Qiandongnan in Guizhou was the destination of my first long-distance trip many years ago. All the way from Guiyang to Kaili, through the Rongjiang River, from the river, Liping to the ancient town of Zhengu, today I want to introduce the Zaidang Dongzhai of the Rongjiang River.
Zaidang is a village inhabited by the Dong people, and the most glorious of the Dong people is the Great Song of the Dong People. The a cappella, unconducting, multi-voice, and naturally loud Dong song was listed as a world intangible cultural heritage in 2009. The Dong people are a nation that cannot be separated from songs, they use songs to express feelings, pour out joys and sorrows, and use songs to inherit history and culture.
The Dong people have an old saying "rice nourishes the body, songs nourish the heart", and there are the most precious things of the Dong people in the Great Song of the Dong People. The content of the Great Songs of the Dong People is some about history, some exhortations to the world to be grateful, some singing rituals, and some singing praises to love and nature. Due to the nourishment of the Great Song of the Dong people for thousands of years, the Zaidang people are simple and friendly, and their lives are simple but happy. The mother and daughter who came to Zaidang Village with longing were ready to accept the spiritual purification of a Dong song.
Yang Xiuhong is a college student village official born and raised in Zaidang Village, because the Dong Song not only records the history of the Dong people, but also the teachings of many ancestors, he collected some ancient texts of the Dong Great Song. The Dong people did not have words earlier, how did they record the content of the songs? These ancient texts record the great song of the Dong people, "Yao Nai Hepai Shuai, when you judge the service of the pai pai fengju judge the adjudicator", which means that when you go to see the emperor, you must take this sign to see him. The Chinese characters we see are actually completely different from the literal meaning of it, and the ancestors of the Dong people used Chinese characters to write down that sound.
These ancient Songs of the Dong ethnic group were recorded by Yang Xiuhong's grandfather in Chinese characters. In Yang Xiuhong's view, these ancient songs are like family trees, heirlooms. After the founding of New China, we had the Dong script. Dong is like Pinyin and like English. At first glance, people think it's either Pinyin or English. Dong is preceded by pinyin and followed by Dong tone. The Dong ancestors used songs to pass on their history and wisdom.
Among our 56 ethnic groups, many ethnic minorities, like the Dong people, do not have their own script, but they have their own history, and their history is the history we are now dictating. The Dong people do not dictate, but sing history. The Dong people use the way of big songs to sing out their history and pass on their history, which is a very unique way of writing the history of our Chinese nation.
A few years ago, Yang Xiuhong went to Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, to work, remembering the days when there was no Dong song, and he still remembers it vividly. Yang Xiuhong recalled that at that time, he just wanted to go back to his hometown and sing the dong song with my friends. Want to sing, to what extent? Run to a place where no one is there to sing. He was afraid that after they heard it, they would say that the man had a neurosis. Although the life of the city is full of temptations and charms, Yang Xiuhong's heart has been difficult to calm down. He felt that the most inseparable thing in his life was the Great Song of the Dong People. In the end, Yang Xiuhong chose to return to his hometown. After returning to the village, he formed a Dong children's choir for the primary school in the village, and most importantly, he could sing every day.