage of a widow. He once said in "The Biography of Sima Xiangru":
"What is the plan for a villain? He only lost his good friend and was just a good marriage. It is better to make a choice early, endure small shame and make a big plan." (Volume 37 of "Collection of Books")
It can be seen that he has reservations about whether there is a "shame" in remarriage of a widow.
This auspicious woman, from a prosperous city to a remote countryside, from a lady to a small family, most women can be strong with their chastity, so the chastity women praised in "History of Ming Dynasty: Biography of Women" made it beyond the reach of any dynasty in the past.
In such an atmosphere of the times, widows’ remarriage is naturally unwilling to society, and they will be criticized by thousands of people and scolded by thousands of people.
However, the official promotion cannot completely imprison the spiritual world where oppressed women desire autonomy and pursue their own rights. There is a huge potential for confrontation with traditional morality and official preaching in secular society.
"Jin Ping Mei" This "great realistic novel"23 has made a concrete and profound reflection on the value orientation and moral standards of the civil society in the Ming Dynasty that were very different from the traditional ones.
It not only describes the remarriage of a widow (such as Pan Jinlian first married Wu Dalang , remarried Ximen Qing; Song Huilian marries Jiang Cong, and then Shilai Wanger); it also describes the third marriage of a widow (such as Meng Yulou marvels as the wife of the Yang family, then Ximen Qing, then Li Yanei), and even married four times (such as Li Ping'er was the concubine of Liang Zhongshu, then Hua Zixu's wife, then Jiang Zhushan's wife, and finally Ximen Qing's concubine).
It is worth noting that in these descriptions of marriage and love, the remarriage of a widow is of self-control and self-selecting husband.
Through these plots, we can fully realize the awakening of women's independent consciousness in civil society in the middle of the Ming Dynasty.
Novel Eighteenth Chapter, Meng Yulou once said in front of Wu Yueniang that Li Ping'er "A man didn't die much, and he got married before he was full of consolation, and he couldn't get married." Wu Yueniang retorted: "This year, what kind of things can't be used? A man's filial piety clothes are not full, and he is only one son who is merciless?" At that time, Meng Yulou just remarried Ximen Qing not long after her husband died.
Through Wu Yueniang's words and Meng Yulou's words and deeds, we can see that although traditional prejudice was still reserved on the issue of widow remarriage, and patriarchal moral norms still had a certain impact on widow's two appropriateness, in real life, people's value orientation is often leaning towards the pursuit of their own rights and happiness, which shows a kind of disobedience to the boundary of group consciousness.
"Book of the Later Han Dynasty" book and movie
(III) Several revelations and their value positioning
The description of marriage and love in "Jin Ping Mei" can at least give us the following revelations:
First of all, it is the thinking left to us by the penetration of commodity consciousness on secular marriage values. In this infiltration, the traditional concept of a good family is impacted, and the value orientation of marriage has shown a new variation, that is, from the pursuit of equality of family status, status, and reputation to a two-way choice of money and power, which is mainly reflected in the engagement relationship between merchants and officials.
From a positive perspective, it has played a certain impact on feudal patriarchal politics. Because the isomorphism of family and country is an essential feature of China's feudal politics, patriarchal blood ties are an important link connecting family and country.
The insemination of the patriarchal autocratic politics has very strict requirements on pure "seed". The "mixed marriage" between merchants and feudal officials is bound to deviate from the blood ties of patriarchal politics.
In the ideological field, it will inevitably bring unstable factors to feudal rule (because there are irreparable cracks in the value orientation of merchants and patriarchal traditional concepts).
But on the other hand, since this marriage is still an exchange relationship in nature, there is naturally no way to talk about the happiness of both parties in the marriage. Like feudal patriarchal marriage, it has led to scenes of tragedy of human marriage.
Ximen Qing's love is not in Wu Yueniang, and Chen Jing's intention does not belong to Sister Ximen.
Wu Yueniang went from being a widow to being a widow to being a widow, and Sister Ximen was repeatedly humiliated and finally threw herself into the trap. These are typical examples. It can be seen that although the concept of family relationships in engagement has caused countless marriage tragedies, the smell of money will also bring about misfortune in marriage.
Without economic independence and political equality, without thorough female personality independence, and without reliable emotional maintenance, the union of both parties will inevitably lead to misfortune in life, which is mainly the misfortune of women.
This serious social problem indicated by "Jin Ping Mei" cannot be ignored not only in the history of marriage culture, but also has reference significance for any society with a developed commodity economy.
Secondly, objective analysis and evaluation should be made on the tendency of "secularization" in the concept of marriage.
Prostitutes get married as good people, widows choose to choose themselves, men can ask women, and women can also ask men to make some promises, which all have the meaning of strengthening self-awareness and awakening of their own personality.
The era of women being proud of being a talented man is gone forever, and the ultimate goal of marriage is to make men's wealthy and able to satisfy their luxurious life in front of them.
From the perspective of the man, the standard for choosing a wife has changed from "good virtue" to "lustfulness", and reputation, honor, family background, etc. have become irrelevant factors.
In short, the need for secular pleasure and the satisfaction of money and wealth have become crucial conditions in the marriage trade-offs. Both parties to the engagement are practical and practical, and real utilitarianism has become an important lever for marriage.
This phenomenon shows that the traditional concepts attached to marriage relationships have gradually disintegrated, and the shackles of patriarchal ethics have also been destroyed in marriage and love life. Men and women love each other, they enjoy their abilities and satisfy their wealth and sex, and they play a new marriage and love marches together.
Although it has progressive elements that deviate from the patriarchal tradition, it was the atmosphere of the era that was shrouded in the 16th century in China, and it breeded the soil for the people who were extremely worshipping money in the later feudal society. Therefore, it did not move towards the construction and fulfillment of advanced ideology, but fell into the quagmire of focusing on the present worldly enjoyment; in the end it did not achieve rational transcendence of material things, which could only be regarded as a deformed resistance to the concept of patriarchal marriage and love.
This is still inspiring for us to build a new social civilization today.
The third is the absolute indulgence of human desires in marriage and love for rational thinking left to future generations.
The accumulation of feudal moral ethics and ethics for two thousand years has seriously suppressed people's subjective consciousness and even their normal physiological instincts. However, the harm of patriarchal traditional culture on the self-worth of the human body has failed to completely eliminate people's hopes and pursuits for the legitimate rights they should enjoy.
In the history of Chinese thought, although from the Han Dynasty classics to Song and Ming Neo-Confucianism , they have tried their best to devalue people's individual values and use group norms and ethical frameworks to inflict human nature, in fact, it is this kind of repression that arouses countless people with lofty ideals to pursue the value of individual life and their never-ending enthusiastic praise.
In the era when "Jin Ping Mei" was born, Neo-Confucianism became a primitive sword for rulers to defame human nature and integrate human souls; human desires have a great momentum of being cut off from the blue.
"Jin Ping Mei" does the opposite, but instead exaggerates human instincts and uncontrollable indulgence, expressing the balance and satisfaction of various human desires in marriage and love life, to show the unreasonable social ethical norms. Sometimes, there is indeed no lack of lovesickness and true love in addition to lust, which will undoubtedly have a huge impact on social group norms.
In an era when all desires are imprisoned, it has the objective effect of calling for individual consciousness to awaken and striving for the realization of self-worth.
This is most prominently reflected in the female party in marriage and love.
Pan Jinlian dared to resist an immoral marriage that had no security and could not even satisfy normal physiological desires. After becoming the fifth concubine, she took on the man and hoped to occupy the bed. When Ximen Qing was outside and ignored her, she used all means and resisted in anger, apologized for the economy and stole the servants. After Ximen Qing's death, she became even more blatant and even fell into the water, which really won the sincerity of her son-in-law and lover Chen Jin.
In these descriptions, the patriarchal traditional concept of the patriarchal morality has strengthened the morality of women for two thousand years, including chastity, obedience, duty, etc., and all of them have disappeared.
Meng Yulou's remarriage and chooses his own family; Li Ping'er recruits his husband and expels him from the house after being dissatisfied, which marks a certain loss of the patriarchal center consciousness in marriage and love life.
However, because China's emerging social consciousness and humanistic thoughts in the 16th century failed to build a reasonable life value system and moral norms in its resistance to Neo-Confucianism, the sudden awakening human nature lost the correct beacon in the journey of opposing the alienation of Neo-Confucianism. Therefore, in terms of marriage and love culture, it is inevitably mixed with mud and sand, and it is planted with orchids, which has a certain humanistic quality and a vulgar element that needs to be completely abandoned.
Therefore, we must stand at the height of history and objectively analyze and evaluate it. Excessive elevation and blind obstruction are not scientific attitudes.
"New Vision of Jin Ping Mei" Zhang Jinde
comment:
Marx "844 Economics and Philosophy Manuscript ", Beijing: People's Publishing House 1979 edition, page 72.
Modar "Love and Literature", Changsha: Hunan Literature and Art Publishing House 1987, page 17.
"Spring and Autumn Flourishing Dew·Kiyi No. 53", Zeng Zhenyu, Fu Yongju "New Notes on Spring and Autumn Flourishing Dew", Beijing: Commercial Press, 2010 edition, page 261.
4 "Spring and Autumn Flourishing Dew·Yang Supreme and Yin Low Chapter 43", Zeng Zhenyu, Fu Yongju "New Notes on Spring and Autumn Flourishing Dew", Beijing: Commercial Press, 2010 edition, pages 233, 231.
5 "Spring and Autumn Festival Dew·Surving the Seventy", Zeng Zhenyu, Fu Yongju "New Notes on Spring and Autumn Festival Dew", Beijing: Commercial Press, 2010 edition, page 309.
6 Li Zehou's "The History of Beauty", Beijing: China Social Sciences Press, 1989 edition, page 86.
7 Li Zehou's "The History of Beauty", Beijing: China Social Sciences Press, 1989 edition, pages 83, 91.
8 Bai Juyi's "Books with Yuan Jiu", Chen Hong, Lu Shengjiang's "Reading Book of Ancient Chinese Literature" Tianjin: Nankai University Press, 2004 edition, page 174.
9 Liu Xu et al. "Old Book of Tang·Volume 190·Wenyuanxia·Biography of Wen Tingyun", Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1975 edition.
0 Song Qi et al. "New Book of Tang·Volume 91·Biography of Wen Daya", Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1975 edition.
1 Hu Zai's "Tiaoxi Yuyin Cong Talk" Volume 39 quotes "Yiyuan Wo Huang". Compiled by Hu Zai, edited by Liao Deming "Tiaoxi Yuyin Cong Talk", Beijing: People's Literature Publishing House, 1962 edition, page 319. 12 Shen Defu's "Wanli Yehuo Bian" Volume 23 "Prostitute·Prostitute's Shoes and Wine", Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1959 edition, page 600. 13 Qian Qianyi's "Biography of Poems in the Dynasties" Ding Shang "Tu Yibu Long", Shanghai: Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, 1959 edition.
4 Shen Defu's "Wanli Yehuo Bian" Volume 28 "Retribution·District Officers Visiting Prostitutes", Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1959 edition, page 713.
5 Volume 5 of "Book of Rites" "Suburban Characteristics Eleven", Shanghai: Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, 1987 edition.
6 "Celebration, Mourning Clothes, Biography of Zixia", Beijing: China Social Sciences Press, 2006 edition.
7 Ban Zhao's "Women's Intention Chapter 5", Zhang Fuqing's "A Collection of Traditional Chinese Teachings and Advices", Beijing: Central University for Nationalities Press, 1996 edition.
8 Ban Zhao's "Women's Intention Chapter 5", Zhang Fuqing's "A Collection of Traditional Chinese Teachings and Advices", Beijing: Central University for Nationalities Press, 1996 edition. 19 Fan Ye's "Book of the Later Han Dynasty·Volume 114·Biography of Women", Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1965 edition.0 See "New Words on the World·False Treasures 27·Zhuge Lingnu", etc., Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1984 edition, page 458.
1 Cheng Hao, Cheng Yi's "Secret Letters of the Two Chengs" Volume 22, Shanghai: Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, 2000 edition.
2 Cheng Hao, Cheng Yi's "Secret Letters of Two Chengs" Volume 22, Shanghai: Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, 2000 edition.
3 Zheng Zhenduo's "Talking about the Poems of Jin Ping Mei". "Xi Di Shu Talk", Shanghai: Life·Reading·New Knowledge Sanlian Bookstore, 1983 edition, page 99.
Article Author unit: Henan University
This article is authorized to be published, and the original article was published in "Selected Works of Zhang Jinde Jin Ping Mei Research", 2015, published by Taiwan Student Bookstore Co., Ltd. Please indicate the source when forwarding.
