Research on the Ethical Ideas of Folktales (Taking the Texts of Gengcun Stories as the Object)

Author: Zhou Fuyan
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-03-01
Features: This book, guided by the theory of folkloric form, employs deconstructive reading methods to explore the everyday ethical concepts embedded in the text of Geng Village stories. To present these concepts as an interdependent system, the article describes and summarizes the moral issues and phenomena reflected in the stories from three perspectives: society, family, and religion. The author finds that folk ethical thought exhibits a highly didactic nature. A tendency that is entirely contrary to the ethical expectations of "filial piety," "righteousness," and "blessings" also exists in the folk psyche, creating a sharp conflict. Specifically, folk social ethics are marked by a contradiction between "righteousness" and "unrighteousness," family ethics by a conflict between "filial piety" and "non-filial piety," and religious ethics by a conflict between "doing good" and "seeking blessings." These conflicts are products of the traditional elite hierarchical social structure and also represent the vulgarized form of Confucian ethical thought after it permeated the daily lives of the people. Folk ethics, apart from sharing the relative and particularistic characteristics with orthodox Confucian ethics, also possesses a distinct direct utilitarianism. However, it does not lead to genuine utilitarianism (i.e., ethical universalism) but rather to ethical egoism. As a baseline morality, folk ethics has not yet transcended the boundaries of daily life. It does not constitute an heresy of orthodox thought and, therefore, cannot become the ultimate subversive force against the established social order.