Critical Fantasies: Structure of Chinese Folk Tales

Eastern Illinois University The Keep Masters Theses Student Theses & Publications 2000 Critical Fantasies: Structure of Chinese Folk Tales Saihanjula He Eastern Illinois University This research is a product of the graduate program in English at Eastern Illinois University. Find out more about the program. Recommended Citation He, Saihanjula, "Critical Fantasies: Structure of Chinese Folk Tales" (2000). Masters Theses. 1609. https://thekeep.eiu.edu/theses/1609 This is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Theses & Publications at The Keep. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses by an authorized administrator of The Keep. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THESIS/FIELD EXPERIENCE PAPER REPRODUCTION CERTIFICATE TO: Graduate Degree Candidates (who have written formal theses) SUBJECT: Permission to Reproduce Theses The University Library is receiving a number of request from other institutions asking permission to reproduce dissertations for inclusion in their library holdings. Although no copyright laws are involved, we feel that professional courtesy demands that permission be obtained from the author before we allow these to be copied. PLEASE SIGN ONE OF THE FOLLOWING STATEMENTS: Booth Library of Eastern Illinois University has my permission to lend my thesis to a reputable college or university for the purpose of copying it for inclusion in that institution's library or research holdings. _/} '1 · 2, V--V () Date I respectfully request Booth Library of Eastern Illinois University NOT allow my thesis to be reproduced because: Author's Signature Date thes1s4. form CRITICAL FANTASIES: STRUCTURE OF CHINESE FOJ.K TALES (TITLE) BY SAIHANJULA HE THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN THE GRADUATE SCHOOL, EASTERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY CHARLESTON, ILLINOIS 2000 YEAR I HEREBY RECOMMEND THAT THIS THESIS BE ACCEPTED AS FULFILLING THIS PART OF THE GRADUATE DEGREE CITED ABOVE ?~ :i..crcro DATE Thesis Abstract Critical Fantasies: Structure in the Chinese Folk Tale Folk tales provide a unique source of information for cultural studies. They come from the people. Springing from the people's imagination in a social context, they carry historical truths, stir up political undercurrents, and reveal social facts that official history books will not and cannot tell. In a time when writing was a privileged form of expression, the oral folk tale popularly communicated the injustices committed by the upper class, and gave the powerless voices of their own. Common themes of folk tales all reflect, to various degrees, the people's desires to rise above environmental, cultural, social and class constraints and to seek comfort in an imaginary world. Once a strictly stratified society, China provides abundant resources in its folk tales to examine their significance of extending the voices of the politically powerless. In China, a country historically without a God-centered, revealed religion, ideologies exert great impact on people's way of thinking and living. The confrontation of China's two main ideologies, Confucianism and Daoism is dramatized in the Chinese folk tale. Given the Chinese folk tale's extra-literary nature, and the oral tradition's place in the larger socio-political culture, I have taken a Marxist/Structuralist approach in this work, because this provides an holistic way of looking at verbal arts in relation to their cultural context. From this perspective, the essay focuses on core themes and strategies of the Chinese folk tale, including animal stories; the supernatural world; human transformation into other natural/supernatural beings through magic; gender transgression; the exposition of injustice suffered by subordinate women, men, and children; and the necessity of compromise in the face of Confucian authority. Acknowledgement I owe special thanks to my thesis director, Dr. John Martone, for your kindness, patience, and above all, your insightful comments and suggestions. Your deep interests in Asian literature and philosophy have inspired and encouraged me in this writing project. I also want to thank Dr. Irwin and Dr. Kory for all the help you have offered. Thank you, Luo Yi, for the room and board. 1'11 remember the time we shared talking and dreaming. Many thanks to Jiang Yanwen for taking trouble and making the binding of this thesis possible. Finally, to all of my friends, you make Charleston a place of eternal fond memory of mine. Table of Contents Contents Page Number Introduction ....................................................................... 1 Chapter 1 Ideological Foundation of Chinese Folk Tales .......................................................... 5 Chapter 2 The Daoist Presence in Chinese Folk Tales ........................................................... 13 Chapter 3 Feminist Themes ................................................................. 25 Con cl usi on ........................................................................ 44 Introduction Folk tales provide a unique source of information for cultural studies. Through collaborative authorship, the people, folk transmit their dreams and ideals in their unique form of stories. In his study of the functions of folklore, William R. Bascom refers to folk tales as a "projective system," which gives ordinary people access to "compensation" for the harshness of life and an "escape mechanism" from reality. Common themes of folk tales ("from rags to riches," love, gender-shifting, and metamorphosis) all reflect, to various degrees, the people's desires to rise above environmental, cultural, social and class constraints and to seek comfort in an imaginary world. Folk tales carry historical truths, not in the sense that tales can be counted upon for historical accuracy, but in that their presentation of the social order contributes to a full picture of a culture. Although writers such as Bascom assert that, "However accurately folklore may mirror the familiar details of culture, and incorporate common situations from everyday life, the unusual or even the impossible is an important ingredient of myths and folk tales" (292). It is my contention that, the "unusual and the impossible" oftentimes carry messages from the oppressed, whose voices would " otherwise be totally silenced by those in power. According to Bascom, one of the folk tale's important functions is education, particularly, but not exclusively, in non-literate societies. As he writes, "The importance of the many;forms of folklore as pedagogic devices has been documented in many parts of the world[ ... ]" (292). In this regard, folk tales can hardly avoid being political. The oral tradition offers the co111mon people freedom to articulate their true beliefs, hopes and 2 disillusionment in their fantasies. Two main factors contribute to this freedom. First of all, the folk tale as an oral verbal medium cannot be easily censored or stopped, since it can constantly take on different narrative forms and change in content. Secondly, collective or anonymous authorship helps to guarantees that no single individual risks being responsible for uttering the "the unusual and the impossible" and consequent punishment from those in power. Folk tales have become a convenient forum for the common people's social protest, and a tool that they can use to cultivate (peiyang) desirable social values in the young. Many folk tales (though by no means all) have been recorded and collected in written form. As a literary genre recorded and collected in books, folk tales serve as pedagogic devices for the politically privileged as well as the underprivileged. Removed from their oral context, such "conscripted" tales can serve as instruments of the powerful. Literary critic Heter Hunt states that, " to write is to have power; to read is only to have the illusion of power" (151). Indeed, this was especially true when education was only accessible to the privileged upper-class people. To be able to write is to have a firm grasp on a power system's propaganda and control over its ideology. Although many folk tales may initially be collected by folklorists, for example, solely for scholarly purposes, they can be edited or changed to meet the needs of those who are at the top of the socio political hierarchy. In this regard, folk tales can become a vehicle for the politically privileged to p6blicize their ethics and morals. To rephrase Hunt in these terms: to tell stories is to have power, to listen to stories is to have the illusion of power. However, due to the fundamental differences between oral and written verbal art, the story teller's power is more implicit and volatile compared to that of the writer, and the illusion of 3 power that story-listeners get cannot even be held in hand, like a book. In both cases, it is potentially rewarding to explore the folk tales as venues of political discourse. Because of the folk tale's power as a medium of social commentary and critique, whether in the hands of the politically powerful or the powerless, some assert that it is neither possible nor sensible to categorize folk tales according to "party lines." Questions of provenance cannot be answered in a satisfying way. Considering folk tales as an integrated literary genre, Bascom believes that they reflect the mutual dependence as well as the invisible fight for power between the institution and the individual. "Here, indeed, is the basic paradox of folklore, that while it plays a vital role in transmitting and

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