"Rat Married Woman" Image Rheological Study

"Mouse of marriage" is a representative theme in Chinese folklore.It elicited not only variousfolktales but also diverse folk art.There are fixed storylines along with established motifs.It iscommon sense that discussing the relationship between certain texts and images is inevitable instudying certain iconography;neither can one leave historical or cultural contexts behind whentracing the involvement of certain motifs.Applying the methods of comparative study,the presentpaper explores how foreign texts on "mouse of marriage" evolved throughout history,so as to raiserelatively new opinions on both the interpretation and the involvement of image,from a new viewpoint on independent texts and folklore.The relationship between the text and the correspondingimage is the thread of it.Having combed and discussed the origin of the tale in the Indian collection of stories,Panchatantra,and its spreading and influencing in ancient China,the paper first deals with thefoundation of the transmission of "mouse" culture,"mouse marriage" customs and the tale "mouseof marriage".It continues to study how the image of "mouse marriage" evolved and how the roleof cat was introduced into the talethat is to say how the image changed from "a mouse marryingto a mouse" into "a mouse marrying to a cat".This evolves questions including why suchdevelopment is inevitable yet revolutionary,and how the new character affects the narration,which the paper offers insight to.Furthermore,it also analyses secondary folklore,focusing oninterrelationship amongst motifsshedding light on changes of the "mouse" character and othermotifs followed the "mouse of marriage".Finally,the paper reconsiders the relationship betweenimage and text on the subject in question.Using methods of the novel subject referring to theformation of certain ideas,it manages to explain why the motif lost its practical function whileobtained aesthetic value,and the dialectical relation between text and image.