An expert on oral and written traditions of southwest China and professor of East Asian Languages and Literatures at Ohio State University, Mark Bender continues his study of creation epics in The Nuosu Book of Origins: A Creation Epic from Southwest China. His previous books include Plum and Bamboo: China’s Suzhou Chantefable Tradition (University of Illinois Press, 2003) and Butterfly Mother: Miao (Hmong) Creation Epics from Guizhou, China (Hackett Publishing, 2006). Aku Wuwu (Chinese name Luo Qingchun), co-author of the book, is a professor of Yi studies and associate dean of the College of Yi Studies, Southwest Nationalities University in Chengdu, Sichuan, and a renowned poet who writes in both the Yi language and Chinese. The two scholars are perfect collaborators. Between them, they found a rare version of the epic written in the Yi script, produced an accurate translation, and added to it a comprehensive and insightful introductory treatise to Yi culture. Remarkable, too, is the fact that they made yearly fieldtrips to the region from 2004-2015 (131).
Nuosu of the Liangshan Mountains of southern Sichuan is the largest subgroup of the Yi People, a main ethnic group of southwest China. Although a Chinese language translation of a composite “master text” of the Yi Book of Origins exists, Bender and Aku Wuwu sought to locate a single folk version to translate into both Chinese and English. This they found in a text copied by a “tradition-bearer” (ndggu) named Jjivot Zopqu (also a retired official) of an old, now lost bimo (local ritual masters) scroll. Although Aku Wuwu is proficient in two Yi scripts (classical and modern standard), he benefitted from comments and line-by-line explications from an elderly bimo and Jjivot Zopqu.
The Nuosu Book of Origins is usually chanted, by bimo priests, ndggu tradition-bearers, and others familiar with the epic, at major ritual events such as rites of passage ceremonies, weddings, and funerals. Bimo priests are males, and can read and use Yi scriptures. They seem to be more dominant and are considered more sophisticated than the illiterate local shamans (sunyi) and shamanesses (monyi), who go into trance states and might perform fantastic feats such as fire-walking and licking hot plowshares.
The book consists of a preface, introduction, and translation of “The Book of Origins,” along with extensive notes, a guide to pronunciation and conventions, a map, a glossary, references, and an index. The preface is an ethnographic account of how the authors acquired the text and their visit to Jjivot Zopqu’s home in the mountains. The comprehensive and insightful introduction is a major part of the book. Consisting of seventy-one pages, it informs the readers of Nuosu history and culture and provides an analysis of the epic. The topics embraced include geography, society, religion, life-cycle events (e.g., a girl’s coming-of-age ceremony and bridal laments), material culture (e.g., production of felt), foodways, writing systems, literature, and an outline of the epic and its themes. It ends by noting the continuation of performances of the epic at non-traditional venues such as local festivals, schools, and ethnic-themed restaurants.
This introduction draws on a host of works, by anthropologists, historians, folklorists, and other scholars, in both English and Chinese. Western theoretical concepts such as pluriverse, eco-genealogy, mythic code, “traditional referentiality,” “panspermia,” multiform structure, and “cosmographic” folk knowledge intertwine with copious references to studies of Yi culture, as well as with knowledge added by Aku Wuwu based on personal experiences. Indeed, the introduction enriches the epic by providing background materials for its appreciation . For example, Bender suggests historical reasons for the clan ruptures and mass migrations evidenced in the numerous genealogies of the epic. The same can be said of the copious notes provided by the authors to the often-cryptic references in the narrative. For example, the lower road indicates those of lower social status, such as slaves (148).
“The Book of Origins,” the main part of the present book, begins with the creation of the sky and earth, and proceeds to relate tales of early hero ancestors, a great flood, migration of the clans from northeast Yunnan to their present locations, and their genealogies. In the original world, the ancestors of the “snow tribes” included both plants and animals. By the time of the mythical ancestral heroes, one notes a transition from matrilineal to patrilineal descent. Zhyge Alu’s mother became impregnated with him when three drops of blood of a dragon-eagle fell upon her. Shyly Wote came from a long line of people “who did not know who their fathers were” and set out to “find and buy a father.” “From this point on, sons would know who their fathers are” (44). Along with the migration tales and genealogies of the clans, the epic indicates cultural preferences of these people and also exhibits customs and constructs hierarchies that are still being observed.
Bender and Aku Wuwu have made accessible a rare version of a Yi People scripture, complete with a most remarkable introduction to it. If I’m allowed to quibble, I wish that they had included Chinese characters in the bibliography, when applicable. I would also like to point out that the web address on page XVII for accessing “the text written wholly in the standard Yi romanization” does not contain the text indicated, but does include a downloadable pdf. file of this wonderful book!
This work will be of interest to students and scholars of folklore, oral literature, mythology, and the anthropology of ethnic minorities in southwestern China.
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[Review length: 911 words • Review posted on April 22, 2021]