The “spirits” in Shintannbu of Konnjaku monogatarishu and Chinese Literature

In ancient China, “spirit”can either indicate the soul departing from the body of the person at death, or signify something that has developed into a supernatural being due to its old age. During the six dynasties and Tang Dynasty, with the introduction of Buddhist classics as well as parables, characters such as Yaksa(夜叉) and Rakasasa (羅剎女) were also brought in, thus diversifying the characters of “the spirit”. Later, these characters along with Chinese culture were introduced into Japan, and further exert an influence on Japanese literature. In ancient Japanese literature, we see Shintanbu(震旦部) of Konnjaku monogatarishu(今昔物語集) contains the most Chinese characters of spirits. Yet though a great number of characters of Chinese “Spirits”can be found in the work, one also finds a good many different ones that has been reshaped by Japanese writers. In the thesis, I am going to focus on the characters of spirits in Shintanbu(震旦部) of Konnjaku monogatarishu(今昔物語集) to further contrast and compare the differences and similarities between them and their counterparts in Chinese literature.