The Spread And Evolution Of Chinese Dragon Boat Festival Culture In The Korean Peninsula And Japan

The Dragon Boat Festival folk culture is a cultural form typical to Chinese nationality embodied in the activities of the Dragon Boat Festival in the Dragon Boat Festival.Originated in China,the Dragon Boat Festival folk culture and its excellent cultural forms have been quickly spread to some other Asian countries,especially North Korea,South Korea and Japan.However,what is the connotation of the Chinese Dragon Boat Festival culture?How has it been spread into Korean peninsula and undergone evolutions step by step?All these questions are worthy of historical archaeology and research.The first chapter discusses the connotation of Chinese Dragon Boat Festival folk culture.Festivals and holidays with rich cultural connotation are important media of cultural transmission and inheritance.Dragon Boat Festival has experienced a long process of evolution,and has accumulated various forms and rich contents,such as primitive witchcraft,ancestor sage worship,folk food and entertainment.It is an integral part of the outstanding civilization of Chinese nationality.The second chapter discusses the spread and evolution of Dragon Boat Festival folk culture in the Korean Peninsula.Before the year 400 AD,the Dragon Boat Festival folk culture has been passed into the Korean Peninsula by immigrants or war evaders.Between 400 AD and 1600 AD,the folk culture has been further spread,and integrated with local culture in the Korean Peninsula.It has evolved to a big sacrifice activity typical to the Korean nationality and become a national holiday in the peninsula.The Chinese Dragon Boat Festival and its South Korean counterpart share some common features.Macroscopically speaking,both China and South Korea celebrate the festival in May 5th.Both the 2 countries attach great importance to the festival and pay attention to the material investment and protection of the culture.Certain forms of celebration are carried in both countries,dragon boat race in China and kite competition and tug of war in South Korea.Microscopically speaking,people from various localities in both countries adopt various forms to celebrate the festival,such as exorcism and prays,ancestor and Gods worship.The differences mainly are the celebration activities.The third chapter discusses the spread and evolution of Chinese Dragon Boat Festival culture in Japan.The Dragon Boat Festival folk culture has been passed into Japan before the 8th century AD.Between the 8th century and the 19th century AD,the culture has been further spread from the aristocrats and warriors to civilians.It has become one of the most important 5 public festivals in the period of Tokugawa Shoguns.After the Meiji restoration,the festival is celebrated on the May 5th solar calendar rather than lunar calendar.In 1948,the festival is evolved into the Children's Day.Japan is another country after Korea which accepts China's Dragon Boat Festival culture.But during the process of evolution,Japan has abandoned a lot of Chinese Dragon Boat Festival cultural elements.The similarity of the Chinese Dragon Boat Festival and its Japanese counterpart lies on the common psychology of pray for happiness and health and the same person for worship and sacrifice.The differences are the forms for celebration,for example,the force arena unique to Japan.The author also manages to explore the reasons leading to these differences.The fourth chapter discusses the significance of spread of Chinese Dragon Boat Festival culture and regional cultural identification.The cultural transmission of the Dragon Boat Festival is an important factor in its extensive existence and development.The progress of East Asian history is closely related to the cultural transmission,including the spread of the Dragon Boat Festival culture.The spread of Dragon Boat Festival culture is conducive to the building of self-confidence in Chinese culture,enhancing the cultural identification,forming Dragon Boat Festival with own characteristics,rejuvenating the traditional Chinese festivals and so on.The regional cultural recognition in East Asia emphasizes the cultural identification in this region that admits the wide influence by the ancient Chinese culture with the Confucian culture as its core.While recognizing the homology of this culture,local variations should not be neglected,which lead to the diversity of East Asian culture.It is an identity brought by geographical and historical facts.However,recently some people tried to deny the fact as exemplified by Japan's wish to abandon Asia for Europe and South Korea's abolishment of Chinese Characters.Practices tell that all these efforts are spent in vain.The Dragon Boat Festival is an unofficial folk culture and its spread in the East Asian region is as natural as the spread of the Confucian culture in this region.This is the foundation and basis to build cultural identification.The local variations only confirm rather than deny this identification.Once the common basis is recognized,the exchange and communication of various folk cultural activities become possible,which in turn will have a positive and constructive meaning for the mutual understanding during the cultural identification,the integration and mutual-inclusiveness of various local cultures,and the unity and communication of people from the same region.As to our nation,the exchange of folk cultures is conducive to change the image of Chinese culture on people from the neighboring countries and rebuild the identification of common cultural homology.