Jinpingmei, one of the Four Great Classical Novels of China, is evaluated to occupy an important position in the history of literature. Unlike pre-Ming dynasty novels that depicted historical events or heroes as protagonists, Jinpingmei is a roman of ...
Jinpingmei, one of the Four Great Classical Novels of China, is evaluated to occupy an important position in the history of literature. Unlike pre-Ming dynasty novels that depicted historical events or heroes as protagonists, Jinpingmei is a roman of Ming dynasty that depicted the rise and fall of a family, with ordinary lives and ordinary people as protagonists. It described in detail, and exposed, the wrongdoings and corruption of Ming dynasty society through an ordinary family. Especially, the author embodied multi-layer characters in the embodiment of characters. This study focused on the slaves appearing in the novel, with its theme being the study of slaves in Jinpingmei. First, I looked at the Ming society and analyzed the various roles and shapes of slaves raised in the Ming society. Especially, the Ming society was an era of widespread corruption and bribes and the slaves, the lowest of social ladder, were not free from such trend, which caused plenty of contradictions and corruptions. I contemplated corruption of the slaves by dividing noticeable slaves in Jinpingmei into five types and focusing on their diverse shapes. Also, by looking at the expressive techniques and languages used to describe the shape of slaves in Jinpingmei, I could find an outstanding artistic achievement. Jinpingmei is an important historical record reflecting the Ming society, and plays a very important role in understanding slaves of a period by vividly describing and reflecting slaves, the lowest class of society, as well as the politics, economy, society and culture of a period. The study of slaves in Jinpingmei is expected to provide great help in understanding the slaves of Ming period, although it may be a fracture of history of slaves in China.