一 研究缘起

动物与人类的生存、生活密不可分，从最初的人与动物互相猎食，到人类逐渐强大而制服、驯化、饲养动物，动物在人类的发展史上始终占有重要地位。随着文明的进步，动物在作为人类肉食补给之来源的同时，逐渐进入人类的精神层面——原始的图腾文化将形态各异、对部落发展具有特殊意义的动物吸纳进去。随着动物始祖地位的确立，动物与人之间的关系更加密切，一系列与动物有关的故事也开始出现，展示着人类对于动物认识的不断深入、与动物关系的进一步紧密。早期的神话、寓言故事中，包含了大量动物的身影，无论是解释自然现象、讲述人类始祖功绩，或是宣讲道德观念、揭示生活哲理等，人们都习惯将动物及其形象融入其中，动物成为人类文化的重要组成部分。根据人类社会的需要，人们按照动物的形态、习性等，将其形象融入语言文字、书法绘画、音乐舞蹈等多种表现形式当中，对原始的宗教信仰及民族习俗等产生了深刻的影响。在人类文明不断进步的过程中，一些动物具有了相对稳定的文化内涵，成为一种“文化动物”，附着了人类社会的文化因素，反映着人对动物的特殊情感，以及借助动物来表达的内心体验。

将动物入诗、入文、入画，在我国文学史、文化史上十分普遍，而将动物形象写入叙事作品、借动物来讲故事，则是国人借助动物形象发挥其影响力最为常见的一种方式。对于植物形象，人们在文学作品和与之相关的文化品格的塑造方面，以静态处理为最常用的借用方式。不同于植物的静态生长，动物本身更富于生命跃动，动物与人之间的关系也呈现出更加复杂、多变的情况。动物的人文品格是在神话传说、寓言故事中逐渐生成的，借助拟人等手法，以动物为主角来讲述故事，形成了一种生动、形象而更具影响力的言志、借托手法。先民对于现实世界的认识方式，也在对动物形象的借鉴中体现出来，进而影响到古人对于臆想世界的建构。随着民族心理的成长，道教、佛教在借助动物进行教义宣传方面，表现出各自鲜明的特征，与动物相关的叙事作品也因之繁荣，动物的文化品格日趋丰富，动物在民众生活中的地位和影响也日渐显著。研究动物作为文化角色的内涵，探索动物被传统文化定义、定位的过程及原因，对我们解读古人的情感，充分理解民族文化等，都具有重要的意义。笔者以叙事作品中的动物形象作为研究切入点，拟对古代叙事文学中涉及的动物及相关故事的形成、流传及其折射的文化意义进行解析。通过解读动物形象在不同阶段叙事作品中的存在方式，分析文人庶众对各种动物之品性的接受、重塑以及其中体现的文化心态，通过对动物故事在宗教文化影响下的变化与发展进行探讨，探寻以动物形象为核心的叙事作品在不同文化影响下表现出的特点，分析人们对若干动物故事的接受与改造方式，以及由此对后世文化观念、文学创作产生的影响。

二 相关研究情况

自20世纪20年代以来，随着民俗学研究的兴起，我国故事学的研究取得了重大的成果。就动物故事的研究来说，德国学者艾伯华在《中国民间故事类型》（1937年）一书中，将动物故事大致分“动物”和“动物与人”两大类；美籍华人学者丁乃通《中国民间故事类型索引》（1986年）一书，按照AT分类法，列出的动物故事类型有150个，分7个系列；刘守华主编的《中国民间故事类型研究》（2002年）一书中，汇集了许多动物故事类型的研究，如老虎报恩型故事、老鼠嫁女型故事、猴子救月型故事、蛇郎娶妻型故事等；其他针对不同动物之文化研究的论文、书籍也十分丰富。目前学界专书进行研究的，笔者所见只有已故民俗学、民间文学研究大家谭达先所著《中国动物故事研究》一部，1980年由商务印书馆出版，迄今已近40年。书中涉及的动物故事，多是采编自各民族神话传说、民间故事，故事内容也多以儿童益智类为主，对所论动物故事的分类、解释偏于普及性质，并不能充分揭示我国动物故事的传承与演变脉络。

作为文学意象和文化符号，动物在中国文学、文化史上都具有特殊的意义。尽管以动物之精神、品格来形容或喻指人之气质的情况十分常见，动物寓言、动物谚语、动物诗赋等都是文学史、文化史中的精彩部分，但对于动物与中国传统文化的关系，则较少有系统的专著、专文进行这方面的整理总结。值得注意的是，随着近年生肖文化热的兴起，生肖作为被人民群众广泛熟悉的动物意象，开始受到研究者关注，与生肖有关的动物文化、动物故事也开始大量进入人们的视野。然而，在对生肖动物研究进行取舍时，研究者往往将重点集中在与“生肖”特性有关的故事及文化意义方面，如马倡仪先生的《鼠咬天开》（1998年）、吴裕成的《生肖与中国文化》（2003年）等，以民俗文化内容为主，对动物故事本身的成长、发展线索及流传、变异问题涉及较少。汪玢玲教授《中国虎文化》（2007年）一书，“开创系统地多学科综合研究动物文化的先河”6969271，从文化考古、宗教民俗、文史艺术、传播养护等方面，较为全面地对中华虎文化进行了考察，并设专章对与虎有关的传说故事溯源，在学术界具有积极的拓荒意义。

本书旨在以古代小说中所涉及的动物故事入手，探寻动物形象在产生之初、流传过程中所逐渐积淀的文化因素，通过动物故事在内容上的由简到繁、情节上的叠加与突破、动物角色之属性的固定与渐变，以动物形象在古代小说中的变迁为着眼点，探寻中国传统文化、异域外来文化、民族特色文化对动物故事的渗透、影响，考察在动物故事中所体现的诸多文化的交流、融合与对立、冲突，进一步研究此类被民众熟知的动物及其文化对中国古代文学创作，尤其是对以小说为代表的叙事文学创作的启示与影响。

三 研究范围及概念界定

关于古代小说。本书所指的古代小说，包含“故事”，是基于神话、志怪的叙事作品，与现代的小说概念有所不同，可以说是广义的古代小说。“故事”一词，按照现今一般的理解，是指在人们口头流传的、有一定情节的、或真实或虚构的、带有一定启示意义的对过去之事的记忆和讲述。但在其诞生之初，“故事”之所指却别有多种含义，如：一、指旧事、旧业，《商君书·垦令》:“知农不离其故事，则草必垦矣”6969272；二、指前代的事例，《史记·三王世家》:“窃从长老好故事者取其封策书，编列其事而传之，令后世得观贤主之指意”6969273；三、指先例，旧日的典章制度，《汉书·刘向传》:“宣帝循武帝故事，招选名儒俊材置左右”6969274；四、指典故，宋欧阳修《六一诗话》:“自《西昆集》出，时人争效之，诗体一变。而先生老辈，患其多用故事，至于语僻难晓”6969275等。反倒是班固《汉书·艺文志》对“小说”的界定，更符合我们今天所认为的“故事”含义：“小说家者流，盖出于稗官。街谈巷语，道听途说者之所造也。”6969276后世由稗官搜集记录的、反映闾巷风俗的“小说”内容，充分发挥了其“道听途说”的特点，大量奇闻异事被记录整理，虽然其中不乏夸张、妖妄之说，但许多早期的传说故事也因此而得以入册留存。王青先生指出，以现代小说的模式去研究作为魏晋时期志怪小说代表作的《搜神记》，无疑是“方凿圆枘，不得要领”，对这类“小说”，更应该“将其视为传说或民间故事”6969277。从这个角度来说，尽管魏晋志怪以稗官野史为根底，然而这种“实录”特征下的记事，却包含了大量的神话、传说、寓言等故事，是我国“古代小说”的早期样式；而魏晋志怪谈奇录异的风气，也直接影响到唐人的“作意好奇”。唐及以后，“始有意为之”的现代文体意义上的古代小说正式登场，而唐之传奇作品在其中最为夺目；其后，才逐渐出现更多以现实生活为题材的笔记小说、话本小说等作品，虚构、作意等小说因素逐步得到强化，至明清而成为一代之文学样式。因此，本书对“古代小说”的界定，着眼于中国古代小说发展的实际情况，并不以现代文体意义上的小说概念作为标准。

关于动物形象。本书所关注的“动物形象”，是基于神话的叙事作品，在神话、志怪等作品中涉及的动物神祇、具有动物外形的怪物、法术变化中被借用的动物等，都包括其中。起于神话的动物神祇，对先民的思想观念、思维方式有重要的影响，以至在后起的寓言故事、志怪等作品中，动物形象或是完整的故事主角，或只是作为辅助器具，甚至只是作为一个怪异的概念等。尽管其中有些涉及的动物意象，对故事情节的影响比较微弱，但却是古小说发展过程中真实存在的环节，也是后期志怪加以沿用、对相关故事进行扩充的基础，因而不能简单忽略。以这些动物形象为关注点，本书重点对若干影响较大、传播较广的类型故事进行分析，对原始思维、佛道文化在其中的影响进行梳理，探寻动物形象的参与对这类叙事作品发展的影响。考察这类故事在受到不同文化、不同思维方式之影响下的演进轨迹，进而探讨其对后世文学、文化的影响。

唐以后，动物形象作为叙事作品的表现内容，主要集中在沿着志怪一路发展起来的部分传奇、志怪笔记作品中，人成为小说主角之后，动物形象或隐或显，逐渐退守于志怪笔记一脉，后在神魔小说中有所突破，志怪仍是动物形象发挥作用的主要阵地。因此，神话、魏晋志怪是研究动物形象在唐前发展状况的基础，包含大量动物意象、以搜奇猎异为特征的唐前志怪，是本书的重要考察对象。6969278唐及以后，动物形象集中出现在带有奇幻色彩的古小说中，而这类小说，主要是沿着志怪笔记小说一路发展起来的，我们将以此为关注对象，着力对动物形象在唐人传奇、志怪笔记、明清神魔志怪小说中的变迁发展进行审视研究。

综上，本书拟从动物形象在古代小说中的变化入手，探寻动物在构建叙事故事时的作用及意义，探究相关故事在产生之初、流传过程中所逐渐积淀的文化因素。通过动物故事在内容上的由简到繁、情节上的叠加与突破、动物角色之属性的固定与渐变等变化，尝试解读中国传统文化、异域外来文化对动物故事的渗透、影响，考察动物故事中所体现的诸多文化间的交流、融合与对立、冲突，进一步研究此类被民众熟知的动物及其文化对中国古代文学创作，尤其是对以唐前古小说为代表的叙事文学创作的启示，及其对唐及以后我国叙事文学的影响。

基于上述研究目标，本书将以目前所见、记载于各类古籍中之先唐“小说”类故事为研究对象，借鉴前人既有研究成果，依据动物意象及动物故事在不同的背景文化——原始神话主导时期、先秦智慧文学盛行时期、魏晋宗教文化繁荣时期——影响下的变化，以故事情节的变化和故事类型的成长作为切入点，借助若干故事个案，研究先唐动物故事的发展轨迹；探讨动物形象在唐人传奇、明清小说中的成长演进，分析其对此类小说在各阶段成长的作用。通过分析人们观念意识中对于动物形象的接受，和对动物形象进行的不断塑造，探讨本土原始观念、以法术见长的道教文化以及外来佛教文化，在不同的文化意识层面对国人造成的影响。

From the beginning of human beings and animals hunting each other, to the gradual strengthening of human beings and subduing, domesticating, and raising animals, animals have always occupied an important position in the history of human development. With the progress of civilization, animals have gradually entered the spiritual level of human beings while serving as a source of human meat supplies - primitive totem culture has absorbed animals with different forms and special significance for tribal development. With the establishment of the ancestor status of animals, the relationship between animals and people has become closer, and a series of animal-related stories have begun to appear, showing the deepening of human understanding of animals and the closer relationship with animals. Early myths and fables contained a large number of animal figures, whether it was explaining natural phenomena, telling the achievements of human ancestors, or preaching moral concepts, revealing life philosophies, etc., people were accustomed to integrating animals and their images into them, and animals became an important part of human culture. According to the needs of human society, according to the form and habits of animals, people integrate their images into various forms of expression such as language, calligraphy and painting, music and dance, etc., which has had a profound impact on primitive religious beliefs and ethnic customs. In the process of continuous progress of human civilization, some animals have relatively stable cultural connotations and become a kind of "cultural animals", attached to the cultural factors of human society, reflecting people's special emotions for animals, and the inner experience expressed with the help of animals. The inclusion of animals in poetry, text, and painting is very common in China's literary and cultural history, and writing animal images into narrative works and using animals to tell stories is the most common way for Chinese people to exert their influence with animal images. For plant images, static processing is the most common way of borrowing in the shaping of literary works and the cultural character associated with them. Different from the static growth of plants, animals themselves are more life-warming, and the relationship between animals and people is more complex and changeable. The humanistic character of animals is gradually generated in myths and legends and fables, and with the help of anthropomorphism and other techniques, animals are used as the protagonists to tell stories, forming a vivid, vivid and more influential speech and borrowing technique. The way the ancestors understood the real world was also reflected in the borrowing of animal images, which in turn influenced the construction of the imaginary world by the ancients. With the growth of national psychology, Taoism and Buddhism have shown their own distinctive characteristics in using animals for doctrinal propaganda, and animal-related narrative works have also prospered, the cultural character of animals has become increasingly rich, and the status and influence of animals in people's lives have become increasingly significant. Studying the connotation of animals as cultural roles and exploring the process and reasons why animals are defined and positioned by traditional culture are of great significance for us to interpret the emotions of the ancients and fully understand national culture. Taking animal images in narrative works as the starting point of research, the author intends to analyze the formation, circulation and cultural significance of animals and related stories involved in ancient narrative literature. By interpreting the existence mode of animal images in narrative works at different stages, analyzing the acceptance and reshaping of various animal qualities by the literati and the cultural mentality embodied in them, through the discussion of the changes and development of animal stories under the influence of religious culture, exploring the characteristics of narrative works with animal images as the core under different cultural influences, analyzing people's acceptance and transformation of some animal stories, and the impact on future cultural concepts and literary creation. Since the 20s of the 20th century, with the rise of folklore research, the study of storytelling in China has achieved significant results. As far as the study of animal stories is concerned, the German scholar Eberwald roughly divided animal stories into two categories: "animals" and "animals and people" in his book "Types of Chinese Folk Tales" (1937); The Chinese-American scholar Ding Naitong's "Index of Chinese Folktale Types" (1986), according to the AT classification, there are 150 types of animal stories listed, divided into 7 series; Liu Shouhua's book "Research on Chinese Folk Tale Types" (2002) brings together many animal story genre studies, such as tiger retribution stories, mouse marriage female stories, monkey moon saving stories, snake lang wife-type stories, etc. Other papers and books on the study of different animal cultures are also abundant. At present, the author has only seen a book of "Research on Chinese Animal Stories" by the late Tan Daxian, a master of folklore and folklore research, which was published by the Commercial Press in 1980 and has been nearly 40 years ago. Most of the animal stories involved in the book are collected from various ethnic myths and legends, folk tales, and the content of the stories is mainly children's puzzles, and the classification and interpretation of the animal stories discussed are partial to the popularization nature, which cannot fully reveal the inheritance and evolution of animal stories in China. As literary imagery and cultural symbols, animals have special significance in Chinese literature and cultural history. Although it is very common to use the spirit and character of animals to describe or refer to human temperament, animal fables, animal proverbs, animal poetry, etc. are all wonderful parts of literary history and cultural history, but for the relationship between animals and traditional Chinese culture, there are few systematic monographs and articles to sort out and summarize this aspect. It is worth noting that with the rise of zodiac culture fever in recent years, the zodiac, as an animal image widely familiar to the people, has begun to attract the attention of researchers, and animal culture and animal stories related to the zodiac have also begun to enter people's field of vision in large quantities. However, when making trade-offs in the study of zodiac animals, researchers often focus on the stories and cultural significance related to the characteristics of the "zodiac", such as Mr. Ma Xianyi's "The Rat Bites the Sky" (1998) and Wu Yucheng's "The Zodiac and Chinese Culture" (2003), etc., which mainly focus on folk culture content, and involve less on the growth, development clues, circulation and variation of animal stories themselves. Professor Wang Yingling's book "Chinese Tiger Culture" (2007), "Creating a Precedent for Systematic Multidisciplinary Comprehensive Study of Animal Culture", 6969271 comprehensively investigates Chinese tiger culture from the aspects of cultural archaeology, religious folklore, literature, history and art, communication and conservation, and sets up a special chapter to trace the origin of legends and stories related to tigers, which has positive pioneering significance in the academic circle. This book aims to start with the animal stories involved in ancient novels, explore the cultural factors gradually accumulated by animal images at the beginning of their birth and circulation, through the content of animal stories from simple to complex, the superposition and breakthrough of plots, the fixed and gradual change of the attributes of animal characters, and the changes of animal images in ancient novels, explore the infiltration and influence of traditional Chinese culture, exotic foreign culture, and national characteristic culture on animal stories, and investigate the exchanges and exchanges of many cultures embodied in animal stories. Integrate with opposition and conflict, and further study the enlightenment and influence of such well-known animals and their cultures on ancient Chinese literary creation, especially on narrative literature represented by novels. III. Research Scope and Conceptual Definition of Ancient Novels. The ancient novels referred to in this book, including "stories", are narrative works based on myths and strange things, which are different from the modern concept of fiction and can be said to be ancient novels in a broad sense. The word "story", according to today's common understanding, refers to the memory and telling of past events that are passed down orally by people, with a certain plot, or real or fictional, with a certain revelatory meaning. However, at the beginning of its birth, "story" refers to a variety of meanings, such as: first, it refers to old things and old industries, "Shang Junshu Reclamation Order": "If the farmer does not depart from its story, the grass will be reclaimed"6969272; second, it refers to the case of the previous dynasty, "Shiji Three Kings Family": "Those who steal the good stories of the elders take their seal books, compile their events and pass them on, so that future generations can see the meaning of the sages"6969273; third, it refers to precedents, the old canon system, "Hanshu Liu Xiangchuan": "Emperor Xuandi follows the story of Emperor Wu, 6969274Fourth, referring to allusions, Song Ouyang Xiu's "Liuyi Poems": "Since the "Xikun Collection" came out, people competed for it, and the poetry style changed. And the old gentlemen, suffering from its many stories, as for the language is difficult to understand" 6969275 and so on. On the contrary, the definition of "novel" in Bangu's Hanshu Yiwenzhi is more in line with the meaning of "story" that we think of today: "The flow of novelists is covered by barnyard officials." Street talk is the work of hearsay. 6969276 the content of the "novel" collected and recorded by the barnyard officials in later generations and reflecting the customs of Luxiang gave full play to its characteristics of "hearsay", and a large number of anecdotes were recorded and organized, although many of them were exaggerated and devilish, but many early legends and stories were also preserved. Mr. Wang Qing pointed out that using the model of modern fiction to study "Soushenji", which is a representative work of Wei and Jin dynasty Chi Wei novels, is undoubtedly "square chisel and round and does not have the essentials", and such "novels" should be "regarded as legends or folk tales"6969277. From this point of view, although Wei Jin Zhiwei is based on the barnyard official history, the records under this "real record" feature contain a large number of myths, legends, fables and other stories, which is the early style of China's "ancient novel"; And Wei Jinzhi's strange and strange atmosphere also directly affected the "curiosity" of the Tang people. Tang and later, ancient novels in the sense of modern style "originally intentional" officially appeared, and Tang's legendary works were the most eye-catching among them; Later, more notebook novels, script novels and other works with real life as the theme gradually appeared, and fiction, composition and other novel factors were gradually strengthened, and it became a generation of literary styles in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Therefore, the definition of "ancient novel" in this book focuses on the actual situation of the development of ancient Chinese novels, and does not take the concept of fiction in the sense of modern style as a standard. About animal figures. The "animal figures" that this book focuses on are narrative works based on mythology, including animal deities involved in mythology, monsters with animal appearances, and animals borrowed from magic changes. Animal deities originating from myths have an important influence on the ideas and ways of thinking of the ancestors, and even in later fables, chi monsters and other works, animal figures are either complete story protagonists, or only as auxiliary devices, or even just as a strange concept. Although some of the animal images involved have a relatively weak impact on the plot of the story, they are real links in the development of ancient novels, and they are also the basis for the use of later Chi Wei and the expansion of related stories, so they cannot be simply ignored. Focusing on these animal images, this book focuses on the analysis of a number of influential and widely disseminated genre stories, sorts out the influence of primitive thinking and Buddhist culture in them, and explores the influence of animal figures on the development of such narrative works. Examine the evolution of such stories under the influence of different cultures and different ways of thinking, and then explore their influence on later literature and culture. After the Tang Dynasty, animal images as the performance content of narrative works, mainly concentrated in some legendary and Chi Wei notes works developed along the way of Chi Wei, after people became the protagonists of the novel, animal images were hidden or visible, gradually retreating into the line of Chi Wei Notes, and then made a breakthrough in god and demon novels, Chi Wei is still the main position where animal images play a role. Therefore, mythology and Wei Jin Zhiwei are the basis for studying the development of animal images in the pre-Tang Dynasty, and the Tang Dynasty Zhiwei, which contains a large number of animal images and is characterized by searching for strange and strange things, is an important object of investigation in this book. 6969278 Tang Dynasty and later, animal images appeared in ancient novels with fantasy colors, and this kind of novels mainly developed along the way to Chi Wei Note novels, and we will focus on this as the object of attention to examine the changes and development of animal images in Tang Dynasty legends, Chi Wei Notes, and Ming and Qing Dynasty gods and monster novels. In summary, this book intends to start from the changes of animal images in ancient novels, explore the role and significance of animals in the construction of narrative stories, and explore the cultural factors gradually accumulated in the process of production and transmission of related stories. Through the changes of animal stories from simple to complex in content, superposition and breakthrough in plot, and fixed and gradual changes in the attributes of animal characters, we try to interpret the penetration and influence of traditional Chinese culture and exotic cultures on animal stories, investigate the exchanges, integrations, confrontations and conflicts between many cultures embodied in animal stories, and further study the enlightenment of such well-known animals and their cultures to ancient Chinese literature, especially the creation of narrative literature represented by pre-Tang ancient novels. and its influence on narrative literature in China in the Tang and beyond. Based on the above research objectives, this book will take the "novel" stories of the Pre-Tang Dynasty that have been seen and recorded in various ancient books as the research object, draw on the existing research results of predecessors, and study the development trajectory of pre-Tang animal stories according to the changes of animal imagery and animal stories under the influence of different background cultures, namely the dominant period of primitive mythology, the flourishing period of pre-Qin wisdom literature, and the flourishing period of Wei and Jin religious culture, taking the changes in storylines and the growth of story types as the starting point, and using several story cases. This paper discusses the growth and evolution of animal figures in Tang Dynasty legends and Ming and Qing dynasty novels, and analyzes their role in the growth of such novels at various stages. By analyzing the acceptance of animal images in people's conceptual consciousness and the continuous shaping of animal images, this paper discusses the influence of local primitive concepts, Taoist culture known for magic and foreign Buddhist culture on Chinese people at different levels of cultural consciousness.（AI翻译）