｢猿の生肝｣説話の東アジアの文献説話の比較考察

Abstract

This paper examines the changes in animals and the transformation patterns of motifs in the tale of “The Monkey’s Liver” in East Asian literary tales. The results are summarized as follows. Firstly, the <crocodile> in India’s “Jataka Tales” was replaced with <soft-shelled turtle> in the Chinese “Liu Du Ji Jing” and “Sheng Jing” because <crocodile> was an animal unfamiliar to the Chinese people. The reason why it was not translated as <turtle>, which is similar to <soft-shelled turtle>, is probably because <turtle> is an animal that appears too often in other tales. Second, in the “Abhiniskramana-sutra”, the <crocodile> in the “Jataka Tales” is not <soft-shelled turtle> as in the “Liu Du Ji Jing” and “Sheng Jing”, but as <dragon>. This is probably because people’s knowledge of underwater animals deepened, and at the same time, their interest in and belief in the Dragon Palace deepened. I was also pointed that the story of Abhiniskramana-sutra , with its strong maritime image, became the basis for the later oral tale The Monkey’s Liver , which depicts the fantasy-like world of Dragon Palace. Thirdly, in the case of Japan’s “Chu-ko-sen”, “Konjaku Monogatari-shū”, and “Shasekishū”, the main points of each are subtly changing compared to the Chinese translation of the scriptures, but overall, the influence of “Ben Xing Ji Jing”, which has been Japaneseized and distributed, is significant. Meanwhile, it can be said that the reason why <soft-shelled turtle> in the Chinese translation of the scriptures was changed to <turtle> was because the ancient Japanese had overwhelmingly insufficient knowledge and awareness of <soft-shelled turtle> compared to <turtle>. Finally, regarding the Korean tale of “the Tortoise and the Rabbit”, it is reasonable to say that it was not founded in the 7th century, but that it took its current form due to the influence of later Chinese literature and the penetration of Dragon Palace ideology. Also, the reason why <rabbit> appears instead of <monkey> should be understood as a substitute animal for <monkey>, which is unfamiliar to Koreans as it does not live on the Korean Peninsula.