英文摘要 |
After the fall of the Ming dynasty, the experience of the superfluous material life in the Jiangnan area provided a shared vocabulary for many literati to express the vicissitudes of history, as well as of their own situation. The writings about material objects by the literati essentially reflected their adjustments of attitude and mind set facing the drastic changes in political climate and lifestyle during the Ming-Qing transition. Supposing the early Qing literati’s choices on political identity were not immediate, but rather were formed through more contradictions and contemplations, can we describe the process of such negotiations in a dynamic manner? This article aims to provide a way to engage in this question by analyzing the representation of material objects in Wu Weiye’s chuanqi work Moling Spring, written in 1653. By analyzing the repeated occurrences of “the most symbolic jade cup,” “model calligraphies,” and the knowledge in appreciation and collection, we shall draw out in detail Wu’s complicated mentality in adjusting his position in face of the trauma of the subversion of the Ming dynasty. In addition, I also argue that in Moling Spring, the appreciation and the exchange of objects not only served as the carrier of love between men and women in talented scholar and lovely lady romances, and as the mechanism of advancing the narrative, but also loaded Wu Weiye’s identity adjustment and trial of loyalty facing the sorrow of the subjugation of the dynasty |