“Tearing Apart the Worthless” and “Guarding the Value”

——A Comparative Study on the Narrative Aesthetics of “Spiritual Victory Method” between Ah Q and Qin Shutian

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-541-6_44How to use a DOI?

Keywords

spiritual victory method; Ah Q; Qin Shutian; narrative aesthetics

Abstract

Ah Q’s “spiritual victory method” in The True Story of Ah Q, as a classical narrative symbol for Lu Xun to dissect national character, provides a theoretical foundation for the comparative study between Ah Q and Qin Shutian, who has a similar spiritual phenomenon in Hibiscus Town. The study focuses on Ah Q in Lu Xun’s The True Story of Ah Q and Qin Shutian in Gu Hua’s Hibiscus Town. It aims to reveal the “spiritual victory method” ‘s tragic and comedic connotations in different historical contexts by comparing the different narrative aesthetic mechanisms of this psychological phenomenon. The study breaks through the limitations of one-dimensional research on the national character criticism and psychological analysis of the “spiritual victory method”. It compares the sources of their comedy and the core of their tragedy, and conducts a cross-text analysis of narrative strategies, including the role of the audience and scene design, finding that Ah Q’s victory presents a critical deconstruction, while Qin Shutian’s victory presents a defense of human nature in a dilemma. The significance of this study is to clarify that the literary significance of the “spiritual victory method” is not inherent, but rooted in historical contexts, providing a new idea for understanding the connotation of the “spiritual victory method”.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Yangyang Ye
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/02/26
TI  - “Tearing Apart the Worthless” and “Guarding the Value”
BT  - Proceedings of the 2025 5th International Conference on Culture, Design and Social Development (CDSD 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 391
EP  - 399
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-541-6_44
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-541-6_44
ID  - Ye2026
ER  -