Jakob Maria De Groot And Leon Wieger’s Research On Chinese Folk Beliefs

From the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century,the study of chinese folklore beliefs abroad began to take shape.The Dutch Sinologist Jan Jakob Maria de Groot(1854-1921)and the French missionary Leon Wieger(1856-1933)were active in this period.They both realized the importance of studying Chinese folk beliefs in revealing the characteristics of Chinese civilization,and launched their own research results during this period.For different research purposes and from different angles,the two scholars interpreted Chinese folk beliefs with different creative methods,which made Chinese folk beliefs glow with new vitality and brought a new image of China to the West.In their study,the two men reflect different ways of thinking,arrangement and conclusion,which are closely related to their educational background,creative identity,research experience and research purpose.This paper aims to reveal the differences between the two men through their research on the specific contents of chinese folk beliefs,and to make an evaluation of the two men’s research on chinese folk beliefs based on background factors.The thesis consists of six parts.The introduction part mainly explains the origin of the topic of this paper,points out the significance of the research,combs out the research results of Jakob Maria de Groot,Leon Wieger and others in domestic and foreign academic circles.The first chapter introduces Jakob Maria de Groot,Leon Wieger and the basic situation of the text.It includes the biographical experiences of the two men,the frame structure,main contents,publication and translation of works such as The Religion System of China(1892—1910),Rudiments 4:Morale et usages populaire(1894),Rudiments 5+6;Narrations vulgaires(1894),Folk—Lore chinois moderne(1909),Histoire des croyances religieuses et opinions philosophiques en Chine depuis l’origine jusqu’à nos jours(1917).The second chapter is based on the research of the two people’s concept of Chinese soul and makes a comparative analysis of their specific research on Chinese folk beliefs.Jakob Maria de Groot and Leon Wieger both realized the importance of the concept of soul in Chinese folk belief system,and discussed it emphatically.Specifically,Jakob Maria de Groot’s selection of materials far exceeds Léon Wieger’s,and his argumentation method is more scientific and reasonable,but he has the drawbacks of "Western-centrism".By contrast,Leon Wieger’s argument argument lacks depth and is still in the initial stage of research.The third chapter mainly analyzes their research on the concept of ghosts and monsters in China.After discussing the basic concept and content of ghosts and monsters,Jakob Maria de Groot and Léon Wieger further analyzed and probe into the good and evil actions of ghosts and the similarity between the ghost world and the human world.Jakob Maria de Groot’s discussion of the chinese ghost concept,although there were some misunderstandings,the logic is rigorous,and the argumentation is hierarchical,reflecting its academic thinking,reflecting his academic thinking.Leon Wieger takes the folk story as the main body,and is mostly connected with other schools of thought such as Buddhism.The fourth chapter mainly discusses the differences between Jakob Maria de Groot and Leon Wieger in their research perspective.Leon Wieger and Jakob Maria de Groot both used the method of combining field investigation and literature data when they studied Chinese folk beliefs,but on closer inspection,Jakob Maria de Groot paid more attention to textual data,while Leon Wieger paid equal attention to both.When it comes to the basic theoretical presupposition,the two views are quite different,and the two sides’ views on the temporal and spatial nature of Chinese folk beliefs are quite opposite.The conclusion part summarizes the similarities and differences between Jakob Maria de Groot and Leon Wieger in terms of theoretical methods,structural systems,opinions and conclusions,and analyzes the reasons in combination with educational background,investigation experience,creative environment,etc.At the same time,observes their typical significance in the process of sinology branch becoming specialized in chinese folk belief research.