Ming Dynasty Novel "curse Dates In Mind" Research

This article mainly studies the supernatural evil-spirit novel Zhouzaoji, which written by Deng Zhimo, a writer who lived in the late of Ming Dynasty. It discusses the basis of the adaptation of the novel, then analyzes the themes profoundly by searching the related source materials of it. And then to make a contrast between the source materials and the text, analyzing how the novel is adapted and the artistic characteristics of it. Finally to offer some thinking about Zhouzaoji's creative background and the reasons.The article is divided into two chapters. The first chapter is the study of the origin of the source materials and the theme. The first section is a general introduction of Deng Zhimo, then is a summary of the plot of the novel, next it is the analysis of the origin of the source materials. The second section is the explanation of the theme, pointing out that the theme can be analyzed from two aspects: one is the high praise of Lei-fa spirit that praising virtue and punishing vice; another is the affirmation of the moral self-discipline, which advocated together by Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism. The second chapter is the study of the adapted characteristics and creative reasons. The first and the second section mainly analyze the adapted characteristics, pointing out there have four prominent characteristics: first, to increase and embellish the plot, relying on Deng Zhimo's own imagination; second, to strengthen the details, improving the content to be more lively and vividly; third, to select and integrate the source materials, improving the content to be more reasonable and vividly; forth, to rewrite the text on the basis of inheriting from the source materials., especially the fourth point, the discussion about the native place of Sa Zhenren's three teachers is author's own thinking. The third section is the study of the reason of adaptation, considering there have three reasons about why Deng Zhimo adapted the novel. The first reason is Deng Zhimo was influenced by the Sa Zhenren and the Wang Lingguan belief which was prosperous in the early Ming Dynasty. The second reason is that Sa Zhenren's stories spreaded widely in Fujian, where Deng Zhimo resided permanently in. The third reason is that the upsurge of the supernatural evil-spirit novel in the Wangli period of Ming Dynasty, which had a strong impact on Deng Zhimo's adaptation.