What caused Du Shiniang's personal experience in Du Shiniang's Furious Box?

The Ming Dynasty is of great significance in the long history of China: the germination of capitalism, the expansion of businessmen's power, the rise of citizens' class, and the perceptual life of enjoying life replacing the rational principle, which had a great impact on traditional ethics and values, and formed a social atmosphere of moral decay and cross-flow of human desires. This paper attempts to explain the social reality of the late Ming Dynasty from the root of Du Shiniang's tragedy in Feng Menglong's Du Shiniang's Angry Box.

Keywords: practical novel, Suna went to prison, full of desires, moral decay and strict hierarchy.

In the Ming dynasty, especially after the middle of the Ming dynasty, with the development of commodity economy and the prosperity of cities, a new class of citizens appeared. They have had a great impact on traditional ethics and values, and they wantonly indulge people's natural desires. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, society became a society of moral decay and human desires. The main reason for the formation of this social atmosphere is the expansion of merchant power in the late Ming Dynasty. The source of Du Shiniang's tragedy in Feng Menglong's Du Shiniang's Wrath Box illustrates the social phenomenon in the late Ming Dynasty.

First, from "The Story of Ungrateful Nong" to "Du Shiniang's Wrath Box"

The story of Du Shiniang's angry chest is said to be a fact of the Ming Dynasty, and the background of this story has a strong epochal character. Feng Menglong's Love History Volume 14 and Du Shiniang finally mentioned that "Zhejiang people wrote the biography of ungrateful farmers". The Biography of the Ungrateful Farmer was actually written by the Song Dynasty (sentient beings), and it is also the blueprint of Du Shiniang's Angry Box.

Song Youqing's Biography of heart breaker, as a literati novel, is placed on a literati's desk and has a strong literati flavor. Based on this realistic novel, Feng Menglong developed his talents in psychological description and writing, catered to the public's appreciation interest, was closer to social reality, and had a strong flavor of life, belonging to realism. Characters can also better reflect the characteristics of the times. On the one hand, the success of this rewriting benefited from "his down-and-out life, which made him have extensive contact with the citizen class and was influenced by the citizen's thought to some extent", and more importantly, it reflected the rise of the citizen class at that time. In order to meet the needs of the market, civic literature has also flourished, and "Sanyan" and "Erpai" can be regarded as models at that time. Du Shiniang's Wrath Box is one of the best.

Second, the expansion of the merchant's power —— The epochal nature of Du Shiniang's Rage Box.

As a practical novel, Du Shiniang's Furious Box has not only a strong background of the times but also a strong story background. From this, we can see some manifestations of the power expansion of businessmen in the late Ming Dynasty:

The novel begins like this: "In the twenty years of Wanli, the Japanese government made an insurrection and invaded Korea. The King of Korea was in an emergency, and China sent troops to the sea to rescue him. According to the relevant regulations of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, when the army was booming, the salary had not been collected, and Li Na was temporarily put in prison. It turns out that Li Na is cheaper in prison. Good study, good imperial examinations, good friends, and a small future in the end. In this way, the son of the official and the children of the rich family are unwilling to be scholars, and they are all taught to be too learned. Since the trial of this case, the number of students from Beijing and Taiwan Province has increased to thousands each. "

This is almost every scholar's yearning and their patent. The promulgation of this law means that these smelly businessmen can go to imperial academy to study as long as they pay enough money, and then they can become officials after they get out of prison. All this makes those poor scholars particularly annoyed. So what is the cause of this situation? We might as well take a look at the society at that time.

When the Ming Dynasty was first established, the economic foundation was very weak. The productive forces were destroyed by the rulers of Yuan and Mongolia for a long time, and the war of more than 20 years at the end of Yuan made the situation very severe, forcing the Ming government to make great efforts to reform the old economic system and strive to restore and develop production. Zhu Yuanzhang believes that the way out of the problem lies in "making farmers not abandon agriculture, women not abandon weaving, emphasizing agriculture and restraining business". Therefore, in order to ensure the recovery and development of agriculture and prevent big businessmen from manipulating the lifeline of the country's economy since the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the Ming government even forced businessmen to the bottom of society by violence at the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China.

However, after 150 years of hard work, businessmen became an extremely rich and influential social class after the middle of the Ming Dynasty. Starting from Jingtai period, in order to solve the country's financial difficulties, the Ming government actually implemented an income-generating policy called "imprisonment", that is, as long as you pay a sum of money and food to the government, you can go to imperial academy to study and be an official after you get out of prison. At the beginning of this policy, there was a restriction that only scholars could be imprisoned, but after all, they didn't have much oil and water, and then this restriction was lifted. The new policy stipulates that whoever can pay more money and food will be admitted as a Thai student. When implementing this method to solve financial difficulties, the country is not unaware that it will "make the world a valuable commodity and the world worse", but also ignores this point. "It is impossible to stop because of the lack of old age, or because of the border police, or because of the heavy work." Finally, the sword became a parallel system with the imperial examination. "Since this case was made public, the number of students from Beijing and Taiwan Province has increased to thousands respectively." As a result, Li Jia, Li Buzheng's eldest son, "failed to get a degree, and the case was granted to Beiyong." Sun Fu, who planted salt with Nan Yong's friends, stood on the same starting line of love.

The rise and fall of the social status of businessmen and Confucian scholars not only shows the fierce growth of the power of businessmen, but also shows that the feudal traditional concepts are being violently impacted. Imagine that in feudal society, scholars were called the essence of society and the spiritual pillar of the country. Once these people abandoned the old saying of Confucius that "a gentleman seeks the Tao instead of food", they ran all day for profit, which in a sense meant the collapse of the national spiritual pillar. It can be seen that the influence of businessmen had a great influence on the society at that time.

Three, moral decay, human desires-Du Shiniang's misery is the product of society.

Some people say that Du Shiniang's tragedy exposed the evils of feudal ethics and feudal system, reflected the contradiction between "emotion" and "ceremony" in the late Ming Dynasty, and opposed "ceremony" with "emotion" and accused feudal ethics and feudal forces. Is that really the case?

In fact, women struggling in such a society with declining human relations and cross-flow of desires will inevitably be deeply branded by that era consciously or unconsciously. We can't ask her to exist independently outside that social reality, because that is absolutely impossible. She is so convinced of the charm of the treasure chest, but under the joint oppression of powerful feudal forces and money, her personal dream will inevitably be shattered. So what kind of society is she facing personally?

(A) the commodity economy makes people want to cross-flow.

The germination of capitalism and the development of commodity economy have broken the closed traditional interpersonal relationship model and made the exchanges between the opposite sex become frequent. The development of commodity economy has brought new ideas and made the relationship between men and women interchangeable. The gap between men and women was broken, which led to the extreme disorder of gender relations.

From the folk songs full of primitive sexual turmoil at that time, to the morbid concept that "a wife is not as good as a concubine, a concubine is not as good as a maid, a maid is not as good as a prostitute, and a prostitute is not as good as a thief", and then to the pornographic novels published with incisive erotic pictures and sexual descriptions, it is not difficult to imagine how strong people's desire for possession of women was at that time. By the late Ming Dynasty, more and more people had become monks, married and kept concubines. They declared that "debauchery and wealth do not hinder Bodhi Road" and openly indulged in pleasure. Lust swept through the imprisonment of Neo-Confucianism and traditional ethics in Zhu Cheng like a flood, and became a secular social atmosphere, which inevitably spread to all levels of society, depending on the literati in the "three words and two beats". Also chasing women are: Zheng Daqing (Wake the World 15), Wen Renjia (Surprise, Volume 30), Quan Tattoo (Surprise at the Second Moment, Volume 3), Feng (Surprise at the Second Moment, Volume 9),,,, We can't see Bora style in them. Tang Yin, one of the four sons of Wuzhong, sold himself as a slave for the smile of a beautiful woman and finally married her. Tang Xianzu talked about the relationship between men and women in his works, and even became obscene. There are nearly a thousand words in Peony Pavilion describing that Shi can't have a normal sexual life because of vaginal atresia. And extremely indecent and vulgar. On the one hand, it is related to his sentimental dramas, on the other hand, the indulgence in the late Ming Dynasty also has a certain influence on him.

So, what is the basis of love between angel lee and Du Shiniang? The "Du Shiniang" is full of elegance and fragrance. Two curved eyebrows paint distant mountains and green hills, and a pair of eyes are bright and moist. The face is like a lotus calyx, clear; Lips are like cherries, how can I reduce Su Fan? " Extremely beautiful. Everyone has a love of beauty, and it is not an exaggeration. And Du Shiniang is a "13-year-old melon, now 19 years old. In the past seven years, I don't know how many children and grandchildren I have experienced, and I am fascinated and ruined. " At this time, Li Gongzi "added a burden to her." "Be happy early and be happy late, and be together all day" is no different from the debauchery of the literati at that time. What is the essential difference between this and Sun Fuyou, who is "naturally romantic, used to selling jokes to brothels, chasing happiness with red powder, and obsessed with being a frivolous boss"? That sentence of Sun Fu's "soul shaking" is only for "waiting for goodbye". What's the difference between this "true feeling" and angel lee's? No wonder the two "made some pleasantries first, and gradually introduced the matter of flowers and willows." Both of them are experienced people, like-minded, and can speak Hong Kong dialect. "Du Shiniang's flower of love is doomed to wither without results.

(2) The feudal forces are still hierarchical.

On the other hand, Du Shiniang entrusted the realization of his "ambition to be good" to such a rich dude. Does this also reveal that she is restricted by the social world and corroded by parasitic life? Let's not label her for the time being. Let's compare her with the gay girl in "The Oil Salesman monopolized the gay girl".

The famous prostitute lyre in "Selling Oil Lang monopolizes Flowers" is also a famous prostitute. At first, she didn't want to receive "little official Qin" because Qin Zhong, an oil dealer, was not a "noble son". The author took off his embroidered shoes, which read "Stand firm", "Turn around", "Pedal", "Look carefully", "Don't make any noise" and "Never take off your head or belt". This is determined by the living conditions of famous prostitutes. When she was drunk, Qin Zhong was very considerate to her. She thought Qin Zhong was a good man with honesty and honesty, but she was still hovering between "an ordinary person" and "a well-dressed child": although "this person is once in a thousand years", "it's a pity that she is an ordinary person, not a well-dressed child, and she is willing to commit herself." After being insulted and bullied by Wu bazi, I realized that those "extravagant prodigals" only have the will to buy laughter and pursue happiness, but have no sincerity to pity jade. Only then did I make a decision: "I want to marry you." Shen Qixian finally woke up under the harsh reality contrast and said frankly to Qin Zhong, "Eat clothes and vegetables and die without complaint."

If Shen Qilv took a fancy to Qin Zhong's faithfulness and honesty through the education of facts, what did Du Shiniang take a fancy to Li Jia? I think Li Jia is the first incompetent. "I studied in Yao since I was a child and didn't get a degree, so I assisted Bei Yong", which is only equivalent to today's self-funded students; Second, there is no money. "The bag is getting empty, so don't worry." And why does Du Shiniang have a soft spot for beautiful and intelligent angel lee, a treasure chest with more than 1,200 gold? Apart from our praise for Du Shiniang's unswerving love, no one can rule out that she just has a crush on the Li Jia family. She is full of hope, through angel lee's affection and family background, she can jump out of the fire pit of jokes, hoping that she can be "accepted by the political envoy and finally entrusted" and beg for a life suitable for the tastes of the citizens from the upper class.

Du Shiniang has both talents and looks, and a treasure chest. These are her capitals, and she just wants to use them to challenge feudal rights and status, so as to reach a compromise between money and rights and status. She wants to make a deal with the minister. From her, we seem to see the shadow of the rising petty bourgeoisie at that time. Prostitutes are particularly eager to find a powerful person to be a good person, and businessmen are also eager to find a bureaucrat to be their patron. The more at the bottom, the more yearning for power. However, the image of businesswoman in Du Shiniang was finally defeated by the hierarchical feudal forces, just as the emerging bourgeoisie in China was finally stillborn under the powerful feudal forces, which is a social tragedy.

The feudal landlord class practiced polygamy, supplemented by prostitutes' marriage. However, they maintain their dignity in a sanctimonious way. When they enter the room, they have to be suitable, and the famous media are marrying to safeguard the interests of their own blood, which Du Shiniang, who was born in poverty, can't compete with. Yes, the military envoy may fall in love with the treasure chest, but he won't allow a dusty woman, Du Keshi, to enter the room, which will defile his family background, which is the basis of his noble social status. Even if he is greedy for money, he is greedy for the twenty-two thousand gold first, and Du Shiniang can't live in his house. There is no guarantee that Li Buzheng will not greedy her treasure chest before reselling it to others. Li Buzheng will love money, but he loves his position even more.

Let's look at the fate of the emerging bourgeoisie again. This is a dynamic class. After 150 years of dormancy, I was finally ready to move after the middle of the Ming Dynasty. They are getting richer and bossy day by day, and they try to beat or exchange a little power with money.

Businessmen inevitably have to deal with various officials, who are often blackmailed by officials at all levels. They deeply felt the charm of power and the pain without power. Officials are in power, and businessmen are just kings under him. However, in the hands of the latter, there is money that makes officials jealous. Facts have proved that power is the best tool for businessmen to obtain greater benefits and maintain the durability of such benefits. Therefore, businessmen have shown great yearning and pursuit for political power. However, those in power are only for money and are unwilling to share power with these inferior people. They tried their best to maintain the hierarchy of seniority, so the contradiction between them became increasingly acute. It was not until the Qing soldiers entered Shanhaiguan and closed the country to the outside world that the bourgeoisie in China was finally strangled by the powerful feudal forces and stillborn.

(3) Monetary capital leads to moral decay.

Then, if Du Shiniang abandons the concept of family status and marries an ordinary citizen like Qin Zhong with the wealth of money, wouldn't he be able to live this life safely and happily? It seems that only integrating into the street class is her only way out. Is that really the case? Let's take a look at the social reality of the moral decay of feudal forces under the impact of the emerging bourgeoisie.

With its abundant financial resources, the emerging bourgeoisie had an impact on the feudal system. They put forward the requirements of establishing new ethical concepts, establishing new pecking order and interpersonal relationships based on money. Once money is pushed to be supreme, the concept that has been respected for thousands of years will be doubted and denied, and what was originally regarded as sacred will inevitably be desecrated. It was also at this time that feudal ethics encountered an unprecedented crisis.

In the past, Mencius once said: "Father and son are blind, the monarch and the minister are righteous, the husband and wife are different, the old and the young are orderly, and friends are trustworthy", which has always been regarded as the basic code of conduct in feudal society. Five ethics became the moral foundation of feudal society. What about the situation in the late Ming Dynasty? At that time, novelists answered this question with vivid stories:

Li Yu wrote in a novel: An old man had two sons, and his life in his son's house was "skinny". One day he met an old man who had no children or daughters on the road. The old man told him, "I recently inherited two children, but I am still very filial." And invite old people with children to enjoy it for a few days. On the first day, it was said that it was provided by the eldest son. "I saw delicious food before I was full, and it smelled strange"; The next day, it was supplied by the second son. "I saw delicious food again and kept it out." Every day for several days. The old man with a son was very envious and asked to meet his two sons to see why they had such filial piety. The childless old man said, "It's not difficult to see them, just wait for me to call them out." He shouted to the left, "Please come out." Reached into his left pocket, took out a wallet and put it on the table. He shouted to the right, "Please come out." He took a wallet from his right pocket, put it on the table and said, "These are two sons, man. Please look. " A son was startled and said, "Here are two bags of silver. How can you say it is your son? " No son said, "Money is the son. How can the son of the world be so filial like him? Want wine is wine, want meat is meat, don't worry, how about body and mind. He earned it from my bones. It's just my own blood. " . "Silver is a son" is a lesson that the old man summed up from his bitter experience. "There are filial sons like him in the world" is a summary of the decline of filial piety in society at that time.

In the five ethics, husband and wife are closely behind father and son. In feudal society, chastity was extremely exquisite and harsh for wives. However, once money becomes the first element of marriage, the treatment of wife's chastity is different. When there is a conflict between money and chastity, it is necessary to consider whether to follow the traditional moral concept in the long run.

Li Fangge, who runs the small hotel written by Ling Mengchu, even instigated his wife to hook up with wealthy businessmen for money. The cause of the incident was that Huizhou merchants took a fancy to Li Fangge's wife Chen and brought money to say, "I borrowed it and returned it to you." It is also clear that this is "cash to buy spot, people who are willing to make a deal, and if they refuse, they will ask for it." How to decide is entirely up to Li Fangge. In the face of a silver ingot left by Cheng Chaofeng, Li Fangge and his wife discussed:

Li Fangge said, and put the silver ingot on the table. Chen took it and looked at it. "You are a man. When you see this thing, you will be willing to give up your wife to raise a Han. " Li Fangge said, "I don't want to. It's rare for rich people to think of us when they are unlucky. We put up with shame for a while, but we've had enough all our lives. Now, it's always a fucking world. It's not like we are rich, we are innocent, and no one has come to build a memorial arch for you, so we are harmonious. " Chen said it doesn't matter, but now his promise that "just keep your innocence, no one will build an archway for you" is the theoretical basis for Li Fangge to convince his wife. The little businessman is used to seeing everything in the world from a business perspective. He doesn't regard chastity as a moral norm, but he thinks it's not worth keeping innocent without paying. Since you can change some money, you might as well "get along with it."

Five ethics are the moral basis of feudal rule and the five basic codes of conduct of people. Now even these can be measured by money, and this is the world. No wonder Du Shiniang has high expectations for his treasure chest. She is excellent in color and art and has all kinds of money. What reason did she choose Qin Zhong instead of angel lee? The former can give her a quiet life, while the latter can give her a noble birthright. Even an elegant concubine is more desirable than a prostitute, and the change of identity will make her yearn for it. This is human nature. It's not just Du Shiniang. Even today, if Du Shiniang chooses Qin Zhong, I'm afraid there are still many people who will envy Qin Zhong for "getting a big bargain in vain." What's more, it is a society that pursues fame and profits, so Du Shiniang's limitations are social limitations, and her tragedy is a social tragedy.

The germination of capitalism and the expansion of businessmen's power make morality decay and human desires cross-flow. As Marx said: "Tear off the veil of warmth that hangs over family relations and turn this relationship into a pure money relationship." Although we are not ashamed of this, it is undoubtedly a great historical progress from the perspective of the whole social development history. With the germination and expansion of businessmen's power, the hierarchical ethics has fallen apart for thousands of years, which is undoubtedly a great liberation of people's ideological field. The world trend of human desire indicates that Confucian orthodoxy, which has been regarded as a classic by the ruling class for thousands of years, has been abandoned. From feudal society to capitalist society is a great leap and inevitable trend in human history, and no force can stop the rolling wheel of historical progress. Under the shadow of the feudal system that had been silent for thousands of years in China at that time, these thoughts inspired people to forge ahead, broke people's ideological shackles, liberated people from imprisonment and pursued their own desires. This is the liberation of humanity and the progress of the times.