台灣「屙屎嚇番」傳說及「大人國」民間故事之探究

A Study of the “E Shi Xia Fan” Legend and “The Giant Nation” Folktale in Taiwan

台灣在漢人逐漸移入並進行墾拓的過程裡，不斷地讓先住民原來的生活空間受到擠壓，致使雙方的衝突日益增生。在這樣的情態下，漢人如何於衝突中減低傷害，獲得勝利，是其最大的希望。如此的心理機制，最常投射及反映在「屙屎嚇番」或相類似的傳說中。這類傳說又經常因各地文化背景的差異，而有不同的面貌產生，呈現出民間文學的集體性和變異性。事實上，「屙屎嚇番」傳說裡「以虛張聲勢騙術嚇退敵方」的計謀，是世界性共通的母題，大部分運用在民間故事上，而台灣也曾經流傳過該類母題的民間故事—「大人國」。基於大眾對傳說和民間故事在認知上的混淆不清，本文以具有相同母題的「屙屎嚇番」傳說和「大人國」民間故事為例，試圖從形式、風格等做一區別。最後，再從民間文學與作家文學相互滋養的關係，探究「屙屎嚇番」傳說如何被應用在李喬先生的小說《寒夜》上。

When the Han people immigrated to Taiwan long time ago andbrought wasteland under cultivation, Taiwanese aborigines’ space of lifewere constricted. For this reason, there was a conflict between the twosides. Under the situation, it was the Han people’s greatest objectionto reduce the damage and win the battle when they encountered theconflict with Taiwanese aborigines. So there were “e shi xia fan” legendswhich describe the Han people’s efforts to frighten the Taiwaneseaborigines with the stratagem. They tried to make huge excrement as asign of the existence of the giant in the Han people’s village.Because of different cultural contexts in various parts of Taiwan,these legends have developed into several variants. And they displaythe collectivity and variation of folk literature. Actually, the deceptionthrough bluffing as in “e shi xia fan” legends is the worldwide motif, and itis widely used in the folktales. In Taiwan, the folktale with that motif wastold in the past. The name of the story is “The Giant Nation” (da ren guoor ju ren guo).It is always a hard task for people to distinguish the legend from thefolktale, so this article attempts to do that from the form and the styleof both the “E Shi Xia Fan” and “The Giant Nation”. Moreover, the eliteliterature often has been related to the folk literature. This essay, at theend, is discussing how the “E Shi Xia Fan” is applied to Li Qiao’s novel“Cold Night Trilogy—Wintry Night (han ye)”.