From Folklore To Classics

“Butterfly Lovers” is an essential motif in Chinese culture and even in human culture. As an eastern love story which has been bred, developed and inherited in Chinese culture for nearly 1700 years, it gradually extends through time and space, transcends the barriers of language, characters, aesthetic psychology, cognition and thinking patterns, wins the international recognition and appreciation, and ends up with extraordinarily abundant forms of manifestation. What is the charisma of “Butterfly Lovers”? Where does its endless emotional appeal come from? How does it originate, develop and change? How does it manage to cross those barriers and consequently gain the western popularity? What kinds of experience and wisdom can its successful cross-cultural dissemination and acceptance provide for the construction, development and overseas promulgation of Chinese culture in the context of cultural globalization? This dissertation aims to summarize and establish its path of canonization by studying the origin, evolution and variation of “Butterfly Lovers” from the perspective of motif with the historical and aesthetic approaches. On one hand, this dissertation tries to find out what motifs were formulated as the constant smallest narrative units retained throughout the process of origin, evolution and variation. On the other hand, it also explores how “Butterfly Lovers”, as a classical artistic and recreational cultural motif, broke down all the barriers and grew into such a spectacular butterfly-lovers culture.This dissertation consists of three parts: introduction, main chapters, and conclusion.The introduction reviews and studies the origin of the legend from the verified history, spreading region and stratum, extraterritorial dissemination and the artistic forms. Based on the available research, this dissertation proposes the research idea of cultural motif and intends to concentrate on the history and value of “Butterfly Lovers” as a cultural motif to originate, evolve, vary and spread.The first chapter is on the origin of “Butterfly Lovers”. Drawn upon the existing historical materials and research, its process of origin, profusion, and evolution can be combed out. In this way, the author can extract two basic cultural connotations of the motif: one is the faithful insistence on the mundane love and the unyielding resistance to the reality and destiny; the other is the extramundane free will and life spirit. These make up the most constant and appealing emotions and inherent values of “Butterfly Lovers”.The second chapter studies the initial canonization of the motif of “Butterfly Lovers” in Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, and especially focuses on the evolutionary characteristics of its elaboration and refinement after the motif came into the concern of literary intellectuals as well as into the field of literary and artistic creation. Consequently the author puts forward a view that “Butterfly Lovers” was accepted and transformed by the lyric tradition of Chinese poetry and became one symbol that is full of emotion and connotations in Ming and Qing dynasties.The third chapter discusses the motif of “Butterfly Lovers” in terms of narration of the novel and transmission of the image, including the analysis of its genesis and value in the view of modern scholarly research, a brief illustration of its modern profile and a discussion about the accumulated historical experience of its modernization based on the forms of the novel and movie. It also probes the reasons why “Butterfly Lovers” can be enlisted among the four representative Chinese folk legends. In one way, it is claimed to be due to its own particularity. In the other way, it is closely related to the Chinese modern academic system, especially the character of pragmatism and self-discipline at the very beginning of the formation of Chinese folklore.The fourth chapter takes Yue Opera as a model to discuss the motif of “Butterfly Lovers” presented in the form of traditional Chinese drama. The accumulated historical experience and its contemporary enlightenment can be revealed by exploring the historical trace of its Yue Opera's version from genesis, evolution to dissemination.The fifth chapter examines the classic musical piece, the violin concerto of “Butterfly Lovers”. By detecting its creation, performance, popularity at home and abroad and making an aesthetical analysis, the author finds its path and significance of globalization and canonization.The sixth chapter deals with the issue on cross-cultural dissemination evolved from the motif of “Butterfly Lovers”, mainly laboring over the derived literary and artistic works in Northeast and Southeast Asia.In the concluding chapter, based on the diachronic combing and cross-sectional analysis on the motif of “Butterfly Lovers” in the view of art, the author draws a revealing conclusion on the transformation from folklore to canonization: the folk legend is the root of the literary and artistic works of “Butterfly Lovers”; the creation by literary intellectuals is the only way to canonization; modern medium plays an essential role in promoting and innovating the artistic creations of the motif; the cultural tension between nationalization and globalization of the motif of “Butterfly Lovers” is of great significance and of academic value to the construction of national cultural spirit and artistic creative atlas in the international civilization.