Chinese folklore
Encyclopedia
Chinese folklore includes songs, dances, puppetry, and tales. It often tells stories of human nature
, historical or legendary events, love, and the supernatural, or stories explaining natural phenomena and distinctive landmarks.
, Confucianism
and Buddhism
. Some folk tales may have arrived from India or West Asia along with Buddhism; others have no known western counterparts, but are widespread throughout East Asia. Chinese folk tales include a vast variety of forms such as myths
, legend
s, fables, etc., and a number of folktale books such Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio
now remain popular.
Well-known Chinese folk tales include:
Modern iterations of traditional Chinese stories can be found internationally as well as in native Chinese literature. Laurence Yep
’s The Magic Paintbrush, Maxine Hong Kingston
’s The Woman Warrior
, and Walt Disney Pictures
’ Mulan
all borrow from Chinese folklore traditions.
), the earliest known Chinese collection of poetry, contains 160 folk songs in addition to courtly songs and hymns. One tradition holds that Confucius
himself collected these songs, while another says that an emperor compiled them as a means to gauge the mood of the people and the effectiveness of his rule.
It is believed that Confucius did encourage his followers to study the songs contained in the Shi Jing, helping to secure the Shi Jing’s place among the Five Classics. After Confucian ideas became further entrenched in Chinese culture (after about 100 BCE), Confucius’ endorsement led many scholars to study the lyrics of the Shi Jing and interpret them as political allegories and commentaries.
Around the 1910s, Chinese folklore began to gain popularity as an area of study with the beginnings of the movement to formally adopt Vernacular Chinese
as the language of education and literature. Because Vernacular Chinese was the dialect in which most folklore was created, this movement brought to scholars’ attention the influences that Vernacular Chinese folklore had had upon classical literature. Hu Shi of the National Peking University, who had published several articles in support of the adoption of Vernacular Chinese, concluded that when Chinese writers drew their inspiration from folk traditions like traditional tales and songs, Chinese literature experienced a renaissance. When writers neglected these sources, they lost touch with the people of the nation. A new emphasis on the study of folklore, Hu concluded, could therefore usher in a new renaissance of Chinese literature.
A rising sense of national identity was also partially responsible for spurring the new interest in traditional folklore. The first issue of the “Folk-Song Weekly,” a publication issued by the Folk-Song Research Society, stated that “Based on the folksongs, on the real feeling of the nation, a kind of new national poetry may be produced.”
Some folklore enthusiasts also hoped to further social reforms by their work. To help improve the condition of the Chinese people, it was believed, it was necessary to understand their ideas, beliefs, and customs.
Pre-Communist and Communist thinkers were especially energetic in this belief. In the time leading up to the founding of the Communist Party of China
, many folk songs and stories were collected by Communist thinkers and scholars. Often, they were reinvented and reinterpreted to emphasize such themes as the virtue of the working commoner and the evil of aristocracy, while stories that expressed praise for the emperor were frequently left out of Communist collections. Some folk tales and folk plays that exist today may in fact have been deliberately written by Communist authors to emphasize particular social morals.
Human nature
Human nature refers to the distinguishing characteristics, including ways of thinking, feeling and acting, that humans tend to have naturally....
, historical or legendary events, love, and the supernatural, or stories explaining natural phenomena and distinctive landmarks.
Folktales
The main influences on Chinese folk tales have been TaoismTaoism
Taoism refers to a philosophical or religious tradition in which the basic concept is to establish harmony with the Tao , which is the mechanism of everything that exists...
, Confucianism
Confucianism
Confucianism is a Chinese ethical and philosophical system developed from the teachings of the Chinese philosopher Confucius . Confucianism originated as an "ethical-sociopolitical teaching" during the Spring and Autumn Period, but later developed metaphysical and cosmological elements in the Han...
and Buddhism
Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...
. Some folk tales may have arrived from India or West Asia along with Buddhism; others have no known western counterparts, but are widespread throughout East Asia. Chinese folk tales include a vast variety of forms such as myths
Chinese mythology
Chinese mythology is a collection of cultural history, folktales, and religions that have been passed down in oral or written tradition. These include creation myths and legends and myths concerning the founding of Chinese culture and the Chinese state...
, legend
Legend
A legend is a narrative of human actions that are perceived both by teller and listeners to take place within human history and to possess certain qualities that give the tale verisimilitude...
s, fables, etc., and a number of folktale books such Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio
Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio
Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio or Liaozhai Zhiyi is a collection of nearly five hundred mostly supernatural tales written by Pu Songling in Classical Chinese during the early Qing Dynasty.Pu borrows from a folk tradition of oral storytelling to put to paper a series of captivating,...
now remain popular.
Well-known Chinese folk tales include:
- The story of Qi XiQi XiQixi Festival , also known as Magpie Festival, falls on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month on the Chinese calendar; thus its name. It inspired Tanabata in Japan, Chilseok in Korea, and Thất Tịch in Vietnam...
, also known as the Story of the Magpie Bridge or the Story of Cowherd and the Weaving Maid, which tells how the stars Altair and Vega came to their places in the sky. - The story of Hua MulanHua MulanHua Mulan is a legendary figure from ancient China who was originally described in a Chinese poem known as the Ballad of Mulan . In the poem, Hua Mulan takes her aged father's place in the army. She fought for 12 years and gained high merit, but she refused any reward and retired to her hometown...
, the female warrior who disguised herself as a man. - The story of Chang'eChang'eChang'e may refer to:* Chang'e - a traditional Chinese lunar goddess* The Chinese Chang'e space program, part of the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program :** Chang'e 1 - the first CLEP lunar orbiter, launched on 24 October 2007...
, the goddess of the moon. - The story of the Magic Paintbrush.
- The story of Meng Jiangnü, the woman who sought her husband at the Great Wall.
- The story of Sun WukongSun WukongSun Wukong , also known as the Monkey King is a main character in the classical Chinese epic novel Journey to the West . In the novel, he is a monkey born from a stone who acquires supernatural powers through Taoist practices...
, the Monkey King - from the popular novel Journey to the WestJourney to the WestJourney to the West is one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature. It was written by Wu Cheng'en in the 16th century. In English-speaking countries, the tale is also often known simply as Monkey. This was one title used for a popular, abridged translation by Arthur Waley...
.
Influence of Folklore on Other Media
Chinese folklore has provided inspiration for Chinese writers and poets for centuries. Folk songs, which were originally partnered with dance and other styles of performing arts, provided inspiration for courtly poetry. Classical fiction began in the Han dynasty and was modeled after oral traditions, while Mongol and Ming dramatic plays were influenced by folk plays.Modern iterations of traditional Chinese stories can be found internationally as well as in native Chinese literature. Laurence Yep
Laurence Yep
-Background:Chinese-American, Yep was born in San Francisco, California to Yep Gim Lew and Franche. His older brother, Thomas named him after studying a particular saint in a multicultural neighborhood that consisted of mostly African Americans. Growing up, he often felt torn between both...
’s The Magic Paintbrush, Maxine Hong Kingston
Maxine Hong Kingston
Maxine Hong Kingston is a Chinese American author and Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, where she graduated with a BA in English in 1962. Kingston has written three novels and several works of non-fiction about the experiences of Chinese immigrants living in the United...
’s The Woman Warrior
The Woman Warrior
The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts is a memoir by Maxine Hong Kingston, published by Vintage Books in 1975. Although there are many scholarly debates surrounding the official genre classification of the book, it can best be described as a work of creative non-fiction.Throughout...
, and Walt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney Pictures is an American film studio owned by The Walt Disney Company. Walt Disney Pictures and Television, a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Studios and the main production company for live-action feature films within the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group, based at the Walt Disney...
’ Mulan
Mulan
Mulan is a 1998 American animated film directed by Tony Bancroft and Barry Cook, with story by Robert D. San Souci and screenplay by Rita Hsiao, Philip LaZebnik, Chris Sanders, Eugenia Bostwick-Singer, and Raymond Singer. It was produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney...
all borrow from Chinese folklore traditions.
Study of Chinese Folklore in China
The Book of Songs (Shi JingShi Jing
The Classic of Poetry , translated variously as the Book of Songs, the Book of Odes, and often known simply as its original name The Odes, is the earliest existing collection of Chinese poems and songs. It comprises 305 poems and songs, with many range from the 10th to the 7th centuries BC...
), the earliest known Chinese collection of poetry, contains 160 folk songs in addition to courtly songs and hymns. One tradition holds that Confucius
Confucius
Confucius , literally "Master Kong", was a Chinese thinker and social philosopher of the Spring and Autumn Period....
himself collected these songs, while another says that an emperor compiled them as a means to gauge the mood of the people and the effectiveness of his rule.
It is believed that Confucius did encourage his followers to study the songs contained in the Shi Jing, helping to secure the Shi Jing’s place among the Five Classics. After Confucian ideas became further entrenched in Chinese culture (after about 100 BCE), Confucius’ endorsement led many scholars to study the lyrics of the Shi Jing and interpret them as political allegories and commentaries.
Around the 1910s, Chinese folklore began to gain popularity as an area of study with the beginnings of the movement to formally adopt Vernacular Chinese
Vernacular Chinese
Written Vernacular Chinese refers to forms of written Chinese based on the vernacular language, in contrast to Classical Chinese, the written standard used from the Spring and Autumn Period to the early twentieth century...
as the language of education and literature. Because Vernacular Chinese was the dialect in which most folklore was created, this movement brought to scholars’ attention the influences that Vernacular Chinese folklore had had upon classical literature. Hu Shi of the National Peking University, who had published several articles in support of the adoption of Vernacular Chinese, concluded that when Chinese writers drew their inspiration from folk traditions like traditional tales and songs, Chinese literature experienced a renaissance. When writers neglected these sources, they lost touch with the people of the nation. A new emphasis on the study of folklore, Hu concluded, could therefore usher in a new renaissance of Chinese literature.
A rising sense of national identity was also partially responsible for spurring the new interest in traditional folklore. The first issue of the “Folk-Song Weekly,” a publication issued by the Folk-Song Research Society, stated that “Based on the folksongs, on the real feeling of the nation, a kind of new national poetry may be produced.”
Some folklore enthusiasts also hoped to further social reforms by their work. To help improve the condition of the Chinese people, it was believed, it was necessary to understand their ideas, beliefs, and customs.
Pre-Communist and Communist thinkers were especially energetic in this belief. In the time leading up to the founding of the Communist Party of China
Communist Party of China
The Communist Party of China , also known as the Chinese Communist Party , is the founding and ruling political party of the People's Republic of China...
, many folk songs and stories were collected by Communist thinkers and scholars. Often, they were reinvented and reinterpreted to emphasize such themes as the virtue of the working commoner and the evil of aristocracy, while stories that expressed praise for the emperor were frequently left out of Communist collections. Some folk tales and folk plays that exist today may in fact have been deliberately written by Communist authors to emphasize particular social morals.
Further reading
- Chinese LiteratureChinese literatureChinese literature extends thousands of years, from the earliest recorded dynastic court archives to the mature fictional novels that arose during the Ming Dynasty to entertain the masses of literate Chinese...
- Chinese MythologyChinese mythologyChinese mythology is a collection of cultural history, folktales, and religions that have been passed down in oral or written tradition. These include creation myths and legends and myths concerning the founding of Chinese culture and the Chinese state...
- Dance of ChinaDance of ChinaDance of China may refer to:*Dragon dance*Dunhuang dance*Er Ren Zhuan*Lion dance*Yangge...
- Music of ChinaMusic of ChinaChinese Music has been made since the dawn of Chinese civilization with documents and artifacts providing evidence of a well-developed musical culture as early as the Zhou Dynasty...
- Lou Tsu-k'uang (ed.), Asian Folklore and Social Life - 2 vols. (Orient Cultural Service, Taiwan, 1975).
- Women of China (firm), Women in Chinese Folklore. (Chinese Publications Centre, Beijing, 1983)
External links
- http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/china.html
- http://mockingbird.creighton.edu/english/worldlit/wldocs/churchill/bksongs.htm
- http://nanpin.china.com.cn/english/culture/137102.htm