A Study On The Fox Stories In Zhiguai And Chuanqi Fictions Of The Ming Dynasty

In the history of Ming Dynasty novels,classical Chinese novels play an important part.Based on the fox stories in the legendary novels of the Ming Dynasty,this paper first traces the evolution and characteristics of the fox stories in the pre-Qin and Han Dynasties,Wei,Jin,Southern and Northern Dynasties,Tang and Song Dynasties.Subsequently,the overall care of the Ming Dynasty fox novels was carried out,and it was divided into three periods : the pre-Ming Dynasty,the middle of the Ming Dynasty and the late Ming Dynasty.Then,on the basis of close reading of the text,the fox stories in the legendary novels of the Ming Dynasty are divided into four types :predict signs,marriage and love,harassment and other types.The Ming people’s understanding of foxes not only inherited the previous generation,but also innovated,which was reflected in the emergence of the concepts of ’ hu xian ’ and ’ hu dan ’,the ’ goodness ’ of the fox image,the clever use of poetry and the illusion ceremony of wearing skulls and worshiping the moon.In addition,through the introduction of motifs and themes,the fox stories in the legendary novels of the Ming Dynasty are interpreted,and three motifs of human fox love,fox gratitude and Taoist fox expelling are extracted,and three themes of demons are created by people,karma and evil.Finally,the cultural implication of fox stories in the legendary novels of the Ming Dynasty was investigated in combination with social reality and folk customs.It is worth mentioning that the Hu Mei Cong Tan,which contains 133 fox stories,can be regarded as a unique cultural phenomenon in the Wanli Dynasty.The book has the significance of fox stories and is a flowing history of fox culture development.The exquisite illustrations are also noteworthy features and should be paid attention to.