中國遊仙文學의 현대적 變用에 관한 고찰 ― 神仙 소재 玄幻小說을 중심으로

Abstract

This article began with a curiosity about the Chinese fantasy character, 神仙(an Immortal). The existence of an Immortal created by human desire for immortality has appeared in literary works as an ideal being to reach beyond the limits of human life in ancient China. And in the 21st century Internet novel where fantasy became mainstream, it revived again as the protagonist of Chinese traditional fantasy story. In the ancient Chinese seeking-immortal literature, the image of immortal and to become immortal show the changing aspect from the beginning of the Wei-jin Dynasty and the Tang Dynasty. In other words, it shows the tendency that from the ideal of being to the realistic being, and the space of immortal land also become a part of the real world from the ideal world. This paper examines the origins and various forms of immortal and seeking immortal in ancient China, in addition, through analyzing the representative works of Xuanhuan Xiaoshuo, a Chinese fantasy set as the mainstream in the Internet novels of the 21st century, and consider how are the worlds and stories of the immortal inherited in the works of ancient Chinese literature in these works or what are transformed under the influence of modern science and technology and Western fantasy narrative.