Note 4 — I.—INTRODUCTORY.

The word “Folk-lore” can be applied to many of the domestic traditions of China only as a matter of literary convenience. The word which, according to Mr. Kelly, was invented (or rather first used in its generic sense) by the late editor of Notes and Queries,4 is indeed the only one in the language which satisfactorily expresses the subject of which it treats, and has met with general acceptance. But there is this difference between most of the folk-lore of the Aryan races and that of China. In the former case it chiefly relates to legends and superstitions handed down from generation to generation by word of mouth; in the latter it necessarily includes much that is to be found in print at every native bookstall. Old Moore’s and Zadkiel’s Almanacks represent this sort of literature in England, but do not of course contain a tithe of what is current amongst the people. In China such literature flourishes like a rank weed, to the partial destruction of aught else more useful and ennobling. In addition to these native “authorities,” a vast amount of material relating to the subject is to be found in the columns of the foreign and native newspapers. The aid thus afforded has been fully availed of in the following chapters, though it must not of course be supposed that there does not also exist a large amount of veritable lore, a knowledge of which has been perpetuated in the ordinary conversational way. The cheapness of the press has indeed proved in China a powerful help in preserving much that might otherwise have died out. The precise form of any superstition can therefore be frequently traced, thanks to this conservative element, and differing versions of popular myths are easily referred to their true origins.