Masters Thesis

The strange Daoism of Pu Songling

This thesis explores the ways in which stories from Pu Songling's Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio draw from the earlier Daoist work the Book of Zhuangzi. While Pu Songling's work contains Daoist moral themes similar to those of Zhuangzi's earlier collection, this analysis will show that, in both collections, the way in which the stories are conveyed is just as important as their particular moral maxims. In the Book of Zhuangzi, this emphasis on style is embodied by the characters within the stories themselves, who communicate Daoist principles through their strange appearance. Finding the link between Daoism and the strange, this thesis explores the ways in which Daoism might penetrate Pu Songling's entire collection, as only a small amount of the stories have clear moral maxims.

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