明代公案小说中的家庭伦理意识解读 — 以文学伦理学批评为视角

Abstract

Crime-case fiction mainly describes the process of crime and punishment, which reached its peak in the Ming Dynasty. Through depicting the marketplace life of common people, the crime-case fiction can reflect people’s living conditions and psychological consciousness. Through these works we can see the severity of social disorder and the destruction of morality that occurred under the impact of the rising commodity economy beginning in the mid-Ming. According to Nie Zhenzhao’s ethical literary criticism, literature is the art of ethics in nature as it is the special expression of ethical ideas and moral life in a particular historical period. We need to analyze and interpret literary works from perspective of ethics. Through the method of ethical literary criticism, this paper analyzes the family ethical consciousness in the crime-case fiction of the middle to late Ming Dynasty from perspective of ethics and morals. The main purpose of this paper is to explore the causes of ethical confusion through crime cases of family disputes. On the other hand, ethical literary criticism emphasizes returning to the historical scene to understand and interpret literary works from the stance of ethics at that time. Based upon different family life phenomenon described in the crime-case fiction, this paper aims to analyze the causes of the crime cases and the ethical factors affecting characters’ fates. In addition, it is to make a moral evaluation from the perspective of history.