唐李復言＜杜子春傳＞的原型，來自唐玄奘＜大唐西域記＞中引述印度「烈士池 」故事。一般學者認為此是宗教故事，講述杜子春接受老者饋贈而未能遵守戒律，動了私情 ，而無法煉成仙丹昇仙；但也有強調此作有別於＜枕中記＞、＜南柯太守傳＞，寫出了「人 間有愛」的主題，掃除宗教消極出世的迷惘。這兩種論見，各執一端。仔細推敲，＜杜子春 傳＞超乎一般仙道故事的結構，具有儒家的仁愛思想，強調人性的光輝；但作品本身仍採用 婆羅門教故事原型，加上道教色彩的人物及背景，可以說是巧妙地融合了各教思想。歷來小 說總集中，＜杜子春傳＞往往歸入「神異」、「神仙」類，顯然編者與讀者的眼光，還是留 在宗教的責罰上頭。所以說，＜杜子春傳＞觸及人神關係的探討，一方面表現恢宏有為的生 命力，勇敢地執著人世情愛，超越昇仙的遐想；另一方面也能敬畏神祇，反映人類謙抑有守 的自制力。

　　　　　"Tu Tsu-chun Chuan" 杜子春傳（Biography of Tu Tsu-chun）,written by Li Fu-yen 李復言（ circa A.D. 800 ）,probably takes its origin from an Indian story, "Martyr's Pool," which is recoded in Hsuan Chuang's 玄奘 <Ta-tang Hsi-yu Ji> 大唐西域記 (Records of the Western Area of the Great Tang Dynasty). Critics to date have generally received the story as a religious piece, attending to the fact that the protagonist's emotional attachment to the secular life ruins his alchemist practice, and, eventually, his hope for transformation to becoming an immortal. This predominant reading attitude reflects itself in the fact that traditionally the story has been collected under the category of "shen yi" 神異 (the marvelous). Some critics, however, highlight the theme of human's capacity for love and passion, and, precisely because of this, the story distinguishes itself from two other otherwise similar stories, namely, "Chen-chung Ji" 枕中記 (The Pillow Story) and "Nan-ko Tai-shou Chuan" 南柯太守傳 (Biography of Nan-ko Tai-shou), which are typically religious stories. The present study deals with these two dimensions of the story, investigating the story's Taoist setting and character development, and the way the story surpasses the structural limit of Taoist convention to express Confucian humanity. By studying the heterogeneous strands of thoughts in the story, and the dexterous meshing of these elements on aesthetic level, this study elucidates the story's human/god relation to show its balanced nature, and reveals that the piece, while respecting the supernatural with due humility, creates a sheltering space for human passion and feeling with equal concentration.