A Comparative Study Of Folk Fox Consciousness In China And Korea

For the Chinese and Korean people,Fox can be said to be both familiar and unfamiliar.At all times and in all over the world,the image of Fox in the field of literature is very rich.Oriental Fox is not only an object worshipped by prehistoric totem,but also the hero of the transformation story.As society evolved,it is well known to us as a symbol of sexual attraction and an embodiment of wisdom.As we all know,China and South Korea are geographically close and have a long history of cultural exchanges.Therefore,there are many similarities in the social and cultural background.Meanwhile,the differences in the mass basis also give rise to the uniqueness of the two cultures.Under such a cultural background,fox stories are more representative of this feature.This paper takes the fox stories of China and Korea as the research object,compares the images of foxes in the fox stories,analyses the similarities and differences of the fox consciousness,and explores the ideological concepts that affect the fox consciousness of the two countries.The introductory part of this paper elaborates the reasons for the selected topic and the purpose of the research,summarizes the achievements of the two countries’ prior research,and clarifies research obj ects and methods.In order to ensure the objectivity of the follow-up research,chapter two defines the fox story from the perspective of anthropology and folklore,and discusses the origin of fox worship.Through a simple investigation of the folkloric records and the geographical distribution of fox stories,the popularity of fox worship is confirmed as well.Fox stories,as the research obj ective of this paper,refer to the myths,legends and folk stories in which fox plays an important role.However,worship consciousness of fox originates from primitive people’s animistic way of thinking.In addition,in China and South Korea,fox worship is widely distributed in both religious classes and regions.In the third chapter,drawing on previous research results,the fox stories of the two countries fall into three categories:the Sacred Fox—sacred content,the Evil Fox--discovery of evil and Human Fox—interaction with human beings.Then,according to the theme,Sacred Fox is divided into two categories:Divine Helper and Divine Mother,and Evil Fox is divided into three categories:symbol of sexual temptation,metaphor of death and cannibal,among which the story of cannibal is particularly prominent in South Korea and very rare in China.There are two outstanding types of Human Fox,namely,Gratitude Fox and the Knowledgeable Fox.Literature contains consciousness and ideas of creators,and fox stories,as the collective literary achievements passed down through the ages,can illustrate our approach to creative and collective values and ways of thinking as a medium.Therefore,chapter four summarizes the similarities and differences of fox consciousness reflected in fox stories,and discusses the historical,psychological and religious reasons for these similarities and differences by analyzing the narrative structures of three categories and seven themes related to fox stories in the two countries.First of all,due to the frequent historical and cultural exchanges,the two countries share similar ways of thinking in various aspects.Both China and Korea hold ambivalence of fear and welcome for fox.At the early stage,fox can be regarded as the object of totem worship in the two countries.At the later stage,with the development of religion,artificial gods attached to religion began to occupy a dominant position.The demonic nature of fox is increasingly prominent,becoming more evil in people’s hearts;Simultaneously,the fox beliefs in both countries embody the importance of geomantic omen,Yin-yang and five elements,which can also be seen as the traces of Chinese Taoism into Korea;In the end,the views of both countries on sex are from the open acceptance of primitive society to the resistance of feudal society,which is inseparable from the development of Confucian ethics in both countries.With the development of social civilization,especially since entering the feudal society,Confucianism has begun to take the dominant position.The people of the two countries have become very shy about sex that they regard female chastity as extremely important.At the same time,due to different cultural backgrounds,there are many differences in fox consciousness between the two countries.Firstly,as the hero of human beings in Korean fox stories,the fox is often defeated with the help of outside forces,and after fighting off the fox,he can always get something for nothing.It can be concluded that South Korea has suffered from foreign enemies since ancient time,and the internal anxiety of the people naturally makes them more inclined to rely on external forces to realize their wishes.Moreover,in Korean fox stories,the fox is often portrayed as a single female image that do harm to the human world,while in China,the fox images are more abundant,which embodies that Korea is deeply influenced by Confucianism and has a more serious mentality of neglecting and discriminating against women than China.Finally,the nature of the fox in Korean fox story is worse,and the ending of the fox is more miserable.It shows that South Korea,as a coherent state,has a stronger aversion to foreigners than China,a multi-ethnic country.In addition,Confucianism’s rejection of dissident person has been deeply rooted in the hearts and minds of South Korea,and the boundary between animals and people is very clear.However,Chinese folk are more influenced by Taoism and other folk religions,believing that "things grow old and become essential",and that animals and people can be placed on the same level and develop towards the same position.So South Korea’s rejection of outsiders is even stronger.