Academical Chronology of Zheng Zhenduo

Academical Chronology of Zheng Zhenduo

By Chen Fukang

1898 (the twenty-fourth year of Guangxu in the Qing dynasty)On 19 December, it was born in Yongjia County in Zhejiang Province (Today’s

Wenzhou City).

1913

Entered the No. 10 Middle School of Zhejiang Province. Studied hard, read ChineseSoul, Xinmin Repository, Youth Magazine (the predecessor of New Youth) and so on.Handwrote The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragon, The History of the HanDynasty. Art and Literature, The History of the Sui Dynasty. Classics and Recordsand so on. Once also selected to handwrite Ancient and Modern Rhythmical Prose.“Selected all the essays in them, and compiled them into two copies entitled Summaryof the Essays. It was the very beginning of my compiling career.” (Self Statement)

1917

Self-stated: “In summer, I went to Shanghai from Wenzhou…. I saw a copy oflithographic Jiutong in small characters and bought it with only 2 yuan…. This wasthe very beginning of my collection of thread-bound books.”

1918

On 5 January, he went to study at Beijing Railway Management School (the prede-cessor of today’s Beijing Jiaotong University). In the spare time, in addition to lovedreading literature and history, began to contact foreign sociology and Russian liter-ature. Self-stated: “When I studied in Beijing, I often asked my uncle Mr. ZhengLianfan to borrow some ancient books for me from the library of the Minister ofForeign Affairs. I once spent a whole summer vacation to copy the total Shitong byLiu Zhiji.” “When I studied in Beijing, I had a chance to see Twenty Pieces fromTongzhi by Zheng Jiaji (Qiao), and I recopied his Jiaochoulue and Yiwenlue…. I also

© Shanghai Jiao Tong University Press 2021Z. Zheng, History of Chinese Folk Literature, Understanding China,https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-5445-9

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had an opportunity to borrow Wenshi Tongyi by Zhang Shizhai (Xuecheng) and wassincerely convinced by his views.”

1919

Actively engaged in the patriotic student movement. Returning to Wenzhou in thesummer vocation initiated and organized the National Salvation Lecture WeeklySociety and established the National Salvation Lecture Weekly.

On 25 July, he participated in the founding congress of The New Learning atYongjia at his mother school No. 10 Middle School of Zhejiang Province.

On 1 August, the author proposed establishing the publishing department at thefirst annual conference of The New Learning at Yongjia and then became a memberof the editorial committee of the Journal of New Learning.

On 21 October, wrote a long article entitled On the Problems of Chinese Women’sLiberation.

On 29October, publishedThe Publishing Declaration of New Society. EstablishedNew Society with Qu Xiubai, Geng Jizhi, Qu Shiying, and so on. Its first issue waspublished on 1 November.

On 15 December, he published his translation of On the Russian Parties by Lenin.

1920

On 20 March, wrote Preface to Famous Russian Short Stories (I). This was theearliest anthology of Russian short stories directly translated from Russian in China.

Spring organized the Social Reformation Society in Beijing with GuoMengliang,Zheng Tianting, and other students from Fujian Province.

May, The New Society was banned from “advocating against the government.”On 5 August, the first issue of another journal, Humanity, was published and editedby the same members of The New Society.

On 16 August, Zhou En’lai led the members of The Awakening Society in Tianjinto Beijing and sent letters to invite societies such as The Humane Society and TheMorgenroete to the tea party. Li Dazhao participated the tea party. Zheng Zhenduowas the leader of The Humane Society and a member of The Morgenroete. On 18,under the proposal of Li Dazhao, decided to find an organization named “Reunionof Reformation.”

On 25 September, wrote the article entitled Human Criticism and published it inthe first issue of Criticism. Criticism was a fortnightly journal edited by the CriticismSociety and organized by Zheng Zhenduo, Luo Dunwei, Xu Liuji, Zhou Changxian,and so on.

In the middle of October, Zhang Yuanji and GaoMengdan visited Beijing, hopingShanghai Commercial Press to publish its intended-to-establish literary magazine.Because Zhang Yuanji and Gao Mengdan disagreed with his request, he launched toorganize a literary society.

On 26 October, wrote a Preface to Collection of Russian Dramas edited by him.This book was included in the Series of Russian Literature by the Communist Societyand was published in January 1921.

Academical Chronology of Zheng Zhenduo 607

On 23November, he convened to hold ameeting in Geng Jizhi’s house, consultingto organize The Literary Research Association, and was elected to draft The GeneralRegulations of the Literary Research Association.

December graduated fromBeijingRailwayManagement School andwas assignedto work as a probationer at the Railway Administration of Shanghai, Hangzhou andNingbo.

1921

On 4 January, held the founding meeting of The Literary Research Associationat Jinyuxuan of Central Park. Selected to be the secretary, being responsible forthe management affairs. Organized Tagore Research Institute inside The LiteraryResearch Association. This was the earliest specialized institute that only studied alitterateur in China.

On 5 January, Family Studies published The General Regulations and Origins ofYouth Independence Society. Zheng Zhenduo was one of the initiators.

On 10 January, the completely reformed issue of Short Story Monthly run byThe Commercial Press was published, and almost six out of ten of its contents wereorganized (included written) by Zheng Zhenduo.

February, Series of Russian Literature edited by him began to publish.In late March, he went to work at the Railway Administration of Shanghai,

Hangzhou and Ningbo in Shanghai.On 30 March, the fourth conference of The Communist Youth League of Beijing

was held. Li Dazhao proposed Zheng Zhenduo to be the publication committee atthe conference.

On 10 May, published the initial issue of A Ten-day Literature, the institutionaljournal of The Literary Research Association edited by Zheng Zhenduo.

On 11 May, he went to work at the Translating and Editing Department of theCommercial Press.

On 25 May, published On the Origins of Series of the Literary Research Associa-tion.On26, publishedThe Editing Style of Series of the Literary Research Associationand Publication Notice of Series of the Literary Research Association.

May initiated the organization of The Popular Drama Club with Shen Yanbing,Chen Dabei, Ouyang Yuqian, Xiong Foxi, and so on. Participated to found DramaMonthly. This was the first specialized journal of drama in the Chinese New CultureMovement.

On 30 June, published Literature of Blood and Tears formally proposed the sloganof “revolutionary literature.”

On 10 July, the discussion of “The Europeanization of Stylistic Writing in Ten-dayLiterature” was carried out.

On 17 July, officially took over Li Shicen to be the editor-in-chief of CurrentAffairs. Xuedeng.

From October, the Series of the Literary Research Association edited by himbegan to publish.


1922

On 7 January, the first issue ofChildren’s World, a weekly magazine edited by ZhengZhenduo, was published. It was the first magazine for children in China.

On 21 January, a discussion of “popular literature” was carried out in A Ten-dayLiterature.

On 11 May, published an article entitled On the Building of the Ideas about NewLiterature.

June Xuezhao, an anthology of the representative poets in the Literary ResearchAssociation, was published. It was edited by Zheng Zhenduo.

On 10 August, published an article entitled On the Unity of Literature.On 1 October, an article entitled Suggestions of Collating Chinese Literature was

published.October, published Tagore’s Stray Birds translated by him.

1923

On 6 January, Pu Publishing House was initiated and prepared with Shen Yanbing,Ye Shengtao, Hu Yuzhi, Gu Jiegang, Wang Boxiang, Zhou Yutong, and so on.

On 10 January, Short Story Monthly Vol. 14, Issue 1, was published and tookover the editor of this issue. Set a special column named “Classics Collation and theNew Literature Movement” and publish an article entitled On the Building of NewLiterature and the New Study of the Classics.

January, published Fairy Tales (III) edited by him.On 10 February, carried out “the discussion of the Translation of Nouns in Literary

Works” in Short Story Monthly.April intended to co-translate The Outline of Literature and Art by the English

dramatist John Drinkwater with Shen Yanbing, HuYuzhi, Xie Liuyi, and so on. Laterthe plan was given up. He compiled An Outline of Literature by himself.

On 10 May, he began to serialize his A Brief History of Russian Literature inShort Story Monthly. This was the earliest monograph systematically introducingthe history of Russian literature in China.

September, published Tagore’s Crescent Moon translated by him.

1924

On 10 January, An Outline of Literature in Short Story Monthly began to serialize.Began to serialize A Brief Biography of the Modern World Litterateurs co-authoredwith Shen Yanbing. Began to serialize his Textual Examinations of Chinese Litter-ateurs (with brief biographies). Published an article entitled An Introduction to theImportant Books of Chinese Literature Studies.

January published his translated version of The Pale Horse by Russian writerRopshin. Began to publish Series of the Folk Dramas by the Literary ResearchAssociation edited by him.

April, published French Literature Studies edited by him in Short Story Monthly,Vol. 15, Supplement.


August, published the book for children A Tree-dweller. This was the co-authoredtranslation of K.E. Durbuy in America. Published Xinghai, the society journal of TheLiterary Research Association edited by him.

November began to publish Series of Short Story Monthly edited by him.

1925

January published the collection of fairy tales Swan co-translated with Gao Junzhen.March, published Poetry of Tagore translated by him.April, published his Biography of Tagore.On 11 May, the first issue of Current Affairs started to be published. Appreciation

Weekly edited by him and began to serialize his A Summary of Chinese Novels.On 3 June, he started to publish Axiom Daily edited by Shanghai Foreign

Federation of Academic Societies. This paper was famous in “May ThirtiethMovement.”

August, published Indian Fables and Fables by Lessing translated by him.December began to publish the Series of Literature Review Office edited by him.

The first one was Feng Zikai’s Cartoons prefaced by him.

1926

June published the fairy tales Reynard the Fox translated by him.December began to publish his An Outline of Literature, and all were published

until October. Published Series of Appreciation edited by him. The first one wasSelected Works of Baixue Yiyin selected and punctuated by him.

This year, A Collection of Chinese Short Stories began to publish compiled byhim. Each copy had a long preface.

1927

On 8 January, discussed and passed Origins of Shanghai Authors Association andGeneral Regulations of Shanghai Authors Association with Ye Shengtao, Hu Yuzhi,Wang Boxiang, Ding Xiaoxian, Zhou Yutong, and so on.

On 20 January, he published his Miscellanea Written in the Mountains.On 16 February, Shanghai Authors Association was founded, and Zheng Zhenduo

was selected as the executive member.March published the collection of Russian short stories Blood Stains by Artz-

ibashef Michael. It was co-translated by Lu Xun, Hu Yuzhi, Shen Zemin, andhim.

On 21 May, took part in the revolutionary activities and had to go aboard to takerefuge after the revolution failed.

June published Chinese Literature Studies (I & II) edited by him in Short StoryMonthly, Vol. 17, Supplement.

In the same year, he published the children literary work The Bamboo Princessselected and translated by him.


1928

On 8 June, came back to Shanghai from aboard.June published Caucasian Folk Tales translated by him.On 30 December, his co-initiation of the Chinese Authors Association was

founded, and he was selected as the executive member. This association was actuallythe predecessor of the later-founded The Union of Chinese Left-wing Writers.

December published the novel collection Stories of Families. In November 1929,its enlarged edition was published.

1929

On 1 January, The China Association was established in Shanghai, and he was oneof the initiators.

On 10 January, the large-scale Short Story Monthly was published. The first articlewasHeBingsong’sOn the So-called “Chinese Ancient Civilization”. ZhengZhenduowrote a Preface to it and published his own Please Do Not Hurry to Talk about“Chinese Ancient Civilization.”

March published the Greek and Roman mythology The Stories of Love.In the same year, Guazhi’er was compiled into A Series of Appreciations and

published.

1930

April published his The Excavation History of Ancient Cities and Tombs in the last100 Years.

May published his History of Chinese Literature (Medieval Vol., No. 3 [I]).Published his translated version of the novel Sanine by Artzibashef Michael, aRussian writer.

On 16 November, the International Writers’ Association, China Branch, wasestablished, and Zheng Zhenduo was selected as the director.

1931

In the middle of January, participated to lead the Editing and Translating Departmentof Commercial Press to oppose The Executed Articles of the Work CompensationStandards for Editing and Translating finalized by Wang Yunwu.

About May, photoprinted The First Volume of Zaju Made by the People in theQing Dynasty. It was “the first of drama and legends printed by Mr. Xidi.”

On 15 June, he published the first issue of The Editors Monthly co-edited byZhou Yutong and him. It was the in-house journal of the Commercial Editing andTranslating Office of Shanghai Publishing Union.

On 16 August, he visited and saw the ancient-stored Minglan’ge transcriptLuguibu at Tianyige in Ningbo, Zhengjiang Province with ZhaoWanli and Ma Lian.They photoscripted the transcript, and its lithographic edition was published in 1938.

On 7 September, Shanghai was left to work in Beiping and assigned to be aprofessor at Yanjing University and Tsinghua University.


On 15 December, published Literature Monthly, Vol. 2, No. 1 of TsinghuaUniversity, became the counselor of it from the very first issue.

1932

On 19March, gave a lecture entitled The Past, Present and Future of the New LiteraryWorld at Beijing University.

July published his collection of literary miscellaneous arguments and proses SeaSwallow.

In the same month, the first issue of Literature Yearly sponsored by the ChineseSociety at Yanjing University was published and became the counselor of it.

November, published English Mythology translated by him.December published his The Illustrated Edition of History of Chinese Literature.

1933

January published his collection of literary miscellaneous arguments Explorationsof Literature.

On 5 February, LuXun formallywrote to ZhengZhenduo and proposed compilingJianpu, namely the later Beiping Jianpu.

On 1 July, he proposed the first issue of Literature Monthly, which was regardedas the most influential large-scale progressive literature monthly after Short StoryMonthly.

September was invited to take part in editing the Literary Supplement of Ta KungPao in Tianjin.

In the same year, the Series of Wood Block was co-compiled with Lu Xun, intro-ducing the competitive products of Chinese color and monochrome prints since theSong, Yuan, and Ming dynasties. The first one was Beiping Jianpu, and the secondone was Shizhuzhai Jianpu.

1934

On 1 January, he published the first large-scale issue of Literature Quarterly inBeiping co-edited by Zhang Jinyi and him.

February, published Beiping Jianpu co-compiled with Lu Xun.March published his collected paper Analects of Chinese Literature.April published A Brief Introduction to Folklore translated by him.May, photoprinted The Second Volume of Zaju Made by the People in the Qing

Dynasty compiled by him.On 1 June, published Studies of Chinese Literature in Literature Monthly, Vol.2,

No.6, a special issue.July published Literature and Me on the special issue for the first year anniversary

of Literature Monthly co-edited with Fu Donghua.On 20 September, he published the first issue of Tai Bai Fortnightly, and he

participated in proposing in Shanghai.September published his collection of novels Arrest of the Fire-maker. Photo-

printed The Second Volume of Zaju Made by the People in the Qing Dynasty compiledby him.


On 31 October, he published his Diary of European Travelling.October published the first issue of Shuixing Monthly he participated to propose

in Beiping.December, published his collected papers Goulouji. Began to publish Shizhuzhai

Jianpu co-compiled with Lu Xun.

1935

February published Greek Mythology translated and rewritten by him.On 20 May, he began to publish The World Library edited by him.July published One Hundred Issues of Literature co-editing with Fu Donghua in

The Literature, the special issue of the second anniversary.October published A Collection of Literary Controversies edited by him in Great

Series of Chinese New Literature, Vol.2.This year, it became the editorial member of The General History of China at

Ji’nan University. Later it was edited into a book by Zhou Gucheng.

1936

January, published his collected papers Daggers.March published Collected Translations of Russian Short Stories translated by

him.August published the first issue of World Library Monthly edited by him. It was

a special issue for World Library.September, published The Ordinary Words to Warn the World and The Common

Sayings to Awaken the World collated and revised by him.This year, he began to publish Series about Creation by the Literature Research

Association andSeries about the World Literature Classics by the Literature ResearchAssociation edited by him.

This year, copublishing Haishang Shulin was translated by Qu Qiubai with LuXun.

1937

On 24 April, Library Bulletin of National Ji’nan University started to be published.June published his novel collection Guigongtang and his prose collection Xixing

Shujian.On 20 July, he started to publish The Public Opinion of the Chinese co-edited by

him.July published Selected Works of the Late Qing Dynasty edited by him.On 24August, he published the first issue ofNational Salvation Daily in Shanghai

co-edited by him.August published his handwritten and woodcut Catalogs of the Collection of

Dramas by Mr. Xidi and Catalogs of the Collection of Proses by Mr. Xidi.On 1 September, he published the first issue of The Wartime Coalition, a 10-day

periodical co-edited by him.October, published his poetry anthology Warhorn.


1938

On 8 May, the first issue of Review Weekly was published in Shanghai. This was aspecial issue of Shijifeng Daily, the supplement of Wenhui Bao.

June to August, published The Complete Works of Lu Xun. Xu Guangping said inthe Editing Postscript, in the whole editing work, “Zhengzhenduo andWang Renshudid the most effort.”

August published his History of Chinese Folk Literature.

1939

July, published Series of Literature in the Big Age co-edited with Wang Renshuand Kong Lingjing. Among them, the sixth was the co-authored novel collectionAnthology of Ten Novelists.

November published the first issue of literature collections co-editing with XuTiaofu in Shanghai.

December, published List of Natural and Man-made Disasters in Chinese Historyedited by Chen Gaoyong by Ji’nan University. It was completed with the help ofZheng Zhenduo.

1940

November published the first issue of The Academic World co-edited by him inShanghai.

In the same year, Catalogs of the History of Chinese Woodblocks began to writeand compile.

1941

April, typeset and published Unique Copy of Zaju in the Yuan and Ming Dynasties. Itwas selected from Ancient and Present Zaju, Collated and Copied by Maiwangguanrescued in 1938.

June published his essay anthology Trapped in Learning. Photoprinted 1 volumeof Series of Xuanlantang co-edited by him.

1943

April published his collected papers Dragon and Giant Monster in Chongqing.

1944

Photoprinted the first volume ofThe Legendaries compiled and printed byMr. Zheng,a Changle person (Zheng Zhenduo himself).

1945

On 13 October, he started to publish Democracy Weekly edited by him in Shanghai.

1946

On 10 January, he started to publish Renaissance Monthly edited in Shanghai. FromSeptember 1948 to August 1949, 3 volumes of Special Issues of Chinese Literature


Studies, which was the special issue of Renaissance Monthly edited by him, werealso successively published.

February published his Fifteen Essays on the National Historical Stories andLegends.

On 17 April, he started to publish Literature Weekly edited in Shanghai. It wasthe supplement of United Daily. Evening News, which was later renamed UnitedEvening News.

May started to publish Series of Renaissance edited by him.

1947

March started to publish The Reference Atlas of Chinese History edited by him.May, photoprinted Sequel of Series of Xuanlantang edited by him.November, photoprinted Collections of the Famous Paintings since the Tang and

Song Dynasties Stored in Yunhunzhai edited by him.

1948

January, photoprinted Collections of Ancient Chinese Paintings Stored in the ForeignCountries edited by him.

This year, he began to photoprint Series of Xuanlantang, Vol.3 edited by him.

1949

March began to publish Chenguang Series of World Literature edited by him. Itsoriginal title was Series of American Literature.

This year, The Catalogs of Ancient Chinese Terracotta Figures were completed.Its plate was also printed but was unpublished during his lifetime. (It was publishedin 1986.)

1950

January started to publish Reference Materials of Culture Relics edited by him inBeijing.

August began to compile Series of Classical Chinese Literature and co-editedSelected Poems in Chinese History. These two series were compiled on request ofthe Soviet Union.

In the same year, he published Series of Ancient and Modern Folk Literature andArt co-edited by him.

1951

March published the colored woodcuts of the Selection of Dunhuang Frescoes. Afterrecompiling, the first issue was published in 1952, the second in 1953, and the thirdin 1954. In 1956, the three were combined into one, and the frescoes were reselectedand published.

May published his prose works Random Notes about the Seclusion Time.September began to publish Catalogs of the Great Artistic Tradition edited by

him.


December resumed to publish The Chinese Journal of Archaeology edited by himin Beijing.

This year, he began to publish Series of Materials on Modern Chinese Historyco-edited by him.

1952

Finished compiling Selection of Woodcuts in Ancient China, whichwas not publishedduring his lifetime.

1953

March started to publish Journal of Archaeology Quarterly edited by him. PublishedAnthology of Zhu Ziqing co-edited by him.

On 1 July, he started to publish Translations co-edited by him in Beijing.In the same year, Paintings of Songs of the South selected and compiled by him.

1954

January published his Capital Construction and the Protection of Ancient CultureRelics.

February began to photoprint Series of the Ancient Chinese Operas edited by him.March published The Complete Biography of the Water Margin punctuated by

him.

1955

On 10 January, he began to publish The Communication of Archaeology Bi-Monthlyedited by him in Beijing.

July, photoprinted Series of the Ancient Chinese Operas, Vol. 2 edited by him.

1956

On 28 January, he began to publish The Association Journal of Chinese People’sPolitical Consultative Conference edited by him in Beijing.

February, photoprinted Series of the Ancient Chinese Operas, Vol.3 edited by him.On 12 March, he began to publish Literature Studies Quarterly edited in Beijing.June published his Five Essays on Ancient Chinese History.September, published Album of Paintings by the People in the Song Dynasty

co-edited by him.October published his Records of My Seeking for the Ancient Books in the

Disasters during the Anti-Japanese War Period.December published his collected papers on Chinese Literature Studies.

1957

October began to photoprint Series of the Ancient Chinese Operas, Vol. 4 edited byhim.

In the sameyear, he began to printPreliminary Series of Ancient Chinese Woodcutsedited by him.


1958

March, photoprinted Tianzhu Lingqian, Preliminary Series of Ancient ChineseWoodcuts, Vol. 2 edited by him.

April, photoprinted Ancient Portraits in Chinese History, Preliminary Series ofAncient Chinese Woodcuts, Vol.6 edited by him.

June, photoprinted Drawings of the Saint Deeds of Confucius, Preliminary Seriesof Ancient Chinese Woodcuts, Vol. 5 edited by him.

July, photoprinted The Illustrations of The Water Margin, Preliminary Series ofAncient Chinese Woodcuts, Vol. 15 edited by him.

August, photoprinted Liu Zhiji Zhugongdiao.On 18 October, died on business.

Zheng Zhenduo and His History of Chinese FolkLiterature

Zheng Zhenduo and His History of Chinese Literature(by Chen Fukang)

In the history of the Chinese New Literature Movement, Mr. Zheng Zhenduo (1898–1958) spoke out the appeal “to require a more complete history of Chinese literature”at the earliest.1 Furthermore, he also earnestly practised what he advocated, engagingthe compiling andwriting of history of literature. In the 1920s and1930s, hewrote andpublished 4 kinds of literature histories. The first one was An Outline of Literature.It was a kind of general history of world literature, a quarter of which was aboutthe history of Chinese literature. The second one was History of Chinese Literature(Medieval Vol., No. 3 [I], it was a kind of dynastic history. The third was the fourcopies of The Illustrated Edition of History of Chinese Literature, which was akind of general history. The fourth was the two copies of the History of Chinese FolkLiterature, whichwas a kind of history of classification.Being exclusive of the sectionof foreign literature in An Outline of Literature and the spaces that the illustrationsin each book occupied, the number of words in total reached 1,500,000. And theyhad fairly high academic value. Among the writers engaging in new literature sincethe “May Fourth” Movement, no one could do such great achievements on his ownbut he.

In August 1938, the Commercial Press published Mr. Zheng’s History of ChineseFolk Literature, with approximately 370,000 words. Compared with the other booksmade by him, it was a book with a lorn destiny. When it was published in Changsha,half of China was covered with flames of war. It had no preface, postscripts, orillustrations (this was very rare in Mr. Zheng’s books). As it was published in thetime of turmoil of war, there were few reviews in the papers and periodicals. Until1954, it was reprinted by theWriters Press according to its original paper (the authoronly revised certain wrongly written or mispronounced words.) Only 4 years later,it was criticized fiercely and ignored for a long time since then.

1 See Zheng Zhenduo’s “One of My Requirements” published in A Ten-day Literature in September,1922.© Shanghai Jiao Tong University Press 2021Z. Zheng, History of Chinese Folk Literature, Understanding China,https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-5445-9

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https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-5445-9

618 Zheng Zhenduo and His History of Chinese Folk Literature

However, this book was also one of themost important works made byMr. Zheng.It spoke in Chapter 1:

I have paid most of the attention to collecting folk literary materials since the current 15 to16 years. Regarding the works, in addition to the novels and operas, I have also made effortsto gather Baojuan, Tanci, Guci and the collections of Sanqu in the Yuan, Ming and Qingdynasties. I’ve spent much energy gathering the small pamphlets of Changben and Jubenpopularized today too. Almost all the small pamphlets of Changben, Juben, Tanci, Guci andso on were destroyed and lost in the Shanghai Incident on January 28, 1932. Luckily, I’vegained quite a few of such kinds of works in Peking these 4 to 5 years. Half of my energyhas been spent on this during the prime of my life.2

From this, we can see how long and hardworking the author prepared for thiswork. The sentence “half of my energy has been spent on this during the prime ofmy life” carried a powerful punch, and it should not be underestimated.

After the textual research and analyses of a number of clues reflected in the book,I believe Mr. Zheng began to write this book in 1934 at least when he taught inPeking and finished it around the end of 1936. My reasons are as follows: First, bothin the references of Chapters 3 and 5, we can find The Illustrated Edition of Historyof Chinese Literature, and was noted its first edition was published in Beiping by PuPublishing Press and the second edition was published in Shanghai by the Commer-cial Press. However, The Illustrated Edition of History of Chinese Literature hadnever been republished in the Commercial Press in fact, but the advance notice of itsrepublication was really once printed in Literature Monthly on June 1, 1934. Fromthis, we can safely say that Mr. Zheng began to write his History of Chinese FolkLiterature in 1934. (Till Chapter 9, Mr. Zheng referred to The Illustrated Edition ofHistory of Chinese Literature once more, but this time only noted the Pu PublishingPress edition.) Second, Chapter 6 about Bianwen mentioned the Book Supplementof Ta Kung Pao on August 27, 1936, which demonstrated that he must finish thebook after this time. Third, the references of Chapter 12 about Tanci mentioned QianXingcun’s miscellaneous collection Haishiji but not his monograph An Examinationand Evaluation of Tanci and Novel. Monograph of course was more important thanmiscellaneous writings, but it was not referred to in this chapter, it was enough tosay Qian Xingcun’s monograph was not published yet at that time. Qian Xingcun’smiscellaneous collectionHaishiji was published in November 1936, while his mono-graph An Examination and Evaluation of Tanci and Novel was published in February1937. Both of them were published in Shanghai. Meanwhile, Qian Xingcun andZheng Zhenduo maintained close relations at that time. From these, we can roughlyinfer the time Mr. Zheng finished his History of Chinese Folk Literature.

It was of great importance for the researchers to determine the writing time ofhis History of Chinese Folk Literature. It was not only because there had never hadanyone including Mr. Zheng himself spoke of the time, but also because from thiswe can know this book began to be written within a year after the publication of

2 In the summer of 1933, Mr. Zheng mentioned in his article entitled “The Discovery of the AncientClassics in 1933,” he went to the Old Er’youtang Store outside Qianmen in Beijing to seek and gotno less than 400 copies of Guci and novels with Xu Dishan, Sun Fuyuan, and so on.

Zheng Zhenduo and His History of Chinese Folk Literature 619

The Illustrated Edition of History of Chinese Literature, and this determined that Mr.Zheng’s views and opinions didn’t have much changes in these two books. Fromthis, we can also see that after Mr. Zheng finished this book over a year, becausethe Commercial Press planned to compile and print Series of the History of ChineseCulture, he then handed it out and published it in this series. It seemed to suggestthat Mr. Zheng was in no hurry to publish it originally. Maybe he intended to reviseit, but because the materials about folk literature he gathered and the manuscript ofthis book were facing the danger of being destroyed by the Japanese aggression,therefore he agreed to let it come out.

What is “folk literature”? In the very beginning of the book, the author gave anexplanation for it:

It actually refers to popular literature, mass literature and the literary works rooted in thefolk society. In other words, folk literature is the very thing cannot be regarded as elegant,the one not concerned by the literati but popularized in the folk. It is loved and enjoyed bythe mass.

Here, Mr. Zheng mentioned folk literature, mass literature and literary worksrooted in folk society in the same breath, regarding them as equal concepts. As wesee today, there were so many common similarities in these concepts. There was aclose crossover relationship among them, but they did not coincide completely. Thecurrent academia did not have the same views about these concepts. Zhong Jingwenpointed out when New China was founded:

Regarding the usages of the noun ‘the literary and artistic works rooted in the folk society’,there were differences in the broad and narrow senses. Some used it only referring to the oralliterature produced and popularized among working people as well as their paintings, dancesand performances. However, there were also those who included Changben, folk novels,ditties and dramas created and popularized in the cities. There were naturally more or lesssimilarities between the two kinds of literature and art here, but with various differences intheir nature, forms and social meanings.3

This showed, in a stricter and narrower sense, that the folk literature mainlyreferred to “the oral creation of the working people” (in Gorky’s words). Mr. Zheng’s“folk literature” included Gorky’s reference but was much wider, as well as “citizenliterature” (in Qu Qiubai’s words) and copied and block-printed popular literaryworks. Therefore, the latter was variously what Mr. Zhong Jingwen pointed out asfolk literature in a broad sense, namely folk literature relative to temple literature,orthodox literature, and graceful literature. As the opening features of his under-standing of many literary categories such as “comparative literature,” Mr. Zheng’sunderstanding of folk literature was the same.

I believe that this understanding of Mr. Zheng had historical rationality. Actually,the purpose of his proposal of the concept of “folk literature” was to eliminate theold literary ideas, identify a host of literary treasures long ostracized and ignored bythe orthodox literature, and thus research the literature more comprehensively. For

3 Zhong Jingwen. “Gather together, the Friends Who Care about the Folk Literature and Art.”Guangming Daily, July 11, 1949.


this purpose, under the premise of affirming the oral creation of the working people,it was necessary to be open, especially in the very beginning of doing this research.Therefore, it was not reasonable for critics in 1958 to address the conceptual problemsof nouns. Just as Mr. Lu Xun profoundly pointed out in 1934, some “popular works,”“though they might not be the art of the real producers, were undoubtedly relative tothe art made by the noble idlers.” Therefore, “it also might be not wrong for thoseartists paying their attention to the mass to keep a watchful eye on these things.”4 Mr.Zheng wrote in the very beginning of the book: “Chinese ‘folk literature’ has a widescope. For the scope of orthodox literature is too narrow, the scope of ‘folk literature’then seems to be much wider.” Therefore, to the researchers today, naturally it wasnot necessary to narrow the “scope” anymore artificially. InMr. Zheng’s opinion, folkliterature should include some of the popular creations written by the intellectualsliving at the bottomof society, thosewhohad close relationshipswithworkingpeople,and those often despised by scholar bureaucrats.Many of theseworks originated fromthe oral tradition of the mass. They should also include new styles such as Ci, Qu andHuaben that spread in the mass before they were upgraded and became “orthodoxliterature.” Today, “folklore” and “sociology” again become the formal disciplinesof Chinese social sciences and are acknowledged; then, “folk literature” should alsonot be diminished as “unscientific” as in a period in the past.

History of Chinese Folk Literature by Mr. Zheng was an early history of folkliterature in China (as the author himself noted in the “Contents”: “Except novels anddramas”), and it was also the most prominent among the books about literary history.Regarding the books earlier thanMr. Zheng’s, I only seeHongLiang’sA Brief Historyof Chinese Folk Literature published by Shanghai Qunzhong Tushugongsi in 1934.This book covered awide range, fromancient times to theRepublic ofChina and fromnovel drama to ballad and riddle, but it had only 80 thousand words. What the authormainly referred was the very achievements of Mr. Zheng had published. Among the“References” of the book, the very first ones were The Illustrated Edition of Historyof Chinese Literature by Mr. Zheng and the special issue about Chinese LiteratureStudies inShort Story Monthly, the initial issue ofLiterature Quaterly and so on editedby Mr. Zheng. Meanwhile, the author sincerely said in his “Conclusion”: “For lackof enough reference books, there may be many mistakes and omissions in drawingmaterials unavoidably. I hope those who care about folk literature can shoulder someduties to make a great richest history of Chinese folk literature. This is the only wishof the editor of this book.” Because the weight of this book was too light and had nocharacteristics of its own in thematerials andviews, it had very little influence andwasalmost unknown. Regarding the books published after Mr. Zheng’s, until late 1958, 2volumes of thefirst draft of theHistory of Chinese Folklore were collectively compiledby the Chinese Department at Beijing Normal University, which was published bythe People’s Literature Publishing House. In the “Introduction” of this book, theauthor spent approximately 50,000 or 60,000 words criticizing Mr. Zheng’s Historyof Chinese Folk Literature. We can also see the words finding faults with him in the

4 Lu Xun. “On the Adoption of the Old Forms.” (论旧形式的采用), China Daily. Dongxiang (《中华日报•动向》on May 4, 1934 in Shanghai.


main body of the book now and then. This book extremely emphasized “the classstruggles,” completely regarding folk literature as the tool of the class struggles.Unscientific places in the concrete argumentations could also be seen everywhere.Furthermore, the book labeled the senior specialists and progressive scholars (suchas Zheng Zhenduo and Zhong Jingwen) all “bourgeois scholars.” From this, we cansee that this book was the product of the “great critique” of the “ultra-left” in thoseyears, with some fatal shortcomings. Meanwhile, this book was also the productof the “Great Leap Forward” Movement. It mobilized approximately 100 personsto participate and took only 1 month to finish writing more than 500,000 words.Therefore, it received little attention after its publication.5 Naturally, it could not becompared with Mr. Zheng’s History of Chinese Folk Literature.

After the publication of Mr. Zheng’s book, there was a reader who stated briefly:“This history, began from the pre-Qin, and ended with the late Qing. Generally, itwas truly a very perfect book about Chinese folk literature. In particular, many ofits reference materials were difficult to seek. Thus, we can see that its materialswere rich, while its citations were extensive.”6 Zhao Jingshen further pointed outthat the features of this book “were not only its rich materials but also the author’sspecial views.”7 Regarding the achievements of Mr. Zheng’s History of Chinese FolkLiterature, I think there were the following aspects:

The first was, it filled the gap.Its gap-filling was reflected in the academic history of China. As we mentioned

earlier, although it could not be regarded as a “never before and never again” work,in any case, it was the most solid, the most valuable history of Chinese folk literature.Even after a long time, there were no similar works that could take place.8 We knowthat scientific research on popular Chinese literature began around the “May Fourth”Movement. At that time, we began to collect folk songs, initiated Folk Song Weekly,and compiled eachkindof collectionof folk songs and tales.However, until the 1930s,most of the researchers put their attention only on the contemporary folk literatureand less on thewhole history of folk literature, such asMr. Zheng Zhenduo. However,if there were no historical references, folk literature research was also very hard topenetrate and break through. Therefore, the publication of Mr. Zheng’s History ofChinese Folk Literature naturally had a great influence on the construction of thisdiscipline. Mr. Zheng said in Chapter 1, “What I’ll expound here can only mainlyfocus on the works I myself have collected, adding some important ones collected

5 Of course, it took advantages of the achievements of the former and current researchers such asZheng Zhenduo, Zhong Jingwen, and so on. The materials it collected andmentioned were plentifuland could be taken as the references of the researchers. Besides, some individual points also had acertain advantages sometimes. We can also see the book review written by Zhao Jingshen at thattime.6 Zeng Die. “On the Discussion of Tanci in Zheng Zhenduo’s History of Chinese Folk Literature” (《关于 <中国俗文学史 >之 “弹词”部分的讨论》).7 Zhao Jingshen. History of Chinese Folk Literature (《中国俗文学史》).8 Till the recent years, there published Wang Wenbao’s The Development of the History of ChineseFolk Literature (1997), Qi Lianxiu and Cheng Qiang’s History of Chinese Folklores and GaoYoupeng’s The Illustrated Version of History of Chinese Folklores (2001) and so on.


personally or publicly at times.” “Many of the records and narrations are often thefirst time to involve, but the materials I can refer are too few. Especially those aboutthe authors, almost every one needs me to explore and find out by myself.” Onthe one hand, it told us how well-rounded the materials Mr. Zheng collected were,that he could write a literary history according to the materials he himself stored.On the other hand, it also testified that his book actually was pioneering with norecourse. Thus, we can say that even though we only consider it in the constructionof materials, it has vital significance. The abovementioned article by Zhao Jingshenalso indicated that this book not only identified and compiled the folk part fromancient books such as The Book of Poetry, Songs of the South, Yuefu in the Han, Wei,and Six dynasties but also, in the chapter about the folk songs of the Six dynasties,gathered materials well roundedly, narrated interspersed with commenting and wasvery convenient for the readers. “With this chapter, there was no need to examine andtest the numerous collections of Yuefu.” But the following chapters after this, “werethe most interesting, for the author provided us what we had never seen before. Allof them were gained at a high price by the author himself. Now he shared them withus readers to research unsparingly.”

Its significance of gap-filling was also embodied in Mr. Zheng’s own writingcareer. His Illustrated Edition of History of Chinese Literature was unfinished forsome reasons. Among the unfinished parts, there were the most important chaptersabout Baojuan, Tanci, Guci, folk songs in the Ming and Qing dynasties and theircollections and imitations. The five chapters after Chapter 10 in the second volumewere just made up of the regret of The Illustrated Edition of History of ChineseLiterature.

Second, it put forward some theories.As Mr. Zheng said, “Just because most of the judgments and narrations are the

first time to make, can we have some fresh stimulations and understandings.” Forexample, regarding the status of folk literature in the development of literature, theauthor thought it “not only becomes the main part of the history of Chinese literaturebut also the center of it.” First, the scope of the “orthodox literature” was always verynarrow and limited to poetry and prose; therefore, the main chapter of the historyof Chinese literature had to be occupied by “folk literature.” In the past, novel,drama, folk songs, and so on were all regarded as those that could not be regardedas elegant by the feudal literati but were taken as the center of any national literaryhistory. Second, the development of the so-called orthodox literature was actuallyclosely linked to that of folk literature. Many of the styles of orthodox literaturewere “upgraded” from those of the original folk literature. For example, most of thepoems in The Book of Poetry were originally folk songs. The 5-character poetry,Yuefu, Ci, Qu, Zhugongdiao, and so on were originally derived from the folk. Thus,we can see that Mr. Zheng indicated the vital significance and status of folk literaturefrom the perspective of the overall history of Chinese literature (including “orthodoxliterature”). He did not think there were no high-quality works in addition to folkliterature or denied the status of excellent literati writings in literary history. Thisparlance not only greatly raised the status of folk literature, having a big progressive


significance at that time, and was also consistent with the fact.9 He believed, in folkliterature, “some 3 or 5 works can always make us see clearly the spirit of the ageand the life of the society than thousands of poetry collections or anthologies. Theyare much more vital than plenty of poetry collections or anthologies.” He pointed outemphatically that theseworks “come from themass and arewritten for themass. Theyexpress the sorrows and callings, the pleasure and worries, the enjoyment of loveand sadness of parting, the response of the oppressed life and the struggle against thedark politics of the most people in old China. They present another society, anotherlife, and another aspect of China, they are different from orthodox literature andaristocratic literature, from those works written by many of the scholars and literatifed by the kings and rulers. Only in folk literary works can one see the development,life and feelings of real Chinese people. And only in the folk literary works can theemotion of Chinese women be expressed boldly with satisfaction and no disguise.”He gave high credit to these works and was completely right.

Another example was about the peculiarities of folk literature. The book said therewere 6 ones. The very first peculiarity of “folk literature” was popular. It was bornin the folk, created by the folk, and existed for the folk; thus, it was named a kind ofliterature for the commonpeople. The secondwas collective. Theywere the collectiveworks with no actual authors, added a bit or revised a bit by somany persons at times,so it was difficult to know who its authentic author was and the right time it cameout. The third was oral. It was diffluent and could be revised and changed at anytime. When it was written down at last, it became a fixed one. The fourth was freshand vulgar. In some places, it was written profoundly, while in other places, it wasquite coarse and rough. The fifth was that its imagination was always untrammeled,and the verve of its author was often great. The sixth was that it had the courageto introduce new things and include foreign matters and styles. Such analyses werealso practical and scientific, indicating such characteristics of popular literature andmass literature as collectivity, orality, variability, inheritance, and so on. In particular,Mr. Zheng pointed out that “‘Folk literature’ had many advantages, and it also had

9 Here, I want to talk about the differences between Mr. Zheng’s views and those held by the laterscholars such as Xiang Linbing (Zhao Jibin) and so on in the early 1940s who proposed “the folkliterary form was the central source of the national literary form.” Firstly, Xiang Linbing almostadopted an entirely negative attitude towards the folk literature and art, while Mr. Zheng adopted ananalytical and dialectical one. He had positions as well as negations, and did not absolutely deny theliterati creation.” Secondly, Xiang Linbing’s view was expressed according to the literary creationat that time and required the authors to take the folk literary form as the “central source” of creation,while Mr. Zheng gave a summary to the literary history of the several thousand years in the pastand required the researchers to realize that folk literature actually occupied the central status ofthe literary history. (Please do not ignore the character “history” (shi,史). Thirdly, Xiang Linbingmainly opposed the “Europeanization,” “Westernization,” “Being isolated from the people,” and soon of the New Literature after the “May Fourth”Movement, whileMr. Zhengmainly objected to thefeudal literati and the old literary conception who ignored and denied the status of folk literature.Thus, we can see, their views were totally unrelated. As to the so-called centrality of folk literatureproposed by someone after the founding of People’s Republic of China, which took the pretext ofadvocating the folk literature to despise and crack down on the intellectuals and writers, and tooppose to learn foreign literature and the new artistic techniques and so on, was much more wrong,and was also unrelated with Mr. Zheng’s views.


many disadvantages. It was not true, as some persons deemed that ‘folk literature’was something supreme and all of the folk literary works are excellent. It is not truethat ‘folk literature’ is unworthy and none of the folk literary works is desirable.”For instance, when he analyzed the folk songs of the Ming and Qing dynasties, heclearly showed “some of them were very coarse and vulgar, while others were verysincere. Some had very boring words, while others had very memorable chapters.”Mr. Zheng’s views about the characteristics of folk literature were dialectical. Theywere not only suitable for folk literature but also appropriate for literary works rootedin folk society in a strict sense. (Of course, the negative aspects of the latter wereless.) The feudal literati in the past mainly belonged to the latter, regarding them assomething good-for-nothing. While some, after the founding of New China, mainlymade the mistakes of the former, thinking all were excellent works. Mr. Zhengindicated that folk literature also had various disadvantages: “many of the folk habitsand traditions were always adhered to it firmly.” “Sometimes, it was more feudalthan orthodox literature and expressed more of the conservation of the mass.” Saidlike this, it was not contradictory with the high remarks to folk literature before butsoberly pointed out the other aspect of the objective fact. It also conformed to theMarxist truth that “the ideology of any era was that of the ruling class.” Furthermore,there were determiners like “sometimes,” showing that the author didn’t mean all thefolk literary works were more feudal than the orthodox ones. In 1958, some criticalarticles seized upon this remark to make great attacks. But it was wrong to do so infact. However, to affirm the antifeudal feature of the popular literature without anyanalyses actually covered up the feudalism.

The third example was about the genres of folk literature. The book classifiedthem into five in the style. The first was poetry. It consisted of folk songs, Ballads,Ci, and Qu in the early periods, including the folk songs in The Book of Poetry toYuefeng, Yue’ou, Baixue Yiyin, and so on in the Qing dynasty. The second was Novel,which specially referred to Huaben, including the short stories that could be told at atime or in a day and the long Jiangshi, and so on. The third was traditional Chineseoperas, including Xiwen (Romance) in the early period, Zaju, and local operas. Thefourth type was the telling and singing literature, including Bianwen, Zhugongdiao,Baojuan, Tanci, and Guzici. The fifth was burlesques and articles, which was theadjunct of “folk literature” and not very important in the past. Such classificationwas very progressive at that time. For example, a Survey of Chinese Folk LiteraturebyYangYinshen published in the 1930s classified “folk literature” into only 3 genres:“Tales,” “Ballads,” and “Changben”. Of course, if we see from today’s perspective,there may also be some room for the classification of Mr. Zheng. For example, he didnot clearly indicate which kind should the ancient myths, folk tales, jokes, proverbs,fables, riddles, and so on belong to. Clearly, all these should not be omitted.

The fourth example was about the discourse of the development history of folkliterature. Mr. Zheng believed it must be realistic. Some kinds of folk literary workshad been lost for ages; thus, their contents were hanging in doubt, which influencedpart of the conclusions. However, he would try his best as far as possible to make hisnarrations “systematically, and pay special attention to the evolution of the literaryform of each folk literature and the influence it received.” As to the presentation


of the literary form of each folk literature, he thought it only needed to focus on itsdevelopment in the early period, when it became the thing of the scholars and literati,he would pay no attention to it (the latter should be expounded by the general historyof Chinese literature). In his opinion, he might talk little about the materials that wereeasily available, while to those difficult to obtain, he should quote quite a lot; thus, itwas much more convenient and useful for the common readers. This view was quitedifferent from that “who regarded the unique copies and secrets had striking powerand should give more room to them” of Mr. Lu Xun. He also deemed, when writingthe history of folk literature, the author should be “bold” as well as “prudent.” Hetold us though most of the ideas were stored in his mind for a long time, it was stillhard to avoid some crude and coarse views. Fortunately, “it is only the first time forus to expound folk literature, so there must have others to revise it in the future.”This kind of attitude that not only has the courage to explore and innovate but alsowelcomes others to criticize and correct was very rare and commendable.

Third, in its concrete argumentations, we can find some fresh views.Wealreadyknow that this bookwaswritten exactly after hisThe Illustrated Edition

of History of Chinese Literature; thus, some vital features of the former must beembodied in this book,whilemany concrete views had already been expounded in theformer. Those views expounded in the former book, of course were still Mr. Zheng’sown views, but here I will not talk about them anymore. Although the two bookswere not far apart, the author had fresher views on individual issues. For example,the former book rightly indicated that the sad songs in troubled times and the lovesongs in the folk in The Book of Poetry were still the “most touching double jades.” Inthis book, Mr. Zheng further pointed out, “In recent years, the common people onlyknew the love songs about ‘men and women’s dating’ among ‘the songs in the lanes’in The Book of Poetry. Naturally, folk love songs were the most crystal-clear pearls.However, the most important were the songs about farming, social drinking, prayingfor the gods and harvest. The living condition of the whole agricultural society waslively expressed.” In his opinion, these songs about farming “were the most valuablematerials, they were also the immortal masterpieces.” “Sighing and appealing toldtheir anguish of being exploited and plundered.” This was a step further than theanalyses in the former book. Another example. When Mr. Zheng was expoundingthe origins of “Ci,” the former book took “the melodies of Huyi” and “the songs inthe lanes” as its paratactic origins. In this book, the author clearly pointed out “Ci”“came from the folk.” “Among them, many were the melodies of Huyi.” Obviously,Mr. Zheng deemed “the songs in the lanes” its main origin, while “the melodies ofHuyi” came to the second. In addition, this book also reflected preliminary historicalmaterialism. For example, when the author discussed the development of Guci, hedefinitely indicated “the trend had its social and economic reasons.”

Similar to the former book, this book also used the methods of comparative litera-ture. For example, Being Forced to Take Service When I Was Only Fifteen in the Handynasty described that the hero was “forced to take service when I was only fifteenbut allowed to go back home at eighty.” This book deemed it a very sorrowful “socialpoem.” However, for this kind of mood, the general literati writings often described itas an odd immortal miracle, similar to the American writer Washington Irving’s The


Legend of Sleepy Hollow. However, this poem “had unique human nature, with nogods or monsters in it at all.” Through the parallel comparison, this book affirmed thedistinct ideological artistry of Being Forced to Take Service When I Was Only Fifteenwas higher than Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Ridiculous was, the criticalarticles in 1958, even without understanding the meanings of this book, blamed thiscomparison was “to worship things foreign” and “totally denied the Chinese clas-sics.” In this book, when analyzing the miserable situation that the wife of Han Penghad to separate with her mother-in-law to go seeking for her husband in Han PengFu, a folk song in the Tang dynasty, the author thought: “We could not find a secondliterary work that was so touching, its situation was the same as Sakantala’s leavingthe forest to seek for her husband in the Indian great dramatist Kalidaso’s Sakantala,and their beautiful imaginations were also the same.” Thus, Mr. Zheng gave a highevaluation of this folk literature buried for a thousand years. In commenting on thetwo Yanzi Fu stored in Dunhuang, Mr. Zheng compared them with Aesop’s Fablesand Reynard the Fox and indicated: “The background of Yanzi Fu was more or lessthe same as Reynard the Fox, while their ironies were also similar. From this book,we could have some understanding of darkmedieval society. People could not openlytake revenge and blame the emperors, ministers, local officials, local tyrants and evilgentry, but cursed them in the fables subtly.” This comparison was quite wonderfultoo. The book used the comparative research methods of the types of plots fromforeign countries for reference. For example, it deemed the folk tale about DongYong’s practising filial piety to his parents belonged to “the type of the Goose Girl,”which was the same type as Rohan Green. Only in Rohan Green was the male angelwho helped a girl, while in the folk tale about Dong Yong, it was a fairy angel whohelped the filial Dong Yong. To the narrative song Dong Yong Practising Filial Pietyto His Parents found in Dunhuang, there added the plot that Dong Zhong seeked forhis mother, which was especially close to the story of “the Goose Girl.” This bookalso deemed the final plot of revenge in Han Peng Fu, and the plot about Shunzivisited his mother’s grave in A Trnasformative Text (Bianwen) of Shunzi PractisingFilial Piety to His Parents; both belonged to “the type of Hinterira.” Mr. Zheng notonly compared the relative works with the famous foreign types but also summarizedsome types of Chinese folk tales. For example, he thought the tale of Han Peng’s wifewas one of the tales belonging to “the type of Meng Jiangnu.” He also deemed thepopularity of this kind of tale “could reveal the angry crying of the common peopletowards the licentious lords.”

Mr. Zheng himself thought, the writing of this book was “only the beginningof such research, not the end” and hoped there would have others to revise it in thefuture. Just because this book was pioneering work, shortcomings and mistakes wereinevitable. In my opinion, its shortcomings were as follows: First, it overstated theinfluences of Indian literature and did not strongly criticize the contents of feudalsuperstitions included in works such as Bianwen, which was similar to his The Illus-trated Edition of History of Chinese Literature. Second, some types were omitted.In Chapter 1 of the book, the author said because of the limited space, “I wouldspecially narrate the two most important types of it, that’s novel and Chinese tradi-tional opera, in the form of monograph. And here I would only present the folk


literature except them.”10 Furthermore, there omitted types such as ancient myths,jokes and fables. Third, some examples in its interpretations were inappropriate, suchas Song of Honghu by Liu Bang and Tongyue by Wang Bao, in which Mr. Zhengconducted a review after the founding of New China. In some places, the materialswere too much (though it was good for the researchers), while its discussion wasrelatively less. In addition, the demarcations of “folk literature” and “the literaryworks rooted in the folk society” (in a narrow sense) were sometimes not clear.This was a feature of his History of Chinese Folk Literature, while it was also itsshortcoming seen from certain perspective. He sticked to the broad understandingof “the literary works rooted in the folk society” throughout his life and became therepresentative of this school in Chinese folk literature research.11 For this, it shouldnot be commented on and denied casually, but he mainly emphasized that it shouldpay attention to and collect the transcripts and carving copies in the folk. Until thefounding of New China, he still thought it was the first thing we should do. “Onlythis will keep us busy all our lives.”12 Relatively, it ignored the collection, recordingand collation of the oral literature. Therefore, famous folk tales such as Niulang andZhinu, Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai, and the tale of theWhite Snake were omitted.Of course, this was related to his personal interest in collecting books, as well as theresearch conditions of him in Old China. Zhong Jingwen once indicated that thereexisted differences in “nature, forms and social significance” between folk literatureand “the literary works rooted in the folk society” (in a narrow sense), while Mr.Zheng did not pay enough attention to it. After the founding of New China, Mr.Zheng expressed, “In the past, I emphasized the materials found in the books, whileMr. Zhong Jingwen paid attention to the oral materials. From now on, we two should

10 Novel and Chinese traditional opera, the two sections had already had pioneering researches in LuXun’s A Brief History of Chinese Fiction andWang Guowei’s A Textual Research of the TraditionalChinese Operas in the Song and Yuan Dynasties. Therefore, Mr. Zheng’s omissions of these twohad no great influence towards the overall situation of the history of Chinese literature. Here, wecan exactly see the gap-filling significance of Mr. Zheng’s History of Chinese Folk literature.11 The representative of the other school which emphasized the oral literature of the working peoplewas Zhong Jingwen. Mr. Zheng once said tastily: “As to this point, I often quarrelled with Mr.Zhong Jingwen.” See Folk Literature, Issue 5, 1957. They often argued about the different views onacademic researches, but this had never affected their unity. This kind of manner of the old scholarsis worth carrying forward today.12 See “Symposium about Folk Literature in Beijing.” Folk Literature, Issue 5, 1957.


supplement each other, allow our views both contradictory and unified.”13 This wasquite true.

Generally, although there were some disadvantages in this book, it was undoubt-edly a valuable academic monograph; thus, it has been taken seriously by academiaall the time. After the founding of New China, it was republished several times.14 InOctober 1958, when sincerely (even over-zealously) examined his academic viewsbefore the founding of New China, Mr. Zheng himself said, “I still think there weresome progressive views in my History of Chinese Folk Literature.”15 In my opinion,it was mutually complementary with Wang Guowei’s A Textual Research of theTraditional Chinese Operas in the Song and Yuan Dynasties and Lu Xun’s A BriefHistory of Chinese Fiction. Like the three legs of a tripod, they were well matchedand regarded as the most essential classics for researching the history of Chineseliterature.

13 See “Symposium about Folk Literature in Beijing.” It should point out furthermore, Mr. Zhengdid not pay any attention to the oral literary works rooted in the folk society at all. For example,in March 1929, in his preface The Two Roads for Folk Songs Research written for Collections ofthe Love Songs in Lingnan edited by Chen Muru, he deemed the written and the oral were “thetwo roads” to research the literary works rooted in the folk society, neither should be neglected.Furthermore, this preface also indicated, from the perspective of researching the folk customs aswell as the original psychology and habits of the folk, “our eyes should focus on the latter, while theformer should be given up for they were not the original, true folk products. The modern scholarspaid their most attention on what were written down from the oral of the people, but thought thosewritten in the books as the corrected and deleted, the second-hand research materials or the lessreliable ones.”.14 Till the 1980s, Taiwan Commercial Press re-printed at least 7 editions of this book, but took theliberty to rename the author as Zheng Du in the political environment at that time. In 1954, WritersPublishing House reprinted it according to its original paper with a little revision. In 1996, theOriental Press included it into Academic Classics Library of the Republic of China and republishedit. In 2005, China Publishing Group and the Commercial Press included it into China Libraryand Library of the Commercial Press, respectively, and republished it. In 2006, Shanghai CenturyPublishing Group included it into Century Humanities Series and re-published it with illustrations.In recent years, there were more and more republished editions in each publishing house.15 See Zheng Zhenduo’s My Last Speech.

Academical Chronology of Zheng Zhenduo

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