The Study Of Tang Legend Tales Of Hedong

Tales of Hedong is an excellent collection of short stories by Xue Yusi in the middle and late Tang Dynasty. The academic community is paying more attention on achievements and status of Tales of Hedong, nevertheless, study is still not enough. Many problems need to be systematically sorted, including the author of this book, writing conditions and circulated versions. Furthermore, previous analysis on its religious thought and artistic features is scattered and trivial. Based on previous studies, this paper attempts to further discuss Tales of Hedong:The first chapter mainly combs the research achievements of predecessors and point out the problems need to be solved.In the second chapter, the article aimed to provide a detailed introduction on the author Xue Yusi and his book through collecting relevant materials. In the first section, the author’s name was determined according to literature record. Besides, the finish time was deduced based on the displayed time in the book. Next, the circulation conditions of Tales of Hedong were sorted out. The contents, classification and sources of the theme were introduced in the third section.In the third chapter, the historical background in creating Tales of Hedong and its value on social criticism were addressed. Combined with historical records on that creating period, the Tang Dynasty gradually became weak due to endless unrest among regional government, military and eunuchs. The sharp class contradiction was increasing. In such a context, Tales of Hedong talked about political affairs in strange state. In the first section, Tale of Hedong described and criticized the military governorship. In the second section, it alluded and satirized the dark society. Then, political corruption was exposed and criticized.The fourth chapter discussed the thought of Buddhism and Taoism in Tales of Hedong. Section I discussed the development of fatalism in the Tang Dynasty and analyze the fatalism in Tales of Hedong. Section II discussed the development of karma and examined the impact of fatalism and karma on Tales of Hedong. In section III, the article mainly analyzed the influence of Taoist ‘secularization’ on the fairy stories in Tales of Hedong.The fifth chapter analyzed the aesthetic value of Tales of Hedong and summarized its artistic features. The first section analyzed its strong feature of irony and satirical expression. Section II mainly discussed its characteristics in terms of narrative. Section III analyzed the uniqueness of this book in shaping characters. Several beautiful images of women were shaped. Besides, the shaping method was innovative.The conclusion summarizes the status and influence of Tales of Hedong in the literary history.