A Study On The Development Of The Folktale Type Interchanging Sisters’ Marriage

In Chinese long history, rich folk story is one of the beautiful ornament. Thispaper selects the folktale type of "interchanging sisters’ marriage" as the researchobject. Through a large number of text, and referring to the research results ofpredecessors, the "interchanging sisters’ marriage " story type will be divided intothree phases to study: prototype—"two sisters with snake husband" stage, type"interchanging sisters’ marriage" stage, the modern development, adaptation, andevolution of "interchanging sisters’ marriage" stage."Two sisters with snake husband" story is the prototype of "interchanging sisters’marriage", and its rudiment is the story of “snake husband”. With the development of“snake husband” story, the motif of two sisters competing for husband is introducted.Initially, the evil older sister doesn’t want to marry with the snake, only the kind littlesister would like to. In fact, the snake husband is a handsome and wealthy man. Theevil sister envies the little sister. She plans to kill her sister by cruel means and thencheats the snake that she is his wife. But the little sister is very stubborn, sheconstantly struggles with her evil sister. Finally she is back from the dead, regains thehappiness, and the evil sister shame that fate."Interchanging sisters’ marriage" storyremoves the mythology of the "two sisters with snake husband" story. Mao Ji directlyis a grown man. He is poor and have nothing at the beginning of the story. The oldersister would rather die than marry, the little sister have to instead of her elder sister getmarried. Later Mao Ji succeeds in the imperial. The little sister and Mao Ji is wealthy.But the elder sister’s fate is sad, her husband has the property off and then dies. Shefeels shamed and resentful, then shaved her head for Nepal.With the "interchanging sisters’ marriage " story’s development, in addition tothe general public oral inheritance, the story has also been adapted into drama,flourishing on the opera stage, especially the Shandong opera. The Henan opera,Puzhou opera, Hebei opera, huangmei opera and other opera also adapted. The storyis spread in the form of this methods that people like. As the story spread, peoplecannot be satisfied with the end. Because the Chinese traditional habits like happyendings, then the adaptation that "after interchanging sisters’ marriage" appears,mainly in the drama on the stage. In the "after interchanging sisters’ marriage", theelder sister’s fate is the main line. After marrying a millionaire, she doesn’t live a lifeas she dreamed, because her husband likes gambling, life has become more and moredifficult. her husband decides to study hard, rushes to the imperial, finally alsosucceeds. Although sister wants to be a nun, the families struggles to persuade, twopeople finally get together, the family also have a reunion.Any folk tale, it should reflect social reality, and transmits the social value andthe aesthetic concept through words. For the "interchanging sisters’ marriage " story,whether its prototype—"two sisters with snake husband" story or its evolution—"after interchanging sisters’ marriage" story, all have a constant value function, it is tacklingthe social thought of short-sighted, despising poverty and pursuiting of affluence.Praising the good human nature of kind-hearted, simple, faithful. In many excellentfolktales, the "interchanging sisters’ marriage " story, with its wonderful story plot andthe social reality of the populace it reflected, it can widespread in social reality to thepublic. as well as adds an important category to the folk tale types. This article alsohope that through the study of the story types, can do some contribution for the studyof the folk tale type.