SOURCES OF PU SONGLING’S MINIATURE TALE MAKING ANIMALS

Abstract

The reconstruction of the author’s original strategy in the collection Liao Zhai zhi yi (聊齋誌異) implies the ascertaining of the extent to which the text reflects the ethnographic and folklore facts contemporary for Pu Songling. The article offers an attempt of the approach based on the examination of a miniature tale called Making Animals (Zao chu, 造畜). Researchers see its origins either in the Tang story Third Lady of Banqiao Bridge (9th century) or in current demonological beliefs. An analysis of the general structure of the miniature and its lexical features has been conducted. On its basis, as well as on the basis of the comparison of the text with earlier works about the transformation of human beings into animals, we conclude that the sources of the tale were ethnographic information obtained by the author in everyday life, and the story Third Lady… combined with several widespread folklore motifs.