A Study Of The Nocturnal Narrative Of The ZiBuyu XuZibuyu

Night has been an integral part of human life and artistic works since ancient times.The night narrative is a narrative about the darkness of the night in the time and space narrative dimension of the ancient Chinese novel.The night narrative not only involves narrative time and narrative space in the novel,but also invokes a unique aesthetic of the night.These narrative features and aesthetic interests present stylistic characteristics that are different from those of daytime narratives,enriching the achievements of ancient Chinese novels in the field of narratology.The collection of short stories in literary language compiled by Yuan Mei in the Qing Dynasty,Zi Buyu,Xu Zibuyu,contains 304 stories set at night in its 1017 novels.These novels,with their large number,short length,rich variety of content,long time span and strong folk colour,have become a study of ancient Chinese fictional night-time narratives.This article explores the connotations and values of the nighttime narratives of Zi Buyu,Xu Zibuyu to enrich the narrative theory of Qing dynasty novel studies.Under the current situation of daytime narratives as the mainstream of research,this paper takes the 304 nighttime stories in Zi Buyu,Xu Zibuyu as its object,and with the help of literature combing,textual reading and comparative research methods,it discusses the nighttime narratives at three levels: the types of nighttime stories,the narrative time and space of nighttime stories,and the aesthetic value behind the nighttime stories,and summarizes and concludes that Zi Buyu,Xu Zibuyu have a unique value and value in the nighttime narratives.The study finds that the unique value and significance of the nighttime narratives.The study finds that Zi Buyu,Xu Zibuyu sequel are rich in nocturnal stories and have distinct story types.From the perspective of story masters,these nighttime stories can be Summarize into two masters: ’ghosts and gods’ and ’dreams’,of which the ’ghosts and gods’ masters have four types: ghosts and gods seeking help,ghosts and gods haunting,ghosts and gods helping people,and ghosts and gods judging.The ’dream’ motif is present in the nighttime stories through two functional narrative effects: dream prophecy and dream travel,showing the narrative characteristics of the temporal and spatial dimensions.From the point of view of story types,night stories can be divided into five categories: "night fights","night talks","night trials","night joys" and "night feasts"."There are five types of storytelling.These story forms are based on their own typical structures and show the narrative characteristics of the different forms.The night story also has a different narrative time and space than the daytime narrative.In terms of narrative time,in terms of narrative moment.The nocturnal tales in Zi Buyu,Xu Zibuyu take place mainly at specific points in time,such as the second and third night,on important festival nights such as the Lantern Festival or the Mid-Autumn Festival,and at turning moments in life such as the night of a wedding.Some of the stories also use nocturnal imagery such as the night and the moon as time markers.These four narrative moments demonstrate the impact that narrative time has on different novels.In terms of narrative duration.The stories are mainly divided into three duration: a short and concise night,a few nights that stretch and fall,and a past life that overlaps,showing the changes and characteristics of the novel’s narrative under different narrative duration.In terms of narrative space,there is a realistic narrative space and a surreal narrative space.The former refers to the two spaces of indoor life and outdoor mountains and rivers,with the indoor life space including living space and religious places.Together,the three show the uniqueness of everyday narrative space at night.The latter refers to the netherworld and the dream world,highlighting the spatial thinking ability and imagination presented by the surreal narrative space.The unique aesthetic value of nighttime stories is mainly reflected in visual,aural and conflict beauty.The visual beauty in the night story includes three aspects: perspective shifting,the psychology of darkness and the presentation of light and shadow.The complex and varied shifts in perspective enhance the texture of the narrative,while the psychology of the characters in the nocturnal narrative enhances the reader’s empathy by confronting the darkness and fear,and the visible and invisible light and shadow further enrich the narrative’s interest.The aural beauty covers both stillness and movement and auditory imagery.The aural imagery is based on the imagination and expands the narrative space.The conflict of ideas under the nocturnal system refers to the conflict and compromise between the nocturnal system and the charming fantasy,and the contradiction and fusion between secular religion and individual freedom.The former addresses the nocturnal prohibition system and summarises the resistance and compromise of the people against the system in the nighttime stories.The latter breaks the mould of the traditional idea of karma and retribution,showing the de-moralisation of secular religion.The study of the nocturnal narratives in Zi Buyu,Xu Zibuyu demonstrates the richness of the nocturnal narratives in terms of story types,the uniqueness of the narrative time and space,and the aesthetic diversity.