Main Abstracts

TheDemarcationoftheBoundarybetweenAgricultureandHumanFood

LIUZhuangzhuang,FANZhimin

This paper puts forward the concept of “food boundary” for the first time. In the gathering and hunting period, the utilization of human food resources is in a state of “no boundary”. Human beings may have used all food available on the earth to satisfy their hunger. In a long quest, the ancestors around the world gradually rejected and eliminated the food varieties that were harmful to their health and produced a batch of high-quality fruits and vegetables. At the same time, it is supplemented by different cooking processing technologies to eliminate toxins and bacteria in food, to ensure the safety of human life. After continuous mutual benefit and improvement among different regions, a food resource bank is finally formed, which is sufficient to ensure human survival and reproduction. However, in the case of disaster and abundance, the boundary of human food use, which is made clear by agriculture, often goes out of line and crosses the boundary. This kind of anomie and transgression not only violates the survival right of other animals and plants in nature, but also causes an impact on the ethics and morality of human society, and even endangers the safety of human life.

Keywords: borderless diet; agriculture; complement and perfect; food boundary; anomie and transgression

ResearchontheTimeNodeof“June24th”inChineseFolkSolarTerms

LANYong,YANGSimei

The evolution of “June 24th” in the Chinese folk solar terms from an ordinary date to an important time node in the whole country is complicated but distinct. The astronomical calendar is the natural basis for the formation of the “June 24th” time node, which is the first level. The ancestors within the Asian continent, such as the Yi nationality and other nationalities who chose theXinghuiFestival(星回節(jié)), the Shu people who held theChuanzhuFestival(川主節(jié)) in Sichuan, and the Sot people who held the Semi-annual Festival, had developed the “June 24th” time node by observing the astronomy and astrology, taking the traditional culture and belief of each nationality as the basis and integrating the foreign culture. This level shows the selection of nature and geography, as well as the basic characterization of nature and geography in the formation of traditional folk customs. Population mobility and official recognition are the important conditions for the spread and expansion of the “June 24th” time node, which is the second level. The spread of the belief culture of Erlang ofChuanzhuand the official Erlang god, the Fire God and GuanYu objectively promoted the development of the belief culture of water and fire, strengthened the dissemination of the “June 24th” culture. This level reflects the strengthening of the society and system, as well as the reshaping of the society and system in the development of traditional folk customs.

Keywords: “June 24th”; time node;XinghuiFestival;ChuanzhuFestival; astronomical calendar

ExploringtheOriginofHeboMyth

SHIDafeng

Hebo(河伯) was the ancestor of the State if He in the Early Ancient Period. Hebo people were a branch of Fengyi(風(fēng)夷), which was one of the nine Dongyi(東夷) tribes. The State of He, whose family name was Kui(媿), was founded by Hebo people, who were the same ethnic group as Beidi(北狄) tribes like Guifang(鬼方). Hebo people first lived in Jiuhe(九河) and Jishui(濟(jì)水), the lower Yellow River. Hebo Fengyi(馮夷) , the god of the Yellow River and the god of phoenix totem, was the earliest ancestor of the State of He. Hebo Fengyi was confused with Fengbo(風(fēng)伯), the God of Wind, so other deities such as Rain God Pingyi (屏翳)and Fengbo were derived. Jiandi(簡狄)gave birth to Xie(契), the primogenitor of the Yin(殷) people. In later myths the mysterious bird that gave birth to Shang(商) was seen as phoenix, the embodiment of Hebo, so Yin people regarded Hebo as Gao Zu.

Keywords: Hebo；Fengyi(馮夷)；Fengyi(風(fēng)夷)；phoenix；Dongyi；mysterious bird

AStudyontheInfluenceoftheUpperClass’sHobbiesonFolkCustomsintheHanDynastyfromthePerspectiveoftheTransmissionofBaixi

CHENShushu

As a kind of remarkable folk phenomenon, with the influence and promotion of Emperor Wudi and other upper-class members in the Han Dynasty,Baixi(a general term for all informal performances) flowed from the upper class to the lower class, from the court to the folk, and reached an unprecedented state of prosperity. There were three main ways for the transmission ofBaixiin the Han Dynasty. The first is organization transmission.Baixiwas organized by the government and opened to the people. The second is group transmission, mainly practiced by the folk performing groups and strolling players. The third is interpersonal transmission, in which the public took an active part and communicated with each other.Baixireveals the distinct characteristics of etiquette-custom interaction, which was closely related to the multi-level transmission channels of it. WhenBaixiwas elevated to the status of “etiquette” at the national level, it continued to blossom among the people, and the “custom” aspect became more prosperous, which permeated almost all aspects of the folk life and contributed to the transformation of the folk customs in the Han Dynasty. On the one hand,Baixienriched the content of folk games and entertainment activities, changing the festivals and leisure ways of people in the Han Dynasty. On the other hand,Baixialso promoted the developments and changes of the content and form of banquet music customs, sacrificial customs and funeral customs.

Keywords:Baixi; hobbies of the upper class; folk customs in the Han Dynasty; etiquette-custom interaction

RuyuanVanishesandZiguReturns:TheBeliefofEarthMotherinMedievalJingchuandtheFusionofExoticCulture

HAILibo

Praying for Ruyuan(如愿) and meeting Zigu(紫姑) are traditional rituals in the New Year in the medieval Jingchu area. Ruyuan and Zigu are the incarnations of Earth Mother: Ruyuan being the symbol of Earth Mother’s Death at the end of the year, and Zigu being the symbol of Earth Mother’ resurgence at the beginning of the year. They jointly constitute the festivity of Earth mother’s death and resurgence. The festivity is affected by the belief of Tammuz of the West Asian culture. After the Song dynasty, praying for Ruyuan and meeting Zigu had been changed, which demonstrates Chinese culture’s agency of selectively absorbing and actively transforming exotic culture.

Keywords: praying for Ruyuan; meeting Zigu; the belief of Earth Mother; the belief of Tammuz; the fusion of exotic culture

NotesontheNatureofBeliefsinWitchcraft:FolkloreandClassicalCultureinFifteenthCenturyMendicantTraditions

[ITA]FabrizioConti,trans.byXUGaonan

Witchcraft is a varied historical phenomenon with changing socio-cultural aspects according to the times and the places considered. Nonetheless, it is possible to trace the different cultural substrata giving shape to witch-beliefs in order to shed light on their process of amalgamation. The aim of this study is to show how the folkloric and the classical literary motives were intertwined in the fifteenth century by figures lauded as the high intellectuals of the time, Franciscan and Dominican preachers and inquisitors, to produce a coherent and multifaceted picture of witchcraft-related beliefs. By putting some of the most significant sources that I have analyzed in my monographWitchcraft,Superstition,andObservantFranciscanPreachersin relation to others that I have not considered before composed by the same or different authors, my aim is to show how this process of combination of various cultural traditions gave shape to the creation and the understanding of the witchcraft phenomenon. Furthermore, I also intend to highlight how the at times contradictory views concerning witch-beliefs, pointing either to realistic or to skeptical stances, are related to specific declensions of those different traditions on the part of the friars.

Keywords: witchcraft; Franciscan and Dominican friars; magic; folklore; classical culture; religious history

TheCharmofInterdisciplinarity:TheAnthropologicalSignificanceofthe100-yearResearchonTankaPeople

ZHOUDaming,MALuxia

Research on Tanka people began in the 1920s, and now it has a story of over a century. Scholars initially conducted research on Tanka people from the perspective of folkloristics. And then, with the development of research and the interdisciplinary communication and integration, Tanka people research has gradually expanded to interdisciplinary fields such as physical anthropology, historical anthropology and marine anthropology, and has also continuously developed new perspectives and research subjects. It is precisely because researchers continuously incorporate new disciplines, new methods and new perspectives to Tanka people research that the research of Tanka people group has the interdisciplinary charm and special anthropological significance. To sort out Tanka people research from an interdisciplinary perspective, on the one hand, we can see the anthropological significance of Tanka people research in Chinese anthropology. On the other hand, Tanka people research also prompts us to analyze from an interdisciplinary perspective in today’s society.

Keywords: interdisciplinarity; the 100-year Tanka people research; anthropological significance

FolkloreWeeklyinSunYat-senUniversityandtheEarlyDevelopmentofFolkloristicsinChina

DONGDeying

The 1920s was an important period for the development of modern folkloristics in China. In this period, an important academic practice was the publication ofFolkloreWeeklyin Sun Yat-sen University. Inheriting the tradition of paying attention to common people’s culture ofFolksongWeeklyin Peking University,FolkloreWeeklyclarified the purpose of the publication and preliminarily determined the discipline orientation of folkloristics. Under an extremely difficult situation at that time, it produced a large number of folklorists and amateurs of folk culture who later influenced and promoted the development of folk activities in other regions. The articles published inFolkloreWeeklyincluded not only the collection and sorting of precious folk materials, but also theoretical thinking and research on issues of folkloristics.FolkloreWeeklypresented the early development of folkloristics in terms of discipline development, talent training, and cultural propaganda, and opened a new journey for the development of modern folkloristics in China.

Keywords:FolkloreWeekly; the Folklore Society in Sun Yat-sen University; folkloristics; Zhong Jingwen

BuildinganAcademicPlatformforInterdisciplinaryResearch：ReviewingtheHistoryofDevelopmentofEthnicArts

LIAOMingjun

Based on the periodical management idea of being multi-ethnic, interdisciplinary and major-art,EthnicArtsadheres to the principle of publishing the latest academic achievements and displaying the first-class academic standards, and advocates the journal concept of being academic without disciplinary restrictions. Through the column setting of being characteristic without traditional restrictions, it has set up a contributor group who are learned but without academic boundaries to properly handle the academic association with related disciplines. By means of focusing on traditional culture and art, summarizing Chinese experience, highlighting the academic style of empirical research and leading the academic development of related disciplines with the latest academic achievements,EthnicArtshas initially formed an academic community characterized by interdisciplinary research, presenting a unique style in multiple academic journals. Having built an academic platform of great importance for interdisciplinary research, it highlights the new era academic spirit of Chinese style of originality.

Keywords:EthnicArts, interdisciplinary research, Chinese experience, academic platform

AnAnalysisoftheTrendofUrbanFolkloreinSouthKorea:TakingKyonginasanExample

LIZehua,LINYan,ShaoMinghua

Although urban folklore is an important research field in Korean folklore studies, it has experienced a gradually recognized evolution process, which is gradually changing with the great development and prosperity of cities. From the initial cognition of urban-rural dualism, the pattern space of “village in city, city in village” appeared after the maturity of urbanization, and then achieved the concept change of urban-rural monism. The change of this concept undoubtedly provides a broader vision for the vigorous development of Urban Folklore in South Korea. As the capital circle, Kyongin area not only witnessed the changes of urban and rural areas, but also became an important field of urban folklore research. The development of urban folklore in South Korea is of great reference significance to the exploration and discovery of urban folklore in China.

Keywords: Korean society; urbanization; urban space; urban folklore

PlaguePreventionandBabyBonusRitual:TheCommunityConsciousnessofHainanImmigrants:ACaseStudyofXingFuBeliefinFucheng,Haikou

WANGChenfa(OngSengHuat),SONGDan

In Fucheng (prefectural city) , Haikou, every neighborhood has the custom of “XingFuFangDeng(行符放燈)” during the first month of the lunar calendar. In Fucheng, people of different blocks/living areas regard their long recognized and worshiped male or female deity as their collective ancestor for the realization of their pseudo-blood relations. People respectfully take such deity as theirGongZuorPoZu, and think he/she is theJingZhu(Territorial Guardian for Collective Community) who controls the safety and prosperity of the local territory. During the Spring Festival,JingZhuvisits all important places of his or her territory, expelling evil spirits for every family, blessing and protecting the family for the whole year. The ceremony is called “XingFu”, which means “practicing and endorsing orders from the heaven in all space that the Guardian protects”. Such special folk culture has been practiced in Fucheng and the surrounding areas of Qiongshan County in history, and the activities in the immigrants’ business area named “QijingBaxiangShisanjie(七井八巷十三街)” (Seven Wells, Eight Alleys and Thirteen Streets) in Fucheng, are most representative. The custom ofXingFuis an important manifestation of regional identity. It has the function of promoting the stability of the community internally and is beneficial to the development of business activities externally. Therefore, it is still popular until now.

Keywords:XingFu;Jingzhu; plague prevention; neighborhood community; inheritance

RitualArtinTaihuLakeinModernTimes

QIUZhaoyuan

XianghuoOpera has been popular in the daily life of fishermen in Hongze Lake and Weishan Lake. In the late Qing Dynasty, due to the influence of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement, the population of Jiangnan decreased sharply. In addition, the Yellow River overflowed in the North, causing a large number of fishermen in Northern Jiangsu migrating to Taihu Lake Basin along the Grand Canal. These two factors lead to the emergence ofXianghuoOpera there. However, in ancient Wu area, witchcraft was popular, and many ritual dramas and sermon songs were formed there and were widely favored by the indigenous people. As the result of the mixed residence of the northern and the southern fishermen, Ode to Gods in Jiangnan replaced the “TangLiuben” of the northernXianghuoOpera, forming a unique variation ofXianghuoOpera of modern Taihu Lake fishermen—Hymn to the Gods. The multi-angle analysis of the origin of the Hymn to the Gods, the changes in local folk art, and the ritual lyrics, is an important way to further study the art of fishermen in Taihu Lake Basin, through which we can have a glimpse of the cultural integration and conflict between the northern and the southern fishermen.

Keywords: Taihu Lake Basin; fishermen;XianghuoOpera; Hymn to the Gods