Chapter 3 Section 3 Myths and legends of ethnic minorities

The Chinese nation is a multi-ethnic family.In addition to the Han nationality in my country, there are 55 ethnic minorities, each of which has its own myths and legends, and also has an important position in the history of Chinese culture.Their mythology has been preserved in three ways. First, scattered in Chinese ancient books and materials.For example, the Panhu (huhu) myth, which is still circulated among the people in the south, has long been seen in "The Book of the Later Han·Nanman Biography" and "Sou Shen Ji·Volume 14", to the effect: When King Gaoxin was in power, an old woman in the palace had an ear disease, and the doctor picked out a worm from her ear.The worm was as big as a cocoon shell and was placed in a gourd ladle and fastened with a plate.Before long, the worm turned into a colorful dog.It is called "Panhu" because it grows up in the fence of gourds buckled by plates.

At that time, there was an invasion of foreign tribes from Rong and Wu, and no one could resist it. King Gaoxin had to recruit warriors. If anyone could get the head of General Rong and Wu, he would give a thousand catties of gold, seal him to rule over ten thousand households, and marry the little princess.Unexpectedly, one day General Rong Wu's head would be picked up by Panhu.The ministers of King Gaoxin thought that Panhu was just an animal and could not marry a wife.When the little princess heard about it, she didn't take it seriously, so she said to her father, "Everyone in the world knows about it. Panhu has wiped out harm for the country. Ministers should keep their promises, otherwise disasters will happen." King Gao Xin had no choice but to follow his daughter's advice.

Panhu took the little princess up to Nanshan Mountain and settled down in a stone cave.Because King Gaoxin missed his daughter, he once sent his ministers to visit her on the mountain. However, the weather suddenly changed, with layers of clouds and mist, lightning and thunder, mountains shaking, and heavy wind and rain, making it impossible to reach the little princess's residence. It is said that three years later, the couple gave birth to six sons and six daughters.These six men and six women married and reproduced with each other. This record uses many nouns of later generations, such as king (chief), palace, princess, general, etc., and also has the concept of family status of later generations.And the old woman without a name, who can live in the palace and has a doctor to see her, is actually the wife of King Gaoxin.There are legends about the earworm of the king's wife and the marriage of the king's daughter. There are traces of brother-sister marriage, which is too indecent, so it is renamed an old woman.This is an ethnic myth, which preserves the traces of totem worship and close marriage in primitive society.The origin of a certain nation is given a mythical explanation.Because it is closely related to dog totem worship, but this is not a natural "dog", but a "dog" in concept, so don't be misunderstood because of its sensitivity.Whether it is the "snake" species, the predecessor of the dragon, or the "dog" species mentioned in this myth, they are all ideological forms and cannot be equated with real natural creatures.In other words, it's a cultural phenomenon, so it's not meant to be insulting at all.

At the end of this myth and legend, there is another variant.Legend has it that the children of the Panhu couple used plants as raw materials to make clothes, dyed them in five colors, and left tails behind them.The princess once took her children back to their hometown once. Because they could not understand each other's language and were not used to living on the flat land, the children all wanted to live in the mountains.King Gaoxin gave them the famous mountain Guangze.They settled in the mountains and lakes, and bred their offspring. They were called "barbarians", that is, later Changsha Wuling barbarians.

This myth is still passed down orally among some ethnic groups, that is because later generations remember their ancestors.In particular, Panhu and the princess have made contributions to agricultural culture and opened up mountainous areas that are not visited by human beings. Second, there are a lot of myths that have been passed down orally.Because some ethnic minorities did not have written language, and some ethnic groups were still in the end of primitive society, slave society or early feudal society before 1949, not far from ancient times, and their myths and legends are mainly told by memory.In addition to being circulated in the form of prose stories, there are also a large number of myths preserved in epics and circulated in the form of rhymes.Therefore, the myths and legends of ethnic minorities are generally not as scattered as in ancient Chinese books, but rather complete and systematic.There is a certain correspondence between their pantheon genealogy and historical reality.And because their ancient myths and legends are still circulated among the people in a living form, they maintain their original appearance. Compared with the myths in ancient Chinese books, they are more simple, contain more primitive social sciences and natural sciences, and have more reliable primitive cultural history. value.For example, the myths and legends about the rebirth of human beings by the remnants of the flood are worldwide. The well-known is Noah’s Ark in the Old Testament. In fact, there are many works on the motif of ethnic minorities in our country, which are long in length, with twists and turns, and are related to gourd worship. , brother-sister marriage, human origin, and clan (primitive nation) origin are combined, containing rich historical content, each with its own national characteristics.For example, there are different explanations for the origin of human beings. At least a dozen ethnic groups say that humans came out of gourds, some said that humans came from mating with animals, some said that they came from animals or plants, and some said that they came from stones. came out of the hole.There are many kinds of myths orally passed down by ethnic minorities in our country, ranging from astronomy and geography to the customs and customs of human life. They are all reflected in myths and legends in twists and turns, which shows that they still maintain the innocence of human childhood and are full of romantic interest. , life is full of fantasy.

Thirdly, ethnic groups that have their own written language or that have already passed the Han language and written language can also preserve it in written form.For example, ethnic groups such as Tibetan, Mongolian, Yi, Dai, Naxi, and Bai have recorded their own myths and legends in their religious classics and other books. For example, the Yi nationality used to worship polytheism mainly based on ancestor worship. The wizards of this tribe were called Bimo, who were deified because they played an important role in preserving and spreading religion and national culture.In the myths and legends of this family, it is mentioned that there have been three major changes in the sky and the earth in ancient times: the first time, because there were six moons and seven suns in the sky, the heavenly official sent Bimo down to earth, and wiped away the earth with horse mulberry branches and iron stem grass. The evil of the universe.The second time was when the storm raged, and it was Bimo who came down to save the world.During the third flood, the heavenly official sent three bimos to carry scriptures down to earth.They each rode a yellow ox, and the scriptures were hung on the horns of the ox.When passing through the vast ocean, the scriptures were soaked.The scriptures were placed on the green leaves to dry, and half of them were stained, so the scriptures in Yi language were incomplete.Another said that it was half broken by an eagle.Therefore, scriptures are regarded as "books from heaven".

The "Book of Heaven" mentioned here is the Yi scripture, which is a comprehensive collection of the ancient culture of the Yi people.Among them, the most famous Yi classic book "Southwest Yi Zhi", the free translation of the original name is "shadow shape and clear and turbid two qi".The book has a total of more than 370,000 Yi characters, and was discovered in the Shuixi area of ​​northwest Guizhou. It is the most comprehensive book that records the ancient history and culture of the Yi people so far.The book begins with a creation myth. The Dongba scriptures of the Naxi people have attracted the attention of international cultural people.According to rough statistics, there are more than 2,400 gods in Dongba Sutra, including more than 220 great gods, more than 60 good gods, more than 60 evil gods, more than 90 ordinary gods, more than 20 goddesses, and more than 120 victory gods. indivual.In addition, there are thunder gods, mountain gods, dharma protectors, demigods, and the deified wizard Dongba, etc.Where there is a god, there is a story of a god.It can be seen that the richness of mythology is preserved in Dongba Jing.Some Naxi scholars say that the main body of Dongba literature is mythology.Dongba mythology and Dongba rituals are interdependent.The illusory colors, the charm of imagination, the loyalty of faith, and the atmosphere of confusion constitute a mysterious world where man and god are interdependent, interlinked, indistinguishable from god and god in human form.It is through this gorgeous five-color God Realm that future generations peek at the ancient society that has passed away for a long time.

It can be seen that ancient myths and legends are of course incomplete without mentioning the works of ethnic minorities. Next, let us experience the rich and colorful charm of our country's ancient culture through some main types of myths and legends.