Out of Debate Between Questioning and Interpreting Documents of Antiquity:Morphology of Folktale and Constructing Theory of Accumulative Evolving History of Ancient China
Since Gu Jiegang proposed his theory of"the accumulation of layers in ancient Chinese histo-ry",a century long academic debate on the authenticity of ancient history has taken place be-tween the skeptical and interpretive schools,and in a sense,the entire modern academic histo-ry of China has thus been written.However,in this academic debate,as a prerequisite for his-torical research,the literary examination of texts is seriously lacking.The story morphology of Propp may help us identify the deep structure of narratives in ancient historical legends,and provide theoretical support for us to overcome the debate between questioning and interpreting the past.Through the investigation of the story form fo Gu Jiegang and many later scholars who studied the ancient history and legends,it can be seen that both the legends of Gun and Yu as well as Yao and Shun have a long process of growth.The legends of Gun and Yu have different sources of growth,and through the combination of two rounds of form,they establish the basic structure of layered narrative.The legend of Yao and Shun then integrates into this deep struc-ture,forming ancient history,and layer by layer attached to it,becoming the fundamental un-derlying structure of narratives for Yao and Shun and later emperors'abdications from the throne.When abdications emerged as a political trend,the entire historical legend underwent a historical transformation into a more scholarly form.In the continual construction and adjust-ment of the ideal politics of the virtuous,more and more sages merged into it,forming a grand imperial court and gaining adjustments in the collision with real political practice.Many ancient historical legends have gone through a long folk transmission before entering written texts in the form of folk myths or tales,thus forming a layered phenomenon.After entering written texts,they also undergo some reconstruction and transformation,but they themselves are not fabrica-ted by someone in the Warring States Period from thin air.In other words,the ancient history is not artificial fabrication or even humbug,but formed in a process of"layer by layer growth".Gu Jiegang's theory of"accumulation of layers"should not be a"forgery"of layers,but rather a"growth of layers"in the context of legends.We refer to it as the"theory of ancient Chinese history of layer by layer growth"to modify Gu Jiegang's theory.
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