\[ **BT: [[society#other elements common to all cultures but differing In expression or practice between cultures]]** ] --- # folklore > 1. the lore of the common people; the traditional beliefs, legends, customs, etc., of a people. > 2. the study of such lore.[^1] --- ## animals (and legendary creatures) ### deer [[In Chinese folklore, white deer symbolise longevity and the country's long future.]][^2] ### dragons - see: [[dragons]] ### foxes [[The concept of shapeshifting foxes, capable of living as humans (and often manipulating their lovers), was strong in both China and Japan.]][^3] ### hares [[In traditional Chinese thought, males hares did not exist; instead, hares became pregnant by licking newly sprung plant shoots. To give birth, the female hare would spit her young from her mouth.]][^2] ### kuei [[According to Sima Qian, the spirits of the woods are kuei.]][^4] ### sheep [[According to Sima Qian, spirts of the earth are entombed sheep.]][^5] ### sirens [[In 1493, Columbus wrote to Luis de Santangel about having seen ‘three sirens, although they were not as beautiful as he had been led to believe’.]][^6] ### snakes Note: in the [[library science|LCSH]], ‘snakes’ is always used for real life snakes, whereas ‘serpents’ is used for snakes in folk tales, myth, and legends. [[Snakes are a ‘common symbol in the religious beliefs, ceremonies and legends’ of many cultures.]][^7] [[The snake has always been viewed with some ambivalence; ‘it is a creature crawling on the earth that also suggests rebirth in its ability to shed its skin and be revitalized every spring.’]][^8] #### tail-eating snakes [[The ‘tail-eating snake stood for the world’ for the ancient Egyptians.]][^9] [[The Alexandrian alchemists accepted the concept of the ‘tail-eating snake’ (as the world).]][^10] [[In the Scandinavian Prose Eda, we find the tail-eating snake as Midgardsom—the snake lying in the oceans, and which surrounds the entire world.]][^11] ### wang hsiang [[According to Sima Qian, wang-hsiang are spirits of the deep.]][^12] (As are [[#dragons]].[^13]) ### wang liang [[According to Sima Qian, rock spirits are wang-liang.]][^14] --- ## folklore and architecture [[In China, a 'shadow wall' was a short wall erected directly behind the main entrance. The goal was to keep out evil spirits, who can only move in a straight line (and therefore not navigate around the shadow wall).]][^15] - see also: [[art#architecture and the supernatural|architecture and the supernatural]] --- ## reproductive folklore [[In traditional Chinese thought, males hares did not exist; instead, hares became pregnant by licking newly sprung plant shoots. To give birth, the female hare would spit her young from her mouth.]][^16] [^1]: ‘Folklore’, *Macquarie English Dictionary* (1981). [^2]: Translator’s note in: Xi Zixu, *[[Xi Zixu, Kaleidoscope of Death, trans. Taida Translations, 2020|Kaleidoscope of Death]]*, trans. Taida Translations (Taida Translations, 2020), chap. 35, https://taidatranslations.wordpress.com/kaleidoscope-of-death/kod-chapter-35/. [^3]: U. A. Casal, ‘[[Casal, ‘The Goblin Fox and Badger and Other Witch Animals of Japan’, 1959|The Goblin Fox and Badger and Other Witch Animals of Japan]]’, *Folklore Studies*, vol. 18 (1959), p. 28, https://doi.org/10.2307/1177429. [^4]: Sima Qian, *[[Sima Qian, Selections from the Records of the Historian, trans. Yang and Yang, 1979|Selections from Records of the Historian]]*, trans. Hsien-yi Yang and Gladys Yang (Beijing: Foreign Language Press, 1979), p. 5. [^5]: Sima Qian, *[[Sima Qian, Selections from the Records of the Historian, trans. Yang and Yang, 1979|Selections from Records of the Historian]]*, trans. Hsien-yi Yang and Gladys Yang (Beijing: Foreign Language Press, 1979), p. 5. [^6]: Consuelo Rivera-Fuentes, ‘[[Rivera-Fuentes, ‘Gender and Hybridity’, 2000|Gender and Hybridity: The Significance of Human/Animal Characters in Magic Realist Fiction]]’, *Animal Issues*, vol. 4, no. 1 (2000), p. 37, https://hdl.handle.net/10779/uow.27825465.v1. [^7]: Denise Chao, ‘[[Chao, ‘The Snake in Chinese Belief’, 1979|The Snake in Chinese Belief]]’, *Folklore*, vol. 90, no. 2 (1979), p. 193, [https://doi.org/10.1080/0015587X.1979.9716142](https://doi.org/10.1080/0015587X.1979.9716142). [^8]: Denise Chao, ‘[[Chao, ‘The Snake in Chinese Belief’, 1979|The Snake in Chinese Belief]]’, *Folklore*, vol. 90, no. 2 (1979), p. 193, [https://doi.org/10.1080/0015587X.1979.9716142](https://doi.org/10.1080/0015587X.1979.9716142). [^9]: Denise Chao, ‘[[Chao, ‘The Snake in Chinese Belief’, 1979|The Snake in Chinese Belief]]’, *Folklore*, vol. 90, no. 2 (1979), p. 193, [https://doi.org/10.1080/0015587X.1979.9716142](https://doi.org/10.1080/0015587X.1979.9716142). [^10]: Denise Chao, ‘[[Chao, ‘The Snake in Chinese Belief’, 1979|The Snake in Chinese Belief]]’, *Folklore*, vol. 90, no. 2 (1979), p. 193, [https://doi.org/10.1080/0015587X.1979.9716142](https://doi.org/10.1080/0015587X.1979.9716142). [^11]: Denise Chao, ‘[[Chao, ‘The Snake in Chinese Belief’, 1979|The Snake in Chinese Belief]]’, *Folklore*, vol. 90, no. 2 (1979), p. 193, [https://doi.org/10.1080/0015587X.1979.9716142](https://doi.org/10.1080/0015587X.1979.9716142). [^12]: Sima Qian, *[[Sima Qian, Selections from the Records of the Historian, trans. Yang and Yang, 1979|Selections from Records of the Historian]]*, trans. Hsien-yi Yang and Gladys Yang (Beijing: Foreign Language Press, 1979), p. 5. [^13]: Sima Qian, *[[Sima Qian, Selections from the Records of the Historian, trans. Yang and Yang, 1979|Selections from Records of the Historian]]*, trans. Hsien-yi Yang and Gladys Yang (Beijing: Foreign Language Press, 1979), p. 5. [^14]: Sima Qian, *[[Sima Qian, Selections from the Records of the Historian, trans. Yang and Yang, 1979|Selections from Records of the Historian]]*, trans. Hsien-yi Yang and Gladys Yang (Beijing: Foreign Language Press, 1979), p. 5. [^15]: Wolfram Eberhard, *[[Eberhard, A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols, 1986|A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols: Hidden Symbols in Chinese Life and Thought]]* (Routledge 1986), p. 263. Internet Archive, https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofchin00wolf/. [^16]: Wolfram Eberhard, ‘Hare’, *[[Eberhard, A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols, 1986|A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols: Hidden Symbols in Chinese Life and Thought]]* (London: Routledge, 1986), p. 136. Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofchin00wolf/.