One scene in the Yue Opera A Dream in Red Mansions. Yue Opera, or Shaoxing Opera, is the local opera of Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province. It is also the most widespread local opera in China.

When it comes to literature and art, people tend to regard them as the creations of writers and artists while ignoring popular literature with uncertain origins. In fact, despite the elegant literature created by literati, various popular literary works, such as folk songs, ballads and local operas, as well as stories told to the accompaniment of stringed instruments and the scriptures of folk religions account for half of the world’s Chinese literature.

Since the 20th century, popular literature, once regarded as “indelicate,” was valued by a group of scholars such as Lu Xun and Zheng Zhenduo. Since then, the study of Chinese popular literature has become an independent discipline. In the last 30 years, the discovery of a large amount of new popular literary materials further expanded the research scope and vision of Chinese literary history. 

As an aesthetic category of literature and art, “elegant” and “vulgar” works have existed since ancient times. Miao Huaiming, a professor from Nanjing University said there are mainly three distinctions between elegant and popular literature: in terms of textual form, elegant literature is refined while popular literature is easily understood. As for ideology, elegant literature demonstrates the taste of the literati while popular literature shows folk consciousness. As for the scope of dissemnation, elegant literature circulates among intellectuals while popular literature spreads among the public. Although these distinctions are not definite, in different cultural contexts, the two forms of literature developed different artistic features. Miao added that popular literature mainly includes fiction, opera and storytelling, as well as folk songs and puzzles.

In the treasure house of ancient Chinese literature, elegant and popular literatures are equally distributed. Che Zhenhua, an associate research fellow from the Institute of Culture at the Shandong Academy of Social Sciences, said Chinese popular literature is written in plain language. It emphasizes attractiveness and knowledgeability and references multiple literary forms and rich local characteristics. In addition, compared with elegant literature, popular literature has more diverse and flexible means of dissemination. It can be spread through books as well as artistic performances in teahouses and taverns and other places of amusement. Wandering performers could carry popular literature almost everywhere in towns and cities. 

In the evolution of ancient Chinese literature, the elegant and popular forms of literature were not diametrically opposed. Instead, they were complementary, blending and interactive. Fu Junlian, dean of the School of Chinese Classics at the China West Normal University, said The Odes in the Songs of Chu was originally a dance song written for a folk sacrificial rite. Later, Qu Yuan revised the song with the music of The Odes and created the elegant form of the dance song. Also, In the Song and Yuan dynasties, the literati joined in the creation of popular literature such as drama and storytelling scripts. By the Ming and Qing dynasties, popular literature such as novels, plays, storytelling and folk songs gradually became the main body of literature.

Miao pointed out that on the one hand, popular literature attracted the literati because of its modesty, innocence and vividness. Many writers joined the creation of popular literature, enriching its writing techniques and enhancing its artistic taste; on the other hand, elegant literature is also influenced by commercial factors in its development, thus becoming popularized. Miao added that the interaction between elegant and popular literature shows that the evolution of popular literature is a dynamic process. It is both an internal evolution and an interaction with other literary and cultural elements. 

In the past 30 years, thanks to the discovery of a large number of new materials that contain popular literature, popular literature has become an important research focus. Fu Julian said that many popular fu, a descriptive prose interspersed with verse, were found among the earthed bamboo slips or wooden tablets of the Han Dynasty, including those discovered in the Xuanquan site, Gansu Province, and those preserved in Tsinghua University, Peking University and the Shanghai Museum. It showed that in addition to the elegant fu familiar to the public, there was popular fu in the Han Dynasty. In addition, the painted bricks, stones and related murals of the Han Dynasty value much to the study of Han social life, music, dance and folk poems.

Research on Chinese popular literature should be based on the historical and cultural context. Fu pointed out that popular literature is often created and spread in cultural rituals, so the study of popular literature cannot focus on text and be separated from the cultural ecology in which it lives. Che also suggested paying attention to the occurrence, evolution and dissemination of popular literature stories, their causes and the importance of popular literature as folklore and regional cultural materials.