Inquiring Into The Cultural Root

The Wu Ballads, also known as shan'ge (mountain songs), are folk-songs and folk-poems belonging to the folkloric tradition in the Wu-dialect area in China. In recent years, oral and intangible heritages of humanity have roused the attention of the people at home and abroad. Along with the launching of the Project of Salvaging Folk Culture in China, the collection and research of the Wu Ballads have gained a new impetus. However, the previous studies are not wide enough in scope and not thorough enough in depth. With abundant cultural connotations, long ethnical tradition and subtle in collective consciousness, the Wu Ballads deserve to be further studied.The author tries to explore the macroscopic and microscopic world of the Wu Ballads from a brand-new angle– the perspective of archetypal criticism. Archetypal criticism claims to excavate archetypal images in the literary works in different eras, which embody the common experience of existence of the humanity, and to find some common mode for literary criticism by analysing these archetypal images. Art and literature, with inherent affinities with human races, human nature and psychological structures, should be integrated into the systematic development of human culture. Undoubtedly, archetypal criticism throws some light on the study of the Wu Ballads and provides us with an effective tool of assessment. It enables us to probe into the profound sedimentary accretion of Chinese culture in the Wu Ballads from a macroscopic and historical perspective. It also provides us with a new theoretical frame and research method in studying the culture, psychology, customs and habits of the Wu district.Viewing the Wu Ballads from the perspective of archetypal criticism, the dissertation has five chapters. In the first chapter, the author traces the definition, origin and development of the Wu Ballads, analyses the artistic features of the Wu Ballads, generalizes the thematic types of the narrative ballads, and reviews the achievements made in the collection and research of the Wu Ballads by the previous scholars. The second chapter contains the basic connotation, essential characteristics, theoretical resources and values of archetypal criticism. The author demonstrates the elucidatory basis of the archetypes in the Wu Ballads, in terms of the mythological thinking, collective unconsciousness, and modes of artistic representation embodied. The feasibility of the expositions lies in their correspondence with the theory of archetypal criticism. In chapters three, four and five, the author explores the recurrent idiographic archetypes in the Wu Ballads, such as archetypal motifs, archetypal images and archetypal structure, so as to reveal the modes of thinking and essence of the Wu Ballads. The expositions contribute to the detection of the deep cultural connotation, the collective unconscious mentality and the aesthetic values contained in the text.In concluding part, the author summarizes the significance of the new interpretations of the Wu Ballads, and puts forward some current considerations. In the future studies of the Wu Ballads we must break through the existing modes and introduce some new methodologies, so that we can obtain a broader vision. By interpreting the Wu Ballads from the new perspective of archetypal criticism, the author hopes to deepen the comprehension of this oral and intangible heritage. When we have a new survey of this obliterated long-standing national tradition, what surprises us most is that this oblivious folklore to the south of the Yangtze River fits in perfectly with the western literary theory and methodology. This very fact proves that the Wu Ballads are not only part of our national cultural heritage, but also part of the world cultural heritage.