What is folk culture?

Folk culture, also known as traditional culture, refers to folk customs and life culture. It also refers to the customs and habits created, enjoyed and passed down by people living together in a nation or region. It is a series of intangible things, folk customs and people's daily life formed by ordinary people (relative to officials) in the process of production and life.

Folk custom is not only a social ideology, but also a cultural heritage with a long history. As early as "Biography of Wang Shu of Han Shu", there was a record of "different winds in a hundred miles, different customs in a thousand miles". The Book of Rites Wang Zhi said, "In February, I patrolled the East. As for Daizong, Chai Wang worships mountains and rivers. Worship a vassal and ask him to see him in a hundred years. Chen Shi was ordered to observe the folk customs. " The ceremony of the king's tour here is that the monarch goes deep into the people and makes some investigations and studies on the customs and habits of rural society. Taishi is an official in charge of music and collecting folk songs. He dedicated the popular folk songs (national style) to the monarch. Through these folk songs, the monarch formulated or adjusted the country's principles and policies by "observing customs and knowing gains and losses". Feng in The Book of Songs, a collection of China's ancient poems, is a folk song spread in ancient times. These folk songs reflect the customs of ancient people and contain a large number of ancient folk customs, which are of great value to the study of ancient folk customs in China. For example, the Jianghu culture and chivalrous culture in Water Margin belong to the category of folk cultural consciousness.

The study of folklore and theory is called folklore. Folklore is an independent discipline in social science, which is closely related to cultural anthropology, ethnology, sociology, history and other disciplines. For example, archaeology should use folklore to uncover the mystery of ancient society, and folklore should use archaeology to provide evidence of ancient cultural inheritance.