On The Relationship Between Yugur And Dunhuang From The Perspective Of Folk Song Rhymes

There are a large number of alliteration works in Uighur language found in Dunhuang,including both folk literature and religious poetry,all in the form of alliteration.Uighur Buddhist documents found in Dunhuang,such as Uighur inscriptions,sutra writing and postscript,are common.What’s more,when translating Buddhist scriptures,Uighurs often use the form of rhymes instead of prose works,which is unique.Alliteration refers to the rhyme of the first word or syllable of the first sentence and the last sentence of a poem.The origin can be traced back to the Turkic LUNI inscriptions found on the Mongolian Plateau.After the Uighur moved west to Hexi and the western regions in the 9th century,this form of rhyme became more popular and personalized,and affected many languages and folk songs of Altaic language family in later generations.There is a direct blood relationship between Yugur folk literature and Dunhuang Uighur culture.Dunhuang Uighur and Mongolian literature can be regarded as the ancient cultural heritage of Yugur.The relevant Uighur and Mongolian works unearthed in Dunhuang are mostly in the form of rhymes,which are unique and can be regarded as the source of ancient Yugur literature.Yugur culture is famous for folk songs and is one of the most important cultural forms of Yugur today.Generally speaking,a small part of its folk songs are rhyming,but most of them are rhyming.This situation is very different from the rhythm form of Yugur folk songs recorded by Russian scholar Malov a century ago.In the folk songs recorded by Malov,it is generally rhyming.At the same time,it is also common to have both tail rhyme and middle rhyme.The rhyme phenomenon in Yugur folk songs is the same as the Uighur poetry unearthed in Dunhuang.Yugur people believed in Shamanism in the early days,and later converted to Manichaeism and Buddhism.Today,they mainly believe in Tibetan Buddhism.The primitive religion Shamanism,which originated from the matriarchal clan society,was once very popular among the ethnic groups in the north.There are abundant records about the myths,legends,functions and rituals of Shamanism goddess and female shaman.Most of the ethnic groups who once believed in Shamanism have rich records.Yugur is also one of the ethnic groups who once believed in Shamanism.There are few records of female shamans about Shamanism worship ceremony and other customs.Among the folk stories,legends and folk songs collected by Malov,there are a small number of songs about Yugur female shamans.The image of female shamans and their characters in these songs are still seen in today’s Yugur folk literature works.It can be confirmed that there are female shamans in the Yugur Shamanism belief from ancient to modern times.The common people are closely related to the higher social status of women in the early stage,but later,the status of female shamans was gradually replaced by men.The rhyme form of Yugur Shaman Divine songs is also based on rhyme.This literary tradition has had an impact on many ethnic groups of Altaic language family.From the perspective of folk songs,taking the Western Yugur folk songs as the center,through the arrangement of 40 folk songs recorded by Malov during his inspection in Sunan in the early 20th century,we can connect the alliteration phenomenon of Western Yugu folk songs with Dunhuang Uighur poetry,so as to build a relatively complete genealogy for the alliteration poetry of Altai ethnic groups,That is,Mobei Turkic inscription alliteration→Uighur document language alliteration→Mongolian alliteration→Yugur alliteration.Although the source of Manchu Tungusic alliteration represented by Manchu is unknown,it may have some connection with Uighur and Mongolian alliteration,which needs to be further explored.Today,a small part of the rhyme of Yugur folk songs,whose metrical characteristics are in line with Uighur poetry,proves that Yugur’s inheritance of Uighur culture is reflected in many aspects.The form and singing mode of folk songs and the contents related to Shamanism,Manichaeism and Buddhism in folk songs can be reflected.Yugur folk songs inherit and develop the characteristics of ancient Uighur poetry.It can be further proved that the record of Yugur ethnic group formed in Dunhuang in the early Ming Dynasty in Suzhenhuayizhi(肃镇华夷志)is credible.