英文摘要 |
In writing Jing Hua Yuan, Li Ruzhen employs the Taoist banished- immortal mythology which not only functions as “prologue” (xiezi) of the traditional fictions, but also manifests the “structure” of the whole work. The fact that the Baihua goddess and Baihua fairies were banished to the human world from heaven because they violated the heavenly law of “timely blossoming” is disclosed in the imperial edict from Empress Wu Zetian who herself is the banished immortal Tianxing xinyuehu. As a result, Tang Xiaoshan, the banished Baihua goddess, has to reunite one hundred flower fairies wandering destitute in foreign countries and the ten ways (shidao). In the meantime, Empress Wu Zetian bestows the favor of “permitting women taking imperial exam” to make one hundred flower fairies reunited. In this mythologial structutre, both the overseas adventures occurring in the first half of the novel and the imperial exam participation in the second half become the motive force to promote the development of plot. After one hundred flower fairies are reunited, the novel reaches the denouement of “scattering” (san). Li Ruzhen intentionally adopts a kind of “modelled” writing technique to let the heroine experience lots of hardships and accomplish the task of reuniting the scattered fairies. The development of plot totally coincides with the mythological theme of “banishment.” As the main structural mode of Chinese novels, the above “banished-immortal” stucture reflects the fatalistic cosmic concept and outlook on life of Chinese people. This is a kind of cultural mentality of the nationalities which the vanacular fictions have des-cribed profoundly. |