中國特色的動物史詩

Beast Epics with Chinese Characteristics

就如其他文化一樣，中國口頭文學中有豐富的動物故事；然而，中國文字傳統中關於動物以動物本身的原貌互動、相互交談的故事卻屈指可數。文字傳統中，會講話的動物往往都被賦予了人形。中國文學文字傳統中會講話的動物十分罕見的原因很有可能是因為這些故事的虛構性質。本文將簡單討論三個中國動物敘事。這三個故事都有不止一個異本：《燕子賦》有兩個敦煌本；成化說唱詞話《鸚哥行孝義傳》現存有不同的地方異本；《老鼠告貓》則有不同改編本，十九、二十世紀的都有。

Whereas China, like many other cultures, has a rich heritage of animal tales in oral literature, the written tradition knows only a few developed tales of animals interacting with, and talking to, other animals as animals. In the written tradition animals often are given a human shape before they are given the power of speech. The reason for the absence of talking animals in the written tradition of Chinese literature is most likely due to the obviously fictional character of such stories. In this paper I will briefly discuss three small animal epics from China that each exist in more than one version: The Yanzi fu (Rhapsody on the sparrow), which is known in two versions from Dunhuang; the Yingge xing xiaoyi zhuan (Tale of the filial piety of the Parrot), which is included among the ballad-stories of the Chenghua period (Chenghua shuochang cihua) and survives in various regional versions till today; and the numerous adaptations of the court case of the Mouse against the Cat, which is known from nineteenth- and twentieth-century versions.