Study On Liu Shaotang’s Country Literature From The Perspective Of Folk Culture

Liu Shaotang was a contemporary writer in China renowned for his writing and study of countryliterature and he duped himself as an “aborigine”. From either his early works, such as Foliage, PaddlingSound on the Canal and Red Clouds over the Field, or works written after1980s，such as PuLiupeople,Protected Willow Lane,it can be seen that Liu focused his eyes on the vicinity of Beijing-HangzhouGrand Canal and wrote about people and stories his was familiar with, depicted the beautiful landscape andfolk customs of his hometown. With a creation of novels totaling about7million Chinese characters and acomplete set of country literature theory, Liu Shaotang constructed a “Grand Canal country literaturesystem” with its own unique features.Lin JinLan once praised him in saying,“his writing on folk customs of primitive simplicity emanatesrefreshing fragrance, and his writing on impoverished land of misery gives a feeling of intimacy andsweetness”. Liu Shaotang’s novels, written in a simplistic style with a rich local flavor, are much appealingto the audience, thus enjoy a high literary value. From the perspective of folk customs and humanics, andunder the help of relevant research results of Liu Shaotang’s novels, this paper studies on the rich folkcustoms and the formation of the values of folk culture in his novels, reflects and comments on the writingof folk culture in his novels.This paper is consisted of three parts: introduction, body and conclusion.Introduction: First, this paper gives a brief introduction of Liu Shaotang and his country literature,then illustrated the current research situation about his works, and points out both achievements andinsufficiency in this field, and at last, explains the study process and meaning of this paper.The body is divided into four sections:Section1: On the concept and theories of folk culture. This section observes the theories of folkcustoms and humanics, makes use of the fruits of academic research in this filed, and explores the concretecontents of folk culture. This section involves three aspects: The definition of folk customs and its culturalattributes; the relationship between folk culture and novel; Liu Shaotang’s understanding of folk culture.Section2: A specific illustration on the artistic manifestation of folk customs in Liu Shaotang’s novels.Based on the categories of folk customs written in the previous section, this section delves into selected texts to explore the everyday living scenes, people’s believes and the lively and vivid language, so as todiscover and analyze the actual demonstrations of folk customs in Liu Shaotang’s novels.Section3: Discuss on the reasons behind the formation of the folk culture value in Liu Shaotang’snovels. There are mainly four reasons: his experiences of life in his hometown; influence of classicalliterature; guidance of pioneering writers; influence of foreign literature. This part aims to, via explorationof the above-mentioned four reasons, explains how Liu Shaotang embarked on the road of countryliterature creation.Section4: Contemplation with eyesight of folk culture. This section is the essence and creative part ofthis paper. Based on the analyses of the former three sections, this section dwells on the value of the folkculture shown in Liu Shaotang’s novels, and holds that the folk culture gives expression to the folkloricaesthetic attributes and the cultural spirit of the northern stretch of the Grand Canal.Epilogue: A conclusion of the whole paper. This part gives comments on the folk culture valuereflected from Liu Shaotang’s literature works, points out the flaws in his creation and praises on hisachievements in and special contributions to the contemporary country literature.