Doumajianshou
01 · Historical Records
From the second year of the Yuanfeng reign of the Western Han, 109 BCE, to the early Tang, 618–738, the Lüchun area belonged to the Lingnan circuit and the Man tribe. In the Nanzhao period, 738–902, it belonged respectively to the Tonghai governorship's Man tribe and the Yinsheng commandery's Weiyuan district.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Doumajianshou is a narrative epic describing the birth, growth, love and forced marriage of Douma Jianshou, a beautiful and clever Hani woman, her transformation into the king of great trees and return to the heavenly realm, and her obtaining of the agricultural calendar; it is the folk literary work of the widest circulation and the greatest number of people involved among the Hani. The Hani villages of Lüchun county are its core area of circulation. The epic Doumajianshou is divided into eleven chapters and 2,487 lines; taking the story of Douma Jianshou as its thread, it successfully shapes this typical Hani woman—diligent and wise, generous and tolerant, brave and enterprising—and embraces rich information on the Hani calendar, agricultural knowledge, folk beliefs and cultural activities. In the singing of the Hani, Douma Jianshou has become the representative of the ethnic group and the embodiment of bravery and wisdom, enjoying extremely high recognition among the people. Doumajianshou is mostly sung in the Hani mother tongue in the “laba” (wine song) form at leisure from farming or at traditional ethnic festivals. The manner of singing is one person singing while the many listen, and the many may also sing in answer. The place of singing is mostly beside the hearth at home and at the feast table, and it may also be sung at weddings and funerals and when building a house. The singers are mostly folk musicians and Hani mobi (spreaders of folk belief). At that time some small tribes, clans and family branches settled in the Lüchun area and began to sing Doumajianshou. It was in this way that the narrative epic Doumajianshou, transmitting the traditional cultural knowledge of the Hani in the form of an ancient song and carrying a wealth of knowledge, came into being and became the representative of the ancient Hani songs.
The Birth, Growth and Courtship of Douma Jianshou
The content of the epic describing the birth, growth and courtship of Douma Jianshou.
Suffering Forced Marriage and Becoming the King of Great Trees to Return to the Heavenly Realm
The episode of the epic reflecting Douma Jianshou's resistance to forced marriage and her return to the heavenly realm.
Obtaining the Agricultural Calendar
The content of the epic embracing the Hani calendar and agricultural knowledge.
The Occasions of Singing the “Laba” Wine Song
The occasions of singing at leisure from farming, at traditional ethnic festivals, at weddings and funerals and when building a house, beside the hearth and at the feast table.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
It circulates in the Hani areas of settlement speaking the Haya and Haobai dialects, including Lüchun, Honghe, Yuanyang and Jinping counties of the Honghe Hani and Yi autonomous prefecture of Yunnan, Yuanjiang county of Yuxi city, Mojiang and Jiangcheng counties of Pu'er city and Jinghong city, Menghai and Mengla counties of Xishuangbanna prefecture.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The Hani have a history of terrace agriculture of more than a thousand years and a vast cultural system, but before the founding of the People's Republic of China they had no script of their own and cultural transmission depended entirely on oral instruction. For a thousand years this epic has been handed down from generation to generation mainly by social, family and master-to-apprentice transmission. The epic Doumajianshou is an important vehicle of Hani historical and cultural transmission. It makes great use of such artistic means as metaphor, exaggeration, parallelism and accumulation, and together with the sincere and profound feeling of the chanter gives endless literary and artistic enjoyment; it has relatively high historical, social, cultural and artistic value and plays a positive role in protecting and transmitting the Hani mother tongue and history and culture, carrying forward traditional virtues, uniting ethnic feeling and raising cultural confidence.
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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