Studies On The Fox Image In LiaoZhaiZhiYi

“Liao Zhai Zhi Yi” is also known as “Biography of the ghost and fox”. It has become a classical novel and been widely accepted by Chinese people since it was published. No matter the ancient scholars or the modern researchers are all interested in this famous novel and lots of researches about this novel had been conducted and great achievements had been made. In the modern world, this novel is still of great significance and value. The description of the fox stories and fox images is also one of charming points in this novel.In early pre-Qin dynasty, vixen story and fox image have appeared in the classical works.However, to Pu Songling, the fox images have achieved the perfect combination of human figure,human feeling and human character in Pu Songling’s works. Through a detailed reading of Pu Songling’s works, this paper finds that there are 84 stories relating to vixen and fox imagine in“Liao Zhai Zhi Yi” which accounts 1/6 of the whole stories. So the paper intends to choose the fox image as the research object and make a detailed conclusion about the fox imagine in “Liao Zhai Zhi Yi”. Firstly this paper will make a summary about the previous research based on historical development. The paper finds that the fox imagine can be classified into four kinds in previous works: the auspicious fox, the demonized fox, the immortal fox and the humanized fox.Using the method of comparative analysis, the paper find that the fox image in “Liao Zhai Zhi Yi” inherited some characters such as full of magic power, captivating, predicable and humanized which have existed in previous works. Pu Songling made a further development about the fox imagine in his works, the fox imagines in his works not only inherited the common characters but also made a breakthrough in the following aspects: infusing human nature,abundant human feeling and the relationship between human and fox.Based on the inheritance and creation, the fox image not only has the distinctive humanity,emotion, personality features but also reflected the complexity of human, human nature, the relationship between human and fox. This paper will make a new interpretation about the fox imagine in “Liao Zhai Zhi Yi” from love, friendship, chivalry, intelligence and evil by using figure, humanized feeling and human nature as research foundation to make readers have a better understanding of the fox imagines. This paper finds that Pu praised humanized nature by making the fox imagine dare to love and hate, having the emotion of sincere friendship and gratitude; Pu criticized good and evil in human world by dividing the fox imagine into kind fox and evil fox.These various fox imagines in “Liao Zhai Zhi Yi” also reflected Pu’s personal talent, rich knowledge and experience. What’s more, it also reflected Pu’s modest attitude towards literature.This paper explores the reason why Pu describes such various fox imagines and find theself-contracted, lonely and pessimistic writing attitude of Pu implied in the fox imagines. These fox imagines are not only the emotional anchor of Pu but also reflected the living condition of Pu and it also expressed Pu’s humanistic mood. This research can help us have a better understanding of the relationship between human and fox in “Liao Zhai Zhi Yi” and we can also achieve a deep cognition about fox imagines. Finally, we can reach the target that knowing Pu Songling by read the fox imagines.