Prosperous China Why China|The thousand-year-old epic "Manas" is endless

【Opening remarks】

General Secretary Xi Jinping stressed at the symposium on cultural inheritance and development that it is our new cultural mission in the new era to continue to promote cultural prosperity, build a cultural power, and build the modern civilization of the Chinese nation at a new starting point. For more than 5,000 years, the Chinese nation has continued the historical context, and written a broad and profound Chinese civilization with the enterprising spirit of keeping the right and not the old, respecting the ancient and not retro. If China is not understood from the perspective of its long historical continuity, it is impossible to understand ancient China, nor modern China, let alone future China. Follow the footsteps of thousands of years of culture and tell the story of passing on the torch in intangible cultural heritage.

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On the western borderlands, between the snowy peaks of the Tian Shan and Kunlun Mountains, there are oasis river valleys that have nurtured horses, eagles and the Kirgiz people who have been singing for generations. For thousands of years, they have kneaded the history of the nation into songs, and gathered into eight epic poems with more than 230,000 lines of "Manas".

"I will sing the lion-like hero Manas... This is the story left by the ancestors, how can it be done without singing it? On the Gobi Desert in Ucha County, Kyzylsu Kirgiz Autonomous Prefecture (hereinafter referred to as "Kezhou") in Xinjiang, the singing of Memetiturgan Aisek rises with the rising sun, "For us Kirgiz people, Manas shines like the sun in the sky. ”

Mematiturgan Aisek is a member of the Kezhou Song and Dance Troupe, at the foot of the snowy mountains, in the green pastures, on the stage, in the felt house... Over the years, he and the members of the song and dance troupe have brought Manas to every corner of Kezhou.

From the first time Manas stepped out of the prairie and onto the stage in 1984, to the development of duets, choral singing, singing, opera, dance drama, song and dance drama and other different forms, this thousand-year-old epic saga has continued to innovate from the Pamirs to the wider distance.

Continuing the memory of the ethnic group The millennium epic jumped on the paper

Manas is a legendary hero of the Kirgiz people, and the epic Manas is named after him, telling the story of him and seven generations of descendants leading the Kirgiz people to fight foreign invasions and pursue a happy life.

Manas was not created overnight by one person, but the crystallization of the collective wisdom of the Kirgiz people. For thousands of years of oral tradition, generations of Kirgiz people have integrated their knowledge of the surrounding things and understanding of social life into their epics, making it an "encyclopedia" of the Kirgiz people.

Local children almost grew up singing to the singing of Manas, and Mematturgan Esak was no exception. He grew up in the border pastoral area of Wucha County, Kezhou, and whether in the Yin Yin pasture or in the warm yurthouse, he could always hear "Manaschi" singing heroic stories aloud.

"Manaschi" is the Kirgiz honorific name for the folk artist who sang "Manas", and it is the chanting of "Manaschi" from generation to generation that has allowed this legendary epic to break through the dust of history and pass it on to this day.

Today, Mematiturgan Aisek is also a "Manaschi" and works as a composer in the Kezhou Song and Dance Troupe. In his memory, he always retains the scene of watching the old man sing "Manas" as a child.

On the carpet of the felt room, a group of people sat in a circle, wearing a white felt hat and wearing a national costume "Manaschi" sitting cross-legged in the middle to sing, the space in the felt room was limited, and more people could only stand outside the felt room, lifting the fenced felt and looking inside. The song of "Manaschi" is sometimes sonorous and sometimes tactful, with waving arms, or imitating Manas's majestic posture as he galloped across the battlefield, or expressing heartfelt praise for the hero. Because of the large range of movements, "Manaschi" often sings and moves forward little by little, without the slightest awareness of it.

Generations of "Manaschi" have poured wisdom and imagination into this epic, and most notably Jusuf Mamayi. The 97-year-old is the only "Great Manaschi" who can sing all eight Manas books in its entirety, and in the hearts of his hometown people he is as majestic as the snowy peaks of Mushtag, the conqueror of heroic epics.

Since the 60s of the last century, the mainland has begun to carry out large-scale investigation, collection, recording, translation, publication and research of the Manas epic. Among them, the eight "Manas" sung by Jusuf Mamayi spanned 30 years, were sung and recorded three times, and finally all were recorded in 1983 and published in 1995. This feat marked the transition of the continental Manas epic from oral to textual, from living to fixed textual form. In 2004, the Chinese translation of more than 20 million words of Manas came out, and this work lasted 17 years.

The Hero's Story Walk down the Pamirs

Whether it is wedding celebrations, important festivals or after work, the people of the Kirgiz always gather together to sing Manas.

As a child, he often secretly imitated the singing and movements of adults, but at that time he had not thought that he would one day be able to wear a holy white felt hat and sing this legendary epic to the public.

It was not until he entered the Kezhou Song and Dance Troupe that Mematiturgan Essek began to systematically learn the singing of the epic poem "Manas". The most difficult thing is the coordination and integration between tone, gestures and emotional expression, "a good 'Manaschi' can not only sing enough space, but also be able to move people's hearts", which requires the singer to completely devote himself to the epic story, using the mutual cooperation of tone and gestures to best convey the emotions contained in the lyrics, said Mematiturgan Esek.

"The green-maned wolf Manas struck out, his sun-like face shining... From behind, he has the majesty of a white tiger; From a positive point of view, he has the power of a dragon; From overhead, he has the brilliance of the Divine Bird of Alepkara..." This is a passage that Mematturgan Esek particularly likes. In the felt room, following his high tone, resolute eyes and powerful waving arms, the imposing and majestic Manas seemed to appear in front of him.

A graduate of the Conservatory, he has always tried to make Manas more infectious with the help of modern music. In the latest rehearsal of the song and dance "Manas", Mematiturgan Essek added elements such as harmony and symphonic instruments through computer production, "The melody of Manas in my mind is magnificent, marching, soft and soothing, lyrical, and there are also a fusion of elements to express his resolute heroism and feelings of helping the world. ”

The song and dance drama "Manas" was created by Kezhou and Jiangsu Soviet Union, which came to aid Xinjiang, was completed in 2019 and successfully premiered in Nanjing the following year. In August 2022, the Kezhou Song and Dance Troupe, together with the song and dance troupes of counties and cities under its jurisdiction, with a total of more than 100 people, launched the rehearsal, showing the exciting journey of Manas's birth, growth, alliance and development with various tribes, finally becoming a family member with Kanikai, leading tribal warriors on expeditions and triumph.

On March 18, 2023, the song and dance drama "Manas" kicked off at the Beijing National Theater. The sonorous drumbeat, the beautiful notes of Kumzi combined with the chanting of "Manaschi", the gentle stretching or majestic dancing of the dancers, together present a magnificent epic picture full of strong frontier style. As the first performance of the "National Ethnic Region Art Troupe Jinjing Exhibition" in 2023, the members of the Kezhou Song and Dance Troupe performed four performances in succession in Beijing, and the applause and applause in the theater always lasted for a long time when the play ended.

Singing endlessly, cultural treasures bloom

In his spare time, Memetiturgan Esek likes to delve into the composition of Manas, experimenting with new arrangements and lyrics. Whenever he was unsure, he would consult his teacher, Jiannuri Tuzhiganbayi.

Jiangnuri Tuzhiganbayi, who is more than half a hundred years old, is a famous "Manaschi" in Wucha County and a representative inheritor of intangible cultural heritage at the autonomous region level, who learned to sing with his grandfather and father since he was a child, and has been chanting "Manas" for 30 years now.

When Jannuj Tuzhiganyi was 13 years old, a grand "Manas" singing event was held in Ahaiqi County, Kezhou, and he rushed to participate in the meeting of the famous Jusuf Mamayi for the first time. The young man bravely walked up to the master, and Mao Sui recommended himself to sing a paragraph, and thus became a disciple of the master.

Ucha and Ahaiqi counties are hundreds of kilometers apart, and every time he goes to the teacher's house, Jiannuri Tuzhiganbayi has to catch a medium-sized bus in the morning, bumping for eight or nine hours on the potholed dirt road, and only after sunset can he reach the teacher's house. A few years later, he was invited to sing "Manas" at a wedding, and unconsciously sang from evening until dawn, and the herders on the grassland lifted the felt of the felt house to watch him sing, and the elderly came to listen to him with the help of relatives and friends, and everyone praised him as "a particularly powerful 'Manaschi'".

Nowadays, in order to better protect and inherit "Manas", Kezhou has established the "Manas" Conservation Research Center, and successively held the Manas International Cultural Tourism Festival and the Manas Singing Competition; Use winter and summer vacations to hold cultural inheritance training courses in cultural centers, schools, township comprehensive cultural stations and other places, and establish a team of inheritors who combine old, middle and young people.

Jiannuzh Tuzhiganbayi is also surrounded by more and more apprentices, and 14-year-old Maize Tali Yetiku is one of them. He has a pair of turquoise blue eyes as pure as the water of Lake Kerakul, and when he mentions Manas, his clear eyes will always ripple, full of love that cannot be hidden. He first came into contact with Manas at the age of three, and at the age of six began to learn to sing with Jannuzh Tuzhiganbayi, and is now able to recite more than a thousand lines. "My favorite is to describe a war in Manas's youth, when he was about to lose, Manas came and turned defeat into victory, and I liked his bravery and his heart that was desperate to protect his people." Maize Tali Yetiku said.

At a young age, he has participated in the singing of "Manas" many times, first in kindergarten, and later at events and festivals organized by the village committee, and Urumqi is the farthest and most meaningful place he has performed, where he sang "Manas" for the general secretary together with his master Jiannuzh Tuzhiganyi and Memet Turgan Essek. After that day, he set himself a small goal, to finish eight books at the age of forty or fifty and strive to become a great "Manaschi".

"The story of the hero Manas... There are many battles on the Prancing Horse, there are many giants like mountains, there are many horses that have raced hurricanes, and there are many singers like larks..."At night, with the bonfire lit, Mematiturgan Aisek played the melodious Kumzi, and sang the ancient melody with Jannuzh Tuzhiganbayi and Zeitali Yetiku, and the history of the nation was hidden in the eyes of the singers, but the memory remained in the song for a long time and passed on from generation to generation. With ancient memories, the Kirgiz triumphant triumph played a new triumphant song of endeavor in the northwestern frontier.

(Director/Jiang Hongyi, Li Ai, Text/Li Ai, Camera/Li Hui, Peng Chao, Zhang Runsen, Editor/Liu Xiangnan)

Supported by the China Internet Development Foundation China Positive Energy Network Dissemination Special Fund

Source: Litchi News