论中古志怪作品在民间故事类型学中的价值——以《搜神记》为中心

中古志怪作者在“征实”这一早期小说观念的影响下 ,忠实地记载了很多的民间故事。从民间故事类型学的角度看 ,它们往往是在世界范围内流播的民间故事的中国版本。如《搜神记》中的“毛衣女”、“谈生”、“李寄斩蛇”、“费孝先”等故事 ,便分别属于“天鹅处女”、“梅露辛尼”、“龙穴脱险”、“聪明的劝告”等故事类型 ;另外 ,《搜神记》和其他中古志怪作品还提供了诸如“动物报恩”、“陷城为湖”等故事类型的许多异文 ,而且这些文本纪录时间极早 ,超过了西方搜集者能够搜集到的所有非汉语文本。据此 ,应对中古志怪中的某些文体性质重新定位 ,将其视之为“传说”与“故事” ,而非通常所认为的“小说”。

The Value of Works about Sprites in the Medieval Times for the Typology of Folktale

The thesis changes the traditional defination that the stories about sprites in the medieval times is fiction.It revises its value from the viewpoint of folktale category theory and finds that those stories recorded in principle of seeking for reality are usually to be the Chinese edition of those which are spreaded world wide.Those texts are recorded very early and they surpass all the non Chinese editions as the western collectors can see.So,they are of high historic value.