游仙窟

《游仙窟》，《唐人传奇》其中的名篇，张𬸦（658？－730）著。

本事

张𬸦，字文成，唐朝进士，曾任御史，深州陆泽（今河北深县）人。

《游仙窟》一文乃作者以第一人称叙述奉使河源（今青海兴海县），途经积石山，“日晚途遥，马疲人乏”，投宿神仙窟，与崔十娘、五嫂（寡妇）二女邂逅，饮酒作诗，相与调笑的故事。全文以四六骈文的形式进行，又夹杂变文韵散，生动活泼，写十娘：“天上无双，人间有一。依依弱柳，束作腰支；焰焰横波，翻成眼尾。才舒两颊，孰疑地上无华；乍出双眉，渐觉天边失月。”有人称之“新体小说”。

《游仙窟》是唐代最早的爱情小说，取材于初唐文人放荡的狎妓生活，对后世爱情小说的创作影响深远。《游仙窟》原在中国已失传千年，但在日本的盛传不衰（《旧唐书》：日本“每遣使入朝，必出重金购其文”），清末再由日本抄印回中国。

白先勇小说《孽子》中的“游妖窟”取材自本文。

You Xian Ku or Youxian ku (Chinese: 遊仙窟 ; translated as "A Visit to a Fairy Cave", "Cavern of the Disporting Fairies" or "Journey to the Immortals' Grotto") is a Chinese tale from the Tang dynasty, written by Zhang Zhuo (張鷟, also known as Zhang Wencheng 張文成) (658–730). It is one of the most noted works of chuanqi fiction (唐人傳奇).

The text, depends on the editions, has around 12,500 characters, making it one of the longer early Tang chuanqi literature. The text's composition has been dated to between 681 and 684 in the late 7th-century.

Author and story

Zhang Zhuo (Chinese: 張鷟, born 658–730 CE), bestowed the honorary name of Wencheng (文成), was a Tang dynasty jinshi, a former imperial censor (御史), and a native of Luze, Shenzhou (now Shenxian 深縣 county, Hebei province).

You Xian Ku is a story of the author's purported first-hand account visiting Heyuan (now Qinghai province, Xinghai county), passing through Jishi (積石) mountain. "The days turn to nights, and the road is far. The horse is weary and the man tired" (日晚途遙, 馬疲人乏). He stayed in the fairy grotto and met two women by chance: Cui Shi Niang (崔十娘) and Wu Sao (五嫂), a widow. There they drank wine, wrote poetry, flirted, and joked around.

The text is written in a mixture of different styles, including pianwen (parallel prose) and bianwen, and it features rhymes and is leisurely in tone.

Some scholars called the work a "new form of novel" (新體小說). You Xian Ku can be considered as one of the Tang dynasty's earliest romances, based on the wanton lives of prostitutes first met by Tang scholars. It has had a profound influence on the love stories and romance novels written by later generations of writers. The work's popularity in Japan also proved to be enormous. According to the Old Book of Tang, every time Japan sent an envoy to China during the Tang dynasty, they had to pay a lot to buy copies of the book. In the late Qing dynasty, the book was reprinted and sent back to China.

In Bai Xianyong's (白先勇) novel Crystal Boys, the chapter "Journey to the Goblin Cave" (You Yao Ku, 遊妖窟) is a parody of You Xian Ku.