每個民族都有屬於自己的幻想故事，而源自民間的幻想故事，充分表達人民的生活與思想，希望藉由幻想故事舒緩現實生活中的壓力。〈畫中女〉這個口傳的民間故事，在AT分類法（Aarne-Thompson classification system）中屬於「神奇故事」中400B〈畫中女〉類型，這類型故事流傳已久，從唐朝段成式《酉陽雜俎》〈諾皋記上．屏婦踏歌〉、唐朝杜荀鶴《松窗雜記》到宋朝《夷堅志補》卷十〈崇仁吳四娘〉、《輟耕錄》卷十一〈鬼室〉，都與這個主題息息相關，甚至擴及中國民間各省，即使是現代民間口傳文學採錄仍可以蒐集到此故事型態。本文從歷代筆記小說到現代民間故事採錄現況，探討〈畫中女〉故事的原型及其蛻變，並藉此研究民間口傳文學的渲染力量。〈畫中女〉故事之語藝與實踐研究，讓我們看到民間故事可以反應民情、傳達民間疾苦、表達民眾基本心願、滿足他們對愛情渴望與追求的幻想，透過民間故事傳達普羅大眾善有善報、惡有惡報的公平正義，希望有情人終成眷屬的滿好結局，並透過複誦讓全體成員共享語言符號的傳播意義。當然，從民間故事中，我們可以看到民間故事是個有機體，在複誦的過程中，情節越來越複雜，同時是可以成長、可以增刪，也可以因為地域性的歷史、人物、地名、植物或物種，成為增添出來的情節，讓當地的民間故事更加多元化與豐富化，落實民間口傳文學的語藝實踐。
Every nation has its own fairytales. Fairytales from folk circles, reflects people's lives and thoughts. It helps to ease pressure from the real world. The folktale of ＂Girl-in-Painting＂ fits the definition of type number 400B (Supernatural or Enchanted Relatives) in the Aarne-Thompson classification system. Stories of such type have been circulating for a long time. From Duan Chengshi's Miscellaneous Morsels from Youyang, ＂Notes on Nuogao part 1; Dance of the Pin Woman＂ and Du Xunhe's Notes on Songchuang of the Tang Dynasty, to Supplements to the Record of Ichien, volume 10, ＂Chongren WuseNiang＂ and Retirement of Countryside, volume 11, ＂The Haunted Chamber＂ of the Song Dynasty, numerous tales shared this theme. Its impact reaches every province of China. Even in modern tales, traces of Girl-in-Painting can still be observed. This essay aims to discover the prototype and transformation of the story Girl-in-Painting and the affection of oral literature by researching novellas of generations and modern folktale. The researches of Girl-in-Painting reveals how folktale reflects people's wills, hardships, and basic need and fulfills people's fantasy of longing and pursuing for love. They showed that people believe in redemption and retribution; that justice will be served; that God unites all those who are in love. Also, we can see that folklore is a growing organism which has become more and more complex. It can be expanded and reduced. And it enriches and diversifies local folktales as geographical history, figures, places, plants or species are added.
