Reworkings of Tang and Five Dynasties Fiction in the Luchuangxinhua
Resource
臺大中文學報, 20, 041-085
Journal
臺大中文學報
Journal Issue
20
Pages
041-085
Date Issued
2004-06
Date
2004-06
Author(s)
Abstract
This paper starts by clarifying that the Luchuangxinhua is not necessarily connected with the Song tradition of oral storytelling, and that it has its own unique compositional method and criteria for selecting stories for inclusion. With this as a basis, we look at how the large amount of fiction taken from the Tang and Five Dynasties fiction is preseted in this work, that is to say, we take the Luchuangxinha as an example of how classical fiction from the Song dynasty builds on works from Tang and Five dynasties. From a discussion of this text, we find that in order to meet both the formal demands of being a compact collection of fiction and the author's intent of assembling a wide collection of romantic tales, the Tang and Five Dynasty stories which appear in the Luchuangxinhua were not only extensively edited, but also the sections in the originals discussing how they came to be written or providing editorial commentary on the stories themselves were either deleted or replaced. Likewise, techniques such as the alternating use of ellipsis and alteration of events, the use of summary to replace scene, and the omission of description and explanatons are used to shorten the narrative duration, thus giving the Tang and Five Dynasties fiction in the Luchuangxinhua a new, different, and even inferior narrative apprarance, one in which , when compared with the originals, internal causality in the flow of the story is diminished, characters are sketched in broader strokes, thematic meaning is weakened or altered, and atmosphere is underdeveloped. Nonetheless, the reworkings of Tang and Five Dynasty fiction in the Luchuangxinhua are important when viewed from the perspective of the development of literature, for the compiler's approach of embedding events within discourse, a feature that is reflected in the book's almost encyclopedic function, makes his role very similar to that of the narrator in the Song tradition of storytelling mentioned aboe. Likewise, the Luchuangxinhua opened the door to writers of fiction and drama in later dynasties to use Tang and Five Dynasty fiction without feeling compelled to remain faithful to the story's original meaning.
Subjects
綠窗新話
唐五代小說
敘事
改易
類書
Luchuangxinhua
Tang and five dynasties fiction
Narrative
Reworkings
Collectanea
Type
journal article
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