당 전기 귀신고사의 서사구조 고찰

Abstract

Tang Chuanqi(唐傳奇) was a form of short story in the classical language which developed in the Tang dynasty. Kongzi(孔子) said, “While you are not able to serve men, how can you serve spirits of the dead?...While you do not know life, how can you know about death?” But Many Authors often thought of death, they believed in a life beyond the grave, they were afraid of death, futhermore some of them were very in touch with the supernatural side of their lives and believed in the presence of ghosts and life after death. Especially all the vengeful ghosts in Tang Chuanqi 「霍小玉傳」⋅「廬江馮媼傳」⋅「李章武傳」⋅「飛烟傳」 are female, said to be women that were unjustly treated during their lifetime. Such girls may have died in despair or the suffering they endured may have ended up in early death caused by the the pain of broken heart. So, she was determined to avenge herself on the man who had betrayed her. But because the idea that men are superior to women(women are inferior to men) was too prevalent in feudal society, novel’s writer wanted to describe that women were under less pressure to take revenge. In other words, even female ghosts in Tang Chuanqi were particularly vulnerable. These narrative structures were enough to show a popular atmosphere at that time, and such a organizational contradiction would relieve the readers from fear and tension. I can say that this is the most conspicuous characteristics of female ghost stories in Tang Chuanqi.