海外藏珍稀民俗文献与文物资料研究的构想与思路

Conception and Program of the Study of Valuable Chinese Folklore Documents and Relics in Overseas Collections

从16世纪西方传教士进入中国,带走不少中国民俗资料,到19世纪后,来华西方人在中国各地进行系统而有目标的田野考察,收罗了大批在国内当时不受重视的民俗文物和民俗文献。这些资料今天散藏在国外的博物馆、图书馆等机构,成为研究中国民俗文化的一个有待开拓的宝库。其中许多珍贵资料在中国本土已经散佚无存,而且大部分未经编目整理,学者难以利用。2016年度国家社科基金重大项目"海外藏珍稀中国民俗文献与文物资料整理、研究暨数据库建设",即旨在全面、系统地调查海外所存中国民俗文献及民俗有关文物,予以编目、整理和研究,并建立数据库。作为该课题的纲领性文章,本文阐述了海外藏民俗文献与文物的主要资料类型,课题研究的出发点、具体路径与方法及其重点难点。

Since western missionaries first came to China in the 16 th century, many Chinese folklore materials have been taken abroad. From the end of the 19 th century onward western scholars did fieldwork in China and collected folklore documents and relics to which Chinese at that time paid little attention. These collections spread in overseas museums and libraries and became a treasure of Chinese folk culture to be opened up. Many of these valuable materials do not exist in China any more. Most of them have never been published so that they were not accessible to scholars. The key research project "Cataloging and studying valuable Chinese folklore documents and relics in overseas collections as well as establishing a database", authorized 2016 by the National Social Science Foundation of China, aims at investigating these materials comprehensively and systematically, producing catalogs and including them in a database. As a programmatic document this article lists the main types of such folklore materials and describes the purposes, approaches, focus and difficulties of the project.