Abstract：Academic research in scientific collection and study of Chinese folk literature springs up from the May 4th Movement. After the People's Republic of China is established, the government includes this research into the culture work plan and carries it forward a new stage. In the 1980's and 1990's, the compiling of three sets of collections of folk literature, which is based on the general survey in the whole country, makes the collection and studies a mass movement and marks the ripeness of the theory of folk literature. It is conspicuous that we are faced with the bright future in exploiting resources of folk literature and art as well as the crisis in building up the theory of folk literature.
