《陌上桑》故事主題及源流攷辨 - 以漢樂府爲中心-

Abstract

Fighting back the ruler or criticizing the nobility is the theme of Mo Shang Sang (《陌上桑》) or not? This article observes it's multiple themes, espcially it's a amatory literature, a man taking liberties with a woman, brings people some delightful things in any time. Though Qiu Hu’s(秋胡) and Wang Ren’s（王仁） wife stories quoted in comments for the two stories similar to Mo Shang Sang(《陌上 桑》) , their themes are differences at all. The two stories gives praise to womanly qualities and virtues, as the theme of Confucius meeting a washerwoman(漂女)written by Han Ying's Memoir of the Book of Songs(《韓詩外傳》) . Some picking mulberry stories were found in ancient books of Shuo Yuan(《說苑》) and Lie Zi (《列子》) too, just as the fables for reasoning earnestly and properly. They have similar structure but not in the theme with support of Liang Wang Tu Yuan Fu(《梁 王菟園賦》) written by Mei Shen(枚乘). Although satire and praise not the theme, Mo Shang Sang(《陌上桑》) still have been performed for long time. The reason is it includes multiple themes, as the satire tradition through fable, the praise tradition about womanly qualities and virtues, and a story of man takes liberties with women. The last is the most important and crucial.