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Recasting Vladimir Propp's formalist method through traditional Asian narratives
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Recasting Vladimir Propp's formalist method through traditional Asian narratives
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Content
RECASTING VLADIMIR PROPP’S FORMALIST METHOD THROUGH
TRADITIONAL ASIAN NARRATIVES
Copyright 2004
by
Myung Hui Choi
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)
May 2004
Myung Hui Choi
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UMI Number: 1421762
Copyright 2004 by
Choi, Myung Hui
All rights reserved.
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1 1
List of Tables
List of Figures
Abstract
Introduction
1.
2 .
3
4
Conclusion
Appendices
I
n
m
Bibliography
TABLE OF CONTENTS
in
IV
V
1
Significance of Russian 4
Formalism and Methodology of
Vladimir Propp
Propp’s Influence on French 17
Structuralist Critics: Claude
Levi-Strauss, A.J. Greimas and
Claude Bremond
A Justification for Recasting 29
Propp
Application of the Proppian 36
Method to Traditional Asian
Narratives
66
List of Thirty-One Korean 69
Folktales
Translation of the Korean 74
Folktale: “The Man Who
Became an Ox”
Pu Songling’s tale: “The 85
Cricket”
92
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LIST OF TABLES
Table One V. Propp’s Thirty-One Functions 11
Table Two Identified Proppian Function in Korean Folktales 43-45
Table Three Proppian Compositional Sketch of 46
“The Man Who Became an Ox”
Table Four Mapping of Proppian Analysis of 47-49
“The Man Who Became an Ox”
Table Five Mapping of Proppian Analysis of “The Cricket” 57-59
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IV
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure One A Sketch of Propp’s Grammar 14
Figure Two Greimas’s Functions, Greimas 23
Figure Three Bremond’s Functions, Bremond 25,26
Figure Four Additional Functions found in Korean Folktale Analysis 40
Figure Five Proppian Compositional Sketch of
“The Flower Called Tolaci”
41
Figure Six Proppian Compositional Sketch of “The Cricket” 57
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ABSTRACT
Vladimir Propp’s formula used in identifying the structure of the Russian
fairytale is a profitable proposition in the studies of narratology and East Asian
culture in that it is applicable to a structural analysis of traditional Asian
narratives. Proppian analysis showed that in the Russian folktale there are
identifiable basic components whose combination into complex wholes is
governed by equally identifiable rules. While it is necessary to modify the
catalog of Propp’s functions in analyzing Korean folktales and Chinese tales, a
formal narrative structure will not change. An identification of common
characteristics in narratives and the variations of structural components in a
given culture predicate important cultural difference. The compositional
commonalities identified by the Proppian method allow us to overcome the
boundaries of cultures and narrative genre. Cultural characteristics identified
in the Asian narratives help us to exemplify the cultural distinctiveness. As a
result, a fuller understanding of Korean and Chinese culture is possible.
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1
INTRODUCTION
Vladimir Propp’s formalist approach to literary texts provides a systematic
and scientific foundation for discovering underlying narrative structure. With the
English translation of The Morphology o f the Folktale in 1958, European and
American literary scholars began to recognize the usefulness of Propp’s methodology.
Propp’s morphology has been considered to be a “major theoretical breakthrough” in
the field of folklore (Propp, 1968). His investigation of narratives identifies structural
patterns that were not understood and even dismissed by many literary scholars and
folklorists.
In order to conduct a scientific investigation of Russian folktales, Propp used
the methodology of modern linguistics and treated the body of folktales as a whole
language. Because he viewed folktales as containing a structure or a universal
grammar, Propp was concerned with identifying the constant elements and uniform
rules (what in linguistics is called grammar or syntax) lying behind the texts. The
Proppian functions can be used to explicate the syntactical structure of a complex
work of written literature at the level of the entire discourse.
My project investigates the effective application of Propp’s scheme to stories
outside of the Russian language by using the formula articulated in Vladimir Propp’s
The Morphology of the Folktale (1928). In this project, by subjecting traditional
Asian narratives, my structural analysis has three purposes. The first is to show the
potential effective application of the Propp scheme to traditional Asian narratives.
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2
The second is to demonstrate that there are functional elements in Asian narratives
similar to and different from those described by Propp. The third is to identify
different compositional patterns that could reveal proper cultural values in a particular
culture.
In the prism of the Proppian method, the boundary of culture is less important.
According to Propp, the deep structure of narratives remains the same despite the
contextual variations. When we overcome the fear of generalization and crossing
boundaries of cultures and genres, we are able to examine the principal structural
pattern. As a result, a morphological analysis would help us to identify the deep
narrative structural pattern of the Korean folktale and Pu Songling’s Chinese narrative.
By identifying patterns, discovering Proppian functions, and modifying functional
(action) patterns, we can investigate Asian narratives and help to reveal the cultural
values proper to Korean and Chinese.
In my investigation, I identify thirteen additional functions, which I add to the
catalog of Propp’s thirty-one functions. In modifying Propp’s scheme, I will be able
to identify structural commonalities as well as differences in the narratives. However,
it is the commonalities that are most striking. What Propp’s method makes
immediately apparent is the strength of specific concerns across a range of genres and
cultures, as well as the differing approaches to these concerns taken by specific
cultures. Such an analysis provides a new way of classifying and interpreting
narratives. In short, in revealing the formal structure in these Asian narratives, I am
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3
able to distinguish traditional phenomena that exemplify cultural differences and
similarities.
Chapter I reviews the historical and political significance of Russian formalism
and the methodology ofPropp. Chapter II discusses the reception of Propp’s method
and its influence on French structuralists, including critics such as Claude Levi-
Struass, A.J. Gremais, and Claude Bremond. Chapter III identifies reasons for
revisiting Propp’s method and discusses the importance of his contribution in the field
of folklore study. Chapter IV explicates the historical and cultural backgrounds of the
oral narrative tradition in Korea and China and applies the Proppian method to Asian
narratives and interprets the results of that morphological analysis.
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4
CHAPTER ONE
SIGNIFICANCE OF RUSSIAN FORMALISM AND
METHODOLOGY OF VLADIMIR PROPP
The Social and Cultural Significance of Russian Formalism
Pre-industrial Russia was greatly influenced by the nineteenth-century
European concepts of Humanism, Romanticism, and French Revolution that
produced a deep desire for a different social order. Due to the social upheavals and
reevaluations of traditional values, the boundaries between the ecclesiastical and the
secular, between letters and folklore, and between the written and the spoken
language began to be effaced. When the victory of communist revolution took place
in 1917, Russian intellectuals such as Lenin, Karenski, and Trotsky, who envisioned
bringing social changes, sought Reason which originated from enlightenment in the
eighteenth-century. These political intellectuals encountered the insurgence of “poets,
writers, and a peasantry whose aspirations were habitually expressed in terms of fairy
tales, rather than as social theory” (Gilbert 5). The conflict focused on Reason one
hand and imaginative on the other gave a rise to the movement of Formalism in
Russia.
In the spirit of Russian Revolution of 1917, the formalists were first concerned
with poetry for its compactness of rich language and its composition of Reason,
detached from the everyday world. Then, interested in the creation of the people as
well as the elite, the formalists directed their attention to the study of Russian folklore
and folk literature, product of imagination. The formalists used the methodology of
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5
modern linguistics and treated folktales as a language in their scientific investigation
of Russian folktales. Their critical view focused on the similarity between language
and folklore as a cultural product that reflects a process of steady decadence and
disintegration (Matejka 87). According to formalists, language is a collective
property of culture and its patterns manifest structure and universal laws that are
similar to that of popular cultural product as folktales. The formalists attempted to
view popular culture as possessing structure and coherence to a degree equal to that
of so called great works of literature. Thus, folk narrative along with the work of art
became a subject to scientific study (Gilbert 5). The formalists thought that folktales
would necessary exhibit certain logic or rational order of composition although
folktales have often seen as informal, casual, obvious, or unartistic.
The Soviet government ignored the formalists in the beginning of the Russian
Revolution, because they did not engage in a direct ideological conflict with the status
quo. The prominent formalist group members such as Viktor Sklovskij, Boris
Eichenbaum, Jurij Tynyanov and Roman Jakobson shared similar theoretical interests;
they organized the Moscow Linguistic Circle (MLC) in 1915, headed by Jakobson,
and the Society for the Study of Poetic Language (OPOYAZ) in 1916, chaired by
Shklovsky. Although both groups focused on creating linguistic methods, the latter
(OPOYAZ) was interested in studying European belles letters, and the former (MLC)
was interested in investigating Russian folklore (Bennet 18). However, by the end of
1920s, the members of both groups faced the harsh treatment by the extreme Marxist
literary group.
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The main difference between the Formalists and Marxists is found in their
treatment of literary forms. For Formalists, all literary forms equally and necessarily
have significations of reality. On the other hand, post-Revo lutionary Marxists
influenced by the “reflection theory” asserted that the quality of literary works should
be determined based on the accuracy of historical development and the basic logic
behind the texts (Bennet 26). For this reason, Marxists shifted their focus on the
study of pure literary forms to the historical and sociological reflections. Marxists
believed that works of literature can be fully examined and “understood only if placed
in the context of the economic, social and political relationships in which they are
produced” (Bennet 26). Marxists embraced a political standpoint while the
Formalists continued to be apolitical in their approach, viewing works of literature as
an end in them. Formalists tried to maintain their view on the autonomy of literature,
but because of the political pressure from the Marxist camp, the direction and focus
of the formalists changed; Sklovskij and Eichenbaum limited their study to traditional
textual investigation, and Jakobson fled to Prague and eventually reached the United
States of America for his scholarly pursuit.
Methodology of Vladimir Propp
In the study of Russian Formalism and oral narratives, the methodology of
Vladimir Jakovlevic Propp is significant. The works of Propp, bom on April 17, 1895
in St. Petersburg, is an outcome of the imaginative and the rational argument that has
been apparent in the discussion of oral narrative since the end of eighteenth-century in
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7
Europe. Propp came under attack for denying a core Marxist principle that
emphasized the connection between content and larger historical influence The
historical force behind Propp’s later work, Theory and History o f Folklore (1984),
following the Morphology was motivated by the Marxist doctrine of the relation
between the material conditions of a particular historical era and the political, cultural,
and social products of that same time. Nevertheless, Propp’s shift in his study of
narratives does not discount his previous study of Morphology o f the Folktales.
Propp’s formula used in identifying the structure of the Russian fairytale is profitable
proposition. His method shows that there are identifiable basic formal components
whose combination into complex wholes is governed by identifiable rules. Propp’s
new scientific proposition is significant, because the previous studies of folktales often
lacked a systematic and scientific approach. Propp’s approach to folk literature
allowed for a theoretical breakthrough in the field of folklore.
Traditionally, the Finnish school of geographical distribution and historical
development as a referential index attracted many number of students in the field of
folklore. During the nineteenth-century, the focus of folklore study shifted from
tracing the time and place of origins of the tales to investigation of ways of
transmission and production. The interests of folklorists changed from discovering
when and where to the examination of how the tales were transmitted and produced.
The Finnish school approach to folk literature has focused mainly on the classification
based on similar types or motif of collected works of folktales including the emphasis
on the narrator and his creative ability. Until the focus of folk narratives shifted from
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the assumption of its origin to an emphasis on the synchronic perspective, the Aarne-
Thompson Index was useful. However, the study of symbolical meaning and the
question of why was left for literary critics and psychoanalysts who started to show
their interests in fairy tales in the early twentieth-century.
Propp, as an important member of the Russian formalist school under the chief
formalist, Viktor Sklovskij, argued that his Finnish school predecessors’ arbitrary
speculation about “the historical origin, transmission and evolution of the fairy tale
genre” requires a proper scientific method for investigation of the narrative texts
(Holbek 34). Propp criticized and characterized the catalogue of Aarne as an
“insufficient, inconsistent, and inaccurate” system (Holbek 158). Propp further
argued that a scientific investigation proceeds by decomposing a complex entity into
its components. Propp’s borrowing of the term, “morphology” from linguistics is
very revealing, because morphology means in linguistics studying the way words are
constructed. The ultimate objectivity of Propp’s morphology is to study an
underlying structure in fairytales. By the same definition, Propp’s enumeration of
elements and rules shows how components are shaped into complex structures. In
the morphological approach to literature and culture, a qualitative social and cultural
based mvestigation (contextual based analysis) is not necessary, because the
underlying deep structure is not genre specific and can reveal certain laws are
apparent in various forms of cultural products. As a result, at the level of
understanding an underlying grammar in a language, a structural analysis of popular
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culture such as comic strips, graffiti, or women’s fashion is as essential and valuable
as that of high culture.
Propp’s scientific investigation began to identify the compositional pattern
that lies beneath the structure of the fairy tale and organize its compositional laws. In
Morphology of the Folktale (1928), Propp argues that the decomposition of a
complex entity into its components is important, because the compositional patterns
correspond to the behavior of individuals in society, revealing underlying norms and
structures (Propp 1968, xvi). For his formal analysis, Propp first selected one
hundred Russian folktales from the Narodnye russkie skazki collection of Afanas’ev
(equivalent to Grimm Brothers fairy tale collection) published in 1855-1864. This
collection was considered to be the first wide scale Russian folktale collection.
Because Propp viewed folktales as containing a structure or a universal grammar, he
was concerned with identifying the constant elements and uniform rules (what in
linguistics is called grammar or syntax) lying behind the texts. In studying the
common theme of “the persecution of a stepdaughter,” of the collection, Propp made
an interesting observation:
In the story “Frost” (no. 95 according to the numbering
of the Soviet edition), the stepmother sends her
stepdaughter into the wood of Frost. Frost tries to freeze
her, but she reacts to it with such sweetness and patience
that it spares her, makes it up to her, and lets her go. But
the old woman’s real daughter does not pass the test, and
dies. In the next story the stepdaughter no longer confronts
Frost but the spirit of the woods, and in the next a bear
(Propp, 1971, p. 14).
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1 0
Afanas’ev and other scholars considered the various challenges for the dramatis
personae as different stories. The stories above present different villains who put the
stepdaughter to the test, but the recitation of the stepdaughter’s action is identical in
the stories. Propp was convinced that the stories were the same, because the actions
of the main characters were the same. Beginning with this discovery, Propp studied
other folktales “from the point of view of the actions performed by the characters”
(Propp, 1971, p. 15). The result of his analysis of folktales was “not . . . an
abstraction, [but] a method based on the actions performed by the characters,
independently of their outward form; to refer to those actions” (Propp, 1971, p. 15).
Propp’s method revealed deeper structural pattern and examined underlying
components of the narrative structure.
While Propp’s purpose is to answer “a specific folkloric question,” his method
is appropriate to other narrative genres: “possibly also in the study of world literature
of a narrative character” (Propp, 1971, p. 15). According to Propp, the plot
composes the content of the work and regardless of the genre variations the
composition will remain the same. Therefore, Propp’s formula can be used to identify
the patterns in various narrative forms. Propp’s systematic examination of the group
of tales concerning the persecuted stepdaughter is not only valid for the variants of a
plot but for all the plots of the magical folktale genre. Various types of narrative can
be examined by the morphological method. In Propp’s example of “the transporting
of the hero,” various forms of instrumental mean represent how the hero achieves his
quest. For instance, “if the hero leaves home in search of something, and the object
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1 1
of his desires is very far away, he can reach it by flying on the back of an enchanted
horse or of an eagle, of a flying carpet, a flying ship, the back of the devil, and so on”
(Propp, 1971, p. 20). The nature of tasks is variable and changeable and manifests
itself differently, but the action of the hero is fixed. In his morphological approach to
fairytales, Propp was more concerned with the consistent elements that construct the
texts rather than the context of tales. Thus, the purpose of his analysis was to identify
the patterns and order of the actions of the characters or dramatis personae. In the
course of actions, Propp designated an act of character as a function. By examining
the order of the actions in the text, Propp attempted to illustrate the sequence of
functions in tales. Propp discovered that the number of functions was limited and
their sequential order was always the same, yet their forms vary. He claimed that the
number of functions was limited “not because of memory deficiencies or lack of
creative ability, but because of the strict demands of the morphological pattern itself’
(Holbek 34).
In his investigation, Propp identified thirty-one functions. Propp’s discovery
of thirty-one functions is illustrated in Table One:
Proppian Function
Number
Proppian
Designation
Proppian
Signs
Proppian Summary
I Absentation
P
One of the members of a
family absents himself from
home.
II Interdiction
y
An interdiction is addressed
to the hero.
HI Violation 5 The interdiction is violated.
IV Reconnaissance s The villain makes an
attempt at reconnaissance.
[Table One: V. Propp’s Thirty-One Functions, Propp, 1968]
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Table One Continued
Proppian Function
Number
Proppian
Designation
Proppian
Signs
Proppian Summary
V Delivery
C
The villain receives
information about his
victim.
VI Trickery n The villain attempts to
deceive his victim in order
to take possession of him or
of his belongings.
VII Complicity e The victim submits to
deception and thereby
unwittingly
helps his enemy.
vm Villainy A The villain causes harm or
injury to a member of a
family.
Villa Lack A One member of a family
either lacks something or
desires to have something.
IX Mediation B Misfortune or lack is made
known; the hero is
approached
with a request or command;
he is allowed to go or he is
dispatched.
X Beginning
counteraction
c The seeker agrees to or
decides upon
Counteraction.
XI Departure t The hero leaves home.
xn First function of
donor
D The hero is tested,
interrogated, attacked, etc.,
which prepares the way for
his receiving either a
magical agent or a helper.
xm The hero’s reaction E The hero reacts to the
actions of the future donor.
[Table One: V. Propp’s Thirty-One Functions, Propp, 1968]
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Table One Continued
Proppian Function
Number
Proppian
Designation
Proppian
Signs
Proppian Summary
XIV Provision or receipt
of a magical agent
F The hero acquires the use of
a magical agent.
XV Special
transference,
guidance
G The hero is transferred,
delivered, or led to the
whereabouts of an object of
search.
XVI Struggle H The hero and the villain join
in direct combat.
XVII Branding, marking J The hero is branded.
XVIII Victory I The villain is defeated.
XIX Restoration K The initial misfortune or
lack is liquidated.
XX Return: 4 The hero returns.
XXI Pursuit, chase Pr The hero is pursued.
x x n Rescue Rs Rescue of the hero from
pursuit.
XXIII Unrecognized
arrival
0 The hero, unrecognized,
arrives home or in another
country.
XXIV Unfounded claims L A false hero presents
unfounded claims.
XXV Difficult task M A difficult task is proposed
to the hero.
XXVI Solution N The task is resolved.
XXVII Recognition
Q
The hero is recognized.
XXVIII Exposure Ex The false hero or villain is
exposed.
XXIX Transfiguration T The hero is given a new
appearance.
XXX Punishment U The villain is punished.
XXXI Wedding W The hero is married and
ascends the throne.
[Table One: V. Propp’s Thirty-One Functions, Propp, 1968]
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The Proppian function is given: a) an abbreviated definition in one word, b) its
conventional sign, and c) a brief summary of its essence. Propp’s function I is
Absentation: Beta (P) is the sign given to the function I. The summary of the function
I is one of the members of a family absents himself from home. Function XVI is
Struggle and H is its sign. The summary of the function XVI is the hero and the
villain join in direct combat. The last Function XXXI in his scheme is Wedding and
its given sign is W; the hero is married and ascends the throne.
The utility of Propp’s grammar of a tale, his functions, and designated signs
can be sketched and illustrated as follows:
Initial Situation (a) A tsar, three daughters
Absentation (P) The daughters go walking,
Violation (5) Overstay in the garden.
Villany (A) A dragon kidnaps them
Mediation (B) A call for aid
Counter Action (C) Quest of three heroes.
Struggle, Branding, Victory (H-I) Three battles with the dragon,
Initial Misfortune is Liquidate (K) Rescue of the maidens
Returns ( -I ) The hero returns,
Wedding (W) Reward.
c c p S A B C H-I K I W
[Figure One: A Sketch ofPropp’s Grammar, 1968, p. 128]
Propp’s syntactical tale scheme identified a basic tale illustrating a villainy harming a
member of a family or the member of family lacks something essential. A hero
“acquires what is lacking or avenge the wrong.” In the process of his quest, the hero
meets a donor who helps the hero or provides “a magical agent.” The hero goes
through “a series of difficult tasks and engages the villain in combat.” The hero
eventually transforms in a form of “being married or crowned king” (Propp 1968).
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1 5
When demonstrating Propp’s tale scheme, it is imperative to arrange the functions in
time, “as the narration demands itself,” in contrary to “a-temporal series” (Propp,
1971, p. 25).
It is impossible for Propp to separate functions from their chronological
sequence, because functions (deeds or actions of the characters) are carried out in
time and space. Since the fairytale is “ruled by a notion of time, space,” the
disruption of the temporal sequence demolishes “the fragile texture of the narration”
(Propp, 1971, p. 25). Propp gave a very little attention to the characters’ attributes,
physical description, and thus mental state of the characters is irrelevant as well.
Among eight character roles (the villain, the donor, the helper, the princess or sought-
for person, the dispatcher, the hero, and the false hero) identified by Propp in the
Russian fairytale, the villain’s role is to “disturb the peace of a happy family, to cause
some form of misfortune, damage, or harm; [therefore,] the villain(s) may be a dragon,
a devil, bandits, a witch or a stepmother” (Propp, 1971, p. 27). Therefore, for
Propp’s functional scheme, only the action itself is essential. In short, Propp was not
concerned with what way the action is done, but the villain’s action was the focal
point of Propp’s functions. As Propp indicated later, the chronological order of
functions in one dimension was indeed different from that of the structuralists who
extended Propp’s system into their own formula. By identifying the syntactical tale
scheme, Propp provided the foundation for others to study the narrative structure as
well.
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Propp’s method demonstrated in Morphology o f the Folktale (1928) suggests
that since the formal law of composition is fixed, as long as the formal laws are
identified, content can be “scientifically” and “objectively” analyzed. Propp’s method
was useful in discovering a logical or rational order of composition, and the system of
the Finnish school can be augmented by the way of studying “the genre as a single
whole or system, comparing its plots” rather than separating the plots (Propp, 1971, p.
18). Because its self-governing rules and laws determine the creation of literary texts,
the narrative forms are independent and are not subject to social history. Although
French structuralists opposed Propp’s method on the grounds that Propp ignored the
meanings that are embedded in a particular social context, Propp’s method allows for
us to identify compositional patterns that exemplify cultural distinctiveness. As a
result, an understanding of a particular culture is possible without examining the
symbolic meaning and historical context of the tales. In order to demonstrate the
validity and utility of Propp’s method, the following chapter will discuss its influence
on French structuralists Claude Levi-Strauss, A. J. Greimas, and Claude Bremond who
recognized the utility of Propp’s method.
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CHAPTER TWO
PROPP’S INFLUENCE ON FRENCH STRUCTURALIST CRITICS:
CLAUDE LEVI-STRAUSS, A.J. GREIMAS, AND CLAUDE BREMOND
In 1958, with the translation and publication of Propp’s Morphology o f
the Folktale in English, some scholars in the West started to recognize Propp’s
method for studying underlying structure of narrative. Nonetheless, despite its
recognition and usefulness in identifying the underlying structure of narrative,
Propp’s system has been challenged by the structuralists for its genre specific
limitation. Among many others, the most insightful and critical evaluation of
Propp’s Morphology came from the French structuralist Claude Levi-Strauss.
Following the steps and influenced by the works of Levi-Strauss, French literary
theorists A. J. Greimas and Claude Bremond developed their own methods by
modifying Propp’s method. Although it would be difficult to summarize the
works of these scholars and such a summary of their work is a major task in itself,
this chapter will examine some of the methodological resemblances and
divergences between the formalist and structuralist approaches in order to discuss
the validity and utility of Propp’s theory.
Levi-Strauss argued for a theoretical separation between the two schools:
Structuralism and Formalism. In 1960, Levi-Strauss claimed that modern
Structuralism and structural linguistics were not extensions of Russian Formalism
although he understood oral narratives as equivalent to language in his theoretical
foundation. Levi-Strauss, who had been studying myth and kinship systems as an
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18
ethnographer and anthropologist, recognized a lack of systematic and scientific
approaches in the study of folklore. While Levi-Strauss acknowledged the
significance of Propp’s pioneering endeavor as contributing to systematic and
scientific studies of narrative structure, he criticized Propp for restraining his
analysis at the level of syntax and making the formalist mistake of separating form
and content. Even as there are differences in their approach to narratives, a key
similarity between Structuralism and Formalism can be drawn from the concept of
a linguistic system. What Levi-Strauss shared with Propp was that both of them
treated narrative structure as language; both claimed that what was true for a
linguistic system was even truer for myths and folktales. Myth and folktales
naturally followed grammatical laws and words that create images and actions.
The differences lie in their approach to narratives. Propp’s morphology is
equivalent to the study of the structure of grammatical sentences in a language.
Levi-Strauss regarded Propp’s linear and sequential grammar as obvious and
superficial. Contrary to Propp, Levi-Strauss uses comparative method in
studying the basic units of myth. Levi-Strauss sought to discover the underlying
paradigms of oppositions. The principal difference that divides Formalism from
Structuralism is the focus on form and content. For Formalists, form alone
provides coherent underlying rules that many scholars ignored, and for them
content only make available any significant value that are less important in
studying the narratives (Levi-Strauss, 1983, p. 131). For Structuralism, form and
content are equally important and subject to the same type of analysis; “Content
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draws its reality from its structure and what is called form is the ‘structural
formation’ of the local structure forming the content” (Levi-Strauss, 1983, p.
131). Contrary to Formalism, structuralists refused to set the concrete (content)
against the abstract (form) to recognize a value in the abstract. Because Propp
emphasized form over matter and gave little importance to content, Levi-Strauss
argued that it was not history that Propp lacked, but his system lacked context.
Levi-Strauss suggested that the form of narratives must be connected to its social
and cultural contexts.
In The Structure of Fairytales: Propp vs. Levi-Strauss (1976), Serge
Shishkoff pointed out the difference between Propp’s and Levi-Strauss’s approach to
narratives. Operating at the level of syntax, Propp’s system is different from that
of Levi-Strauss which emphasized the direct relationship between the narratives
and the given culture in which the narratives are recorded. Propp’s morphology
studied synchronic description of the fairy tale genre. His grammar ignored a
diachronic study of its origin and historical development. Propp’s focus on the
arrangement of functions also overlooked the precise semantic content of each
function. Levi-Strauss rejected the notion that vocabulary only could frame a
structural analysis at the level of the grammar. His system of mythemes (a
concept somewhat akin to Propp’s function) within each myth does not operate
at the level of syntax but at the level of the phonemes (semantic) as visualized by
Roman Jakobson. Levi-Strauss argued that Propp established grammar while
ignoring the vocabulary, because Propp was not concerned with how and by
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whom the action is done, but was concerned with the functions (the sequence of
actions) of characters.
Propp’s system considered the actions of characters as stable and constant
elements that are independent of how and by whom the actions are achieved.
Propp’s discovered characters are limited in number. However, the attributes of
defined seven characters such as the villain, the donor, the magical agent, the
sought-for person, the dispatcher, the hero, and the false hero are numerous.
While Propp gave no value to attributes of characters or circumstances, Levi-
Strauss valued attributes of characters, because the numerous variations of
attributes of the characters and the ways of how and by whom composed arbitrary
components of content (Holbek 35). Furthermore, unlike Propp who was neither
concerned with connectives or motivations, Levi-Strauss valued the motivation of
characters, because characters’ motivation gave rise to reasons and aims for their
deeds. For Propp, the functions of characters formed a stable and constant
pattern in a tale, and constituted fundamental components of a tale. Therefore,
how and by whom the functions of characters were fulfilled was not important
(Propp, first published in 1928/1968, published in English). This thesis was the
major difference between Propp and Levi-Strauss who condemned this thesis as
absolute Formalism. (Holbek 35).
What Levi-Strauss differed from Propp was his focus on discovering
underlying timeless binary divisions such as: male/ female, high/ low, living/ dead,
and light/ dark. Levi-Strauss combined several of Propp’s functions and
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rearranged the rest to form a series of binary oppositions. Levi-Strauss also
explored the semantic relationship between various mythemes (Hynes
21/Shishkoff 272). Levi-Strauss’s method revealed binary oppositions in a
vertical and static system while Propp’s method identified the liner and temporal
sequence of actions. For instance, according to Levi-Strauss, Propp’s number of
thirty-one functions was finite and limited. According to Levi-Strauss, several
Proppian functions among the thirty-one were reducible. Some of the functions
were transformations of other functions. For example, the Proppian function, the
interdiction is violated (function number III) was the inverse of interdiction (the
function number It) itself. Similarly, the departure (function number XI) was the
inverse of the return (function number XX). Again, Propp’s function number II
(interdiction) can be paired with the function III (violation). And, Struggle
(function XVI) can be grouped with the function XVIII (victory). By reducing
and combining Proppian functions, Levi-Strauss demonstrated the usefulness of
Propp’s method in his system. Propp’s formula provided a basis for the system of
Levi-Strauss. Levi-Strauss’s modification demonstrated an unchanging system of
“pairs of functions, sequences of functions, and independent functions” (Levi-
Strauss, 1983, p. 121). Levi-Strauss argued that this unchanging system
discovers the structure of each particular tale and the assigning of its place in a
classificatioa The reduction and modification of Proppian functions by
rearranging, Levi-Strauss made Propp’s theory more abstract. As a result of the
reduction of the functions, a structural scheme became a chronological scheme,
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because the reduction of functions destroyed the compositional sequence that
creates the plot model.
In discussing Propp’s influence and contribution to the study of narrative, it
is also important to note A.J. Greimas’ plot model. As a French literary theorist,
Greimas based his study of the narrative structure in the combination of semantic
and syntactic analysis. Following the foot-step of Levi-Strauss’s concept of
binary opposition, Greimas’ narrative plot model employed structural and formal
approach to literature. Greimas’ formula added validity to Propp’s and Levi-
Strauss’s system, because under the influence of Levi-Strauss, Greimas raised
Propp’s method to a higher level of abstraction, because Greimas’s modified
functions are more inclusive than that of Propp’s functions. By reducing Propp’s
thirty one functions to twenty functions, influenced by Levi-Strauss’s binary
opposition formula, the modification, in a sense, created a generalization of
actions in a plot model. Greimas’ modified functions can be seen in Figure Two:
1. absence
2. interdiction vs. violation
3. reconnaissance vs. delivery of information
4. deception vs. submission
5. villainy vs. lack
6. dispatch vs. decision for counteraction
7. departure
8. test by donor vs. reaction to test
9. acquisition of magical agent
10. transfer
11. combat vs. victory
12. brand
13. liquidation of the lack
[Figure Two: Greimas’s Functions, Greimas, 1965, p. 155]
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Figure Two Continued
14. return
15. pursuit vs. rescue
16. unrecognized arrival
17. difficult task vs. resolution of task
18. recognition
19. exposure of false hero vs. new appearance of hero
20. punishment of villain vs. marriage of hero
[Figure Two: Greimas’s Functions, Greimas, 1965, p. 155]
Some of Greimas’s combined Proppian functions are in a binary opposition, and
also the sequence of some of the functions is changed as well. For example,
Proppian function number XVI (Struggle) was renamed to Greimas’ function
number 11 (Combat). Proppian function number VI (Trickery) and function
number VII (Complicity) and function number XIX (Restoration) were
transformed into Greimas’ function number 4 (Deception and Submission), and
function number 13 (Liquidation of the lack). The Proppian function number
XVH (Branding) occurs between function number XVI (Struggle) and XVIII
(Victory). But Greimas put this particular function (Branding) after his modified
function 11 (Combat vs. Victory). Greimas also dismissed Proppian function
number XXUH (Unfounded Claims) and function number XXIX
(Transfiguration).
In addition to transforming Propp’s functional formula, Greimas created
additional binary oppositions to Levi-Strauss’s system and reduced Propp’s
narrative roles. For instance, the added binary oppositions to the system of Levi-
Strauss were: a) Disjunction/Conjunction, b) S eparation/Union, and c)
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Struggle/Reconciliation. A reduction of narrative roles happened in the following
way: a) Sender/Receiver, b) Helper/Opponent, and c) Object/Subject (Greimas,
1965, p. 166). By combining and alternating the Proppian functions, Greimas
changed Propp’s functions. As a result, Greimas’ substitution of functions may
suggest cultural contexts, because his system resulted from on his focus on the
plots of various works. While there may be a universal plot scheme as Propp
argued such as being able to discover and modify the system of Propp, the
different cultural and social contexts may allow for functional variations of the
narrative structure.
Nevertheless, Greimas shared the most fundamental interest with what
Propp had intended in his study of Russian fairy tales. Greimas was interested in
discovering the logical systems lying behind the narratives. Thus, even though he
based his work on Levi-Strauss’s study of myth as a semantic theory, his interest
didn’t lie in examining the “concrete meaning of the myth” (Nathhorst 56). What
Greimas didn’t share with Propp was his focus on “the recurrence of larger
episodic units, such as communication and contract, more obvious in addition to
establishing the overall abstract patterning of the Quest” (Budniakiewicz 381).
Greimas’ heroic plot pattern was known as “one of the most basic models for
construing human action in terms of beginnings/ middles/ endings and for
attributing meaning to that action” (Budniakiewicz 381). The Greimassian plot
model and Propp’s structural pattern emphasized different aspects of the
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underlying structure of the narratives. These differences point to Greimas’ focus
on larger units of underlying structural patterns.
Claude Bremond is another significant French theorist who developed his
own system influenced by Propp’s method among other major Structualists. It is
significant to examine Bremond’s method because he too modified Propp’s
method and developed techniques for the syntax of episodes within narratives.
Bremond combined his system with a series of binary oppositions similar to that
of Levi-Strauss to describe the structure of one hundred twenty French fairy tales
(Bremond, 1977). Like Levi-Strauss and Greimas, Bremond broke several of
Propp’s functions into a combination of six categories. Although Bremond used
the Proppian term function, he ignored Propp’s concept of functions and created
a more abstract system.
Bremond’s collapsed Proppian functions are presented in Figure Three:
a) Deterioration = 8A—Villainy (from victim’s perspective)
b) Improvement == 19—Liquidation of misfortune
c) Unworthiness — 8A—Villainy (from villain’s perspective)
= 24— Claims of false hero
d) Punishment — 18—Victory over villain
= 30—Punishment of false hero
e) Merit = 13—Hero’s reaction to donor’s test
= 18—Victory over villain
e) Merit — 19—Liquidation of misfortune
— 26—Difficult task accomplished
[Figure Three: Bremond’s Functions, Bremond, 1977, p. 52]
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Figure Three Continued
f) Reward = 14—Hero acquires use of magical agent
= 22—Rescue of hero from pursuit
= 29—Hero given new appearance
— 31—Hero marries and ascends throne
[Figure Three: Bremond’s Functions, Bremond, 1977, p. 52]
These six functional categorizations provided a basis for Bremond’s binary
opposition. He combined the functions into a more abstract category to show
various ways in which story might continue. As a result, his representation of the
plot model offered a consequential relationships and motivations. Bremond’s
systematic study presents his emphasis on the idea that the plot of a story or tale
was subject to teleological investigation because certain actions happen in order
(Shishkoff 276). Bremond’s modification elucidated the cause of certain actions
of characters as well as the result of the series of actions.
Bremond claimed that his formula subsumed Propp’s functions into more
comprehensive and, by and large, more applicable units. For example, Bremond
identified three important binary oppositions: a) Deterioration Improvement,
b) Merit Reward, c) Unworthiness Punishment (Bremond, 1977, p.
52). These binary oppositions were combined to produce the universal structure
of a tale. The Deterioration of A is caused by unworthy villain B and calls for
future Improvement of A. Worthy helper C helping A improve leads to Reward
for helper C. In the end, eventually, there is Punishment for villain B (Bremond,
1977, p. 52). The utility of Bremond’s binary opposition formula can be seen
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with the Korean folktale—Kongji and Patji (equivalent to the Cinderella story in
the West). In the story, the step-mother and step-sister caused the deterioration
of Kongji. Kongji endured the abuse and ill treatment by the step-mother and the
step-sister. Later, animals helped Kongji. Eventually, the step-mother and the
step-sister were punished for their evil doings toward Kongji. Bremond’s
discovery of this type of binary opposition offered another perspective to the
Proppian formula, showing the relationship among the characters and the actions.
Bremond’s formula explicated another type of universal connection between the
cause and effect relationship of the narrative structure.
In this chapter, I have tried to point out certain methodological
divergences and resemblances between Propp and French structuralists to show
the validity and usefulness of Propp’s system By examining the critiques and
continuing influence of Propp’s system, it is apparent that there are theoretical
and conceptual differences between Propp and the French structuralists Levi-
Strauss, Greimas, and Bremond. The major commonality among the three
structuralist critics was that they all incorporated Propp’s system and extended
Proppian method. Even though their theoretical background was different, those
scholars invoked a linguistic model for their study and treated narrative as a
linguistic system. Like Propp, Levi-Strauss, Greimas, and Bremond influenced
folkloric research and inspired many others to follow and continue their work
along the lines they set out. Propp’s formula was not incompatible or limited, but
provided a backbone to all other discoveries and studies to follow.
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As Levi-Strauss aptly puts, there was no means of understanding how
folktales differed for many scholars before Propp’s discovery and publication. In
this sense, Propp’s morphology was significant and remains valuable. As will be
shown in my analysis of Korean folktales, the order of the Proppian functions
may change and the functional elements may vary. The modification and isolation
of functional variations in a particular social and cultural context will suggest
cultural distinctions which can be identified through the narrative structure. The
most interesting and significant aspect about Propp’s system is that his method
allows me to examine non-European narratives. Thus, his method is quite useful
and valuable. Many European scholars and American folklorists overlooked the
diversified textual materials by limiting their study to European narratives. The
following chapter will discuss some of reasons for recasting Propp’s system and
explain why Propp’s morphology is significant in the study of oral and written
narrative traditions in general.
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CHAPTER THREE
A JUSTIFICATION FOR RECASTING PROPP
The long-established methods in the investigation and study of oral
narrative traditions has emphasized thematic and/or motif based analysis. The
contextual examination of the historical, political, and sociological contexts,
and the ethnic and gender perspectives offer contextual symbols and meanings
in a given narrative. This conventional approach to studying narratives only is
limited to identifying a plot model or various contents for the purpose of
examining the social, historical, or cultural implications. By focusing on a
content-based examination, the current critical environment of literary and
folkloristic scholarship ignores the underlying laws that constitute the structure
of narratives. This failure to examine and describe any narrative discourse
without defining its rules and components is significant and must be addressed.
Vladimir Propp’s system allows us to fill that “lack” and is in fact the best
choice to fill it. In order for me to propose a comprehensive approach to
narratives, it is necessary to re-examine Propp’ s method. Propp’s system
provides a systematic and scientific methodology that demonstrates the
importance of examining the rules that specify the structure of narrative.
Therefore, Propp’s theory can’t be dismissed as a thing of the past. This
chapter will discuss the ways in which Propp’s system should be valued and
rethought as a starting ground for my study. Examining a few reasons for
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recasting the Proppian method will help to justify the utility of the Proppian
system in the following chapter as well.
Propp’s method creates a comprehensive approach to studying oral
narratives, because his method captures synchronic (description of genre) and
diachronic views (study of its origin/historical development). Prior to
discussing the utility of Propp’s method, however, the methodological
difficulties of previous studies of the Finnish school approach must be
discussed. In the past, many folklorists were motivated by the main belief that
the collecting and preserving of folk narratives could help create or revitalize
national identity and unity (Holbek 27). The need for defining national identity
in the study of narratives became significant in Europe and other countries as
well. Both in the West and East, most scholars had a little intention of
reconstructing and interpreting oral literature. Their efforts were focused on
collecting, recording, and categorizing oral narratives. For instance, the Grimm
brothers collected tales through out Europe and the Aame-Thompson index
eventually helped to categorize the tales. The comparative study of plots or
motifs is useful, but the traditional technique of the Finnish school doesn’t
explain why or how a tale was propagated once it had been created. The
significance of the method discovered in Morphology o f the Folktale suggests
that the practice of the Finnish school can be augmented by comparing the plots
and the relationship between the components and the whole. Decomposing a
complex entity into its components is significant, because the object of this
method is to study an underlying structure in narrative texts. Another
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significant aspect of Propp’s method is that the usefulness of his method is still
relevant today, because students of oral and written literature have to know how
the parts of the tale relate to the whole before they can compare one tale with
another. Only then can they study the relation of a tale to religion, myth and
history, and only then can distinguishing commonalities and differences in
various narratives be possible (Propp 1968).
Propp’s system allows us to bridge the gap between the traditional
classification of fairy tales according to motifs of animals, ogres, and witches.
Propp’s functional scheme, which identified structural components (functions),
suggests that regardless of motifs or plots, the structure of narratives was the
same. Propp’s enumeration of elements and rules shows how components are
shaped into complex structures. By identifying die common underlying
narrative patterns, we now can discover constant elements and uniform rules
that demonstrate deep narrative structure, which before was unrecognized.
Before Propp’s discovery, scholars did not know what tales had in common.
Furthermore, by investigating the arrangement of structural elements, the notion
of genre became erroneous, because Propp’s investigation treated the fairy tale
genre as equal to that of high culture, elite literature. Propp considered fairy
tales whose composition revealed rules and laws that correspond to the social
norms and behaviors of individuals in a society. Traditionally, it was thought
that cultural products such as elite literature were created in the higher class and
passed down to lower levels in the society. By focusing on the indissoluble
oneness of the plot (content) and the composition (form), Propp’s system
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doesn’t make genre distinction between high and low culture. Propp’s
treatment of the fairy tale as a cultural product that constructs its social
paradigm is both significant and radical. In the morphological approach to
literature and culture at the level of understanding an underlying grammar in a
language, a structural analysis of (for example) comic strips, graffiti, or women’
fashion is as essential as that of high culture. In this perspective, Propp’ s
method is even applicable and valuable in analyzing Asian narratives, Korean
folktales and Pu Songling’s narratives.
When we turn our attention to Asian narratives of Korea and China, the
methodological problem exists there as it does in the West. Traditionally, the
emphasis in studying oral narratives has focused principally upon content, and
previous approaches to the study of Asian narratives lacked a scientific and
systematic methodology. Any systematic study of Korean folktales was only
made possible after the publication of Aame-Thompson index in 1928. Antti
Aame published the first standard index of the types of folktales under the title,
A Catalogue o f Folktale Types, Folklore Fellows Communications Number 3,
and Stith Thompson revised and enlarged the index as The Types o f the
Folktale: A Classification and Bibliography, Folklore Fellows Communications
Number 184 (Grayson 431). In 1979, Ch’oe Inhak completed the Type Index of
Korean Folktales. Ch’oe based his analysis on 2,500 different folktales and the
general categories of his index follow the Aame-Thompson index. From this
point on, the academic study of Korean folk narrative advanced and the
sophistication of Korean folktale analysis increased (Grayson 21). Significantly,
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Ch’oe’s “index has an entirely Korean system of classification and does not
utilize the individual type units of the Aarne-Thompson Index” (Grayson 440).
Ch’oe’s index adds “a sixth unit to cover mythological folktales” to
Thompson’s classification system which includes animal tales, ordinary
folktales, jokes and anecdotes, formula tales, and unclassified tales (Grayson
440). Ch’oe’s system focuses on a traditional motif analysis, and lacks a
scientific and structural analysis.
J. H. Grayson suggests in Myth And Legends From Korea that despite its
progress in the simple collection and recording of folk narrative, the study of
Korean folktale should give attention to “a deepened interest in theoretical
issues [and] the comparative analysis of folktales” (Grayson 21). From this
perspective, a morphological analysis will address such progressive theoretical
concerns. For this reason, utilizing Propp’s methodology in examining
narrative structure is fundamental. Propp’s approach may tell us about cultural
experiences necessary to interpreting Korean folktales and Pu Songling’s
narrative from different standpoints. Propp’s method is valuable for
demonstrating the syntactic structure of Korean folktales and Chinese narratives
at the level of the entire discourse, and that narrative syntax at the level of the
entire discourse will eventually reveal cultural distinctions and similarities. As
discussed, many of the studies of Chinese oral and written literature also have
mainly emphasized intellectual, cultural, social, and historical issues. The
investigation and study of Pu’Songling’s opus, Strange Tales from Make-Do
Studio, focused on a biographical, cultural and historical contents analysis, and
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the significance of the collection (Chang and Chang, 1998, p. 3). Some of the
studies can be considered to be comprehensive and systematical investigations
that concentrate on intellectual, cultural, historical, psychological, and
anthropological aspects (Chang and Chang, 1998, p. 4). None of the studies,
however, attempted to examine the narrative structure of Pu’Songling’s
collection of short stories. By understanding the deep structure of the narratives,
we may be able to uncover variations and commonalities of contents-based
approaches. Once the formal laws are identified, content can be scientifically
and objectively analyzed since the formal laws of composition are fixed. Thus,
a systematic and comprehensive approach to oral literature is most essential in
studying Asian narratives.
Still today, Propp’s method is a valid part of the folklorist’s critical
repertoire. Propp’s Morphology o f the Folktale will (no doubt) encourage others
in years to come, mainly because of Propp’s pioneering efforts and his critical
influence. As is discussed, Propp’s morphology is significant and valuable in
studying narratives, because his method provides a global approach to a
continuous investigation into oral literature in Korea and China which will lead
to a discovery of cultural values and cultural experiences. The question of
investigating national literature gives rise to a need for understanding its history
and its consciousness represented in narratives along with its compositional
rules and laws. In short, by examining Propp’s methodology, it is apparent that
Propp’s approach fulfills what other scholars have lacked and ignored in
understanding how narratives differ and what they have in common. As will be
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shown in my analysis of Korean folktales and Chinese tales, functional
variations particular to a specific culture suggest cultural distinctions. The
modification, by adding and subtracting functions, and the change in the order
of functions allows for an identification of cultural similarities as well. Propp’s
system offers a fundamental level of understanding of narratives because
Propp’s method will help us to understand and identify compositional elements
and a logical order of composition. The following chapter will demonstrate the
application of Propp’s method to the analysis of Korean folktales and
Pu’songling’s narratives and the effective application of the Proppian scheme,
and will discuss how the functional elements in Asian narratives are similar and
different to those described by Propp and last but not least reveal the cultural
values proper to each cultural narrative tradition.
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CHAPTER FOUR
APPLICATION OF THE PROPPIAN METHOD TO
TRADITIONAL ASIAN NARRATIVES
Proppian Analysis of Korean Folktales
The application of the Proppian method to other genres in the study of oral
and written narratives has been productive and successful in the West, and the
examination of Korean folktales and Chinese stories through the lens of the Proppian
method is equally valuable. Because Propp’s method makes no distinction in genre
(fairytale or folktale or novel or short story) and/or length of narratives, the Proppian
analysis is possible in Korean folktales and Chinese stories. In the morphological
approach to literature, I have attempted to extend the notion of syntax beyond the
level of the sentence to the level of specific bodies of Asian narrative texts as each
being a complete discoursive system. As Propp’s morphology centers around the
concept of function (a constituent of the narrative discourse), the identification of
functions are necessary. The identification of Proppian functions in the Asian
narratives at the level of language is particularly important, because the compositional
patterns reveal underlying norms and structures that correspond to the behavior of
individuals in society. The explication of the narrative structure of Korean folktales
and Chinese stories, and the discovery of additional functions that are not present in
Propp’s functional scheme suggest cultural commonalities and distinctions among
three different cultures: Korea, China, and Russia. In order to show the effective
application of Propp’s method and to identify compositional patterns to reveal
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cultural similarities and differences, this chapter is divided into two sections. The first
section discusses the historical development of oral narrative as a significant genre in
Korean literature, and illustrates the overall result of Korean folktale analysis. The
second part discusses and demonstrates the application of the Proppian method to Pu
Songling’s story, “The Cricket.”
The development of oral literature is significant for raising the self-
consciousness of the Korean populace. Traditionally, Korea was socially stratified,
and the yangban class used classical Chinese as to maintain their sphere of influence.
By breaking away from the traditional feudal social structure, the populace expressed
their “folk” consciousness in oral narratives since the eighteenth century. The
populace articulated their own voice in creating oral narratives that gave them a vent
to their resistance of the yangban class by using popular Korean alphabet, han’gul.
The common people created folk literature in the medieval Korean society, and the
word “folk” can mean the entire population except yangban (the ruling-class).
However, both yangban and the common populace loved P’ansori (singing and
theatrical performance— equivalent to opera in the West) and T’alch’um (the mask
dramas), both products of popular culture (Cho, 1997, p. 7-43). On one hand,
P’ansori reflected and articulated social and historical circumstances and transitions.
On the other hand, T’alch’um performers mocked the yangban class and expressed
the farmers’ satirical attitude toward the yangban class.
When we turn our attention to another form of oral literature, folktales come
to mind. Folktales express folk consciousness in its oral transmission. The English
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word “folktale” is comparable to the Korean word yennal yaegi. In general, yennal
yaegi means an old tale, and the word yaegi is a contraction of the standard word
iyagi which signifies a more obvious and intricate idea than the “best-loved nursery
tales” (Chun 9). Korean iyagi incorporates “fables with animal heroes, myths, and
what we call folk history or unofficial history [and] it even include ancient anecdotes”
(Chun 9). Therefore, there is the possibility of the word being translated as narrative,
story, or tale in various contexts. Yaegi not only transmits cultural and traditional
knowledge, but also provides moral teachings for children through oral recitation
(Chun 11). P’ansori was widely accepted and enjoyed by the yangban class as well,
because it had literary qualities that satisfied the taste of yangban class. In a slightly
different perspective, folktales are told and transmitted to the generation to the
generation by our grandparents. Although these types of performing arts and oral
narratives originated in agriculture communities, folktale as an oral narrative certainly
exhibits different functional purposes. As a representation of collective consciousness,
folktales exemplify moral observations and didactical purposes. In order to identify
cultural and social awareness of collectiveness and cultural dynamism, a selection of
Korean folktales and Chinese stories is made in this thesis.
For the purpose of Proppian analysis, I have selected thirty-one Korean
folktales (reference to Appendix I) from three different sources. There are many
variations for the same folktale depending on the publication. The folktales are
selected from Korean Folklore Reader (Indiana University), Korean Folk Tales (Si-
sa-young-o-sa Publishing Company) and Korean Folk Stories for Children
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(Samseong Publishing Company). Korean Folklore Reader examines various folk
narratives collected by D. L. Olmsted who collected oral narratives during his military
service in Korea between 1945 and 1946. The folk stories in this collection are rather
short in length. The pre-syntactic analysis (comprises phonemic notation with
indication of pitch levels) of the narratives is different from the other two collections.
The Si -sa-young-o-sa version of Korean folktales tends to illustrate detailed story
lines compared to other versions. The folktales in the collection of Samseong
Publication are somewhat shorter which is different from Si-sa-young-o-sa publication
versions. The discussion of the length of different tale versions is significant, because
the length of the tales may suggest detailed and descriptive information about the
stories in which the traditional motif or thematic analysis is based on Proppian
analysis is less concerned with the length of the folktales or the level of detail or
specification of the story line, because the narrative structure does not change
depending on the variations or the length or detail of the narratives.
When analyzing Korean folktales and Chinese stories, it is necessary to modify
the catalog of Propp’s thirty-one functions. In identifying patterns, I discovered
thirteen compositional elements (functions—not present in Proppian thirty-one
functions) in Korean folktales and four functions in the story, “The Cricket.” This
discovery compels me to modify Propp’s scheme by adding additional functions.
Figure Four demonstrates the additional functions found in Korean folktales, and
Table Five illustrates the additional functions found in “The Cricket.”
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40
Since Proppian functions end with function number XXXf, my additional functions
begin with the function number XXXII:
XXXII deceitful persuasions of the hero (s)
XXXIII the villain reacts to the persuasions of the hero (e)
XXXIV the hero encounters a donor ( Y )
XXXV the hero is punished ( T )
XXXVI the hero learns a lesson(II )
XXXVII the hero attempts to commit suicide ( o o )
XXXVIII physical transformation ( A )
XXXIX villain gives in (g)
XL villain seeks help (h)
XLI pursuit of the villain (m)
x l h conversion of the villain (v)
X Lin death ( Q )
XLIV reincarnation ( z )
[Figure Four: Additional Functions found in Korean Folktale Analysis]
Additional functions discovered in the analysis of Korean folktales
demonstrate that the notion of syntax holds, but the compositional elements of that
syntax will change in a given culture. These modifications are significant, because
they potentially point to the important cultural and/ or social differences between
Russian and Korean society. For instance, Propp’s tale structure ends with a
Wedding (Proppian function number XXXI). This function suggests a hopeful
prosperity in a tale. The wedding symbolizes the union among community and open
human relationships. In comparison, my analysis shows that the Korean folktales not
only contain the wedding function, but also contain the functions of death and
reincarnation. The idea of death and reincarnation comes from the ideas in the
culture’s belief system. Based on the belief system of Buddhism, Korean people
believe in the concept of unending chain of karma and reincarnation.
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41
The identification and the manifestation of death and reincarnation in Korean folktales
demonstrate the fact that the narratives reflect and symbolize the religious concept of
karma and after-life founded in Buddhism. The European belief in life after death
found in the European folktales is different, because the belief system based on
Christianity does not deal with the concept of karma and reincarnation in European
folktales.
Figure Five illustrates the application of Proppian analysis as well as the
The following sketch of folktale number one in my thirty-one
demonstrates the idea of additional function number XLIV
A family with one daughter (a).
The daughter loves a young man (a4),
The threat of forced matrimony (A16).
The daughter becomes ill and dies (Ql).
Requests for a favor after a death (D3).
Reincarnation as flower (Zl).
Recognition of the hero (Q)
a4 A16 Of D3 Zl Q
[Figure Five: Proppian Compositional Sketch of “The Flower Called Tolaci”]
In the thirty-one Korean folktale selections, there are ten incidents of death and five
incidents of reincarnation. Three subcategories of death (additional function number
XLM) are identified. The first category of death is the death caused by psychological
suffering, the second is suicide, and the third is the death caused by physical suffering
or disease. There are two subcategories for reincarnation (additional function number
XLIV). The first category is the reincarnation as flower or plant. The second
Proppian grammar,
folktale selections
(reincarnation).
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42
category of the reincarnation is animal. These two added functions suggest a unique
cultural and religious distinction from Russian culture. In contrast to Russian culture,
Korean folktale illustrates not only community and public oriented open human
relationships, but also focuses on individual happiness and betterment. In the belief in
reincarnation and after-life, Korean people long for a betterment in life. The religious
belief based on Buddhism clearly allows for a second chance in life through
reincarnation. Korean folktales present culturally embedded patterns of deep-seated
common thoughts and behavior that have been cumulatively nurtured over a long
period of their history. Especially, the beliefs, thoughts and values reflected in
Korean tales are a complex mixture of Shamanism, Confucianism and Buddhism.
The collective nature of Korean culture can be seen through the additional
functions such as function number XXXII (deceitful persuasions of the hero), XXXIX
(villain gives in), XL (villain seeks help), XLI (pursuit of the villain), and XLII
(conversion of the villain). In Propp’s scheme, a hero does not carry out deceitful
persuasion in order to accomplish his task or to win fights. However, in Korean
folktales, heroes undertake this action, and in responding, a villain reacts to the
persuasive arguments of the hero. The villain gives in and seeks help. Eventually, the
villain changes his behavior and converts. In Propp’s scheme, there are no
conversions of villains, but the villain is defeated or punished by the hero. In Korean
folktales, Propp’s function number XXX (the villain is punished) is absent. Instead,
the villain’s conversion (additional function number XLII) is added to the catalog of
Propp’s functions. The above discovered functions suggest cultural and social
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4 3
distinctions between the two cultural environments. Since the additional functions
advocate a common behavior, it is apparent that the anti-individualist and collective
nature of Korean culture is different from that of Russian culture. According to my
analysis, there are five occasions when a villain changes his behavior from evil to
good. There is a spirit of giving a second chance for a villain to realize his wrong
doing in order to live properly now and later. This idea of giving a second chance
also can be traced to Buddhism. The conversion of the villain, death, and
reincarnation suggest that in Korean culture, individuals are not fixed and separate
entities. Individuals’ inter-relationship to other community members in the society
makes the individual less defined and more open to change, more fluid.
Table Two demonstrates the identified Proppian functions in Korean folktales.
Appendix I provides the list of thirty-one Korean folktales and the abbreviated
samples of Proppian functional scheme of the tales. The examples of identified
Proppian functions indicate the applicability of Propp’s method to the tales.
Proppian Function
Number
Proppian Summary Korean folktales
I One of the members of a
family absents himself
from home
Tale 4, Tale 5, Tale 8,
Tale 12, Tale 17, Tale
19
Tale 25
II An interdiction is
addressed to the hero
Tale 4, Tale 6, Tale 17,
Tale 21, Tale 28,
HI The interdiction is
violated
Tale 4, Tale 6, Tale 17,
Tale 21
V The hero receives
information about his
victim
Tale 8, Tale 10, Tale
15, Tale 17, Tale 18,
Tale 19, Tale 21, Tale
25
[Table Two: Identified Proppian Function in Korean Folktales]
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44
Table Two Continued
Proppian Function
Number
Proppian Summary Korean folktales
VI The villain attempts to
deceive his victim in
order to take possession
of him or of his
belongings
Tale 10, Tale 27, Tale
29, Tale 30
VIII The villain causes harm
or injury to a member of
a family
Tale 1, Tale 2, Tale 5,
Tale 6, Tale 7, Tale 8,
Tale 9, Tale 10, Tale
11, Tale 13, Tale 14,
Tale 16, Tale 17, Tale
19, Tale 29
Villa One member of a family
either lacks something or
desires to have
something
Tale 4, Tale 5, Tale 7,
Tale 8, Tale 10, Tale
11, Tale 17, Tale 19,
Tale 20, Tale 23, Tale
24, Tale 28, Tale 30
XI The hero leaves home Tale 5, Tale 7, Tale 12,
Tale 17, Tale 20, Tale
21, Tale 27, Tale 28,
Tale 30
XII The hero is tested, etc.,
which prepares the way
for his receiving either a
magical agent or helper
Tale 1, Tale 3, Tale 6,
Tale 12, Tale 19, Tale
20, Tale 21, Tale 29,
Tale 30
XIII The hero reacts to the
actions of the future
donor
Tale 3, Tale 6, Tale 8,
Tale 9, Tale 12, Tale
15, Tale 17, Tale 19,
Tale 20, Tale 21, Tale
24, Tale 26, Tale 29,
Tale 30
XIV The hero acquires the
use of a magical agent
Tale 17, Tale 20, Tale
23, Tale 28, Tale 29,
XV The hero is transferred,
delivered, or led to the
whereabouts of an object
of search
Tale 5, Tale 17, Tale
21, Tale 29
[Table Two: Identified Proppian Function in Korean Folktales]
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45
Table Two Continued
Proppian Function
Number
Proppian Summary Korean folktales
x v n i The villain is defeated Tale 9, Tale 10, Tale
21, Tale 24
XIX The initial misfortune or
lack is liquidated
Tale 7, Tale 20, Tale
21, Tale 24, Tale 27,
Tale 28, Tale 29, Tale
30
XX The hero returns Tale 17, Tale 20, Tale
21, Tale 27, Tale 30
XXV A difficult task is
proposed to the hero
Tale 5, Tale 17, Tale
28, Tale 29
XXVII The hero is recognized Tale 1, Tale 2, Tale 3,
Tale 5, Tale 6, Tale 7,
Tale 8, Tale 9, Tale 11,
Tale 12, Tale 16, Tale
17, Tale 28
XLIII Death Tale 1, Tale 2, Tale 5,
Tale 10, Tale 11, Tale
12, Tale 16, Tale 17
XLfV Reincarnation Tale 1, Tale 5, Tale 11,
Tale 12, Tale 17
[Table Two: Identified Proppian Function in Korean Folktales]
The above functions appear at least four times in the analysis of thirty-one Korean
folktales. The Roman numerals indicate the Proppian function number and are
followed by the Proppian summary. The third column shows the tales that contain the
Proppian functions. A careful examination of the overall result of this Proppian
analysis of Korean folktale reveals the universal narrative structure as well as cultural
similarities and distinctions between Russia and Korea. This comprehensive analysis
certainly suggests that in any given culture, the narrative structure is similar, but
functional elements may change in a given culture.
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46
In conjunction with the global analysis, looking more locally at a specific tale can help
us understanding the idea of change and variation of functional components in a
narrative structure.
The following Proppian analysis of the Korean folktale (The Man Who
Became an Ox)— see appendix II— will demonstrate the comprehensive analysis
suggested in the above. First, the Proppian sketch and the analysis may be shown in
the following way. The Roman numerals in the parentheses and the signs indicate
Proppian and additional function numbers and designated signs.
Proppian Function
Number
Proppian Summary Proppian & Additional
Function Signs
Initial Situation a
Villa One member of a family
lacks something
a
XI Hero leaves home
t
XXXIV Hero encounters a donor Y - additional
XII Hero is tested D
XIII Hero reacts to the donor E
xxxvni Physical transformation A — additional
XV Hero is transferred G
XVH Hero is branded J
II Interdiction
7
XXXV Hero is punished T — additional
XXXVI Hero learns a lesson n -additional
XX Return
4
XXIII Hero is unrecognized 0
xxxvn Hero attempts to commit
suicide
oo— additional
XXXVIII Physical transformation A - additional
XX Returns
4
XXVII Hero is recognized
Q
XXIX Hero is given a new
appearance
T
a a tY D E A G J y ' F n f o o o A j Q T
[Table Three: Proppian Compositional Sketch of “The Man Who Became an Ox”]
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The following analysis mapping, Table Four, illustrates the identified basic
narrative structure. Each row signifies the functions with the additional functions,
designated signs, reference to the textual evidence (folktale sentences indicated by
Arabic numbers), and summary of events. An underlying functional pattern as well as
hidden differences in the text can be identified. The textual evidence may be found in
the Appendix n.
Propp’s Functions Propp’s Designated
Signs
Textual Evidence Summary of Text
Initial Situation a sentences 1-8 A lazy young man in
a village only likes to
eat, sleep, and play.
One Member of a
Family Lacks
Something or
Desires to Have
Something
A sentences 9-23 The hero seeks more
pleasure of being lazy
and wants to avoid
his wife’s complaints.
The Hero Leaves
Home
t
sentences 24-28 The hero steals his
wife’s most valuable
belonging (rolls of
cloth), and he leaves
home to find an easy
life.
The Hero
Encounters a
Donor
Y
Additional
Function
sentences 29-39 After leaving home,
the hero finds an old
man who makes a
mask that looks like
an ox’s head and the
hero is much
interested in what the
old man is making.
The Hero is Tested D sentences 40-63 The old man states a
series of interesting
things about his ox
mask and prompts
the hero to try it on.
[Table Four: Mapping of Proppian Analysis of “The Man Who Became an Ox”]
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48
Table Four Continued
Propp’s Functions Propp’s
Designated Signs
Textual
Evidence
Summary of Text
The Hero Reacts to
the Donor
E sentences 64-69 The hero is
suspicious about the
old man’s offer but
he puts the mask on.
The mask won’t
come off and the ox
hide envelops his
body tightly.
Transformation A
Additional
Function
sentences 70-79 The hero is
transformed into an
ox.
The Hero is
Transferred
G sentences 80-87 After transformed
into an ox, the hero is
transferred to a
different location (a
market area) by the
donor.
The Hero is
Branded
J sentences 88-89 The hero is branded
as a strong ox that
can work for people.
Interdiction r sentences 90-98 The donor tells the
farmer who bought
the hero as an ox not
to feed radishes to
the ox If the ox
were to eat radishes,
then the ox would
die.
The Hero is
Punished
v p
Additional
Function
sentences 99-109 The hero as a
transformed ox has to
work all day and he
must live like an ox,
sleeping in a cold ox
stall, eating hays, and
being hungry like an
ox
[Table Four: Mapping of Proppian Analysis of “The Man Who Became an Ox”]
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49
Table Four Continued
Propp’s Functions Propp’s
Designated Signs
Textual
Evidence
Summary of Text
The Hero Learns a
Lesson
n sentences 110-
118
The hero feels the
compunction for his
past behavior of
being lazy and
causing harm to his
family.
Return
i
sentences 119-
125
The hero escapes
from the farmer and
returns home.
The Hero is
Unrecognized
0 sentences 126-
M O
The hero escapes and
returns home.
The Hero Attempts
to Commit Suicide
0 0
Additional
Function
sentences 141-
144
Because he is an ox
and is unrecognized
by his family, the hero
doesn’t want to live.
He remembers the
interdiction and tries
to kill himself by
eating radishes.
Transformation A
Additional
Function
sentences 145-
149
When the hero eats
radishes, he turns
back into a human
form.
The Hero Returns
1
Sentences 150-
156
After the second
transformation into a
man, the hero says
good-bye to the
farmer and then
returns home.
The Hero is
Recognized
Q
sentences 157-
159
Everyone at home
recognizes the man.
The Hero is Given a
New Appearance
T sentences 160-
164
The hero is a new
person. He is no
longer lazy but works
very hard for himself
and his family.
[Table Four: Mapping of Proppian Analysis of “The Man Who Became an Ox”]
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50
According to Propp, an Initial Situation opens up a tale. Thus, it is an
important morphological component even though it is not a function. An Initial
Situation presents the members of a family or by mentioning of a name or a status, a
future hero is introduced (Propp, 1968, p. 25). In this particular folktale, the Initial
Situation offers information about the condition and characteristics of a man and his
family members as well as members of his village. A Proppian hero has a quality and
a potential to save a victim from a villain. However, the identified hero’s quality in
this specific Korean folktale is somewhat different from those identified by Propp.
The hero causes harm to his family by taking property away from his wife. In this
sense, the main dramatis persona has an obscure function; he could be considered as a
hero or a villain. However, the main character may be considered to be a hero,
because he is the one who meets the donor and receives a magical object. In Propp’s
functional scheme, the function number Villa shows a lack of a bride or friend or
extraordinary objects “such as firebird, ducks with golden feathers, a wonder-of-
wonders” (Propp, 1968, p. 35). In the Korean tale, the hero lacks the abstract
concept of happiness and pleasure. The hero wants to acquire physical pleasure; he
doesn’t want to work in the field like his wife or other villagers. This difference in
what the hero is lacking may suggest a cultural distinction between Korea and Russia.
In contrast to Russian fairy tales, Korean folktale narratives suggest the needs for
individual cooperation in the community success. The emphasis on the collective
effort despises the notion of individuality. Therefore, in the Korean culture the man’s
individual desire cannot be granted but needs to be transformed to fit the public needs.
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5 1
In Propp’s scheme, the hero goes through a task, interrogation, or attack
which prepares the hero for the future task to be achieved (Propp, 1968, p. 39). In
the Korean folktale, the hero accidentally encounters the donor. The function of the
donor in this case is also different from that of Propp’s. In the Korean tale, the donor
is like a villain who intends to trick the hero. The donor’s magical object functions as
an instrument that creates a negative effect on the hero. In Propp’s functional scheme,
the hero reacts to the actions of the future donor by answering a greeting, freeing a
captive, showing mercy to a suppliant, or vanquishing his adversary (Propp, 1968, p.
42/43). One similarity in both Propp’s and in the Korean tale is that the hero receives
a magical object from the donor. However, the use and function of the magical object
is different. In Propp’s scheme, the hero is tested so that he can be prepared for his
quest and so that he can receive the magical object. For instance, the hero serves as a
servant to a merchant for three years or he has to engage in a battle or combat (Propp,
1968, p. 41/42). Further, the hero is transferred to a different location in his search
for a magical object. The location may be far away so the hero uses a variety of ways
such as flying through the air, traveling on the ground or water, or following bloody
tracks (Propp, 1968, p. 51). However, in the Korean tale, the hero is not prepared
for anything, but receives a magical object that eventually transforms the hero into an
ox. This process is different from the Proppian hero who searches for the magical
object to pursue his goal. This difference might suggest a different notion of heroic
behavior and the importance of a hard working. As discussed in the comprehensive
analysis of the Korean folktales, the collective nature of Korean culture may give rise
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52
to the different notion of individual heroism. In short, Korean tales tend to emphasize
the didactic purpose of tales for the benefit of the public rather than emphasis on
individual heroic triumph. In short, moral and religious edification is emphasized in
the Korean folktales.
In Propp’s scheme, function number II (Interdiction) occurs right after
function number I (Absentation). However, in the Korean folktale, Interdiction
occurs in the middle of the tale. The similarity between Propp’s scheme and my
analysis is that the Interdiction is addressed as an order or suggestion (Propp, 1968, p.
27). By violating the Interdiction, the Hero’s Attempt to Commit Suicide (function
number XXXVII) leads to Physical Transformation (function number XXXVII).
Even though the Transformation occurs by accident, it brings a positive result in this
particular case. When things don’t work out in his favor, the hero decides to take his
life away. This additional function portrays the human side of the hero. This
characterization of the hero is different from that of Propp’s because the hero in the
Russian fairy tales demonstrates strength and heroism by rescuing a princess or a
victim. These functions (XXXVII and XXXVIII) imply two different effects. First, it
may send a wrong message to the listeners or readers because giving up one’s life
(committing suicide) can not be looked at positively. Second, the hero’s behavior of
giving up his life may suggest that he is open to change. Thus, giving up his life
implies the beginning of a new life. This second suggestion can be connected to the
idea of reincarnation. The hero may be reincarnated as something better than a lazy
person. The idea of being lazy must be prohibited, even if that prohibition must take
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5 3
the form of suicide. Unlike other folktales, the physical transformation is into the form
of an animal. In Propp’s scheme, it is the villain who is punished. However, in the
Korean tale, the hero is subject to punishment as well and eventually learns his lesson.
These two additional functions (XXXV and XXXVI) suggest a unique functional
characteristic different from that of Russian fairy tales. In the Korean tale, the
additional function number XXXV (Hero is Punished) leads directly to the next
additional function number XXXV (Hero Learns a Lesson).
The additional function number XLIV (Reincarnation) indicates two
subcategories, the reincarnation as flower or plant, or the reincarnation as animal.
The function number XLIV (Reincarnation) is different from the function number
XXXVH (transformation), because this function occurs here and now in reality
without a death. So in this case, the physical transformation brings a psychological
transformation at the end. In Propp’s scheme, the Villain is Punished (function
number XXX) and the Hero is Married and Ascends the Throne (function number
XXXI) follow the function number XXIX. However, the Korean folktale ends with
function number XXIX (The Hero is Given a New Appearance). Interestingly,
several Proppian functions are dismissed in the analysis of the Korean tale. Usually,
after the Initial Situation, Absentation (function number I), Interdiction (function
number II), Violation (function number III), Reconnaissance (function number IV),
Delivery (function number V), Trickery (function number VI), Complicity (function
number VH), and Villainy (function number VIII) are encountered. Although the
sequence of the functions may vary, according to Propp, these functions should
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54
appear in the analysis of any tale. However, this Korean folktale does not present
these Proppian functional elements. This absence of some of Proppian functions in
the analysis of the Korean tale further demonstrates the fact that Propp’s underlying
narrative structure remains still even though the functional elements may change.
The Proppian analysis of the Korean folktale demonstrates that at the very
least Propp’s method can be used to reveal the narrative structure ofKorean folktales.
Understanding and identifying the structural scheme could become “a matter of
constantly building, confirming, and modifying expectation” based on cultural values
and beliefs (Haynes 5). I would also argue that it offers the possibility of composing
folktales by using functional elements; that is, Propp’s scheme could also be used to
generate new tales that can signify morals or values that are essential for target
audiences. Since Propp identifies children as a particularly appropriate audience for
folktales, the patterns of the repeated “functions” of Korean folktales can be used to
educate young children who are disconnected from Korean cultural values and roots.
The constantly repeated compositional patterns of folktales establish a paradigm for
children who have not yet formed their moral values. This Proppian analysis
demonstrates that there are identifiable basic components whose combination into
complex wholes is governed by equally identifiable rules as Propp has predicted.
The application of Propp’s method is also useful in analyzing Chinese
narrative, Pu Songling’s tales. The significance of Pu Songling’s narrative gives rise
to the question of the authorial intention of writing such a collection. Through these
tales, Pu Songling satirized rapacious officials, denounced the examination, showed
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5 5
sympathy for the sufferings of the people and the suffering of women, and applauded
true love and defiance of convention. Despite the “literary inquisition” under the
social upheaval in the late Ming and early Qing, Pu Songling was compelled to turn to
“the realm of the mysterious and fantastic, to kindred spirits that waited in shaded
groves and dark valleys, to stories of were-foxes and ghosts that could vent his secret
indignation” (Quong 1946) Whether the strange tales of Pu Songling take their
material from stories about ghosts and supernatural beings as well as the amazing
adventures of men, his true interest was in the ordinary people’s life and the true
subject of his writing was people. His stories are “strange without being freakish,
marvelous yet in tune with human feelings. Their unpredictable events are tied to the
personalities of ordinary people” (Pu Songling, 1989, p. iv). For the purpose of
Proppian analysis, among many Pu Songling’s stories, I chose the tale, “The Cricket.”
Conventionally, we don’t expect to see the common structure between a Korean
folktale and Pu Songling’s tale, because these are two different tales on the surface.
However, by applying the same method, the difference between the two tales can
yield interesting results. The same analytical method will be used to examine any tale
in Pu Songling’s collection.
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56
Proppian Analysis ofPu Songling’s Story, “The Cricket”
The oral tradition in China reflects the hope and fear of human beings in
general. The professional storytellers popularized stories of common people’s
everyday life holding up their language in their common language of the Northern
Song period, coming out of the melting pot culture of the Tang dynasty. The rise of
the middle class endorsed and promoted storytelling as entertainment and
performance. At this time, some old historical tales and ghost tales were transcribed
in addition to the writing of new stories. Literary techniques such as suspension,
surprise, and extra-ordinary features in the storytelling were added to keep the
audiences’ interest. In addition, the most prominent characteristic of storytelling was
its performance by singing and chanting as they in their vernacular language offered
the audience a great degree of satisfaction in listening. Later in the Ming dynasty and
Qing dynasty, with the invention of printing, the reception of storytelling shifted from
listening to the act of silent reading.
It is only in the Qing dynasty that the supernatural tales rose to new heights
and re-stimulated the supernatural imagination and emphasized the primacy of
supernatural experience (Chang, 1984, p. 40). Chinese literature about the
supernatural realm was vastly enriched by Pu Songling’s collection, Strange Tales
from Make-Do Studio, first completed in 1679 and published in 1766. In these tales,
often all kinds of wondrous and weird things are described “in such a way that the
social conditions of the underworld are portrayed which prove very similar to those in
the world of man” (Quong 12). The construction of fantastic realms out of the
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5 7
unknown makes these figments of imagination real. In the world of the unknown, the
readers accept uncanny coincidences, interplays of forces, and the transcendence of
time and space. Perhaps, for these reasons, these stories are still loved.
Figure Six reveals the base structure of “The Cricket” which shows the
sequence of functions. The numerical number in the parentheses and the signs
indicate the Proppian functional numbers and his designated signs.
Initial Situation
Initial Situation
8a) Lack, a
25) Difficult Task, M
32) The hero acquires a help, £
11) Departure, t
19) Liquidation, K
20) Return, 4
8) Villainy, A
33) The villain attempts suicide, 0
19) Liquidation, K
26) Solution, N
34) The hero is rewarded, < 5
35) The villain returns to reality, •
a a a M S | K | A § K N $ *
[Figure Six: Proppian Compositional Sketch of “The Cricket”]
Table Five illustrates the identified underlying structure of “The Cricket.” Each row
presents a function, its designated sign, and textual evidence. In these mappings, we
can identify interesting functional patterns and hidden variations different from that of
Propp’s functional scheme in the text. (See appendix III—“The Cricket”)
Proppian Functions Designated Proppian
Signs
Text Examples
Initial Situation a “During the reign of Hsuan,
crickets were exacted from
the people”(Chai & Chai 163)
[Table Five: of Proppian Analysis of “The Cricket”]
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Table Five Continued
Proppian Functions Designated Proppian
Signs
Text Examples
Initial Situation a “Now in this town lived a
man named Cheng Ming.”
(Chai & Chai 163)
One Member of a Family
Either Lacks Something or
Desires to Have
Something
a
Lack, Insufficiency
“Then came another call for
crickets Cheng Ming dared
not levy on his neighbors, nor
could he pay the sum
himself.” (163)
A Difficult Task is
Proposed to the Hero
M
Difficult Task
“The magistrate set him a
limit of time and in little more
than ten days gave him one
hundred strokes of the
bamboo.” (163)
The Hero Acquires Help S
Additional Function
“Soon the screen moved and
a piece of paper was thrown
out, on which there were no
words, but a picture.” (164)
The Hero Leaves Home T Departure “He got up with the help of a
stick and went to the back of
the monastery with the
paper.” (164)
The Initial Misfortune or
Lack is Liquidated
K Liquidation “It was a magnificent
specimen, strong and good-
looking . . . .” (164)
The Hero Returns i Return “He was greatly delighted and
took it home in the wire
cage.” (164)
The Villain Causes Harm A Villainy Cheng Ming’s nine year old
son opened the pot and “the
cricket jumped out and
sprang away. . . ” By
grasping the cricket, “he
pulled its legs off and crushed
it... so that soon afterward
it died.” (165)
The Villain Attempts
Suicide
0
Additional Function
“. . . his body was discovered
in the well.” (165)
[Table Five: of Proppian Analysis of “The Cricket”]
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Table Five Continued
Proppian Functions Designated Proppian
Signs
Text Examples
The Initial Misfortune or
Lack is Liquidated
K Liquidation “Suddenly he heard a cricket
chirping outside the gate,. . .
he saw that the cricket was
still there.” (165)
The Task is Resolved N Solution Cheng Ming was rewarded
and the cricket was presented
to the governor. (167)
The Hero is Rewarded $
Additional Function
“The magistrate pleased in his
turn, exempted Cheng Ming
from the duties of beadle, and
instructed the local examiner
to . . . passed the next
examination.” (167)
The Villain Returns to
Reality
•
Additional Function
“A year later Cheng’s son
recovered his senses and said,
T was transformed into a
cricket—a quick, skillful
fighter. Now I wake up.”
(167)
[Table Five: of Proppian Analysis of “T re Cricket”]
A close examination of the identified Proppian functional scheme helps us to
distinguish the salient characteristics of the strange story. According to Propp’s
scheme, in Russian fairy tales the lack of money is a common element that causes the
dispatch of a hero on a quest after the initial situation. However, in “The Cricket,”
the hero, Cheng Ming, is sent to catch a cricket for the emperor. In the Chinese tale,
the hero receives help in solving his given task from his wife who in fact gets a
drawing from a fortuneteller for her husband. In the Proppian scheme, the hero
acquires the use of a magical agent from a donor. In “The Cricket,” although a
fortuneteller could be considered to be a donor, the drawing that the hero uses to
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60
locate the cricket doesn’t have a magical power. An idea of social status change in
society can be recognized as in the Propp’s functions when the hero ascends to the
throne after resolving a difficult task and marrying the princess. In “The Cricket,” the
hero is rewarded by the magistrate with the honor of passing the governmental
examination and acquiring wealth from the governor. In both Propp’s system and
“The Cricket,” the heroes are rewarded for their deeds, but in a different manner.
Through the analysis, we notice that the ripple effect of one’s good and successful
deed that brings satisfaction and a happy result for everyone who is involved in a task.
In short, a social hierarchy and reciprocity are respected in this particular cultural
setting revealed in Pu Songling’s imagination.
As Propp claimed, a narrative starts with an Initial Situatioa However, we
can identify not one but two Initial Situations in “The Cricket.” While Propp’s Initial
Situation has nothing to do with the actions of the characters, in this case, the first
Initial Situation provides a historical setting of the story, and the second Initial
Situation provides information about the main character. They serve as foundational
settings for the narrative functions to be developed and certainly, through the
identified Initial Situations, we learn about the social, cultural, and historical
conditions along with the character’s circumstances in the story. The double Initial
Situation is a unique trait in this analysis, because it is a variation from the Proppian
functions. By offering exact dates, names of the characters, names of the town and
the kingdom, strange stories hold much more factual credibility than folktales. Pu
Songling gathered the stories of the people into his own heart and from his own heart
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61
gave them a new form (Quong 11). Therefore the “second” instance of the Initial
Situation is not surprising since it enables the storyteller to contextualize his
narrative—a practice unnecessary and even undesirable in folk storytelling.
Conventionally, Proppian functions end with Wedding, (function number
XXXI). According to Propp, when the hero returns home, the readers expect a
happy ending with a reward and marriage. However, the tale presents a climax and
adds suspension by introducing harm to the hero. A sophistication of the tale is
presented in the middle of the story through the action of the villain. My analysis
suggests that Cheng Ming’s nine-year old son is a villain, because the action of the
son might bring disaster and injury to the family. In any circumstance, no reader
would consider the son of Cheng Ming a villain; however, according to the Proppian
analysis, he is a villain in the tale. This idea is supported by the fact that Propp is not
concerned with the attributes of characters, but the focal point of Propp’s function is
the action of the characters. Therefore, the son’s action, killing the cricket, makes
him a villain in the tale. Usually, once the harm is done, the villain and the hero join in
direct combat, but surprisingly, the villain decides to take his life in order to avoid his
reality. The villain’s action manifests desperation and suggests that death can be used
for escaping reality.
In the Proppian sketch of “The Cricket,” it is clear that the sequence of
functions does not follow the Proppian functional sequence; that is the functional
sequence is not as rigid as Propp claimed. Propp does not indicate which functions
are always present and which are not. Some of Propp’s functions may be absent from
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62
a particular story. In analyzing the narrative structure of the strange stories, we can
see that additional functions and different functions at different times can be placed in
a particular cultural setting by the author to achieve specific effects in the literary
texts. While the sequence of functions may be different from Propp’s functional
sequence, Proppian analysis is still useful in identifying the syntactical structure of the
narratives, because the absent functions do not influence the complexity of the literary
text and the additional functions might reveal cultural and social variations different
from that of Propp.
The most interesting additional function in the tale is the last function, The
villain returns to reality ( • ). This last function can be examined in relation to the
second additional function, The villain attempts suicide ( 0 ). The villain tries to kill
himself after killing the cricket in the earlier part of the tale. Then, the villain fears his
father’s rage and imagines the damage to his family. At this point, we can recognize
the psychological state of the villain. It is important to note the villain’s mental
condition for his action in the tale. By committing suicide, the villain avoids direct
confrontation with the hero’s anger. The villain’s action suggests that direct combat
is not the only way out but death can also give a way out. In the state of
unconsciousness, the villain transforms his body into a supernatural form, a cricket,
then later his soul returns to his body. For being a skillful and strong cricket in his
transformation in a state of coma, the villain alters the bad situation to a victorious
situation for his father and his family. It is possible for the villain to move between
the two realms, from being in the state of unconsciousness to changing the
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6 3
unfortunate reality. Undoubtedly, the villain’s transformation highlights the
psychological devastation and presents a solution for life’s catastrophes. A social
injustice caused by the ridiculous cultural practice, cricket fighting, is depicted and
that in the villain’s unconsciousness, a better life came about through the means of the
extra-ordinary. Ultimately, the complexity of human reality is merged in the world of
dream or unconsciousness. These strange stories unquestionably make the boundary
between life and death more illusive.
Unlike the Russian culture, the concept of death is significant in both Korean
and Chinese culture. The possible meaning of suicide and reincarnation in the Korean
tales is somewhat different from the Chinese tale. However, the idea of suicide as
part of subcategory of death, and the idea of reincarnation are apparent in both
Korean and Chinese narrative structures. In thirty-one Korean tales, the hero
commits suicide and eventually is reincarnated as flower or plant or animal. On the
other hand, in the Chinese tale— The Cricket”, the villain commits suicide in order to
avoid the harsh reality. The idea of escaping through killing oneself is similar in both
cultures. However, the ways by which the individuals are affected in both Korean and
Chinese cultures are different. In the Chinese tale, the social or cultural practice
affects the villain’s behavior. Unlike the Chinese tale, the hero in the Korean tale,
“The Man Who Became an Ox,” affects the public benefit; thus, the hero’s behavior
calls for a change to benefit the greatest number. These two significant functions
suggest a unique cultural distinction from Russian culture. Korean folktales and
Chinese tales embedded patterns of deep-seated common thoughts and behavior that
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are founded and reflected in Buddhism. In contrast to Russian culture, Korean
folktales and Chinese tales manifest not only social and public oriented individual
behaviors and human relationships, but also promote openness in individual
participation in achieving happiness and individual improvement. The identified
underlying narrative structure undoubtedly demonstrates these deep-seated life values
of people in general. As a result of a morphological analysis of Korean folktales and
Chinese tales, an understanding of the cukural identities of Korean and Chinese
culture can be preserved through an identification of narrative structures.
As shown in the above morphological analysis, the application of Propp’s
grammar is not limited to Russian fairy tales, but is also useful for explicating the
deeper syntactical structure of the Korean folktale and tales from China. Propp’s
structural analysis has shown that there are identifiable rules that govern
compositional elements in popular folk literature and culture. Although Korean and
Chinese history differs from that of Russia, Proppian analysis shows that in the
Russian fairy tale there are identifiable basic components whose combination into
complex wholes is governed by equally identifiable rules. While it is necessary to
modify the catalog of Propp’s functions in analyzing the Korean folktale and Pu
Songling’s tales, the idea of a formal system remains. Further, the differences in the
elements comprising the catalog will change in a given culture, indicating important
cultural differences. While this formal analysis raises the limitation of the culturally
specific universality of the Proppian method, at the level of method, Propp’s
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65
contribution to the study of folktale cannot be dismissed. Such an analysis provides a
new way of classifying and interpreting narratives by allowing us to understand both
the similar structure and the variations.
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66
CONCLUSION
My principal interest in this project was to demonstrate the utility and
practicality of Vladimir Propp’s morphological method in investigating and
studying Asian oral narratives. The selections of “The Man Who Became an
Ox” and “The Cricket” can be considered to be a major representation because
these narratives embody a large number of Proppian functional components that
I have identified in my study. The previous studies of oral narrative tradition
disregarded the underlying laws that constitute the structure of narratives.
Propp’s system allows us to discover the hidden knowledge of oral narratives.
His scientific investigation identifies the compositional pattern that lies beneath
the structure of Korean folktales and Pu Songling’s narratives and organizes its
compositional laws. Propp’s method provides a comprehensive analysis which
can be used in addition to the present system of contextual investigation. His
method can enhance the current established methods which emphasize motif or
plot based analysis in investigating and studying oral narratives.
My investigation and application of Propp’s system extends to the level of
the Asian narrative texts as a complete discourse rather than focusing on the
level of the sentence. By identifying Proppian functions in the Asian narratives
at the level of language, I am able to reveal underlying norms and structures
that correspond to the behavior of individuals in society. Thus, structural
analysis of the Korean folktale and Pu Songling’s narratives help us to
understand culturally structured meanings that identify cultural identity not
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67
readily made available by the previous studies and methodology. Such an
examination provides a comprehensive method of studying oral narrative
structure.
In the next step of the future investigation and study of oral narratives,
some other research might be done in order to further develop present systems.
For instance, since Propp is more concerned with the structure of narratives and
his method allows for discovering a logical order of composition, we may be
able to generate new tales. Such technique of creating tales may produce new
genre of literature based on oral tradition of form and content. We may also
begin with the process by asking such questions: What are the relations
between the tales and the culture in which they are recorded? How is the
structure of the folk or fairy tale related to the structure of ideal model of
successful story in a society? To what extent does the narrative structure
influence the social/moral behavior of individuals in a society? How does the
individual learn fairytale or folktale structure? Is there a difference between
children and adults in learning the structure of narratives? If this is so then to
what degree is the compositional structure affect individual language
acquisition? By examining the compositional patterns, can an individual leam
moral and/or social values in a given culture or society? Can individual hearer
of the tales make deviation from the original narrative structure and create their
own tales? There are many questions to be asked in the next step of
investigation of folk literature and popular culture. We may be able to proceed
in this question by generating new tales as well as field and laboratory
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68
experiments. Targeting children and young adults, such experiments may be
valuable in studies of cultural ideals and to large extent the cultural (national)
identity.
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APPENDIX I: LIST OF THIRTY-ONE KOREAN FOLKTALES AND
SAMPLE PROPPIAN FUNCTIONAL SCHEME
Tale Number One— The Flower Called Tolaci
Initial Situation ( a )
Death ( O )
Reincarnation ( Z )
Recognition of the hero ( Q )
Tale Number Two—Bull Rock Village
Initial Situation ( a )
Deceitful Persuasion of the hero ( S )
Death ( Q )
Recognition of the hero ( Q )
Tale Number Three—The Story of Two Brothers
Initial Situation ( o c )
Test of the hero (D )
Friendly response ( E )
Recognition of the hero ( Q )
Tale Number Four—The Legend of Tankun
Initial Situation ( a )
Interdiction ( y )
Interdiction is violated ( 8 )
Wedding ( W )
Tale Number Five—Grandmother Flower
Initial Situation ( a )
Death ( O )
Recognition of the hero ( Q )
Reincarnation ( Z )
Tale Number Six—Daughter-in-law Rock Village
Initial Situation ( a )
Interdiction ( y )
Interdiction is violated ( 8 )
Recognition of the hero ( Q )
Tale Number Seven— The Tale of Forget—Worry Village
Initial Situation ( a )
Lack ( a )
Departure ( f )
Recognition of the hero ( Q )
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Tale Number Eight—Filial—Unfilial Bridge
Initial Situation ( a )
Lack ( a )
Conversion of the villain ( V )
Recognition o f the hero ( Q )
Tale Number Nine—The Chivalrous Spirit ofKokulye
Initial Situation ( a )
Expulsion of the villain ( I )
Friendly response ( E )
Recognition o f the hero ( Q )
Tale Number Ten—The Story of a Faithful Woman
Initial Situation ( a )
Lack ( a )
Wedding ( W )
Death ( £1 )
Tale Number Eleven—The Flower That Longs for the Sun
Initial Situation ( a )
Lack ( a )
Death ( O )
Reincarnation ( Z )
Recognition o f the hero ( Q )
Tale Number Twelve— 100 Days Pink (Lilac)
Initial Situation ( a )
Departure ( f )
Death ( £1 )
Reincarnation ( Z )
Recognition of the hero ( Q )
Tale Number Thirteen— Story of a Grandfather
Initial Situation ( a )
Lack ( a )
Friendly response ( E )
Conversion of the villain ( V )
Tale Number Fourteen— Story of a Wife Who Looked Ugly and Pretty
Alternately
Initial Situation ( a )
Lack ( a )
Departure ( f )
Test of the hero ( D )
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Tale Number Fifteen—Finger Catechism
Initial Situation ( a )
Call for help ( B )
The hero receives, information about the villain ( C , )
Friendly response ( E )
Tale Number Sixteen—Falling Flower Rock
Initial Situation ( a )
Departure ( | )
Death ( Q )
Recognition o f the hero ( Q )
Tale Number Seventeen—Wood Cutter and Nymph
Initial Situation ( a )
Lack ( a )
The villain reacts to the persuasion o f the hero ( e )
Death ( Q )
Reincarnation ( Z )
Tale Number Eighteen—An Loving Son
Initial Situation ( a )
The villain reacts to the persuasion o f the hero ( e )
The villain gives in ( g )
Conversion of the villain ( V )
Tale Number Nineteen—The Tiger That Returned a Woodman’s Kindness
Initial Situation ( a )
Lack ( a )
Wedding ( W )
Departure ( | )
Tale Number Twenty—A Good—Minded Scholar
Initial Situation ( a )
Departure ( | )
Return of the hero ( I )
Liquidation ( K )
Tale Number Twenty one—The Tiger in Kumgang Mountain
Initial Situation ( a )
Departure ( f )
Test of the hero (D )
Villain seeks help ( h )
Return of the hero ( I )
Wedding (W )
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Tale Number Twenty two-—Korean Cinderella
Initial Situation ( a )
Lack ( a )
Difficult task ( M )
Liquidation ( K )
Recognition ( Q )
Tale Number Twenty three— A Thief Who Became a Monk
Initial Situation ( a )
Pursuit of the villain ( m )
Lack ( a )
The villain gives in ( g )
Conversion of the villain ( V )
Tale Number Twenty four— A Grandmother and a Tiger
Initial Situation ( a )
Lack ( a )
Expulsion o f the villain ( I )
Liquidation ( K )
Tale Number Twenty five—A Brother of a Tiger
Initial Situation ( a )
The villain reacts to the deceit of the hero ( e )
Deceitful persuasions of the hero ( S )
The villain gives in ( g )
Departure ( | )
Tale Number Twenty six—Radish for a Gift of a Cow
Initial Situation ( a )
Departure ( | )
Return of the hero ( j )
Recognition ( Q )
Tale Number Twenty seven— Third Daughter-in-law’s Wisdom
Initial Situation ( a )
Departure ( f )
Liquidation (K )
Return of the hero ( ! )
Tale Number Twenty eight—Nymph’s Rock
Initial Situation ( o c )
Lack ( a )
Departure ( f )
Death ( O )
Recognition ( Q )
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Tale Number Twenty nine—Ji Sung and Kamchun
Initial Situation ( a )
Lack ( a )
Difficult task ( M )
Liquidation ( K )
Tale Number Thirty— A Judgment of a Judge
Initial Situation ( a )
Lack ( a )
Departure ( f )
Return of the hero ( [ )
Liquidation ( K )
Friendly response ( E )
Tale Number Thirty One— The Man Who Became an Ox
See Table Three (page, 46)
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APPENDIX II: “THE MAN WHO BECAME AN OX”
[Sentence 1— 8]
1) A long time ago, a young man who really hated working. 2) Even
if all of his family members were working in the house or in the field, the
young man wouldn’t do anything but sit around the house all day. 3) The man
wouldn’t even lift a finger.
4) When the time of cropping season came, all the men and women would
work hard out in the field from early morning to dusk. 5) Everyone else
diligently worked except the man who enjoys sleeping at home or lying in the
field chewing pieces of grass.
6) One day his wife lost her patience for not being able to endure with her
husband’s laziness. 7) “Husband, please stop loafing around in the house, but
help out in the field. 8) Everyone else in the village is working hard. Why
aren’t you working?” said the wife.
[Sentence 9—23]
9) Lazybones (this was his nickname) frowned his face and replied,
“Don’t start that complaining again. 10) If I can’t take it easy when I want to
then when can I enjoy?” 11) He then rolled over and ignored his wife.
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75
12) How can you sit around doing nothing all day” his wife asked.
13) “Even the other villagers who work hard day and night can barely make a
living, how can we survive when you just lounge around?” then she burst into
tears.
14) “Can’t you stop doing that?” said Lazybones. “Can’t you see I am
trying to rest?”
15) “What do you mean, stop crying?” the wife sobbed. 16) “I am only
asking you to go out and work like everyone else does. 17) If you can’t do
that, you are no different from vegetable!”
18) The young man was very angry listening to his wife. 19) He began to
thinking about running away from his nagging wife and the villagers who
made fun of him. But he wondered how he could make a living all by himself.
20) Suddenly, he had an idea. 21) In the chest drawers, there were two
rolls of hemp cloth which his wife had taken great pains to make. 22) Because
Lazybones didn’t work his family had become very poor, and these two rolls
of cloth were the most precious belonging to the family. The young man
thought. 23) “If I sell those, I can have enough money to take it easy for a few
months.”
[Sentence 24-28]
24) When his wife left the room, Lazybones took the two rolls under his
arm and sneaked out the back door. 25) He climbed over the hill behind the
house and stopped to catch his breath.
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26) On the other side, half was down the hill, he found a small thatched
hut. 27) “That’s funny,” he murmured. “That thatched hut wasn’t honestly
there before. 28) Anyhow, may be I can get something to drink before I go on
my way.”
[Sentence 29—39]
29) When he approached the hut, he saw an old man who was sitting on
the porch making something. 30) Lazybones couldn’t figure out the strange
looking shape thing that the old man was holding in his hand. 31) That was
covered with hair. 32) The young man became so curious that he even forgot
to ask for water.
33) “Excuse me,” the young man asked, stooping over the old man. “What
on earth is that you’re making?” 34) The old man looked at Lazybones. 35)
His eyes were twinkling with amusement. 36) Lazybones felt sure that he had
seen him somewhere before, but he couldn’t quite remember where.
37) “Why do you ask?” the old man questioned. 38) “The thing that you
are making looks so strange that . . . well . . . I couldn’t help asking”
Lazybones answered. 39) “What will you use it for?”
[ S entence 40—63 ]
40) “Do you really want to know?” 41) I will tell you if you’re so
curious,” the old man answered. 42) In the blink of an eye, the old man picked
up the strange thing and held it in front of the young visitor. 43) “Take a close
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77
look. 44) This is an ox’s head.” 45) And so it was. 46) It was a mask in the
shape of an ox’s head. But it was so well made it really looked like the real
ox’s head.
47) “An ox’s head?” the young man asked. 48) He was even more puzzled
than before. 49) “Why are you making such a useless thing?”
50) The old man smiled making his wrinkled face even more wrinkled.
51) “If it was useless, I wouldn’t have made it,” he answered patting the ox’s
head mask. 52) “You wait and see.”
53) “Silly old man,” impatiently said Lazybones. 54) “Don’t you have
anything better to do?”
55) When the young man was about to turn around and walk away, the old
man said, “This is not an ordinary mask. 56) If anyone who hates working
puts this mask on then all his problems will be solved.”
57) Lazybones suddenly became curious again. 58) “This is just what I
need,” the young man thought. 59) But he was still a little suspicious. 60)
“How do I know if you not pulling my leg?” he asked.
61) “You know how the saying goes,” replied the old man, “better to try
something once than hear about it a hundred times. 62) If you can’t trust me,
try it on once for yourself.” 63) The old man pushed the ox mask to
Lazybones who became very curious indeed by this time.
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78
[Sentence 64— 69]
64) “If this is an easy way to solve my problems,” thought Lazybones,
“why not try it on?” 65) Then he put the ox mask on his head firmly. 66) As
soon as the young man put the mask on, the old man put the ox hide (that he
had been sitting) on Lazybones’ back.
67) Strangely, the mask and ox hide wouldn’t come off. 68) And that
wasn’t all. 69) The ox hide on his back and legs wrapped itself tightly around
his body just like the skin of a real ox.
[Sentence 70—79]
70) Lazybones began to regret meeting the old man. 71) He wriggled his
body this way and that way, but the ox hide wouldn’t come off. 72) On the
contrary, it became even tighter until the young man looked just like a real ox.
73) “What’s going on?” he screamed. 74) “Please take this horrible thing off
me!” 75) But it was already too late.
76) The old man stood up brushing off the dust from his long white robes
and picked up a rope to tie around Lazybones’ neck.
77) “Please let me go,” squealed Lazybones. 78) “Help me, Help me!”
79) But the only sound that came from his mouth was “Moo, moo.”
[Sentence 80— 87]
80) “Now, you are an ox, you must come with me,” the old man said,
leading him out of the yard.
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79
81) Lazybones had no idea where he was going. 82) He wanted to run
away, but the old man pulled him very tightly and he followed the old man just
like a real ox on all four legs. 83) Every time he struggled, the old man would
strike him with a stick. 84) “Woah, Woah, there, if you behave, I wouldn’t hit
you with the stick.”
85) After a long walk, they arrive at a small town. 86) The old man took
Lazybones to the market. 87) The entire market was filled with traders and
farmers who were buying and selling cattle and bargaining in loud voices.
[Sentence 88—89]
88) Lazybones had to stand in the stalls waiting to be sold with all other
oxes 89) He looked like a fine-looking ox and soon many people surrounded
him admiring and prodding him with sticks.
[Sentence 90—98]
90) In no time, the old man found a farmer who wanted to buy the ox. 91)
As soon as the farmer bought the ox, the old man said to him, “if this ox eats
radish, he will die. So don’t let him stray near a radish field.”
92) “If he eats radish then he would die?” 93) I never bought such a
strange ox,” said the farmer. 94) But it was too late to change his mind since
the farmer had already paid the old man. 95) So, he shaking his head then
drove his new ox before and left the market place.
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80
96) From that day on, the young man who became an ox was given every
kind of backbreaking hard work. 97) He had to carry heavy loads to and fro.
98) From morning to night, he had to drag a large plough up and down the
fields.
[Sentence 99— 109]
99) All day long, the farmer would give him one task after another. 100)
He was so exhausted that his legs almost gave way beneath him, but still the
farmer would drive him on without a moment of rest. 101) And if he dared to
cry with a long and sad “moo” out of his suffering, the farmer would whip him
with a stick.
102) “I’m not an ox, I’m a man! 103) Please, don’t treat me like this!” he
moaned. 104) But the farmer couldn’t understand what he was saying. Of
course, because everything he said just sounded like “moo, moo.”
105) At the end of each day, Lazybones had to sleep in a cold ox stall.
106) When he lays on the hard ground, every bone in his body ached.
107) He was not only very tired, but also very hungry. 108) In the daytime,
there was nothing to eat but grass, and at night, all he had was a pile of smelly
fodder. 109) Soon after the first cock-crow, the farmer would be back to drag
him out of his shed for another day of work.
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81
[Sentence 110— 118]
110) Another day . . . two days . . . three days passed by. Deep in middle
of the night, as he lay in his ox stall, Lazybones would stay awake. I l l ) As he
thought about his loving wife and hometown, sorrow filled his heart and tears
trickled down on his bony cheeks. 112) He realized that even though she had
a doubly worked because of her lazy husband, the wife had been really patient
with him.
113) He began to regret all the precious time he had wasted in the past.
114) He remembered his wife’s warning that there would be trouble if he
didn’t change. 115) “So, that’s why I became an ox,” he thought. 116) “Now,
I am forced to work hard all day whether I like it or not.”
117) Lazybones couldn’t bear working for the farmer any longer. 118)
One night, when the moon was full, he decided to escape.
[Sentence 119— 125]
119) As soon as the farmer had gone to bed, Lazybones took his tether
between his teeth and chewed until it broke in two. 120) The door of the shed
was easy to break open, because it was old and rotten. 121) He dashed out
through the front yard and headed back towards his village as fast as his legs
would carry him.
122) He walked all night, and arrived at the village just as dawn was
breaking. 123) He ran to his wife who was fetching water from the well. 124)
“It’s me, your husband!” he tried to shout. 125) “I’ve come back home!”
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/
82
[Sentence 126— 140]
126) Instead of greeting him, the wife picked up her bucket and started to
strike him again and again. 127) “Shoo, shoo! Go away, you dirty ox!” She
screamed. 128) She was very surprised because she had never been attacked
by an ox before. 129) Soon, her neighbors joined her to drive out the ox away
with sticks.
130) “Even my wife and friends don’t recognize who I am!” as he ran out
of the village, Lazybones sobbed. 131) When he reached a safe distance,
because he was so exhausted and depressed, he fell to the ground.
132) Meanwhile, the farmer who had been searching for his ox all day
caught up with him. 133) “Now, I’ll make sure you can’t escape from me
again,” said the farmer. 134) He tied the tether tightly around the ox’s neck
and led him all the way back to the farm.
135) In the next morning, Lazybones had to go back to the fields dragging
the heavy plow behind him. 136) He had lost the hope of becoming a man
again to see his family and friends again. 137) In truth, his heart weighed even
heavier than the plow.
138) And so time passed by. And so the days passed. 139) Finally, the
man who became an ox decided that he would rather die than live such a
miserable life. 140) But it wasn’t easy to die either.
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83
[Sentence 141— 144]
141) One day, on his way to work, he noticed a radish field. 142) Then, he
remembered what the old man said to the farmer at the market, “If this ox eats
radish, he will die.”
143) “That’s it! If I eat radish, I can die!” 144) He gritted his teeth and
made up his mind to do it.
[Sentence 145—149]
145) At the end of the day, as he was returning from work, Lazybones had
his chance. 146) While the farmer was looking the other way, he quickly ate
two radishes growing by the side of the road.
147) Strangely, as soon as he had swallowed the radishes, his ox head
changed back into a mask, and the ox hide on his back fell to the ground. 148)
The radishes had turned him back into a man instead of making him die. 149)
He pulled off his ox’s mask and stoop up straight before the farmer.
[Sentence 150— 156]
150) The former was so surprised to see his ox turn into a man, so he
almost fell over backwards. 151) Lazybones told him the whole story about
meeting the old man and how he had turned into an ox after trying on the mask.
152) Then, he set off for home bidding farewell to the farmer.
153) On the way back home, he looked for the thatched hut where he had
met the old man. 154) It had vanished without a trace. 155) In the location
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84
where the hut had been, there were two rolls of hemp cloth lying on the ground
just as he had left. 156) The young man grabbed them under his arm and ran
down the hill towards his house.
[Sentence 157— 159]
157) His wife was overjoyed to see the husband after such a long time.
158) He was too embarrassed to tell his wife that he had become an ox. 159)
“Anyway, my wife wouldn’t believe me,” he thought.
[Sentence 160— 164]
160) From that time on, the young man worked harder than anyone else in
the village. 161) His wife was so overwhelmed that she promised not to call
him a good-for-nothing ever again. 162) Everyone wondered how he could
have changed so suddenly. 163) The villagers never called him “Lazybones”
anymore, instead nicknamed him “Eager Beaver.”
164) And what is more, the hill behind his house became known as “fox
hill,” because there was a rumor that the old man who lived there was really a
cunning fox that was in disguise.
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APPENDIX HI: “THE CRICKET” BY PU SONGLMG
85
During the reign of Hsuan The [1426-35], cricket fighting was very popular
at court, and levies of crickets were exacted from the people as a tax. These insects
were not found in Shensi Province, but the magistrate of Huayin, to win the
governor’s favor, presented him with a cricket which, on being matched, proved a
remarkable fighter. Thereupon, his district was commanded to supply crickets
regularly and the magistrate ordered the beadles of his district to find them. Then
young fellows in town began to rear good crickets, demanding high prices for them
as rare goods, while the crafty bailiffs took advantage of this to make money. Thus
the cost of a single cricket was enough to ruin several households.
Now in this town lived a man named Cheng Ming, who had failed many
times in the district examination. As he was a flat-minded pedant, the crafty bailiff
recommended him for the post of beadle. He tried by every means to evade this
service, but without success. In less than a year his small patrimony was gone. Then
came another call for crickets Cheng Ming dared not levy on his neighbors, nor
could he pay the sum himself. At his wit’s end, he longed to die.
“What is the use of dying?” said his wife. “You had better go out and try to
find a cricket yourself. There might be a chance to catch one.”
Cheng Ming agreed. With a bamboo tube and wire cage, he searched from
dawn till dusk among ruins and waste land, peering under rocks and exploring
crevices—but all in vain. The two or three crickets he caught were poor specimens
which did not come up to the standard. The magistrate set him a limit of time and in
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86
little more than ten days gave him one hundred strokes of the bamboo. His legs were
covered with sores and he could not continue his search for crickets. Tossing and
turning on the bed, he thought only of putting an end to his life.
At that time a hump-backed fortuneteller who could communicate with spirits
came to the village. Cheng’s wife took some money and went to seek his advice.
She found the doorway thronged with fair young girls and white-haired old women.
When she walked in, she saw a screen before a dark room, with an incense-bumer on
an altar in front of it. Those who came to leam their fortunes burned incense in a
tripod, and prostrated themselves twice. The fortuneteller stood at the side, and,
looking up into space, prayed for a response; though his lips moved, no one knew
what he was saying, and all stood there in awe to listen. In a moment, from behind
the screen a slip of paper was tossed with the answer to the question—an answer
which never erred.
Cheng’s wife put her money on the altar, burned incense, and bowed like the
other women. Soon the screen moved and a piece of paper was thrown out, on
which there were no words, but a picture. In the middle of the picture there was a
building like a temple with a small tomb behind it, covered with curious rocks and
overgrown with thorns. There seemed to be a cricket crouching behind this and
beside it was a toad which appeared to be jumping. She had no idea what it all
meant, but she saw the cricket, which represented the problem in her mind.
Accordingly, she folded the paper and took it home to her husband.
Cheng Ming looked at this picture closely and said to himself, “Is this to tell
me where to look for crickets?”
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87
On examining the picture more closely, he saw that the building much
resembled Great Buddha Monastery east of the village. Then he got up with the help
of a stick and went to the back of the monastery with the paper. There he found an
ancient tomb over-grown with brambles, and around the tomb, he saw stones lying
scattered about as in the picture. He pricked up his ears and walked slowly through
the brambles, as if he were looking for a needle or a grain of mustardseed. Though
he was exhausted from straining his eyes and ears, he could not find anything. As he
was groping around, a toad suddenly jumped out. Cheng Ming was startled, and
hurried to pursue it. The toad jumped back into the bushes, and, following it
carefully, he saw a cricket at the root of a bramble. He hastened to make a grab at it,
but the cricket leapt into a crevice and would not come out, through he prodded it
with a straw. Not till he poured in some water did it emerge. It was a magnificent
specimen, strong and good-looking, and he picked it up. On looking at it closely, he
found it had a large body and a fine tail, a green neck and golden wings. He was
greatly delighted and took it home ine the wire cage. As he was congratulated by his
family, he considered it more precious than the rarest gem. He kept it in a pot and
fed it with crab’s flesh and the kernels of chestnuts, tending it with loving care and
waiting for the time when the magistrate should ask for it.
Cheng Ming had a son of nine, and one day when he saw his father was not
in he opened the pot on the sly. At once the cricket jumped out and sprang away so
nimbly that it eluded his grasp. Finally he grabbed it, but in doing so, he pulled its
legs off and crushed it, so that soon afterward it died.
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88
The boy was frightened and cried out to his mother. When she heard what had
happened, her face turned deadly pale.
“Oh, you wicked boy!” she scolded. “You are going to die! Your father will
deal with you when he comes home!”
The boy went off in tears. Soon Cheng Ming came back, and when he heard
his wife’s story, he felt as if he had been turned to ice. In a passion, he went in
search of his son, who was nowhere to be found until at last his body was discovered
in the well. Then Cheng’s anger changed to grief. He groaned and wished to die.
Husband and wife sat in silent despair with their faces to the wall in their thatched
and smokeless cottage. Towards evening, when they prepared to bury the boy, they
touched his body and found that there was still breath in him. They were overjoyed
and placed him on the bed. By the middle of the night he came to life, and they were
comforted a little, but their son remained in a trance with drooping eyelids. When
Cheng Ming looked at the empty cricket cage, he was still rather depressed, but he
dared not scold the boy now. He did not close his eyes all night, and when the sun
rose in the east he was still lying in despair. Suddenly he heard a cricket chirping
outside the gate, and when he jumped up in amazement, he saw that the cricket was
still there. He tried to catch it, but it chirped and hopped away quickly. Then he
tried to put his hand over it, but there seemed to be nothing there; when he turned up
his palm, the cricket suddenly hopped away. So he chased it up and down until it
disappeared over the comer of the wall. On looking closely, he found this was a
little, short, dark red insect, not to be compared with the first. As Cheng Ming
thought that it was too small to be worth catching, he kept on looking around for the
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89
one he had chased. All of a sudden the small cricket hopped from the wall into his
sleeve, and he saw it looked like a mole-cricket, with speckled wings, a square head,
and long legs—it might be a good one. So he was glad to take it indoors.
When he was about to present this cricket to the magistrate, he feared that it
might not be qualified. So he decided to give a trial fight. It so happened that a
young fellow in the village kept a cricket called “Crab-shell Blue,” which had won
every bout against other insects. The young fellow wanted to make a profit on it and
set such a high price for it that it still remained in his possession. He called on
Cheng Ming and, when he saw Cheng’s cricket, he had to hide his laughter. Then he
produced his own in the cage for comparison. When Cheng Ming saw this large,
fine cricket, he felt diffident and dared not offer a fight. However, the young man
insisted on a fight, and Cheng Ming thought that since there was no use to keep a
poor cricket, he had better sacrifice it for a laugh. Then they put the two crickets into
a basin. The small cricket crouched motionless, dull as a stick of wood. The young
man laughed heartily and tickled it with a pig’s bristle, but it remained calm and still.
At that he laughed louder than ever, but, when he repeatedly tickled it, the cricket
was roused to fury and hurled itself at its opponent, with a rustling of tis wings. It
leapt forward with bristling tail and seized the other by the neck. The young man
became horrified and made haste to separate the two contestants, while the little
cricket chirped triumphantly as if to announce its victory to its master. Cheng Ming
was much pleased at its sight. Just then a cock caught sight of the cricket and
stepped forward to peck at it. Cheng Ming was much alarmed and gave a cry; but
luckily the cock missed its aim, and the cricket hopped a foot or more away. The
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90
cock kept on chasing it and soon had the cricket trapped under its claws. Cheng
Ming was unable to save it, but stamped his foot in despair. As the cock flapped its
wings and craned its neck, to his surprise, he saw the cricket seated on the cock’s
head, holding firmly onto its comb. Cheng Ming was excited and oveijoyed when he
put the cricket back in its cage.
Later Cheng Ming presented this cricket to the magistrate, who was very
angry at the sight of the little insect. Cheng Ming then told the story of the cricket,
but the magistrate did not believe it and set it to fight with other crickets. The little
cricket defeated them all. Then the magistrate tried it with a cock, and it turned out
as Cheng Ming had said. He rewarded Cheng Ming and presented the cricket to the
governor, who was greatly delighted to display it in a golden cage with a detailed
report of its prowess.
In the palace, the Emperor tried the cricket with Butterfly, Praying Mantis,
Yolita, Green Forehead, and many other champions from all parts of the world, but
not one of them was a match for it. It would dance in time to music and for this the
Emperor praised it more highly. With great delight, the Emperor rewarded the
governor with fine steeds and silk garments. And the governor did not forget where
the cricket came from, and within a short time commended the magistrate for his
“outstanding merit.” The magistrate, pleased in his turn, exempted Cheng Ming
from the duties of beadle, and instructed the local examiner to see that Cheng Ming
passed the next examination.
A year later Cheng’s son recovered his senses and said, “I was transformed
into a cricket—a quick, skillful fighter. Now I wake up.”
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The governor, too, rewarded Cheng Ming handsomely, and within a few
years Cheng Ming owned vast estates, many buildings, and countless flocks and
herds. When he went out, his furs and carriages were more splendid than a noble’s.
The author comments: “The Emperor may look for a thing once and forget it
afterwards, but those who carry out his order make this a fixed rule. The the greedy
officials and their crooked underlings force the people to sell their wives and
children. Each step the Emperor takes exerts much effect on the people, and
therefore it behooves him to be very careful. This man Cheng Ming was first
impoverished by corrupt officials, and later, on account of crickets, became rich with
the splendor of furs and carriages. When he was a beadle and was beaten, he never
dreamed of such good fortune! Heaven rewards those who are honest, and hence the
governor and magistrate also benefited from the cricket. I have heard it said: ‘When
a man soars up to heaven, his chickens and dogs attain immortality, too.’ This
saying is true!”
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92
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Recasting Vladimir Propp's formalist method through traditional Asian narratives
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Contributor
Digitized by ProQuest
(provenance)
Permanent Link (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c16-314456
Unique identifier
UC11336939
Identifier
1421762.pdf (filename),usctheses-c16-314456 (legacy record id)
Legacy Identifier
1421762.pdf
Dmrecord
314456
Document Type
Thesis
Rights
Choi, Myung Hui
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