Scholars conducted in-depth discussion at the report meeting of “Chinese Poetry Anthology Series of Ethnic Minorities in the Ancient Southwest.” Photo: FILE

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Southwest China enjoys a rich multi-ethnic culture. Ethnic literature is written both in minority languages and in Chinese, and it is a valuable legacy of Chinese literature.

In recent years, as the research on ethnic literature in China has been continuously promoted, relevant academic groups have gradually been established, with increasingly frequent academic activities. For example, since the establishment of the Ethnic Literature Historical Data Branch of the Chinese Literature Historical Data Society in the end of 2016, the branch has participated in organizing many academic activities that promote communication between the historical data work of ethnic literature and that of traditional literature. This includes the holding of the Compilation Seminar of the Literary Historical Data of Ethnic Minorities and the Yi People in Xichang, Sichuan Province, in 2017, and the holding of the Compilation Seminar of the Literary Historical Data of Yunnan Ethnic Minorities in Yuxi, Yunnan Province, in 2018. A series of research projects in this field have also been conducted one after another, vigorously promoting the development of the science of historical data in ethnic literature.

Xu Xiping, a professor of Southwest Minzu University and chief expert of the major project “Chinese Poetry Anthology Series of Ethnic Minorities in the Ancient Southwest” of The National Social Science Fund of China, said that since the launch of this project in 2018, the project team has been systematically collecting relevant literature. The research work that focuses on the Chinese literature of the southwestern minorities has achieved results in the past. However, generally, it still remains at a relatively weak stage with the engravings, manuscripts and transcripts scattered everywhere, extremely inconvenient for research. The current situation is not conducive to the in-depth study and overall evaluation of the ethnic literary achievements and to the protection and inheritance of ethnic literature. The project “Chinese Poetry Anthology Series of Ethnic Minorities in the Ancient Southwest” involves the literary and poetic works from ancient writers of ethnic minorities such as Bai, Naxi, Yi, Qiang, Hui, Tujia, Buyi, Miao and Dong. It is being conducted by a high-level expert team composed of multi-ethnic and multidisciplinary researchers.

Liu Yuejin, Member of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that this project is the first comprehensive and in-depth systematic collection of the Chinese literature of ethnic minorities in Southwest China. It aims to present and protect ethnic literature and explore an effective way to develop China’s ethnic literature and the prosperity of Chinese literature. This project can explain the intrinsic connection and cross-influence between ethnic minority literature and Chinese literature, and it can demonstrate the outstanding contribution of the former literature to Chinese culture.

The study of ethnic literary history is based on relevant historical data. Liu added that for many years, we have been discussing how Chinese literature took root. In the past, individualized compilations have already appeared in academic circles. Now, the compilation of historical data in accordance with geographical regions has started. In the future, this collecting of ethnic literature will also be carried out in other regions.

In recent years, ethnic philology has been a a hot topic in related academic circles. Tang Xiaoqing, former deputy director of the Institute of Ethnic Literature of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the research of ethnic literature has encountered some difficulties in recent years. Academic circles have been calling for rewriting the history of literature or at least building some new concepts like “greater history of  literature” and “history of multi-ethnic literature.” However, it is a difficult task at the operational level, because the specific coverage of ethnic literature is still unclear. The historical data of ethnic minorities’ literature include oral materials, written materials, Chinese classics and others, but the current collected materials are not enough to support relevant research. For example, both general description without depth and lack of systematic organization are impeding the study of ethnic literature. Therefore, the compilation of relevant literature is in urgent need.

Xu added that scholars working on the ethnic literary historical data should strengthen their training in traditional philology and learn from its theories and research methods. At the same time, new perspectives on ethnic literature can be adopted as new materials arise through continuous exploration, contributing to the study of Chinese literary historical data.

 

edited by YANG LANLAN