AStudy Of The Motifs In The Stories Of The Spirits In Tai Ping Guang Ji

Tai Ping Guang Ji is the collection of classical Chinese novels before Song Dynasty, thus,known as “novel project”, and is the literati must-have dictionaries, for the classificationarrangement system of Tai Ping Guang Ji has greatly influenced the development of laterliterature, which provides writing material for town novels, miscellaneous drama, Zhu GongDiao of Song and Yuan Dynasties, and fictions, opera of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and so on.Tai Ping Guang Ji includes approximately seventy thousand stories, among them, there are abouttwo thousand stories of the spirits, they spread throughout many categories, like utensil class,monster class, evil spirit class, superstition class, treasure class, grass and trees class, dragonclass, tiger class, livestock and beast class, fox class, snake class, bird class, water animal class,insect class, etc. Therefore, this paper will study the motifs in these stories of the spirits in TaiPing Guang Ji, and through some steps as reading text, summarizing data, and summing up, pickout twelve common plot units, that is, choose twelve common motifs: shape-shifting, lovebetween people and freaks, monsters make trouble, people defeat the devil, monsters seek help,monsters pay a debt of gratitude, monsters has the ability to predict, monsters help humans,monsters reveal their true features, people suffer retribution for killing livestock, lawsuitsbetween monsters and humans, monsters fight with each other, and so on. Then, this paper willanalyze these motifs’ distributed situation, forming reason, development headstream, culturalimplication, etc.The shape-shifting motif is the most common and basic motif in the stories of the spirits, itcan be of three types: people become other things, other things become humans, some thingsbecome other things, and every type has different small kinds. The number of stories describingthat monsters make trouble is huge, and the content of these stories is very abundant. The peoplewho defeated monsters consist of Taoist priests, warlocks, monks, etc; magpies’ heads andhounds could kill or drive away monsters, besides. Monsters seek help for humans in the aspectof housing, clothing and transportation; in addition, monsters ask humans help them to revenge,to relocate, and so on. Monsters could help people become rich, wining promotion, prolonginglife, or out of difficulties, in order to show people their gratitude. Many monsters both toprophesy one person’s peril, safety, lifetime, government, and other things, and to have apremonition of that their own will face calamity. There are three forms in the motif that monstersreveal their true features, monsters will reveal their true features when they look into the mirror,when they are sleeping, or when they are drunk. The motif people suffer retribution for killing livestock is different for the motif karmic retribution of Buddhism, the stories of the spiritsinvolved “retributive” narration in Tai Ping Guang Ji usually don’t meet the laws repayingunfailingly Buddhism have put in great emphasis to. There are two forms of fighting in thestories that monsters fight with each other: verbal struggle and resort to violence, of which abattle of wits is the most wonderful one.There are two characteristics of motifs in the stories of the spirits in Tai Ping Guang Ji. Onthe one hand, these motifs could appear in the same stories, and appear in different stories aswell. On the other hand, these motifs absorb various cultural elements, but they could have astyle of one’s own in the process of their development. The phenomenon of monsters is bound upwith the ideas “the thing always to become a ghost”. With the changing content of these stories,the motif that monsters make trouble to affect the live of people and some signs, the prophecybelieved to have been fulfilled gradually appear in the same stories. The stories for defeatingmonsters gradually become the important subject matter of all kinds of literary styles, too.