Abstract
Heroic images appear in ancient myths, legends, or folktales from almost every corner of the world. The Swiss psychologist Carl Jung proposed the concepts of the collective unconscious and archetypes in the early 20th century, and his hero archetype has inspired numerous literary critics, mythologists, and writers to investigate the narrative structures of the hero’s journey. The 18th century witnessed a boom in British Gothic novels and Chinese supernatural tales, among which Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto and Pu Songling’s Liaozhai Zhiyi are the most prominent. Both literary genres belong to supernatural fiction, with the hero being the typical character. Based on archetypal criticism and qualitative approaches like comparative method, historical approach, and textual analysis, this study attempts to compare the heroic images in British and Chinese 18th-century supernatural fiction, revealing the resemblance and diversity of human cultures through the analysis of the heroes’ characteristics and journeys in The Castle of Otranto and Liaozhai Zhiyi. The findings show that their heroic images are created by the hero archetypes from their national mythologies and social contexts, which demonstrates the transformation from the extraordinary to the ordinary.
Plain language summary
This study aims to explore the heroic images in British and Chinese 18th-century supernatural fiction. Why was the study done? Heroes are important characters in mythology and literature. Many scholars study the implications of hero myths and heroic images from the perspectives of psychology, mythology, and literature. The analysis of heroic images in British and Chinese 18th-century supernatural fiction could provide a cross-cultural view of hero studies. What did the researchers do? The authors summarized the famous British and Chinese hero myths, the social contexts of the 17th and 18th centuries, and analyzed the relationship between the heroic images in literature and the hero archetypes in mythology, using The Castle of Otranto and Liaozhai Zhiyi as representative supernatural novels in 18th-century Britain and China. What did the researchers find? Through the comparison of heroic images, the different cultures between Britain and China were discovered. The heroic images in literature are the “displacements” of the hero archetypes in mythology. What do the findings mean? Findings show that hero archetypes are similar across cultures and that human civilizations in different regions have commonalities. The different heroic images reflect different cultural and social contexts. From the mythological heroes of noble origins to the ordinary human heroes in 18th-century literary works, heroic images are increasingly close to the everyday lives of human beings.
Introduction
For primitive man, the obvious objective explanation must also be a psychic god or hero who inhabits the human soul (Jung, 1980, p. 6). Myths are viewed as traditional tales of heroes or supernatural beings that elucidate natural phenomena or record human behavior. Scholars interpret the hero archetype and the narrative pattern of the hero’s journey in terms of myths. Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell, for example, argued that the hero archetypes are typically symbolized by men or women who possess supernatural power and justice, and that the hero who defeats the villain exemplifies people’s achievement of a desired personality (Semium, 2013, pp. 66–67).
Influenced by myths, the hero has been a common character in literature since ancient times. Supernatural fiction, such as British Gothic novels and Chinese supernatural tales (中国志怪小说) 1 , considers the subject of “the emergence of the supernatural into fiction” (Clery, 1999, p. 1) and is closely associated with mythology. This category of fiction forms a plausible structure for religious belief by encouraging readers to immerse themselves in story worlds where supernatural creatures and superpowers are apparently real (Davidsen, 2016, p. 490). By the 18th century, supernatural fiction dominated the British and Chinese literary worlds, with the hero as a frequent character. For instance, the heroes and their adventures are essential elements in Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto, the first British Gothic novel, and Pu Songling’s 蒲松龄Liaozhai Zhiyi 聊斋志异, the most outstanding Chinese supernatural tales of the 18th century.
Despite time or culture, the hero is required by humans. This is the reason why hero stories endure in literature and “why we keep returning to the mythic archetype and reinventing it” (Wood, 2021, p. 20). In recent years, the heroic image has been a common theme in scholarly analyses of British or Chinese 18th-century supernatural fiction. Hogle (2023) notes that early British Gothic novels promoted fantasies of chivalry and heroism and condemned Popish tranny (p. 135). Hirst (2021) discusses the dark heroes (the Gothic hero-villains) who differ from the bland good heroes in early British Gothic fiction. Regarding the study of Chinese 18th-century supernatural fiction, L. Wang (2023) categorizes the heroes in Liaozhai and concludes that they are all based on the notion of helping the needy and the poor (p. 57). Cheng (2023) analyzes the narrative patterns of typical heroine stories in Liaozhai and elaborates on its feminist consciousness in feudal patriarchy.
Scholarly research on the heroic images in British or Chinese 18th-century supernatural fiction has been well-established in their respective national literature. However, as Goethe noted, without the enrichment of foreign literature, every literature would exhaust its vitality (Radhakrishnan, 2020, p. 237). A comparative study of the heroic images in British and Chinese literary works of the same period and similar genres is worthwhile. By using qualitative research methods such as comparative method, historical approach, and textual analysis, this study employs archetypal criticism to comparatively analyze the heroic images in British and Chinese 18th-century supernatural fiction, taking Liaozhai and Otranto as examples, in order to explore the similarities and diversities between the cultures of the two nations. This study aims to address the following questions:
(1) What are the typical heroic images in British and Chinese 18th-century supernatural fiction, and how do they relate to the hero archetypes in their respective national myths?
(2) What are the similarities and differences between the heroic images in British and Chinese 18th-century supernatural fiction, and what cultural differences do they reflect?
(3) What is the value of the heroic images in real life?
Hero Archetype
In the early 20th century, Jung proposed the concept of the collective unconscious in psychology. He believed that every human being possesses “some reflexes, tendencies and instincts shared by all humanity and stored in the very depth of human mind,” and such shared consciousness is known as the collective unconscious that “appears in dreams and myths and latently influences the way man thinks and behaves” (Ersöz, 2019, p. 180). Jung defined the archetype as the content of the collective unconscious and adopted this term to represent a universally recognized figure, image, circumstance, or topic that recurs throughout plays, novels, and everyday life. In Jung’s view, the hero archetype strongly influences societies (McGuire, 2021, p. 200) because the archetypal forms of the hero myth “can be observed in almost any process of individualization” (Jung, 1980, p. 172).
Campbell (1993) further developed Jung’s concept of the hero archetype and summarized the narrative pattern of the hero myths from their commonalities, that is, the hero’s journey with three successive acts: Separation, Initiation, and Return (p. 30). Briefly, the narrative pattern of the hero’s adventure is that the hero leaves his home, sets out on an adventure to overcome his enemies, and finally, after completing his mission, he returns to the place from which he started his journey. Inspired by Campbell, Christopher Vogler (2007), a well-known Hollywood director and scriptwriter, followed the separation-initiation-return model of the narrative pattern and aimed to create a writer’s guide by relating Jung’s and Campbell’s concepts of the hero’s journey to contemporary storytelling (p. xiii). Based on the concepts of archetypal criticism and the hero’s journey, Ye (2020, p. 34), an outstanding Chinese comparatist, compared Chinese and Indo-European hero myths and concluded that Indo-European myths are mostly about the hero of the war horse (nomadic culture), whereas Chinese myths are about the hero of the sun (agrarian civilization).
In the mid-20th century, the Canadian literary theorist Northrop Frye introduced Jung’s concepts of the collective unconscious into literary analysis and proposed archetypal criticism (myth criticism). He argued that literature is “displaced” mythology (Dubois, 2011, p. 2). In other words, Frye held that myths have been “displaced” into literature and are the archetypal patterns of various literary genres, in that myths were religious beliefs in ancient times and such beliefs have become obsolete in modern times. According to the ideas of archetypal criticism, the analysis of the heroic images in literature needs to take into account the hero archetypes in myths.
Methodology
As a literary analysis, this study adopts qualitative research to compare the heroic images in British and Chinese 18th-century supernatural fiction, taking Liaozhai and Otranto, the two most representative works, as examples. The data collected in this study consists of three parts: firstly, the British and Chinese hero cultures; secondly, the British and Chinese social contexts in the 17th and 18th centuries; and thirdly, the heroes and their adventures in Liaozhai and Otranto.
Research Methods and Data Analysis
This study applies the comparative method, historical approach, and textual analysis to analyze the collected data and answer the research questions.
Historical Approach
The historical approach is a traditional method of literary analysis, examining “literature in the cultural, economic and political context in which it is written or received” (Kennedy and Gioia, 1995, p. 1798). Every literary work is a product of its time. The summary of the social contexts of the 17th and 18th centuries in Britain and China provides a necessary foundation for the study of British and Chinese 18th-century supernatural fiction. In addition, mythology is an essential cultural component. Classical and typical British and Chinese hero myths also offer a research basis for analyzing the heroic images in British and Chinese 18th-century supernatural fiction.
Textual Analysis
Textual analysis involves various research methods to interpret and understand texts. There is no single, correct interpretation of a text, and researchers need to identify, among a large number of possible interpretations, the one that is more likely than others in a given situation (McKee, 2001, p. 4). This indicates that researchers use textual analysis to explain texts subjectively based on historical and cultural data. Hermeneutics, a method of textual analysis, emphasizes what society, culture, or history influences in interpreting texts (Byrne, 1998, p. 3). Most hermeneutic theories agree that it is crucial to understand the cultural context in which a text is produced. Szondi (1995) proposed allegorical interpretation in literary hermeneutics and claimed that allegorical interpretation is based on the possibility of multiple textual meanings, with the interpreter giving a new meaning to the symbols from his or her conceptual world (pp. 9–11).
This study applies hermeneutics to address the first research question to analyze the typical heroic images in British and Chinese 18th-century supernatural fiction.
Firstly, according to the theory of the hero archetype, hero stories in literature are “displacement” of hero myths. This study describes the historical characteristics of the heroic images in British and Chinese 18th-century supernatural fiction in the light of the hero archetype and hero’s journey in myths.
Secondly, a literary work is bound to be influenced by the era in which it is produced, so literary heroic images are certain to reflect the requirements of the times. On the basis of the social contexts, this study elaborates on the era characteristics of heroic images in British and Chinese 18th-century supernatural fiction.
Comparative Method
Since this study is a comparative analysis of literary works from different nations, it is based on the comparative method. The comparative method is a common qualitative research method in which the researcher should always try to find another case to test a provisional hypothesis (Silverman, 2014, p. 97). The methods used in this study include not only the common qualitative comparative method, but also one of the comparative methods specific to comparative literature, namely Chinese School’s “comparative study on heterogeneity” (Cao, 2007, p. 33).
For the first research question, based on the historical approach and textual analysis, this study uses the comparative method to further analyze the connection between the heroic images in literature and the hero archetypes in myths. Specifically, it investigates how the heroic images in British and Chinese 18th-century supernatural fiction inherit and develop from the traditional hero archetypes.
To solve the second research question, this study adopts Chinese School’s “comparative study on heterogeneity” to compare and contrast the heroic images in British and Chinese 18th-century supernatural fiction, so as to reveal the cultural diversity in the two countries. Comparative literature has long been Western-centered. It flourished in Asia in the late 20th century, with Chinese School as an emerging representative. Chinese School focuses on cross-civilization literary studies in terms of the conflict, dialogue, and exchange between different civilizations (Cao, 2005, p. 355). Its “comparative study on heterogeneity” is a method to study heterogeneity by putting together literary phenomena with some kind of homogeneity (Cao, 2005, p. 356). “Heterogeneity,” emphasized by Chinese School, implies tolerance, understanding, and appreciation of different national literary works and cultures. The adoption of Chinese School’s ideas can somewhat alleviate the ethnocentrism or bias that may exist in cross-cultural studies. Specifically, after analyzing the heroic images in British and Chinese 18th-century supernatural fiction, this study uses “comparative study on heterogeneity” to discover different heroic characteristics hidden in the similarities and then expose the cultural diversity between the two countries.
Regarding the third research question, this study adopts the comparative method to interpret the shift from the literary value of the heroic images to their value in real life. This section builds a bridge between literature and reality to reveal the transformation of heroic images from myths to literature and then to reality.
Limitations
This study has a potential limitation in that the sample size is small. British and Chinese writers produced a large number of supernatural novels in the 18th century. British 18th-century supernatural fiction is known as early Gothic fiction, including Walpole (2003) The Castle of Otranto, Reeve’s (2008) The Old English Baron, Beckford (1983) Vathek, Radcliffe’s (2001) The Mysteries of Udolpho, and Lewis (2013) The Monk. Chinese 18th-century supernatural fiction consists of supernatural tales from the early and middle Qing Dynasty, the famous ones being Pu (2008a, b) Liaozhai Zhiyi, Yuan (2020) Censored by Confucius 子不语, and Ji (2005) Notes of the Thatched Abode of Close Observations 阅微草堂笔记, and Ji (2005). The samples selected for this study are Otranto and Liaozhai. Using only two works to represent British and Chinese 18th-century supernatural fiction may lead to a narrow and limited analysis.
Nevertheless, the selection of Otranto and Liaozhai as samples is meaningful and reasonable.
First of all, given the large number of British and Chinese 18th-century supernatural novels, it is impossible to take all of them as samples because too many texts would result in an excessive and unfocused study.
Secondly, Otranto and Liaozhai were the first supernatural novels of this period in their respective countries and had profound effects on later works. Gothic elements, such as innocent maidens, supernatural events, castles with tunnels, monasteries and convents, can almost be traced back to Otranto. Otranto has achieved tremendous success and inspired its imitators (British Broadcasting Corporation, 2014). Besides, almost all Chinese supernatural tales of the 18th and 19th centuries were imitations of Liaozhai. Censored by Confucius is inferior to Liaozhai in terms of ideological and artistic achievements (Wu, 1993, pp. 237–242). Notes of the Thatched Abode of Close Observations is too biased toward karma to be comparable to Liaozhai (Rong, 1935, p. 333). Thus, as pioneers of British and Chinese 18th-century supernatural fiction, Otranto and Liaozhai are the most representative works.
Findings
The heroic images in literature are the products of the national hero archetypes and the social contexts of the times. This section is about the research findings of British and Chinese heroic cultures, the social contexts of the 17th and 18th centuries, and representative heroic figures and related plots in Otranto and Liaozhai.
Myths of Heroes
Myths were created to present people with “pedagogic images of the nature and destiny of man” (Wellek & Warren, 1956, p. 180). Hero’s adventure is a common type in myths and legends. Heroic cultures in almost all countries have their origins in hero myths.
King Arthur, as a character full of natural and supernatural qualities, is the British ideal (Dalbey, 2016, p. 16). The legends of King Arthur consist of three main parts: the first is the heroic campaign of Arthur leading his knights to establish a unified kingdom; the second is the adventurous journey of the knights in search of the Holy Grail; and the third is the betrayal of some of the knights to Arthur, which leads to his death. The legends of King Arthur, with their continuous development in culture and literature, provide all the features of medieval and chivalric romance, that is, “following all the idealized patterns of chivalry, heroic adventures, typical struggle between good and evil, religious faith, all spiced with fantastic settings and conventional love affairs” (Dobrotă, 2016, p. 163).
Most ancient Chinese myths depict natural phenomena and social conflicts. Chinese mythological figures are often heroes who fight against natural disasters or fearsome enemies. Complete Chinese hero myths, including Houyi 后羿, Nüwa 女娲 and Yu 禹, as well as incomplete myths like Jingwei 精卫 and Kuafu 夸父, demonstrate their extraordinary energy and unwillingness to surrender to a divine will (M. Li, 2016, pp. 221–225).
Houyi is not a fictional figure, but one that actually existed in history. Ancient legends were blurred with historical facts, and Houyi’s experiences were eventually entangled with those of other ancient mythological figures. “Houyi shooting the suns” (后羿射日) is a well-known hero myth in China. In ancient China, the ten children of Di Jun 帝俊, one of the supreme deities in Chinese mythology, were all suns. They came together to bring a severe drought to the human race. Houyi was commissioned by Di Jun (or Emperor Yao 尧帝) to save people, and he eventually eradicated mythical beasts that caused harm to the people and shot down nine of the ten suns.
“Jingwei trying to fill up the sea” (精卫填海) is a famous revenge myth in China and one of the few heroine myths. Jingwei was originally the youngest daughter of Emperor Yan 炎帝. After drowning in the East Sea, she harbored hatred toward the sea and transformed into a jingwei bird, gathering stones and branches daily to fill up the sea (X. Wang, 2022, p. 30). The story of Jingwei has a strongly tragic atmosphere, with a sharp contrast between the vastness of the sea and the smallness of Jingwei, and between the depth of the sea and the littleness of the stones and branches. However, this emphasizes Jingwei’s determination and perseverance in taking revenge.
Social Contexts
The prevalence of supernatural fiction with heroic images in the British and Chinese literary worlds in the 18th century was not accidental, but was influenced by a variety of factors.
After the turbulent 17th century, Britain entered the relatively stable 18th century. The unprecedented development of the capitalist economy and the rise of the middle class, as well as the impact of the Enlightenment on bourgeois culture, led to a strong advocacy of neoclassicism and rationalism in the field of literature and art. According to Edgar (1933, p. 42), the anti-romantic and rationalizing spirit of the 18th century changed the purpose of the novel to reinforce reality rather than escape it. By the second half of the 18th century, the rapid development of the Industrial Revolution not only caused confrontation between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, but also brought about a wide disparity between rich and poor in urban and rural areas. People’s revolts were on the rise, and most of the small and medium-sized bourgeoisie were dissatisfied with the status quo, which led to the social ideals of liberty, equality, and fraternity advanced by the Enlightenment being challenged. In literature, irregularity transcended the appeal of rational order, the pleasures of horror were added, and the worship of imagination and melancholy appeared in Gothic fiction.
Apart from the social and ideological foundations, political factors were also the major reason for the prevalence of British Gothic fiction. Many scholars have argued that Gothic fiction was the Whig’s patriotic response to the neoclassical ideas imported from France, that is, the inherited love of liberty from Gothic folk culture (Chronister, 2023, p. 567). The blending of antiquity and modernity in Walpole’s Otranto would seem to satisfy the Whig desire for a popular literature free from French or other foreign influences. In this sense, the Gothic heroic images are highly symbolic: a young, masculine, upright, usually Protestant upstart replaces an old, corrupt, usually Catholic ruler (Chronister, 2023, p. 568).
Chinese society in the 18th century, similar to British society, went from turbulence to a period of relative stability. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the government was dominated by eunuchs internally, and there were constant wars externally, which caused the collapse of the Ming Dynasty in the middle of the 17th century. At the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, the social order was not yet restored due to the continuous anti-Qing sentiment. For the sake of regime construction, the rulers of the Qing strongly promoted the ideas of Neo-Confucianism 2 (Zhu, 2021, pp. 72–73). Originally, Neo-Confucianism greatly improved human moral standards by emphasizing the power of integrity and virtues. However, during the Qing Dynasty, some ideas of Neo-Confucianism were excised by the rulers, who only mentioned obedience without any reference to moral integrity.
In addition, the major way for the Qing government to control ideology was through the literary inquisition 3 (文字狱). The number of cases and the cruelty of punishment caused by the literary inquisition in the Qing Dynasty exceeded those of any other dynasty in Chinese history. As a result, the literati shared an attitude of fear and depression. In the early and mid-Qing Dynasty, supernatural tales prevailed in literary works, partly because the literati used ghosts and monsters as metaphors for reality to avoid the persecution of the literary inquisition. The emergence of heroic images in literature was inevitable, reflecting the chivalrous ideals of the lower intellectuals at the end of feudal society to resist tyranny and eliminate moral degeneration (S. Li, 2019, p. 55).
Heroes in Literature
Otranto tells the story of a series of horrific events that take place in the castle of Otranto. Manfred is the lord of the castle, but his throne and the castle were inherited from his ancestors, who usurped them through the murder of the former lord Alfonso. A mysterious prophecy declares, “That the Castle and Lordship of Otranto should pass from the present family, whenever the real owner should be grown too large to inhabit it” (Walpole, 2003, p. 73). Manfred, in order to keep the castle, attempts to marry someone from his family to Isabella, a descendant of the rightful owner of the castle. His conspiracy leads to the deaths of his son and daughter in a series of supernatural events. In the end, Manfred is forced to return the castle to Theodore, Alfonso’s descendant.
Unlike the long Gothic novels in Britain, Chinese supernatural tales are usually collections of short stories. There are a total of 491 (some scholars put it at 494) short stories in Liaozhai, and their themes are roughly divided into three categories: exposing the brutality of feudal rule and people’s sufferings; attacking the corrupt imperial examination system; and glorifying independent love. The heroic images are prevalent in the stories that expose the cruel feudal rule.
This section takes Theodore and Manfred in Otranto and Tian Qilang 田七郎 and the swordswoman 侠女 in Liaozhai as examples to illustrate the heroic images in British and Chinese 18th-century supernatural fiction.
Traditional Hero: Theodore
Theodore, who is the heir to the castle but grew up as a peasant, comes to the castle and defeats the evil Manfred with the help of a series of supernatural events, and eventually returns to the castle as its owner. His experiences largely correspond to the hero’s journey, as proposed by Campbell. Thus, Theodore is a typical traditional hero in the story.
Theodore is the typical traditional hero also because of his true noble chivalry. Using romantic elements to bring readers back to the Middle Ages, Walpole portrayed medieval chivalric and heroic attitudes that were dying out in the 18th century. Theodore’s chivalry is best exemplified by his willingness to sacrifice his life to protect young ladies and his bravery in battling the veteran knight. His chivalry even makes Manfred doubt his identity, as Manfred believes that “a peasant within sight of death is not animated by such sentiments” (Walpole, 2003, p. 108). Evidently, Manfred’s idea of attributing chivalry to class demonstrates the nobility and significance of the chivalric code in the Middle Ages.
Hero-villain: Manfred
Although Theodore is the typical traditional hero, it is the evil Manfred who is the protagonist of the story. Many scholars have argued that Manfred is the representative Gothic hero. According to McEvoy (2007), the mainstays of the plots of early Gothic fiction are persecuted heroines, maze-like castles, and young heroes (p. 7), but one of the most distinctive and charming figures is the hero-villain, who has been a critical figure of Gothic texts (p. 24).
Romanticists of the period, such as Percy Shelley and Blake, considered Milton’s Satan to be the true hero (Greenblatt & Abrams, 2006, p. 1830). Satan, as a hero-villain, is expelled from heaven and then seduces Eve to take revenge on God. It seems that the nature of good and evil is relative, and Satan, a villain who rebels against the order, is a quintessential Gothic hero.
Similar to Milton’s Satan, Manfred has a reason for his evil deeds. He has original sin because his ancestor murdered Alfonso and usurped the throne and castle. For the sake of his family’s honor, he is forced to twist his personality and persecute innocent girls and the young hero. Nevertheless, Manfred still behaves chivalrously at certain moments. For example, when Vicenza’s knights visit the castle, Manfred courteously and respectfully greets them, even if he knows they will be against him. The truth is that Manfred could have secured his throne by slaughter, but he chooses the roundabout way to bond with the descendant of the castle’s real owner. In this sense, Manfred has heroic qualities.
Traditional Hero: Tian Qilang
“Tian Qilang” is a story about the friendship between Tian Qilang and Wu Chengxiu 武承休. Tian is a poor hunter, and his friend, Wu, is a generous, rich man who often helps him. Tian’s mother foresees that Wu will ultimately cause Tian’s death, so she does not allow her son to socialize with Wu. When Tian gets involved in a lawsuit while hunting, Wu spends a lot of money to save him. In such a circumstance, Tian’s mother agrees to their friendship and considers Tian’s life to belong to Wu. Later, Wu’s family is falsely accused and has no way of obtaining justice. Tian kills Wu’s enemies and the corrupt official, and then commits suicide. Wu buries Tian in grief.
This story focuses on the portrayal of Tian as a grateful, filial, and sincere hero rather than on the description of the plot. Tian’s heroic image is first conveyed through Wu’s dream. One day, someone tells Wu in his dream that only Tian can share his trials and tribulations (Pu, 2008b, p. 641). Tian’s heroic qualities are then further revealed in his appearance and actions. Tian has a heroic appearance and looks like he is “in his twenties, with wild, bestial eyes, and a slender waist” (Pu, 2008b, p. 641). As the son, he is very filial to his mother. In order to repay Wu’s kindness, he hunts a tiger for Wu, kills Wu’s enemies, and kills the corrupt official before drawing his last breath.
Despite the fact that Tian is a hunter of humble origin, he has divinity. His every heroic act is not for himself but for his friend or mother, and he seems to have no material or romantic desires. There is no doubt that Tian is a chivalrous man who repays kindness and pursues justice with his life. His uprightness, righteousness, and bravery are the qualities of chivalry from ancient times.
Typical Heroine: The Swordswoman
Apart from traditional male heroes like Tian, Pu also portrayed some female characters with heroic qualities in Liaozhai. “The Swordswoman” is a story of a chivalrous girl’s revenge from the narrative perspective of the protagonist, Scholar Gu. Gu, who is poor and unmarried at the age of 25, falls in love with the girl next door. The girl lives a hard life with her mother, and Gu often supports them. However, the girl is indifferent to Gu’s kindness and resists marriage. It turns out that the girl’s father was murdered, and she and her mother have to hide from their enemies. Immediately after her mother’s death, she travels thousands of miles to kill her enemies. Having taken revenge, the girl is grateful to Gu and gives birth to a son for him before leaving. The story is shorter than “Tian Qilang,” but the heroic image of the swordswoman is portrayed thoroughly.
In portraying the vengeful swordswoman, the author has emphasized her femininity more than her identity as a cold killer. The girl appears to be “about eighteen or nineteen … elegantly beautiful and utterly refined,” though she seems “quite brave and serious” (Pu, 2008a, p. 290). In addition, feudal patriarchal society demanded men’s dominance and women’s dependence on men, stipulating that women should fulfill “the Three Obediences and the Four Virtues” 4 (三从四德). The swordswoman has a certain feminist consciousness, escaping from the fate of women in feudal society who are subordinate to their husbands. However, the heroic image of the swordswoman is obviously imbued with a feudal patriarchal view. In ancient China, delicate women were highly appreciated by men, and the swordswoman, who is fragile and graceful, conforms to the male tastes of that time. The way she repays Gu’s kindness is by giving birth to a son, which evidently implies a secular tendency, bound and constrained by the norms of feudal rites. This shows that Chinese feminism in the 18th century was limited feminism in a patriarchal society.
Although the swordswoman is an ordinary girl, she has a kind of divinity. Everything she does is for the sake of others, such as avenging her father’s death, taking care of her mother, and bearing a son for Gu. She is not disturbed by personal feelings and directly leaves after accomplishing her revenge. Despite being a woman, her filial piety, bravery, and gratitude are in line with the qualities of traditional heroes.
Discussion
After summarizing and analyzing British and Chinese myths of heroes, the social contexts of the 17th and 18th centuries, and typical heroic figures in Otranto and Liaozhai, this section aims to address the three research questions.
Heroic Images and Hero Archetypes
The heroic images in British and Chinese 18th-century supernatural fiction “displace” the hero archetypes in their respective national myths.
Heroes in Otranto
There are two heroic figures in Otranto: the traditional hero Theodore and the hero-villain Manfred.
Theodore’s characterization and adventures are the obvious “displacement” of the legends of King Arthur, a legendary and great king of ancient Britain. There are many similarities between Theodore’s experiences and the legends of King Arthur. Theodore is Alfonso’s descendant and the heir to the castle, but he was raised as a peasant, while Arthur is the eldest son of King Uther and the heir to the throne, but he was brought up in a secret place where no one knew him. Theodore’s adventures begin with an ancient prophecy about Otranto, while Arthur’s adventures commence with the inscription of the Sword in the Stone. Theodore entangles himself romantically with lovely maidens, while Arthur engages in romantic affairs with beautiful ladies. Theodore bravely fights Frederic, a veteran knight, while Arthur courageously challenges Pellinore, the strongest man of arms. Theodore is a traditional hero because of his similarity to mythological heroes like King Arthur. Both of them are upright, brave, chivalrous, and have a romantic nature.
In contrast, Manfred subverts the traditional heroic images. Arrogant, evil, and ruthless, he is not only the protagonist of the novel but also the villain. Like Satan, he is a villain who rebels against the established order, but he also possesses the chivalry of King Arthur. This makes his heroic image complex. Otranto is widely regarded as a young Protestant upstart to replace the aged, corrupt Catholic ruler, yet some scholars have argued that Manfred’s deeds were an attempt to overthrow the inherited kingship as well as to oppose Catholicism (Chronister, 2023, pp. 576–577). Manfred is a distorted hero in need of sympathy rather than a villain. The Gothic hero-villains embody the evil side of selfishness while also reflecting the transformation of good and evil, especially the distortion and suffering due to environmental or survival factors. Different from traditional heroes like Theodore, the hero-villains represented by Manfred have more humanity and mirror the characteristics of the times.
Heroes in Liaozhai
Tian Qilang, a traditional hero, and the swordswoman, a heroine, are typical heroic figures in Liaozhai.
Tian’s heroic image is the obvious “displacement” of Houyi, a well-known hero in Chinese mythology. Both Tian and Houyi are archers and slay fierce beasts gallantly. Tian’s killing of the corrupt official and Houyi’s shooting of the suns both embody their heroic character of denying the ruling class. Tian’s life is poor, plain, and simple. Before meeting Wu, his daily routine consisted only of hunting and taking care of his mother. Later on, he does not rely on his rich friend, but helps and repays his friend with his ability and life. Tian’s heroic image also reflects the Chinese “national characteristics of modesty, diligence, simplicity and struggle” (X. Wang, 2022, p. 30).
Most heroes in Chinese literary works are men, but the swordswoman, similar to Jingwei in mythology, also demonstrates the traditional Chinese spirit of heroism, that is, repaying kindnesses and avenging hatreds. The swordswoman is soft and beautiful in appearance, but she dares to give up everything to avenge her father’s murder. After drowning, Jingwei transformed into a small bird and vowed to avenge herself by filling the sea with small stones or branches every day. The swordswoman’s delicate appearance is similar to that of Jingwei, and there is a striking contrast between their exteriors and acts of revenge. Pu strengthened the righteousness of her revenge and the difficulty of the process, further enhancing readers’ condemnation of social injustice and sympathy for the swordswoman.
Comparison of Heroic Images
Through the character analysis of typical heroes, it is evident that the traditional heroic images in British and Chinese 18th-century supernatural fiction are similar: young and brave human beings with the courage to fight against evil forces. In spite of some supernatural elements in the stories, these heroes adventure as ordinary people. In addition to the traditional heroic images, the stories also feature non-traditional heroes, such as the hero-villain and the heroine. These two types of heroic images essentially share similar qualities with the hero archetypes in British or Chinese mythology. However, there are obvious differences between the heroic images in Chinese and British 18th-century supernatural fiction. Exploring their differences is a way to appreciate the cultural diversity between Britain and China and to understand how heroic images change with the times.
Humanity vs. Divinity
The heroes in Otranto possess human desires. Theodore longs for love, and Manfred yearns for power. The heroes in Liaozhai, on the other hand, do not show any desires other than revenge. It seems that the heroes in Otranto have more humanity, while the heroes in Liaozhai have more divinity.
Reviewing the past, the figure of “God” can be clearly found in the early civilizations of both the East and the West. The primitive society was a “divine” world, with ideas and concepts related to divinity. With human knowledge of the world expanding, human society entered the age of reason, which was manifested in the abdication of divinity and the ascendancy of humanity.
Many gods or heroes have strong human characteristics in European myths, such as Greek mythology, the Old Testament, and Celtic mythology. Britain endured the Middle Ages, a millennium-long period of dehumanization. Fortunately, two intellectual and cultural movements, the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, led to the widespread development of humanism in Britain. In the Western tradition, there are a range of themes and a variety of different doctrines, beliefs, attitudes, and purposes that are associated with humanism in its broadest sense (Battersby, 1996, p. 556). During the Middle Ages, human nature and behavior were viewed through divine light, so that God was considered to be supreme while humans were sinful. The Renaissance advocated new beliefs about the worth of human beings and declared that man was great and valuable (Gaarder, 2007, p. 196). The Enlightenment brought about the Age of Reason, as it claimed that humans had the ability to gain knowledge of the world. As previously stated, the field of literature and art during this period strongly promoted neoclassicism and the spirit of reason, but its sole stress on reason was opposed by the Romantics, who instead glorified personal feelings and experiences (Petrovskaya, 2023, p. 6). In general, humanism and human dignity were deeply rooted in 18th-century Britain, rather than the absolute sovereignty of God. This caused the expression of human nature to have the real significance and value that Gothic novels intended to convey, despite the supernatural and religious elements. As a result, the heroic images in British 18th-century supernatural fiction carry strong human qualities.
In contrast to Britain, where humanism developed rapidly in the 18th century, it was not until the New Culture Movement 5 (新文化运动) at the beginning of the 20th century that Chinese intellectuals first launched a large-scale ideological movement advocating science and opposing ignorance and superstition. Ancient Chinese believed in witchcraft; talk of immortals was prevalent since the Qin and Han Dynasties; and many writings on the supernatural were produced during the Six Dynasties, so that superstition was profoundly rooted in ancient China (Lu, 1959, p. 43). As is known to all, Confucianism has been dominant in feudal China for more than two thousand years. Confucianism emphasizes traditional virtues such as loyalty, filial piety, and rituals, as well as human-oriented values. However, the Qing government emasculated Confucianism, focusing only on loyalty but resisting humanism, so as to consolidate its rule and strengthen its ideological control over the people. In such circumstances, the literati could only create works with supernatural elements to mirror reality and express their disappointment with the ruling class. Chinese literature of this period was heavily influenced by Confucianism and had a didactic significance, which added to the divinity of the heroic images. Besides, ancient Chinese literati generally agreed that believing in the existence of divinity allowed them to live poetically, for it was divine heroes that changed the human environment and made entertainment and aesthetics possible (Xie, 2023, pp. 26–27). All these factors contribute to the fact that the heroic images in ancient Chinese literature are generally characterized by a strong sense of divinity.
Evil Hero vs. Upright Hero
Both Otranto and Liaozhai have traditional heroes, such as Theodore and Tian Qilang. They dare to fight against the evil forces and ultimately triumph over them. In addition to the traditional heroes, the two works also portray non-traditional heroes, such as Manfred, a hero-villain, and the swordswoman, an upstanding heroine.
Another major difference between the heroic images in British and Chinese 18th-century supernatural fiction is that British Gothic novels feature hero-villains like Manfred, whereas Chinese supernatural tales are still based on traditional upright heroes.
The term “Gothic” had a negative connotation until the early 18th century in Britain, as it was originally associated with the barbaric northern tribes, or, in other words, with a lack of refinement and taste. Nevertheless, Gothic fiction, with its elements of horror, mystery, the supernatural, doom, and death, embodies a revolt against the orderly and rational. The aesthetic tastes of society evolved toward a noticeable preference for the irregular, disorganized, and wild, so that there was a clear interest in protean characters with the ability to present a wide range of physical and spiritual shapes (McEvoy, 2007, p. 23). New types of evil heroes, such as Manfred, could break through the readers’ imaginations of traditional heroes, evoking emotions such as fear, sympathy, and even hatred.
Confucianism, long adopted by the ruling class, together with Buddhism and Taoism, forms the core of traditional Chinese culture. Confucianism emphasizes benevolence, rites, and filial piety; Buddhism advocates compassion and karma; and Taoism is concerned with the ideas of “governing by doing nothing that goes against nature” (无为而治) 6 and “the unity of heaven and man” (天人合一) 7 . Although they have some cognitive differences in social and cultural consciousness, the concept of good and evil retribution plays an essential role in the ideological systems of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism (Cen & Yu, 2014, p. 30). The concept of good and evil in ancient China was quite simple; that is, good is rewarded while evil is punished. Thus, most of the heroic images in ancient Chinese literature are positive, despite their shortcomings.
British Chivalry vs. Chinese Chivalry
Chivalry is the core of a hero.
There is no doubt that the heroic images in British 18th-century Gothic fiction are strongly chivalrous. Meanwhile, Chinese heroic figures in the 18th-century supernatural tales are called “Xia”侠. According to Dictionary Group of the English Department of Beijing Foreign Studies University (2004), “Xia” in Chinese is translated as “chivalry” in English; for example, Jianxia剑侠 as “chivalrous swordsman” (p. 587), “Xiake”侠客 as “a person adept in martial arts and given to chivalrous conduct” (p. 1331), and “Xiayi”侠义 as “having a strong sense of justice and ready to help the weak; chivalrous” (p. 1331). This shows that Chinese chivalry resembles British chivalry to a great extent, both being righteous, full of masculinity, and sympathetic to the underprivileged.
However, when focusing on the previous analysis of the heroic images, it is clear that Chinese chivalry differs slightly from British chivalry in the 18th century. Their most significant differences lie in classes and attitudes toward love.
The political sphere of 18th-century Britain was dominated by the landed gentry, who highlighted a more nostalgic and chivalrous era. During this period, there was a more aggressive revival of the Gothic, which shifted its connotations from the historical records of the barbaric Goths to an aesthetic connection with medieval chivalry. Castle (2005) claimed that the Goths were especially appealing due to their bravery, justice, and chivalry toward women, and that the Goths became the original incarnation of a uniquely British talent and cultural energy (p. 681).
British chivalry is defined as “the value system and behavioral code of the secular aristocracy of the Middle Ages” (Saul, 2011, p. viii). It is a typical aristocratic culture, just as Manfred believes that Theodore, as a peasant, should not have been nobly chivalrous. Along with others of that time, Manfred attributes chivalry to class. However, Theodore’s chivalry is obviously unrelated to class, indicating the progress of chivalry in the 18th century, a shift from aristocracy to commoner.
Chinese chivalry first appeared in the works of Han Fei 韩非, an outstanding philosopher during the Warring States period, and has evolved over nearly two thousand years up to the 18th century. Since the Han Dynasty, chivalrous novels have begun to rise, promoting the righteousness of resisting violence and challenging the powers. Due to the severe rule of the Qing Dynasty, what the lower class longed for when they were helpless was firstly a god, secondly a wise ruler, thirdly an upright official, and fourthly a chivalrous hero. As gods could not be found and wise rulers and upright officials were not often encountered, the lower class had to turn to chivalry heroes as their last hope. Chivalrous heroes are legendary and fictional, and chivalry serves as a fantasy world for the unfortunate, providing them with a temporary, virtual, and spiritual refuge.
The Chinese chivalrous class was a mixture of aristocrats and commoners during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. In the Han Dynasty, however, with the unification of the country, the government carried out a devastating crackdown on chivalrous forces, which degraded the aristocratic constitution of chivalry, and Chinese chivalrous culture gradually became the culture of the commoners (Yan, 2014, p. 142). Tian Qilang and the swordswoman are the poor and oppressed people of the lower class, but they have the chivalrous spirit of sacrificing themselves to help the underprivileged.
Regarding attitudes toward love, British chivalry during this period was dramatically different from Chinese chivalry. Women are positive participants in British chivalric culture because British chivalry offers a moral framework to behave with dignity toward women, whose gaze and passion inspire the knights to pursue more heroic deeds (Jones, 2019, p. 5). Knights in Britain are undoubtedly bold and passionate seekers of love, sacrificing everything and even their most precious lives for the sake of their beloved. Theodore is willing to risk his life to help Isabella and Matilda. The love triangle among them is also an integral part of the story.
The general perception that men were superior to women in feudal Chinese society caused chivalrous novels to be featured by patriarchy. The major theme of chivalrous novels is heroism, while the presence or absence of love and female characters is not essential (Yan, 2014, p. 142). Most Chinese chivalrous heroes do not fall in love and often neglect the opposite sex. For example, in “Tian Qilang,” Tian’s wife dies, and there is no romantic plot in the whole story. In “The Swordswoman,” although the girl gives birth to Gu’s son, she has no love for him, and what she does is only to repay his kindness. The swordswoman is a heroine portrayed from the patriarchal perspective of feudal society, but she still has a Chinese chivalrous attitude toward love, that is, a disregard for love.
Value of Heroic Images in Real Life
Frye has divided fictional literary works into five modes: myth, romance, high mimetic, low mimetic, and the ironic. The hero (main male character in a story) in fictional works is accordingly categorized into five types. The first is a divine god; the second is a legendary hero; the third is a leader in most epics and tragedies; the fourth is a protagonist in most comedies or realistic fiction and is one of us; and the fifth is a protagonist who is inferior to ordinary people. Frye (1973, pp. 33–34) believed that European fictional works have continually shifted downward in the order above.
Although the heroes in British and Chinese 18th-century supernatural fiction possess the qualities of their national mythological hero archetypes, they are ordinary people who are equal to others but not superior to the environment. They belong to what Frye called “the hero of us” (1973, p. 34). Their “displacement” of myths shows a shift from gods as heroes to humans as heroes.
Mythological heroes are idealistic and embody the primitive desire to conquer nature. In the supernatural fiction of the 18th century, the heroes are ordinary people without magic powers or great achievements. Their heroic images reflect people’s inner needs at the time. For example, Theodore’s defeat of Manfred symbolizes Whig’s desire for popular literature free from French or other foreign influences. Tian Qilang’s killing of a corrupt official to save his friend represents the ideal of the lower intellectuals to rebel against tyranny at the end of feudal society.
People who are heroes in the real world do not have extraordinary strengths or abilities, but they take positive action to confront or challenge the inequalities around them.
Conclusion
The harsh living conditions inspired primitive people to produce a large number of mythological heroes rebelling against nature and the rulers. The heroes convey primitive people’s spirit of dedication and struggle in their confrontation with nature. Such a spirit allows people to find strength and courage to go through all kinds of hardships.
Heroes have been common characters in literature since ancient times. Supernatural fiction dominated both the British and Chinese 18th-century literary worlds, incorporating heroic images and adventures as essential elements. The most representative works, Otranto and Liaozhai, show that the heroic images are obvious “displacements” of the hero archetypes in myths. Theodore and Manfred in Otranto“displace” the experiences or characters of King Arthur in British mythology. Tian Qilang and the swordswoman in Liaozhai“displace” the images of Houyi and Jingwei from ancient Chinese mythology.
In addition, after the comparative analysis, the heroic images in the two countries have similarities. As ordinary people, they possess extraordinary courage and chivalrous spirit to fight against evil forces. This shows that the hero archetypes are similar across cultures and that human civilizations in different regions have commonalities.
However, the cultural diversity and characteristics of the times make their heroic images distinctive. Firstly, Theodore and Manfred both possess strong human desires, while Tian and the swordswoman have no desires other than revenge. Humanism and human dignity were deeply rooted in 18th-century Britain, while Neo-Confucianism heavily influenced 18th-century China. This led to British heroic images being more human and Chinese heroic images being more divine. Secondly, Manfred differs from traditional heroes in that he has an evil nature. The aesthetic preference of the British 18th century emphasized the development of irregular people, whereas Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism continued to strengthen China’s concept of good and evil retribution. As a result, British heroic images are featured by evil, while Chinese heroic images are still mainly upright. Thirdly, the chivalry of Theodore and Manfred is slightly different from that of Tian and the swordswoman. During the Middle Ages, British chivalry served as a typical aristocratic culture that upheld the dignity of women. British chivalric heroic images in 18th-century supernatural fiction, transforming from aristocrat to commoner, have the qualities of pursuing love. In contrast, Chinese chivalry gradually became the culture of the commoners, with the general perception that men were superior to women. Chinese chivalric heroic images in 18th-century supernatural fiction are primarily common people who disregard love.
The heroes in British and Chinese 18th-century supernatural fiction may have received some supernatural help, but they are still essentially ordinary humans. Most mythic heroes are from noble origins, such as Arthur, the illegitimate son of King Uther, and Houyi, a demigod. From the mythological heroes of noble origins to the ordinary human heroes in 18th-century literary works, heroic images are increasingly close to the everyday lives of human beings.
The most famous contemporary heroes are the superheroes created by comic book publishers like Marvel Comics and DC Comics. Superheroes are idealistic beings that only exist in movies or comics. Nevertheless, they are in fact ordinary people who have evolved into superheroes due to a variety of reasons, such as genetic mutation. The success of superhero movies demonstrates the audience’s romantic longing for superpowers and personal heroism. The heroic images have developed from the godlike heroes in ancient myths to the human heroes in 18th-century supernatural fiction and to the human-mutated superheroes in current movies or comics. This indicates that people are increasingly emphasizing the value of human beings.
Heroes and heroism are not far from human life. Human societies need heroes, and individuals should have heroic beliefs. Every human being is a hero on the journey of life, constantly undergoing trials and tribulations in order to achieve his or her great or ordinary goals.
Footnotes
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Prof. Gao Jihai and Prof. Chen Guojian from Henan University in China for supervising Chinese literature and culture in this paper.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Ethical Approval
It is not applicable in this study.
Data Availability Statement
Data sharing not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated or analyzed during the current study.