Panhu Legend
01 · Historical Records
The Panhu legend is first found in writing in Fan Ye's Book of the Later Han; afterwards it is much recorded in historical works and classics, and from the legend there gradually derived a great many legends with Panhu and Xin Nü as their core episodes and attached to all kinds of social content, as well as various cultural phenomena of ethnicity, belief, language, sacrifice, dance, medicine, burial and custom. The Panhu legend arose about the period of transition from matrilineal to patrilineal society and was rooted in the soil of the fishing-and-hunting economy and primitive agricultural society of the Miao forebears, recited from generation to generation.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The basic content of the Panhu legend is: in ancient times King Gaoxin, Emperor Ku, warred with the state of Quanrong and could not win repeatedly; because General Wu of Quanrong was so formidable, King Gaoxin issued an edict that whoever took General Wu's head would be given a daughter in marriage and rewarded with gold and land. One day a dog with a man's head in its mouth lay at the foot of the hall; the dog was Panhu. Seeing that the one who had won merit was a dog, King Gaoxin went back on the marriage on the ground that an imperial daughter could not marry a dog. Xin Nü said she was willing to keep the promise. The emperor was angry and put Xin Nü in the cold palace. Panhu came and, carrying Xin Nü, flew out of the window to a cave on a cliff on the west bank of the Yuan river in Luxi. Afterwards Panhu and Xin Nü had six sons and six daughters and multiplied. The Panhu legend is widely current in the Miao areas of western Hunan and north-eastern Guizhou and in south-eastern China.
Panhu Wins and Marries Xin Nü
The episode in the Panhu legend in which Panhu brings General Wu's head and marries Xin Nü.
Panhu Carries Xin Nü Away
The episode in which Panhu carries Xin Nü flying to the cave on the west bank of the Yuan river in Luxi.
The Panhu Cave
A landform in the Luxi area connected with the deeds of Panhu.
The Xin Nü Rock and the Xin Nü Nunnery
Relics and sacrificial sites in the Luxi area connected with the deeds of Xin Nü.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Panhu legend is widely current in the Miao areas of western Hunan and north-eastern Guizhou and in south-eastern China; in the Luxi area of Hunan there are many landforms and sacrificial sites connected with the deeds of Panhu and Xin Nü, such as the Panhu cave, the Panhu temple, the Xin Nü rock and the Xin Nü nunnery.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The legend and the many phenomena of ethnology, religion and linguistics derived from it have important value for studying the folklore, history and culture of the Miao.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Hou Zipeng 05-2011
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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