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《京华烟云》与《福尔赛世家》是中西方文学中最经典的家族小说之一，并都创作于家族小说鼎盛的黄金时期。两部小说的对比是相当具有研究价值和意义的。《京华烟云》以道家思想为中心，叙述了中国1900至1938年的长河历史；而《福尔赛世家》以英国上流社会为背景，讽刺资本主义为一大主题，引入了福尔赛主义这一新兴概念。本文将通过中西方不同的哲学角度，即道家思想和福尔赛主义两个中心理论，对小说中无处不在的中西方家族文化描写和家族的盛衰进行对比研究。
首先，本文将阐述道家思想和福尔赛主义在两部小说中举足轻重的作用和地位。其次，小说的对比主要在三个方面进行研究分析：情感观，财产意识和生死观。最后，通过这三个方面的对比研究，本文将对道家思想和福尔赛主义这两部小说的灵魂主题，以及中西方家族文化的描写和盛衰进行总结和比较。西方重视个人价值，而中国则更倾向于家族的整体利益。在现代社会，应在扬弃以上这两种价值观的基础上，建立一种个人和家族双重价值取向的家族精神。
关键词：超然，执念，道家学说，福尔赛主义，世家小说
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements i
Abstract ii
摘要………..iii
1 Introduction 1
2 Spiritual Themes of the Two Novels..4
2.1 Taoism in Moment in Peking 4
2.2 Forsytism in The Forsyte Saga 6
3 Contrastive Analysis in View of Sensibility 9
3.1 The Yao Sisters’ Destined Marriage 9
3.2 A Marriage of Tragedy 16
4 Contrastive Analysis in Sense of Property 22
4.1 Yao Sze-an’s Transcendence of Property 22
4.2 Soames Forsyte’s Obsession with Property 25
4.3 The Contrast of Two Characters in Different Aspects 27
5 Contrastive Analysis in Value of Life 31
5.1 Life, Endless and Eternal through Blood 31
5.2 Life, the Ironic and Fragile Property 33
6 Conclusion 36
6.1 The Contrast of Taoism and Forsytism 36
6.2 The Culture of Chinese and Western Family 38
6.3 The Descriptions of Family History in Two Novels 40
Bibliography…………43
1 Introduction
Family’s culture remains one of the most popular and unchangeable research themes in both Chinese and Western literatures. A saga novel not only reflects the spirit of a family and a nation, but also embodies the historical background and realistic significance, which provokes readers' contemplation. A Large number of masterpieces have been born in the course of the development of literature. Among them, Moment in Peking and The Forsyte Saga are two of the most classical and outstanding works.
Moment in Peking, Lin Yutang covers the turbulent events in China from 1900 to 1938, including the Boxer Uprising, the Republican Revolution of 1911, the Warlord Era, the rise of nationalism and communism, and the start of the Sino-Japanese War of 1937-1945. Especially, Lin desires to introduce Chinese culture to Western; therefore, he followed examples of one of the four Chinese literature classics, Dream of the Red Chamber, in authentically reflecting historical background and showing a spectrum of characters in their social settings. Moment in Peking is influenced by Zhuangzi and its message was “Life is but a dream.”
The story is started around three wealthy and powerful families in Peking: the Yao, Tseng and New. And the story records their prosperity and downfall as well. It is pided into three parts: The Daughter of a Taoist, Tragedy in the Garden, The Song of Autumn. The story begins in 1901, when the protagonist, Yao Mulan was nine. In that year her family moved to Beijing to avoid the war. In the road, she is lost in the turbulence and taken by a trafficker. Later, Mulan is fortunately saved by the Tseng family. Thus, in their home, she meets her swore sister Mannia, and Sunya who would become her husband in the future. Afterwards, the story shifts to her grownup and narrates Mulan’s and her sister Mochow’s marriage and life around the three families. Due to the instability of political situation in China, their lives have dramatically changed. As old generation become older and die one by one, a new generation springs up. Mulan’s daughter is shot when she is in demonstration and her only son enlists in the army. In the end, Mulan and her husband seclude in countryside and all these families are declining through long stretches of history.