Epic of Meige
Epic of Meige (Mei Ge in Chinese) is a long epic of the Yi ethnic group which is widely spread among the Yi people in the Yi Autonomous Prefecture of Chuxiong,Yunnan Province.It is highly honored as an encyclopedia about the production and lives of the Yi people.
“Meige”is the transliteration from the Yi language,which refers a sort of tune.Epic of Meige covers 5,775 lines which can be divided into four parts:creation of the world,creation of creatures in the world,marriage and love songs,and funerals.Epic of Meige reflects the world outlook of the Yi people in remote times and their rich imaginations about creatures.It presents the changes of the production and lives of the Yi people.Furthermore,it reveals the poor life of the Yi people and their customs of love,marriage,funeral and mourning of their dead relatives.Besides,the epic shows the close ecnomic and cultural ties between Yi people and people of other ethnic groups,especially the Han ethnic group.Epic of Meige covers the history of Yi people and it is widely known in both literature and history home and abroad.
The following excerpt describes the“settlement”.
The two babies can sit
Two pairs of little hands are same long
The two babies can stand up
They are tall at the same height(https://www.daowen.com)
Little brother and little sister play together
Little brother playing clay
Little sister playing loess
White earth is like white rice
Yellow earth is like yellow rice
They make a small pot of mud