Textual Research Of Birds, Beast, Herbs And Foreign Countries In The Flower In The Mirror

The Flower in the Mirror is a classical Chinese novel of Qing Dynasty, which is full of imagination and fantastic description with spissated color of myth. Especially in the former half part of this novel, the experience that Tang Ao traveled around foreign countries is always regarded as the most artistic charm place of this book. And its author, Li Ruzhen uses his humorous creation techniques to quote the classics, exaggerate the romance and imagine the fiction, and focuses on describing rare birds and amazing beasts, exotic flowers and rare herbs, odd countries and strange areas, which are seen overseas. And its content is nonexsitent and imaginery, but all have origins.This thesis begins with rare birds, amazing beasts, exotic scales, strange herbs, and odd countries referred in the former half part of this novel, making a reference of Qian Jingfang's Novels' Verification The Flower in the Mirror Verification and Yuan Jun's The Flower in the Mirror and Chinese Myths, and verifying them more specifically.There are 17 kinds of rare foreign birds, eight kinds of amazing beasts, five kinds of exotic scales, and twelve kinds of strange herbs described in this novel. There are 43 foreign countries referred (some of them, three countries' names are just mentioned, their customs and people's features are not told), and all the 33 countries experienced by Tang Ao are strange. Most of them origins from all kinds of myths, notes and novels of the previous generations, through the author's plenty imagination, and from exaggerated romance, taking Shan Hai Classic as the main, the all kinds of subsequent novels, notes and books as the assistance, performing a strange overseas world.This thesis consists of five parts: rare birds, amazing beasts, exotic scales, rare herbs and odd countries, orderly makes a systematic, deep and careful verification for the birds, beasts, scales, herbs and foreign countries, collects widely materials, and tries hard to conclude the forefather's fruits in the round.The part of "Rare birds": Jing Wei Bird, Bu Xiao Bird, Fei Xian Bird, Phoenix, Su Shuang Bird, Xi Bird, Berghaan, Peacock, Fan She Bird, Nine-Head Bird, Li Bird,Ostrich, Ying Shao Bird, Tu Qiu Bird, Qi Zhong Bird, Qing Luah Bird. They mainly focus on the 20^th and 21^st chapter, which make a more specific description for the figure of each kind of rare bird.The part of "Amazing beasts": Dang Kang, Guo Ran, Can Man, Kylin, Suan Ni, Wild Boar, Medicine Beast, Bo Horse, and they are scattered and the wild boar is not verified.The part of "Exotic scales": larval fish, taiman, skipjack, lingcod, and merman,all of them originated from the 15^th chapter.The part of "Strange herbs": Mu He, Qing Chang Rice, Rou Zhi, Zhu Yu, Nie Kong Herbs, Dao Wei Nut, Zhu Herbs, Qiu Kui, Mulberry, Silk Cotton, Deathless Tree, Fomes japonica, and the former seven kinds are all from the 9^th chapter, and mulberry, silk cotton, and Fomes japonica are not verified.The part of "Odd countries": there are 43 states running through the former half part of the novel, Nobleman State, Adult State, Hairy-People State, Long-Arm State, Two-Face State, Women State and so on.The birds, beasts, scales, herbs are mostly focused in the former 30 chapters, all of which are from myths and legends, and most of which are from Shan Hai Classic. These birds, beasts and herb are just the description of the exotic things, basically keeping the original appearance of the ancient myths and strange novles, and the author hardly expresses his subjective affection through the dramatis personae. These description lays foreshadowing for Tang Ao " traveling the holy place and becoming trancedental", and "traveling Penglai and never coming back".Different from the birds, beasts and herbs, the description of foreign countries is nearly given into the certain real significance, in which there are the author's satire and hope for the social phenomena, using an excessive manner to reflect the ways and favors of the world, refract the real society, and create a ideal country.The names of the countries in the novel basically originates from Shan Hai Classic, and the other records concerned after it are mostly from Shan Hai Classic. Most countries or association arising according to some features in lengends, state the reason of being named and the people's living status, or developing imagination directly by the countries' names, to make up the story, which are specific or curt and which are odd figures or characters, all of which are the author's imagination and creativity. Some of these odd imagined countries are also dreamed out by the author, such as Two-Face State, Intelligence-Excellence State, and the states are like their names, which are understood fully at one glance.In short, the description of birds, animals and herbs is more faithful for the original record, and comparing with the foreign countries, they are not the emphasis described by the author, however, their spread is far more than the other countries. Although the latter ones are mostly from Shan Hai Classic, the records concerned exist from the ancient myths to the literature of the Qing Dynasty. The author applies a large amount of special imagination into the imaginary countries, and wifully exaggerate and dramatize from a segment in the legend, and even spread from a point, so that constructing many unexistent countries which make people unthinkable, and laughing at the favors and ways of the world in the humous satire.This thesis makes a more specific textual research on animals and herbs and foreign countries in the Flower in the Mirror, making a basic job for the further researching the inheritance and development of myth and legend, and supplying a more completed record for the researchers in the future.