The Study Of Lu Xun And Traditional Culture From The Viewpoint Of Folklore

The relationship between Lu Xun and traditional culture is one the major areas of the study of Lu Xun. In a general view, the study demonstrates two academic tendencies demarcated by the 1990s:the previous study centered around Lu Xun and traditional cultural classics, exploring his critique and inheritance of the classics in terms of thoughts, aesthetics and academy; the subsequent study focuses on Lu Xun and traditional mainstream culture, probing into their fundamental connection in the sources of knowledge and spiritual character.The Chinese traditional culture in general consists of two parts:the authoritative culture and the folk culture. The latter serves as the foundation of Chinese traditional culture, lying in the lower level of traditional cultural system, popular among the masses. On the other hand, both cultural classics and mainstream culture belong to the traditional upper-class culture, which account for a considerable proportion of traditional culture, but fail to give a full view of it. Furthermore, Lu Xun's lifelong literary creation and cultural career placed an emphasis on the national character and cultural psychology of lower-class people. Therefore, it is apparently inadequate and partial to research the subject of Lu Xun and traditional culture only in regard of his relationship with upper-class culture. In the late 1990s, some scholars grew aware of the academic imbalance and started shifting the focus of "Lu Xun and traditional culture" study to folk culture. However, the exploration of Lu Xun and folk culture by a small minority still has a long way to go. Standing on their shoulders and learning their lessons, the author endeavors to do some pioneering research on the relationship between Lu Xun and traditional culture from the viewpoint of folklore study.The introduction of folklore study combines the double views of comparative cultural studies and intellectual psychology. Based on the investigation of previous researches, the thesis reveals that researchers may find it hard to learn about the complex subject of Lu Xun and traditional culture, due to their lack of knowledge of folklore studies. On this basis the academic value of the subject is expounded. The thesis contains five parts, which go as follows:The first chapter "the Emergence of Modern Chinese Folklore Study and Lu Xun's Folk Cultural View" explains the theoretical background and cultural conditions of the emergence of modern folklore study. Starting with Lu Xun's social cultural activities, literary thinking features and his advocacy of language reform, the chapter investigates how the Oriental ancient folk culture and Western folk theories found their harmonious combination in Lu Xun's literary work, how Lu Xun through inheritance developed an individualized open system of folk views, and how to apply these folk resources to the social practice of constructing modern Chinese new culture.The second chapter "the Connection between Lu Xun and folk culture" is directed at how folk culture drew Lu Xun's attention in terms of both literature and culture. According to the theories of infant psychology and folk psychology, it reveals how Lu Xun was influenced by folk culture in his hometown and accepted folk theory in his overseas study. Lu Xun's absorption and acceptance of folk culture was also a process of systematizing and theorizing traditional culture. His attention on folk culture and creative application of it in his literary writing reflected not only the influence of folk culture in his childhood hometown, but his search for a modern way to develop new culture and reform national character when he studied in Japan.The third chapter "Folk Cultural Signs:Decoding Lu Xun" centers around how Lu Xun expressed his individual feelings and cultural thoughts with the help of folk cultural images. The cultural images of ghost, genealogy and water are the key points of discussion, so as to explore his inheritance and creative application of folk cultural signs, which were marked by individuality, nationality and philosophy. Lu Xun's exploitation of folk culture on the levels of both history and psychology was profound, meantime constructing an individualized cultural image system. By his survey of folk culture, he combined the abstract spiritual nature with concrete images, transformed folk cultural signs into literary images with profound imagination and artistic language, and built his unique cultural image system. The fourth chapter "Lu Xun's Writing of Females from the Viewpoint of Folk Culture" focuses on how Lu Xun applied the connection between folk culture and females to cultural and literary creation. By sorting the folk phenomena related to females in Lu Xun's literary works, the chapter expounds on the combination and correspondence of cultural criticism, female images and folk culture. From the description and reflection of the folk culture of bride-kidnapping, Lu Xun thought about the destiny of females, his generation of intellectuals and the Chinese nation, the key of their change based on the fight for economic power. According to the theory of body, it discusses how Lu Xun saw the correlation between females' spiritual and physical bondage, reflected in the custom of foot-binding and fashions. By studying the background and environment of the writing of Ah-chin, the chapter displays the dynamic change of folk culture throughout Lu Xun's life from his rural memories to his urban experiences.The fifth chapter "Mythology:the Great Reconstruction of Folk Culture" discusses whether there is ideal in Lu Xun's literary world. Taking Mending the Heaven and Flood Control as examples, it analyzes the positive folk cultural factors hidden in two cultural heroic images. In the image of Nu Wa, the great creative power and tough life of new culture are combined, and Lu Xun's longing for ideal marriage and happy love and his poetic imagination of them are discovered. Decoding the image of Nu Wa is also the process of decoding folk cultural totem of love. The image of Da Yu was created by Lu Xun in later life for himself and for the whole intellectual class. By comparing the appearance of Da Yu, beggars, and Lu Xu, the high similarity of them is discovered. And by comparing the characters of Da Yu, snobs, flunkeys, and babblers, the noble spiritual character of Da Yu is highlighted, the remaining ideal shining in Lu Xun's literary works reflected.The conclusion part "Modern Revelation of Lu Xun and Folk Cultural Study" is directed at the overheating of present folk cultural research and the issue of Chinese cultural security, sorting intellectuals'cultural views and attitudes in the early 20th century and trying to provide effective approaches to the relationship between culture and economy, creation and inheritance, academy and interests.