The Hairy Maiden: runaway and deity
https://doi.org/10.28995/2658-5294-2020-3-1-27-55
Abstract
In this paper, the author offers a perspective on the evolution of the Hairy Maiden (Mao-nü) legends in written and oral Chinese tradition, from the twelfth century to the present day, on material of poems, short stories and records of the collectors of the Song – Qing eras, as well as memories of Hebei from the 1920s – 1940s and modern collections of fairy tales and legends. Attention is also paid to the pre-Song history of the character. The author suggested that it could be considered a borrowing. Field research data from 2014–2016 were used in the research.
Mao-nü lives in wooded mountains, she is benevolent towards people. Stories about her can be divided into two distinctive groups. In the first group, she is a supernatural being for whom there is no return to human existence. In the second group, she returns to human existence, leaves the liminal zone and is doomed to die. W. Eberhard and Li Jianguo constructed the schemes close to the invariant of the Mao-nü plot. However, there are a few stories that do not correspond to those schemes as a whole, or their parts, in which the Hairy Maiden acts as a magical assistant.
The paper describes the concept of Mao-nü as a deity and traces the connection of the Mao-nü stories to the Daoist hagiography (from “Lie xian zhuan” and on). The author also provides data on the perception of Mao-nü in the visual arts.
The paper elaborates on the evidences that prove the direct descendance of the plot of the revolutionary opera “The White-Haired Girl” from ancient folklore. It describes further how the “revolutionary play” influenced the circulation of stories concerning the White-Haired fairy. An attempt is made to determine the ways in which the stories about the Hairy Maiden are connected to the stories about the “wild hairy people”, including the builders of the Great Wall. The author notes that for contemporary stories about Mao-nü, the proximity to written sources and links to the Huashan mountains are characteristic.
About the Author
A. B. Starostina
Institute of Oriental Studies (RAS)
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Aglaia B. Starostina, Cand. of Sci. (Philosophy)
bld. 12, Rozhdestvenka Str., Moscow, 107031
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Review
For citations:
Starostina A.B. The Hairy Maiden: runaway and deity. Folklore: Structure, Typology, Semiotics. 2020;3(1):27-55. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.28995/2658-5294-2020-3-1-27-55
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