「女仙外史」と幸田露伴の「運命」

Abstract

Nü-hsien-wai-shih or "The Romance of a Lady Hermit" by Lu Hsiung 呂熊 is a fantasy based upon the history of the struggle between two Ming Emperors; Yung-lo, the uncle who rebelled and reached the throne, and Chien-wen, the nephew who was defeated and the latter half of whose life was rumoured to have been spent as a secret exile. Lü's novel inspired Roban, a Japanese writer(l867-1947), to write his famous prose work, "Ummei, " "Destiny." Lü's book has a confusing story, making a woman bandit, T'ang Sai-erh, the exiled Emperor's ally, although historically she had no connection with him. It follows the patterns of older fiction, especially Shui-hu (All Men Are Brothers), Sankuo (The Romance of The Three Kingdoms) and Hsi-Yu (Monkey) very crudely. Roban's prose is more historical than Lü's and more enthusiastic. As it leans very strongly upon the historical documents, especially the Ming Shih, however, it is dubious whether it should be esteemed as a pure novel. Roban's merit, which is highly esteemed among Japanese critics, seems to depend upon the superiority of Chinese historical writings, which he gathered carefully and cleverly, rather than upon his own ability to write fiction.