The Folk-Lore of China and Its Affinities with that of the Aryan and Semitic Races
9781465506764
213 pages
Library of Alexandria
Overview
The attention which has of late been attracted to the study of European and Asiatic folk-lore happily renders unnecessary any apology for an effort to bring to the knowledge of English readers the vast, and as yet almost unworked, field of which it is the design of these pages to treat. The numerous and in many cases able works recently published have not only placed at the disposal of students a vast mass of facts bearing on the science, but have so fully vindicated its claims to the consideration of the ethnologist and philologist, that any introductory essay in the same direction is unnecessary. The labours of Professor Max Müller, the Brothers Grimm, Baring Gould, Kuhn, Kelly, Thorpe, Dasent, Wilson, Ralston, and Spence Hardy, of Muir, Bleeke, and others, have satisfactorily paved the way for successors in the field. The widespread traditions of the Aryan family, down to the homely superstitions of our own peasantry, the myths of Oceanica and the popular tales of Scandinavia, have alike received illustration, and often erudite comment from capable pens. In endeavouring to do for the folk-lore of China what has been so well done for that of other countries I shall in one respect enjoy an exceptional advantage. No serious attempt has yet been made to prove its kinship with the familiar beliefs of the Aryan races; and the following pages may therefore claim, on the score of novelty alone, an attention which might otherwise be denied them. That a population so enormous as that which owns the nominal sway of the Dragon Throne—variously estimated at from 250,000,000 to 400,000,000—should present a field of most interesting enquiry, is less strange than that so few enquirers should as yet have essayed to explore it. The extreme difficulties of the language and the fact that few who study it for even conversational purposes do so except for a specific end, and to fulfil some defined duty, have doubtless mainly contributed to this state of affairs. Whatever the cause, however, the fact remains that the folk-lore of the oldest and most populous nation of the globe, rich in the traditions of a period to which modern history is but a thing of yesterday, has been hitherto almost ignored by even the most successful students of Chinese. Those least acquainted with the people and their customs need not be assured that in China, as in most other parts of the world, there are certain subjects regarding which quaint and curious superstitions, beliefs and practices obtain amongst the populace. Unlike the civilized nations of Europe and America, however, China numbers amongst believers in the truth of these superstitions a vast public of some pretensions to education—such as it is—and of social position in the eyes of their countrymen. The doings of every Chinaman, from Emperor to coolie, are affected and guided by astrological portents, divinations, etc., in which even the more highly educated, who affect to despise them, place a practical trust. The half-cynical disbelief of the mandarin and literate, becomes firm conviction in the peasant; and China presents the now-a-days singular spectacle of an entire nation, numbering over three hundred millions of souls, whose everyday life is framed to meet the exigencies of a puerile system of superstition. It must not, however, be supposed that these superstitious beliefs differ to any material extent from those current amongst humanity elsewhere. The variations will be found to lie rather in detail than in principle; and just as white replaces black for the mourning colour, but leaves untouched the custom of adopting a special costume as a sign of grief, so it will be found that a variation or even apparent contradiction in the beliefs we are about to deal with are in like manner the outcome of motives common to the inhabitants of almost all countries alike.
