李汝珍在創作《鏡花緣》時，使用了道教的謫仙神話，不僅產生了類似傳統小說的「楔子」作用，更是整部小說的「結構」 。由於百花仙子及百花仙誤犯了「不應時節不能開花」的天條，從仙境被懲罰貶降到人間，這是由天星心月狐降生的武則天所下的詔詩。因此百花仙子所降生的唐小山需要負責團聚流落到外域、十道的諸花仙，而武則天也以恩開女試來團聚百位花仙。在這一神話間架中，前半部的海外歷險、後半部的齊赴長安應試，都成為推動情節發展的主力。等百位仙子齊聚宴遊之後，小說就進入「散」的結局。李汝珍有意採用「模式化」的寫法，讓女主人翁經歷磨難而後才能完成聚集流散的仙子的任務，這種情節發展完全是呼應著 「謫譴」的神話主題。它是中國長篇小說的主要結構模式，反映了民眾的宿命論式的宇宙觀和人生觀，這是一種民族文化心理，通俗小說對於這種文化心理具有深刻的反映。

In writing Jing Hua yuan, Li Ruzhen employs the Taoist banished-immortal mythology which not only functions as "prologue" (xiezi) of the traditional fictions. but also manifests the "structure" of the whole work. The fact that the Baihua goddess and Baihua fairies were banished to the human world from heaven because they violated the heavenly law of "timely blossoming" is disclosed in the imperial edict from Empress Wu Zetian who herself is the banished immortal Tianxing xinyuehu. As a result, Tang Xiaoshan, the banished Baihua goddess, has to reunite one hundred flower fairies wandering destitute in foreign countries and the ten ways (shidao). In the meantime, Empress Wu Zetian bestows the favor of "permitting women taking imperial exam" to make one hundred flower fairies reunited. In this mythologial structutre, both the overseas adventures occurring in the first half of the novel and the imperial exam Participation in the second half become the motive force to promote the development of plot. After one hundred flower fairies are reunited, the novel reaches the denouement of "scattering" (san). Li Ruzhen intentionally adopts a kind of "modelled" writing technique to let the heroine experience lots of hardships and accomplish the task of reuniting the scattered fairies. The development of plot totally coincides with the mythological theme of "banishment." As the main structural mode of Chinese novels, the above "banished-immortal" stucture reflects the fatalistic cosmic concept and outlook on life of Chinese people. This is a kind of cultural mentality of the nationalities which the vanacular fictions have described profoundly.