Chapter Eleven Tales of the Marvelous and Popular Literature of the Tang Dynasty

The prosperity of fictional narrative literature made a significant landmark in the development of literature of the Tang dynasty, and it was particularly evident after the Mid-Tang period. The appearance of the tale of the marvelous during the Tang dynasty marked that classical Chinese fiction began to move into a stage of maturity. From its course of development, we can see that the tale of the marvelous of the Tang dynasty was originated from the supernatural tale of the Six Dynasties. The manuscripts found at the Dunhuang Grotto at the end of the nineteenth century may come under the major genres of transformation text, vernacular story sutra lecture text, song text, and popular rhapsody. The excavation of Rhapsody on the Divine Birds, a popular rhapsody of the Western Han, informed us of the existence of a popular literary form that had been in existence for a long, long time. Keywords:Chinese fiction; Mid-Tang period; Rhapsody on the Divine Birds; Six Dynasties; Tales; Tang Dynasty