A Study Of The Gods In The Literature Of The Yi Nationality

Yi language ancient documents as the concentrated manifestation of Yi culture,are the important profiles to study Yi ethnic's history,text,literature,religion,philosophy,astronomy,calendar,medicine,education and other aspects.But the current situation is that Yi language ancient documents are losing at an annual rate of more than one hundred volumes.Even those collected Yi language documents are damaged by nature.In recent years,more and more scholars have realized the value of the Yi language documents and the urgency to save the Yi language documents.There are a lot of research productions of Yi language documents.But throughout the current research status,the research emphasis is still stay in the Yi language translation.When study the translation books on Yi language,I found there are a lot of god.Some of the god are very similar with the god in Han ethnic folk,some are similar to the Taoist god,and some are similar to the god of Buddhism,there are also some names of god have obvious Yi characteristics.Yi has always believe the primitive religious beliefs,mainly showed as ancestor worship,totem worship,natural worship.The name of god in Yi language documents is the most intuitive form of Yi belief system.The number of Yi god is very large.Through these god,we can further understand the Yi people's history,religious beliefs,customs,taboos,and the integrated with the other ethnic groups.So it is worth to be attention and research.But there is not any scholar have research the Yi god spectrum.In view of this,based on the collection of nearly 200 Yi language documents,I attempts to record the name of god in all kinds of Yi language documents,and then analyze,conclude and summarize the name of god,classified them according to god's main responsibilities,list the theogony.In the theogony,list the name of god,attach the Yi language writing,international phonetic alphabet of phonetic,describe the gods' origin,responsibilities and related legends.The full text is divided into six chapters.The first chapter,according to the“theogony”wrote by ancient Greek poet Hesiod,the“Taoist theogony”wrote by Tao Hongjing and the Chinese folk theogony research situation,I give the definition of“theogony”:theogony is the record to classify the story recorded in ancient myths and legends about the gods'image,responsibilities and the deeds.Then further analysis the research value of theogony in religion,folk custom,and integration.The soil to plant the theogony is original religious faith,which include natural worship,animal and plant worship,the ghost worship,ancestor worship,totem worship,deities worship.It is generally recognized that nature worship appears the earliest,which is produced in the neolithic age.As the nature worship,people adore the cosmic inventory,such as heaven,earth,sun,moon,star,mountain,stone,sea,lake,river,water,fire,wind,rain,thunder,snow,cloud,rainbow.At that time,the productivity is very low,people give the extraordinary power to that natural objects and natural force which have the important effect and great harm to production and living.It is showed that who lives nearby the mountain worship the mountain wheal who lives nearby the river worship the river.People worship the nature to pray for good weather,healthy,rich and peace.The ghost worship,ancestor worship is based on the theory of "the immortality of the soul".Almost all ancestor worship is worship the male ancestor,so it seems that ancestor worship is a product of the matriarchal society transit to patriarchal society.Theogony directly reflects the human life.Although theogony records the gods' responsibility,nature,position,image,but after all,god is characterized by people according to the experience imagined.Therefore,the gods' nature is human nature.The type and quantity of gods in theogony directly reflect the lives of local people.The illusion of the gods image reflects the people's aesthetic preferences.A nation's theogony directly affects the formation of the folk custom?Theogony is not immutable,but absorb,exclude and mix all kinds of the name of god with the development of the society,which is a reflection of a cultural diversity.At present,domestic research main tend to the Chinese folk theogony and Taoist theogony,as well as the theogony of minorities ethnic.The second chapter,this paper expounds the background geographical background,economic background and cultural background of the Yi theogony,and then analyzes the the influence of theogony in public life such as marriage,funeral,festival,which proposed research theogony can help to understand the history,religious beliefs,customs,taboos and the integration of Yi ethnic.At last I reorganize the documents which appear the name of god,pointed out that religious document,literature document,history document which appear vast majority god.The third,forth and fifth chapter,Yi god can be divided into 14 parts,such as creator god,celestial god,local god,protect god,natural god,hell god,Bimo god,artisan god,ancestral god,evil god,animal god,plants god,Taoist god,Buddhist.In every part,summarize this type god,give the theogony,indicate the source,record the duty.In this section,I give the pictures of Yi characters if there are records in the documents and international phonetic alphabet notation.Some God have the important impact on Yi's life,such as soil god,the dragon king,the fire god,I detail the myths and legends and folk sacrifice.The six chapter,in view of the creation epics of Yi ethnic have a large number god,I record five creation epics individually,which include Hnewo,Teyy,Migu,Chamu,Axi Xijjie.Introduces the content of the creation epic and spread condition,list the theogony record.And draw a epic theogony diagram for each creation epic.