Chapter 3 Section 3 Distribution, Excavation and Types of Chinese Heroic Epics

Our country's epics are not only numerous in number, but also in many varieties.Heroic epics are mainly distributed in Xinjiang, Qinghai, and Gansu in the Northwest, Sichuan and Yunnan in the Southwest, Heilongjiang in the Northeast, and Inner Mongolia in North China. Wherever there are Tibetans, there is "Gesar" circulating.The Tibetan nationality, most people still believe that it originated from the ancient nomadic Qiang people, and has a relationship with the "Fa Qiang" and "Tang Qiang" of the Western Qiang.Tibet was called "Bo" in ancient times. After the descendants of the Qiang people migrated to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, with "Bo" as the center, they merged into the modern Tibetan ancestors. They called themselves "Boba" ("Ba" means "people") and lived in the western Sichuan area. Those who live in Qinghai, Gannan, and Northwest Sichuan are also called "Anduowa". In the Chinese historical records after the Han Dynasty, it is called Tubo (bobo).At the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, the Tubo slave-owner regime was established on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and they went south to compete with the Tang Dynasty for the Erhai region.Tacheng in the northwest of today's Lijiang, Yunnan, was at that time Tieqiaocheng, an important town in Tubo, which was also a market for livestock products trading with Yunnan.Probably during this period, a group of Tubo people moved into northwest Yunnan and became the Tibetans in today's Diqing Prefecture.They also brought Tibetan culture, which may include the prototype of the epic "Gesar".By the 17th century, with the spread of Buddhism, "Gesar" spread eastward to Mongolian areas, and it was called "Gesar".The two are not exactly the same, and are confirmed as two epics diverging from the same source.In addition, the Dai people in Yunnan have discovered about four works that can be confirmed as heroic epics; the Naxi and Yi people also have such works.

Groups of heroic epics were found in the Mongolians in North China and various ethnic minorities in Xinjiang.Among them, the most famous ones are the Mongolian "Janger" and the Kirgiz "Manas". "Janger" first originated in the Altai region of northern Xinjiang. In fact, "Manas" has become a favorite work of most ethnic groups in Xinjiang.Before the Turkic-speaking ethnic groups in Xinjiang became independent ethnic groups, they lived together with each other and often formed tribal alliances in order to resist foreign enemies.After forming an independent nation, not only are their economic conditions, customs, and culture similar, but they still use the Turkic language that they all understand, with only dialect differences.Therefore, the heroic epics of these nations often have similar motifs, structures, and language expressions. "Manas" is one of the most representative heroic epics.For example, the heroic epic of the Uyghurs, The Biography of Oguz, has been circulated for more than a thousand years. The earliest manuscript found so far is in Uighur, and it is now in the National Library of Paris.The epic narrates the life of the hero Ogus, who was born, wiped out harm for the people, got married, and went to war.Turkic scholars believe that Oguz is not only the ancestor of the Uighurs, but also the ancestors of the Kazakhs, Turkmens, and Uzbeks.Another Uyghur heroic epic "Amir Gul Uguri" (also known as "Gur Uguri Sultan") is born in a cemetery. "Gur Uguri" translates as "son of the grave".A rap epic in prose and verse, it recounts the son of the grave's rise to heroism and his nine marriages.It is said that this epic was circulated among Uzbek, Turkmen, Tajik, Karakalpak, and Tatars.It is called Kor Uguri in Iran and Afghanistan.Its version is divided into three types: the first category, the version of the Caucasus, Azerbaijan, Airman, Guruzong, Iran, Afghanistan and other places; the second category, Uzbek, Kazakh, Karakalpak, Turkmen, Tajik version of.The third category is the Uighur version.It is a pity that the power of Chinese translation is limited, so such works of various ethnic groups in Xinjiang are rarely known.

The Kazakhs have been invaded many times in history, there have been countless disputes among the tribes, coupled with uninterrupted natural disasters, a large number of long poems have been produced in the struggle between internal and external aggression. From the 13th to the 15th century, there was a golden age of long folk poems, among which there was the ancient heroic epic "Alepamis", which was circulated in Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan at the same time.There is also a kind of "serial long poems" among the people, one after another, with continuous content. "The Forty Warriors of Keremu" is composed of 40 consecutive legends of heroes. The first generation, the third generation... until the 40th generation, generations are heroes.The protagonists of each part are heroes of different generations, from the 13th to the 14th century AD until the 19th century.The structure is exactly the same as the world-famous "Manas".According to scholars, there are dozens of heroic epics in Kazakhstan, almost all of which are based on real historical events and wars, forming a huge cultural circle of heroic epics.These have long attracted the attention of international Turkic scholars, but unfortunately they have not been translated into Chinese.

It is amazing that some ethnic groups with a small number of people have retained a considerable number of works belonging to the category of heroic epics, such as the Hezhen and Oroqen people in the Northeast.They each have their own unique epic culture. my country began to collect the three famous epics from the late 1950s and early 1960s, and had accumulated a large amount of information before the "Cultural Revolution".Beginning in the early 1980s, the people's government funded and organized forces to carry out larger-scale collection and sorting work.Now a number of Chinese translations of heroic epics have been published.

The types of heroic epics in our country are complex.There is a kind of epic in which the first half is Genesis and the second half is the hero's battle, which has a transitional nature, such as the epics of the Dong nationality and Bunuyao.There are prototype works, which maintain a relatively complete original appearance and have not been adapted and processed by literati.There is a single type, that is, the story line is simple and there is basically no interjection.The most mature is the combined heroic epic, which is the three major epics that this book will focus on. To sum up, the distribution of epics in our country can be roughly divided into two departments, the north and the south.The background of farming culture in the south and the background of nomadic culture in the north.Types include prototype, single type, transitional type, and combined type.