聊齋誌異〉雖是一本以傳奇之法寫其志怪的文言小說，但由於題材豐富(共有494篇)，再加上蒲松齡長期與中下層社會的接觸，所出身之地亦是明清十大商幫中山東商幫之所在，商業經濟之發展自然會成為社會觀察者的小說家作品中的題材。據筆者以及參酌一些學者的統計，{聊齋誌異〉中以商人為主要題材或是提到相關的商業活動的作品，大致佔了該書四分之一強的篇幅，數量不可謂不多，因此足以由其對商人的描寫歸納出某些內涵或特質。由於作品數量頗多且樣貌多元，本文將探析此題材所呈現出的內在意蘊。

This paper discusses the novel LIAOZHAI ZHIY by Pu， Song-Ling， with the merchant theme as the main subject of discussion.LIAOZHAI ZHIY was written in the style of a legend with multiple themes (a total of 494 parts). Pu， Song-Ling was born in Shantung， a Ming-Ching top ten commercial organization， and spent a long time in low to middle class society， so commercial development from a social standpoint has naturally become a theme of his fiction. According to researched academic
statistics， merchant and commercial activities are the main theme of a forth of LIAOZHAI ZHIY. This large part allows for the deep description of the merchants' characteristics. As the quantity and variety of this work is great， but this paper is of limited length， only the key elements of the novel will be discussed. The main value of a literary work is the topic. All writing skills and plot arrangements must be based on the topic， otherwise there will only be a shell without a soul. This paper tries to generalize the analysis of the hundreds of merchant themes in LIAOZHAI ZHIY， and finds the meaning in how the author arranged the material. The subject of a novel must have multiple layers and each reader will find different patterns to thing about， but each can still find the main context. This paper tries to sort and characteristically explain them. As this paper is limited to the merchant theme， it will not refer to the economic development or commercial culture， but despite this an introduction to Pu， Song-Ling's ethics， morals and his ideas of culture can still be seen.In this paper， besides the forward and
conclusion， the main contents of discussion are- (l)To publicize the view of good and evil retribution. (2) The pursuit of ideal love. (3) The value of persistence regarding merchant occupational ethics. (4) An elaboration of commercial working rules. (5) Legends. Hopefully， from this， we can form a coherent interpretation and understanding of the meaning of this novel.