Between History And Literature

Although the legend of Zhu-ge Liang seizing Meng huo for seven times, called as "seven times capture and seven times release", is wildly spread in china, the folk tales in Yi nationality about Meng Huo, who is treated as their progenitor, is hardly heard by most people. No matter in history or literature realm, there exists obviously discrepancy between the Han and the Yi nationality. In the history books written by Han nation, Meng Huo, called "Mang Wang" with the meaning of king of the barbarian, always served as a foil to the glary protagonist, Zhu-ge Liang. If we say this story is historical existence based, Meng Huo, unfortunately, made a second "sacrifice" literarily in Luo Guan-zhong’s novel "The Romance of the Three Kindoms". And this time, the sacrifice lasted longer and more tragically, for he could never get rid of the artistic image if "stupid, arrogant, outrageous and scoundrel man". But in the Yi nation, Meng Huo is always considered as an industrious, brave, resourceful, and benignant leader. Although his lost the war because of the "treacherous" Zhu-ge Liang, he is still a big hero of some tragic in the hearts of the Yi nation. It is very special of the Meng Huo phenomena. He is an Yi, meanwhile he is an official belong to a Han kingdom. He is a captive with some disgraceful behavior in the literatures of Han, while a great hero like god in the literatures of Yi. These are very interesting and vital phenomenon of "Alienation of Artistic Image" between two different ethnic groups, which we will focus on in this thesis.In the first part, the differences of Meng Huo’s images between the Yi’s history and Han’s history are analyzed. In the Yi history, Meng Huo’s family lineage was very clear. He was a slaveholder aristocracy, and became the leader of the Yi nation later. There are a few information of the war between he and Zhu-ge Liang recorded on a stele of "Tuo A Zhe". In the book of "The Origins of Yi Nation", lots of description, including the cause, process and result of the war were recorded, and it clearly showed the Yi people’s affection to Meng Huo and the dissatisfaction to the war. However, in the history written by Han nation, there are a lot of controversies for Meng Huo, including the existence of Meng Huo, Meng Huo’s nationality, and whether there exist the historicity of "seven times capture and seven times release".At the second part, the differences of Meng Huo’s image between the Yi’s literature and the Han’s literature are analyzed. In the Yi literature, Meng Huo was born with myth. The war between Meng Huo and Zhu-ge Liang were recorded in two books,"the story of Meng Huo" and "Le Ge Shi Re". In both books, Meng Huo is a great national hero for his great contribution of safeguarding the interests of the Yi and the peace between two nations. But in the Han’s literature, Meng Huo was portrayed as a stubborn, stupid, roguish person, and finally influenced by the mercy of Zhu-ge Liang to become a good man.Finally, by taking the different viewed descriptions of the war between Meng Huo Zhuge Liang, we analyzed the phenomenon of "Alienation of Artistic Image" between two different ethnic groups. Foremost, due to the ethnocentrism, different ethnicities tend to beautify national hero of their own and to belittle the hero of other tribe. That is why Meng Huo is so bright in the Yi and so mess in the Han. Second, because of the influence of the discourse power, the Han nationality always holds the power. So the view of beautifying Zhu-ge Liang and belittling Meng Huo is kept and widely spread. At the same time, the Yi has been under control by the Han, it is difficult to make their own nation’s attitude be flourished.It is an innovative point of this article, by using the ethnocentrism and discourse power to analyze the Meng Huo image discrepancy between two different ethnic groups. The dominant group grasps the voice to beautify their own nation, which makes the minority cultural development be restricted. Identification of our own culture should be proposed, meanwhile respect to other nation’s culture should also be emphasized, by which the promotion of the culture prosperity and the development of cultural diversity can then be achieved.