Neighbors With Ghosts:Geographical Experiences Of Popular People And Narrative Study Of Rural Ghosts

Ghosts have always been a topic of continuous and tireless discussion.At present,Chinese academic circles have given unprecedented attention and cultural interpretation to the ghost records in handed-down literature,fantasy novels and notebook novels.Comparative studies on folk oral ghost stories,online ghost stories and cross-border ghost cultures have also yielded fruitful results.However,most of the existing researches are based on documents handed down from ancient times or story texts,aiming at analyzing the structural elements of ghost stories and explaining the cultural connotation of ghost legends.The geographical environment in which ghost legends are generated and the ghost concepts of narrative subjects are ignored.Therefore,due attention is not paid to the generation mechanism of ghost legends,and the role of ghost legends in people’s living world and village space is neglected.This article mainly makes an in-depth and detailed analysis from the following aspects:local legends and common people’ s geographical view,common people’ s geographical experience and ghost typology,the geographical distribution of ghosts in Yulong village,the genealogy of ghost legends,the concept of ghosts and the construction of spatial order.This article mainly takes Yulong village in central Guizhou as the object of field investigation,starting from people’s experiences,memories and legends,sums up the types of ghosts in Yulong village,marks the geographical distribution map of ghosts in the external and internal space of the village,analyzes people’ s experience narration when encountering ghosts,discusses the essence of the concept of ghosts,and expounds the significance of "ghosts" as local experiences and spatial symbols.The study found that ghost legends(stories)all follow the pattern of "geographical environment-personal experience-public experience-ghost narration-local knowledge-traditional knowledge".The essence of ghost phenomenon is the emotional experience of individuals in specific geographical environment.The ghost view of Yulong people "living next to ghosts" has a wide range of universality.Ghost narration,as a manifestation of the geographical experience of common people,is a relatively hidden local knowledge,and is actually a survival strategy of seeking benefits and avoiding disadvantages.It not only affects people’s perception of geographical environment,but also plays an important role in constructing local spatial order.