A Study On Hmong's Epic King Of Yalu And Its Cultural Space

King of Yalu is an live heritage epic of Hmong which first unfolded in 2009 Guizhou Intangible Cultural Census,and it is also the sole epic work newly discovered in 21 st century of China which exceeded ten thousand lines.This prominent discovery rewrites the history of Chinese ethnic minority literature and offers vivid study case for oral traditions study.Immersing in the tremendous socio-cultural change,epic traditions and its cultural space of King of Yalu in modern era is indeed the fate epitome of Chinese ethnic minorities folklore.The structure of this paper is composed of introduction,body and conclusion as following.Chapter One Introduction will be followed by a description of purport background,related studies on Hmong in Mashan,epic King of Yalu and cultural changes of Chinese ethnic minorities,and an elaboration on scholarly value and writing mentality.Chapter Two,Hmong in Mashan and Its Ethnic History Narrative King of Yalu,describes necessary objective circumstance under this study object and contains two aspects i.e.Hmong in Mashan and King of Yalu respectively.The former mainly represents historical origins of Mashan and Hmong,and give a basic orientation to the Hmong in Mashan in history and cultural space.The latter introduces content,properties and transmission of the epic King of Yalu.Chapter Three,Epic Tradition and Rural Life,returned epic back to life,finely analysis specific relationship between epic tradition and rural life of Hmong via studying on correlation between epic corpus and funeral rites,rite behavior and rules of ritual practitioners,and epic texts and daily life in virtue of interrelated and constrained relationship between epic performance and funeral rites.Epic King of Yalu bears itself in small and sparse villages of Mashan.The word "cultural space" was adopted in order to emphasize the significance of Hmong communities in the continuation and promotion of the King of Yalu epic tradition and the traditional culture of the Hmong people.Chapter Four,Cultural Space Transition of King of Yalu,through the observation and writing of the case of Balong in Hmong communities,is trying to demonstrate the changing cultural context of the narrative-ritual tradition of King of Yalu in the separately analysis of material life,livelihood means,social life and village community.Chapter Five,A Study on Epic Inheritance and Practitioners in Communities Changes,describes from practitioners and recipients,namely inheritance mechanism and cultural ecology of contemporary inheriting and promotion in oral tradition,especially showed concern of the challenging social status loss of epic ritual practitioners(Donglang),and appeals adequate attention for their social status and indispensable dynamical correlation in epic inheriting.Chapter Six discusses revolving around features of intangible cultural heritage of epic King of Yalu.The Chinese government inherit and promote the cultural inheritance both in and out of the communities,which takes respective needs for each.In this also specially demonstrates relatives problems initiated from rural practice identity and elitism,which contributes on appealing profound consideration by all round cultural institutions and scholars.The last chapter is summary and conclusions.