What are the six major folklore items in China folklore?

Since folklore was studied as a science, many scholars at home and abroad have classified folklore in various ways.

Broadly speaking, folk customs can be divided into three aspects: material customs, spiritual customs and social customs. Japanese scholars divide folk customs into three categories: tangible culture (behavioral inheritance), oral inheritance (language art by listening to ears) and belief inheritance (spiritual phenomena, including various folk prayers, taboos, divination, evil spirits, etc. ).

Judging from the actual situation in China, there are roughly the following twelve kinds of folk customs:

(1) witchcraft folklore

Refers to the use of fictional "supernatural" power to achieve a certain desire. Witchcraft was very popular in ancient China. The door gods of later generations first appeared as evil gods, which is a common means of witchcraft.

(2) Believing in folk customs

It focuses on the concept of faith and has worship psychology. For example, the ancient people's worship of the sun god and the moon god is the result of beliefs and customs. In the Qing Dynasty, there were ceremonies to worship the sun and the moon in the Kunning Palace in Beijing. There were altars and moon altars on the east and west sides of Beijing, which are today's ritan park and Moon Altar Park.

(3) Clothing folklore

Clothing is an important embodiment of human material culture and spiritual culture. Due to the differences of times, national customs, local colors, national temperament and production and lifestyle, the differences and changes of clothing customs are determined. Clothing not only has practical value, but also reflects the fashion of the times, people's psychological tendency and the political color of the times.

(4) Dietary folklore

Including drinking and eating. China's food culture can be divided into staple food and non-staple food, which is closely related to holidays. Everyone knows that we eat Yuanxiao on the 15th of the first month, moon cakes on the 15th of August and chrysanthemum wine on the 9th of September. Moreover, the diets of various ethnic groups and regions have their own characteristics. In the habit of eating methods, some use chopsticks, some use knives and spoons, and even have hands to pick and catch. Some people are used to eating minced meat, while others eat whole meat.

(5) Folk custom of houses

The living habits of all ethnic groups in China are also different. Mongolian people are used to living in yurts, while Miao people are used to living in diaojiao building. Bungalows are the most popular form of living. Beijing quadrangle is a unique living form. In addition, in the construction of houses, there are also every link, such as site selection, material selection, date selection, column arrangement, completion congratulations and so on. , which have their own customs.

(6) institutional folklore

Refers to a lasting social practice in society or family.

(7) Production folklore

Refers to the customs of hunting production, agricultural production, handicraft production and other production activities.

(8) Seasonal folklore at the age of eight

Refers to the custom followed by the season. For example, Spring Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Begging for Skills Festival (July 7th), Double Ninth Festival, Dai Water-splashing Festival, Yi Torch Festival, etc. There are all kinds of customs and activities.

(9) Life etiquette and folk customs

It mainly includes folk etiquette and life customs. Folk etiquette is the etiquette of social communication. Welcome to send, banquet, daily meeting, etiquette. Life etiquette refers to the etiquette that runs through the process of birth, death, marriage and bereavement. Including birth customs, rite of passage, marriage customs, birthday celebrations, funerals and ancestor worship.

(10) Trade Customs

This is a custom spread and followed in business activities. For example, the opening ceremony, shop signs and covers are all important folk customs.

(1 1) Folk literature and art

Literary folklore is mainly folk oral literature handed down from generation to generation, that is, folk literature, including myths, legends, stories, folk songs, epics, jokes, riddles, folk dances, folk art and so on.

(12) Folk Entertainment Folk Custom

Including sports, entertainment, games, sports, handicrafts and so on. It often appears in folk temple fairs and fairs.

The above categories do not include all folk customs. With the deepening of research, medical folklore, educational folklore, social folklore and religious folklore have also entered the ranks of folklore research. It can be said that the scope of folklore is infinitely broad.

China Folk Culture —— A Summary of Folklore Research in China

Just now, I talked about the concept and types of folklore, but don't think that studying folklore is just a study of ancient books, but a study of ancient books. On the contrary, folklore is a modern science, which investigates and collects current folk information, mainly for the present, with the aim of promoting the development of modern customs and serving modern life and culture. The purpose of understanding the past is to better grasp the present and the future. This must be clear.

For example, superstition has risen again in recent years. Many people, including fashionable young men and women, also go to temples to worship Buddha, and some college students become nuns. Only by clearly understanding the social, historical and psychological reasons of this folk phenomenon can we eliminate this bad custom, which requires us to know more about folk culture.

Generally speaking, folklore is a science that studies folk customs and habits. Its main research object is the life culture created, enjoyed and passed down by the broad masses of people (mainly working people) of a country or nation. Including inherited behavior, spiritual phenomenon and language phenomenon, including folk literature and art, folk entertainment, folk customs, folk beliefs, folk organizations, folk skills and so on.

From a global perspective, folklore was first established in Britain. 1864, W.J.THOMS of Britain put forward the concept of folklore (knowledge of folklore scholars). This concept has double meanings: first, it refers to folk customs themselves, such as customs, songs and stories; The second is to study the theory of folklore, that is, folklore. It has become a worldwide theme name. Since then, important folklorists such as J.G. Fraser and E.Taylor have appeared. The British Folklore Society was founded in 1878 with a history of more than 100 years. In France, folklore is studied from the perspective of ethnology, and corresponding research institutions have been established. Germany pays attention to the study of folk literature and studies folk literature as a custom of inheritance. Its representatives are brothers Green and Arnail. The United States studies folk customs with structuralism. Japanese folklore research is very developed, and its founder is Yanagita Kunio. They pay attention to the changes of folk culture, think that folk research can clarify national culture, and have published a large number of works.

In China, folklore research did not begin to embark on the scientific track until after the May 4th Movement. 1920 Peking University established the ballad research society. In the 1920s and 1930s, the study of folklore in China got unprecedented development. Folklore societies have been established in various places, and special publications and series have been published, which has made great achievements. But before liberation, folklore as a science had not been established. After liberation, 1950 China Folk Literature and Art Research Association was established, and a large number of folk literature and art works were collected, sorted out and published. After ten years of turmoil, folk customs also suffered a disaster. After the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee, the description and research activities of folklore in China entered a new stage of revival and vigorous development. 1983, the Chinese Folklore Society was established in Beijing. Folklore research has finally embarked on a scientific track and developed rapidly, which has played an important role in developing scientific and cultural undertakings and building socialist spiritual civilization.