Abstract: This article focuses on the German Romantic writer Leopold Schefer’s novel The Elixir of Immortality, revealing how he disrupts the singular celebration of the virtue of “loyalty” found in traditional narratives and Enlightenment adaptations through his reconstruction of the “Duke of Shao” story, as well as his excavation of the ancient Greek “House of Atreus” mythological tradition and its reception lineage in early modern Western culture. The study finds that Schefer, by appropriating the tragic motifs of “kinship sacrifice” and “blood vengeance” along with their Romantic reconfigurations and transposing them into an Oriental narrative, foregrounds the contestation between emotion and reason, the conflict between maternal community and patriarchy, and the tension between individual life value and political-ethical symbolism. This reconstruction transforms what was originally a political allegory into an ethical arena centered on emotional freedom, maternal restoration, and individual redemption. It not only accomplishes a deconstruction of Enlightenment rationalist discourse but also, through the deep mutual interpretation of Chinese and Western ethical narratives, provides a perspective of modernity—one that affirms the will to live—for examining Romantic literature’s Oriental imagination.

Key words: Leopold Schefer, The Elixir of Immortality, “Duke of Shao” story, Romanticism, “curse of the house of Atreus”

摘要： 本文聚焦德国浪漫主义作家利奥波德·舍费尔的小说《长生药》,揭示其如何通过重构“召公”故事,并融合古希腊阿特柔斯家族神话传统及其近代西方接受谱系,进而打破传统叙事及启蒙改编本对“忠诚”美德的单一颂扬。研究发现,舍费尔通过将“骨肉献祭”与“血亲复仇”的悲剧母题及其浪漫主义重构投射于东方叙事,凸显了情感与理性的博弈、母性共同体与父权制的冲突、个体生命价值与政治伦理符号的张力。这种跨文化实践将原本的政治寓言转化为聚焦情感自由、母性复归与个体救赎的伦理实验场,不仅完成了对启蒙理性话语的解构,更在中西伦理叙事的深层互释中,为审视浪漫主义文学的东方想象提供了一种反思理性秩序与张扬生命意志的现代性视角。

关键词: 舍费尔, 《长生药》, “召公”故事, 浪漫主义, “阿特柔斯家族诅咒”