The Laws of Story

施爱东SDX Joint Publishing Company · ChinaJun 2025

Rating 3.9
Word count
143K words
Chapters
75
ISBN
9787108071972

Tags

Literary Appreciation NarratologyNarrative PatternsAcademic StudyStory StructureFolktalesPast Paper StudyGenre AnalysisPopular NarrativeOral TraditionCultural Motif

Summary

The folk tale is a structurally stable combination of functions, a self-organizing system, a tree of life. Once a story begins its life process, it grows, grafts, blossoms and bears fruit on its own, mutates as time and space change, and dies as life entropy increases.

In stories, what character the hero has, what equipment he needs when leaving home, when the magical helper appears, why the traitor is always the hero's uncle, why misunderstandings can never be avoided—all such plot elements follow a relatively stable structure or formula, and all formulas are the optimal result of specific functions constraining one another. The story's structure is both stable and growing; amid seemingly disorderly growth there are always optimal configurations and optimal endings. A specific难题 always corresponds to a specific way of solving it. Every widely loved folk tale is the optimal way of playing a particular language game.

Editor's review

Shi Aidong, author of The Laws of Story, is a researcher at the Institute of Literature, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, long devoted to folk literature and folklore studies. With a rigorous scholarly perspective, this book deconstructs the deep structure and narrative logic of folk tales, and its analytical framework and methodology are original. Unlike general writing guides, it proceeds from morphology and function to reveal the inner mechanism by which stories travel across time, space and culture—for example, its deconstruction of the "difficult task suitor" tale type shows how narrative units combine to meet specific sociopsychological needs. Its analysis of numerous Chinese folk tale cases offers not only a key to classical literature but also a usable "grammar" for contemporary creative writing. Its value lies in turning seemingly intuitive narrative art into an analyzable, learnable system of rational knowledge. Reading it helps you step beyond particular plots to grasp the universal principles of a story's appeal.

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Reading tips

  1. Read the introduction and first chapter first to grasp the book's core questions and research approach
  2. Cross-check with folk tales or literary works you know to appreciate the theory's explanatory power
  3. Some chapters use specialist terms; slow down and focus on the analytical logic rather than memorizing concepts

About the publisher

SDX Joint Publishing Company China · Founded in 1932

SDX Joint Publishing Company is a publisher known for its humanities and social science titles, covering classics, culture, history, social fiction and politics. Its catalogue of 826 books includes Chinese and foreign literary classics such as The Scholars, Camel Xiangzi and Selected Short Stories of Chekhov, scholarly works such as Studies of Chinese Cave Temples, A Study of the Tuoba History (Revised Edition) and The Nine-Rank System: A Prehistory of the Imperial Examination, and translations such as Red Star Over China and Notes from the House of the Dead. Its authors include renowned Chinese and foreign writers such as Wu Jingzi, Lao She, Su Bai and Chekhov, as well as scholars and translators such as Chen Xiaoming, Wang Benhua, Guo Changbao and Zhu Xiansheng. Its publishing character lies in balancing the popularisation of classics with academic depth, with attention to textual quality and the transmission of knowledge.

Contents

  1. 版权信息
  2. 绪论 民间文学的共时研究法
  3. 一、什么是共时研究？
  4. 二、什么是形态研究？
  5. 三、什么是故事形态学？
  6. 四、什么是口头程式理论？
  7. 五、共时研究为什么排斥综合研究？
  8. 六、结语：共时研究与历时研究的关系
  9. 第一章 理想故事的游戏规则
  10. 一、故事的封闭特征
  11. 二、故事结局：稳定的游戏目标
  12. 三、故事的最简结构
  13. 四、推动情节发展的核心设置
  14. 五、在初始条件与既定目标之间设置障碍
  15. 六、游戏设置的通则与特则
  16. 七、打破常规，促成转折
  17. 八、结语：理解故事的10个要点
  18. 第二章 大团圆何以成为元结局
  19. 一、团圆之趣
  20. 二、不团圆无趣
  21. 三、精英知识分子对于大团圆的批判
  22. 四、没有国民性，只有世俗性
  23. 五、作为游戏终点的元结局
  24. 六、结语：主人公成婚并加冕为王
  25. 第三章 民间故事的稳定性与自由度
  26. 一、同题故事及其节点
  27. 二、节点的省略与遗失
  28. 三、附着性母题的自由度
  29. 四、故事节点的具体展开
  30. 五、偏离节点的后果
  31. 六、功能项是最小公倍数，节点是最大公约数
  32. 第四章 民间故事的无序生长及其最优策略
  33. 一、信息空白造成情节缺失
  34. 二、缺失形成紧张，补接无序生长
  35. 三、故事生命树的枝端模型
  36. 四、生命树主流枝干的竞择标准
  37. 五、竞择标准的作用机制
  38. 六、结语：节点之间一定存在最优路径
  39. 第五章 史诗可持续生长机制与叠加单元
  40. 一、中国现存史诗的演述状况及问题的提出
  41. 二、史诗演述初始条件的设定
  42. 三、史诗结构的可持续生长机制
  43. 四、回到原点：叠加单元的运算法则
  44. 五、叠加单元与相关结构理论的辨析
  45. 六、选择《罗摩衍那》的理由
  46. 七、《战斗篇》的情节基干
  47. 八、《战斗篇》叠加单元的一个特例
  48. 九、《战斗篇》全部叠加单元
  49. 十、《战斗篇》的结构模型
  50. 十一、以叠加单元解释史诗演述诸问题
  51. 十二、解释力的延伸：古典小说中的叠加单元
  52. 第六章 史诗英雄塑造对武侠小说的影响
  53. 一、英雄史诗与武侠小说的相似性
  54. 二、史诗英雄与小说英雄的叙事要素及功能
  55. 三、节外生枝的民间趣味
  56. 四、旧瓶装新酒，老地方的新故事
  57. 第七章 英雄形象塑造中的善恶对照模式
  58. 一、两种土壤种出的两种人生
  59. 二、质朴人性与机巧人性的对照
  60. 三、不同历史记忆的对照
  61. 四、兄弟对照模式的有限变异
  62. 第八章 英雄形象塑造中的“杀嫂”模式
  63. 一、亲近女色不是好汉的勾当
  64. 二、美貌佳人，惹祸的根苗
  65. 三、英雄犯错，“好酒”是“好色”的替代品
  66. 四、从“结义杀家”到“英雄杀嫂”的演进
  67. 五、“结婚”与“结义”的抉择
  68. 六、从“投名状”到“杀嫂仪式”
  69. 七、金庸对杀嫂故事的借用
  70. 八、传统主题在小说中的延续
  71. 九、有限变异：金庸的叙事改良
  72. 第九章 五行思维下的唐代月宫意象
  73. 一、唐诗五行思维与月神西金属性
  74. 二、唐玄宗梦游月宫之景象
  75. 三、诗人想象之月宫要素

FAQ

Does this book teach how to write stories? Its main purpose is not to offer specific creative techniques but to analyze academically the universal structure and generative rules of folk tales. It reveals why stories work; understanding these principles will deeply inspire writing, but it is not a step-by-step writing manual.
Are the cases too traditional and academic? The book's subjects are indeed mainly traditional Chinese folk tales, and its framework derives from folklore and morphological studies. This is precisely its distinctive depth. It provides classic theoretical tools for understanding all narrative, and its principles are universal; readers can try applying them to modern stories.
Can readers without a relevant academic background understand it? The author writes clearly, striving to explain specialist theory in plain terms. Any reader with a strong interest in story analysis and willingness to follow the author's logic can understand its main points and benefit. The rich story cases are themselves highly readable.

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About the author

施爱东 Author

Shi Aidong is an author whose publicly available information is currently limited, and whose interests center on folk literature and culture. Three of his works are included here: The Groundless Rules of Stories: Ballads and Legends About Fate, The Invention of the Chinese Dragon: Overseas Changes in the Image of Modern China, and The Rules of Stories. Judging from these subjects, he attends to the inner logic of ballads, legends, and stories, and also examines how the cultural symbol of the dragon changed in the modern overseas gaze, combining folk literature research with a cultural-historical perspective. His writing often begins with specific texts and phenomena, sorts out story types and narrative rules, and explores how cultural ideas are formed and circulated, with an emphasis on analysis rather than empty discussion. His common categories are folk literature, culture, and literary appreciation.