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Zeng, Alisa Chuwen

University of British Columbia

This thesis draws attention to the references to shame in The Scholars (Rulin waishi; originally published in 1749). As categorized by Olwen Bedford and Kwang-kuo Kwang, there are broadly “four types of shame (diu lian, can kui, xiu kui and xiu chi)” in Chinese culture. While characters in The Scholars are shameful when they lose their external reputation or face, they are ultimately shameless about their internal moral selves. The thesis investigates the Confucian moral expectation to be shame-conscious and sheds light on the inconsistency between the characters’ external expressions of shame and internal shamelessness. How does the author, Wu Jingzi (1701 – 1754), construct a narrative world that underscores a lack of shame within individuals in their ways of pursuing rank and wealth (gongming fugui)? The thesis illustrates how authentic and inauthentic expressions of shame draw attention to the perceived decline of Confucian moral virtue in eighteenth-century China. The genre of satire exposes how gongming fugui seekers’ feelings of shame are concerned with their reputational damage rather than their deviation from Confucian moral standards. By highlighting the different contexts in which diu lian, can kui, xiu kui and xiu chi appear in The Scholars, this thesis argues that shame and shamelessness are satirically presented through seekers of gongming fugui and examination success who fail to cultivate authentic Confucian moral virtues in Wu Jingzi’s novel.

Text

2025-04-22

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/90711

Asian Studies

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/