The Mission of the Headless Horseman: on a Migrating Plot in the Chinese “Records of Anomalies”

Abstract

Chinese medieval prose provide rich material for the study of crosscultural contacts. In line with this vector of research, the article discusses some features of the plot about the delayed death of a headless horseman in early medieval Chinese prose using the methods of comparative studies. The earliest known written fixation of the plot dates back to the 5th– 6thcenturies; it was associated with the name of a certain Jia Yong (or Jia Meng). The article aims to demonstrate the fruitfulness of a comparative approach applied to a case of a paradoxographical text possessing clear traces of foreign cultural influence. The article discusses the parallels of the story that exist in other folklore traditions, from modern South Chinese and North Indian to medieval Russian. The general logic of the plot is reconstructed, and some ways of its adaptation to the medieval Chinese world picture are revealed.