Close
About
FAQ
Home
Collections
Login
USC Login
Register
0
Selected
Invert selection
Deselect all
Deselect all
Click here to refresh results
Click here to refresh results
USC
/
Digital Library
/
University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses
/
"Double" in traditional Chinese fantastic fictions
(USC Thesis Other)
"Double" in traditional Chinese fantastic fictions
PDF
Download
Share
Open document
Flip pages
Contact Us
Contact Us
Copy asset link
Request this asset
Transcript (if available)
Content
“DOUBLE” IN TRADITIONAL CHINESE FANTASTIC FICTIONS
Copyright 2006
by
Ji Hao
A Thesis Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
MASTER OF ARTS
(EAST ASIAN LANGUAGES AND CULTURES)
August 2006
Ji Hao
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
UMI Number: 1438396
INFORMATION TO USERS
The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy
submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and
photographs, print bleed-through, substandard margins, and improper
alignment can adversely affect reproduction.
In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript
and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized
copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion.
®
UMI
UMI Microform 1438396
Copyright 2006 by ProQuest Information and Learning Company.
All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against
unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code.
ProQuest Information and Learning Company
300 North Zeeb Road
P.O. Box 1346
Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Dedication
For my first daughter
who was born in this special summer
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Acknowledgements
I am indebted to Professor Dominic Cheung, Akira Lippit and Bettine Birge for
their guidance and advice on my thesis. In particular, I want to express my deep
gratitude to Professor Cheung who has inspired this paper and demonstrated to me
the fantastic world of Chinese literature during my study at USC.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Table of Contents
Dedication ii
Acknowledgments iii
Abstract v
Introduction 1
Chapter 1: Psychological Double 10
Chapter 2: Physical Double 25
Chapter 3: Afterlife Double 33
Chapter 4: Figurative Double 49
Conclusion 59
Figure 1 62
Bibliography 68
iv
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Abstract
Although the theme of double has been widely explored in Western fantastic
fictions, few academic efforts have been devoted to this theme in its Chinese parallel.
This becomes astonishing especially when we consider the existence of the
voluminous amount of fantastic fictions containing the theme of double in Chinese
literary history.
As a recurrent theme in Chinese fantastic fictions ranging from Six Dynasties to
later imperial period, double has demonstrated its own specific features. Through the
analysis of the double in representative literary texts, this essay attempts to
categorize different kinds of the double on the basis of their characteristics, unveil
the undercurrents behind the double, and explore the recurrent pattern in this
constellation of double and the interplay between the double and self in order to
contribute to our better understanding of this phenomenon and the scholarship in
Chinese fantastic fiction.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Introduction
In Chinese history, there has been a long persistence of interest in recording the
phenomena of the strange and the anomalous, which plays a vital role in the
inception and progressive development of zhiguai (accounts of anomalies)
fictions.1 Not only can we infer the practice of recording anomalies from some
philosophical texts such as Zhuangzi and Liezi J j \ \ f-,2 we can also see that a lot
of records on the strange and the anomalous are scattered in early Confucian classics
such as Yijing J§jfM (book of change) and Chunqiu (the spring and autumn
annals).
1 For the explanation o f the existence o f such interest, one may refer to Robert F. Company’s book
Strange Writing: Anomaly Accounts in Early M edieval China, Albany: State University o f New York
Press, 1996.
2
See “Inner Chapters” o f Zhuangzi “Qixie is a book on anomalies”^ g ^ ^ ,
According to Fan Gengyan, Qiexie is a book. See Zhuangzi guyi i i , Taipei: Wenshizhe
chubanshe, 1998, p. 11. Also “Tangwen” o f Liezi J j \ \ “Yu traveled and saw them, Boyi knew
and named them, Yijian heard and recorded them”;^;!!
See Wang Qiangmo Liezi quanyi Guiyang: Guizhou renmin chubanshe, 1993, p.
125. Later Yijian and Qixie have been frequently employed as the title o f many collections on the
strange. Lu Xun believed that Qixie in Zhuangzi and Yijian in Liezi as are unsubstantial legends. See
Lu Xun H iA , Zhongguo xiaoshuo shilue Beijing: Dongfang chubanshe, 1996, p. 7.
3 Interestingly, according to the “ ShueL’jiftn'ii o f Lunyu H f g (7:20), “Confucius never discussed
anomalies, strength, disorder, and spiritual beings”^-^fif§'[g^jfLW , which to some extent stigmatize
the practice o f writing zhiguai-style works in later periods. See Chen Guanxue Lunyu xinzhu
fralnfifS:, Taipei: Dongda tushu gongsi, 1995, p. 117. However, many later writers took advantage o f
the existed records on the strange and the anomaly in those Confucian classics to justify their practice.
For example, in the first prefaces o f Jiandeng xinhua W'MMrife, Qu You (1341-1427) made such a
claim. See Qu You, Jiandeng xinhua (New Tales o f the Trimmed Lamp), Shanghai:
Zhonghua shuju, 1962, p3. But as we know, those records in Confucian Classics are far from fictional
writings on zhiguai. Cf. Robert Company also mentioned that the genre o f anomaly accounts was
justified under an older tradition o f cosmographic collecting constituted by a specific set o f dynamic
relations between center and periphery. See Robert Company, Strange Writing: Anomaly Accounts in
Early M edieval China, pp. 101-159, 395-398.
1
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Though zhiguai-stylc writing has a long tradition, before the Song dynasty it
had usually been included in the section of shi 'JZ (historical records) and only from
Yiwen zhi |f>C7c7 in Xintang shu 0f Jcifl?? compiled by Ouyang Xiu MzWAtZ (1007-
1072) can it occupy a position in the section of zi •^■(miscellaneous works) and be
regarded as fiction.4 However, it was not until Ming dynasty that zhiguai began to be
treated as a subgenre in Hu Yinglin’s (1551-1620) classification of fictional
writings.5
In Hu Yinglin’s classification, zhiguai and chuanqi {llltf are regarded as
separate subgenres, which have exerted a strong influence on academic research on
traditional Chinese fictions. The distinction between zhiguai and chuanqi is so strong
that it almost automatically links them to different cultural and historical
circumstances, with the genre of zhiguai especially in Six Dynasties and the genre of
chuanqi especially in Tang Dynasty. However, this generic distinction is more based
4 As for such a rearrangement by Ouyang Xiu, Laura Hua Wu seems to agree with Kenneth J.
DeWoskin and believes that “this rearrangement resulted in a xiaoshuo section that contained
‘predominantly imaginative narratives o f the sort we comfortably recognize as fiction.’ However, the
bibliographical reshuffling was less motivated by revolutionary thinking about the nature o f the
xiaoshuo than by Ouyang Xiu’s desire to purge unreliable materials from the historical parts in his
bibliography.” See Laura Hua Wu, “From Xiaoshuo to Fiction: Hu Yinglin’s Genre Study of
Xiaoshuo,” H arvard Journal o f Asiatic Studies, Vol. 55, No. 2 (Dec., 1995), p. 341.
5 See Lu Xun, Zhongguo xiaoshuo shilue, p4. Hu Yinglin subdivided fiction into six subgenres:
zhiguai (accounts o f anomalous), chuanqi d p lf (prose romance), zalu M M (anecdotes), congtan
i t M (miscellaneous notes), b ia n d in g ^ §J (researches), and zhengui (moral admonitions). For
the titles o f these subgenres, basically I use the translation by Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang. See Lu
Xun, A B rief H istory o f Chinese Fiction, trans. Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang, Beijing: Foreign
Languages Press, 1959, p6. I change their translation o f zhiguai from “records o f marvels” into
“accounts o f anomalies.” For more analysis on Hu Yinling’s genre study o f xiaoshuo, see Laura Hua
Wu, “From Xiaoshuo to Fiction: Hu Yinglin’s Genre Study o f Xiaoshuo," pp. 339-371.
2
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
on “an observation of literary reality”6in a specific period and gradually becomes a
kind of stereotype which prevents us from contemplating certain literary phenomena
in a larger frame of Chinese literature.
On the other hand, if we are not trapped in such a stereotype and put more
emphasis on the literary works themselves, we can find that there are many relevant
tales which can be stripped from the stereotype of genres such as zhiguai, chuanqi,
and huaben and constitute a constellation of “the fantastic” inviting more academic
attention.7
Chinese fantastic fiction, though shares some similarities with its western
o
parallel, at the same time demonstrates its own specific qualities and characteristics.
6 Todorov distinguished two different genres: historical genre from an observation o f literary reality
and theoretical genre from a deduction o f a theoretical order. See Todorov, The Fantastic: a
Structural Approach to a Literary Genre, trans. Richard Howard. Ithaca, N ew York: Cornell
University Press, 1975, pp.13-15.
7 Here the “fantastic” is not referred to a theoretical genre as Todorov once argued in his book The
Fantastic: a Structural Approach to a Literary Genre. For the criticism o f Todorov’s theoretical genre,
please see Christine Brooke-Rose, “Historical Genres/ Theoretical Genres: A Discussion o f Todorov
on the Fantastic,” New Literary History, vol.8, No. 1, Readers and Spectators: Some Views and
Reviews. (Autumn, 1976), pp. 145-158. Rather it is a means to reexamine relevant traditional Chinese
fictions in an integrative way by using a certain perspective to break existed genre stereotype as I
mentioned before. It is still based on the observation o f literary reality on larger scale but at the same
time incorporates a certain theoretical element as reflected in Todorov’s fantastic schema. The most
important element is the existence o f the reader’s hesitation provoked by certain ambiguity o f texts.
However, Chinese “fantastic” is different from western fantastic in that Todorov’s schema o f the
fantastic is mostly based on the analysis o f western texts, which can’t be totally applied to Chinese
texts. Although the main topic o f this paper is the “double” in Chinese fantastic fictions, scrutinizing
such a phenomenon will also shed light on the “fantastic” itself. Important aspects o f Todorov’s
fantastic theory will also be introduced when we look at Chinese texts.
g
Karl S.Y. Kao highlights the distinctions between the Western tradition and Chinese tradition on the
supernatural and the fantastic: “In this sense, the distinction between the supernatural and the fantastic
is not chronological: both the supernatural and the fantastic can be found in Six Dynasties and T ’ang
works o f chih-kuai. This point is important to bear in mind, for in the West the fantastic is distinctly a
later product than the supernatural in literary history.” See Karl S.Y.Kao, Classic Chinese Tales o f the
Supernatural and the Fantastic, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1985, p3. Such a different
historical development, as Kao indicates above, partly illuminates contributing factors o f the
specificity o f Chinese fantastic fictions.
3
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Among numerous themes which have been dealt with both in Chinese and Western
fantastic fictions, the phenomenon of double, or doppelganger, stands out as an
interesting one due to its recurrent appearance in literary texts and different
landscapes of academic researches on it.
In West, the motif of double has been inexorably connected to the fantastic
narratives practiced by many eminent writers such as E.T.A. Hoffmann and Edgar
Allan Poe.9 Widely thematic investigations on double have been undertook by
western scholars and yielded numerous insightful opinions, which contribute to our
better understanding of the double in western fantastic discourse.1 0 From many
examples of the double in western literature employed Otto Rank in his book,1 1 we
can tentatively recapitulate some qualities of western double as follows: the double is
often linked with mirror, reflection, portrait, and shadow. The double has the same
external resemblance as the self and becomes the antithesis of the self. In their
relationship the self is always chased by its double (or under the notion of being
chased) and such an endless pursuit greatly inspires horror which urges self to get rid
of its double. The real catastrophe is usually associated with a woman and finally
permanent removal of the double also ends the self. The relationship between self
9 Both Hoffmann and Poe dealt with the double in their works. For example, Hoffmann’s “A New
Year’s Eve Adventure” and Poe’s “William W ilson.” See The Best Tales o f Hoffmann, ed. E. F.
Bleiler, New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1967, pp. 104-129 and Edgar Allan Poe, The Complete
Stories, New York: Everman’s library, 1992, pp. 400-418.
1 0 For critical studies on double in the western literature, one may refer to Otto Rank, The Double: A
Psychoanalytical Study, trans. Harry Tucker, Jr, Chapel Hill, N.C.: University o f North Carolina Press,
1971; Ralph Tymms, Doubles in Literary Psychology, Cambridge: Bowes & Bow es, 1949 and Robert
Rogers, A Psychoanalytic Study o f the Double in Literature, Detroit: Wayne State University Press,
1970.
1 1 See Otto Rank, The Double: A Psychoanalytical Study, pp. 8-33.
4
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
and its double in western fantastic fiction can be best elucidated in the following
verses of Musset (“December Night”) : 1 2
Whenever you go, I shall be there always,
Up to the very last one of your days,
When I shall go to sit on your stones.
Though the primary concern of this paper is not to make a comparison between
Western and Chinese discourse on the double, in view of Western critical reflections
on the double in literature, it is astonishing to find that few academic efforts, not to
mention systematic scholarly treatment, have been devoted to this theme in its
Chinese parallel, especially considering the existence of the voluminous amount of
fantastic fictions containing the element of double in Chinese literary history. The
reasons for such a lack can be attributed to some factors. First of all, in Chinese
literary texts the theme of double is often entwined with other fascinating themes
such as love and ghost, and thus easily eclipsed by these themes. In fact, many
thematic investigations on dream, love and ghost are based on literary fantastic texts
which also reflect the phenomenon of double. For instance, “The World inside a
Pillow” a famous Tang tale, combines the theme of dream and the theme of
1 ^
double together.
1 2 Ibid, p6.1 quote the verses from Otto Rank’s book.
1 3 Such entwinement will become evident when we later investigate the double in some specific
literary texts including “The World inside a Pillow”. The annotation o f “The World inside a Pillow”
will be given later when we really examine it.
5
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Second, there is a strong tendency in early scholarship to firmly situate literary
texts in the historical frame. Even investigations on a certain theme often confine
themselves to one specific period. Such a tendency contributes to relating literary
texts to their specific historical periods and allows us to consider economic, political,
religious, and other cultural and social factors which play a vital role in shaping
literary texts. Thus thematic investigation, for example the double, undertaken in a
whole scale in defiance of certain historical backgrounds will be thought not only too
general to make a thorough examination of texts and yield convincing results, but
also unfeasible in that one has to engage oneself in all relevant fictions throughout
traditional Chinese literary history. Such a belief, however, to some degree prevents
us from contemplating fantastic fiction as a whole in Chinese literary history. One
should bear in mind that despite the influence of many outward factors, a literary text,
once it appears, has its own qualities independent of those factors.1 4 This fact would
be more evident especially when it, along with other similar texts, constitutes a
literary phenomenon which demonstrates a particular structure and literary qualities
inside these texts under the scrutiny according to a certain theme. Therefore besides
outward social and political implications, we should also pay more attention to the
1 4 When addressing the notion of genre, Robert Company also deals with two different approaches to
genre: “the classical approach to genres focuses on properties o f texts as finished products extractable
from the circumstances and conditions o f their production; the comparatively recent practical
approach focuses on the extra- and inter-textual assumptions that inform the writing and reading o f
texts in specific historical and cultural circumstances.” See Robert Company, Strange Writing:
Anomaly Accounts in Early M edieval China, p. 22. Here the classical approach is emphasized in order
to respond to the tendency mentioned above, but it doesn’t mean that we should ignore the specific
environment in which texts are created.
6
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
poetics of the double in Chinese fantastic fiction and consider “the effects of the text
and means of its operation.”1 5
Third, one common assumption underlying contemporary critical studies on
traditional Chinese literature is that Chinese literature has its own peculiarities which
differ from what has been theorized from Western literature. Given that double as a
theme in western fantastic literature has already been widely explored, it is
unnecessary to follow such a step and launch similar thematic investigation in
Chinese fantastic fiction since such a practice can be easily decried as uncritical
following at the expense of distinctive features of Chinese literature in that one
salient aspect of western fantastic fiction by no means guarantees its echoes in
Chinese discourse on the strange and the anomalous. Nevertheless, the length of
Chinese literary history has already witnessed the recurrent appearance of double in
fantastic fiction since Six Dynasties, though the representation of double starkly
contrasts with its western parallel. Furthermore, when we scrutinize the phenomenon
of double in these literary corpuses in Chinese history,1 6 it is more interesting to find
that their treatments on double share great similarities and constitute a system in
which a certain pattern can be followed.
1 5 When criticizing Todorov’s investigation on fantastic, Rosemary Jackson indicates that “in
common with much structuralist criticism, Todorov’s The Fantastic fails to consider the social and
political implications o f literary forms. Its attention is confined to the effects o f the text and the means
o f its operation.” See Rosemary Jackson, Fantasy: the Literature o f Subversion, London and New
York: Methuen, 1981, p.6. However, in view o f previous studies on relevant Chinese literary texts,
too much emphasis has been put on outward factors. Therefore here I suggest a temporary shift in
emphasis from politics o f fantastic to poetics o f fantastic.
1 6 Anthony C. Yu enumerates many famous collections and anthologies containing fantastic element
when he deals with ghosts in traditional Chinese literature. See Anthony C. Yu, ‘“ Rest, Rest,
Perturbed Spirit!’ Ghosts in Traditional Chinese Prose Fiction,” in Ffarvard Journal o f Asiatic Studies,
Vol. 47, No. 2 (Dec., 1987), pp. 397-434.
7
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Last but not the least, whereas in the western tradition the fantastic is often
characterized by a narrator-character (the first-person narrator), Chinese parallels
usually assume a third-party perspective to record facts or hearsay.1 7 A corollary that
follows this fact is the absence of “I” in the narrative of Chinese fantasies, which
contributes to eliminating the obtrusion of the author in appearance, but at the same
time tends to consign the issue of self including the relationship of the self and its
double to the periphery.1 8 But as we have already seen above, the double, a recurrent
theme closely associated with “I” in western fantastic literature, is also echoed
throughout its Chinese parallel, the fact that encourages us to examine the landscape
of the self and its double as a general issue in traditional Chinese fantastic fiction.1 9
Although it seems that thematic investigation of double in Chinese fantastic
fiction is a task worthy of academic attention, a voluminous amount of materials,
coupled with the complexity of the subject, conspire against any attempt of
systematic exploration. Fortunately, as Todorov wisely indicates in his research of
the fantastic, the logical coherence rather than the quantity of observations finally
matters and “let us leave exhaustiveness, then, to those who have no other
17
Todorov deals with the first-person narrative in western fantastic discourse. He believes that the
narrator-character most readily permits the reader to identify with the character and such identification
is suitable for the fantastic. See Todorov, The Fantastic: a Structural Approach to a Literary Genre,
pp.83-86.
1 8 While the testimony o f a character is susceptible to doubt, that o f the narrator is always reliable.
Once the boundary between character and narrator is traversed, it is easy for an author to intrude into
the story and make direct and authoritative telling, which, as Wayne C. Booth criticizes, leaves less
space for the reader. See Wayne C. Booth, The Rhetoric o f Fiction. Chicago& London: The
University o f Chicago Press, 1983, pp. 3-20. The absence o f “I” helps separate the narrator and the
character (though there is no absolute boundary), and thus avoid such a kind o f rhetoric in this sense.
1 9 The self here is mainly concerned with the self in terms o f a character, though as I have indicated in
western tradition the line between a narrator and a character is often blurred by using the first-person
narrative.
8
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
recourse.” Therefore this essay will only focus on the double reflected in some
representative fantastic fictions. On the other hand, those samples of fantastic
fictions range from Six Dynasties to late imperial dynasties in order to emphasize the
phenomenon of double as a general issue in the long tradition of Chinese fantastic
fiction and depict a more complete picture of the double. Through the analysis of the
double in representative literary texts, this essay attempts to categorize different
kinds of the double on the basis of their characteristics, unveil the undercurrents
behind the double, and explore the recurrent pattern in this constellation of double
and the interplay between the double and self in order to contribute to our better
understanding of this phenomenon and the scholarship in Chinese fantastic fiction.
As for the categories I am going to propose, Anthony C. Yu’s words can be
borrowed here as the best clarification in advance: “the classifications listed hereafter
are not meant to be hard and fast; they are, rather, working hypotheses, heuristic
21
typologies subject to further revision.”
2 0 See Todorov, The Fantastic: a Structural Approach to a Literary Genre, p.4.
2 1 Anthony C. Yu, ‘“Rest, Rest, Perturbed Spirit!’ Ghosts in Traditional Chinese Prose Fiction,” p.
403.
9
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Chapter 1: Psychological Double
The first category I propose is “psychological double”, in which the double
appears in dream, hallucination and other psychological states.2 2 In this category, the
self is usually doubled through the media I mention above (dream, hallucination,
etc.), and the negotiation between the original self (the character we know as one
lives outside these psychological states) and the double, or the second self (the
character we know as one lives inside these psychological states) is often represented
as a different but complementary picture.
Let us explain this category by examining some representative works in Chinese
fantastic fictions with an emphasis on the states of dream and hallucination.
Dream appears as one pivotal theme and has been exemplified by numerous
tales and anecdotes in traditional Chinese zhiguai fiction. For instance, Taiping
guanjijs/ ^ ( E x t e n s i v e Records of Taiping Reign Period), the famous imperial
anthology compiled in Song dynasty, devotes seven chapters exclusively to
2 2 When examining western fantastic works, Todorov differentiates two kinds o f the hesitation in the
fantastic: hesitation between the real and the illusory and hesitation between the real and the
imaginary. In the second group, “what we imagined we saw was only the fruit o f a deranged
imagination (dream, madness, the influence o f drugs)”, Todorov, The Fantastic: a Structural
Approach to a Literary Genre, p.45. For madness, there are also many examples in western fantastic
literature such as Hoffmann’s Princess Brambilla and Nerval’s Aurelia. However, to my limited
knowledge, few stories on madness can be found in the vast repertoire o f Chinese fantastic fiction.
Thus here I would like to focus on dream and hallucination, two main psychological states recurrent
in many traditional zhiguai tales and anecdotes.
10
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
dreams. However, as we have already mentioned, underscoring the dream theme to
some degree relegates the double theme, especially those strongly associated with
the dream (as a medium) to the periphery of academic attention.2 4 Here two
traditional short stories which have been adamantly embedded in the dream motif
will be picked up and reexamined in the light of double theme.
One of the most famous tales on dream adventure is “The World inside a
Pillow” composed by Shen Jij i (750-800).2 5 The main character is
called Scholar Lu lUwhose original self was depicted as one commoner who is
eager to get an official position and distinguish himself in the political field. One day
he wears short coat made of coarse cloth and goes to the farmland with a foal on the
road of Handan U'PfP. When he stops at an inn, he expresses his ambition to a Taoist
who thus gives him a pillow to help him fulfill such an ambition.
The pillow is made of blue porcelain, and there was an opening at each end.
The young man nodded his head and lay down on it; then he noticed that the
2 3 See Taiping guanji (hereafter TPGJ), chapter276-282, pp. 1378-1521, Tianjin: Tianjing guji
chubanshe, 1994. In these seven chapters, there are 170 stories which come from documents and
anthologies in Tang and earlier periods.
2 4 For a discussion on the theme o f dream in traditional Chinese literature, one can refer to Dell
Hales’s article, “Dreams and Daemonic in traditional Chinese Short Stories,” in Critical Essays on
Chinese Literature, ed. William Nienhauser Jr. Hong Kong: Chinese University o f Hong Kong, 1976,
pp. 71-88;
2 5 According to TPGJ, this tale is originally included in Yiwen j i A-HI A , a ten-volume anthology
compiled in Tang dynasty which is not available today. For more information on Yiwen ji, one can
refer to Wang Meng-ou 3 i§ ^ i§ , Tangren xiaoshuo yanjiu erji Jft (Studies on Tang
Fictions, Second Volume), pp. 1-35, Taipei: Yiwen yishuguan, 1973. TPGJ include this story with
another title Luweng H U - See TPGJ, chapter82, pp. 1077-1081. Here I use the version in Wang
Pijiang’s Tangren xiaoshuo ilf A A I ^ (HongKong: Zhonghua shuju, 1958), pp. 37-42. It is based on
Wenyuan yinghua A A A A (Blossoms from the Garden o f Literature).
11
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
apertures were becoming large and bright. He stood up, walked into the pillow,
and found himself getting back to his own home.2 6
Here on one hand a seemingly marvelous world is unfolded in front of the
reader’s eyes since the apertures of the pillow become large enough to permit
Scholar Lu to walk into the pillow and reach his home. On the other hand, the pillow
which is usually associated with sleep provides a strong implication of the dream,
77
which tends to pull the narrative down back to the earth. At the end we are firmly
convinced that what Scholar Lu meets subsequently actually happens in his dream
when we see that he wakes up at the end.
Through the dream, the double (the second self) of Scholar Lu is created and
functions as the desirable being of the original self. Scholar Lu (the double) gets
married with a daughter from a noble family, successfully passes the Civil Service
examination, secures a high official position and wealth, and establishes his glorious
reputation. Thus with the aid of the dream, the double gets out of the mire of
destitution and obscurity in which the original self is bogged down. In other words,
the function of the double lies in the fact that the double fulfills the ambition of the
original self.
However, as the story continues we see that the role of the double goes beyond
this level. In his dream, Scholar Lu’s success incurs the jealousy of his fellows who
slander and intrigue against him. When he is thrown to the prison, he told his wife:
2 6 Here I use William H. Nienhauser, Jr’s translation which is also based on Wertyuan yinghua. See
Traditional Chinese Stories: Themes and Variations, eds. Y.W. Ma and Joseph S. M. Lau, N ew York:
Columbia Unversity Press, 1978, pp. 435-436.
2 7 Such an ambiguous narrative contributes to the very fantastic effect as Todorov argues and I will
pick this point later.
12
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
“At my home in Shangtung I have about five hundred mou of fine land, enough
to protect us from hunger and cold. What affliction could have caused me to
seek an official’s salary? Now that things have come to this, I long to put on
that short coarse robe again and ride that black colt back down to the road to
9 8
Han-t’an, but it’s impossible.”
Here the picture of the original self emerges in the dream as a desirable being of
the second self. Although the double jumps out of the original self s predicament of
poverty and oblivion, it encounters a different and more dangerous threat—the loss
of all standing and reputation, from which the original self is exempted.
Fortunately, such a looming threat is precluded in the dream by the emperor’s
wisdom. Scholar Lu (the double) is again promoted to a distinguished position and
enjoys great wealth and honor until his death. When the double meets its death in the
dream, Scholar Lu wakes up and the original self occupies the central position at the
end of narrative. But this original self is different from the original self before the
dream since it is the one that undergoes the experience of double through the dream.
Before dream the original self shows sympathy for his poverty and obscurity:
A man is born to do great deeds and build a name for himself, to be a general in
the field and a minister at court, to eat from lavish dishes, listen to beautiful
sounds, to bring glory to his clan and prosperity to his family. Only after this
can one speak of happiness! I’ve ‘set my heart upon learning’ and have been
enriched by engaging in the arts. All these years I’ve considered that the blue
and purple official robes were mine for the taking. Now I’m already at my
prime and still I toil in the fields and ditches. If this is not distress, what is it?2 9
2 8 Ibid, p. 437. For Shangtung, it might be referred to the area east o f mount Yao or mount Hua. See
the annotation 28, Tang Songjingdian chuanqi eds. Bian Xiaocxuan and Zhou
Qun jUBL Shanghai: Shanghai shudian chubanshe, 1999, p. 17.
2 9 Ibid, p. 435. This is a Confucian statement which is in sharp contrast with the ending o f Taoist
overtone. When the dream is over, Scholar Lu becomes aware o f the illusory world and gets release
from the clammy grip o f Confucian values, which to some degree echoes Zhuangzi’s famous fable
“Butterfly Dream.”
13
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
After the dream, the original self has witnessed the vicissitude of the double’s
life and is able to appreciate and enjoy the stability of its own life:
Lu sat lost in thought for a long time, and then thanked the old man; “Of the
ways of favor and disgrace, the vagaries of distress and prosperity, the patterns
of accomplishment and failure, the emotions of life and death, I have
thoroughly been made aware. In this way, sir, you have checked my desires.
How could I dare fail to profit from this lesson?”
Through the double, not only does Scholar Lu fulfill his ambition in the dream
(we see that in the second self), he also manages to escape from the “sword of
A 1
Damocles” hanging above the head of the second self (we see that in the original
self). Although in dream the second self weathers through the precariousness of the
rank and power, it fails to surmount death, the predicament which can only be
overcome by stepping out of the dream and returning to the original self.
More interestingly, two worlds have been created in the narrative in this story:
the “primary world” for the self and its microcosm—the “secondary world” for the
IT
double. If we follow the essence of the fantastic defined by Todorov, the existence
3 0 Ibid, p. 438.
31
According to The Encyclopedia Americana, in Greek legend Damocles was one o f the courtiers
and flatterers o f Dionysius the Elder (c.430-367 B.C.), tyrant o f Syracuse, in the 5th and 4th centuries
B.C. The story o f the “sword o f Damocles,” related by both Cicero and Horace, has become the
classic illustration o f the uncertainty o f human greatness and happiness. As Damocles was extolling
the greatness o f Dionysius, the ruler invited him to a magnificent banquet. In the midst o f the
entertainment Damocles looked up and saw suspended above his own head by a single thread, a naked
sword. The sight made him realize that the power and wealth enjoyed by royalty are frequently
attained at the cost o f peace o f mind and are in constant peril o f loss by a whim o f fortune. See The
Encyclopedia Americana, Danbury: Grolier Incorporated, 1999, vol.8, p. 459.
3 2 When dealing with the appearance o f the Taoist and his subsequent meeting with Consort Yang in
“Eternal Sorrow” f T I K Y . W . Ma borrows terms from J.R.R. Tolkien and says: “The fantasy
brought about by this shift in plot allows the story writer to ‘subcreate’ a ‘secondary world’ with its
own set of governing laws different from that o f the ‘primary world,’ i.e., the human world.” See Y.W.
Ma, “Fact and Fantasy in T ’ang Tales,” Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews, V ol.2, N o.2.
(July, 1980), pp. 167-181. I also borrow such words here.
14
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
of two such worlds establishes the possibility for the reader’s hesitation as we briefly
mentioned before. At the beginning it engenders the reader’s hesitation on the
authenticity of what is happening through a certain kind of ambiguity. The
ambiguity results from the dream, or more exactly, from the fact that the reader is
given some hint but not enough evidence of the happening as a dream. The reader is
going to choose one explanation either marvelous (Scholar Lu jumps into the holes
of the pillow and fulfills his ambition, and there is only an original self and the
secondary world is supernatural) or uncanny (Scholar Lu sleeps on the pillow and
happens to live a life he wants in the dream, and there exists a secondary self as the
double and appearance of the secondary world conforms to governing laws of the
primary world). At this time, no clear and definite boundary between two worlds
(also two selves) is delimited, which helps maintain the reader’s hesitation. Not until
the denouement of story can the reader clearly know what has happened is nothing
but a dream and the story moves from the fantastic to the uncanny.3 4 The magic
pillow (or dream) contributes to the effacement of the limit between the two worlds
and the demarcation between self and the double. Two worlds are interwoven
3 3 Todorov believes that the implicit reader’s own ambiguous perception o f the events is essential to
the fantastic. See Todorov, The Fantastic: a Structural Approach to a Literary Genre, pp. 27-33. But
as Judith T. Zeitlin indicates, “we cannot assume that the same “laws” o f commonsense realities are
always operant in other cultures or during other historical periods.” Thus to some extent such
ambiguity o f the implicit reader’s perception also becomes ambiguous. See Judith T. Zeitlin,
Historian o f the Strange: Pu Songling and the Chinese Classical Tales, Stanford: Stanford University
Press, 1993, p7.
3 4 Todorov believes that there exist subgenres between the fantastic and the uncanny and between the
fantastic and the marvelous. These subgenres include the works that “sustain the hesitation
characteristic o f the true fantastic for a long period, but ultimately end in the marvelous or in the
uncanny.” See Todorov, The Fantastic: a Structural Approach to a Literary Genre, p.44
15
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
together through the dream and allow the transformation of time in which a moment
in the primary world constitutes almost a whole life in the secondary world while a
whole life in the secondary world becomes nothing but a fleeting moment in the
i f
primary world in the end. Besides the time device, the narrative also employs many
other facts to establish the link between self and the double and sustain the fantastic
effect. For example, when Scholar Lu walks into the secondary world inside the
pillow, he first reaches his home. We should bear in our mind the fact that at the
beginning of the story Scholar Lu is on his way to the fields. Hence the home, both
as the real one in the primary world as the first station in his adventure in the
secondary world, not only prevents him from toiling in the fields— a task which he
is supposed to assume in the primary world, but also serves as a smooth and
imperceptible transition from the primary world (self) to the secondary world
(double) by blurring their boundary, thereby successfully sustaining the reader’s
doubts.
From above we see the double created through the dream, the interplay between
two selves in two worlds and the final evaporation of the double. In the story of
“Nanke taishou zhuan” (An Account of the Governor of the Southern
3 5 Y.W .Ma believes that “the very timelessness with which the happenings o f the dream world fit into
the order o f the primary world reflects how neatly the two worlds conform to each other and how
effortless it can be to cross from one world to the other.” Time device also contributes to the factual
quality o f the dream world and he even calculates Scholar Lu spent some fifty years in his dream on
the basis o f the orderly event presentation o f events (in the secondary world) in this story. See
Y.W.Ma, “Fact and Fantasy in T ’ang Tales,” p l72. The fact that the boundary o f the two worlds is
traversed can also be used to heighten the interaction o f self and the double.
16
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
- 2 /:
Bough), we can easily find a similar formula. When the hero gets heavily drunk
and lies down his head on the pillow, the double appears in the dream and embraces
his political career full of splendor in the secondary world. Then the double is
intrigued by others and suspected by the king who divests the double of his power
and imprisons him. At the end, the double is forced to leave the secondary world and
07
return to the primary world (the evaporation of double).
For this story, two points should be noted here. First of all, even in the
secondary world, the influence of the primary world still exists and to some extent
manipulates the relationship between self and the double. On one hand, in the
secondary world the double meets two of the self s friends in the primary world who
contribute to obliterating the limit between the two worlds and that between self and
the double; on the other hand, the king tells him that he originally comes from the
human world, which underlines the distinction between two worlds as well as
reminds the double of his original identity. All of these aspects sustain the reader’s
hesitation on the double’s identity, an uncertainty which culminates when the double
goes back home and sees the self lying on the bed. When the two envoys call out his
name several times, the self wakes up and the double disappears.
3 6 The story o f “Nanke taishou zhuan” is included in TPGJ under the title o f “Chunyu Fen”}$J/A>-
See TPGJ, chapter 475, pp. 1337-1350. Here I use the story in Wang Pijiang’s book, see Tangren
xiaoshuo, pp. 85-92.
3 7 William H. Nienhauser also explores allusions and literary quotations in this story , see “Nanke
taishou zhuan de yuyan,yongdian,he waiyan y iy F j^ M W ^ fil& tllp lf ' ' fP ffiS E iS II, in
Zhuanji yu xiaoshuo: Tangdaiwenxue bijiao : Taipei: Nantian
shuju, 1995.
17
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Second, at the end of the story two worlds have been juxtaposed, with the
secondary world unveiled as nothing but an ant colony under a pagoda tree in the
TO
primary world. The transgression between two worlds, as what happens to Scholar
Lu in “The World inside a Pillow,” not only gratifies the self s desire for a good
marriage and political career (also news from his father), but also prevents the
double from continually falling into disgrace.
Beside the dream, hallucination is another favorable means of the psychological
double in traditional Chinese fantastic literature. Although many factors may
contribute to hallucination in fantastic narrative, considering the limited space of this
paper, I tend to focus on the influence of drugs and explore the double in the
hallucination it engenders.
Let us turn to another Chinese fantastic tale “The Wizard’s Lesson”
which permits us to analyze the complexity of the self and the double under this
situation. In this story, the hero is described as a prodigal who devotes himself to
drinking and dissipation. After he squanders all his money and fails to obtain help
from his relatives, the Taoist wizard appears and rescues him from destitution by
giving him a large amount of money. However, he squanders all the money in one or
two years. Again he is extricated from the impoverishment by the Taoist wizard who
3 8 This fact, coupled with the comments by Li Zhao at the end o f the story, also contains the
strong Taoist implication. It can be regarded as a variant o f the fable concerning warfare on a snail’s
antennas from the section o f “Zeyang” MWa H Zhuangzi. See Zhuangzi guyi, p. 368.
3 9 For this story, here I use the translation from Chinese Fairy Tales and Fantasies, translated and
edited by Moss Roberts, N ew York: Pantheon Books, 1979, pp32-38. The title is also changed from
Chinese “Du Zichun” into “The Wizard’s Lesson.” And the hero’s name is spelled as “Tu Tzu-ch’un.”
One may also refer to another translation by James R. Hightower, see Traditional Chinese Stories:
Themes and Variations, pp. 416-419.
18
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
gives him more money this time. When the third time he lapses into poverty and the
Taoist wizard comes to help him with an even larger amount of money, he expresses
his gratitude and promises to seek out the Taoist wizard and perform any service for
him. Later when they meet, the Taoist wizard gives him three white pellets, seats him
near the wall, and warns him not to speak. After the hero takes the medicine, the
second self appears in the hallucination and encounters a series of supernatural
events in which he is forced to identify himself through words (the original self as
we know from the denouement of the story is still sitting where he has been). He
makes no response in front of physical tortures, threatening wild beasts, and even the
loss of his wife and his own life. The refusal to identify himself in the hallucination
can be interpreted as the endeavor of the second self to keep itself independent of the
original one and thus maintain the double. All the sufferings the second self has
experienced are nightmares (for example, fear of death) haunting the original self,
which tend to remind him of his original identity and devastate the double. The death
is again employed to strangle the second self. But unlike the second self of Scholar
Lu who fails to surmount death, the double of Tu Tzu-ch'un overcomes death in the
hallucination and obtains his rebirth as a woman. Here we see the multi
transformation of the double from a human body to a soul and from a man to a
woman. Whatever forms it takes, the double can maintain its existence as long as it
abstains from speaking, a means of communication which is reminiscent of the
original one.
19
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Unfortunately, however, the flood of love finally bursts the bank of self
abstinence when “her” husband smashes their baby’s head against a rock in front of
her.4 0 At this time,
Tzu-ch'un felt a sharp pang of love surge in her heart. Her vow of silence
slipped from her mind, and a cry of anguish slipped from her lips. And even as
the brief cry was escaping her, Tzu-ch'un was sitting where he had been once
before. The wizard stood before him.4 1
Now we see that the hallucination engendered by the medicine is dismissed,
along with which are the second self and the phenomenon of the double. As the
wizard tells him,
“Your mind had rid itself of joy, anger, sorrow, fear, loathing and desire—all
forgotten. Only love remained. Had you not cried out just then, my medicine
would have worked and you would have risen beyond your human state to
become an immortal. ”4 2
In this case, it is love that asphyxiates the second self and thus sabotages the
double. Although previously the hero (the original self) has discarded the attachment
to money, relatives, and friends, he fails to extinguish totally the desire to love,
another insidious attachment in the primary world against the double in the
secondary world. When he witnesses the unbearable tragedy in front of which he (the
double) is helpless in the secondary world, he has to resort to the original self in the
primary world to take shelter from it.
4 0 There is also a very similar story “Xiao Dongxuan iSt/|51]ir’in TPGJ. However, the double in this
story is reborn as a man and it is his wife who smashes their baby’s head against the stone. See TJGJ,
chapter 44, pp. 576-580. According to TPGJ, it is adopted from Hedong j i ynJjfifT-
4 1 Chinese Fairy Tales and Fantasies, p38.
4 2 Ibid, p38.
20
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
From this story, we see another picture of the psychological double: through the
existence of the double, the original self approaches immortality, or at least fulfills
the dream of existence of the soul after the body dies; through the existence of the
original self, all the sufferings and tragedies which the second self has experienced
are embedded on the imaginary level. The story of the double here can also be
regarded as a voyage of rediscovering the self in a natural world through the self in a
marvelous world. Before he takes the medicine, the original self is depicted as one
who seems to have already extinguished all attachments in the human world.
Tzu-ch'un thought, “When I fell into evil ways and spent everything I had,
relatives and friends took no notice of me at all.”4 3
Furthermore, before he goes to see the Taoist wizard, he put his affairs in order
with the money the Taoist wizard gives to him on the third time, thereby cutting off
all attachment with the primary world. While in a Taoist’s eyes having no attachment
is a preferable prerequisite for achieving immortality, it is no doubt a predicament
for the original self in an ordinary world. Even after he takes the medicine, the
double, before its reincarnation into a woman, still remains nonchalant towards his
wife’s death. Nevertheless, such an emotionless voyage is terminated by a woman,
through whose emotional vulnerability the original self is illuminated by the sparkle
of love. Thus with the aid of the double the original self is extricated from the
previous predicament of having no love.
Ibid, p33.
21
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
From the above, we can tentatively summarize some salient aspects of the
“psychological double”: with the aid of psychological states such as dream and
hallucination, self in the primary world often unconsciously slides into the secondary
world where the double occupies the important position. In the narrative, the
beginning of traversing the boundary between two worlds is often obscured when
specific media such as the pillow (linked with dream) and medicine (linked with
hallucination) take effect. Though some hints have already been given to suggest that
subsequent events may only be limited to the secondary world (here psychological
states), not until the end of the story can the hero (also the implicit reader) be fully
convinced of such a fact by means of external confirmations. In “the World inside a
Pillow,” after Scholar Lu expresses his ambition to the Taoist, he begins to feel
sleepy, lies down on the pillow and enters the secondary world.4 4 Chunyu Fen slides
into the secondary world after he gets heavily drunk:
He took off the scarf and lay down his head on the pillow, feeling drowsy as if
he was dreaming. 4 5
In both stories, we can see the strong implication of dream from the pillow and
other relevant signs, all of which presage the coming arrival of the secondary world.
However, as what has been discussed before, without enough evidence from the
deliberate vagueness of the narrative, we can’t firmly believe that Scholar Lu is
going to experience a dream. In the case of Chunyu Fen, the phrase fangfu ruomeng
4 4 See the footnote 23.
45The original text is: “^kj§prft|[££fc ’ See Wang Pijing, Tanren xiaoshuo, p.
85.
22
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
{Jj “as if he was dreaming” seems to confirm the appearance of the dream on
one hand and keeps distance from such a confirmation on the other hand.4 6
For the story of “The Wizard’s Lesson,” before he enters into the secondary
world, the Taoist warns him that what he will encounter is nothing but the illusory.
“Take care not to speak,” the wizard cautioned. “Be it revered spirit, vicious
ghost, demon of the hell, wild beast, hell itself, or even your own closet
relatives bound and tormented in a thousand ways—nothing you see is truly
real.”4 7
However, in the subsequent narrative all the things above appear as if they are
real, if we don’t know the ending of the story in advance. Furthermore there are not
so many signs adumbrating his entry to the secondary world as we can find those in
the first two stories. Such a transition can hardly be detected since the narrative
employs a kind of montage to obliterate the limit between two worlds and two selves
(self and the double).
Tzu-ch’un looked around in the hall. There was only a large earthen jar filled to
the brim with water, and nothing else. No sooner had the Taoist departed than
the slopes of the hillside were covered with armed men carrying flags and
banners, a thousand chariots and ten thousand horsemen.4 9
There are two pictures: one is the hero’s action and what he saw in the primary world
and then the other is the hero’s entry to the secondary world. The narrative directly
4 6 Todorov would regard this as modaliztion which he believes is an important stylistic device to
produce ambiguity. See Todorov, The Fantastic: a Structural Approach to a Literary Genre, p.38.
4 7 See Chinese Fairy Tales and Fantasies, p. 33.
4 8 Todorov also emphasizes that the first time reading is very important for the fantastic and the reader
will distort the whole function of a fantastic narrative if he knows the end before he finishes it. See
The Fantastic: a Structural Approach to a Literary Genre, pp. 89-90.
4 9 Here I use James R. Hightower’s translation since it reflects the montage created by the original text
more exactly than Moss Robert’s translation. See Traditional Chinese Stories: Themes and Variations,
p. 418.
23
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
jumps from the primary world to the secondary world, bypassing the distinction
between them and leaving the ambiguity in the narrative until the very end.
In those three stories, it is this kind of ambiguity in the narrative that sustains
our hesitation and instills the element of the fantastic. Only at the end can the hero
(also the implicit reader) distinguish two different worlds (and two selves) through
certain external corroborations, which are often presented in the narrative before the
self s journey to the double in the secondary world. For Scholar Lu, the millet which
the innkeeper is steaming before he falls into sleep is not ready when he wakes up;
for Chunyu Fen, two of his friends who begin to wash their feet before his dream
appears are still washing their feet when he comes back to the primary world; in the
story of Du Zichun, he is still sitting at the same place at the end.
All the heroes in our stories fail to recognize the double before they resort to
those external corroborations when the double evaporates. Once they make a
distinction between the self and the double, the fantastic is terminated and the
narrative moves to the “uncanny”, if we follow Todorov’s schema. From these three
examples, I hope that we can depict the phenomenon of “psychological double” in an
effective way. In addition, it should be pointed out that certain motivations usually
exist behind such a transgression between two worlds and engender the double. Here
I would like to skip this point and will pick it up later in the part of the conclusion
when I propose the schema of the double in Chinese fantastic fictions.
24
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Chapter 2: Physical Double
Having examined “psychological double”, I want to deal with the second
category of the double: the “physical double”, in which the self is doubled in the real
world not in terms of the psychological level but of the physical level. In Chinese
fantastic narratives the physical double is frequently associated with the release of
“hun”e !| (soul) from the physical body.5 0 Although the soul itself is non-physical, it
often takes a physical form after leaving the body and thus constitutes the physical
double in this situation.
If we follow the Todorovian genre-mode schema, we will find that in the first
category the genres are often fantastic-uncanny (the double is given rational
explanations and the fantastic is ultimately excluded), but in the second category the
genres usually belong to fantastic-marvelous and the double exists on the basis of the
acceptance of the supernatural. In the first category of the double, the boundary
between the material and the psychological is traversed, and in the second category
of the double the boundary between the normal and the strange is also crossed.
5 0 For more discussion on hun, one can refer to the following articles: Yu Yingshi f t , ‘“ O Soul,
Come Back!’ A Study in The Changing Conceptions o f The Soul and Afterlife in Pre-Buddhist
China,” H arvard Journal o f Asiatic Studies, Vol. 47, No. 2 (Dec., 1987), pp. 363-395; D. Howard
Smith, “Chinese Concepts o f the Soul,” Numen, Vol. 5, No. 3 (Sep., 1958), pp. 165-179; Stevan
Harrell, “The Concept o f Soul in Chinese Folk Religion,” The Journal o f Asian Studies, Vol. 38, No.
3 (May, 1979), pp. 519-528.
25
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Here the tale “The Story of Leaving Soul” will furnish a good example
to illuminate the double in this category.5 1 The girl named Qian Niang and her cousin
S ')
Wang Zhou love each other and they often picture each other in their dreams.
Unfortunately, however, Qian Niang’s father Zhang Yi decides to marry her with
one eligible member of his staff rather than Wang Zhou. When Wang Zhou boards a
boat with a wounded heart and goes several miles into the surrounding hills,
something unexpected happens:
That night he was lying awake when suddenly he heard the sound of footsteps
along the shore. In moments the pattering reached the boat, and Wang Chou
discovered that it was Ch’ien Niang, who had been running barefoot.
Wang Chou nearly went mad with delight and amazement. Gripping her hands,
he asked where she had come from. She said tearfully, “Your depth of feeling
moved us both in our dreams. Now they want to deprive me of my free will. I
know your love will never change, and I would give up my life to repay you, so
I ran away.”5 3
Here a few points under suspicion have arisen from the openness (vagueness) of
the narrative for the careful reader. First of all, how does Qian Niang run away from
her home and why is she running barefoot? In the second place, how can she know
Wang Zhou’s whereabouts and find his boat even in the mid-night? Thirdly, her
running speed is unusually fast especially considering she is barefoot. Despite the
5 1 Here I use the version in Wang Pijiang’s book and it is based on the story o f “Wang Zou” zE'tfci in
chapter 358 in TPGJ. See Wang Pijiang, Tangren xiaoshuo, pp. 49-51. For English translation, please
see Chinese Fairy Tales and Fantasies, pl52-154. To make it more relevant here, I use literal
translation o f the title instead o f “The Divided Daughter” in Chinese Fairy Tales and Fantasies. One
can also refer to other similar stories such as “Pang A”/ i T fiP»f“and W ei Yin”4 i |S in TJGJ. See TJGJ,
chapter 358, pp. 873-874 and p. 882.
5 2 Except for the Wade system used by the quotations, Chinese phonetic system (pin-yin) will be
consistently used in this article. So I use “Qian Niang” here and “Ch’ien Niang” will also appear in
the quotation from the translation. Thus the quotations will be faithful to original sources, though I
should apologize for confusion and inconvenience caused by this.
5 3 Ibid, pp. 152-153.
26
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
existence of these doubts, the narrative, in general, conforms to the laws of the
primary world and the fantastic hasn’t emerged.
Then the narrative seems to try to dismiss such doubts resulting from the
deliberate vagueness by moving forward logically according to the law in the
primary world. Qian Niang lives with Wang Zhou for several years and has two
children. Meanwhile, due to the fact that their marriage is socially inappropriate, they
don’t communicate with Zhang Yi, though Qian Niang is always thinking of her
parents. In the fifth year, Qian Niang tells Wang Zhou that she misses her parents
very much and they decide to go back home to see her parents.
Until now, there is still nothing strange and for the implicit reader the double
hasn’t yet approved. Nevertheless the ensuing narrative creates certain suspense and
estranges the implicit reader from the certainty established by preceding narrative.
When they [Ch’ien Niang and Wang Chou] arrived, Wang Chou went alone
first to the house of Chang Yi to confess the whole affair. But Chang Yi said,
“What kind of crazy talk is this? My daughter has been lying ill in her room for
many years.” “But she’s in my boat right now,” said Wang Chou. Amazed,
Chang Yi sent someone to see if it were true. Indeed Ch’ien Niang was there,
with joy on her face and spirit in her expression.5 4
The double of Qian Niang is finally unfolded in front of the reader through
different descriptions by her husband and her father. Having known the existence of
the double, we can go back to the beginning of this story and reexamine the
“incubator” which spawns the double in this case and the relationship between the
self and the double.
5 4 Ibid, p i 53. The words in the bracket are added by me.
27
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Obviously, it is the love and inaccessibility to her lover that urges the original
self of Qian Niang to produce its double and break through the seemingly
insurmountable barrier set by her father. The soul leaves the body of the original self
and takes the same physical form to fulfill the wish of the original self. But this kind
of double can’t be justified by a rational explanation such as dream and hallucination
as we have seen in the first category. Rather it is accomplished by an unexplainable
supernatural power. Such power outmaneuvers the normal perception of implicit
reader and blurs the boundary between the strange and the normal. Furthermore, the
secondary world here has been subtly sub-created and synchronizes with the primary
world. In the narrative the double of Qian Niang who belongs to the secondary world
(here the marvelous world) lives with Wang Zhou in the primary world, and the law
of the primary world operates very well until the very end. Thus when we first
witness the debut of the second self (the one who runs to join Wang Zhou), we are
not too surprised and easily confuse it with the original self. In this sense, the
implicit reader is also reduced to an accomplice of the second self (the double) and
contributes to the fulfillment of the original self s wish.
The relationship between self and the double is more interesting if we contrast
the original self and the second self. While the second self lives a joyful and
vigorous life, the original one lies ill. On this level, they constitute opposite aspects
between which a kind of vitality seems to be distributed and one grows strong at the
cost of the other. However, unlike the “psychological double” which only validates
one self in a certain state (either the original one in a real state or the second one in a
28
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
psychological state), self and the double in “physical double” are paradoxically
confirmed to generate the sense of strange. Such paradoxical affirmation in this case
resorts to different beholders who are separated in a certain period as external
corroborations.5 5 Furthermore, the paradox of self and the double is substantiated
through the meeting or union of the two selves at the end of the story.
When the sick girl [the original self] in the chamber heard the news, she rose
and joyfully put on her jewelry.. .went out to welcome the woman [the second
self or the double] from the boat. As they met their two bodies stepped into each
other and became one, fitting together perfectly. Yet there was a double suit of
clothes on the single body.5 6
Here we see the strangest scene in which the original self and the double meet
together and merge into one. As we know Qian Niang (the double) first leaves from
her home and later is eager to go back home, the home in the story can be
intrinsically associated with the body of the original self, from which the soul (the
second self) leaves and is bound to come back. Moreover, the soul always takes a
physical form which is not too different from the original one, and at last what may
convince us of the occurrence of the double is also an external corroboration— a
double suit. Again we witness the disappearance of the double and the final union
seems to rescue both selves from its dilemma: either the lack of love or the lack of
home. Not only can the soul take the physical form of a human being and erase the
difference in appearance between the original self and the second self, it can also
acquire the physical form of an animal and invent another kind of physical double.
5 5 This is very similar to the examples cited in the “psychological double,” from which we can also
see the tendency o f validating one self through external corroboration.
5 6 Ibid, p i53. The words in the bracket are added by me.
29
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
cn
In the story “Cricket” composed by Pu Songling (1640-1715), the son plunges
to the well in panic since a cricket collected by his father as a tribute to the court is
killed by his careless action. After that, the double appears. On one hand, the son (the
original self) lies in bed losing vital spirits; on the other hand, he turns as a cricket
which is good at combat and helps his father gain wealth and reputation. This kind of
double may be traced to the motivation of redemption: the son becomes a cricket to
compensate for his mistake.
Another story “Miss A-pao j|f ” 5 8 by Pu Songling also shares some
similarities with “the Cricket.” When the man Sun Zichu first meets Miss A-bao, he
becomes obsessed with her beauty and at that moment his soul leaves his body to
accompany her home, leaving his body in a state of unconsciousness at his own
home. However, his soul is later summoned back to his own home and Sun Zichun
recovers from the unconsciousness, only to find that he is separated from his lover.
Then due to his obsession with A-bao, Sun Zichu still yearns to get close to Miss A-
bao.
One day he heard that she intended to worship at the Shui-yueh temple on the
8th of the fourth moon, that day being the Wash-Buddha festival; and he set off
early in the morning to wait for her at the roadside. He was nearly blinded with
straining his eyes, and the sun was already past noontide before the young lady
arrived; but when she saw from her carriage a gentleman standing there, she
drew aside the screen and had a good stare at him. Sun followed her in a great
state of excitement, upon which she bade one of her maids to go and ask his
name. Sun told her who he was, his perturbation all the time increasing; and
5 7 See Zhang Youhe Liaozhai zhiyi xuan, Hongkong: Zhonghua shuju, 1958, pp. 240-245.
For English translation, see Chinese Fairy Tales and Fantasies, pp. 4-8.
5 8 See Liaozhai zhiyi xuan, pp. 112-115. Here I use Herbert A. G iles’s translation. See Herbert A.
Giles, Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio, Shanghai: Kelly& Walsh, Limited, 1926, pp. 115-121.
30
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
when the carriage drove on he returned home. Again he became very ill, and lay
on his bed unconscious without taking any food, occasionally calling A-pao by
name, at the same time abusing his spirit for not having been able to follow her
as before. Just at this juncture a parrot that had been long with the family died;
and a child, playing with the body, laid it upon the bed. Sun then reflected that
if he was only a parrot one flap of his wings would bring him into the presence
of A-pao; and while occupied with these thoughts, he turns into a parrot and
flew away to A-pao’s chamber.5 9
Here we see that Sun Zichu’s soul takes the form of a parrot and fulfills his
desire to meet his lover. While it is difficult for Sun Zichu himself to go to A-bao’s
chamber in real life, the parrot can easily surmount the barrier. For three days the
parrot (the second self in this physical double) has accompanied the girl at her home,
and at the same time the body of Sun Zichu (the original self) has become stiff at his
house except for a little bit of warmth in his heart. The girl is moved when she
knows that the parrot is actually Sun Zichu and promises to marry him if he returns
to human form.
“Alas!’ said she, “your love has engraved itself upon my heart; but now you are
no longer a man, how shall we ever be united together?”6 0
Again the double, though helping the original self to surmount a certain barrier
to partly fulfill his wish, encounters its own predicament and fails to move forward
unless it resorts to the original self. Once the parrot goes back to Sun Zichu’s home
and dies, the vitality of Sun Zichu is restored and the double is terminated. Just as
what we have analyzed in “The Story of Leaving Soul,” an unfulfilled wish for love
takes responsibility for the phenomenon of double in this case.
5 9 See Herbert A. Giles, Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio, pp. 118-119. According to original
Chinese text, I slightly modify his translation o f the last sentence in this paragraph. For Chinese text,
please refer to Zhang Youhe, Liaozhai zhiyi xuan, p. 113.
6 0 Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio, p. 119.
31
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Having examined the two primary kinds of physical double, we can make a
brief synopsis of its qualities: in the category of “physical double,” the double (the
second self) can assume either the same shape as the original self or an animal’s
shape.6 1 Whatever the shape it takes, it seems there is a kind of vitality unifying the
self and the double. The vitality usually shifts from the original self to the second
self along with the occurrence of the double, and finally moves back with the
S')
evaporation of the double. The appearance of the second self or the double is
driven by a certain motivation and it helps fulfill the original self s wish. Although in
the psychological double, the second self also accomplishes the original self s wish,
both the second self and such an accomplishment usually remain on the
psychological level (for example, in the “the World inside a Pillow” the activities of
the double are confined to the area of dream). Within the physical double, both the
second self (the double) and its fulfillment of the original self s wish really happen,
and two selves are paradoxically confirmed at the same time. A marvelous world is
sub-created in the narrative to offer the solution and makes a shift from the fantastic
to marvelous. In contrast with the second self who has its beginning (it is often
linked with the start of the double) and ending (it is often associated with the finale
6 1 The metamorphosis here is different from that in the fourth category o f double— “figurative double”
in which, as Todorov says, “the fantastic realizes the literal sense o f figurative expression.” See
Todorov, The Fantastic: a Structural Approach to a Literary Genre, p. 83.
6 2 At the beginning o f the physical double, the second self often seems to have more power than the
original one. This characteristic is also echoed through western parallel. For example, in Edgar Allan
Poe’s “William W ilson”, we can also see the physical double, in which the second self (non-narrator)
always causes the fear o f the original self (the narrator). See Edgar Allan Poe, the Complete Stories,
N ew York: Everman’s library, 1992, pp. 400-418. The relationship between two selves is more
conflicting than complementary, which is different from its counterpart in Chinese fantastic tales. But
due to spatial concern, here I will let such interesting comparison slip by and only focus on Chinese
tales.
32
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
of the double), the original self, weak as it might be, never dies since it serve as an
essential vehicle to produce, maintain and finally terminate the physical double.
33
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Chapter 3: Afterlife Double
From the “physical double,” one interesting phenomenon has been indicated:
weak as it might be, the original self always remains alive when the double is
performing its function. Nevertheless, even when the original self dies, the double
can still appear. But it goes beyond the physical double as we have defined and leads
us to the third category of double in traditional Chinese fantastic fictions: the
“afterlife double.”
Contrary to the physical double, one prerequisite of afterlife double is the death
of the original self and the existence of the soul. This kind of double is a recurrent
theme treated by many ghost stories in Chinese fantastic fictions and helps bridge the
great divide (the boundary between the dead and the living).
The analysis of “The Tale of the Peony Lantern” will shed some light on this
kind of double.6 4 One evening at midnight, a newly widower Qiao meets a lady Fu
being led by her maid with a double-headed peony lantern. He is captivated by her
beauty and indulges himself in the voluptuous lady for a good fort-night until his old
6 3 Interestingly, the ghosts in many cases are female and thus the double is often associated with
women. This probably has something to do with the fact that both women and ghosts belong to the
inferior in ancient China. A further exploration would be interesting but may go beyond the topic o f
this paper. In the Classic Chinese Tales o f the Supernatural and the Fantastic, Karl S.Y.Kao
designates two kinds o f ghosts in the Chinese traditions: one is the apparitions o f the dead and the
other is supernatural beings existing in animistic world. Here I will only deal with the first kind of
ghost For a more complete typology o f the kuai '[5, see Classic Chinese Tales o f the Supernatural
and the Fantastic, pp. 4-21.
6 4 See Qu You (1341-1427), Jiandeng xinhua [New Tales o f the Trimmed Lamp],
Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 1981, pp. 49-54. For English translation, see Wolfgang Bauer,
The Golden Casket: Chinese Novellas o f Two Millennia, New York, Harcourt, Brace & World, 1964,
pp. 234-240.
34
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
neighbor tells him that he has spent every night with a powdered and bejeweled
skeleton.6 5 Then Qiao goes to the west of the lake where the lady Fu is expected to
live as she has told him, only to find the coffin of the lady Fu, which demonstrates
that the lady Fu had already been dead for many years and the lady with whom he
has spent many nights is none but a ghost.
Here some points should be highlighted. First of all, the second self or the
double makes her debut earlier than the original self in the narrative and appears as a
complete human form as the original self.
When the young man caught sight of her well-proportioned features and her
tender youth, she seemed to him the fairest of the land, and his soul was
overcome by restlessness. He soon lost his self-control and followed her, now
overtaking her, now remaining behind her. He had scarcely gone a dozen paces
before the girl suddenly turned around, smiled gently to him, and said: “I hadn’t
expected that it would come to a rendezvous, but it is certainly no coincidence
that we meet us by moonlight.” Then the young man rapidly approached her,
bowed, and said: “My humble lodgings are only a few steps from here. Could
you, fair lady, bring yourself to do me the honor...?
The girl offered no objection but called out to her maid: “Gold Lotus, take the
lantern and come with us!”6 6
To his question as to what her name was and where she dwelt the girl replied: “I
am called Fu Shu-fang and have the additional name of Li-ch’ing. I am the
daughter of the one-time District Judge of Feng Hua. When my father died,
things went from bad to worse with our family. I have no brothers and scarcely
any relatives or acquaintances so that I now live quite alone with Gold Lotus to
the west of the lake.”6 7
As we see from above, both Qiao’s behavior and lady Fu’s response seem to be a
little bit unusual since they sharply contradict traditional Confucian values. For the
6 5 Though it is a ghost story, we can also see the influence o f Buddhism from the change o f images o f
the lady Fu. The beauty with which Ch’iao is obsessed is nothing but a skeleton.
6 6 Wolfgang Bauer, The Golden Casket: Chinese Novellas o f Two Millennia, pp. 234-235.
6 7 Ibid, p. 235.
35
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
lady Fu, she (the double as we know later) still uses the identity of the original self
(including the form of the original self) to make possible the human-ghost union.
Interestingly, Qiao doesn’t ask her identity here since he doesn’t doubt her identity at
that time and as a newly widower his major concern is to get close to lady Fu and
dispel his boredom. Although lady Fu (the double) depicts her own current situation
as if she is still alive, she resorts to the original self s identity to strengthen the
credibility of her words and facilitate the union with Qiao. Such behavior traverses
the boundary and blurs the ultimate difference between ghosts and human beings,
which dupes Qiao and the implicit reader at the beginning.
Nevertheless, there are still some hints of such transgression in the story, which
facilitates a hesitation on the identity of the second self and produce the effect of the
fantastic. This also conforms to Penzoldt’s theory of the plot in fantastic narrative:
The structure of the ideal ghost story may be represented as a rising line which
leads to the culminating point... which is obviously the appearance of the ghost.
Most authors try to achieve a certain gradation in their ascent to this
culmination, first speaking vaguely, then more and more directly.6 8
For example, the first time when Qiao meets the second self (the double) of the
lady Fu is depicted as the fifteenth day at the time of the third night watch, the time
which is believed by ancient Chinese to be intrinsically associated with the Yin
principle and becomes the favorable climate for the activities of ghosts. Later, the
lady Fu always comes back to see Qiao in the night and takes her leave when the
dawn approaches. This also engenders some suspicion against her true identity since
681 quote this passage from Todorov’s book. See Todorov, The Fantastic: a Structural Approach to a
Literary Genre, pp. 86-87.
36
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
ghosts belonging to Yin principle are afraid to encounter the day which is associated
with Yang 1 % principle. There is a great divide between human beings and ghosts in
that the former belongs to the fullness of the light (Yang) while the latter belongs to
the darkness (Yin). The double of the lady Fu takes advantage of Yin (night) and the
disguise of the complete human form to secure the possibility of the human-ghost
union beyond the great divide.6 9
Secondly, such a union is fragile and often begins to be split by the intrusion of
a beholder who initiates the unveiling of the second self s identity. The culminating
point of this story is reached when the true identity of the second self is disclosed
through the eyes of Qiao’s old neighbor to the implicit reader.
So things went on for a good fort-night until an old man who lived next door
became suspicious. He made a hole in the wall and peered through. There to his
horror he saw a powdered and bejeweled skeleton sitting with young Ch’iao
70
under the lantern.
Here the external corroboration of the true identity of the second self first comes
from the view of one beholder (the old neighbor when he sees the white skeleton)
and he recommends Qiao to go to the west of the lake to make inquiries concerning
her identity.7 1 Qiao follows his advice in search of lady Fu in the west of the lake and
6 9 For the detailed discussion on the possibility and impossibility o f human-ghost union in this tale,
see Dominic Cheung, “Youming yiqu: Zhongri chuanqi rengui xianglian de keneg yu bukeneng”
n @ ’ • from cong shashibiya dao shangtianqiucheng: dongxi
wenxue pipin gyan jiu ^ T a i p e i : Lien-ching, 1989,
pp.49-57.
7 0 Wolfgang Bauer, The Golden Casket: Chinese Novellas o f Two Millennia, p.235.
7 1 Later, the view o f a priest Wei, another beholder who is believed to have the power to recognize
ghosts, is introduced and serves to substantiate the second s e lf s identity as a ghost. Ibid, p.236.
37
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
then the second corroboration comes from the eyes of Qiao when he goes to the
Temple of the Middle of the Lake to have a rest during his searching.
He walked through the east corridor and then turned into the west, at the end of
which he came upon a dark chamber. In it stood a coffin of the sort that is
constructed for people who die far from their native land, and on the coffin,
written on white paper, were the words: “Coffin of Fu Li-ch’ing, daughter of the
one-time District Judge of Feng Hua.” In front of the coffin hung a double
peony lantern and under the lantern stood the grave figure of a serving girl, on
79
whose back was written “Gold Lotus.”
The confirmation of the second self s identity is strongly linked with the discovery of
the death of the original self. As for Qiao, due to his limited view, not until he sees
the coffin of the lady Fu is he fully convinced of the second self s identity as a ghost.
Then the phenomenon of double gets its explanation and the identity of the original
self is traced. According to the monk in the temple where the coffin is placed:
She (the original self of the lady Fu) is the daughter of the District Judge of
Feng Hua and died at the age of seventeen. She was placed here only
temporarily. The whole family moved to the north and nothing more has been
heard of them for twelve years.7 3
Here the phenomenon of double self is to some degree different from the first
two categories we have discussed. As I mentioned before, the original self is dead
but there still exist some elements to produce the double. The original self died with
grievance, which results from her premature death without love and is later
aggravated by the abandonment of her family. This can be seen from the later
confession of the lady Fu:
“In the blossom of my youth I had to leave this world and had no one in the
world beyond. It is true that my soul had already left my body, but my vital
urges were not yet quite extinguished. By my lamp in the moonlight I met a
lover with whom I could have enjoyed five hundred years of mutual bliss and
offered countless thousands of people material for lustful stories.”7 4
7 2 Ibid, p.236.
7 3 Ibid, p.237.
7 4 Ibid, p.239.
38
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
The original self can’t conciliate such grievance and extricate itself from the
dilemma, which calls for the appearance of the second self (the double) to help her
out. Therefore when we strip off the second self s masquerade, we can say that her
embezzlement of the original self s identity aims to fulfill the unfulfilled wish of the
original self, which is an undercurrent of the activity of traversing the boundary and
accomplishing the human-ghost union. Later when she (the double) knows that the
disguise of the original self has been recognized and Qiao is going to desert her
because of her true identity, she becomes vengeful and makes Qiao her company in
the coffin in order to avoid the original one’s tragedy of being deserted.
In the case of “The Peony Lantern,” the double of lady Fu is aware of her own
identity, though she usurps the original self s identity to accomplish the union with
Qiao. At the same time, we can also see in the “afterlife double” that the double can
act as the self without knowing the death of the original self. This is also similar to
the “psychological double” in that the double in the secondary world misunderstands
itself for the original self in the primary world. However compared with the first
category of the double we have discussed, the activities of the double in this case is
not limited to the secondary world and can exert a strong influence on the primary
world. Let us illustrate this variant of afterlife double by examining the story
n r
“Scholar Ye” as an example.
7 5 See Liaozhai zhiyi xuan, pp. 22-30. For its English translation I will use here, please see Rose
Quong, Chinese Ghost and Love Stories, N ew York: Pantheon, 1946, pp. 107-112.
39
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Scholar Ye is very knowledgeable and he can write excellent poetry and essays.
Nevertheless he is not the fortune’s favored child and fails to pass the official
examination. The magistrate Ding Chenghe greatly admires his superb literary talent
and bestows generous help to Scholar Ye. However, Scholar Ye’s ill fate precludes
him from passing the higher examination, which makes him feel immeasurably
frustrated and mortified in that he fails to live up to Ding Chenghe’s kindness and
expectation. Later, Scholar Ye falls ill at his home and both gifts and inquiries are
constantly sent from Ding Chenghe to him. At this moment, Ding Chenghe is
deposed from his position and has to leave.
Preparing to retire to his home, he sent a letter to Yeh, the gist of it being: “I
had arranged the day of my departure for the east, but postponed it so that I
could wait for you; should you come in the morning, I shall set forth in the
evening.” The letter was handed to Yeh in his bed and reading it, he wept. Then
he asked the messenger to tell the magistrate that he was very dangerously ill;
and since it was impossible for him to recover quickly, would he please not wait
for him. The messenger accordingly returned to the magistrate with these words.
7 fi
But Ting, who could not bear the thought of leaving without Yeh, still waited.
Until now triple predicaments have been clearly depicted: one predicament is
that Scholar Ye possesses a brilliant gift but fails to pass the official exam. At the
same time, he owes a great debt of gratitude to Ding Chenghe who constantly helps
him and always cares about him especially when he fails in the exam. When Ding
plans to leave, Scholar Ye, though hoping to follow Ding, can by no means break off
the shackle of illness immediately. Therefore he asks Ding to leave first.
Nevertheless, after the messenger returns Scholar Ye’s words to Ding, Ding’s
7 6 Rose Quong, Chinese Ghost and Love Stories, p. 108.
40
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
decision to wait for him doubtless aggravates Scholar Ye’s debt of gratitude as well
as his feeling of guilt since he is confined by the illness and has no way to extricate
himself from such a predicament.
Having presented the predicaments for Scholar Ye, the narrative, however,
suddenly jumps out of the predicaments, leaving a certain vagueness arousing the
reader’s hesitation.
Several days passes, then suddenly the gatekeeper announced to the magistrate
that Yeh had arrived. Ting was delighted, welcomed him warmly and asked after
his health. Yeh said: “Not rendering you the service of a dog or horse, I have
through my illness caused you the trouble of this long delay; uneasy thoughts
have, therefore, disturbed my peace. Fortunately I am now able to follow you.”
Ting then had his things packed and gave notice to the servants that they would
start in the morning.7 7
If we link this paragraph to the previous narrative we have examined, the appearance
of Scholar Ye is unexpected. What happens to him so that he can quickly get rid of
the shackle of severe illness? The narrative doesn’t put much emphasis on Scholar
Ye’s side to shed some light on this point. Rather it focuses on the gatekeeper and
Ding’s views to directly introduce the appearance of Scholar Ye (as we know later
from the story, Scholar Ye here is a ghost and functions as the double of the self).
Here the omniscient narrator subtly consigns its role to the characters and describes
the whole event according to their limited views since the characters, deliberately or
not, can present a wrong perception while the narrator shall never be expected to do
that. Such a shift of the perspective in the narrative, along with the vagueness, plays
a particular role in creating the suspense and contributes to the reader’s hesitation or,
7 7 Ibid, pi 10.
41
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
more exactly, the reader’s uncertainty since the openness (vagueness) of the
narrative here does not necessarily require the reader to hesitate between two
optional explanations as Todorov argued. Furthermore, when Ding asks after his
health, Scholar Ye himself gives an evasive answer from which a clear explanation
of his sudden appearance can hardly be found. Despite the question of how Scholar
Ye can finally follow Ding still lingering in the reader’s mind, the narrative skillfully
overcomes one of Scholar Ye’s predicaments.
Then the narrative moves on to extricate Scholar Ye from another predicament
we have mentioned.
When they arrived at Ting’s home, Ting bade his son greet Yeh as his teacher
and remain with him day and night. The son, named Tsai-chang, was then
sixteen years old and yet could not write a composition; he was extremely
clever, however, and anything he read two or three times he would not forget.
After a year he could put pen to paper and complete a good essay, and besides
he had the advantage of his father’s influence, so he was successful at his first
examination. All the essays that Yeh had written in preparation for his own
examination he now copied for Tsai-chang to read; consequently at his second
examination, in not one of the seven subjects did Tsai-chang fail, and he came
7R
out second on the list of successful candidates.
In the beginning of the story, we see that Scholar Ye greatly appreciates generous
help Ding has given to him but find no way to repay such kindness. Now Scholar Ye
pays his debt of gratitude to Ding by helping Ding’s son to successfully pass the
official exam and jumps out of the previous plight.
Flowever, there still remains the last predicament for Scholar Ye: his knowledge
fails to distinguish himself in the exam and obtain recognition. Such a predicament is
7 8 Ibid, p. 110.
42
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
heavily aggravated by the very fact that he teaches Ding’s son how to compose an
article and the same essays composed by him give rise to two diametrically opposite
outcomes— Scholar Ye is engulfed in failure while Ding’s son succeeds in the exam.
That is why Scholar Ye seems unhappy when Ding who fears that he has stayed
away too long from his home asks him to return home.
Fortunately, however, a turning point happens in his life afterwards and Scholar
Ye finally passes the official exam, exempting himself from the previous affliction.
7 0
Thus when Ding’s son advised him to go back home during their journey to Henan ,
Scholar Ye agrees with alacrity. At the moment when he arrives at home, all of a
sudden the identity of double as well as the sense of strangeness is exposed to the
implicit reader.
When Yeh looked upon his home, so lonely and desolate it appeared that his
heart filled with pity and grief. Hesitatingly he entered the courtyard, and just
then his wife came out, holding in her hands a winnowing basket; on seeing
Yeh she threw away the basket and, terrified, rushed back. Yeh called after her”
“I am now a man of position! we have been parted but a few years; can you no
longer recognize me?” Remaining at a distance, she replied: “You died long ago!
How is it that you come back and say you are a man of position? Your coffin
has not been buried all this time because we were too poor and our son so
young; now hat he is grown up we will seek for you a good burial place. I pray
you not to come with strange tales to terrify us who are living.” Hearing these
words, Yeh’s heart sank with sorrow and disappointment. Timidly he entered
the house, and as soon as he caught sight of his own coffin, he collapsed to the
ground and vanished. Only his clothes, cap and shoes remained, cast off like the
cocoon by a chrysalis. In deep grief the wife clasped the things in her arms and
. 80
wept.
7 9 In Chinese text D ing’s son becomes Nanhe dianwu (an official in charge o f affairs o f
exam in Nanhe). According to Zhang Youhe, Nanhe should be Henan See ibid, p27, footnote 46.
8 0 Ibid, p. 112.
43
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
His wife’s words and reactions to his arrival create a big suspense and lead the reader
to the state of hesitation: does Scholar Ye’s perception go wrong and he is none but a
ghost as his wife claims? The fantastic culminates when he sees his coffin in the
house and vanishes. Ultimately the double is disclosed to the reader and the narrative
moves to the marvelous.
The all the previous doubts in the reader’s mind are dispersed. Scholar Ye who
follows Ding is not scholar’s self but his double. Since the self is firmly embedded in
the triple predicaments and has no way to jump out, it has to resort to the double
(ghost) who has more power and finally liberate Scholar Ye from all previous
shackles. Nevertheless, when the double arrives at home, its identity is recognized by
his wife and the double encounters a new predicament— his accomplishments are
not accepted by his family, an insurmountable obstacle for the double and calling for
its evaporation. Compared to “The Peony Lantern,” this story is more fascinating in
that Scholar Ye as the double is not aware of his own identity during its activities.
In addition, in the category of “afterlife double,” the self can be actively
involved in creating the double to surpass a certain obstacle and accomplish a task
which is impossible for the self. The story of “Fan Jtiqing’s Eternal Friendship” will
O |
be furnished here as an example. Zhang Shao helps Fan Jiiqing survive the severe
8 1 The original Chinese title o f this story is “Fan Jiiqing jishu sishengjiao”f § E I 9 i i ^ ^ b ^ ^ , which
can be found in Gujin xiaoshuo N Y U 'fiT See Feng Menglong quanji, ed. Wei Tonngxian fSlnlJf,
vol.2, Nanjing: Jiangsu guji chubanshe, 1993, pp. 236-243. Here I use the translation o f the title by
Dominic Cheung, see ‘“ Chrysanthemum Tryst’ and ‘Fan Chti-ch’ing’s Eternal Friendship’: A
Comparative Study o f Two Ghost-Friendship Tales in Japan and China,” Tamkang Review 8.2 (1977):
121-32. “Chicken-m illef’l t i l is a common term referring to the food to treat guests especially
friends in traditional Chinese literature. It also frequently appears in traditional Chinese poetry. For
44
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
illness and they become friends. Before they are apart, Fan Jiiqing promises to go to
Zhang’s home on the next Double Ninth Festival. Afterwards the narrative focuses
on Zhang’s side and heavily depicts his strong confidence in Fan’s keeping their
appointment when the day comes. However, Fan doesn’t show up even when the sun
sinks in the west. In spite of his mother’s realistic remonstration, Zhang still
adamantly waits into the midnight until Fan finally appears. As we know later Fan
who goes to Zhang’s home is the double instead of the self of the Fan. Fan (the self)
is engaged in his business and forgets the date of his tryst with Zhang until the day
before Double Ninth Festival. However at that time the long distance separates him
from Zhang and makes it impossible for him to arrive at Zhang’s home on time.
Under this circumstance Fan (the self) has to resort to the double (the ghost) by
committing suicide since the soul, he believes, can travel a thousand miles in a day.
One poem in this story can be employed to elucidate this event:
Wind blows, moon sinks, it’s midnight
A thousand-mile ghost comes
To renew the old tryst
People of the world lack trust,
I therefore die, only to reveal my meaningful life
Until now, the double in all examples we have examined in the category of
“afterlife double” inherits the appearance of the self, which blurs the distinction
example, one couplet in a famous poem by Meng Haoran uses this term. The original text is:
“S k A llt lt s is See Quantangshi v o l.l, Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe,
1986, p. 376. According to quantangshi diangu cidian it originates from “W eizi”
ffilrF o f Lunyum W t• The original text is: “P P I •”
See Lunyu xinzhu, p. 298. Also quantangshi diangu cidian, Wuhan: Hubei cishu chubanshe, 1989, p.
1118.
8 2 See ibid, p. 129.
45
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
between self and the double in the narrative and contributes to the fantastic effect.
For instance, Zhang fails to recognize the double of Fan at the beginning when he
arrives at Zhang’s home. On the other hand, the double can also employ another
person’s form and produce more complicated variant. Qu You’s “The Gold Phoenix
_____________________ 0 - 3
Hairpin”^ |X g g is an appropriate example to be cited here.
When she is very young, Xingniang is betrothed by her father Wu Fangyu to
Xingge, the son of Mr. Cui who is the good friend of her father. As a pledge of such
a marriage, a gold phoenix hairpin is given by Cui family to Wu family. Later, Cui
family moves to another place and the correspondence between two families has
been cut off for fifteen years. Due to the endless longing for Xingge, Xingniang falls
ill and dies. The gold phoenix hairpin is also buried with Xingniang. Two months
later when Xingge finally comes, Wu tell him about the death of Xingniang and asks
him to live at Wu’s home. On the day of Qingming iff 0f[ Festival, Wu and his family
including Xingniang’s younger sister Qingniang set off to sweep Xingniang’s grave,
leaving Xingge alone at home. When they come back home, Xingge greets them at
the gate:
There were two sedans. The first one had already entered the door. When the
second one went past him [Xingge], something seems to fall down on the
ground with loud sound. After it passed, he quickly picked it up and found that
84
it was a gold phoenix hairpin.
For the implicit reader, the description here exudes a sense of strangeness. The
gold phoenix hairpin has been mentioned before as the pledge of the marriage
8 3 Jiandeng xinhua, p. 26-30.
8 4 Ibid, p. 27. The translation is mine and the content o f the bracket is added by me.
46
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
between Xingniang and Xingge, and it has already been buried with Xingniang.
Where does this hairpin come from? Is it the same as one previously mentioned?
Why does it appear after they come back from Xingniang’s grave?
Furthermore, at that night Qingniang intrudes into Xingge’s room, informs him
that she dropped the gold phoenix hairpin from the sedan and forces him to have an
affair with her. From then on, she has “entered Xingge’s room secretly at night and
left his room secretly in the morning.” The behavior of Qingniang is also strange for
the reader. Why does she take the initial in the affair with Xingge especially after she
comes back from Xingniang’s grave? We also notice that the previous narrative
doesn’t provide much information about her and such blankness to some degree
contributes to the strangeness of her behavior here.
Later in fear of being detected by Wu who will probably reproach and separate
them, Qingniang secretly eloped with Xingge to another place. After almost one year,
Qingniang tells Xinghe that she wants to go back to see her parents. Before they
reach Wu’s home, Qingniang asks him to go to see Wu first and gives Xingge the
gold phoenix hairpin in case that Wu doesn’t believe him. When Wu has been told
by Xingge the whole event, he is surprised since according to his view Qingniang
has been lying ill in the bed for one year. Then the conflict of two limited views from
two different characters is presented, which arouses the reader’s curiosity of the truth.
The narrative here strongly echoes the story of “The Story of Leaving Soul” we have
analyzed in the “physical double.” Nevertheless, the servant sent by Wu fails to see
Qingniang who is supposed to be in the boat as Xingge claims. The gold phoenix
47
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
hairpin presented by Xingge further intensifies Wu’s suspicion and confusion since
he knows that such a hairpin was buried with Xingniang. Then the identity of
Qingniang who accompanies Xingge is under the spotlight again. For the implicit
reader, both Wu and Xingge truly depict what they see and constitute the composite
picture of Qingniang. However, such a paradoxical picture can not be confirmed
under the law of the primary world as the narrative previously constructs. Then the
secondary world is sub-created to justify the irreconcilable under another law.
When Wu was still feeling puzzled, Qingniang suddenly gets out of the bed,
comes to the central room, bows to her father and says: “Xingniang is so
unfortunate that I take my leave of my parents very early and have been
deserted to the wilderness. Nevertheless, my predestined relationship with
Xingge can’t be cut off. Now I come here with no other intention but to use my
sister Qingniang to continue my own marriage with Xingge. If my request is
satisfied, the illness will be imemediately cured. Otherwise, her [Qingniang] life
will come to an end.” The whole family was frightened. When they look at her,
she is Qingniang in terms of the body and at the same time Xingniang in terms
85
of speech manner and behavior.
The narrative end up in the marvelous to reconcile the paradox and the reader finally
abandons the hesitation after knowing the identity of the double. The double of
Xingniang appears to fulfill her wish to get married with Xingge. However, Since
Xingge has already been told by Wu of her death, the double can’t use the identity of
the self and has to resort to Qingniang and assume her form to accomplish such a
goal.
To sum up, in the “afterlife double”, several features should be highlighted.
First, the ghost world and human world interpenetrate and the double in the
8 5 Ibid, p. 29. The translation is mine.
48
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
secondary world emerges to resolve the problem haunting the original self in the
primary world. The secondary world is usually presented as a marvelous one and the
double is endowed with more power in order to make up for the original self s
grievance or fill other unfilled wishes. The boundary between the primary world and
the secondary world is again traversed to pave the way for the activities of the double.
Second, in the narrative the double (ghosts) may come earlier than the originals
self to create fantastic effects. In the “the Scholar Ye” and other examples, though
the double comes later than the original self, the narrative deliberately obscures the
double’s identity and misleads the reader to identify the double with the original self
(or another person), thereby contributing to the fantastic climax near the end of the
story.
Third, when it comes to the perspective in the narrative, the omniscient narrator
tends to make a shift from its own perspective to the perspective of a character and
thus confines the implicit reader to the limited view of the character. As the
examples above demonstrate, such a shift plays a particular role in facilitating the
reader’s identification with the character (though such identification is always
limited) and creating the fantastic effects.
Now with a brief survey of “afterlife double,” let us move to another category
of the double: figurative double.
49
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Chapter 4: Figurative Double
The last category of double we shouldn’t overlook in Chinese fantastic fictions
is “figurative double.” While the first three categories of the double mainly deal with
the content of narrative, this kind of double is primarily concerned with the rhetoric
of narrative. In fact, Todorov has bestowed a lot of convincing analysis on the role of
O f.
a certain use of figurative discourse in western fantastic literature.
First, an anecdote from Lieyi zhuan will be given here as a start point to
deal with this kind of double.
In the north of Yangxin county of Wuchang, there is a watching-husband stone
like a standing person on the mountain. It is said that once upon a time there is a
chaste wife whose husband was recruited in the army and went faraway to meet
national crisis. The wife brought their young child, saw her husband out at this
mountain, stood there watching, and turned into the stone.87
Here an interesting phenomenon arises: why does the wife transform into a stone?
Short as it is, the anecdote does successfully shed some light on this metamorphosis.
The husband is involved in the war and has to leave home. As a soldier, his return
has no guarantee. One couplet in the poem composed by Chen Tao P jfip tijJ (812-885?)
is the best portrait of this situation:
How pitiful the soldiers’ bones littering around the bank of the Wuding river,
They are still the people alive in their wives’ dream.88
8 6 He further distinguishes different relations o f rhetoric figures with the fantastic. See Todorov, The
Fantastic: a Structural Approach to a Literary Genre, pp.76-82.
8 7 Lieyi zhuan is usually attributed to Cao Pi fi/T i or Zhang Hua 'jfcA and it doesn’t survive
today. For the version I use here, please see Liuchao xiaoshuo, ed. Chen Wenxin p. 32.
Beijing: W enhuayishu chubanshe, 1997. The translation is mine.
50
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
On one hand, it is highly possible that his husband would die in the battlefield and
not be able to come back; on the other hand, the wife, like many other wives
depicted in the couplet, is still longing and waiting for her husband. The anecdote
also emphasizes one quality of the wife at the beginning: chastity. As a chaste wife,
she is supposed to wait for his husband and such a waiting should be never changed
along with the time. The stone is endowed with a sense of stability, the very quality
to effectively symbolize the wife’s chastity and perseverance in a figurative way.
Under this circumstance, the transformation of the wife into a stone can be
appreciated.
From this anecdote, we see the convergence of the stability of stone and chastity
of the wife in a figurative way. Having briefly examined the figurative function of
the narrative, I would like to illustrate this kind of double by focusing on the image
of the snake which is frequently represented in traditional Chinese fantastic fictions.
The snake is usually associated with the image of woman, which tints the double in
this circumstance with more figurative color.
A strong tie between the woman and the snake has been constructed in many
traditional Chinese stories. The following is one representative example from Duyi
In King Shu Li Shi’s palace, there was a lady with a surname Zhang who
possessed seductive beauty and won the favor of Li Shi. One day, she turned
into a big striped snake with the length of more than one Zhang. It was sent to
the garden but at night it appeared under Li Shi’s bed and again asked him for
8 8 See Tangshi biecai j i ed. Shen Deqian Changsha: Yuelu shushe, 1998, p. 477.
51
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
O Q
sleeping together. Li Shi was frightened and thus killed it...
We can recapitulate this story in the following way: a man bestows favor on a
beautiful woman— the woman is identified as a snake later— the woman (here
snake) is separated from the man— the snake’s attempt to reunify with the man—
man kills/subjugates the snake. The story equates the woman with the snake and
contrasts the beauty of woman with the horrible appearance of the snake. The most
fascinating element of this story is that after the snake has been sent to the garden, it
comes back again and attempts to break through the barrier of separation and
accomplish reunion with the man. Such an action offers a vivid annotation to the
convergence between the woman and the snake as we will analyze later. It also
indicates the impossibility of union between the man and the snake: once the identity
of the snake is unveiled, it will be separated from the man.
However, a certain kind of vagueness in this story: is the snake first turns into
the woman or the woman eventually turns into the snake? In another word, the self
and the double are not clearly distinguished in this case. Furthermore, the plot is
relatively simple and the man as a victim of the snake (or woman in the figurative
sense) is not so much emphasized in this story. Later in Feng Menglong
(1574-1646)’s Qingshi fjfjli (History of Love), another story “The Big Snake”
8 9 See TPGJ, chapter 360, “Li Zhi”^ j f , p. 914. The English translation is mine. Zhang is the unit
o f length in ancient China. One Zhang roughly amounts to 3.33meters.
52
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
further explicates this figurative convergence in a more vivid way with the
distinction between the self and the double.90
On his way to sweep the grave, our hero Rui Buyi meets a young maid who has
an invitation card and requests him to go with her. When he arrives at a splendid
house, a beautiful woman comes out and greets him. Rui is captured by her beauty
and finally sleeps with her. After that, the woman frequently comes to see Rui at his
home at night. One year later, Rui becomes weak and arouses his parents’ suspicion.
With the aid of a Taoist, the woman’s true identity is discovered and she is nothing
but a big snake.
In this story, we see the original self is distinguished as a snake from its double
as a beautiful woman. The original self is the snake which possesses the magic
power to realize metamorphosis. But why does it choose a woman as the second self?
Or why the snake is chosen as the original self of the woman? As we know, due to its
special features, a snake is frequently associated with many feminine attributes in
china.91 First of all, the body of a snake is soft fpj, a quality with which a woman is
endowed in traditional china. For example, in the Classic o f Odes, a snake is
9 0 See Feng Menglong quanji /TAf'ffiAT;, vol.7, chapter 21, pp. 846-847. Nanjing: Jiangsu guji
chubanshe, 1993.
91
Here I owe my gratitude to COLT565 class discussion where my professor and classmates offered
many insightful opinions on this issue. For the discussion on the snake as a symbol in china, the
reader can refer to Denise Chao’s article “The Snake in Chinese B e lie f’ in Folklore Journal, Vol. 90,
No 2 (1979). For a more detailed exploration on the relation between the snake and the woman, see
Dominic Cheung, “Shexie niiren” ifSilfcAA, in Piping deyuehui— wenxueyuwenhua lunji
Shanghai: Sanlian, 1999, pp.178-215.
53
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
0 9
regarded as a symbol of a woman. Secondly, it is a creature crawling on the earth
which is also a symbol of femininity in ancient Chinese cosmology. The third one is
most relevant to our discussion here, which lies in another feature of the snake: a
tendency to coil its prey. When this comes to a figurative sense, we often hear the
Q-1
Chinese expression that the woman, like a snake, is inclined to “coil” the man. As
Todorov says, “the supernatural often appears because we take a figurative sense
literally.”94 Thus the metamorphosis (either a snake turns into a woman or a woman
turns into a snake) is justified through a certain kind of comparability and the
emergence of double realizes the literal sense of a figurative expression in a fantastic
95
way.
Compared with the previous story, we can clearly see that throughout the story
Rui is constantly pursued by the woman (the snake). At the beginning he
unexpectedly gets the invitation from the woman (the snake) and is led by the maid
to her house. It is a little confusing why the woman (the snake) knows Rui and
invites him. The narrative fails to provide a clear answer on the surface, but if we
take into consideration the figurative double mentioned above, it becomes very clear
9 2 See “Sigan”S |ff£ in the section o f “lesser odes’VjVjfi. The original text is: “tfUBtfilftt; ’
Here I use the version edited by Pei Puxian, Shijingpingzhu duben. Taipei: sanmin shuju, 1982, pp.
130-138.
9 3 Such coiling can be interpreted as a symbol o f imprisonment for men and arouses men’s phobia.
See Dominic Cheung, “Shexie niiren”, p. 193.
9 4 Todorov, The Fantastic: a Structural Approach to a Literary Genre, pp.76-77.
9 5 “Madam White” is an example in which a snake (the original self) turns into a woman (the second
self), whereas in “Xu Tan” f^±H a woman (the original self) turns into a snake (the second self). For
the story o f “Xu Tan,” see TPGJ, chapter 459, p. 1043. It is adopted from Yutang x ia n h u a J L ^ ^ ^ .
54
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
that the man is predestined to be the captive of the woman.96 The next day when Rui
plans to go back home, the woman tries to “coil” him and prevents him from
returning home.
Before the coming of the dawn, Rui asked for leave to go back his home. The
beautiful woman said: “How late you gentleman came here! How quick you
want to leave here! My thatched cottage in the mean alley can’t hold horses and
carriages, but please stay here for ten more days.”
However, due to the fear of his parents’ reproach, Rui insists for his leaving and the
woman successfully makes an appointment with him to see him at his home.
Afterwards, the woman continues her coiling, visits him every night and makes him
become weak. Then the perspectives from the beholders (his parents and The Taoist)
are introduced and Rui is depicted as a victim since he gradually becomes weak. The
Taoist warns him that his life will be endangered if he continues to immerse himself
in this demonic temptation. The fear of death forces Rui to use the Taoist’s tally to
recognize the true identity of the woman. The final fact that the beautiful woman is
found to be a snake further strengthen this figurative double: the woman is like the
snake by nature and its tendency of coiling arouses the man’s phobia. Only by
subjugating woman as “other” can the man strengthen his own superior identity and
position in ancient society.
From the examples above, we can see the figurative convergence between the
woman and the snake. This figurative double also echoes in many other traditional
9 6 This reflects m en’s unconscious anxiety and fear, combined with their desire for women. See
“Shexie niiren,” pp. 178-215.
55
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Chinese fantastic fictions, among which “Madam White” is the most representative
07
example and will be explored here.
In “Madam White”, the double (the woman) acts as a snake (the original self) to
coil its prey (Xu Xuan).
They had not traveled a hundred feet on the water, when someone shouted from
the embankment: “Old Uncle! Take a passenger!” Hsu Hsuan looked and it was
a woman.. .when the woman saw Hsu Hsuan.. .she came forward and made her
bow. Hsu Hsuan hurriedly got up to return the bow. The woman kept rolling her
eyes, fixing their gaze upon Hsu Hsuan... The woman spoke, “Dare I ask the
gentleman his honored surname and name...the woman then asked: “where does
the gentleman reside?”.. .when the woman had asked all her questions, Hsu
no
Hsuan thought to himself: “it’s my turn to question her.”
In the quotation above, we see that at the very beginning the second self (the
double) appears as a pursuer and creates the first meeting between her and Xu Xuan.
The image of the woman is depicted as an aggressive one who seizes the initiative in
her relation with Xu Xuan. Her action of boarding the same boat with Xu Xuan
blows the trumpet of the pursuit and her inquires on his name and residence
adumbrate the future pursuit. Moreover, the way she looks at Xu Xuan relegates him
to a position of her prey.
Throughout the whole story, two aspects concerning Madam White have been
highlighted. One is her action of pursuing and coiling the man Xu Xuan and the
other is the consequence of such an action which victimizes Xu Xuan. After their
first meeting, Madam White continues to coil Xu Xian by inviting him to her house
9 7 See H.C.Chang ed, Chinese Literature: Popular Fiction and Drama, Edinburgh: Edinburgh
University Press, 1973, pp.216-261.
9 8 Chinese Literature: Popular Fiction and Drama, p. 221.
56
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
and finally proposes a marriage to him. She even gives money to Xu Xuan to
facilitate their marriage, which unexpectedly (and also predictably in terms of men’s
phobia) incriminates Xu Xuan since the money is found to be stolen from the Grand
Marshal’s Treasury. However, Madam White evaporates and as a result Xu Xuan is
sent to another place to do corrective labour as an official punishment. Nevertheless,
Madam White again pursues him to another place and throws him to the new trouble.
Madam White’s pursuit continues in the whole story and we can summarize it as
follows: boards the same boat with Xu Xuan—borrows the umbrella from Xu Xuan
and entices him to visit her at her house— proposes a marriage and lends the money
(the money is found illicit and Xu Xuan is given a certain penalty and sent to Suzhou)
— goes to Suzhou and restores her relationship with Xu Xuan (later she gives the
stolen clothes and decorations, and Xu Xuan is incriminated again and banished to
the Zhenjiang)— goes to Zhenjiang and again restores the relationship (her true
identity is recognized by the monk Law Boundless and disappears)—arrives at Xu
Xuan’s home in Hangzhou in advance to meet Xu Xuan (Xu Xuan is exempted form
his crime and allowed to return home from Zhenjiang). From the story, we see that
no matter where he goes Xu Xuan fails to escape from such snake-like coiling of
Madam White and the woman’s coiling aggravates Xu Xuan’s situation" (every time
when Xu Xuan is incriminated, Madam White will disappear and Xu Xuan has to
receive the penalty alone).
9 9 Although Madam White attempts to help Xu Xuan at the beginning, such help always turns out to
be the disaster for him. This further illustrates men’s phobia as Dominic Cheung already depicted and
their endeavor o f reinforcing the antithesis between men and women and demonizing women as
ominous presence in human society.
57
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
At the first glance, all Madam White (the double)’s aggressive behaviors are
contrary to the traditional image of the woman in the frame of Confucian values in
ancient China and thus seem very strange. But if we contemplate this from the angle
of the double, it will be easy to understand since there is always an original self (the
snake) behind the second self (Madam White) . 100 In the figurative double, the second
self (the double) is endowed with the original self s attributes. Madam White’s
never-ending pursuit and seemingly inescapable coiling always remind us the strong
though at the same time subtle presence of the original self. Like what we have
analyzed in the afterlife double, beholders begin to veil the original self and bring the
double into a full display. At last, the double comes to an end under men’s
subjugation.101
In addition, the emergence of figurative double can also be enlightened from the
perspective of sexual desire, which can also be connected with the content of the
narrative. Another attribute of the snake is wantonness which is often imposed on
“coiling” women. 102 In “Madam White”, such a “crime” is further reinforced by
Madam White’s own confession to Law Boundless at the end:
The sight of the youth, Hsu Hsuan, however, re-awakened in me a passion long
1 O '}
dormant, and I gave in to my lustful desires.
1 0 0 This kind o f the familiar and the unfamiliar contributes to Freud’s uncanny effects as I will briefly
talk at the end o f the paper.
1 0 1 Such subjugation is one o f the two responses to the fear caused by snake-like woman. See Dominic
Cheung, “Shexie niiren”, p i 82.
1 0 2 For detailed discussion on such an attribute o f the snake, please see ibid, p. 195-200.
1 0 3 Chinese Literature: Popular Fiction and Dram a, p.259.
58
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
It is the sexual desire that spurs the original self (a snake) to become the double
(Madam White). Such a sexual desire as the underlying current of the double is
further exaggerated in the story “the account of three pagodas at West Lake”® ^ H
falH , 104 in which the beautiful women (the double of a snake) frequently exploit
men to gratify her own desire. As we have already seen in the example of “The
Peony Lantern”, through the identity of a woman, the original self has access to the
union with a human being, though at the end such a union turns out to be the
impossible because of the strangeness of its true identity.
From above, we see that figurative double (especially the convergence of the
woman and the snake) can be produced through the realization of the literal sense of
figurative expression. Due to certain similarities, women and the snake are tied
together in a figurative sense in many traditional Chinese fantastic fictions. Such a
figurative double may arise from men’s phobia and persecution on women, or appear
as a way out of a certain predicament. The convergence between the woman and the
snake underscores the word “inferiority,” with the snake inferior to human beings
and the woman inferior to man in traditional patriarchal society.
1 0 4 Hong Pian, Qingpingshantang huaben ill AlLSfisSTN Shanghai: gudian wenxue chubanshe, 1957,
pp. 22-32. According to Aoki Masaru W A lH fl, this story is based on Song huaben. See Zhongguo
wenxue gaishuo c f Taipei: Pangeng chubanshe, 1978, pp.143-144.
59
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Conclusion
In the previous chapters, we have discussed each category of double separately
in Chinese fantastic fictions. Now it seems appropriate to make a general summary
of the double in Chinese fantastic fictions.
As what is stated in the introduction, this article undertakes the thematic
investigation on the double in traditional Chinese fantastic fictions. The fantastic has
been employed here as a theoretical convenience to reinterpret traditional Chinese
fictions in a new light. By reshuffling traditional Chinese literary texts in the light of
the fantastic, I try to jump out of generic stereotypes reflected in many previous
academic explorations on traditional Chinese fictions and the thematic investigation
on the double is the very step on that track.105 From the analysis of the double, we
can see that the concern of differentiating the real and the unreal (self and other) is a
recurrent discourse in traditional Chinese fictions on the strange. However, at the
same time the boundary between the real and the unreal (self and other) is often
blurred.106 For instance, although in “The World inside a Pillow” the self of Scholar
1 0 5 Although Todorov’s fantastic genre-mode schema has been employed here as a theoretical
convenience (an expedient) to explore traditional Chinese fictions, we should bear in mind that it only
provides a perspective to help us examine Chinese relevant texts and can not be totally applied to
Chinese fantastic fictions. One can also refer to Judith T. Zeitlin’s argument on this. See History o f
the Strange: Pu Songling and the Chinese Classical Tale, pp. 7-10.
1 0 6 Judith T. Zeitlin also emphasizes this aspect by examining the story “Chu Sheng” in Pu Songling’s
liaozhai zhiyi. Ibid, pp. 8-10. Christine Brook-Rose also deals with this when she talks about the three
60
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Lu wakes up in the primary world resulting in dismissing the double as the unreal in
his dream, the self still takes it as the real since what will happen in the “real” world
has no much difference from what happens in dream if the self luckily has a chance
top fulfill his ambition, thereby equating the real with the unreal.
On the basis of different ways for the appearance of the double, I have proposed
four categories of the double: “psychological double,” “physical double,” “afterlife
double” and “figurative double.” Though each has its specific features, they all
traverse a certain boundary. Such transgression is often encouraged by the original
self s motivation to fulfill a wish or escape from the predicament. Along with such
transgression, the phenomenon of double happens and the second self is endowed
with more power to help the original self out. However, the salvation from the
second self (the double) has its own limits and even the second self often encounters
insurmountable problems, which ultimately dismisses the double and in many cases
further calls for the return to the original self either by external force or at its will. In
afterlife double, since the original self is already dead, the second self seldom returns
but rather it can resort to the reincarnation to come back to the human world to
which the original self once belongs. External corroborations including visions of
beholders in the primary world are frequently employed in dismissing the double as
the one in the secondary world (the millet in “The World inside a Pillow”, a double
main functions o f the double: “the double has three main functions: (1) practical - to displace
somehow a reality that must at all cost be evacuated (A is A, but also equal to all its doubles); (2)
metaphysical - to make reality “idiotic” by endowing it with another meaning; (3) fantasmatic - to
produce an object lacking in an incomplete world and thus account for desire. All these betray a
refusal to apprehend the real in its singularity.” See A Rhetoric o f the Unreal: Studies in Narrative
and Structure, especially o f the Fantastic, New York: Cambridge Unversity Press, 1981, p. 5.
61
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
suit in “The Divided Daughter”, and descriptions by the old neighbor and the priest
in “The Peony Lantern”, etc.).
As we have already pointed out, in “The World inside a Pillow”, Scholar Lu’s
failure to fulfill his political ambition stimulates the emergence of the second self to
help him accomplish his “dream” in the dream. The second self fails to surmount its
death and has to return to the original self who is still alive. In “The Divided
Daughter”, the second self of Qian Niang, though helping the original self secure her
love, is also alienated from the home and at last entails it returns. In these categories,
the voluntary return to the original self signifies the end of the double. In “Madam
White”, the second self first temporarily secure the union with Xu Xuan. But finally
it is forced to go back to the original self (the snake) and terminate the double. In
“The Peony Lantern”, the double (ghost) mollifies the original self s grievance
through the union with Qiao, but later it is denied the access to Qiao due to the
revelation of its true identity. At the end of the story, the double of lady Fu is
subjugated by the Taoist.
We can formulate the schema of the double in Chinese fantastic literature as
below1 0 7 :
1 0 7 Since in most cases the end o f the double means the return to the original self, I use broken line to
indicate it. In addition, the original self after returning is different from the previous original self since
it has already experienced the double.
62
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
New
insurmountable
obstacles for
the double
The Original
Self (unable
to face such
challenge)
Unfulfilled
Wishes
Other
Predicaments
The end of the
double
(external
corroborations are
often employed )
The double or the
second self fulfills the
original self s wishes or
help it out
Transgression and
double happen
(Psychological,
Physical, Afterlife,
Figurative)
On the basis of the schema above, I also attempt to briefly deal with the relation
108
between the double and “uncanny” effects. The double game is frequently
employed because it contributes to the emergence of uncanny effects. In his famous
article “The Uncanny”, Freud believes that the meaning of heimisch (familiar) also
includes its opposite meaning unheimisch (unfamiliar), and such a convergence is
essential for the “uncanny” .109 In the schema of the double above, we can also see
the convergence of the familiar and the unfamiliar. In the narrative of Chinese
fantastic tales, the double often appears as the unfamiliar to the original self because
1 0 8 The “uncanny” here is mainly referred to specific effects produced by the fantastic literature rather
than a literary genre as defined by Todorov.
109
See Freud, “The Uncanny”, in The Standard Edition o f the Com plete Psychological Work o f
Sigmund Freud, vol. VII (1917-1919). London: The Hogarth Press, 1955, pp.218-247.
63
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
of the transgression, but at the same time it is also familiar if associated with the
original self since it helps the original self overcome a certain difficulty.
Nevertheless, I shall check my predilection for a very clear systematization on
the analysis of this complicated phenomenon since obviously this isn’t an exhaustive
study and many other interesting characteristics are eclipsed in this schema and
previous chapters. Here only a few will be enumerated:
First of all, the four categories of the double above are not clear-cut divisions
and a certain kind of transgression can happen between them. For example, “afterlife
double” can not only happen in the real life but also happen in psychological state. In
the story “Shao Yuanxiu”p[jXf/fv1 1 0 , Shao and his friend Pan make promise to each
other that the person who dies first should tell the other the situation in the
underworld. Then they are separated from each other for several years. One day,
Shao suddenly dreams that he goes to a place where he meets Pan and many strange
events. When they talks about their previous promise, Pan tells Shao that the
underworld is very similar to the human world except for the unbearable loneliness
and gloom. When Shao wakes up and make inquiries about Pan, he finds that Pan
has already died. Actually it is very common in traditional Chinese fantastic fictions
that the dead people, driven by a certain motive such as venting grievance and
keeping the promise in this case, communicate with the living people through the
dream. Similarly, the boundary between “physical double” and “psychological
1 1 0 See TJGJ, chapter281, pp. 1506-1507. According to TPGJ, The story is originally collected in
Yutang xianhua BE's’pfllS.
64
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
double” can also be traversed to some degree. In “Liu Daoji” while the self
of the lady falls illness, her double goes into Liu’s dream and make a union with
him.111
Second, although the poetics of the double seems to dominate the schema, the
politics of double can by no means be neglected. In the figurative double, from
certain literary texts binding together women and the snake, we do hear the overtone
of the politics of the double: in certain periods of ancient China, men tried to
establish their supreme authority by defining the woman as the “other.” Furthermore,
the later stories concerning the theme of white snake endows the women (the double
of the snake) with more humanistic attributes (at the same time the authority of the
monk Law Boundless is weakened) and such an evolution of the image of the double
can also be associated with specific social and cultural circumstances. 112
We can further highlight the politics of the double by introducing the author’s
double to reexamine “The World inside a Pillow” we have analyzed before. The
interplay between the self of Scholar Lu and his double has been already
demonstrated in the “psychological double.” However, if we look at the experience
of the author Shen Jiji, the double of Scholar Lu can be interpreted in another way.
113
Like the self of Scholar Lu, Shen himself was entrenched in the similar
1 1 1 Ibid, chapter 282, pp. 1528-1529. According to TPGJ, the story is originally collected in Beimeng
suoyan dt
1 1 2 For the change o f such an image o f white snake, one can refer to Dominic Cheung’s article
“Shexie niiren,” pp.204-209.
1 1 3 M y subsequent analysis is based on “Biography o f Shen Jiji” mXintcm g shu . See Xintang
shu, ed. Ou-yang Xiu, vol. 7, chapter 132, Taipei: Zhonghua shuju, 1965.
65
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
predicament in his early years and couldn’t fulfill his political ambition. Later his
ability was appreciated by Yang Yan (Dj)^(727-781) who recommended Shen to a
certain official position and helped him demonstrate his talent like the double of
Scholar Lu in the story. Nevertheless, only more than one year the situation was
reversed: Shen was incriminated and banished to the remote place, which echoes the
very fact in the story that the good dream in which the double secures the wealth and
fame only actually lasts for the very short moment (the time is not enough to prepare
the millet). Therefore the self of Scholar Lu and his double can be regarded as
Shen’s mourning about his own political vicissitude.114
Third, in the schema we see the emergence of the double can mainly be driven
by the self. However, in Chinese fantastic fictions the double can also be assumed by
others and exerts the certain influence (usually negative) on the self. One story in
Hong Mai (1123-1202)’s Yijian zhi (Record of the Listener) reveals such
kind of double to us.115 The old man Huang’s two sons work hard at agriculture in
the highland field which is a little bit far from Huang’s home, and for convenience
they build a hut of reeds and overnight there. From time to time, Huang brings wine
or tea to the highland field to encourage his sons. His sons urge him to stop coming
1 1 4 Wang Meng-ou also gives a detailed discussion on the relationship between Shen Jiji’s own
experience and his work “The World inside a Pillow.” See Wang Meng-ou, Tangren xiaoshuo yanjiu
erji, pp.38-46.
1151 quote this story from Robert Hym es’s article and my subsequent synopsis o f this story follows
Robert Hym es’s translation in this article. See Robert Hymes, “Truth, Falsity, and Pretense in Song
China: An approach through the Anecdotes o f Hong Mai,” Studies in Chinese History, No. 15, 2005,
pp. 1-25. He also compares this story with another similar story “Wuxing laoli” in Soushi j i
M-WlB. See Hanweiliuchao biji xiaoshuo daguan SfEgBdYSTvlIl Shanghai: Shanghai guji
chubanshe, 1999, p.418.
66
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
since a high steep ridge lies in the route but Huang comes at even closer intervals. As
the weather gets cold, his sons are conscious of the difficulty of such a trip for their
father and decide to give up their work and return home. However, when they come
back home and explain this to their father, Huang informs them that he has never
come out to see them in the highland field.
The old man said “The farming you youngster do is your business; I’ve never
come out your way. I’ve often thought about it, but I ‘m sorry to say nothing
ever came of it.” The two sons were puzzled and surprised, and quizzed his wife,
who said simply “The old man hasn’t gone out there.” 116
Here the reader’s hesitation is aroused since the unexplainable event happens: if
what Huang and his wife said is true, what is the true identity of the old man (the
double of their true father in this case) who has frequently come to see the two sons?
Having known the event from his sons, the father offers an optional explanation and
a solution:
The old man said “I’ve heard people say that there’s a fox in that area who
makes supernatural mischief and can change its form to a man’s. Go back to the
highland field now, and if it has the nerve to play tricks on you again, you may
as well just beat it to death.” The sons went back. Toward evening an old man
shown up, and they took their axes and attacked him on the road. When he was
dead, they buried him at the foot of a hill. The next day they returned home, and
the old man asked them “Did you see anything last night?” “We killed it,” they
said. The old man was greatly pleased, and so were the sons.117
However, later the old man’s behavior becomes strange and finally the truth is
discovered that the old man who was killed by the two sons is their true father and
after that his double (the fox) assumes his father’s form and occupies their home.
1 1 6 “Truth, Falsity, and Pretense in Song China: An approach through the Anecdotes o f Hong Mai,” p.
24.
1 1 7 Ibid, p. 24.
67
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Four, another salient aspect of the double in traditional Chinese fictions which
is not well reflected in this schema is the deliberate vagueness of narrative, or we can
118
name it as the “pretense skill of the narrator.” Although the narrator in a certain
story can be considered omniscient, he in many cases doesn’t abuse his power and
tends to skip some links to create deliberate vagueness and leave what has happened
in suspense (we have already seen many examples in previous chapters). Such
vagueness is also facilitated by the narrator’s willingness to sacrifice omniscient
perspective and confine himself to what a character can recognize at specific
moment. Thus the reader’s hesitation on the truth or falsity of a character’s
perception persists throughout the narrative until later ample evidence is given by the
narrator to disperse the hesitation.
Despite the limited exploration on the double in this article, I would like to cast
it as a brick to attract more valuable opinions as the ensuing jade on this thematic
investigation and more future research to reexamine traditional Chinese fiction in a
new perspective.
1 1 8 Not only can characters in the story possess the pretense skill as Robert Hymes emphasizes in
Hong M ai’s story “Ghostie Zhang,” such a skill is more often manipulated by narrators in traditional
Chinese fiction.
68
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Bibliography
Aoki Masaru ^7fvJE5^- Zhongguo wenxue gaishuo [General
Introduction of Chinese Literature], Taipei: Pangeng chubanshe, 1978.
Apter, T.E.. Fantasy Literature: an approach to reality. Bloomington: Indiana Univ.
Press, 1982.
Armitt, Lucie. Theorising the Fantastic. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1996.
Arthur Waley, trans. The Analects of Confucius. New York: Random House Inc..
1938.
Attebery, Brian. Strategies o f Fantasy. Bloomington : Indiana University Press,
1992.
“Fantasy and the narrative transaction”, State o f the Fantastic. Ed.
Nicholas Ruddick. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press, 1992.
Bauer, Wolfgang, ed. The Golden Casket: Chinese Novellas o f Two Millennia, New
York, Harcourt, Brace & World, 1964.
Bian, Xiaoxuan T -#HE and Zhou Qun Jo]Iff, eds. Tang Songjingdian chuanqi
[classical tales in Tang Song period], Shanghai: Shanghai shudian chubanshe,
1999.
Birch, Cyril. Chinese Myths and fantasies. New York, H.Z. Walck, 1961.
Bodde, Derk. “Some Chinese Tales of the Supernatural,” Harvard Journal o f Asiatic
Studies Vol. 6 , No. 3/4 (Feb., 1942).
Booth, Wayne C. The Rhetoric o f Fiction. Chicago& London: The University of
Chicago Press, 1983.
Brooke-Rose, Christine. A Rhetoric o f the Unreal. Studies in Narrative and Structure,
Especially o f the Fantastic. New York : Cambridge University Press, 1981.
“Historical Genres/Theoretical Genres: A Discussion of Todorov
on the Fantastic”, New Literary History (Autumn, 1976).
69
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Calvino, Italo. Fantastic tales: visionary and everyday. New York: Pantheon Books,
1997.
Campany, Robert F.. “Ghosts Matter: The Culture of Ghosts in Six Dynasties
Zhiguai”, Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews, Vol. 13 (Dec., 1991).
. Strange Writing: Anomaly Accounts in Early Medieval China,
Albany: State University of New York Press, 1996
Chan, Leo Tak-hung. The Discourse on Foxes and Ghosts: Ji Yun and Eighteenth-
Century Literati Storytelling. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1998.
Chang, H.C.. Chinese Literature 3: Tales o f the Supernatural. Edinburgh: Edinburgh
University Press, 1973.
Chen Guanxue lljftxlll, Lunyu xinzhu ImInljlTt:[The commentaries on Anelects],
Taipei: Dongda tushu gongsi, 1995.
Chen Wenxin W SClf, ed. Liuchao xiaoshuo / ^[Fictions in Six Dynasties],
Beijing: wenhua yishu chubanshe, 1997.
Cheung, Dominic (Mis- Piping de yuehui— wenxue yu wenhua lunji
[Rendezvous with Criticism— Essays on Literature and
Culture]. Shanghai: Sanlian, 1999.
“The ‘Ghost-wife’ Theme in China, Japan, and Korea: New Tales
of the Trimmed Lamp, Tales of Moonlight and Rain, and New Tales of the
Golden Carp,” in Tamkang Review 15. 1-4 (1985).
‘“Chrysanthemum Tryst’ and ‘Fan Chu-ch’ing’s Eternal
Friendship’: A Comparative Study of Two Ghost-Friendship Tales in Japan and
China,” Tamkang Review 8.2 (1977).
Coleman, Stanley M.. “The Phantom Double”, British Journal o f Medical
Psychology, XIV (1934).
Donald E. Morse, ed. The celebration o f the fantastic: selected papers from the
Tenth Anniversary International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts.
International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts (10th: 1989 : Dania, Fla.)
70
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Fan Zhilin and Wu Gengshun eds. Quantangshi diangu cidian
[Dictionary of Allusions in Complete Tang Poetry]. Wuhan: Flubei
cishu chubanshe, 1989
Feng, Gengyan Zhuangzi guyi [The Explanation of Zhuangzi].
Taipei: Wenshizhe chubanshe, 1998.
Feng, Menglong 'MW’fH- Jingshi tongyan w f ’ bilt A * [General precepts for warning
worldlings]. Peking: Renmin wenxue chubanshe, 1984.
. Qingshi '['^^.[History of Love].
Freud, Sigmund. Civilization and its discontents. London: W.W. Norton & Company,
Inc., 1961.
-. “The Uncanny.” In The Standard Edition o f the Complete Psychological
Work o f Sigmund Freud, vol. XVII (1917-1919). London: The Hogarth Press,
1955.
“The Relation of the Poet to Daydreaming,” Delusion and Dream and
Other Essays, edited by Philip Rieff. Boston: the Beacon Press, 1956
.“Creative Writers and Day-Dreaming,” in the The Standard Edition o f
the Complete Psychological Works o f Sigmund Freud, rev. and ed. James
Strachey (New York: Basic books, 1966)
Fu, Hongchu. “Misogyny and sympathy: moral ambivalence in Feng Menglong's
adaptation of the Tale of the White Serpent”. Tamkang Review (Taipei), 29,
no.3 (Spr 1999), 47-86.
Harter, Deborah A.. Bodies in Pieces'. Fantastic Narrative and the Poetics o f the
Fragment. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1996.
He, Manzi and Li Shiren A, eds. Gudia Duanpian Xiaoshuo Mingzuo
Pingzhu liff^aSI-7 ]N flfA fC flF- [Commentaries on ancient famous short
stories]. Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 2000.
Hong Mai Yijian zhi [Records of the listener] .Taipei: Mingwen shuju,
1972.
Hong Pian Qingpingshantang huaben [Prompt Books of
Qingpingshan Hall]. Shanghai: Gudian wenxue chubanshe, 1957.
71
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Hymes, Robert. “Truth, Falsity, and Pretense in Song China: An approach through
the Anecdotes of Hong Mai,” Studies in Chinese History, No. 15, 2005, pp. 1-25.
Irwin, W. R.. The Game o f the Impossible: A Rhetoric o f Fantasy. Urbana :
University of Illinois Press, cl 976.
Jackson, Rosemary. Fantasy : the literature o f subversion. London ; New York :
Methuen, 1981.
Kao, Karl S.Y., ed. Classic Chinese Tales o f the Supernatural and the Fantastic:
Selections from the Third to the Tenth Century. Bloomington: Indiana
University Press, 1985
Keppler, Carl F. The Literature o f the Second Self Tucson: Univ of Arizona Press,
1972
Lu, Xun Hiifl- Zhongguo xiaoshuo shilue ^ I® 7 J [A Brief history of Chinese
Fiction]. Beijing: Dongfang chubanshe, 1996.
Ma, Y.W. and Joseph S. M. Lau, eds. Traditional Chinese Stories: Themes and
Variations. New York: Columbia University Press, 1978.
Ma, Y.W.. “Fact and Fantasy in T’ang Tales,” Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles,
Reviews, Vol.2, No.2. (July, 1980), pp. 167-181.
Mote, Frederic W., ed. Intellectual Foundations o f China. New York: Knopf 1971.
Mulvey-Roberts, Marie. The handbook to Gothic literature. New York: New York
University Press, 1998.
Nienhauser, W.H., Jr., ed. Critical Essays on Chinese Literature. Hong Kong:
Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1976.
. Zhuanji yu xiaoshuo: Tangdai wenxue bijiao lunji :
[Biographies and fictions: anthology of comparative study
on Tang literature]. Taipei: Nantian shuju, 1995.
77w Indiana Companion to Traditional Chinese Literature. Bloomington:
Indiana University Press, 1986.
Pei Puxian, ed. Shijingpingzhu duben Taipei: sanmin shuju, 1982.
Poe, Edgar Allan. The Complete Stories, New York: Everman’s library, 1992.
72
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Pu, Songling Liaozhai, Taipei: Guiguan tushu gongsi, 1988.
Rose Quong. Chinese Ghost and Love Stories, New York: Pantheon, 1946.
Qu, You Jiandeng xinhua f4;ll§)T5r§ [New Tales of the Trimmed Lamp],
Shanghai: Zhonghua shuju, 1962.
Quantangshi Ajjlf ^[Complete Tang Poetry], Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe,
1986.
Rabkin, Eric S. The Fantastic in Literature. Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University
Press, 1976.
. Fantastic worlds: myths, tales, and stories. New York : Oxford University
Press, 1979.
Rank, Otto. The double: a psychoanalytic study. New York: New American Library,
1979.
Roberts, Moss. Chinese Fairy Tales and Fantasies. New York: Pantheon Books,
1979.
Royle, Nicholas. The uncanny. New York: Routledge, 2003.
Rogers, Robert. The double in literature. Detroit: Wayne State Univ. Press, 1970
Taipingguangji [Extensive Records of Taiping Reign Period]. Comp. Li,
Fang Peking: Zhonghua shuju, 1961.
The Encyclopedia Americana, Danbury: Grolier Incorporated, 1999
Todorov, Tzvetan. The Fantastic: a Structural Approach to a Literary Genre.
Translated by Richard Howard. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press,
1975.
Tymms, Ralph. Doubles in literary psychology. Cambridge (Cambridgeshire):
Bowes & Bowes, 1949.
Wang, Ban. “The real story under scrutiny: the cutting edge of Chinese fantastic
narrative.” Tamkang Review (Taipei) 21, no.2 (Win 1990), pp.149-166.
Wang Mengou TBILISI. Tangren xiaoshuo yanjiu erji A A 7 J N A A A [Studies on
Tang Fictions], Taipei: Yiwen yishuguan, 1973.
73
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Wang Pijiang tEJ0fij|. Tangren xiaoshuo Hf [Tang Fictions], HongKong:
Zhonghua shuju, 1958.
Wang Quanmo. Liezi quanyi A A A If[T h e Complete translation of Liezi], Guiyang:
Guizhou renmin chubanshe, 1993.
Webber, Andrew. The Doppelgdnge : double visions in German literature. New
York : Oxford University Press, 1996.
Wu, Laura Hua. “FromXiaoshuo to Fiction: Hu Yinglin’s Genre Study of
Xiaoshuo.” Harvard Journal o f Asiatic Studies, Vol. 55, No. 2 (Dec., 1995), pp.
339-371.
Xintang shu jlr, ed. Ou-yang Xiu Taipei: Zhonghua shuju, 1965.
Yang, L.Y. Winston, Li, Peter and Mao, Nathan K.. Classical Chinese Fiction: A
guide to Its Study and Appreciation Essays and Bibliogrphies. Boston: G.K.
Hall Co., 1978.
Yu, Anthony C.. “Rest, Rest, Perturbed Spirit! Ghosts in Traditional Chinese Prose
Fiction”, Harvard Journal o f Asiatic Studies, Vol. 47, No. 2 (Dec., 1987).
Yuan, Xingpei Af/Tm and Hou Zhongyi A A A - Zhongguo wenyan xiaoshuo
shumu A H A lf A lA Ir 0 [A Catalogue of fiction in Classical Chinese],
Beijing: Beijing daxue chubanshe, 1982.
Yuan, Yuan. The discourse offantasy: Theoretical and fictional perspectives.
Durango, Colo.: Hollowbrook Publishing, 1994.
Zeitlin, Judith T. Historian o f the Strange: Pu Songling and the Chinese Classical
Tales. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1993
. “The Petrified Heart: Obsession in Chinese Literature, Medicine, and
Art.” Late Imperial China (June 1991).
Zhang Youhe 'M A fi, ed. Liaozhai zhiyi xuan M lif AA)ll[Selections of Strange
Stories from a Chinese Studio ]. Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1958.
Zhu Yixuan A — 'A , ed. Liaozhai Zhiyi ziliao huibian if [IA A A A f A Aflift
[Compilation of data on records of the strange from the leisure chamber],
Tianjing: Nankai daxue chubanshe, 2002.
74
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Linked assets
University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses
Conceptually similar
PDF
Confrontation and compromise: The worlds of the supernatural and humans in Pu Song-Ling's "Liaozhai Zhiyi"
PDF
Historicity, political satire and sexual politics: Themes and narratives in Jin Yong's knight-errant novels
PDF
"The Infant in the Void": A spiritual journey
PDF
All in fun: a translation with an introduction
PDF
China's Korean minority: A study in the dissolution of ethnic identity
PDF
An analysis of characterization in "The Romance of the Western Wing"
PDF
Ethnic identity and nationalism in Taiwan
PDF
In search of the sun: Yukio Mishima's body aesthetic
PDF
Imagining China: "Niehai Hua" as a national narrative
PDF
Ito Noe: Living in freedom. A critique of personal growth in Japanese society
PDF
Religion and literary practice in the essays and fiction of Endo Shusaku
PDF
Intersubjectivity and the mother-daughter dyad in Korean American women literature
PDF
From denationalization to patriotic leadership: Chinese Christian colleges, 1920s--1930s
PDF
Ascent imagery in the ancient Mediterranean and early Christianity
PDF
Fragments in progress
PDF
Becoming a successful capitalist in China: Chinese private entrepreneurs and their relationship to the state
PDF
Emergent literacy differences in Latino and African American children: Culture or poverty?
PDF
How China's economic reform changed domestic circumstances for exports during the 1980s
PDF
Negotiations of the transPacific, United States-Japan divide in the writings of Lafcadio Hearn and Yone Noguchi
PDF
Assessing equitable postsecondary educational outcomes for Hispanics in California and Texas
Asset Metadata
Creator
Hao, Ji
(author)
Core Title
"Double" in traditional Chinese fantastic fictions
School
Graduate School
Degree
Master of Arts
Degree Program
East Asian Languages and Cultures
Publisher
University of Southern California
(original),
University of Southern California. Libraries
(digital)
Tag
literature, Asian,OAI-PMH Harvest
Language
English
Contributor
Digitized by ProQuest
(provenance)
Advisor
Cheung, Dominic (
committee chair
), Birge, Bettine (
committee member
), Lippit, Akira (
committee member
)
Permanent Link (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c16-54344
Unique identifier
UC11337841
Identifier
1438396.pdf (filename),usctheses-c16-54344 (legacy record id)
Legacy Identifier
1438396.pdf
Dmrecord
54344
Document Type
Thesis
Rights
Hao, Ji
Type
texts
Source
University of Southern California
(contributing entity),
University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses
(collection)
Access Conditions
The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the au...
Repository Name
University of Southern California Digital Library
Repository Location
USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus, Los Angeles, California 90089, USA
Tags
literature, Asian