Abstract:

  (School of Liberal Arts, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China)Abstract： Emperor Hanwu is great monarch in the Chinese history, who is much concerned about both by history and by legend. While the history focuses on his ability to govern the country and command the military, the legend emphasizes his anecdotes in the aspects of being immortal and domestic marriage. As a typical character in the Taoist fiction, he is described as the "failure in being immortal because of lustfulness", which embodies the adaption of the legend. This change of Emperor Hanwu' s figure is due to the multiple causes in the Han and Wei dynasties, such as telepathy, faith in gods as well as adaption by Taoism. The transformation of Emperor Hanwu from the historical character through the legendary hero to the fictional figure is representative in the history of literature.

Key words: Key words：  Emperor Hanwu; historical character; legendary character; fictional figure