ตำราทั้งสี่ กับการผลิตซ้ำอุดมการณ์ในการรักษาเสถียรภาพของสังคมจีน / สยุมพร ฉันทสิทธิพร = The four books and the reproduction of ideology for stability of Chinese society / Sayumporn Chanthsithiporn
This dissertation aims to study the text of The Four Books in order to understand its essences and goals in terms of ideology, which has had great influence on the concept and thought of Chinese society for a long time. The text in primary literatures is analyzed in the following three scopes, including the construction of discourses in The Four Books, language strategies used in the construction of discourses, and ideology as insinuated and reproduced by the said discourses in The Four Books. The results of the study show that the series of discourses in The Four Books have been constructed by the purpose of maintaining the social stability. These discourses include discourses to create social stability, discourses to cultivate the ruling class, and discourses to establish political legitimacy. And they have been constructed by means of different language strategies, for instance word choices, metaphors, contrast, parallel, intertextuality, legend, stereotypical characters, dialogues, etc. In addition, the discourses found in The Four Books are sources of political ideology reproduction in Chinese society, such as unification, responsibility, harmony, benevolent king, self-cultivation, ruling legitimacy, and resistance of power abuse. The consequences of these ideologies have effectively maintained the stability of Chinese society for a very long time. The Four Books which is full of values and visions of Confucianism has served to reproduce the ideology and has become the core of Confucian classic that has been used throughout the history. In other word, The Four Books not only contains values and spiritual essence of Chinese society, but can also serve as reference to Chinese concept and thought and the way of life in Chinese cultures.
