On The Development Of The Flower Or The Image Of The "Strange"

Compared with other kinds of spirit stories the amount of the flower spirit stories is very little in Chinese ancient stories.Hence very few of researchers have isolated them out to make a systematic study as a unique story type.But the flower spirit stories have a more obvious development context, many of which have a high ideological value and artistic value, especially those in Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio, in which the stories were full of colorful twists and turns, and the flower spirit images were created brilliantly and splendidly, which achieved a high artistic achievement.Therefore, this article tries to make a systematic study on the flower spirit imagery in Chinese ancient stories and emphasizes on the evolution and development of the flower spirit imagery in Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio.This article is divided into four parts:The first part makes a clear definition of flower spirit,then generally limits the study scope, focusing on the cause of the appearance of the flower spirit stories and analysing the cause of the little amout of them from different points of view.The second part mainly circles around the stories in Extensive Records from the Reign of Great Tranquility and Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio, and also collects many flower spirit stories from other short stories with a detailed interpretation to seek the different features of the flower spirit stories in various periods of time.The third part in detail analysises the new look of the flower spirit stories in Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio from two aspects:the changes of the relationship between people and flower spirit and the great changes of flower spirit images, digging out the unique meaning of flower spirit imagery from two aspects:the marriage relationship and the scholars' concept. In Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio flower spirit stories presented a new look; flower spirit imagery had been shaped more successfully with substaintial progress in artistic achievement. These graceful flower spirit images had been competingly imated ever since their coming by scholars, which contributed to the development and improvement of flower spirit imagery.The fourth part summarizes the evolution of the flower spirit imagery with a longitudinal carding the flower spirit imagery in Chinese ancient stories and then revearls the implicit meaning of them in different periods. Therefore to draw a preliminary conclusion, the evolution of the flower spirit imagery, in some aspects of speaking, manifests the changes of women's status in the Chinese feudal society.