Introduction to the Popular Tradition
by Peter Seybolt
Introduction to the Popular Tradition
by Peter Seybolt
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The popular tradition of China is closely related to the classical tradition, and unquestionably the two traditions - that of the educated elite and that of the common people—have mutually inspired and reinforced each other from their inception. The essential values of the classical tradition are reflected in the stories and practices of the popular tradition, but in a more fanciful, informal, and often humorous way. Even in popular stories that empathize with outlaws, concepts of justice, honor, and even status and decorum are essentially the same as those of classical tradition. We begin our examination of the popular tradition with a hypothetical discussion of Chinese metaphysical beliefs by an American teenager and a Chinese scholar. The youth learns of the gods, ghosts and ancestral spirits that have animated Chinese religious beliefs and practices. She learns above all that Chinese religion is populated with countless deities—that it is inclusive, tolerant, and syncretic, distinct in that regard from the exclusive monotheism of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. It becomes apparent that what the youth regards as superstition is an imaginative expression of human concerns that is common to, but assumes different forms in, all the religions of the world. The discussion of religion continues in the second piece, written by the anthropologist Arthur Wolf, with an introduction to a hierarchy of local gods. We learn that in the Chinese popular imagination, the realm of the supernatural is structured much like human society—the gods have essentially the same status and functions as do human officials. The Chinese, like the people of other societies, have created their gods in their own image. The Chinese pantheon includes a number of historic as well as mythic figures. Lao Tzu and Chuang were deified in the popular imagination as the sacred progenitors of religious Taoism (Daoism). Although religious Taoism and the speculative philosophy of Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu differ in significant ways, they do share a common concern with nurturing and sustaining life. This finds expression in religious Taoism in a quest for immortality. The heroes of the stories we have selected from the book The Eight Immortals of Taoism: Legends and Fables of Popular Taoism are tremendously popular among China, not only because they have achieved the ultimate goal of ever-lasting life, but also because they are champions of the poor, the weak, and the oppressed in their struggles with the rich and powerful. That immortality is extremely difficult to achieve is effectively illustrated later in this volume in "The Wizard's Lesson" from Chinese Fairy Tales and Fantasies. One must overcome the human emotions of joy, anger, sorrow, fear, loathing, desire, and even love to transcend mortality. The values are the same in the teachings of Buddhism, but the goal is opposite—the Taoists seek to live forever, the Buddhists seek a permanent end to what they believe is the misery of human existence. But because most Chinese thought is averse to the dark conception of being in the Indian religion, popular Chinese Buddhism promises a passage to the Western Paradise for those who place their faith in the teachings of the Buddha, and through that faith lead virtuous lives. We have selected two biographies to exemplify some of the fundamental beliefs and practices of the Chinese people in their everyday lives. Jonathan Spence, in God's Chinese Son, an account of a famous rebel leader, succinctly describes the beliefs and customs that enliven the yearly cycle of festivals and holidays on the Chinese calendar. Ida Pruitt's book A Daughter of Han: The Autobiography of a Chinese Working Woman illustrates common attitudes and practices associated with fortune-telling and other forms of divination, relations with neighbors, and wedding ceremonies . The nature of the Chinese language is particularly well-suited to the formation of idioms, called cheng yu, that succinctly condense a maxim or aphorism into four-syllable expressions. Chinese speech, more than the speech of any other people, is peppered with such idioms. Though many of them are taken from the teachings of the classical tradition, they are widely used in daily speech even by those with no familiarity with classic texts and no knowledge of their derivation. There are hundreds of such idioms, a few of which are presented in a selection entitled Chinese Idioms and Their Stories. No introduction to Chinese popular tradition would be adequately representative without a discussion of food. Indeed, no celebration, religious or secular, is conceivable unaccompanied by feasting. The preparation and consumption of food is central to every aspect of Chinese culture from the moral prescriptions of the ancient philosophers, to scientific discovery, to the enjoyment of sex. We have selected several articles that discuss Chinese culinary conceptions and practices related to ingredients, preparation, aesthetics, nutrition, and pharmacology. Medicine and cuisine are closely related in the Chinese worldview. Food is medicine—without proper diet the body will be out of balance resulting in illness. Chinese conceptions of the relationship of diet and health can be traced to the speculations of thinkers in the classical period who sought to explain the organic interrelationship of all of nature and to analyze it using the principles of yin-yang and five element theorists. These theories as well as aspects of Chinese medical practice are introduced in two articles taken from the Essential Book of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and Dragon Rises, Red Bird Flies. Many of the most beloved stories from Chinese novels have been adapted for presentation in opera performances. Opera in China is very much a part of the popular tradition. For centuries it has been loved by all classes of Chinese society and is very often an indispensable part of village festivals. In our final selection, Elizabeth Halston discusses the conventions of Peking Opera, one of a number of regional forms of opera, and summarizes the plot of several favorites, including scenes from two of the novels discussed above. (These are some excerpted sections from the teacher guide for The Popular Tradition.) The relationship between the Chinese classical tradition and the tradition that permeated down to the "people" of China can be viewed as two sides of a coin. Although many of the peasants were uneducated and could not read, they were still aware of the words of both Confucius and Lao Tzu and could recite poetry learned by memory. Of course, the real arena of differentiation was how the abstract ideas of the philosophers were made palatable for the people via legends, stories, fables, fairy tales, fantasies and popular literature. Many of the readings in this section should appeal to young people because of their high interest level and their ability to connect to students' lives. The first selection, Family, Friends and Ancestors, adapted as a dialogue for students to enact in the classroom, helps to understand the connections between the classical and popular tradition. Each of these traditions acted as an underpinning for the other, even if the conversation turns to stories of ghosts and the supernatural. These are not ghost stories designed to frighten or develop Satan-worship. Instead, the stories reinforce the classical values enunciated by the philosophers. In fact, there is a strong link between Chinese ghosts and their strict attention to nature, feng shui, and their aesthetic. On a larger scale, the correlation between ghosts and ancestor worship, a basic tenet of Chinese life, needs to be discussed. More than anything, the Chinese voice in Family, Friends and Ancestors, points out that the belief systems were cyclical. During some periods in Chinese history Taoism was in the ascendency; at other times, it was Confucianism. At all times, the indigenous beliefs of the people continued to select elements of any system and incorporate those ideas into the people's lives.
The Wizard’s Lesson from Chinese Fairy Tales and Fantasies holds a moral that all can admire. In spite of seeing hell and feeling pain, Tu Tzu-ch’un cannot forgo his emotion of love as he has risen above all his other emotions. But it is that emotion that makes him human. Is the wizard accurate when he hints that he would have had to remain silent, even while watching his beloved child being killed, to rise above being human to become immortal? Is that immortality is about - the absence of love? Did Tu Tzu-Ch’un reach immortality because he felt love?What does the end of the tale really mean? The idea of a “Wizard’s Lesson” can be translated into a writing activity. Using the story as a model, students can create any situation and replicate the format of the tale, just changing the names and circumstances, making it as contemporary as possible. Poetry plays a very important role in the Asian tradition. The two short poems from An Anthology of Chinese Literature are just examples of the many poems most of the common people knew by memory. Poets were not obscure figures. Li Po, the great Tang poet, was revered during his life and people knew his work. Mao took great pride in his poetry and in his own calligraphy (which he also admired) inscribed many of his poems in public spaces. DuFu, the great poet of Chengdu, was revered by the people and today his home is visited by Chinese and foreign tourists. "To the ruler the people are Heaven; to the people food is Heaven." Food, glorious food! What is more central to Chinese culture than food? In all the readings related to food, we move from the academic to the medical or nutritional, then to more prosaic concerns of food itself. Several questions can excite the student’s appetites:
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