Abstract: In the novels of the Ming and Qing dynasties, there are groups of fierce women, who dare to challenge the traditional patriarchal and husband's rights, and their behavior is arrogant, domineering, and fierce, which is a true portrayal of the social life of the Ming and Qing dynasties.
The formation of these images of fierce women is not only related to the improvement of women's status, but also deeply affected by the phenomenon of "fear of guilt", and is a unique product under the trend of science and culture. Although the behavior of the fierce women in different literary works is different, they are all a series of "healing jealousy" written by men in order to maintain their own authority, in order to achieve the role of warning and exhortation.
Keywords: Ming and Qing dynasty novels, fierce women, fear of guilt, cure jealousy
"Shuowen Jiezi" defines "fierce" as "brave", so the fierce woman is the opposite concept of the virtuous woman, generally refers to the fierce, brutal and unreasonable woman, in addition, the fierce woman also has the characteristics of "jealousy", the two are inseparable, jealous woman refers to the jealous woman who does not follow the "three from the four virtues", and the fierce woman is on the basis of the jealous woman, the behavior is more fierce, often beating and scolding, abusing the husband, and even challenging the husband's family status.
The main characteristics of a fierce woman are jealousy and cruelty, most of them are the right wives in the family, and there are no heirs. The literary image of the fierce woman exists in the literary works of successive dynasties, as early as the "Wei Zhi Dian" recorded the jealous behavior of the fierce woman Yuan Shao's wife Liu, and there are shadows of the fierce woman in the "Shiji" and "Book of Han", most of which only appear sporadically.
During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the rapid development of society, the status of women's families has improved, and they have gradually begun to resist polygamy, many men are seriously afraid of guilt, coupled with the rise of psychological studies, novelists began to be keen to create a series of distinctive images of fierce women, forming a group of fierce women, which is the epitome of the current social situation at that time, and it is also a realistic writing under the perspective of patriarchal culture.
1. The image of a fierce woman in the novels of the Ming and Qing dynasties
Most of the Ming and Qing dynasty romance novels are based on the daily life of families from all walks of life, and are committed to presenting social situations. In the novels of the Ming and Qing dynasties, there are many images of fierce women, most of them exist as right wives, and all have no children, and then abandoned by their husbands, so they are resentful, and then make a series of jealous acts, mainly including mental and physical abuse, and the overall male is weak and incompetent.
The main extant Ming and Qing dynasty novels with the theme of fierce women are as follows: "The Legend of Awakening Marriage", "Healing Jealousy", "Vinegar Gourd", "West Lake Episode 2", "Liaozhai Zhi Yi" and "Dream of Red Mansions" There are also some images of fierce women, forming a group portrait of fierce women with distinctive characteristics, which can best represent the true mentality and marital situation of Ming and Qing dynasty women, and is also the patriarchal writing of Ming and Qing novelists.
"The Legend of Awakening Marriage" was written by Western Zhou Sheng in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, which vividly portrayed the image of Sister Xue Sujie, a fierce woman, making Sister Xue Su a classic image of a fierce woman.
Although Sister Xue Su received a strict education in the three virtues and four virtues before she got married, after she got married, she completely ignored etiquette and religion, and used various cruel methods such as whipping, charcoal burning to abuse her husband, and even intended to shoot him.
Different from the image of Xue Sujie's fierce woman, Du Shi in "Vinegar Gourd" is a fierce woman with a strong jealousy, and in order to prevent her husband from taking concubines, she kills the maids in the family, and her words and deeds are extremely fierce. The real society can no longer change its cruel behavior, and the author can only rely on the gods, so Dushi was completely transformed into a virtuous woman after being cramped and pulled out by the ghosts of the prefecture.
Whether it is "The Legend of Awakening Marriage" or "Vinegar Gourd", the fierce woman has completely changed her past after being punished by external forces and educated.
And "Healing Jealousy" is completely different, Qin Shuzhen was originally a fierce woman with a strong jealous heart, imprisoned her husband in every way, until her husband rushed for the exam, Qin Shuzhen felt the pain of parting, and then no longer fierce, became a virtuous wife who was willing to take a concubine for her husband and coexisted peacefully with the concubine room, and the phenomenon of fierce women was slightly pale and weak.
In addition, there are about 6 short stories in "Liaozhai Zhi Wei" that create the image of a fierce woman, among which the fierce woman Jiang Cheng in "Jiang Cheng" has a good temper and punches and kicks her husband for many years, so that her face is scratched. Another example is the article "Ma Jiefu", Yin Shi is strange, beating her husband and in-laws, even pregnant concubines, the whole family is spared, and finally sold to an alcoholic butcher, and tortured to death in the second half of his life.
For the fierce woman, Pu Songling can be said to hate it to the extreme, and has repeatedly called her "dominatrix" and "rouge tiger" in his works, and all the fierce women who appear in "Liaozhai Zhi Yi" have been punished very harshly, either dying of distress, being pricked to death by silver needles, or hanging, and the end is extremely miserable.
As shown in the above-mentioned Ming and Qing dynasty novels, the reason why a fierce woman becomes a fierce woman is mainly caused by her husband's concubinage. Polygamy practiced in feudal society only defined the status of wives and concubines, but did not limit the number of concubines.
Especially when the wife cannot have children, her status will be threatened by concubines, so in order to consolidate her position, the wife does not hesitate to take various means to prevent her husband from taking concubines, so as to be defined as a "tyrant", but does not know that polygamy is the biggest executioner of a tyrant.
Second, the reasons for the formation of the image of the fierce woman
In feudal society, women had a low status, had to be subordinate to men in order to gain recognition, and were completely subordinate to the absolute authority of men, and had no right to speak. Although the novels before the Ming and Qing dynasties also created the image of the fierce woman, they did not form a large group, and the character characteristics of the fierce woman were not obvious.
In the Ming and Qing dynasties, all kinds of novels on the theme of fierce women emerged one after another, and the images of fierce women created were typical and representative, and Xue Sujie, Du Shi, and Wang Xifeng were all spokespersons of fierce women. Of course, the emergence of these groups of fierce women is closely related to the overall background of the times, social atmosphere and cultural trends at that time.
(1) The status of women is enhanced
During the Ming and Qing dynasties, capitalism began to germinate, the commodity economy developed rapidly, the new citizen class rose, and individual liberation and freedom became a major trend at that time, so the status of women in this period was improved. Different from the previous generation of novels, the fierce women in the Ming and Qing dynasty novels are not weak women, most of them are strong women and have an absolute leadership position in the family.
For example, although Wang Xifeng in "Dream of Red Mansions" is vicious, the housekeeper is a good hand, and the huge Rongguo Mansion is in good order by her; The Dushi in "Vinegar Gourd" manages the Du family in an orderly manner and can help her husband financially.
And Qin Shuzhen in "Healing Jealousy" has a rich dowry and spends a lot of money to seek fame for her husband, although they are fierce women, they have their own status, so they dare to openly rebel against the existing order of patriarchal society.
Although women at this time are still receiving feudal education, and some women are still subservient to this, there are also some women who resist, beat their husbands, rebel against their in-laws, torture maids, and even do not hesitate to kill people, the means of resistance are extremely cruel, many novelists have a fierce woman in their families, and they are oppressed, which is also the key reason why the fierce women are condemned.
(2) The phenomenon of fear of guilt has intensified
Introphobia in marriage has existed since ancient times. By the time of the Ming and Qing dynasties, the phenomenon of fear of guilt had evolved into a more common social phenomenon. In the novels of the Ming and Qing dynasty women, the male protagonists are all seriously afraid of guilt, their status is very low, and they do not have much say at home, which is related to the overall status of literati in the Ming and Qing dynasties.
The Ming and Qing dynasties specialized in the imperial examination, did not work all fours, and after falling off the list, it was difficult to support their families by a little thinness, and they could only rely on their wives' dowries to barely survive, so the difficult situation of the literati in family life was one of the main reasons for their fear of guilt.
In addition to economic factors, men's fear of guilt in Ming and Qing dynasty novels is also related to their concept of marriage. Ancient marriage based on the "parents' order, the words of the matchmaker" as the criterion, the husband and wife have lived for many years, naturally have a bit of husband and wife love, coupled with the fact that men like to take concubines, so most of the jealous behavior of their wives adopt a tolerant and retreat attitude, and gradually embark on the road of fear of guilt.
In addition, with the economic prosperity of the Ming and Qing dynasties, the social trend of thought has undergone tremendous changes, and all kinds of new trends of thought that promote people's personality and true feelings have emerged, among which Li Xian's "childlike heart theory" and Tang Xianzu's "theory of love" are the most representative.
Such new trends have shaken up traditional thinking, especially traditional women's views, thus giving birth to a large number of fierce women in real life, providing inexhaustible material for novelists. It can be seen that the image of the fierce woman is an inevitable product of the times.
Third, the comparison of the images of women in literary works of different eras
As a literary image, the fierce woman and the jealous woman have been typical representatives in the literary works of all generations, and the main purpose of the jealousy is to maintain their orthodox status in the family, and the fierce behavior of the fierce woman is a strong impact on the feudal patriarchal society.
Of course, because the novels of the Ming and Qing dynasties were all written by male writers, in order to maintain the authority of male power, all the rebellions of their fierce women ended in failure without exception.
Most of the fierce women in the novels of the Ming and Qing dynasties were women with a certain social status, such as queen concubines, princesses, etc., even if they were in a high position, they still had to submit to male power, and could not stop their husbands from taking concubines, and could only attack favored concubines.
In contrast, most of the women in the novels on the theme of fierce women in the Ming and Qing dynasties were ordinary folk women, who were extremely jealous, not only preying on favored concubines, but even their husbands were tortured and beaten by them.
It is worth mentioning that before the Ming and Qing Dynasties, most of the literary works about the fierce women focused on describing the various spicy and vicious behaviors of the fierce women, although the author revealed his disgust and hatred for the fierce women everywhere, but the author did not clearly express his attitude and position, so the vivid and full image of the fierce woman was not good.
The novel on the theme of the fierce woman at the explicit time not only explores the deep reasons for the emergence of the female image of the fierce woman in an all-round and multi-angle manner, but also clearly expresses its attitude towards the fierce woman, but also can give a certain understanding and care for her jealous behavior from the perspective of women.
In general, novelists view the phenomenon of smodicty from the standpoint of male power, which is a secret manifestation of male power consciousness.
In addition, most of the endings of the fierce women in the novels of the past generations are similar, and in the face of the growing group of fierce women, the author arranged the most tragic ending for the fierce women in order to vent his extreme dissatisfaction, intending to punish the fierce women through "healing jealousy", and then achieve the role of warning.
Just like Li Fengniang in "West Lake Episode 2", the final ending is not only that the coffin was shattered by lightning, but even the bones were gone.
To sum up, the emergence of the image group of fierce women in Ming and Qing novels is a product of the times, not only related to economic development, but also a product under the influence of cultural trends, comprehensively and meticulously revealing the social marriage status and the improvement of women's living conditions in the Ming and Qing dynasties, which has a certain promoting effect on the concept of marriage and love in the Ming and Qing dynasties, and is a major window for studying women's liberation and development in this period.
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