Oct 3, 2012 © Ulrich Theobald
Lieyizhuan 列異傳 "Biographies of extraordinary persons" was an early collection of stories attributed to Cao Pi 曹丕 (187-226), a writer who is known in history as Emperor Wen 魏文帝 (r. 220-226) of the Wei dynasty 曹魏 (220-265), one of the Three Empires 三國 (220-280).
Still, it is far from sure whether the authorship of the 3-juan-long story collection Lieyizhuan can be attributed to Cao Pi, yet because it includes stories taking place after the death of Cao Pi. It is rather probable that the text was, at least partially, compiled at later date. Some Song period 宋 (960-1279) scholars were of the opinion that the book was compiled by Zhang Hua 張華 (232-300) during the the Jin period 晉 (265-420), but there are no proofs for this. The Republican expert Lu Xun 魯迅 (1881-1936) has found out that sources from the Southern and Northern dynasties period 南北朝 (300~600), such as Pei Songzhi's 裴松之 (370-449) commentary on the Sanguozhi 三國志 or Li Daoyuan's 酈道元 (466 or 472-527) Shuijingzhu 水經注 quote from the Lieyizhuan, so that there can be no doubt that the Lieyizhuan was written during the Jin period at the latest.
The Lieyizhuan includes stories on a wide range of topics all of which tell of strange things and objects, miraculous animals and plants, ghosts and demons, and the return of the souls of dead persons. It includes tales of magic and immortality, divination and supernatural skills, a genre that was very widespread in Chinese literature. The Lieyizhuan is one of the oldest texts containing such stories and, at the same time, a collection of vivid reports about the lives of ordinary people, such as Wang fu shi 望夫石, San Wang mu 三王墓 or Han Ping qi 韩凴妻. The story Song Dingbo 宋定伯 tells of a man who did not fear ghosts, which is relatively uncommon in this type of story. Generally speaking, the literary quality of the stories is comparatively high. Excellent composition is to be found in tales like Jiang Ji wang er 蔣濟亡兒, Tan sheng 談谈生 or Liu Boyi 劉伯夷.
Lu Xun assembled 50 fragments of the Lieyizhuan in his series Gu xiaoshuo gouchen 古小說鉤沉.
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