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As a benchmark of the Chih Kuai novels in the Six Dynasties, Sou Shen Chi by Kan Pao has always been identified as the origin of “Novel” since the Hsin T'ang Shu to Lu Xun’s A Brief History of Chinese Fiction, and the past research has also focused on this discussion. This is also due to the difference between historical biographies and novels, which is distinguished based on the foundation of reality and virtuality, however the post-modern historians believe that there is also fiction in the historical biographies. Therefore, apart from its characteristic of being fictional, this thesis is more concerned about the other characteristics of Sou Shen Chi that can distinguish itself from historical biographies and other categories of novels (especially T'ang Ch'uan Ch'i). In this thesis, Sou Shen Chi is placed in the context of the development of ancient Chinese narrative, and the research method of discourse analysis is used to redefine the evolutionary relationship between Sou Shen Chi and the historical biographies as well as T'ang Ch'uan Ch'i. This thesis begins with the compilation strategies of Sou Shen Chi, following the analysis of its criteria on selecting materials to be compiled in it, hence delineating the range of the "narrative" discourses among those materials. After that, this thesis compares the similar stories in Sou Shen Chi to get the preference of the ways on how the stories were presented in Sou Shen Chi. Based on the narrative technique of the discourses, this thesis further finds out the similarities and differences of the narrative modes between Sou Shen Chi and historical biographies. Finally, this thesis makes a concise comparison among Sou Shen Chi, historical biographies and T'ang Ch'uan Ch'i to further prove the narrative characteristics of Sou Shen Chi which have been inferred in the first four chapters. The main objective of this thesis is to present the narrative characteristics of discourse structures of historical biographies, which had been inherited by Sou Shen Chi, while the latter further inspired T'ang Ch'uan Ch'i. Sou Shen Chi compiles all kinds of bizarre legends and stories from historical biographies and also other texts, while the contents are presented in two manners, either the narrator told the story in the manner of an authoritative historian, or focusing on the narration of all kinds of “extraordinary phenomena” through the storytelling process. Most of the narrative techniques of Sou Shen Chi are inherited from historical biographies. However, the narrative discourses of the Sou Shen Chi only concern about what happened in a complete story, but lack of description of the characters and the story backgrounds. The narrative technique of T'ang Ch'uan Ch'i further enriched the details of the “extraordinary phenomena” on this basis, and even gradually increased the shaping of the characters, and the presentation of the contents tended to become more complex, gradually constructing the appearance of the “extraordinary world”. |