殘唐五代史演義論 : 英雄中心主義

Abstract

Ts'an Ta'ng Wu-tai-shih Yen-i-chuan is a long historical novel covering the Ta'ng and Five Dynasties era. According to the Bibliography of Chinese popular novels and stories 中國通俗小說書目 by Sun K'ai-ti 孫楷第, this story was classified as a work of the Ming dynasty, but some say that it was written during the Yüan dynasty. On the supposition that this story was written between Ch'uanhsiang-p'ing-hua 全相評話 (five long stories published in the Chihchih 至治 period of the Yüan dynasty) and the San-kuo Yen-i 三國演義, by contrasting and analyzing the plots and contents of those stories, the characteristics and historical significance of this work can be clarified. The main points of argument are two : 1. The outstanding characteristic of this novel is that the hero. Li Ts'un-hsiao 李存孝 whose biography appears in the "Biography of Adopted Sons" 義兒傳 of the History of the Five Dynasties 五代史, dominates the story throughout. 2. This is the· first novel in the history of Chinese vernacular literature in which an individual hero becomes the center and focus of the plot. As such, this novel represents an important stage in the development of the novel in China, prefiguring such hero-centered novels as the San-kuo Yen-i, Shui-hu-chuan, 水滸傳 and Hsi-yu-chi. 西遊記.