20th Century Chinese Folklore Classics: Folklore Theory Volume

Author: Yuan Li
Publisher:
Publishing Date: Not available
Features: "Guofeng," "Chuci," Yuefu, folk songs of the Six Dynasties, Yuanqu, novels of the Ming and Qing dynasties—these are the true orthodoxy of Chinese literature. What was once considered orthodox in fact deviated from the right path in many cases, and today, these things hold no value. Inspired by Chairman Mao, we should thoroughly correct our previous wrong views that looked down upon folk art. Folk art is an endless treasure. Those engaged in literary and artistic work should pay special attention to it and conduct research on it. Today, we establish the Folk Art Research Association to carry out in-depth studies on ancient and modern folk art in China. The purpose of our research, as I see it, has five points:
(1) Preserve and disseminate precious literary heritage. China is vast, with each region having its own characteristics. Collecting and preserving folk art scattered across the country is extremely necessary. I greatly admire the word "Feng" in "Guofeng"—it is truly used in the most appropriate way. Folk songs are like a gust of wind, their authors unknown. Suddenly, they sweep across the land like a wind, and then suddenly, they cease and disappear. Now, we must organize a group of "wind catchers" to capture the wind as it blows, preserve it, study it, and disseminate it. In China's five thousand years of history, the work of catching the wind has been insufficient, as seen in the limited collections like the "Shijing." As a result, many folk songs have risen and fallen on their own, leaving no trace. Today, we must not repeat this mistake and allow them to rise and fall on their own again.
(2) Learn the strengths of folk art. We collect folk art not merely to appreciate it as an artistic work or even deify it, but to seek its strengths and learn from them. In poetry, we should study its techniques and grammar for expressing the emotions of the people, as well as its rhythm and tones. At the same time, we can use folk art to reform ourselves. The stance of folk art is the people, its object is the people, and its attitude is to serve the people. Those who love the people should cherish them, and those who oppose the people should oppose them. Our writers should learn from folk art to correct their own creative stance and attitude.
(3) Accept the folk criticism and self-criticism from folk art. Art is not only a reflection of real life but also an evaluation and critique of it. In folk art, either explicitly or implicitly, there is criticism of contemporary society, especially politics. Therefore, today when we study folk art, we must not only focus on its literary value but also pay attention to the political opinions of the masses it contains. Today, we all must engage in self-criticism and even more so, collect the opinions of the masses. Folk art provides plenty of material for this. Folk art is like a mirror, reflecting the face of politics. This idea is not one discovered today; the ancients had this understanding long ago. It is said that ancient rulers sent officials to collect poems and perform them in the court to understand the suffering of the people. Whether this actually happened cannot be confirmed, but at least someone had such an idea. In music, the ancients also knew that "understanding music reveals the state of governance," examining the joy or frustration in folk music to assess whether the government was just or tyrannical. We should not merely appreciate folk art as a form of art or study it as a literary genre; we must also use the folk mirror to reflect