Researcher ORCID Identifier

0009-0005-0790-3645

Graduation Year

2026

Document Type

Open Access Senior Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Chinese

Reader 1

Feng Xiao

Reader 2

Sharon Hou

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Rights Information

© 2026 Jake Cole

Abstract

In this thesis, a critical case analysis is made of the Book of Awakening (醒書). This book has been severely understudied, primarily because of its rarity. This study’s goal is to review this book’s contents, by extension contributing to the greater body of knowledge on Didactic Novels. I first give a brief overview of the historical context of Didactic Novels, briefly reviewing existing scholarship. Then, I cover the Book of Awakening’s layout, discussing the distribution of stories and performing preliminary quantitative analysis. Finally, I analyze the Book’s contents from a Confucian perspective, describing how eleven Confucian values are presented within the book. The appendix includes a full transcription of the Book of Awakening, as well how I’ve categorized each story.

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