Chapter 28 Section 2 Collation and Adaptation of Folk Literature: "Ashima"

"Ashima" 3 is a folk narrative poem of the Sani people of the Yi nationality in Yunnan. It is called "the song of our nation" by the Sani people. Part of it is widely sung among the people.This long poem was collected in 1953 by the Guishan Working Group of the Yunnan Provincial People's Cultural Industry Troupe. At that time, 20 copies of different texts were collected, which were sorted out and processed by Huang Tie, Yang Zhiyong, and Liu Qi by the method of "summarization". After the manuscript was completed, Gong Liu was invited to participate in the finishing work, and the text was processed and polished.This edited version was first published in Yunnan Daily in 1954, and was published successively by four publishing houses from 1954 to 1956. In 1960, because three of the four collators were labeled as rightists, the signature of the original collator was canceled in the revised edition (revised by Li Guangtian). In 1979, the original collation was revised again. "Ashima" received widespread attention after its appearance, and was adapted into various dramas and made into movies. It also appeared in translations in various languages ​​abroad, which had a considerable impact.In terms of collation of national folk literature in mainland China after 1949, the collation of "Ashima" has its own gains and losses, and is very typical.

The sorting method of "Ashima" is the "summary" sorting method, which is actually "breaking up and disassembling all the twenty copies of the different texts, sorting them into categories according to the plot of the story, and eliminating the unhealthy parts. , concentrate its essence, and then process, retouch, delete, and supplement according to the needs of highlighting the theme, enriching the character image, enhancing the story structure, etc." 4. But the problem is to judge what is "unhealthy part" and what is The "essential part", what kind of character relationship, storyline to use, and what kind of ideas to highlight to organize the whole narrative, its standards must be based on the requirements of the common name of the time. "Ashima" is widely sung among the Sani people, and it is still a living legend. It is far from forming a relatively stereotyped way of speaking. As a narrative poem that has been circulating for a long time, it will inevitably be mixed with later The content of the social life of the Sani people in each era is very inconsistent with the versions circulated in different places. The long time of circulation and the wide range of regions will inevitably lead to many long poems with different texts. It is necessary to sort out a "final version" that can be accepted by everyone. above is impossible.But this does not mean that the collator has the privilege to transform the true face of long poems.During the finishing process in the 1950s, the ambiguous and complicated folk elements in the original long poems that were circulated were consciously covered up, and transformed and simplified into a story of class struggle that conformed to the common name of the 1950s.The basic plot is: a poor family in Sani Azhuodi gave birth to a daughter, Ashima. She is beautiful and kind, and is deeply loved by her parents and fellow villagers. , So he used despicable means to snatch the marriage, Ashima's elder brother Ah Hei rushed back after hearing the news, overcame many obstacles set up by his opponents, and rescued Ashima. The return of the two brothers and sisters, Ashima turned into an echo.This shows that the sorters consciously used the common names of the era as the sorting standard during the sorting process, which inevitably distorted the historical memories of non-Han people to a considerable extent.

This is clearly shown in the selection, processing and transformation in the finishing process.According to the original editor’s statement, based on the 20 variants collected at that time, the same legendary motif has several different themes: “(1) complaining about the pain of the daughter-in-law being abused by her parents-in-law and husband; (2) ) Resist the marriage plunder of the ruling class and pursue happiness and freedom; (3) Maintain traditional customs; (4) Show the power of the woman's relatives, so that the in-laws and husbands dare not abuse; (5) Envy the richness of the Rebubala family, Ashi Ma lived in his house with peace of mind; (6) Ashima became a card-drawing god, and the ringing in the ears of the crowd was due to Ashima's fault, blaming her for not turning into an evil god after death." 5. This is typically shown in Ashima In the legend of Ma, the spiritual dimension of folk pursuit of freedom is inevitably mixed with its filthy characteristics.The codifiers consciously ignored this folk complexity, but preconceivedly determined theme (2) as the main idea of ​​the compilation in a class-divided way, and excluded other ideological themes, although "reflecting this theme materials, which account for a small proportion of the original materials”6.

The choice of the theme made the editor have to make some changes in the plot design, character image, and character relationship.For example, Tang Tingben consciously used "marriage snatching" as a manifestation of class struggle, and designed the conflict between the Rebubala family and Ashima's family who snatched the marriage as a kind of class contradiction, so that the plot of Ahei's rescue of Ashima It has become a symbol of the oppressed rebelling against the oppressor, and Ashima's tragic ending has become a symbol of the tragedy of the oppressed in class society.However, in a specific era and national customs, snatching a marriage was actually "a special but effective marriage ceremony recognized by the society at that time"7. At the same time, Ashima The seven different documents on the marriage of parents and daughters all show that: "When Haire went to matchmaking for the first two times, Gelu Riming and his wife refused. But after Haire's cooperation in many ways, they still agreed."8 Therefore However, although the robbery of the Rebubala family was an insult to the Gruzhiming family, it still seemed to be a legitimate behavior in line with customs. The two families only had a huge difference between the rich and the poor, and there was no essential class antagonism.The compilation of the text uses "marriage snatching" as the plot hub of the symbolic class conflict, which is obviously a conscious transformation of it into a text that meets the needs of the times.Another example is that there are at least 12 different endings in the original material, which can be roughly divided into three types: (1) After Ashima got married, she refused to stay in her husband’s house, which violated traditional customs. God punished her and she finally escaped. (2) Ashima stayed at Rebubala's house and suffered for the rest of her life; (3) At the end of the resistance to the end, she was killed on the road and became an echo after death" 9.Starting from the theme of expressing class struggle, the organizers can only choose the third type as the ending, which has less material basis but is full of the spirit of "struggle to the end".In order to express class struggle and optimism, earlier versions fabricated a plot of Rebubala breaking the embankment and releasing water to replace the legendary flood that symbolizes unfathomable fate, and at the same time designed a kind-hearted The plot of the Shikadu Lema girl rescuing Ashima turns out to be a lot of contradictions with the ending of Ashima turning into an echo10.

In terms of character images, the finishing work has also done a lot of purification work in line with the common name of the times.Since Ashima is to be regarded as an artistic symbol of Sani women, the finishing version has to endow her with such characteristics as beauty, integrity, and bravery. The character traits are all deleted without hesitation” 11: Enhanced the description of her love for labor and resistance to the end, “the noble character of not being confused by gold and silver, and not being subdued by mighty power”, fabricated the story of Ashima being robbed The people's memory of her later... etc. 12 are all noble qualities recognized by the common name of the era at that time.In line with this, Ah Hei's support and protection of Ashima in the edited version also highlights his image of a fearless warrior who resists oppression, defends good hopes, and sacrifices himself to save others, while "excludes descriptions that show his uncle's power"13 But the problem is that if the "uncle is the eldest" element with quite national characteristics is excluded, contradictions and confusion also appear in the pivotal plot of the poem "robbing marriage": if Ah Hei is only Ashima's elder brother, he The sense of honor of the woman's family represented by the "uncle is the greatest" has not been insulted, and he has not snatched back Ashima's rights and obligations—it can be seen that on the image of Ah Hei, the organizer also consciously It has been shaped in line with the common name of the times.However, the flaws in it also show that using folk themes to express common names of the times cannot be done very thoroughly, and have to be restricted by the other party, as if speaking in a language that I am not familiar with, the meaning of what I say and the meaning I want to express There is always some distance.In addition, the collators went against the meaning of the original material and portrayed the Gruzhiming couple as a sober class-conscious image, portraying them as always opposed to the marriage proposal of the Rebubala family, and unconventional in Ashima's marriage. The burden of customs and an enlightened couple whose daughters are free to choose are also a kind of elevation that caters to the common name of the times.

From all aspects, there are a lot of simplifications in the edited version of "Ashima".The most critical point is that the compilation only takes class oppression as the cause of Ashima's tragic fate, but actually excludes more complex and folk factors.Judging from the original materials, Ashima's tragedy is not only caused by the powerful people's marriage plunder, but also the burden of traditional ethnic customs, and even arranged by her parents.The compilation, which excludes the important theme of women's unhappiness in marriage, is bound to simplify these complex causes.But this kind of simplification obviously goes against the spirit of the people. For example, the collator himself also found out: "...at the beginning, comrades never understood why the Sani 14 loved "Ashima" so much. Later, they understood the basic situation of their marriage system. : 'The situation of freedom of love and unfreedom of marriage seriously exists', and the question has been answered." 15 However, judging from the existing compilation, it is impossible to see the performance of this point.

The reason why the edited version of "Ashima" has had a wide impact is not because of the overall narrative of "class struggle", but because it, together with the compilation of other ethnic literature, symbolizes that non-Han ethnic literature has followed the Chinese mainland. Its traditional literature has also entered the Chinese cultural circle, exerted influence in contemporary times, and gained a certain status in the Han cultural circle.At the same time, the compiled version still maintains considerable folk elements. Although it is a narrative of class struggle as a whole, the continuous story of Ah Hei and Ashima, as a resistance to an evil force, not only has class struggle It is not only the meaning of life, but also the embodiment of the free and unrestrained folk spirit.Although the organizers consciously echoed the common name of the times and emphasized the meaning of class struggle, they could not control the recipients to understand it from another layer that coincided with their own psychological accumulation.In terms of narrative means, the edited version tried to retain the language and narrative charm of the original Sani long poems in the process of translation and arrangement, which is also the reason why it was popular back then.This also shows that wherever it respects folk characteristics, it is also where it has the most vitality.For example, the matchmaking scene in the poem is narrated by means of image comparison and repeated dialogues, which not only explains the plot of the story, but also describes the Sani folk marriage ceremony.For another example, when Ahei came to rescue Ashima, he competed with Rebubala and his son in antiphonal singing, cutting down trees, sowing and collecting seeds, and Ahhei shot three arrows at the gate, pillar and When making table offerings, the narrative is developed by enumerating visualized plots. This method is widely used in folk literature and has become an important narrative method and archetypal way of thinking.The distinctive folk language of the long poems, especially the metaphors, contrasts, repetitions, exaggerations, etc. full of folk colors, also has a novel appeal to readers of foreign nationalities.

But on the whole, although the compiled version of "Ashima" symbolizes that non-Han folk literature has entered the contemporary Chinese cultural circle and gained a certain status, this status is still marginal.Because non-Han literature is in a position of being spoken, and its subjectivity is not fully respected, it was not without cost for them to enter the contemporary Chinese cultural circle in the 1950s: the restriction of the common name of the era inevitably made them lose The excellent content of many ethnic folk literature makes non-native readers only appreciate a Venus with a broken arm that has been made up. A large number of original thinking forms accumulated in the inheritance of "Ashima" and the production and living customs of the Sani people have been processed, polished, abridged and rewritten, which has affected the charm of folk literature. This is just one of the more obvious examples .