Culture Interpretation For Chuang Tzu's Fables

Chuang Tzu, the great ideologist and litterateur who advocated the principles of "observing law of naturalness and cherishing truth" (fa tian gui zhen) and "the simple infant man in him we hail" (fu gui yu pu) left us an unprecedented masterpiece during the progress of human culture history Chuang Tzu, the book rich in thoughts and literary merits. Wen Yiduo (1899-1946), the poet and scholar commented that there is infinite "broken chiffon, decayed silk, pearly-lustre, aura blade, bird's twitter and flowery odour" in Chuang Tzu's countless fables and with fabulous imagination he created "Dao" in the fables to achieve its characteristics and surpassing of literariness, which was unique among philosophers or their works during pre-Qin period (before 221BC).Although unaware of fables in the sense of style, Chuang Tzu consciously started the writing of fables in large quantity. Based on the texts of Chuang Tzu fables, the author explores the profound culture origins for Chuang Tzu fables and illustrates the source of non-outright writing of fables. The thesis reveals that Chuang Tzu fables are evolution from fairy tales in the age of barbarism to philosophies in the age of reason; and from unconscious primitive myths to fictional conscious fables.The thesis has four parts. The first chapter discusses the influences of the thought "Doing Noting" or "Wu Wei" in Chinese to artistic form of fables through the connections of Chuang Tzu's philosophy and the artistic image of "Dao" in his fables. Chapter two analyzes the dependency tributary and range of activities of Chuang Tzu through his fable style; and further from culture perspective explains why the Chuang Tzu fables were greatly affected by the culture of Jiang-Han river area. Chapter three deals with the influences of Chuang Tzu's thinking model to his conscious fables. And chapter four states the relations between Chuang Tzu's aesthetic appreciation and the poetic narrative in his fables.