Zhuzanci
01 · Historical Records
The Subei Mongol benedictions and eulogies, also called words of praise, are a folk literary form chanted by the Subei Mongol people of Jiuquan city, Gansu, on solemn occasions, festivals or festive ceremonies, distributed mainly in the Chengchengwan, Shibaocheng and Yanchiwan townships of the Subei southern mountain area and the Mazongshan town of the northern mountain area, involving a population of more than ten thousand. Subei lies at the western end of the Hexi corridor and is a frontier county of Gansu with the Mongol as its main body. The benediction and eulogy evolved from shamanist sacrificial words and was very widely used in the time of Genghis Khan and developed rapidly in the Yuan and Ming.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Subei Mongol benedictions and eulogies, also called words of praise, are a folk literary form chanted by the Subei Mongol people of Jiuquan city, Gansu, on solemn occasions, festivals or festive ceremonies, distributed mainly in the Chengchengwan, Shiabaocheng and Yanchiwan townships of the Subei southern mountain area and the Mazongshan town of the northern mountain area, involving a population of more than ten thousand. Subei lies at the western end of the Hexi corridor and is a frontier county of Gansu with the Mongol as its main body. The benediction and eulogy is made up of three parts, the opening, the body and the ending: the opening explains the reason for chanting, the body truly describes and praises the thing blessed and the ending expresses a blessing for the future. It is mostly chanted on solemn occasions such as the breeding of livestock, the completion of a yurt, marriage and the birth of a baby or at festive ceremonies. The eulogist, skilled in speech, in the form of reciting poetry with deep feeling and unbridled emotion, sends people auspicious blessings. The benedictions and eulogies are many in kind and varied in form; they express the wish of the Mongol people, through blessing and sacrifice, to dispel disaster and live and work in peace. The Subei Mongol benedictions and eulogies mostly use metaphor, their language concise, natural and fluent, their rhyme resonant, their images vivid and their forms varied; some are divided into stanzas, using the form of repetition, others flow in one breath, of any length, fluent and unconstrained, stressing rhythm and antithesis and modulation. The benediction and eulogy is an oral hymn offered to the gods and the ancestors, including sacrifices to the heavenly god, the earth deity, mountain gods, the river lord, the fire god and the hunting god and the god protecting livestock, or eulogies of heroes and victors, or elders' blessings to the younger generation, full of joy and appreciation for all beautiful things. Its content is very wide, from livestock production to daily life, from all kinds of festival gatherings to marriage, from the yurt to each tool of production and life. The Secret History of the Mongols records that in the time of Genghis Khan the use of benedictions and eulogies was very wide and in the Yuan and Ming they developed rapidly. Historically the Khoshut Mongols wandered for hundreds of years over the Mongolian plateau, the north and south of the Tianshan and the Qinghai-Tibet plateau, and Mongol culture collided and fused with Tibetan and Han culture, forming this long-standing national cultural expression of the Subei Mongol benedictions and eulogies.
The Benediction of Bayan Soon
One of the representative Subei Mongol benedictions.
The Sacrificial Fire Benediction
One of the representative Subei Mongol benedictions.
The Yurt Benediction
One of the representative Subei Mongol benedictions.
The Bride-Welcoming Benediction
One of the representative Subei Mongol benedictions.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Subei Mongol benedictions and eulogies are deeply rooted among the masses and are important spiritual food for the Subei Mongol people; they are the condensation and representation of the history and real life of the local Mongol and provide valuable material for studying the ethnic history, history of philosophy and history of religion of Subei.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Zhuzanci · Zhuzanci · Zhuzanci.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
At present the transmitters concerned, influenced by their elders, actively study, excavate, collate and recite the Mongol benedictions and eulogies, publish related books and train successors. Today more than a thousand people in the county can recite the benedictions and eulogies. They are mostly improvised oral hymns of praise with a fairly deep literary deposit, embodying the grassland nomadic people's value pursuit of the beauty of natural harmony and having relatively high historical, cultural and social value.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Deligeer 05-2018
- Nacike Buwa 05-2019
- Shanxi
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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