Experts digitize ancient Tibetan books.

By HAO RIHONG

Contemporary historical studies have emphasized the role of societies. This is not just due to new perspectives on historical studies, but also due to increasing analysis of folk historical documents.

Defining ‘folk documents’

Common folk historical documents include genealogies, inscriptions, epitaphs, contracts, litigation papers, village regulations and folk conventions, bill books, and letters. Generally, documents that are formed and used in ordinary people’s daily lives are believed to contain “folk” features.

However, Zheng Zhenman, director of the Center for Folk Historical Documents Research says that this definition is too simplistic.

He said that folk documents should be understood on multiple levels. First, they are formed and used among the people. Second they are used, not created, by the people. Third, they are created, but not used, by the people.

“For example, textbooks for the imperial examination were not written by the people, but were widely used in the civil society, thus falling under the purview of folk documents. Moreover, recipes or prescriptions for the imperial families, if originally coming from the people, should also fall into the category,” Zheng said.

Zheng points out that there are other complicating factors, such as contracts that originally served to handle ordinary people’s business but once adopted by the court, became official documents. He said that when it comes to accurately defining the concept, the key lies in judging it functions, namely whether it is used in people’s daily lives or official affairs.

Role evolution

Chang Jianhua, director of the Key Research Institute of Social History of China in Nankai University, said that folk documents used to be considered supporting evidence for official history, standing as a supplement to relevant historical figures, events and systems.

Later, they changed role, taking on a number of other functions, such as in the analysis of the nature of society, land systems and class relations.

In the last few decades, research focus in this field has turned to grassroots society, communities and daily life as well as its correlation to historical memories, local society and historical evolution, providing a new perspective to view history, Chang said.

“Compared to the past, current studies stress basic philosophies, such as how people make their own history and everyday life is the base of social existence, which in the end upholds historical materialism and tries to understand historical evolution from the perspective of ordinary people,” Zheng said.

Avoiding fragmentation

Chang said folk document studies need to further improve in two respects. First, they should be used with traditional political and official records in all possible ways. Second, the materials should be examined from a cultural perspective.

“Folk documents are often used in economics and but we focus more on exploring the cultural heritage and historical memories in it,” Chang said.

Zuo Yuhe, a research fellow from the Institute of Modern History at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, believes that hands-on practical work is necessary. “Field investigation is an effective means to distinguish folk documents from odd customs,” he said.

Zheng said there are plenty of folk documents in existence that cover every aspect of social life and it is essential for research to connect the dots and reveal the overall picture.

“Individual folk documents should not be seen as a lonely island. Rather, they should be put into the social and cultural system,” Zheng said.

“However, in reality, due to multiple market operations of cultural relics, some of the major documentation systems were disrupted and lost their historical value,” Zheng said. “In addition, some scholars like to classify historical documents but the result is the intrinsic links between documents are undermined, making it hard to restore the historical process and causing the study to be fragmented.”

In this light, Zheng suggested that a comprehensive folk document database should be put in place using modern information technology. Such a database should go beyond the previous classification system, connecting folk historical documents of different times, places, figures, events, sources, and text forms to revive their original system, discourse and context, he said.