杜牧と傳奇

Abstract

Tu Mu, a famous late T'ang poet and essayist, reveals: frequently throughout his biographical essays a predilection for the fantastic. The tomb inscriptions which he composed for departed friends as well as that which he wrote for himself: the preface he composed to Li Ho's poetical works, and a letter which treats of an eye illness suffered by his brother, are all excellent examples of this tendency. This personal idiosyncracy is not surprising when it is remembered that it was just at this time that fictional prose, a new genre in T'ang literature, was at high tide. Also, his acquaintance with contemporary writers of fiction can be traced. Occasionally this fondness for the unusual and the fantastic is also revealed in his poetry.