英文摘要
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An influential scholar of the Qing dynasty, Ji Yun (1724-1805) left behind a book entitled Yuewei Cottage Notes that progressed the function of the traditional Chinese novel to broaden the scope of the reader's knowledge by recording several kinds of things from far lands. This study examines and discusses the writing style and content within Yuewei Cottage Notes The various things collected in Yuewei Cottage Notes include medicinal remedies, mythical creatures, plant monsters, as well as stories about substances, cultures, and transformation. Yuewei Cottage Notes also contains tales of Western firearms in which Ji Yun refers to the sciences as "Gewu." ( Acquiring knowledge by investigating things) This shows that Ji Yun gathered a comprehensive assortment of preceding concepts that added new conceptions to prevailing thoughts, demonstrating the gradual change in the understanding of "Gewu" of scholars at that time. Most notably, in Ji Yun's eyes, both the mythical and the physical are things to be studied. He believed that ghosts and demons are part of nature that make up this physical world and as we both exist together, people should be able to understand and empathize with the supernatural. Ji Yun's opinion that people must study the underlying principles of "Investigating things to know" ("Gewuzhizhi") is consistent with the traditional idea of cultivating character held by scholars, highlighting the book’s moralizing core. In summary, close examination of the narratives in Yuewei Cottage Notes clearly illustrate the cultured and straightforward style of this book. Ji Yun’s Yuewei Cottage Notes is more than just a collection of stories; it bears cultural significance concerning scholars' weird novel (also called fiction of immortals and apparitions). Yuewei Cottage Notes is a weird novel written lightly to emphasize the cultivation of character and the attainment of both knowledge and ethics. Although it contains some novel aesthetics, it is still a reflection of the traditional aesthetics of scholar-bureaucrats that stresses a balanced middle ground in life. It denotes a new paragon for weird novel in the Qing Dynasty, making this a significant novel.
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