A Cultural Expedition On The Folklore Glamour In A Dream Of Red Mansions

As a masterpiece of realistic fiction popular both home and abroad, A Dream ofRed Mansions represents the highest achievement among Chinese classical novels. It isnot only a so-called encyclopedia of the feudalist society, but also a blockbuster culturalnovel providing an abundant folklore entailment. In terms of folklore, it can be regardedas a prose form of Book of Songs (famous poetry collection in Spring and Autumnperiod), and a narrative edition of The Festival of Pure Brightness on the River (famouspainting in northern Sung period). So in some sense we can say that, without the folkloreangle of view, it is impossible for one to authentically understand the artistic realm of ADream of Red Mansions, just as without reference to the masterpiece, it is difficult forone to aesthetically enjoy the charisma of folk culture and traditionThis paper aims to give a fieldwork-like reading to all the folklore events presentedin the novel text, by adopting the basic principles and methods of folklore in literatureand general folklore studies, together with view points of redology, narratology,archetype criticism, feminist criticism and culture studies. Thus, with the folkloredescriptions as material and the folklore narratives as main clue, the paper tries toachieve a systematic carding and interpreting of the folklore glamour and cultural spiritimplicated in the great novel. This effort will have some meaning of enlightenment infields as how to carry forward our good folk traditions, how to promote and preserve ourexcellent folk heritages, even as how to define the boundaries of folklore studies itself.The main body of this paper is divided into five chapters.Chapter1is a survey about the novel’s status in China’s culture history and thefolklore value abundantly implicated, with a descriptive analysis on the aestheticfunctions and main features of the folklore narratives.Chapter2is an analysis on mythical images and a quest in Chinese nation’s culturalpsychology or collective unconsciousness, by angles of myths and archetypes, giving areview on the mythological resources of female worship, stone worship and figureworship represented there in structure, and advancing initially that the novel’s chief character Jia Baoyu may find his own archetype in patterns of Chinese folktales andworld myths.Chapter3is a discussion about the social and cultural context in Qing period, withexplanatory notes respectively on the great writer Cao Xueqin’s view of folklore, thelocal displays of folklore, and the relation between Qing folklore and the cultural triunityof Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism.Chapter4is a collection of original ideas which expands the research vision on themasterpiece, namely, the plantlore and physical language disciplines, folklore eventsconveying feminism, folklore events representing capitalism in the bud, and thecountryside as a symbol of the folklore circle formation and the family revivalexpectation.Chapter5is a summery in which the concept of spiritual home is discussed, from thehistory of the topics to the significance of constructing Chinese people’s overall spiritualhome with reference to A Dream of Red Mansions. Also in the chapter some suggestionsand reflections are given about the relation between studies on folklore in general,especially on folklore in literature and the national practice of culture development andconstruction with contemporary cultural strength competition as background.This paper has a preface and an epilogue attached as well, in which the authorexplains the aim and the significance theoretical and practical for choosing the topic,gives instances of academic achievement concerning the topic both in China andoverseas, introduces the concrete methods adopted and original ideas conveyed in thepaper, and makes clear a personal understanding of the subject identity, developingforeground, theoretical and methodological principles of folklore in literature. Toconclude, the paper conducts a cultural expedition on the basis of reading the originalwork carefully. Ranging from folklore events described to mythical unconciousnessstructured, from epoch setting demonstrated to cultural symbolism deep-layered, all theinquires concentrated to the relations between the novel’s folklore glamour and Chinesetraditional culture. As it is intended to expand field of vision on systematic carding, andto make focal points stand out on overall observation, the paper has new ideas, gentle discourses, rigorous proofs and deep-going surveys all in one, revealing a distinctivestyle and features.