Chinese Oral Heritage Of Culture--On The Legend Of Dong Yong Encountering The Fairy

The legend of Dong Yong Encountering the Fairy engendered in the middle period of the Late Han Dynasty, but few literature of the legend was preserved. Thus, not only the study of the legend could not attract scholars' attentions, but also it was limited in the problems of discussions about historical identity of Dong Yong and the evolution of the legend from the beginning of last century. For the first problem, the discussions always regarded the legend as fact, so that their arguments and conclusions could be disputed. For the latter, because the scholars' perspectives only focused on the evolution of its poll units rather than its historical and cultural context, the linear procession of its evolution is apparently clear while intrinsic dynamic of its evolution cannot be found among them.From my point of view, the legend involves three stages of its development, two ways of spreading and three centers of spreading. Three stages of its development are old legend period during the Han Dynasty and the Wei-jin Period, the new legend period during the Tang and the Song Dynasties and the post legend period from the Yuan and the Ming Dynasties. Two ways of its spreading are mainstream and oral. The mainstream spreading refers to the means that conveys the legend with some explicit media, such as Huaben(the Song-Yuan Narratives), drama or film etc. Therefore, those stages are indeed stages of mainstream spreading. Theoretically, the oral spreading could never ceases through ages. However, we cannot investigate the means due to lack of materials before the Song and the Yuan Dynasties. As a result, we can just distinguish three centers of its spreading, Bo'xin of Shandong Province, Xiaogan of Hubei Province and Dongtai-Danyang of Jiangshu Province, from then on. Each legend of these sites has its polt system and its cultural relic.According to the never-cited material in History of the Han, the historical prototype of Dong Yong is the Marquis of GaoChang who lived between Western Han Dynasty and Eastern Han Dynasty, after Song Dynasty,the multiple native places of Dong Yong only come from the local legends. The legend of Dong Yong Encountering the Fairy gained its independence when the Seventh Fairy parted from Zhi NU. There is a long history of the legend so that it has accumulated abundant connotations of folklore. Promotion or demotion of identities of Dong Yong and the Seventh Fairy and introduction of pagoda tree's imagery after the Song Dynasty are directly results of folklore ideal.The legend regained its vitality after it was rewritten in Huangmei Opera in 1950s, although it would result in new crises at the same time. Lots of new cultural sights correlative to the legend have been established as it was combined with local culture and was driven by local economic benefits up to now. Nevertheless, as an oral heritage of culture, its value is faced with dissipation, and its structure is also faced with fate of vanishment.