당전기에 등장하는 노비(奴婢)의 역할과 의미 고찰

Abstract

The meaning of the slaves in Chinese literature Tang Chanqi(唐傳奇) are consistent throughout the Chinese cultures. From <slavery-in-ancient-china>, Generally, the slavery society are believed to be ended after the establishment of Qin(秦) Dynasty, though there were slaves in remote mountain areas in China until 1950. A sad group of people in the ancient world, occupied a large portion of the population in ancient China since 2,100 BC, when Xia(夏) Dynasty started. Lives of slaves were the hardest of all. Many Chinese people were slaves. Most people who were slaves worked in the fields, the same as free people. Some of them worked as servants in rich people’s houses. The Emperor owned hundreds of slaves, and some of them worked for the government, collecting taxes or building roads. Some people were born slaves, because their mothers were slaves, and other people were sold into slavery to pay debts. The purpose of this paper is about dividing three types of the slave's motif shown up in Chinese Ancient Novels, and about finding out the meaning of their characteristics.