Zhuang Bainiaoyi Stories
01 · Historical Records
The Zhuang Hundred-Bird Robe story is a form of folk literature created by the Zhuang forebears in long years of productive labour and accumulated life experience. It originated in Heng county of the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region and is current mainly in such townships as Xiaoyi and Maling in Heng county and the Zhuang areas of settlement around them, and also circulates abroad.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Zhuang Hundred-Bird Robe story is rooted in the folk and after several generations of change has given rise to many versions. Their content is basically much the same: the hero Zhang Yayuan's father died before he was born. Living on his mother's care from childhood, he mainly kept body and soul together by doing hard labour for the tusi and gathering firewood. One day, on the way home carrying firewood, a big cock leapt onto his carrying pole, and he took it home. After being kept for half a year the cock turned into a girl of unearthly beauty, who became Yayuan's wife and lived a fine life with him. Later the tusi seized Yayuan's wife by force. On leaving, his wife told Yayuan: “Go into the mountains and shoot a hundred birds to make a feather robe, and in a hundred days put on the ‘hundred-bird robe’ and come to the yamen to find me.” His wife carried off, his mother died of rage. With hatred and grief, and with hope as well, Yayuan went deep into the mountains to shoot birds… After crossing ninety-nine rivers and climbing ninety-nine mountains Yayuan shot down a hundred birds. On the hundredth day Yayuan finished the “hundred-bird robe” and put it on, and came to the yamen. The girl, sorrowful all day, broke into smiles the moment she saw Yayuan dancing in the “hundred-bird robe”. To please the girl the tusi took off his official robe and exchanged it for Yayuan's “hundred-bird robe”. Seizing the chance of helping the tusi into the “hundred-bird robe”, Yayuan killed him. Husband and wife fled the yamen and lived a fine life very far away. The ancient Zhuang Hundred-Bird Robe story has become a source of inspiration for modern and contemporary Zhuang literary and artistic creation, showing abundant vitality. The Zhuang writer Wei Qilin, on the basis of the Zhuang Hundred-Bird Robe story current among the folk, wrote the narrative poem The Hundred-Bird Robe. Thereafter plays, works of fine art and large-scale song-and-dance dramas on this subject appeared one after another. From the end of the Song to today the Zhuang Hundred-Bird Robe story, passed on by word of mouth, has continually enriched its content and form.
The Main Body of the Hundred-Bird Robe Story (Zhang Yayuan and the Bird Girl)
The main episode in which the cock turns into a beautiful maiden and becomes Zhang Yayuan's wife.
Shooting a Hundred Birds to Make the Feather Robe and Going to the Yamen on the Hundredth Day
The episode in which Yayuan, at his wife's bidding, shoots the birds and makes the “hundred-bird robe” to rescue her.
The Narrative Poem The Hundred-Bird Robe
The narrative poem written by the Zhuang writer Wei Qilin on the basis of the folk story.
The Custom of Telling in a Manner Combining Speech with Song
The tradition of bearers telling the story in a manner combining speech with song at the field edge, in the shade of trees and in the streets and lanes.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Zhuang Hundred-Bird Robe story originated in Heng county of the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region and is current mainly in such townships as Xiaoyi and Maling and the Zhuang areas of settlement around them, spreading far beyond the region, even abroad, with Zhuang migrants. The story is continued across the generations by word of mouth and in a manner combining speech with song, forming a regional body of transmission whose mainstay is Zhuang folk singers and storytellers.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Numerous bearers tell the Zhuang Hundred-Bird Robe story at the field edge, in the shade of trees and in the streets and lanes, in a manner combining speech with song. The story contains information about the natural environment in which the Zhuang lived and multiplied, their historical changes, ethnic customs and ethical morality, and is imbued with the aesthetic taste peculiar to the Zhuang; its subject is romantic and beautiful, its episodes lively and interesting and its figures vivid and palpable—an artistic fusion of realism and romanticism—and it conveys the thoughts and feelings of the Zhuang people in resisting oppression, pursuing freedom and remaining unyieldingly steadfast in love, with relatively high historical, artistic, social and cultural value.
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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