An Interpretation of Tragic Space Discourse ofthe Novel DU Shi-niang's Throwing Her Treasure Chest into Water in Anger: A Comparison with Oil Selling Guy Winning the High-rank Courtesan

The story of DU Shi-niang's Throwing Her Treasure Chest into Water in Anger is developed in spatial dimensionality in stead of temporal one. The two kinds of overt space “in Jiaofang Department” and “on the river” are the two places in which DU's pursuit for love and marriage and her tragedy took place. Through the interpretation of space, we can find why the tragedy occurs when she is to cross the river. This shows FENG Meng-long's artistic adaptation of the prototype story A Biography of Unworthy Lover. The two kinds of covert space — the temporary landscape and official's home as the returning place — show the social inevitability of the tragedy. This is clearly different from Oil Selling Guy Winning the High-rank Courtesan of “Three Words” works which stress the temporal narration.