 A late Ming printed edition ofThe Three Sui Quash the Demons' Revolt | |||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 神魔小說 | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simplified Chinese | 神魔小说 | ||||||||
| |||||||||
Gods and demons fiction orShenmo fiction (traditional Chinese:神魔小說;simplified Chinese:神魔小说;pinyin:shénmó xiǎoshuō) is asubgenre of Chinesefantasy fiction that revolves around thedeities,immortals,demons andmonsters ofChinese mythology. The termshenmo xiaoshuo, coined in the early 20th century by the writer and literary historianLu Xun, literally means "gods and demons novel".[1] Representative works ofshenmo fiction include the novelsJourney to the West andInvestiture of the Gods.[2]
Shenmo first appeared in theMing dynasty as a genre ofvernacular fiction,[3] a style of writing based onspoken Chinese rather thanClassical Chinese. The roots of the genre are found in traditional folktales and legends.[4] Plot elements like the use of magic andalchemy were derived from Chinese mythology and religion, includingTaoism andBuddhism, popular among Ming intellectuals.[3]
The Three Sui Quash the Demons' Revolt (三遂平妖傳,c. 14th century CE) is an early gods and demons novel attributed toLuo Guanzhong.[5] In the story, Wang Ze begins a rebellion against the government with the aid of magic.[6] TheFour Journeys (四遊記,c. 16th century CE) is another earlyshenmo work composed of four novels and published during the dynasty as a compilation of folk stories.[7]The Story of Han Xiangzi (韓湘子全傳,c. 17th century CE), aDaoist novel from the same period, also shares this supernatural theme but contains heavier religious overtones.[8]
The most well known examples ofshenmo fiction areJourney to the West (西遊記,c. 16th century CE) andInvestiture of the Gods (封神演義,c. 16th century CE).[2]Journey to the West in particular is considered by Chinese literary critics as thechef-d'œuvre ofshenmo novels.[9] The novel's authorship is attributed toWu Cheng'en and was first published in 1592 by Shitedang, a Ming publishing house.[1] The popularity ofJourney to the West inspired a series ofshenmo copycats that borrowed plot elements from the book.[1]
Later works of gods and demons fiction drifted away from the purely fantastical themes of novels likeJourney to the West.Shenmo novels were still ostensibly about monsters and gods, but carried more humanistic themes. During the lateMing dynasty and earlyQing dynasty, a subgenre of comedicshenmo had emerged.[10]
The grotesque exposés of the Qing dynasty (qiangze xiaoshuo) reference the supernatural motifs ofshenmo xiaoshuo, but in the Qing exposés, the division between the real and unreal is less clear cut. The supernatural is placed outside conventional fantasy settings and presented as a natural part of a realistic world, bringing about its grotesque nature.[11] This trait is embodied in theJourney to the West and othershenmo parodies of the late Qing dynasty.[12] InA Ridiculous Journey to the West (Wuli qunao zhi xiyouji) byWu Jianwen, the protagonist Bare-Armed Gibbon, a more venal version ofSun Wukong, aids the Vulture King once he is unable to wring any money out of a penniless fish that the vulture had caught and dropped in a puddle.[13]
The monkey returns in another Wu Jianwen story,Long Live the Constitution (Lixian wansui), and bickers with other characters fromJourney to the West over a constitution for Heaven.[12] The four main characters ofJourney to the West, the monkey,Tang Sanzang,Zhu Bajie, andSha Wujing, travel to modern Shanghai in theNew Journey to the West (Xin xiyouji) by Lengxue. In Shanghai, they mingle with prostitutes, suffer from drug addiction, and play games ofmahjong.Journey to the West was not the only gods and demons novel lampooned.New Investiture of the Gods (Xin Fengshenzhuan) is a parody ofInvestiture of the Gods by Dalu that was published as aguji xiaoshuo comedy.[12]
Novels in this subgenre include an expanded revision ofThe Sorcerer's Revolt,What Sort of Book Is This? (Hedian),Romance of Devil Killing (Zhanggui zhuan), andQuelling the Demons (Pinggui zhuan). Instead of focusing only on a supernatural realm,shenmo comedies used fantasy as a social commentary on the follies of the human world.[10] Lu Xun theorized that theshenmo genre shaped the satirical works later written in theQing dynasty.[14] The genre also influenced the science fantasy novels of the late Qing.[2]
Shenmo literature declined in the early 20th century. The generation of writers following theMay Fourth Movement rejected fantasy in favor ofliterary realism influenced by the trends of 19th-century European literature.[14] Chinese writers regarded fantasy genres likeshenmo as superstitious and a product of a feudal society. Stories of gods and monsters were seen as an obstacle to the modernization of China and scientific progress.[14] The writerHu Shih wrote that the spells and magical creatures of Chinese fiction were more harmful to the Chinese people than thegerms discovered byLouis Pasteur. Stories of the supernatural were denounced during theCultural Revolution, an era when "Down with ox-ghosts and snake-spirits" was a popular Communist slogan.[15]
Shenmo and other fantasy genres experienced a revival inTaiwan, Hong Kong, and, later, inMainland China after the Cultural Revolution ended.[15] Having returned to Chinese popular culture, fantasy has populated film, television, radio, and literature. Contemporary writers frequently use supernatural themes to accentuate the otherworldly atmosphere of their works.[16]
The termshenmo xiaoshuo was coined by the writer and literary historianLu Xun in his bookA Brief History of Chinese Fiction (1930), which has three chapters on the genre. The literary historian Mei Chun translates Lu Xun's term as "supernatural/fantastic".[17] The term was adopted as a convention by the generations of Chinese literary critics that followed him.[9] In their 1959 translation of Lu Xun's book, Gladys Yang and Yang Xianyi translateshenmo as "Gods and Devils".[18][19] Lin Chin, a historian of Chinese literature, categorized the fantasy novels of the Ming dynasty asshenguai xiaoshuo, "novels of gods and strange phenomenon".[20]
The 1986television adaptation ofJourney to the West is one of the most well-known adaptations of the novel.
From 1996 to 2000,Ryu Fujisaki publishedHoshin Engi inWeekly Shonen Jump. The story and characters were based onInvestiture of the Gods.
In August 2024, a Chinese company releasedBlack Myth: Wukong, a video game featuring characters based onJourney to the West.
