The folk literature of China could be said to provide a kind of “Natural History” of this huge country throughout its 4000 year history. These stories, which have survived the vicissitudes of succeeding dynasties, invasions of barbarian tribes and the immense upheaval of the Communist revolution, have done so because their themes continue to engage the Chinese people reflecting the reality of their lives and the stuff of their dreams as vividly today as they did centuries ago.



Chinese folk tales have a long history. Collecting and using songs and tales must have begun as early as the time of Confucius (561-479 BC) who is said to have chosen from a harvest of 3000 about 300 of the best folk songs and ritual odes for the Book of Odes (Shih ching) . The Han government (3rd C. BC) appointed officials to investigate and report on the legends and stories heard in the marketplace so that the mood of the people could be judged and the effectiveness of the administration accurately evaluated. In time these same tales became the sources for the composers of the classical fiction and poetry of the period. Fiction began in the Han dynasty from the models of oral tales (Eberhard, p.xi).



The collection and utilization of folk literature was undertaken with great enthusiasm during the early years of Communist state (perhaps influenced by the Russian folklore movement) by men such as Chung Ching-wen, a professor at Peking Normal University. Chung believed that folk literature “originated and developed with the masses of the people during the long process of their social existence and social struggles. Through their powers of artistic creation, the masses have genuinely and fruitfully preserved their own historical record and world-view ...without knowledge of the oral tradition of the people, no one could understand the real history of the laboring class.” (Eberhard, p.xiii). Mao himself encouraged the recording of bandit and peasant revolt tales both because he had accepted the support of bandits in his struggle with the Kuomintang armies and had adopted their tactics in attacking the rich landowners and Nationalist troops to feed his followers.



School children in the early grades have a natural affinity for folk tales and literary tales with folk elements. The clear division between good and evil, the one dimensionality of characters, the effective resolution of plot and the lack of ambiguity satisfy their sense of social justice. The tales, in turn, have much to teach them about the shape of story. Simple literary conventions and clear demarcations between the beginning, middle and end of a tale reinforce the teaching of writing in the classroom as they begin to compose their own stories. In reviewing these takes, older elementary children revisit story structure and prepare for the writing of more complex pieces. For the purposes of this unit, however, what may be most important is the amount of information these folk tales reveal about the concerns, fears, ambitions, injustices, natural disasters, occupations, food, housing, clothing, customs, amusements and hopes which fill the lives of the people in them.



One caution: The major difficulty in using written folk tales, either a compilation or single tale, is that they often reflect the values or agenda of the recorder as much as, if not more than, the folk who have passed them on orally. This concept may be difficult for early elementary students to grasp, but shouldn’t detract from its importance in understanding folk literature.