Preface

Liang Tingwang

The Zhuang Folksongs of Poya Village Funing,China composes one of the literary masterpieces of the Zhuang nationality.These songs originate from Funing County,located in the Wenshan Prefecture of Yunnan Province,which is a fascinating place.The folksongs are notable for their unique construction,expressiveness,rich allusions,and unique cultural heritage.Although there are only eighty-one images used to represent the eighty-one Poya folksongs,they represent a unique system among the orthographies of the world.The Poya characters are graphic symbols used to represent the songs in the collection.Written characters typically represent a language’s morphemes by describing the pronunciation or the syllabic form of the word.Written characters like these can be used in varying contexts to expand the effective use of the language as a communication tool.Generally speaking,writing systems can be divided into three types: those which mimic the shape or form of the object,those which represent semantic meaning of the word(logographic or ideographic),and those which represent the sound of the word(whether alphabetic/phonological or syllabic).In common with these types of writing systems,the symbols used to represent the Poya Folksongs also have symbolic value,have a fixed form,represent a fixed pronunciation and meaning,and have a function of spreading and transmitting the language through time and space.However,the symbols used in the Poya folksongs collection do not really fit into any one of the three types of writing systems mentioned above,but rather represent a type of rarely-seen written symbols.Most of the symbols used in the Poya folksongs are symbolic in nature,but a given symbol’s shape does not have a direct connection with the meanings of any specific morpheme or word.The symbol chosen to represent each of the Poya folksongs often relates to a particular line within the song that it represents,and does not represent a specific word,syllable or even theme of the song.In other words,the usage of a given symbol in the Poya Folksongs has some connection with the content of that particular song,however,the specific relationship between the symbol’s form and the song itself is connotative and symbolic rather than direct.The symbols do not directly represent the form or meaning of the songs,rather,each unique symbol represents a different Zhuang love song.The shorter songs contain only four lines of five syllables,that is,a maximum of twenty words,whereas the longer songs can contain thirty lines,with up to 150 words.The one-to-one correspondence between the symbols and the particular song is unique to that song,in other words,the symbol is only used to represent that particular song and is not used elsewhere.Therefore,the symbols of the Poya folksongs are a system of symbols representing a body of literary material.One could say that the entire overall sound,form and meaning of a Zhuang love song have been condensed down in a concise and specific symbol.It has been observed that the symbols of the Poya folksongs have overturned the traditional definition and characteristic of a written word,to some degree.This indicates that the phenomenon of human cultural and language use is unpredictable and fascinating,with capacity to surprise even the professionals.The Poya symbols also suggest that the definitions and limitations formulated by ourselves should not be considered constant across the human experience.The symbols of the Poya folksongs have posed a new challenge for linguists.In this sense,the importance of the symbols used in the Poya folksongs goes beyond merely the eighty-one love songs recorded here.They represent a rarely-seen,welldeveloped system of written symbols.

The Poya folksongs originated in Funing County,of the Wenshan Zhuang and Miao Autonomous Prefecture,within Yunnan Province,which is a fascinating place enriched by a variety of cultures.This area,full of picturesque scenery,enjoys a moderate climate,receives abundant precipitation,is filled with dense forest and blooming flowers,and is temperate and fertile for agriculture year-round.The ancestors of the Zhuang people are the earliest pioneers of the area,which is also considered one of the earliest birthplaces of rice-farming culture.Centuries of rice-farming have developed a people that is mild-mannered,introverted,tough,industrious,brave,tenacious,united,cooperative,creative,inventive,and who are the creators of an abundant and fascinating Zhuang ethnic culture.The native folksongs,which have been inherited and passed on for generations,are used to express the passion of Zhuang people.The dramas of Zhuang people have also been passed on to the present and represent a fascinating tradition within the wider heritage of the Chinese minority nationality dramatic arts.The cultural mores,ethical values,and customs of the Zhuang remain pure and wholesome.When Zhuang people are gathered in Zhuang market towns on market days,one can see a colorful scene full of Zhuang traditional costumes and jewelry,something which has become uncommon in other Zhuang minority regions.It is from this rich cultural heritage and background that the folksongs of Poya village originated.

It is hard to determine when the folksong symbols of Poya village were first composed,but they appear to have a long history.The three types of written symbols used by humans,that is,drawings based on shapes,morpheme-based logograms or pictograms,and phonemebased alphabets and syllabaries,represent three distinct stages of development.Among the three types,the drawing of shapes or forms(including pictograms)is the earliest stage.Of the pictograms of the Zhuang people,the earliest are the called“Insect Track Characters”,also called“Root or Radical Characters”.The carved texts of the Shang Dynasty Period developed through the Pre-Qin Period,by which time the Zhuang nationality writing system already possessed both pictograms as well as ideograms.Among the Poya folksong symbols,we find both pictograms and ideograms.The folksongs of Poya village have been passed down by women,connecting the present with the era when women held more power.Therefore,this writing system which seems to have begun in the Pre-Qin period,developed,to a certain degree,in another age when women’s status was relatively higher than the status of man.The later decline of women’s rights is reflected in the currently accessible form of the Poya symbols.The original symbols were certainly more numerous than the remaining set that we can still see now.

The eighty-one love songs recorded in the collection of Poya folksongs represent an adaptation of the antiphonal man and woman duet singing style which reflects the love story of young Zhuang couples.The story demonstrates the complete cycle of romantic love,from first getting to know one another,to falling in love,to finally getting married.Their love starts on a picturesque night with the gentle light of the moon fused with the twinkle of the stars.The moon is holy and pure,just like a mirror in the sky.A handsome boy has met a beauty behind a graceful tree.The boy falls totally in love with the gorgeous girl while he tenaciously expresses his love to the girl.The story reflects the simple,guileless nature of the Zhuang people,he does not directly say“I love you”to this beauty he so admires,but instead relates his poor family background and his loneliness as a single person in order to use his hardship to arouse the girl’s sympathy.The Zhuang believe that sympathy can easily become love.Finally,the beautiful young woman begins to feel affection toward the man as well.However,she will not agree to be his wife until she has first ensured,by cautious inquiry,that the man is not already married or dating someone else.The usual pattern of the antiphonal duet used to sing Zhuang love songs includes the song of meeting,the song of guidance,the bragging song,the song of salutation,the song of inquiry,the praise song,the song of pursuit,the first love song,the song of intimacy,the pledge song,the gift-giving song,and sometimes also the song of yearning and even the song of resentment.The Poya folksong collection possesses examples of almost all of these.These songs are characteristically unadorned,but reflect a rich imagination,make use of vivid metaphors,and employ elegant language to express strong passion.These songs overflow with the cultural atmosphere of enjoyment of life,passion and the pursuit of happiness.The Poya folksongs also reflect the values and characteristics of the Zhuang people,especially the values for being cautious,persistent,faithful towards marriage and family.These songs demonstrate the abundant and yet delicate emotional world of this rice-cultivating ethnic group,and the singing of these songs does not fail to move the hearers emotionally,whoever they may be.

Although the Poya folksong collection includes only eighty-one songs,the collection is rich in cultural significance.Whenever one hears or reads the Poya folksongs,a torrent of emotion is unleashed.In these songs,one sees that the Zhuang heartland is a place full of vitality,as“the maple tree sends out shoots in the first month,and the maple leaves turn green in the second month,”the kapok flowers bloom,and the land is full of passion.When the paddy rice seedlings sprout green and the grain germinates,world becomes green wherever one looks.At this time,if we want to know whether there is love in the air,the grain will answer this question by its full appearance.The lyric“…during the third month,I was stung by midges,during the fourth month,I was bitten up by mosquitoes…”indicates that even the air is full of life and that the season of love is right around the corner.The description of the pursuit of love in the Poya folksongs is sometimes surprising.Slender bamboo is employed to describe the slim figure of girls,fantastic and unexpected.The picturesque and fitting metaphor of“water leaking through the walls of a rice paddy”and“a buffalo pastured alone in the mountains,”describes the anguish of unsatisfied love.True love is“as heavy as boats filled with tin”in contrast to false love,which is“as light as cotton”.In the Poya folksongs a“cow pulled by two ropes”is used as a vivid metaphor for someone who has invested in two lovers at once.Rare love is described using the metaphor of“a hive in the top of the tree”.

To describe the harmony shared by a loving couple we hear of the image of“a rope made of twisted intestines”,indicating that they“cannot be separated”.There is no more fitting and vivid metaphor than this.Two strands of rope twisted and tangled together section by section are nearly impossible to separate.This is not only a poetic motif but also reflects the mindset and attitude of Zhuang people toward life.They do not advocate using marriage and family as a way of pursuing money or a life of luxury.At this point,in the traditional thinking of the Zhuang people,love is held in high regard whereas they are adamantly opposed to an attitude of“distain for the poor and pursuit of treasure”.This is not to say that Zhuang people do not hope to become affluent.They also long for happiness and a blessed life.However,this life pursuit is based upon the ethic of hard work rather than upon the desire to reap without sowing.The image of the two strands twisted into one rope represents this ideal vividly.This ideal also goes against the traditional feudal business transaction view of marriage.

The poetry of the Poya folksongs is based upon metaphors derived from the natural scenery of Funing County.These metaphors are delicate and contemplative,as well as being pleasing aesthetically.They encourage us to thirst for and to pursue beauty.When love has been realized,the hardships of life become like nothing for Zhuang people.At that time,“We go out hand in hand… Together we blow on the embers of the fire,laughing when the fire flames up…”“If we have no food,we will eat wind.If there is no wood,we will burn chaff...”“We can make a house of rattan.”These are the Zhuang people’s attitudes toward life.

A variety of native customs are reflected in the folksongs of Poya village.For example,“Your mother’s skirts are white on top; your wife’s skirts are pink on top.”This reflect the different roles of married women and unmarried women in Zhuang society,with the“wife”still retaining some of her maiden skirts.

“Are you willing to have me?

I won’t be stingy in salting your sauces.

I will get dressed up,so you will notice me,

I am so ready to be with you,to be with you from now until forever!

We’ll stay together through the night until morning’s light,

Or if not till dawn,at least until midnight,

Or,if not until midnight,at least until we see the rooster.

When we see the rooster strutting through the village,

When we hear the chicks begin to cluck,

When the mothers of toddlers awake,

When the mothers get up to light the fires,

Only then will I leave you and walk back through the village alone!”

This reflects an ancient custom called“the night berth”.“The night berth”is a kind of matrimonial pairing up for intraclan matches,which continued until the Song Dynasty(960-1279 CE)or even longer by Zhuang people.According to the Chinese history book,Taiping Huanyu Ji(The Taiping One World Record),during the Song Dynasty in some areas,“at the middle of each month,young men and women gather in gorgeous garment,blowing the sheng instrument,playing with each other in the night under the bright moon.This is called ‘the night berth’.After nine o’clock in the evening,lovers pair up and make love anywhere.”Later when the marriage institution was fixed,the custom of“making love anywhere”disappeared but other parts of“the night berth”custom have been passed down and has generated the“night singing fair”.So,the lines“we’ll stay together through the night until morning’s light”,illustrate the common custom.

The lines“I married very young,before my hair was braided.I was given in marriage even before my hair was parted,”indicates the hair style of Zhuang women,whose hair cannot be braided or parted easily.The hairstyle has been connected to the marital status of Zhuang women.The eighteenth song refers to the sword which the Zhuang men solemnly wore on their belts during the chieftain era.At that time,once a man of Zhuang nationality was born,he was already considered a solider of his local chieftain.To symbolize this,his parents had to entreat the chieftain to grant him a name when he was born.After visiting their chieftain,the parents would go to the fair to buy a piece of iron,whose weight exactly matched that of the newborn.The piece of iron was to be offered to the deity,then tied with a red silk and hung at the head of the bed.This was called the“iron for forging the sword”.When the child was around ten years old,they would forge his sword from the iron,and for the rest of his life the sword would hang at his waist as a sign of his identity as man.There are similar cultural connotations within each song—the collection is rich in cultural information.

As for the eighty-one symbols used to represent the songs,some represent animals from the Wenshan Prefecture area,for example,the partridge,the mandarin duck,the grasshopper,the grass carp,the horse,etc.Some depict plants,for example,various species of bamboo,maple trees,leeks,longyan fruit,thatch,taro,cucumber,grapes,banana,sugarcane,etc.Some represent natural objects and astronomical phenomena,for example,the moon,stars,snow,etc.Some depict common tools,for example,a wooden boat,a cotton basket,a scythe,an axe,a saw,a hoe,a table and chair,stone piers,a lamp,chopsticks,etc.Some images are inspired by actions,for example,laughing,gambling,following another,walking together,farming,holding hands,etc.Some are clothing,for example,skirts,pants,gauze,etc.Some images represent people,for example,a single man,a pair of lovers,dead people,a young girl,etc.Each symbol has its own origin,explanation,story and connotation,which can indicate a specific cultural element.Overall,the symbols can be viewed as an interpretation of the history and ethnic customs of the Zhuang of Funing County,even of the Zhuang of Wenshan Prefecture as a whole.From this perspective,the folksongs of Poya village are not just some love songs,but rather constitute an important work full of ethnological knowledge.

This collection of Poya village folksongs was researched and collated by the Communist Party of China,the People’s Government,the Office of Cultural Industries,and the Zhuang Knowledge Research Institute of Funing County and other departments.This work is a great contribution to the discovery of ethnic culture.The discovery and interpretation of the folksongs of Poya has benefitted from the support of the leaders of the Wenshan Zhuang and Miao Autonomous Prefecture of Yunnan Province.The importance of this work has been affirmed by expert review groups.In a word,the widespread interest in the Poya folksongs is due to the cooperative work of a number of different entities.We hope that the official publication of the folksongs of Poya village will fascinate the world.

The Chinese University of Nationalities,Beijing,July 12,2007^[1]

【注释】

[1]Note: The author is the former vice president of the Chinese University of Nationalities(CUN),as well as a professor and doctoral supervisor.