Investiture of the gods (Fengshen yanyi): sources, narrative structure, and mythical significance

Abstract

This dissertation is a literary analysis of Fengshen yanyi, which is a popular Chinese classical novel depicting the fantastic adventures of Jiang Ziya and the military campaigns between the last evil king of the Shang dynasty, King Zhou, and the sagacious founders of the Zhou dynasty, King Wen and King Wu. The main objective of this study is to examine the various sources used in the composition of the novel, and then to explore the narrative structure and the embodied meanings in the novel.To prepare the way for an analysis of the novel, Chapter One introduces the novel and the methodologies of analysis. Chapter Two examines the various sources of the novel from a diachronical point of view. The author's intention as well as his devices in selecting material and organizing the narrative elements are demonstrated by comparing the stories from a variety of sources.Chapter Three is a microstructural analysis which focuses on the internal relationship of the narrative elements. The first part discusses the form of discourse. The second part examines the form of story--how the disclosure plot is moved forward and how the two kernel events and the other satellite events are linked to form a sequential narrative flow to present the characters and make use of the settings.Chapter Four is a macrostructural analysis which adopts the archetypal pattern as an imposed structure to test against the novel. The detailed examination of the heroes and the structural patterns of the novel reveals that, not only are the features of the heroes similar to the mythical models, but the whole structure of the novel matches each stage in the pattern of quest myth. The themes of "de passage" and birth-death-rebirth recur along the process of the investiture. The conclusion suggests that although Fengshen yanyi itself is not a myth, the implied pattern and the process of the investiture make it a mythopoeic work which correlates to the universal quest themes in the world literature. (Abstract shortened with permission of author.)