Laoshan Folk Stories

Laoshan Folk Stories

Laoshan folk tales, commonly known as Lagua, are oral literature created by the local people of Laoshan Mountain in Shandong Province for thousands of years. There were few written records before liberation.

On June 7, 2008, Laoshan folk tales were listed in the second batch of national intangible cultural heritage list with the approval of the State Council.

Historical origin

Laoshan folktales have a wide range of categories, a large number and rich content. From the collected content of Laoshan folktales, it can be inferred that Laoshan folktales first occurred in ancient times. According to the biography of Pu Songling in Shandong Province, in April of the eleventh year of Kangxi (1672), Pu Songling, 32, traveled to Laoshan with the local gentry Gao Hu and Tang Menglai. Inspired by the folklore stories of Laoshan at that time, he wrote short stories Xiangyu and Laoshan Taoists on the theme of enduring winter, peony and Laoshan Taoists, which were also the earliest writings of Laoshan folk stories.

primary coverage

The contents of Laoshan folktales include "myths", "legends", "stories" and so on, covering more than 5600 natural change myths, heroic myths, historical legends, religious legends, fairy tales, mountain and river legends, specialty legends, ghost and fox ghost stories, animal stories, life stories, wit character stories, etc. Influenced by nature, geographical environment and Taoist culture, among the local folktales in Laoshan, the most numerous and distinctive ones are the legends of local customs, religious figures, ghosts and foxes, ghosts and ghosts, and sea stories.

Inheritance significance

Laoshan folk tales are characterized by the convergence of local popular culture and mountain and sea culture, and evolve in the mutual penetration of secular culture and religious culture, with distinct regional characteristics. It has high historical and literary value.