Anti-Traditional Meaning in The Oil Seller's Exclusive Possession of the Flower Leader (I)

The short novel "The Oil Seller's Exclusive Possession of the Flower Leader" is included in the novel collection "Waking Up to the World" compiled by the Ming Dynasty novelist Feng Menglong, and tells the love story between Xin Yaogin, a famous prostitute with both talent and appearance, who is famous in the capital and is known as the "Flower Leader's Maiden", and Qin Chong, an oil seller, who is a member of the general public. The author shows the victory of mutual respect and love for the concepts of class, hierarchy and money attached to marriage, and the call for equality of human nature. The whole story is more realistic and contradictory to certain traditional concepts, which is worthy of our deep thoughts and exploration.

The Oil Seller's Exclusive Possession of the Flower Leader is a novel of love, and the hero of this novel is a merchant and the heroine is a prostitute, which is more life-oriented. Qin Chong's love for Mei Niang begins with her beauty, and Mei Niang decides to marry him because he is honest and sincere, which is different from the previous feudalistic themes of "husband as wife", "faithfulness", and "loyalty". This is different from the previous themes of feudalism, such as "the husband's duty to his wife", "the husband's duty to his wife", and "loyalty and fidelity". The novel depicts the actual concept of love of ordinary citizens, emphasizes the human nature and true feelings in life, and reflects the concept of love and marriage and the ideal of life of the small citizens of the emerging capitalist class. The concept of love has a component of lust, which also shows the affirmation of "human desire" in "Three Words and Two Beats" and the difference with the previous novels about love.

First, analyze the anti-traditional significance of the characters

The material and the protagonist of The Oil Seller's Exclusive Possession of the Flower Leader are very different from those of the previous novels about talents, emperors and generals, heroes, and so on. The heroine is a prostitute, but it is said that "the poor world's smart women, fall into the dust net of fireworks", Xin Yaoqin was originally the daughter of a good family, living a happy and stable life since childhood, but because of the war and the parents were separated. Later, she was coaxed by her neighbor, Bu Qiao, to sell her to a prostitute, Wang Jiu-ma, and was renamed Wang Mei, the adopted daughter of Wang Jiu-ma, which also laid the groundwork for her to become a flower girl later. Because of Yaoqin's birth mark, Wang Jiu-ma carefully cultivated it into a flower girl:

"Since then, Jiu-ma changed Yaoqin to Wang Mei, the family is called the beauty of the mother, teaching him to play songs and dances, and all the best. Growing into a fourteen-year-old, delicate and very beautiful. Lin'an city, these rich and powerful gentlemen, admiring its appearance, are prepared with generous gifts to see. There is also a love of clear standard, heard that he writes high, seeking poetry and words, day not leave the door. Make a great reputation out of the sky, do not call him the beauty of the mother, called him to do the flower girl. West Lake children made up a "hanging branch child", said that the benefits of the flower girl: small mother, who like to Wang Meier's beautiful, and can write, and can paint, and can do poetry, playing songs and dances are all the rest of the matter."

From here we can know that Yaoqin was originally the daughter of an innocent family, but fell into the net of fireworks and dust, only to be ill-fated, and the previous heroine is a big difference, but more obvious is that she chose a different husband and son-in-law. Wang Meiniang was unwilling to take clients, but was framed by Wang Jiu-ma and Jin Erwai and lost her innocence. The heartbroken Meiniang was later persuaded by Liu Si-ma:

"Meiniang said: "Now I want to go to a good life, or how good?" Liu Si Ma said: "My son, I teach you a foolproof plan." Mei Niang said, "If I am taught, I will never forget my kindness!" Liu Si-Ma said, "In the matter of going to the good side, going to the clean side is the best way to go. Besides, your body has already been tricked by someone, that is, if you get married tonight, you can't be called a yellow-colored girl. It is your destiny that you should not end up here. If I don't help him for a few years and get a thousand dollars, I won't let you go. One more thing, if you want to be an honest man, you must choose a good one. Can't you just follow him with all these smelly mouths and faces? You're not taking any clients now. Do you know which one you should follow and which one you shouldn't? If you insist on not accepting clients, I have no choice but to find a master who is willing to pay and sell you as a concubine. The master may be old, or ugly, or a village cow who can't read or write a word, but you won't be dirty for the rest of your life! I'd like to see you in the water, but you'll be a bit of a pain in the ass, so I'm sure you'll get a lot of grief. In my humble opinion, it is better to follow the wishes of the people, by virtue of being a mother to receive customers. Like you like this talent, idle material also do not dare to pull the trigger. It's just a king, a granddaddy, a nobleman, and it doesn't dishonor you. Firstly, it is a good time to spend time with young people; secondly, it is a good time to become a mother to start a family; thirdly, it is a good time to accumulate some private property to avoid begging for help in the future. After ten years or five years, I will meet a person who knows what I want, and I can talk about it, and I can talk about it, and then I will be a matchmaker for you, and I will marry you, and I will let you go. Can't both be convenient?" Mei Niang heard, smiled and did not say. Liu Si-Ma knew that Mei Niang's mind was active, so she said, "Every word of me is a good word. When you follow my words, you will have to thank me later." I'm not going to be able to do that," she said.

Mei Niang wanted to find a good man, live a stable life, and get out of this place as soon as possible, so she agreed to take customers and started to save money for the future to leave the plan. Instead, she agreed to take on clients and start saving money to plan for her future departure. In theory, Mei Niang was a flower girl, and if she wanted to take on a good man, she should have been matched with a king's son, a nobleman, or a rich family, but she chose a businessman,-----, an oil seller, named Qin Chong. From the beauty of Niang's choice of spouse, you can see that the traditional concept of agricultural suppression of business began to waver, while Niang is also interested in Qin Chong's honesty and sincerity and goodness, from the side of the citizens of the reality of love.

From the depiction of the male protagonist, "Oil Seller Exclusive Flower Kui" introduces the burgeoning civic class represented by Qin Chong, a small businessman with a capital of only three taels of silver, into the work in the period of the budding of China's capitalism, and with his honesty and truthfulness, he touches the famous prostitutes of Lin'an, who are known to be the Flower Kui women, and realizes the prosperity of the family and the development of the family business with the other side of the savings. Qin kind of artistic image shaping not only created a new model of love legend, but also gave the prostitute love theme of the novel with a new era of connotation.

The hero, Qin Chong, who is not a nobleman, not to mention a minister, falls in love at first sight with Mei Niang, and begins to save up money to pursue her. At the beginning, Qin Chong belongs to the lower class of the society, and his status is very different from that of Mei Niang. Qin Chong's elevated status is not achieved by the traditional means of obtaining an honorary title or climbing up the ladder of nobility, but by doing business and making money, which can no longer be summarized by the traditional model of the opera novel, which is "a private marriage in the backyard garden, and a prince in distress who wins the scholar's prize". The happy ending in which Qin Chong impresses Mei Niang with his sincerity and kindness, thus winning the return of the beauty, also indicates the rise of the bourgeoisie in the Ming Dynasty and the change of social values. The traditional social ideology of emphasizing agriculture and suppressing business began to waver, and the ethical and moral standards were changing, truly reflecting the characteristics of social thought in this period. The fact that the small businessman becomes the victor in the struggle for love and defeats the disciples of the scholarly family shows that the desire for love is no longer confined to the intellectuals, but also exists in the hearts of ordinary citizens. This is also a clearer manifestation of the novel's realization and anti-conventional significance.