Folktales of China

by Eberhard Wolfram

Book by Wolfram eberhard

Genres: Mythology, Classics, Folklore, Chinese Literature, China, Short Stories, Fantasy

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1936

Reviews

[k · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's hard to read a book like this as a piece of literature and not as a window into some kind of historical or cultural truths, and my positive reaction is mostly on its successes as the latter, though unless you have a China itch to scratch I think it won't resonate too deeply. In any case, it's very well organized and annotated, and some of the stories are fun, both epic and ridiculous at the same time.

[Mary Catelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of tales from China, with notes about when collected and the types and motifs involved

More legends than in many such collections I've seen, partly because the tales often end with the observation that this character or that was made divine for the events of the tale. "The Water Mother", for instance, is the familiar type, like "Why the Sea Is Salt" or "Sweet Porridge" where magic that produces good stuff is let to run wild, but it ends with the observation that the woman became the goddess the Water Mother.

Some of the tales are in fact just bits of folklore, such as about "elves" (all the beings less than gods have had their terms translated to equivalents).

A good number are recognizable types, but only in the deep structure; local color here produces more variation from European tales. "The Mason Wins the Prize" is "The Devil's Three Golden Hairs" but the mason is on a quest to find the three things he was sent to find before marrying, and that's what the question garners him. There are two swan-maiden-like tales, but one is of a woman who came out of a painting and finally went back in. "The Witch's Daughter" flouts Chinese customs to produce a tale "The Girl Helps the Hero Flee."

There's also some definite signs of Communist influence, since they encouraged peasant heroes and heroines. One tale included, only found once in China, was of a peasant outwitting a feudal lord by agreeing to halve the crop -- the lord gets the top or the bottom, and the peasant naturally plants root vegetables or wheat as appropriate. A common European tale, and probably introduced deliberately.

[隻眼簽到 · Rating 4 out of 5]

中國民間故事類型。艾伯華著。王燕生、周祖生譯。
本書書名《中國民間故事類型》，雖說「類型」，但並不是我以為的那種基於人類學與心理學以研究文藝作品的「原型」研究法著作。這裡的類型，指的是民間故事的主題類型。作者分出近三百個主題類型。有十四大類：動物；動物與人；動物或精靈幫助好人，懲罰壞人；動物或精靈跟男人或女人結婚；創世、混沌初開、最初的人；物種和人類的起源；河神與人；妖精和死鬼與人；諸神與人；陰間和轉世；神和神仙；巫師、神秘的寶藏和奇跡；人；主人公和英雄。外加一大類：滑稽故事。近三百個主題類型不是說就三百個故事，而是三千個。每個主題類型由若干個「母題」組成。例如，「天鵝處女」這個主題類型，它包含五個母題：1.一個窮青年在河邊見到幾個仙女。2.他把其中一個仙女的衣服拿走，她就成了他的妻子。3.若干年後，她找到了她的衣服，逃回天界。4.丈夫去追她。5.天神下令將他倆永遠分開，每年只能會一次面。其中，窮青年，在其他故事裡可能是牛郎或學者。仙子也可能是其他如織女或七仙女下凡等。母題也可能有其他形態，如母題3.變為：妻子被召回天宮。母題1-2改為天仙向往人間生活，因此下凡等。此外，每個主題類型還可能包括其他如：故事出處(文獻或採集)、主題擴展、故事的歷史淵源、與其他類型的母題比較等欄目。總而言之，就是蒐羅宏富、考察繁多，令人驚嘆。難怪鍾敬文的〈中譯本序〉說：「他的工作，也許可以稱得上是一種學術上的『奇跡』吧」。
本書作者，德裔美籍人士艾伯華(1909-1989)，在我看來，屬於超凡特異人士，即玄幻小說中SSS+級。書後附有一篇〈艾伯華傳略〉可為明證。「艾伯華生前著作頗豐，各類著述條目達650餘種，內容遍及社會學、人類學、民俗學、歷史學和東方語言文學等諸多領域。其中僅關於中國民俗與歷史的著作就有多種，例如：《中國民間故事類型》(1937)、《中國古代地方文化》(1943)、《中國歷史》(1947)、《中國節日》(1952)、《中國民間故事》(1965)、《中國東南部的民間敘事文學》(1966)、《中國傳統文化中的犯罪與原罪觀念》(1967)、《中國民俗研究及其他》(1970)、《台灣民間故事研究》(1970)、《中國人的道德觀與社會價值觀》(1971)、《華山─中國西部的道教聖山》(1974)和《中國文化象徵詞典》(1983)等。它們都在不同程度上產生了影響，為向西方讀者介紹中國文化作出了重要貢獻。」一個外國人，這麼多關於中國的研究，在我的見識裡，怕不是另一個李約瑟了吧！
本書是1999年出版，為1937年艾伯華德文版著作的中文全譯本。鍾敬文的〈中譯本序〉說：「艾伯華的《中國民間故事類型》，是關於中國民間故事的一種具有相當意義的學術工具書，它也是百多年來西方學者所撰寫的一部比較有價值的中國民俗學力作。」原本這類整理性書籍，因缺乏深層次的文化、心理等分析，並不被我看重。但本書不同。雖然我還說不出它真正的價值所在，但感覺，這就是西方科學式合理化的頭腦，非中國學者那種火鍋式的雜湊可以相比。雖然它沒有深層次分析，但擺出來的合理化過的資料(如母題)，已令我浮想聯翩。例如，十四大類的主題類型，是否具有世界普世性，與其他地區差異何在？又各條母題是否足以表現民眾的深層心理或思維定勢，影響他們的結構性因素是什麼等等。當然，要最好的利用這本書，先得了解它的結構。所以，董曉萍的〈導讀〉不可或缺。奇怪的是，此人的名字既不列在譯者，也不列在審校者，目錄上也沒列他的名字(〈中譯本序〉就列了鍾敬文)，但又可看出此人是深入參與翻譯工作的。不解。

[Magpie6493 · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a really interesting collection of folktales. They manage to fit quite a few in here and it's definitely better organized than many folktale collections that I've read. However I cannot say that I would recommend this as an introduction to chinese folktales esspecially if you are not already familiar with elements of chinese culture.

The reason for this is that there's many terms that are likley translated differently so a western audience can understand them better despite the fact that many of these terms and description alterations don't make a lit of sense in a chinese context. The use of the word witch in one of the stories being a prime example. Esspecially when after only a few times using it it goes back to the more accurate term of calling the woman in the story a spirit.

There's also a few of the folktales that I was already familiar with such as the cowheard and the weaver girl that the version they tell in this is a really odd one that despite knowing many different versions I have not heard before.

Again this was a really good collection but I wouldn't recommend it to someone that is not already somewhat familiar with the context in which these stories are told.

[Alan Bach · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm predisposed to like folk tales a lot less than I like legends, as they often feel too inconsequential. Some of the stories in here were pretty interesting actually, but others had strange structure, ending abruptly and not really seeming to have a point.