“此身虽异性长存”——古代小说中的转世主题

Body Gone, Nature Lives on—Reincarnation in Chinese Ancient Novels

佛教"转世"观念与中国人重生恶死的心理深相契合,从而形成一个重要的文学母题。早期小说中的转世描写,主要用来缓解失去亲人的痛苦、解释人类之间坚贞不渝的爱情及超越时空的友情。后期小说中的转世描写,则主要表现因果报应的思想。在小说发展和演进的过程中,转世观念更多的是作为结构小说的一种形式而出现的,并成为小说结构的一种常见的模式。

The reincarnation in Buddhism corresponds to Chinese mind of thinking highly of survival and hating death, hence it has been an important literary motif. The reincarnations narrated in early novels are used to relieve the pain of losing relatives and explain the faithful love or friendship crossing time and space among human beings. The narration of reincarnation in novels of later period mostly expresses an idea of karma. In the process of development of novels, reincarnation is used as a form of structure in novels, and becomes a common model of novels' structure