中国民间故事-奇异传说 1.0

Folk stories are an important subject in folk literature. Broadly speaking, folk stories are prose works with fictional content created and spread by working people in oral form. They are a collective term for all folk prose works, also known as "nonsense," "ancient stories," and "ancient classics" in some places. Folk stories have been orally transmitted since ancient times, narrating various relationships between people in a narrative style that is broad in scope and full of fantasy. Folk stories originate from life itself but are not limited to actual situations or what people consider real and reasonable. They often contain natural and fanciful elements.

Main Features

1. Having a long history closely intertwined with the growth of mankind.
2. Primarily spread orally; folk stories are mostly transmitted verbally.
3. Characterized by exaggerated plots filled with fantasy, often reflecting people's good wishes.
4. Embracing symbolic forms, with content often containing supernatural and imaginative elements. Folk stories, like all outstanding works, originate from life itself but transcend actual situations and what people perceive as real and reasonable.

Main Categories

1. Mythical Legends: These are the earliest fantasy oral prose works of humanity. They emerged during the childhood of mankind as the forerunners of literature, based on the primitive level of productivity in ancient times and the active desire of people to understand and dominate nature. Their content includes gods, immortals, ghosts, monsters, and historically famous figures.
2. Legendary Stories: Originating from oral transmission, these stories mainly revolve around heroes, upright officials, corrupt officials, characters that common folks care about. A common feature of these stories is that things that ordinary people cannot achieve can be accomplished in the narratives.
3. Life Stories: Stories about ordinary people that circulate widely among the common folk include tales of love, witty individuals, philosophical narratives, and more.
4. Talented Scholars and Beautiful Ladies: In ancient times, the vast majority of Chinese commoners were illiterate, yet they held an admiration for talented scholars and beautiful ladies. Many such stories circulated among lower-class literati.
5. Cases Involving Officials: These stories widely circulated due to their connection to the dark aspects of feudal society; common people longed for upright officials to emerge on their behalf. Therefore, stories of these officials spread widely among the populace and became a way for people to find solace in their lives. In modern times, these stories have become popular topics for conversations over tea and meals, widely spread among the populace as well. Folk stories can be categorized into five types: fantasy stories, animal tales, life stories, folk fables, and folk jokes.

Characteristics Overview

1. Close to Life: Folk stories emerged after myths and legends. They were a form of literature that came into being after humans had mastery over the objective world. While they contain varying degrees of fantasy elements, they focus on and are rooted in real-life scenarios. Their themes, characters, and major plots align with the logic of daily life during their transmission. From myths and legends to transformational tales, animal fables, ordinary stories, and jokes, their fantasy aspects diminish while realism increases progressively. This differentiation is a primary distinguishing feature between folk stories and myths.
2. Generalized Nature: Stories often lack specific timeframes or places; protagonists' names are typically vague or indefinite. Storytelling emphasizes key plot points over exhaustive detail descriptions; their appeal lies chiefly in vivid plots.
3. Tendency Towards Typification: As a form of collective creation, folk stories exhibit notable tendencies toward typification in plots, themes, characters, etc. Typification in themes involves multiple tales expressing similar desires such as wealth accumulation or underdog victories. Types of characters include those belonging to similar image types across various stories like clever daughters-in-law or dull sons-in-law. The dissemination process often generates different versions with slight variations on the same theme forming a story framework known as a "type." Analyzing these types constitutes an important method in story research; hence story typology has emerged as a distinct branch called narrative typology studies with numerous associated works. While typification is not unique to folk stories but also present in myths and legends, it is particularly pronounced in stories as one of the most prevalent narrative forms characterized by strong typification.