earticle

영어

Liaozhaizhiyi(聊齋志異) is a famous collection of short stories in the Qing(淸) dynasty. So a story named Toutao(偸桃) in it can be accepted as a fiction. In fact, it is just a record about a magic performance. I made an investigation into the historical development of this magic program. The result is as follows. Toutao(偸桃) is a name of a performance program which includes two types of magic. One is a rope magic performance in which the rope is rising to the sky by itself. The other is a killing&resurrection magic performance in which the magician kills a person at first and then brings him back to life. According to the historical records, we can say that they originated from India. At the beginning, each magic act is performed indivisually. Afterwards, two magic acts constituted a program performing the so­called story of stealing heaven's peach. The change like this seems to occur in the 14th to 17th century. Toutao(偸桃) is a rare and important instance which describes the state of magic performance in the Qing(淸) dynasty. So I think it is desirable to put a high value on this record.