Thinking Affection and Dream: Ego Discourse in Tang Xian-zu’s Four Dreams

• Main Authors: Siang-Si Syu, 許翔曦
• Other Authors: Ho-Yi Lin
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2015
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/4ddc2v

碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 戲劇學研究所 === 104 === This study is an attempt to apply psychoanalytic literary criticism to the analysis of classical Chinese literature. In particular, it hopes to modify post-Freudian structural theory to explain the psychic of late Ming literati. Through a study of Tang Xianzu’s Yumingtang Simeng (Four Dreams), I hope to outline his construction of the self by looking at the egoic discourses in these plays. I argue that two distinct images of the self can be discerned, namely: that of the scholar (xueren) who seeks self-perfection, and that of the muse (ciren) who seeks flamboyance. The inner structure of Four Dreams can be revealed by an application of this dualism to show how Tang’s thoughts were affected by late Ming syncretism, and how it relates to modern ideas of value-pluralism.