Main Abstracts



Main Abstracts

“Life Revolution” and the Direction of Chinese Folkloristics

ZHOU Xing

A large-scale “life revolution” has taken place in contemporary China under the background of a nearly 40-year high-speed economic growth, urbanization and great changes of social structure. Common people’s core daily lifestyle has been continuously changing and reconstructing. A new kind of“urban lifestyle” has been preliminarily established, and is being rapidly popularized nationwide. The life revolution is constantly changing the basic form of common people’s daily life, and meanwhile the“daily life” in a new modern society is continuously being shaped and renovated. Based on a preliminary review of revolutionary process of the past, today to future, the author attempts to suggest a clear direction for the modern transformation of Chinese folkloristics: folklorists should directly face the most basic modern life of people in rural and urban China, especially give enough attention to how common people create the meanings of life in their completely new modern daily life practices.

life revolution; daily life; folk customs; Chinese folkloristics

An Outline of Future Folklore for Daily Life

GAO Bingzhong

The time orientation of Chinese folkloristics has experienced the transition from “the past” (relics) to “the present” (living culture). But now, this kind of recognition seems to be not adequate. In fact, Chinese folkloristics has always been future-oriented, just as China’s modern academic overall time sense is always oriented toward future. Both the social revolution and academic production in modern China are for a naturally existing daily life in future, folkloristics being not a case beyond this general situation, instead, it has been searching for its position in this situation to fulfill its own value. Today, we clearly understand this kind of historical destiny, and then we need to convert this destiny into our mission, helping to create the integrity of Chinese folkloristics on time consciousness through our academic consciousness.

Key Words: daily life; academic consciousness; future consciousness; folkloristics

“Life World” and Folkloristics: From the “Life World” of Husserl

WANG Xin

Based on Husserl’s life world, the life world of folkloristics investigates personal life world through individual body feeling. Husserl considered life world to be the priori that precedes all our practices, thoughts and instincts. Based on this, with the cultural language and social relation as the medium, human beings construct the commonality between ego-subject and the subject. And based on the commonality, folklorists research people’s life and transmission, interpret and feel others’ life. The performance theory focusing on concrete life status, tradition and individuality and body feelings embodies the core connotation of life world of folkloristics.

Key Words: life world; folkloristics; Husserl; performance theory

Transcending the Invention of Tradition, Reverencing the Diversity of Tradition

QI Zhao

In recent years, scholars usually use such terms as “the invention of tradition “or “making tradition” to analyze the phenomenon of “tradition fever”, while paying less attention to American sociologist Edward Shils’ comments on tradition. The former, though in post-modern context, from the perspective of constructivism, correct the bias of the essentialist cognition on tradition, yet they have been ignoring some essential issues that are discussed in the latter’s writings. Therefore, we need to think about how to transcend “the invention of tradition” to deepen the essential issues of tradition, and then to show the diversity and richness of tradition with an attitude of reverence.

Key Words: the invention of tradition; diversity of tradition; traditionality

Missing Theory

Elliot Oring, translated by MA Dandan, HU Yufu, CHEN Jian

Concerning on the political nature of Folklore, the cultural critique starts to recognize Folklore writing as a kind of genre from1960s, which directs to the textual critique and political critique. Not only knowledge production becomes fragmentary, but is the critique gradually fragmentary and loses its effectiveness. Critiques occupy the moral high ground, while missing theory. The value of folklore research and interpretation is increasingly considered as the fodder, while the commentaries on commentaries move to a central position. It is largely a result of a literary turn inside anthropology and folkloristics. Theory is a type of statement about the world that has several distinct properties. It is: (1) interesting,(2)plausible,(3)generalizable, and (4)testable. Theory roots in the scrutiny of our purported subject matter more than in the scrutiny of ourselves. Folklorists should walk out from culture critique, and straightly face the power of significant theory constructing.

Key Words: cultural critique; theorization of folkloristics; power imbalance; reflexivity

A Study of the Snake-frog Patterned Decoration on Pottery and Bronze Wares

WEI Zehua

Snake-frog patterned decoration is an interesting kind of decoration on pottery and bronze wares from Neolithic to the period of Warring States. It is a kind of fighting and biting decorations belonging to bronze culture in North China, from Western Liaoning to Middle Shanxi, and it is the characteristic decoration in this area. Snake-frog patterned decoration and other kinds of fighting and biting ones popular in North China embody the martial ethos of Northern nomadic peoples. And the missing of fighting and biting decoration in the farming area as well as their negative definition to it are due to the cultural differences between the farming peoples and the nomadic peoples.

Key Words: snake-frog patterned decoration; nomads; martial ethos; cultural difference

Xiwangmuand the Function of “YiZisun” in Han Dynasties Mirror Inscriptions

ZHANG Qingwen

Centering on the mirror inscriptions in Han Dynasties and combining the literature and decoration of the mirrors in Han, this paper studies the function changing ofXiwangmu(Queen Mother of the West 西王母)，and innovatively concludes thatXiwangmuhad already had the function of “YiZisun” ( fitting for fertility 宜子孙) in Han Dynasties. But with the development of Taoism and the emergence of massive folk deities such asJiuzimu(mother with nine sons 九子母), the function of “YiZisun” ofXiwangmuhad been weakened since the late period of East Han. This paper also analyzes the social background and material cultural factors that affect the generation of “YiZisun” concept.

Key Words:Xiwangmu;YiZisun; mirror inscriptions in Han Dynasties;Jiuzimu

The “Soul Man” Ritual and the Cultural Identity in the Northern Wei Dynasty

DUAN Ruichao, DUAN Yuanxiu

The ”Soul Man”(魂人)in the Northern Wei Dynasty, a word with national color and characteristic of the time, referred to the person that symbolized the spirit of the dead or as the attachment of the soul of the dead and it had the same meaning as “shi”(尸) in the sacrifice in the pre-Qin period. The old“soul man”ritual, similar to the “shiji”(尸祭) which has already disappeared in the central plains region, was once popular not only in the Tuoba Xianbei folk society, but also in the royal families in the Northern Wei Dynasty. However, the “Soul Man” and “shi” were not equal to each other, so it is not appropriate to use “shi” directly in the place of “soul man”. The biggest difference between them is that in criteria of selection. The most important criterion of selecting “soul man” was that the selected man must look like the dead. Even if there was no blood relationship between them, the “soul man” was still regarded as their relative by the kinsfolk of the dead. These two points had been criticized most severely by the Han scholars. Gao Yun condemned that the “soul man” ritual didn’t accord with the etiquette of the Qin and Han Dynasties, in addition, it broke away from ancient Chinese system, and thus seriously spoiled the general social ethos. So he hoped that Emperor Wencheng had the rituals changed as his responsibility and eliminated the vulgar ritual, but his recommendation was not adopted. The vanishing time of the “soul man” etiquette could not be determined, and it might be at the time when Emperor Xiaowen began to restrict the system in the Northern Wei Dynasty. The process of the ritual existing and gradually disappearing was a concentrated reflection of the tortuous process of the cultural identity in the Northern Wei Dynasty.

Key Words: the “soul man”; Gao Yun; “shi”; the Epitaph of Pei Zhiying; the cultural identity in the Northern Wei Dynasty

“Alien Beings” in Matteo Ricci’s World Map: Also on the Civil Culture and the Formation of the World View in the Late Ming Dynasty

LIU Jie

During the Wanli regime of the Ming Dynasty, the Italian missionary Matteo Ricci produced a world map which opened the window for Chinese people to learn western scientific knowledge and recorded the late Ming people’s imagination about the outside world with their particular world view. The appearance of “alien beings” such as the kingdom of women and the kingdom of tall men in works likeKunyuWanguoQuantu(坤舆万国全图)is the result of the widespread ofRecordsofAlienBeingsthrough popular books, Encyclopedias for Daily Use(日用类书), which enlarged its readers and formed the Ming’s world view characterized by alien beings, and then affected Western knowledge translation and dissemination in China. Therefore, through a study on Matteo Ricci’s world map, this article tries to reveal the effect of the civil culture in its times and re-present the complicated interactions between common people and the elite, both in China and the West in the late Ming Dynasty.

Key Words: Encyclopedias for Daily Use;RecordsofAlienBeings; Matteo Ricci; world view

The Alienation of Spiritual Existence: Temple Festivals and Temple Fairs of Old Beijing

YUE Yongyi

Old Beijing, separated by city walls, is a rural city which matches with agricultural civilization. Its ruralism is reflected by the sacredness of revering earth and also by isomorphic space aesthetics of houses, streets and the city. All kinds of temples, such asGong,Guan,Miao,An,Ci,Tan,andSi(宫观庙庵祠坛寺), are distributed in Old Beijing according to various ranks. To the common people, Three Hills and Five Summits(三山五顶SanshanWuding) which enshrine The Lady of Taishan (碧霞元君BixiaYuanjun) surround and protect the capital city. Even in the ordinary streets and lanes ofNeidajieofXizhimen, there are numerous small temples, Nine Dragons and Two Tigers(九龙二虎Jiulongerhu).The once prevalent belief of Four Sacred Animals (四大门Sidamen) has enabled the space of many households in Old Beijing to bear more or less properties of the “temple”. Accordingly, temple festivals of Old Beijing are spiritual existence connected with the leisure and graceful life of the Bannermen and intensively reveal their daily life and individual values. The West civilization set as the model since 1840, Old Beijing has inevitably undergone the process of secularizing and stigmatizing temple festivals the kernel of which used to be worshipping. Temple festivals have collectively deteriorated into the ones to display manpower and lust for materials, descending to materialized existence. With the movement of intangible cultural heritage since the 21st century, temple fairs have, within limits, returned to temple festivals.

Key Words: Old Beijing; temple festivals; temple fairs; space; intangible cultural heritage

Killing behind Religion: An Analysis of Greek Sacrifice Ceremony

Walter Burkert, translated by WU Yuping

Blooding, killing and dismembering corpse, all these words seem to have nothing to do with religion, but they used to be found in sacrificing activities. For the homo-religious, they could strongly feel gods only in the cult filled with violence and blood as well as in the incineration of sacrificed animals. Basing on the analysis about the historical literature of ethnonymics, Walter Burkert concluded that religion couldn’t exist without killing, and the homo-religiosus were killers. Through the related descriptions in Homer’s Iliad and tragedy, this paper reveals the whole process of ordinary Greek sacrificing to Olympus gods, from which we can see blooding, violence and killing showed in animal sacrifice. It is also worth noting that, from Athens to Jerusalem then to Babylon, this kind of killing sacrifice, the ritualizing process, was so similar to each other.

Key Words: killing; incineration; sacrifice; sharing sacrificial food

On the Rewriting of Folktales

LIU Shouhua

In 1956, Liu Shouhua published an article entitled “Treating the Collecting and Compiling of Folktales Cautiously” onFolkLiterature, and it generated a heated discussion at that time. Sixty years later, Liu Shouhua guides a young folktale amateur to rewrite folktales and ponders the rewriting questions deeply. He reveals the successful experiences of A. Tolstoy rewriting Russian folktales, Grimm Brothers rewriting German folktales, Italo Calvino rewriting Italian folktales as well as Dong Junlun and Jiang Yuan rewriting Chinese ones, and elaborates on the basic principles of folktale rewriting.

Key Words: folktales; collecting; rewriting; Grimms’ Fairytales; Russian folk tales; Italian fairytales;StoriesaboutGhostStories

Ethnographic Interpretation on the Translation of Folklore Items in Hmong Oral Epics

WANG Zhiguo

Hmong Oral Epics spread in the cross-regional and cross-dialect cultural community as a form of oral tradition. The epics carry the cultural memories of ancient Hmong history, and the folklore items in them shape a unique cultural world of the Hmong. Through delineating the tri-lingual translation of the epics published by Guizhou Ethnic Publishing House, this article analyzes the strategies of multilingual and ethnographic translation in Hmong epics, as well as the methods of transformation and compensation in the translation of folk items, which would be helpful for the Going Global strategy of other ethnic minority oral texts.

Key Words: Hmong Oral Epics; folk item; ethnography; thick translation

The Generation of Urban Historical and Cultural Memory and the Construction of Contemporary Value: Interpreting the Historical Buildings in Jinan with a Perspective of Philosophical Hermeneutics

WANG Shanshan, FU Yongjun

As a noted city of history and culture, Jinan has gradually lost its unique historical memory and cultural characters due to the homogeneity of modern city construction. How to maintain the cultural memory of historical buildings of a city and rebuild their modern values is now a primary social issue to be considered. With the explanation of the “okksionalitaet”, “dekoration” and “repräsentation” characteristics of space art (architecture and paintings), also combined with the protection of historical buildings of Jinan and exploitation practice, Gadamer’s hermeneutical space art theory attempts to awaken the cultural and modern value of a city’s historical buildings, promote the inheritance of their original purpose as well as reconstruct Jinan city’s cultural quality. Therefore, according to Gadamer’s hermeneutical space art theory, (Jinan) historical buildings are responsible for memorizing the city’s historical character and promote its spiritual value.

Key Words: Jinan; historical buildings; repräsentation; okksionalitaet; dekoration; historical and cultural memory; spiritual value

Social Governance Innovation and Community Cultural Construction: Reflections on the “Qinghe Experiment”

ZHAO Na

The construction of community culture is bound to meet new requirements since the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee proposed the transformation from social management to social governance. The characteristics and implications of community culture are rethought from the perspective of cultural subject and logic in this paper and we found the alienations from the community, neighbors and memory for the local residents in Qinghe district. For the sake of constructing a shareable, distinctive and compatible community culture，this paper suggests that the tapping into and collecting of historical, folklore and social culture of this community are crucial, the work of which can promote the development of cultural space, culture activities and oral history collection.

Key Words: social governance; community cultural construction; culture exploration; Qinghe Experiment

Path Selection of Public Participation in Community Natural Resources Management: a Case Study of the Erhai Lake in Dali

CHEN Aiguo

At present, China’s environmental pollution issue has become so prominent that it has begun to affect the sustainable development of social economy and people’s daily life. Policy implementation and technology application of environmental governance are often carried out in a top-down manner in the local communities but the key to determining the effect of implementation is closely related to people’s participation. Contrary to previous studies, this paper focuses on the autonomous participation capacities of local communities through the case study of Erhai Lake located in Dali. On the basis of clarifying the traditional pattern of public use of water resources and the predicament faced at present, this paper points out that the effective way to promote public autonomous participation in traditional natural resources management is to respect the folk knowledge and protect the interests of the public, that is, through negotiation and the bottom-up approach, the public will and the community resources management mechanism are to be reflected on the level of government decision-making, and ensure the public rights and interests of using community natural resources fairly and rationally.

Key Words: natural resources; public participation; Erhai Lake