Chapter 44 1947

The number of articles this year is not small, and the following are the ones that meet the academic requirements. 1. "A Joke Spreading in Europe and Asia" This also belongs to the scope of comparative literature history.The history of comparative literature is closely related to folk literature, and the two can almost become one. The stories in "Five Volumes", I think, basically belong to folk literature.The ability of ordinary people to create stories is unparalleled. This joke is what I heard in Germany.The content is very simple: a white man and a black man live in a room in a hostel.At night, the negro blackened the white man's face with ink, stole his belongings, and fled.The white man woke up and saw that his things were gone, looked in the mirror, and said in amazement: "So the black man is here, but where have I gone?" Liu Yuanqing's "Ying Xie Lu" included in "Continued Talking", found that there are almost identical jokes in it, except that the black people are replaced by monks.

2. "The Story of the Carpenter and the Painter" This also belongs to the scope of comparative literature history, and is an example of the spread of folk tales in China and India. 3. "Fables and Fairy Tales from a Comparative Literary Point of View" This still falls within the scope of comparative literary history.I directly called it "comparative literature", which shows my views on "history of comparative literature" and "comparative literature" at that time. In this article, I introduce several stories that have crossed borders and circulated for a long time.The first one is the famous story of "Cao Chong weighs an elephant".It is majestically seen in China's official history "Three Kingdoms·Wei Zhi", and its authenticity has thus been strengthened.In fact, the same content only changed the name of the story, but it is found in the Chinese translation of "Tripitaka".The second story I introduced is the story of the wolf and the crane.This story can be found in ancient Greece.India also has it, which can be found in the Pali "Jataka" and many other Buddhist scriptures.There are also stories about elephants in Japan, and there is this story in the famous "Legend of Ikkyu".Please refer to Mr. Chen Yinke's "Three Kingdoms Cao Chonghua Tuo Biography and Buddhist Stories".

In this article I discuss the origin of fables and fairy tales.This issue has been addressed in many books and papers.Theoretically speaking, it is nothing more than monistic generation theory and plural generation theory.Personally, I think that pluralism is unimaginable.Only unary generation is reasonable.The only thing left is the unitary generation, that is, it is initially generated in one country and one region, and then radiates outward.Where is this country or region? I am afraid that it cannot be said in general terms that all fables and fairy tales are produced in one country or region, that is impossible.However, it is reasonable to say that most fables and fairy tales are produced in one country and region.The question now is: Which country and region is this? Scholars from the Quartet countries can't think of two: one is India and the other is Greece.They don't mean the same thing.According to my observation, Wintemitz is between India and Greece. Benfey said it clearly and firmly: "The hometown of all fairy tales and stories in the world is India, and the hometown of all fables is Greece." He also differs between India and Greece, but distinguishes fairy tales from fables.This distinction is very far-fetched, because the two are fundamentally indistinguishable and by no means clear-cut.Personally, I am inclined to India, because the Indian nation is very good at fantasy, and has a much richer and deeper fantasy power than other nations.Mr. Lu Xun said at the beginning of the "Inscription" written in 1926: "Tasting the richness of Tianzhu's fables, such as the deep spring in the big forest, the art and literature of other countries are often influenced by it, that is, in the Buddhist scriptures translated into Chinese. , can be seen everywhere.” I think that Lu Xun’s opinions are based on facts and are extremely reliable.

4. "Liu Zongyuan's "The Donkey of Guizhou" Sources" Liu Zongyuan's "The Donkey of Guizhou" is a very famous article, and I am afraid that no one who reads ancient prose will not read it.However, so far I have not seen an article where someone explores the origin of this article.I personally put forward an opinion: its origin is also related to India.I found similar stories in many books in India: "Five Juan Shu", Volume 4, Story 7; "Jia Yan Ji" also has a similar story.However, as hinted at in Plato's Dialogues in ancient Greece, the complete story exists in the Dialogue.There is also this story in La Fontaine in France.It can be seen that this story, at least its motif, has been spread for a long time and geographically.