Difference between History and Legend——Taking Legend of He Wenyuan as an Example

He Wenyuan,the magistrate of Wenzhou in the Ming Dynasty,was capable and honest.But in Wenzhou local folks,he was smeared as narrow minded,malicious and fierce feudal official.There was complicated and confused gap between history and legend.With the interacting between great tradition and little tradition and by applying the theories such as ethnic identity and historical memory,the legend of He Wenyuan has been analyzed and the relationship between history and legend has been explored.The study showed that the legend of He Wenyuan is vivid description of the ethnic identity since the Ming and Qing Dynasty and a collective memory about the local history among folks in Wenzhou.It is the interacting of thoughts between the intellectual elites and the common people in Chinese traditional society that has granted characteristic of combination of history and folklore tradition in her culture.