History of Chinese Folk Literature (Zheng, 2021)

Notes

Chapter 1. What Is “Folk Literature”

“It actually refers to popular literature, mass literature, and literary works rooted in folk society. In other words, folk literature is the very thing that cannot be regarded as elegant, the one not concerned by the literati but popularized in the folk. It is loved and enjoyed by the mess.”^[1]

“When a new style comes out in the folk, scholars and literati usually ignore and despise it completely at the very beginning. But gradually, some brave scholars and literati adopt this fresh and novel style as the form of their own creation, and it is gradually supported by most of the scholars and literati. Step by step, this new style is upgraded and becomes the thing of the royal aristocrats. With this, it gradually goes far away from the folk and becomes the style of orthodox literature.

When their folk voices gradually disappear, folk songs become the things of scholars and literati.”^[1:1]

• A.K.A. the gentrification of storytelling

• folk literature is *popular.

• “born in the folk, created by the folk, and exists for the folk”^[1:2]

“As to its contents, they neither praise the royals nor write about the scholars’ complaints of their poverty or sorrows, nor expound the systems or rules of the country, but tell the stories about the heroes and the love between the young men and women in the folk. They are the stories the common people like, and most of the common people place their emotions on them.”^[1:3]

“The second feature of “folk literature” is collective. It is the collective works with no actual authors. We don’t know its authors. They are transmitted from this person to that person and from one place to another place. Someone adds something to them, while another revises them a bit. We can never know who their authentic authors are and the right time they come out. Perhaps they are spread too long and may be articulated and revised by too many persons. When scholars and literati pay attention to them, perhaps they have already popularized widely for ages.”^[1:4]

“The third feature of “folk literature” is oral. They are transmitted from this person to another person through the mouth and are never written down. Thus, they are diffluent and can be revised and changed at any time. When they are written down finally, they become fixed and can be imitated.”^[1:5]

“The fourth feature of “folk literature” is fresh and vulgar. They are not touched by the hands of scholars and literati; thus, they still keep their fresh colors. And also because of this very reason, they are something unpolished, something quite vulgar and coarse. In some places, they are written profoundly, while in other places quite roughly and even unsightly.”^[1:6]

“The fifth feature of “folk literature” is its untrammeled imagination, and the general orthodox literature cannot reach this point. The verve of its author is often great and cannot be reached by orthodox literary authors. However, it also has various disadvantages, and many of the folk habits and traditions are always adhered to it firmly and cannot be washed away and scraped off. Therefore, sometimes it is more feudal than orthodox literature and expresses more of the conservation of the mass. In addition, because it popularizes in the folk, many more characteristics of folk stories or folk songs remain in its contents, its subject matters, or stories. And it is often copied at the third hand. Most of the stories are mutually imitated. However, its imitations are much less than those of orthodox literature. Its imitations are unconscious and melted. It is unlike orthodox literature, which often imitates consciously from sentence to chapter.”^[1:7]

“The sixth feature of “folk literature” is its courage to introduce new things. All foreign songs and melodies, all foreign matters, all foreign styles, and all foreign styles not seen in the eyes of orthodox scholars and literati are always adopted and received by the folk authors at the earliest.”^[1:8]

Genres of Chinese Folk Literature

• poetry
  • folk songs, ballads, Ci, Qu
• novel
  • short story (Novel; novel which can be told in one sitting/one day)
  • long story (Jiangshi; novel which can be told over 3–5 days)
    • “history telling” — “A kind of oral literary form popularized in the ancient folk, ma.”
  • medium-length novel
• telling and singing literature
  —these are not operas, and not narrative poetry or epics, either
  • Bianwen—earliest ancestor of the telling and singing literature
    • starts with Buddhist teaching stories, gradually adopts stories and legendary figures of Chinese history
  • Zhugongdiao
    • “The sixth feature of “folk literature” is its courage to introduce new things. All foreign songs and melodies, all foreign matters, all foreign styles, and all foreign styles not seen in the eyes of orthodox scholars and literati are always adopted and received by the folk authors at the earliest.”
  • Baojuan
    • also start as religious stories, then become more general
  • Tanci—“the most powerful branch in the telling and singing literature today”
    • includes some works written by women and for women (e.g. Tianyuhua, Bishenghua and Zaishengyuan).
  • Guci—the “most powerful literary telling and singing form in contemporary Northern provinces”.
  • burlesque and articles—the “adjunct of ‘folk literature. They were not very important originally and their nature is quite complicated”.

Footnotes