Romance novel - Engi shosetsu

A name for long historical novels in Chinese colloquial fiction. "Yan" is related to "en," meaning that the historical facts recorded in official histories are expanded on by folk legends. Chinese colloquial fiction originated from the scripts of storytelling that was popular in urban entertainment districts during the Song dynasty. Among these historical stories, the most popular was a series of storytelling stories that told of the upheaval of the Three Kingdoms period, called "Setsu Sanbun." This was first made into a novel under the name "Sangokushi Pinghua," and then completed by Luo Guanzhong at the end of the Yuan dynasty and the beginning of the Ming dynasty under the name "Sangokushi Tongzhu Yanyi." After that, the term "romance" was adopted for other periods as well, and as a result, these stories came to be collectively called "romance novels." Almost every period was made into a novel, such as "Xihan Tongzhu Yangi" and "Suitou Yangi", but no novel could compare to "Sangokushi Tongzhu Yangi". There are also examples of novels that use the title "Yangi" to describe a shorter period or even the history of an individual.

[Yoshio Imanishi]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

中国の口語小説のうち、歴史を題材とした長編小説の呼び名。「演」は「衍(えん)」に通じ、正史などに記載されている史実（義）を、民間の伝説などで敷衍(ふえん)したものという意。中国の口語小説は、宋(そう)代に都市の盛り場で流行した講談の台本がもととなっているが、そのなかの歴史物（講史）のうち、「説三分(せつさんぶ)」とよばれてもっとも人気のあった三国時代の動乱を語る一連の講談が、まず『三国志平話』の名で小説化され、さらに元(げん)末明(みん)初に至って羅貫中(らかんちゅう)がそれを『三国志通俗演義』の名で大成したのが始まりで、その後、他の時代についても「演義」の呼称が踏襲された結果、それらをあわせて演義小説とよぶようになった。『西漢通俗演義』『隋唐(ずいとう)演義』など、ほぼ各時代がそれぞれ小説化されたが、ついに『三国志通俗演義』に及ぶものは現れなかった。なお、もっと短い一時期や、さらに個人の歴史を描く小説に「演義」の名を用いた例もある。

［今西凱夫］

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