As long as Pu Songling hears any anecdote, he will carefully understand it, write down the story, and then process and create it and include it in his own works. In collecting materials, his inspiration comes from the people. Although there are traces of processing in the creative process, he still retains a lot of original beliefs about ghosts and gods, which can be subdivided into the following categories from folk literature.
First, the folk monster story
The nine-tailed fox in Shan Hai Jing, da ji in Feng Shen Romance, and the nine-tailed white fox in Tu Shan Shi recorded in Zhao Ye's Wu Yue Chun Qiu and the Legend of Betty Wong in the Eastern Han Dynasty. These works are regarded as early fox demon works. Later, four fox surnames were derived from the people: Qingqiu, Tushan, Su You and Chun Hu. Not only that, there are many flower demons and tree demons. In the eyes of the people, everything in the world is spiritual and can be refined.
Pu Songling of Qing Dynasty combined folklore with classic ancient books, accumulated over time, and created Xiao Wei, the fox demon in Painted Skin. In fact, there are more than 30 articles describing foxes in Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio, including many foxes, foxes, foxes and, of course, ordinary foxes. Bamboo green transformed by crows in bamboo green; One-horned monster, white cloth monster and duck monster among the three monsters in Quzhou. The Three Monsters in Quzhou is an ancient legend in Quzhou. The three monsters originated from the disasters of drought, fire and water. In "Bai Qiulian", Bai Qiulian, the essence of baiji dolphin, fell in love with Mu Gongzi secretly when he was admiring the moon and reciting poems, which made him lovesick.
Second, folk ghosts and gods theory
Folks believe that the secular world is the dead, and people enter the underworld after death, which is the so-called "underworld." Be a man before death and a ghost after death. Since Searching for the Gods, the image of emotional ghosts often appears in folk and literary works and is deeply loved by the people. In the Tang Dynasty, with the improvement of the artistic level of novels, works describing ghosts flourished for a time, and they liked to write about female ghosts in emperors' homes, such as Du, Yan Jun and Zhang. There are more than 170 ghost stories in Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio, accounting for about one-third of the total number of books, describing a large number of female ghost images. These vivid female ghosts with clear love and hate played an important role in the narrative of the story, and most of them mentioned "ghosts are still alive", Nie Zhong, a female ghost who died at the age of eight; The wronged female ghost in Chain Story; There are Qiao Niang, Lu Gong Maid, etc. They are sentimental ghosts with personality, and most of them are kind ghosts. There are good male ghosts in Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio. For example, Ding's talent, which he admired very much, "made the office bitter and the lamp withered", and also "gave Qian Gu a family feeling" and tried his best to help him. Ye Sheng was very ill and dying, but Ding Gong still couldn't bear to leave him. Ye Sheng was very moved, and his soul followed him after Ding Gong's death. This article is very touching and sad, full of the author's admiration for lofty friendship and hatred for the dark imperial examination. In Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio, most of the dead died abnormally: Wang Liulang died of drowning, Lin Siniang died of the war in the late Ming Dynasty, Gong Sun nine niang died of the involvement of seven peasant uprisings, and the beautiful women died of the slander and persecution of evil thieves and corrupt officials, and so on. They all died when they were in their prime, and they were deeply involved after death. It is inevitable that there will be resentment. However, there are also many ghosts who stick to their true intentions. For example, in Beauty, the beauty has been a ghost for 16 years, innocent and self-sustaining, defending her dignity that is more precious than life. Chu Sheng's soul in Chu Sheng follows his bosom friend and is grateful for his kindness. After the reincarnation, the monk Changqing remained undiluted and unshakable, and the monk's demeanor remained the same.
Among them, there are ghosts and evil spirits that endanger the human world, and there are many ways to die, such as eating food in Ghost, eating people in the river, the female corpse that harms people in Corpse Change, the strict wife who died unjustly in Fire Life, and the birthday party that died by mistake in Shuimangcao.
Third, the fairy in folklore.
Immortals are divided into gods, secular gods, secular gods, ghosts and gods, immortals and real people. The proportion of immortals in Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio is relatively small, which completely serves the plot.
Hail god refers to the god in charge of hail. Mrs. Land and the Locust God in "Mrs. Land" and "Cattle Locust"; The legend of Yama right in Du Feng's proposal: Guan Yu in Sun Xia and the ghosts of Han and Zhang Fei in Huanhou; Is Jin Ge's purple peony fairy a demon or a god? There is another kind of "immortal" here. According to folklore, there are all kinds of immortals living in the sky, and there are many clergy in the underworld. The most common thing is the "black and white impermanence" that hooks people's souls. Folk god, Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio mentioned the land temple many times. In the eyes of the people, God is a "supreme" belief, and its main purpose is to meet their psychological needs. "Examination of the Town God" is about the examination of gods by the Town God. Song Gong was called to take the examination of the Town God, and the title was "One person, two people, intentionally or unintentionally." Because "the heart is good, although good is not reported. The phrase "no intention to do evil, although evil is not punished" won the praise of the gods and made it a city. From this point, we can also see that the post of city god is held by upright and virtuous people. They will be severely punished in the face of God who can't perform his duties. In Xi Fang Ping, the city god, the county magistrate and the keeper accepted bribes. Instead of giving him justice, they tortured him and forced him to stop complaining. Finally, Xi Fang Ping sued Erlang God and finally punished them.
Fourth, folk anecdotes.
Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio not only records some stories about foxes and ghosts, but also records some famous stories. These stories have a certain realistic basis, either satirizing a certain concept at that time or an expectation of the people. Stories circulated among neighbors have educational significance. For example, Yu Zhongcheng told the story of Yu Chenglong, a famous upright official in the Qing Dynasty. The Zheng brothers in Yidu in Listening to the Mirror are a true portrayal of the parents of ordinary people and also have educational significance.
The snake eater in Snake Mania: Taoist culture in Laoshan Taoism and Fairy Island: Taiyuan prison case; In "Turning Men into Men", strange things about women turning into men and so on. The protagonists of these stories are all mortals, and the events are strange and there is a curiosity.
Five, folk acrobatics, opera and other entertainment activities
In "Mouse Play", "When the song just moved, the mice came out of their bags, all wearing masks and small clothes, climbing stairs from their backs, and people stood and danced"; In "Traditional Chinese Opera", "anyone who has a bucket can hold it up, and the bucket is bottomless and hollow, just like a vulgar drama"; In "Frog Song", "Knock it on the head with a thin stick and make a sound." . Or use money to hit the top of the frog, such as the music of the clouds and gongs and the song of the palace merchants, which is recognizable. "in the" iron shirt law ","if you point it with your fingers and cut it hard, you can break the neck of the cow; In the horizontal direction, qigong appeared. Entertainment items in people's daily life can also be seen in chess ghosts, pigeon aliens and ventriloquism.
Sixth, folk thoughts and concepts.
In the examination, Mr. Song was admitted after his death, and he was reborn as a mother to be filial, which reflected the "filial piety" of the people. "Evergreen Monk" tells people that people should do a right thing, not only for a while, but also for life. Stealing Households satirizes the incompetence and incompetence of local Qing court officials. The author also used "cursing ducks" to warn those thieves who stole things.
We found that in Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio, stories, myths and legends told by ordinary people were involved, which reflected the social situation at that time to some extent. Folk literature is the source of inspiration for Pu Songling's creation and the foundation of the whole work.