The Study Of Legend And Faith Of The "Dragon Without Tail Called LaoLi" In Shandong

The "Dragon without tail called LaoLi" is the hero of a legend in Shandong province. The legend and faith of the "dragon without tail" widespread in the Shandong, Heilongjiang, Hebei, Jiangsu, Guangdong, Guangxi and other places, with several important episodes such as "Magical birth "; " Be cut off tail and away from home"; "Back home and visiting his mother's grave" and "Blessing home".etc. The presented dissertation is the study concerning "What characteristic does LaoLi has?" and "What makes him to be so unique?"Legend was the history which constructed by the people, among which the collective memory was hidden in. From beginning of Qing Dynasty, many poor people from Shandong who tried to make a living in Northaest of China,which was called Venture into east of Shanhaiguan. The piece of history was the key factor which led the legend and faith of "LaoLi" spread all over Shandong Province. As to the amount of the migration and time they went to Northeast of China, there were huge difference between the cities and countries in Shandong Province. So the legend and faith of "LaoLi" in different place in Shandong showed a process of non-synchronized. To be specific, the emergence of the legend and faith of "LaoLi" in coastal areas was much earlier than the other places which represented certain features of primitivity; while in the inland areas, the legend and faith of "LaoLi" had some additional episodes which indicated that they were more resent.The episode of "Fighting in Heilongjiang" led to a cumulative characteristics of "LaoLi".With the process of the adding episode and the fusion of the characters, the legend and faith of "LaoLi" had showed a strong localized features, and become a local traditional knowledge. In Shandong, the ledgend and faith of "LaoLi" spread all over the province and present a distribution of multi-points. Actually the legend of "LaoLi" and the faith of "LaoLi" were two important components of the local traditional knowledge which impacted on people's reality and the spiritual world; they had such different between each other and at the same time they were interwoven so tightly and complement each other. Although the legend and faith of "LaoLi" presented a distribution of multi-points, there still had a few circles of legend and faith, in which the episode and the character were similar. There were several typical circles of the legend and faith of "LaoLi" in Shandong. They were distinguished by geographical boundaries as well as the local history and culture.When we provided an overview of the legend and faith of "LaoLi", we find, according to abundant individuality, the development in different places hold common regularity to be complied. First, no matter where "LaoLi" had been in, the legend and faith of him were heavily intertwined. Legend and faith were mutual context that made up a series local knowledge which affected the way people lived. Second, although "LaoLi" was a local knowledge that emphasized individuality by the local person, but they still appreciated the value "LaoLi" had in the whole Shandong Culture. On the one hand, local population highlighted the regional characteristics and emphasized the uniqueness of "LaoLi" in their culture; on the other hand, the legend and faith of "LaoLi" had the tendency of beyond-locoalizition to gain a higher position in Shandong Culture. The two tendencies coexisted in the development of "LaoLi", in which general public were gave a full expression of their creativeness.