Zhiguai xiaoshuo
| Zhiguai xiaoshuo | |
|---|---|
Hanyu Pinyin | zhìguài xiǎoshuō |
| IPA | [ʈʂɻ̩̂.kwâɪ ɕjàʊʂwó] |
Zhiguai xiaoshuo, translated as "tales of the miraculous", "tales of the strange", or "records of anomalies", is a type of Chinese literature which appeared in the Han dynasty and developed after the fall of the dynasty in 220 CE and in the Tang dynasty in 618 CE. They were among the first examples of Chinese fiction and deal with the existence of the supernatural, rebirth and reincarnation, gods, ghosts, and spirits.
Robert Ford Campany sees the genre loosely characterized in its early examples by relatively brief form, often only a list of narrations or description, written in non-rhyming classical prose with a "clear and primary" focus on things which are anomalous, with a Buddhist or Taoist moral.[1] Campany, however, does not see the stories as "fiction," since the literati authors believed that their accounts were factual.[2] Lydia Sing-Chen Chiang suggests that one function of the stories in this genre was to provide a "context by which the unknown may be ascribed names and meanings and therefore become 'known,' controlled, and used."[3]
History and examples
The term zhiguai is an allusion to a passage in the inner chapters of the Zhuangzi.[4]
During the Six Dynasties, xian were a common subject of zhiguai stories.[5] They often had "magical" Tao powers including the abilities to "walk...through walls or stand...in light without casting a shadow."[5]
The early 4th century anthology
By the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, the collections of zhiguai and chuanqi materials had been widely reprinted and supplemented by contemporary works. Judith Zeitlin suggests that the accounts of the strange "inevitably began to lose their sense of novelty and to seem stereotype..." and such writers as
In the 21st century, zhiguai stories continue to appear in print and on screen. A recent collection, for example, Zhiguai: Chinese True Tales of the Paranormal and Glitches in the Matrix, edited by Yi Izzy Yu and John Yu Branscum, offers examples of the creative nonfiction stream of zhiguai and connects them to the more-recent genre of glitch-in-the-matrix tales.
Notes
- ^ Campany (1996), pp. 24–26.
- ^ Campany (1996), p. 162-164.
- ^ Chiang (2005), p. 12.
- ^ Campany (1996), p. 29.
- ^ a b Gershon, Livia (2022-02-22). "The Trouble with Immortality". JSTOR Daily. JSTOR. Retrieved 2023-05-27.
- ^ Idema (1997), p. 112.
- ^ Zhang (2014), pp. 1-2.
- ^ Idema (1997), p. 139.
- ^ Zeitlin (1997), p. 198.
- ^ Chiang (2005), p. 68.
References
- Campany, Robert Ford (1996). Strange Writing: Anomaly Accounts in Early Medieval China. Albany: State University of New York Press. ISBN 0585042748.
- Chiang, Sing-chen Lydia (2005). Collecting the Self: Body and Identity in Strange Tale Collections of Late Imperial China. Leiden; Boston: Brill. ISBN 9004142037.
- Idema, Wilt and Lloyd Haft (1997). A Guide to Chinese Literature. Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies, The University of Michigan. ISBN 0892641231.
- Kao, Karl S. Y. (Gao, Xinyong) (1985). Classical Chinese Tales of the Supernatural and the Fantastic: Selections from the Third to the Tenth Century. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. ISBN 0253313759.) Thirty-six Tang tales and sixty zhiguai, with an extensive Introduction.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link - Zeitlin, Judith T. (1997). Historian of the Strange: Pu Songling and the Chinese Classical Tale. Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-2968-0.
- Zhang, Zhenjun (2014). Buddhism and Tales of the Supernatural in Early Medieval China: A Study of Liu Yiqing's (403-444) Youming Lu. ISBN 9789004277274.
