A Study on the integration of folk literature into Riddles of Ming-Qing period

2020 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K23042
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: 0102:Literature, linguistics, and related fields
• Research Institution: Kanagawa University (2020); Hiroshima University (2019)
• Principal Investigator: FAN KEREN 神奈川大学, 外国語学部, 助教 (80848044)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-08-30 – 2021-03-31
• Keywords: 西廂記 / 聊斎志異 / 謎語 / 受容

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This research selected the Romance of the Western Chamber and Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio from the operas and novels of the Ming and Qing Dynasties which has gained many readers, and studied the acceptance of the two works by investigating their related riddles.
Content of the Romance of the Western Chamber are frequently quoted in the riddles. From these quotations, we can see that with the change of the times, the riddler tends to create new riddles by making use of the content of the book that has never been employed. When the content of the book has been used as the answer, the riddler will change the question part of the riddle to show innovation.
In contrast, the quotations from Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio in riddles are almost all titles. These quotations, together with other adapted works based on the book, indicate that the most popular story type in Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio at that time was the story with several beautiful women appearing.

Free Research Field

中国明清文学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究は民間で広く遊ばれた謎語の中から戯曲や小説と関わりのある内容を集めて分析することによって、従来『西廂記』や『聊斎志異』のような戯曲や小説に関する研究ではあまり詳しく考察されていない受容の一端を新たに提示した点で意義があると考える。
また、灯謎をはじめとする謎語は中国民俗文化の重要な財産の一つであり、『西廂記』や『聊斎志異』の謎語における受容状況を解明することで、謎語をめぐる民俗文化をより深く理解する糸口を提供することができる。