廖添丁在日治時代的竊盜(小偷、強盜)事件，確有其人其事。但在民間傳說中，他變成「義賊J;又由於日本人以異族身分及嚴苛手段統治臺灣，所以他的義行又轉為具有民族意識的「抗日英雄」。
本文先說明傳說的定義，斷定廖添丁的故事為傳說。接著分二部分:第一部分是介紹有關廖添丁的資料，就時代先後，有(一)廖添丁真人真事與其死後的新聞報導，(二)歌仔冊興新版梁松林著《臺灣義賊新歌廖添丁»'(三)小說中的廖添丁，包括三部:廖毓文著《臺北城下的義魄廖添丁》、心岱著《俠盜正傳廖添丁》、吳樂天著《臺灣英雄廖添丁》。第二部分是廖添丁傳說演化的分析，包括故事情節的變化、人物角色的安排、主題的呈現、傳說演化的潛在因素、傳說中的真假歷史、藝術加工。最後是結論。

LiauThiam-ting was a burglar who lived during the Japanese Colonial years. His identity and activities can be historically verified. In the folk legends he was deemed a “chivalrousthief." However， under the oppressive government of foreign Japanese sovereign， his chivalrous deeds were interpreted as ethnic-conscious resistance of an“anti-Japanese hero."
This article first discusses the definition of “legend，\"before determining Liau's stories are indeed legends. Two sections ensue with the following subjects. The first part is an introduction of information about LiauThiam-ting such as newspaper clippings of Liau's reports， the koa-a booklet Taiwanese Chivalrous This New Ballad of Liau Thiam-ting (Xingxin edition， compiled by Liang Songlin)， and fiction about LiauThiam-ting， including LiaoYiiwen's Righteous Soul under the Taipei City Wall， Xindai's Biography of a Chivalrous Thif Liau Thiam-ting， Wu Letian's Liau Thiam-ting， the Taiwanese hero. The second is an analysis of the development of LiauThiam-ting's legends， including the changes of plot， arrangement of the characters， presentation of the theme， and the latent factors， history and arts of the development of legends