2 Manifestation of Ghost Images in Literary Works.8

2.1 Female ghosts, Furtive ghosts, Ghosts in love.8

2.2 Devils, humanity-retained, hybrids..11

3 Themes and Implications15

3.1 Themes of Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio15

3.2 Themes of Vampire Chronicles..17

3.3 Forming Causes..18

4 Attitudes & Symbolic Values23

4.1 In Oriental Lierary Works.23

4.2 In West Lierary Works.24

5 Conclusion26

Bibliography27 

1 Introduction

It is difficult to see the portrayal of the post-death world in ancient times. The word “ghost” is explained in the Chinese oracle bone inscription as follows: a word meaning, the following of which is a personal character, the above of which is a terrible head, meaning like a monster. In the east, ghost, in general, can refer to demons, faeries, monsters and devils as supernatural beings with magical power. In narrow sense, it may relate to the existence of a person after death. While in the west, the definition of ghost contains the meaning of demons and souls, which was apparently influenced by Christianity.

Ghost culture is a cultural phenomenon due to illusory death, funeral, spiritualism, derived from the sacrifices. The idea of ghost comes from a person’s mistaken knowledge and original thinking experience of their own physiological phenomena and the surrounding world. As far as ghost literature is concerned, the works of ghosts cover various styles, such as myths, poems, novels, and dramas. The absurd behavior of ghosts is a kind of creation that people are very imaginative, which essentially reflects certain desires and demands of human social life.

1.1 Definition & Origin of Ghosts

In the eighteenth and nineteenth century, ghost culture belonged to subculture both in China and western countries, and was marginalized in their literary history respectively. The phenomenon of ghosts in classical literary works is a cultural phenomenon. It is a spiritual product rather than an objective existence. It is a carrier of cultural ideas. The emergence and existence of ghosts stem from the accumulation of feudal culture in China for thousands of years. The reason why people allow ghosts to be involved in their real life is closely related to the ancient deep-rooted perception of religious superstition and unique understanding of ghosts. As the core of religious superstition is the concept of animism, the ancients believe that ghosts are the souls of people after their death. 

Ghosts are believed to exist in people’s consciousness in certain form under various cultural patterns. Ghosts in China refer to the soul of a deceased person, which is an ideology that remains in the present world after the physical loss. There has been an hearsay in China since ancient times that the soul will not die. The soul is born of the essence of heaven and earth. Thanks to its being attached to the human body, a person obtains a life. The soul is pided into two parts: the spirit and the soul. The former determines the activities of human senses, while the latter decides those of the human spiritual world. After a person dies, the soul will not disappear but enter the hell. The Chinese saying concerning the hell is influenced by Buddhism, uncovered in paying attention to comeuppance and reincarnation. It contains Chinese features as well, describing a society with various bureaucratic management and strict hierarchy. The hell is pided into different classes: the soul of the wicked is to be punished in the nether world, in which the severity of the penalty depends on the sin of the person when he was alive. As for the good people, after their death, they will be judged by Yama and reborn to enjoy the blessings scraped up in his pre-existence.

The appearance of ghosts in the East is also inseparable from religious culture. One legend says that ghosts originated from religion and was also subject to religion. People often dispel ghosts by chanting and praying, placing statues of Buddha, and having a holy man do the spell-casting. This practice is often viewed superstition, but it does reflect the depth of people’s faith in religion and the fact that the origin of ghosts is dictated by religious thought as much as western vampire culture.