六朝志怪小說中人鬼戀故事的類型及其中的愛情意味

Types of love between ghosts and the living in novels of the supernatural in the Wei Jin Southern and Northern Dynasties

This paper studies supernatural romance novels of the Wei Jin Southern and Northern Dynasties that depict affairs between the living and ghostly, including each tale’s characterization of that love. The ten novels considered show love's various types, such as physical, purposeful, playful, marital and romantic love. We still understand these stories well, because the consciousness of love transcends time and space with little change. The novels fall into three categories: “alive,” “dead” or “revived” tales. While all explore love between the living and the ghostly, each sees the terms of that love differently. Some followed the pattern of 〈Tan Sheng(談生)〉, and some 〈Xu Xuanfang's Daughter(徐玄方女)〉․〈Li Zhongwen's Daughter(李仲文女)〉and 〈Zhang Chen(章沈)〉do not explore true love, but simply relate interactions between a man and a ghost woman. Others were like 〈The Young Man and Woman of Hejian Town(河間郡男女)〉 and 〈Zi Yu(紫玉)〉, in which love continues even after the heroine passes away, yet without stressing the point that their love transcends life and death. Writers and readers of that day assumed ghosts existed. 〈Lu Chong(廬充)〉 moved to the supernatural realm the societal ethic and the living world’s order. 〈Fuma Duwei(駙馬都尉)〉 is more of a story about a rich lady's ghost who forces a poor man into a one night stand with her. In contrast, 〈Wang Jingbo(王敬伯)〉 is deeply romantic, a style infrequent in that era.