ISSN : 1229-9618(Print)
ISSN : 2671-7506(Online)
ISSN : 2671-7506(Online)
Chinese Studies Vol.54 pp.133-152
DOI : https://doi.org/10.14378/KACS.2016.54.54.7
DOI : https://doi.org/10.14378/KACS.2016.54.54.7
A Study on motif of Infidelity and divorce in Ancient Chinese Narrative Literature
Abstract
Most of literary works with the motif of 'divorce' have a happy ending, among chinese classical epic literary works. The story is that a hero and a heroine have loved each other very much, but couldn't help separating due to the disturbance of other people and the huge power. Finally they were reunited after overcoming hardship and came to live a happy life for a long time.
However, Both 「Zhang-xie｣ in ‘Nan-xi’ and 「Jin-yunu｣ in ‘Hua-ben’ have a distinctive feature among chinese classical epic literary works with a motif of divorce. It has a plot that the couple got divorced because of the husband's betrayal, but were reunited thanks to the wife's forgiveness. In other words, the couple would be reunited as the wife forgave her husband even though he betrayed and even attempted to kill her.
According to the earlier studies on 'divorce and reunion' in literary works, the reason of 'divorce' is ascribed to the Imperial examination system and the Confucian culture and the reason of 'reunion' is induced from readers' mentality to long for happy ending.
This study was made based on the theory of 'exchange and gift'. Therefore, it's found that 'gift' fell into a dilemma in 「Zhang-xie｣ in ‘Nan-xi’ during the process of marriage, divorce and reunion of the hero and the heroine at each work.
However, Both 「Zhang-xie｣ in ‘Nan-xi’ and 「Jin-yunu｣ in ‘Hua-ben’ have a distinctive feature among chinese classical epic literary works with a motif of divorce. It has a plot that the couple got divorced because of the husband's betrayal, but were reunited thanks to the wife's forgiveness. In other words, the couple would be reunited as the wife forgave her husband even though he betrayed and even attempted to kill her.
According to the earlier studies on 'divorce and reunion' in literary works, the reason of 'divorce' is ascribed to the Imperial examination system and the Confucian culture and the reason of 'reunion' is induced from readers' mentality to long for happy ending.
This study was made based on the theory of 'exchange and gift'. Therefore, it's found that 'gift' fell into a dilemma in 「Zhang-xie｣ in ‘Nan-xi’ during the process of marriage, divorce and reunion of the hero and the heroine at each work.