A Study On Versions And Commentaries Of Fantastic Tales By Ji Xiaolan

Fantastic Tales by Ji Xiaolan is believed to be the representative of note novels in Qing dynasty. Through comprehensive investigation of existing research, it is vacant in the study of the versions and the commentaries. Thus, this study investigates different versions, compares their similarities and differences, and tries to find out the relationships among these versions.On the basis of full-scale investigation of this book's all versions in the National Library and Peking University Library, we draw the conclusion that:In the first stage, there were manuscripts and individual xylographic versions and they have significant value in the study of the editing process and some supplement for the common versions. Since the first collective xylographic version published by Sheng Shiyan in Beijing in the year 1800, several this type versions appeared and they all came from Sheng's version, especially the version in 1816. Meanwhile, different anthologies came out and there were various types of versions ranging letterpress printing to lithographic printing from 1840s to 1930s.Different versions had different commentaries and commentaries are also important parts of version characteristics. This book had several commentaries while Weng Xincun, Xu Shidong and Xu Chun (Jishi Jiayan) are the three most important reviewers. Xu Chun was a common officer in lower position. Xu Shidong was just a scholar. However, Weng Xincun was a high-level official and had much more similarities of experiences with Ji Yun. After the comparison and analysis, this article finds that:Xu Chun's comments relied on his grass-roots work experience and had extended comments or immaterialism on the the text of Ji Yun's story with more profound social significance. Weng Xincun followed the step of Ji Yun, supplied more stories to interpret Ji Yun's story. By contrast, Xu Shidong's commentaries are distinctive. He emphasized the stylistic rules and layout, criticized Ji Yun's narration and comment strictly. Comment is not only a kind of independent existence, it is also a kind of work for our research with its special meaning for today's study.