The Origin of the World
The Origin of the World (Kai Tian Pi Di in Chinese),with an alternate title of The Creation Epic (Chuang Shi Ji in Chinese),is an epic of the Bai ethnic group on creation in form of“Dage”.
In the language of Bai ethnic group,“Dage”means“games”or“amusement”.“Dage”is an old folk song of the narrative style with the form of questions and answers.It is performed on festivals or weddings.In the performance,the singers are grouped into questioners and answerers from 5 to about 20 peope.In each group,a member will be chosen as the“singing head”to lead the group to sing in chorus and dance around a bonfire.
The Origin of the World covers over 400 lines in total,which is spread over the Bai ethnic group in Xishan area of Eryuan,Yunnan Province.The whole epic is divided into three parts as“The Chaotic Period”,“The Creation of the World”,and“The Origin of Human Beings”.The first part starts as follows:
In times remote can trees on foot walk,
Believest thou of what we talk?(https://www.daowen.com)
In times remote can trees on foot walk,
Believe we of what thou talk.
Then follows that stones can walk and that horses and oxen,chicken and duck,and birds can speak.Peace reigns over the whole world and all crops are brought in harvest.The two brothers of Pangu and Pansheng make a living by cutting wood.They catch the third prince of the Dragon King with bait guided by the hint of the temple king,who is a foreteller.For revenge,the Dragon King makes that rain pour down for seven years on end.The flood deluges the whole world;the sky falls apart;the earth is disintegrated;and the sun and moon dim away.Pangu and Pansheng overpowers and beheads the Dragon King and then he changes into rainbow.The second part of the epic narrates how Pangu and Pansheng change into the sky and earth.The third part is the story about the origin of human beings.In the great flood,Zhao Yupei and his younger sister Tai Sanmei escape the disaster successfully by hiding in a golden drum.After divination and verification,they get married and give birth to ten sons.The ten sons each give birth to ten sons,which brings about the Hundred Family Surnames with each son having different surnames.
The epic presents the naive materialism of the ancestors of the Bai ethnic group.It also reveals the unique artistic charm of the simplicity and naivete of the primitive literature in fairy-like language and imagination.