| dc.description.abstract | <>, written by Ji Yun, is an important classic Chinese novel as well as a valuable piece of research material.
With the influence of Confucianism, it has been widely believed among Chinese people ＂the pursuit of konwledge is superior to all other walks of life.＂ As a result, many students devote themselves in studies in order to pursuit a better career and a higher social status, which has become a tradition in Chinese society. These students are so dedicated in studying Chinese classics and eight legged essays for the imperial examinations that they are relatively less flexible and adaptable with everyday life challenges. The fact that the scholars are often with real life situation is vividly described and profoundly commented in <>.
In this thesis, I attempt to look into a scholar’’s life through the prototype presented in <>. Academically, a scholar proves the spiritural values of knowledge by reciting poems and writing compositions. With regards to the leisure time activities, he demonstrates his unusual taste with the fondness for jades, inkstones and In the aspect of romantic affairs, he has close connections with female as well as male prostitutes. He develops a scholar’’s romantic nature in the intricate relationships, yet pays it too. He also participates in planchette writing, a game that prevails among scholars the Ming and Chin dynasties. Note that Ji Yun has abundant personal experiecne in planchette writing as well. Although he is uncertain about the exitence of plancette spirit, he is affirmative about the thoughts behind the advices provided by planchette.
Studying <> from the four perspectives of life mentioned above, we can gain not only a detailed protrait of a scholar’’s life of the Chin dynasty but picture of the social phenomenons and evolution of that time. | en_US |