Yi Bimo copper magic bell.
In 2010, the Liangshan Yi Bimo documents were successfully selected into the third batch of Chinese archival documentary heritage list. Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan Province is the largest Yi population in China, with a population of 1.8825 million, accounting for 44.4% of the total population of the prefecture. The Yi people are one of the major ethnic minorities in China, with a long history and unique culture, and the Liangshan area is rarely affected by foreign cultures due to the closure of the geographical environment, and has preserved a large number of unique Bimo documents with distinct regional characteristics and the original style of the Yi people, with a large number of documents and very rich content.
Bimo Literature and Tools. A niu shi ri sa ancient song provoked
According to preliminary statistics, in Meigu County, which is known as the "hometown of Bimo culture", there are more than 330 kinds of Bimo literature scattered in the folk and more than 140,000 volumes (volumes). In order to rescue and protect these precious cultural heritage, the Liangshan Prefecture Government set up the Chinese Yi Bimo Cultural Research Center in Meigu County, the "hometown of Bimo Culture", in 1996, together with the Meigu County Archives and other units, responsible for collecting, preserving and studying Bimo literature, publicizing the importance of protecting Bimo culture, and successively collecting more than 1,500 precious Bimo documents collected from counties in the prefecture to the Meigu County Archives and the Bimo Cultural Research Center for preservation.
In addition, the Liangshan Prefecture Language and Writing Working Committee, the Liangshan Prefecture Slave Society Museum and other units also preserved a part of the Bimo literature. The main part of the application for the will is more than 1,500 volumes of important documents collected by the state government with special funds. In view of the fact that the outside world is still relatively unfamiliar with the Bimo literature, this article will make a brief introduction from three aspects to facilitate everyone to approach the Bimo literature.
A woman dressed up to attend the "Nim tsobi" ancestral ceremony.
The inheritor of the mysterious culture of Bimo
The word Bimo is a transliteration of the Yi language, the Chinese translation of "Bi" has the meaning of "preaching", and "Mo" has the meaning of "master" and "teacher". In the traditional social life of the Yi people, rituals and activities with religious significance, such as worshipping ancestral spirits, healing diseases from disasters, and choosing a day, are called "bi bi", and "bi mo" is "the person who does the end".
The traditional society of the Yi people is divided into five classes: Zi, Mo, Bi, Ge, and Zhuo, the latter two are craftsmen and commoners, and the first three are the ruling class. According to experts who study the history and culture of the Yi people, "Mo" is the transliteration of "Mo", and in history, "Bi Mo" once had the same social status as "Mo", and its functions and "Mo" overlapped with each other. At first, there was no distinction between church and state, and Bimo's functions were filled by the "leaders" who owned the political power; later, they gradually transferred their cumbersome religious functions to people of the lower rank, from "Z" to "Mo" to "Bi", and Bimo gradually became a class specializing in religious functions and presiding over social and cultural activities, occupying an important position in the traditional society of the Yi people. In Meigu County alone, there are still 6,850 people of all kinds and sizes in Bimo County, which fully demonstrates the great influence of Bimo in the social and cultural life of the Yi people. They have been playing a cultural and educational role in the Yi society for thousands of years in telling history, disseminating knowledge, and standardizing the code of conduct, and are actually intellectuals among the Yi people who have mastered the ancient cultural knowledge of their own ethnic group, imparted classics and national history and culture, and are the recorders, preservers and disseminators of the history and culture of the Yi people. From ancient times to the present, the Yi people regarded Bimo as a "wise man" and "the most knowledgeable" person.
Bimo had to be filled by Yi males and must be familiar with hundreds of Yi texts, including astronomy, geography, genealogy, ethics, epics, legends, myths, medicine, sacrifices, and divination. Inheritance is divided into two ways, family transmission and learning from teachers, because of the different inheritances, there are also different emphases on the depth of knowledge.
Bimo is the only practitioner of rituals and activities with religious significance, such as worshipping ancestral spirits, healing diseases from disasters, and choosing a day; he is the main inheritor and integrator of the Yi script, and the Yi script is also known as "Bimo". In fact, for hundreds of years before the 20th century, Bimo became the only person to read, record, and impart the Yi script among all classes of the Yi people. Bimo is also the recorder, preserver and imparter of the Bimo literature, a cultural classic of the Yi people.
Yi Bimo wizards.
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The hereditary Bimo family branch has been passed down from father to son for generations
The history and culture of the Yi people is ancient and unique, and Bimo is the only recorder, preserver and disseminator of the history and culture of the Yi people. Therefore, the Bimo documents are the only carrier of the history and culture of the Yi people, and are the precious historical documents of the Yi people recorded and preserved by the Bimos of the past.
Bimo literature is a typical Yi traditional handwritten document, passed down from generation to generation by the hereditary Bimo family branch, after the document is damaged, it is copied and transcribed by the new carrier of the current Bimo, the writing form is ancient Yi, the writing material is mainly used in the modern period to dip the blood of the sacrificial animal (such as fox) and the black liquid mixed with the ash at the bottom of the pot, and there are also colored natural stone grinding powder and water to adjust the writing material; the carrier is mainly paper and wooden boards, mainly rice paper, cotton paper, ordinary white paper, kraft paper, wooden board, wood, In the paper carrier, the largest is about 240 cm long and 50 cm wide, the smallest is about 10 cm long and 15 cm wide, generally about the size of A3 paper but slightly longer and narrower. When writing, write vertically from top to bottom, and turn the text ninety degrees to the left when reading, giving it a unique form of "left-to-hand flip-down". The carrier forms are diverse, the writing and reading forms are unique, which truly reflects the change process of human writing culture and writing technology, and truly reflects the long historical style of Yi writing and document preservation.
Although the exact date of formation of the current text cannot be determined to the specific date, it is clearly recorded at the end of the document by which Bimo copied it. At the same time, many documents (such as the "Exorcism Sutra" and "Yu Nerves") have truly preserved the history of the inheritance of the documents in the form of the father-son joint name system, which ensures the continuity of the inheritance of each Bimo document and the authenticity and originality of the existing documents, and the time background of the content of the documents can be traced back to the ancient times of the Yi people, and has continued to this day, without interruption in time, covering the entire history of the social development of the Yi people.
Bimo's literature is from Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan Province. The prefecture is the largest Yi ethnic concentration area in China, with a strong accumulation of Yi culture, simple and moving ethnic customs, and extremely complete preservation of ancient culture. Among them, Meigu County is located in the hinterland of the prefecture, the Yi population in the county accounts for more than 98%, due to the special natural geographical environment and historical origins, the influence of foreign culture is very small, with the Bimo ceremony is the most complete, the level of completion is superb and the Bimo literature is numerous, the content is complete and complete, broad and profound, which has attracted more and more extensive attention at home and abroad. Meigu County is the hometown of the three great Bimo masters, Asura Ze, Agha Sayon, and Ak gangwo, and the three masters are also the masters of the Bimo literature. The Bimo culture in the territory is extremely prosperous, the Bimo inheritance is orderly, and there are high generations; the Bimo literature is numerous, well preserved, the content is complete and clear, and the Bimo literature of various schools has both commonality and personality, complementing each other and constituting a complete cultural system. The application documents are mainly produced in Meigu County, which is of typical regional significance.
Bimo literature.
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A treasure trove of values for the thought and culture of the ancestors
Comprehensive inspection of the declared documents, they are all professional clerics of the Yi nationality - Bi Mo has been engaged in sacrifice, prayer, prayer, curse, divination, education, source, funeral, guidance, ancestor worship, calendar and other professional activities to record, preserve and pass down the special documents, but the content involved is clear, all-encompassing, broad and profound, involving the history, philosophy, agriculture, religion, ethics, literature, poetics, aesthetics, folk customs, astronomy, almanac, geography, medicine, law, etc., covering the Yi society , all levels of life and culture. For example, the "Book of Exorcism" is a document that is used more frequently, reflecting the basic religious concepts of the Yi people; the "Harmony of Husbands and Wives" reflects the basic ethical code of behavior of the Yi people; the "Le Ouit" is the epic poem handed down by the Yi people; the "Guiding Path Sutra" and the "Phoenix Classic" reflect the ancestor worship concept and the history of national migration of the Yi people; the "Redeeming the Soul Sutra" and the "Ask for Soul Nafu Sutra" reflect the Yi people's soul concept and the animistic concept; the "Anti-Leponia Classic" not only preserves the true history of the leprosy epidemic in the Yi area. It also reflects the Yi people's understanding of the spread and prevention of diseases; the "Hundred Interpretations" records a wealth of knowledge of astrological almanacs and reflects the concept of harmony between the heavens and men of the Yi people; the "Recruitment Classic", the "Phoenix Classic" and the "Luring Female Ghost Classic" are all written in poetic language, rich in rhetorical means, and have high literary value.
Therefore, the Bimo literature is not only a special religious document of sacrifice, but also a "carrier of the core culture of the Yi people", a treasure house of the ideological culture of the ancestors of the Yi people, and an "encyclopedia of the Yi people". It has important academic value for the study of the history and culture of the Yi people, the history of the relations between ethnic minorities in southwest China, the study of the Yi script, primitive religion, ethical norms, and customary laws, and the study of the unique astronomical almanacry and medicine of the Yi people. It is not only a precious cultural heritage of the big family of the Chinese nation, but also a rare world cultural heritage, with great protection and utilization value.
Bimo. A niu shi ri sa ancient song provoked
Specifically, the value of Bimo's literature is as follows:
Bimo literature was written in the ancient Yi script, which is a rare complete self-derived script that is ancient and self-contained. By studying the Bimo literature, we can have a clearer understanding of the emergence and development of writing;
The Bimo documents record the etiquette norms and customary laws of the Yi people, and are rare materials for studying the history of human civilization;
Bimo culture is a folk religious culture developed on the basis of primitive religion, and is a rare specimen of living primitive religious culture, and Bimo literature is of great significance to the study of primitive religion;
The Bimo documents record the ancient legends of the Yi people in detail, which is of great significance to the study of the history of the Yi people, the history of tribal migration, and the history of ethnic relations;
The vast majority of the Yi Bimo literature is written in poetic style, which is convenient for Bimo to chant and sing, and has high literary and musical aesthetic value;
A large number of astronomical almanac and astronomy knowledge are recorded in the Bimo literature, which occupies an important position in the history of the development of human astronomy;
Bimo literature (such as the "Sutra of Medicine Offering", "Sutra of Steaming Therapy", "Sutra of Grass and Wood Bath") records a lot of pharmacy and medical knowledge, if these knowledge is carefully analyzed and studied and utilized, it will play a positive role in the development of modern medicine.
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The task of rescuing and protecting the status quo is arduous and long
Although in recent decades, liangshan prefecture governments at all levels and all sectors of society have carried out a large number of rescue and protection work on the Bimo documents, which have aroused continuous attention from the outside world and have been successfully selected into the list of Chinese archival documents, but their rescue and protection tasks still have a long way to go.
First, due to historical reasons, many precious documents have been lost overseas or destroyed, and many precious documents are still scattered in the hands of private Bimo, with extremely poor storage conditions, great safety hazards, and are constantly being lost.
Second, Bimo literature is written in ancient Yi, with the impact of foreign culture and changes in its own growth environment, Bimo's profession is now lacking in successors, the older generation of Bimo is gradually aging and dying, even Bimo culture is the most complete preservation of Meigu County, the old Bimo who is familiar with the classic literature has less than 20 people, and the culture and rituals have gradually alienated, and even the face is completely different. Bimo literature is facing a state of loss, exodus and impending readability.
Third, there is still a lot of rescue and protection work to be done in the precious documents that have been rescued and protected by archives and research institutions. At present, this part of the literature is only a simple book flow login, there is no detailed content catalog, and the content of the vast majority of the literature has not been translated into the standard Yi and Chinese languages. The large number of precious documents in the collection is facing the dilemma of no one interpreting, translating, and studying.
(The pictures in this edition are from the Sichuan Provincial Local History Work Office except for the signature)