Spirits And The Ethic of Zhen: Analysis of Spirits in The Story of Purple Hairpin and The Story of Handan
Public Deposited- Last Modified
- September 29, 2023
- Creator
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Sheng, Yihui
- Affiliation: College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies
- Abstract
- This project focuses on the two plays The Story of Purple Hairpin (Zichai Ji, hence Purple Hairpin) and The Story of Handan (Handan Ji, hence Handan) written by the Ming playwright Tang Xianzu (1550-1616 CE). For each play, the project takes respectively a Confucian and a Daoist perspective to investigate how jiu, the Chinese term for alcoholic beverages translated as spirits, manifests the ethic of zhen [sincerity, authenticity, truth, and reality], which is the core ethic in the School of Mind (“Xinxue”) and sometimes also demonstrated as zhenqing [sincere passion, authentic emotion, and true love]. In Purple Hairpin, the scenes of spirits illustrate how the ethic of zhenqing overcomes Confucian moral corruption and generates social harmony. In Handan, the scenes of spirits highlight the ethic of zhen as the key inspiration for a commoner to realize the illusion of human world and become a Daoist deity. The project concludes that from the ethic of zhenqing in Purple Hairpin to the ethic of zhen in Handan, Tang suggests a process of eliminating sexual implications in zhenqing and purifying zhen as the most cherished human ethic. In short, in both plays Tang highlights zhen as the key solution for the moral corruption in a Confucian society and in the entire human world.
- Date of publication
- spring 2016
- Keyword
- DOI
- Resource type
- Rights statement
- In Copyright
- Note
- Funding: None
- Advisor
- Hsiao, Li-ling
- Degree
- Bachelor of Arts
- Honors level
- Highest Honors
- Degree granting institution
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- Graduation year
- 2016
- Extent
- 97
- Date uploaded
- April 27, 2016
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