Abstract
傳奇 chuanqi is a form of short narration very popular in East Asian countries such as China, Vietnam, Japan and Korea during the Middle Ages. This genre gained prominent achievements and indicated the strong flow of inter-national cultural exchange within the area. There have been many studies on this genre, some comparing the characteristics of this genre in different countries. However, many issues on this gene, including the basic questions such as “What is chuanqi?”, “What is the social foundation for chuanqi?”, “Does chuanqi contain all medieval stories that have ghostly elements?”, “Do ghostly elements of chuanqi come from the world-view of the authors or just express a writing style?”, and “What is the attraction of chuanqi?” are still unclear, even misunderstood, and requiring more discussions. This article provides a general observation and discussion about works of chuanqi in East Asia, focusing on 金鰲新話 Geumo sinhwa by 金時習Kim Si Seup (Korea) and 傳奇漫錄Truyền kỳ mạn lục by 阮與Nguyễn Dữ (Vietnam) to provide initial answers for those questions.
Keywords: 傳奇 chuanqi story, 怪談guaitan story, ghost story, East Asian literature, Geumo sinhwa 金鰲新話, Truyền kỳ mạn lục 傳奇漫錄.
