In this people's gallery, female images account for the majority.
The love story triggered by them is also the most touching part of the serial story.
Although these female images are "flattered by the flower demon, they are full of human feelings".
In the author's pen, almost all of them are dazzling.
Besides their beautiful appearance, the most precious thing is that they have a beautiful heart. They are gentle or intelligent, naive or innocent, or brave.
In the chapter describing women in Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio, it not only embodies the feminine beauty in love, marriage and family life, but also shows all kinds of talents of women in social life. These characters enrich the character library of ancient novels.
First, the image of women in the context of love
In the feudal society of China, women were discriminated and oppressed.
As early as the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Confucius classified women as "villains", and "only women and villains are difficult to raise". People consciously or unconsciously pursue the creed that "a woman without talent is a virtue", which puts a spiritual yoke on women.
At the same time, "women's life ideals and pursuits tend to focus on love and marriage. As far as women's psychological characteristics are concerned, the whole mind is almost an emotional world.
"[1] The series of female representatives under the background of love mainly include:
(1) The crow's head that emerges from the mud and is not stained, and defends love to the death and the waiting time.
The crow's head in The Crow's Head is a woman who strays into the dust. She dared to fight, never gave in, and resolutely defended her love and marriage with Wang Wen. The Queen of the West in The Queen of the West is always unwilling to yield to the fate of being insulted and damaged. He is determined to jump out of the fire pit and follow the poor scholar to a full life. After seeing through the trap of Zhongfu Jiamou, he angrily "killed Zhong Er (the son of Xihou and Fujiamou) and made his death a complete life.
"[2]
(2) Axiu, a fox who pursues beauty persistently, and Qiao Nv who is ugly in appearance and beautiful in heart.
"One Embroidery" One Embroidery can be said to be a sincere and persistent pursuer of beauty, and a perfect combination of appearance beauty and soul beauty.
She has become Liu Zigu's unforgettable embroidery and its carnival, mainly appreciating the beauty of embroidery, hoping to rival her.
Finally, they helped Liu Zigu and Axiu build a happy family.
However, Qiao Nv in Qiao Nv is an ugly female image with a beautiful soul.
She is ugly, but she has a kind heart. After the death of her old and poor husband, she refused Meng Sheng's proposal on the grounds that "residual ugliness is not as good as human beings, but the one who is confident is Del.
It's about two husbands again. What happened to the officials? "[2] Meng Sheng's" Yi Xian Zhi, to lust for prostitution "[2], she did not agree.
However, when Meng Sheng died suddenly, she cried and hanged herself. When she was invaded by Meng's family, she stepped forward to take care of her family and raise her young son. "In fact, she became a" widow "with Meng Sheng birthright.
"[3]
(3) To be independent, we need the essence of marriage rather than the chivalrous woman of birthright.
A chivalrous man is one who walks the Jianghu and does chivalrous deeds. When they saw the bumpy road, they drew their swords to help each other. The rendering of "coming without a trace" in literary works puts a mysterious coat on the chivalrous people.
The chivalrous woman in "Chivalrous Woman" is a good family, but she also has the mysterious characteristic of "coming without a trace".
Mainly to avenge my father.
What's more, in order to repay Gu Sheng's foster mother's virtue, she willingly gave birth out of wedlock and carried on the family line, but refused to accept the marriage of the Ming media.
In a society that emphasizes chastity and marriage is a "lifelong event", chivalrous women's view of marriage can be said to be an extremely liberated thought. They only emphasize the essence of marriage, not the superficial etiquette and birthright.
Jealous women spit.
"In western stories, love is selfish. A woman would rather let her lover be eaten by a lion than let him fall into the arms of a rival in love.
"[4] There are also some words in China's literary works, such as" Emei was once jealous ".
In short, women are jealous, which is caused by society.
Similarly, in Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio, there are also some works describing the shrew's jealousy of his wife, such as Jiangcheng, Coral, Da Nan, Ma Fu Jie and Lu.
Jiangcheng in Jiangcheng is unfilial, heartless and even sadistic, which completely destroys the majesty of in-laws. In Coral, the second daughter-in-law's Tibetan aunt "is a servant mother", even though her mother-in-law is ill in bed, she doesn't care; Yin's abuse of beauty in Lu forced her father to become a Taoist. Not only did my aunt dare not talk to her husband, but she was beaten to have an abortion after she got pregnant, which led to her brother's death, her sister-in-law remarried and her nephew almost died.
The common characteristics of these female images are suspicious, jealous and tenacious, and they take pleasure in insulting others, while the female images such as Yin, Jiang and Wang are powerless.
This phenomenon mostly occurs in polygamous families, and its abuse targets are mostly male and female concubines and their children and other family members with direct conflicts of interest. Their faces are ferocious, their personalities are distorted and their behavior is shameful, which reflects the evil side of women.
The appearance of such characters has profound social reasons. The traditional sexual relations and marriage structure in China are patriarchal clan system centered on men.
In marriage, a man can have three wives and four concubines, while a woman is required to be a virtuous woman from beginning to end. "Husband's wife plan" clearly reflects the husband's absolute sovereignty over his wife and concubines.
Where there is oppression, there is resistance.
"However, the feudal system did not point out the way of resistance for them, which led to their abnormal resistance, and legal resistance became annoying and surly.
"[4]
Second, the social background of serial women
In love, marriage and family life, women in serial villages show unprecedented richness and diversity.
In social life, they fight against evil forces with wit and courage, but they are enemies when talking and laughing. Their talent, literary talent and ability to govern the country are also beyond the reach of mediocre people. With the development of the times, they have become the trend leaders in the commodity economy.
The image of Nemesis
Society is dark, evil forces are rampant, and officials do not make decisions for the people. Even a seven-foot man is sometimes at a loss in the face of such cruel social reality, but the women in Liaozhai can give a fatal blow to the evil forces in their own unique way, just like revenge, so that justice can be done.
Shang Sanguan, Dou Shi and Geng Niang are such strange girl.
On the third level, on the third level, when he was about to get married, his father was killed by a bully, and his brother complained for more than a year without results.
Shang Sanguan revenged his father, dressed as an actress and killed his enemy on the night of his birthday. Dou Shi in Dou Shi was originally an infatuated woman, but she was abandoned by local tyrant Nansan and forced to starve to death. After her death, she became a ghost and finally got revenge.
What people can't do in real life, ghosts have done it, and they have done it heartily, which makes people happy; When her father-in-law, mother-in-law and husband were assassinated by 18-way villains and faced with the test of life and death, Nianniang in Nianniang was calm, brave and witty, not only kept her innocence, but also personally killed her enemies.
Their image as Avengers is just like what Qiu Jin said in the poem "Man Jiang Hong": "I can't keep fit, but my body is stronger than mine.
"[5]
(b) A serial woman who is ashamed of her husband.
Xiaocui in Xiaocui is smart, beautiful and lively. She took the initiative to repay her kindness, made a compromise with humiliation, defeated her political enemies in frolicking, and let her tide over the difficulties.
She repaid her kindness with power and prestige and played with her political enemies.
Selfish, timid and stupid dignitaries appear useless in front of Xiao Cui.
(3) talented woman Yan Shi
Yan's family is the daughter of a celebrity. When her husband failed again and again and was re-elected as an official, she disguised herself as a man.
Yan fully shows the resistance of women under the oppression of feudal system. She is literate and surpasses men in article creation. Have the ability to control the country, and the official system exceeds that of men.
She is proud of her intelligence, which can be said to be multiplied by Mulan joining the army for her father.
(D) Images of modern female managers: Huang Ying and Xiao Er.
Huang Ying's Huang Ying is the essence of chrysanthemum. She is good at growing and selling chrysanthemums to get rich.
She believes that "self-reliance is not poor, selling flowers is not common" [6] to get rich in this way is "to talk about the tide for my family Peng Ze.
[7] She is always in an awkward position because of the difference between her and the girl who is ashamed of making profits in the market before and after marriage.
Because in feudal society, women had no social viability, and Huang Ying not only supported herself, but also supported her husband.
The girl is not proud of her, but feels that she has hurt a man's self-esteem.
At the same time, under the traditional thought of getting rid of commerce, in the eyes of traditional scholars, money is a "blockage" that pollutes people's innocence, and cultivating nanmu is noble.
But she finally got the girl to admit defeat and agreed to her behavior.
Zhao Xiaoer, a woman who wrote "beauty and wisdom" in Xiao Er, was persecuted because she had joined the White Lotus Society with her parents. She had to establish herself in a remote place in the west of Yidu, Shandong Province, and made a fortune by opening a factory. At the same time, she and her husband play chess, drink tea, read history and literature books, and enjoy life when material interests are met.
Huang Ying and Xiao Er reflect women's ability and status in the development of commodity economy, and show women's economic status and equal love life.
Third, the female images of ghost fox and flower demon.
Most female ghosts in Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio are different from ghosts in folklore: ghosts are highly aestheticized.
Weaken and dilute the ghostliness of ghosts and maximize the goodness and beauty of ghosts.
Most of them have charming faces and demure looks. For example, Sun nine niang is "smiling at the moon, and the morning glow is faint with shame".
Nie is "the skin is exposed and the bamboo shoots are fine, and the beauty is especially unique."
For example, Xiao Xie in Xiao Xie is a lively and lovely ghost fairy, ignorant and happy.
She is clever, diligent and kind-hearted. She learned everything at once.
After becoming friends with Qiu Rong, they and Shen Tao helped each other in the struggle of the dark forces.
The author makes full use of the surreal power provided by ghosts and ghosts, and profoundly reflects the contradiction of social reality through the mixed life picture and ghosts.
In ancient China, traditional women could not get help from Shen Tao, Xiao Xie and others, nor could they have Ying Ning's smile. Women are positioned as accessories of men and play a leading role. The experience of Xiao Xie, Ying Ning and Xiao Cui subverted and rearranged this restriction.
It makes them get rid of the shackles of the spirit of "laughing without showing their teeth", "three obedience and four virtues" and "seven out" [8], and they all dissolve in laughter, which is impressive.
This also fully reflects the rise of women's independent consciousness.
In a word, from the perspective of Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio, it is the closest to social life, even though it is talking about foxes and ghosts.
In most of his chapters, the author's love and hate are intense, and the female images he created in his works are a new height in China's ancient literature.
Both the fantasy plot designed by Pu Songling and the fantasy characters created by Pu Songling have ideal attributes, but these can only exist in the fantasy of Flower Demon and Ghost Fox.
Therefore, the women in Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio (mainly the flower demon and the ghost fox) are not only "more human", but also more beautiful than people.
Connecting with the author's unsuccessful life experience, we can perceive that most stories about foxes and ghosts in his works are born freely from his personal life feelings, which reflects his ups and downs for most of his life, his thinking about society and life and his yearning for a better life.