从文学伦理学批评视角解读赛珍珠《大地三部曲》

emian  Ethics  and  Magna  Moralia.  In  his  works,  he  clearly  pointed  out that the purpose of ethics research is goodness.[29]269 He not only regards goodness as the purpose of ethics research, but also advocates putting people first and studying the subjective morality of individuals.  On  this  basis,  the  moral  tradition  of  ethics  was  established.  In  this  regard,  Alan Bullock pointed out in The Humanist Tradition in the West  that one of the most attractive aspects of  ancient  Greek  thought  is  that  it  is  centered  on  people,  not  God.[30]287  Therefore,  the  ancient Greek ethics affirmed the initiative and creativity of people and promoted  the awakening of human nature. However, after ancient Greece and Rome, the value of human being was denied, the ruling class advocated theology, and the whole western world has entered a period of religious and moral rule  for  more  than  one  thousand  years.  All  kinds  of  art  forms  in  this  period  were  serving  for religious ethics, and all literary works were serving for the ethical values based on God. It was not until  the  emergence  of  humanism  in  the  European  Renaissance  that  the  value  of  man  was reaffirmed. Renaissance literature is more closely connected with ethics than any previous period. 

2.2 Important Terms of Ethical Literary Criticism

The terms of ethical literary criticism are abundant, but this  thesis only focuses on three terms: ethical choice, ethical identity and ethical consciousness. 

2.2.1 Ethical Consciousness

According to the understanding of ethical literary criticism, due to the maturity of rationality, people’s ethical consciousness began to emerge, and they gradually changed from animal to human, and evolved into an independent higher species. The essential feature that distinguishes man from beast  is  that  man  has  reason,  and  the  core  of  reason  is  ethical  consciousness.[33]17-18 In  order  to understand the specific meaning of ethical consciousness, we must first understand the concept of sphinx  factor.  Sphinx  is  an  image  in  ancient  Greek  mythology,  from  which  ethical  literary criticism refines the sphinx factor and makes it the keyword of ethical literary criticism.[34] Sphinx is  the  most  famous  and  typical  image  of  the  unity  of  man  and  beast.  She  has  a  woman ’s  head,  a lion’s body, eagle-like wings, and a snake-like tail. Whether Sphinx is a human or a beast in this image  is  a  difficult  question  to  answer,  because  the  human  head  represents  her  human characteristics,  but  the  lion  body,  eagle  wings  and  snake  tail  also  show  the  characteristics  of  her beast. Although there is no way to specifically answer the question of whether Sphinx is a human or a beast, Professor Nie Zhenzhao cleverly used her image feature to put forward the concept of the Sphinx factor. In his view, this characteristic first shows that the most important characteristic of  man  in  form  is  the  head.  In  fact,  this  is  the  symbol  of  the  initial  rationality  that  humans  have evolved after a long period of time. The second