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Libra Esoterica

The folklore of China, and its affinities with that of the Aryan and Semitic races

Also known as Folk-lore of China, and its affinities with that of the Aryan Semitic races; The Folk Lore Of China; The folk-lore of China

by Nicholas Belfield Dennys, By Nicholas Belfield Dennys & Nicholas Belfield. [from old catalog] Dennys

  • First published:
  • 19th century
  • Language: English
  • Content type: Primary source
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Description

Description from Project Gutenberg (opens in a new tab)

"The folk-lore of China : and its affinities with that of the Aryan and Semitic…." by N. B. Dennys is a scholarly comparative folklore study written in the late 19th century. It surveys Chinese popular beliefs, superstitions, rituals, and legends and sets them alongside Aryan and Semitic traditions to show striking parallels and probable common roots. Organized systematically from life-cycle rites to omens, charms, ghosts, dragons, nature lore, legends, fables, and proverbs, it argues that Chinese folk-belief is unusually pervasive across all classes and institutions. The work aims to be both a compendium of practices and a comparative argument about shared myth-making across cultures. The opening of the work explains that it compiles earlier articles, acknowledges limited access to sources, and thanks contributors, then makes the case that China is a vast, under-studied field for folklore, whose beliefs closely resemble Western ones in principle but dominate daily life from emperor to peasant. The introduction reviews European scholarship, urges a systematic plan (birth–marriage–death, days and seasons, omens, charms, the supernatural, legends, fables), notes the role of almanacs and cheap print in preserving lore, and advances the idea of a common origin with Aryan traditions, illustrated by courtly astrology and ubiquitous geomancy. Early chapters sample practices around birth (hour-of-birth charts and verses, fertility shoes or flowers from a child goddess, demon-frightening rites, taboos like not rocking an empty cradle, postnatal talismans), marriage (rings and betrothal tokens, sieving garments over fire, veils, symbolic altar objects, honeyed wine, candle omens, cakes, threshold rites, shoe symbolism, playful contests of dominance), and death (coffin customs, lights and “saining”-like rites, roof holes for the soul, white cock emblems, vigil beliefs, paper offerings, earth on the coffin, feng-shui graves, white mourning, and dread of disturbing burials). It then outlines lucky and unlucky days and seasons (a marked weekly “rest” day of Persian derivation, the moon festival, tabulated day-qualities, New Year “first-foot” and first-words omens, and a Chinese analogue to St. Swithin), before beginning a section on portents from daily mishaps and animals (oil spills, crows, magpies, dogs, cats, crowing hens, swallows, bats, owls). (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Provenance

Why this book is in the catalog

Included because retained bibliographic metadata links this work to Demonology, angelology, and possession, Ghosts, hauntings, and poltergeists, Legendary beings and transformations, Mythology, folklore, and sacred legends, Occultism and esotericism, Out-of-body, astral, and dream studies, Ritual magic and grimoires, and Witchcraft and folk magic.

  • Occultism and esotericism

    Retained metadata contains “supernatural” in the description and “supernatural” in the subject metadata.

    • “supernatural”· in description
    • “supernatural”· in subject
  • Ritual magic and grimoires

    Controlled discovery queries from internet-archive matched “Charms” and “Spells”. Retained metadata contains “Charms” in the description, “Talismans” in the description, “Charms” in the subject metadata, and 1 additional metadata match(es).

    • “Charms”· via Internet Archive
    • “Spells”· via Internet Archive
    • “Charms”· in description
    • “Talismans”· in description
    • “Charms”· in subject
    • “Spells”· in subject
  • Witchcraft and folk magic

    A contributing source assigned this topic during controlled cataloging, but the exact triggering term is not present in the merged metadata.

  • Demonology, angelology, and possession

    A contributing source assigned this topic during controlled cataloging, but the exact triggering term is not present in the merged metadata.

  • Ghosts, hauntings, and poltergeists

    Controlled discovery queries from internet-archive matched “Apparitions”. Retained metadata contains “Ghosts” in the description, “Apparitions” in the subject metadata, and “ghost” in the subject metadata.

    • “Apparitions”· via Internet Archive
    • “Ghosts”· in description
    • “Apparitions”· in subject
    • “ghost”· in subject
  • Out-of-body, astral, and dream studies

    Controlled discovery queries from internet-archive matched “Dreams”. Retained metadata contains “Dreams” in the subject metadata.

    • “Dreams”· via Internet Archive
    • “Dreams”· in subject
  • Legendary beings and transformations

    Controlled discovery queries from internet-archive matched “Fairies”. Retained metadata contains “Fairies” in the subject metadata.

    • “Fairies”· via Internet Archive
    • “Fairies”· in subject
  • Mythology, folklore, and sacred legends

    Controlled discovery queries from internet-archive, openlibrary-historical, and project-gutenberg matched “Folklore”, “folklore”, “mythology”, and 1 additional term(s). Retained metadata contains “Folklore” in the title, “folk belief” in the description, “Folklore” in the description, and 4 additional metadata match(es).

    • “Folklore”· via Internet Archive
    • “Tales”· via Internet Archive
    • “Folklore”· via Open Library
    • “folklore”· via Project Gutenberg
    • “mythology”· via Project Gutenberg
    • “Folklore”· in title

Membership records how this book met the catalog’s discovery criteria — relevance to a tradition, not a judgment of the book’s claims.

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Editions

Open Library reports 9 editions; 5 cataloged here.

The Folk-Lore of China: and its Affinities with That of the Aryan and Semitic Races

Internet Archive unrestricted pre-1900 PDF scan

1876-01-01T00:00:00ZChina Mail, HongkongEnglish—Public digitized item

The Folk Lore Of China

Internet Archive unrestricted pre-1900 PDF scan

1876-01-01T00:00:00Z—English—Public digitized item

Internet Archive unrestricted pre-1900 PDF scan

1876London : Trübner; London, Trübner and co.; [etc., etc.]; TrübnerEnglish—Public

Subjects

20 subject headings

Identifiers & provenance

How this record was assembled, and the authority identifiers it carries.

Identifiers

ISBN-13
ISBN-10
LCCN
OCLC
Open Library work
Project Gutenberg
Internet Archive
HathiTrust
Open Library work (alias)

Cataloging notes

  • Contributing institution: Cornell University Library
  • Contributing institution: Harvard University
  • Contributing institution: Princeton Theological Seminary Library
  • Contributing institution: Robarts - University of Toronto
  • Digitization sponsor: Google
  • Digitization sponsor: MSN
  • Digitization sponsor: Princeton Theological Seminary Library
  • Discovery required Internet Archive search metadata to report a PDF format; the exact direct-file URL is added only after the item's file listing confirms an unrestricted PDF filename.
  • Open Library reports 1 editions; this snapshot catalogs one representative edition and preserves work-level ISBN, date, and publisher aggregates.
  • Open Library reports 6 editions; this snapshot catalogs one representative edition and preserves work-level ISBN, date, and publisher aggregates.
  • Open Library reports 9 editions; this snapshot catalogs one representative edition and preserves work-level ISBN, date, and publisher aggregates.
  • Original print publication date and source edition are absent from Project Gutenberg metadata.
  • Scanner: google
  • Scanner: ias13
  • Scanner: Internet Archive HTML5 Uploader 1.7.0
  • Scanner: Internet Archive Python library 1.9.9
  • Scanner: Kirtas APT 2400
  • Scanner: scribe5.nj.archive.org
Catalog id
openlibrary-work:OL18106999W
Edition coverage
Multi source partial
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