从民间文学看哈尼族的传统生态观

The Hani’s rich folk literature has preserved their traditional culture. Interpreting it from the perspective of ecological culture may lead us to the conclusion that the Hani’s traditional eco-logical understanding is that of a harmonious rela-tionship between man and nature. This ecological understanding is similar to that of other ethnic groups in Yunnan, such as the Bai, Dai, Wa, Yao, Naxi, Jingpo, Bulang, and other ethnic groups, which shows that this ecological under-standing is common across the Chinese nation. Meanwhile, this ecological understanding has an enlightening role for human beings to keep the eco-logical balance in the present day. This article tries to investigate the deep connection between the Hani’s folk literature and the natural ecology, and reveals the Hani’s traditional ecological under-standing. 1 . The Hani’s traditional ecological under-standing is revealed in their folk literature The Hani have no fairy tales in the strict sense, their literature is a kind of“universal litera-ture” enjoyed by both adults and children. Howev-er, the Hani’s folk literature also created a roman-tic world similar to that of fairy tales. This “fairy tale world” is just the world of nature reflected in the Hani’s literature. The typical characteristics of this world are harmony and happiness. In this har-monious and happy world, mountains are a para-dise for man and all other things on earth. In this paradise, man is only a part of nature, they are not the spirit or the core of the world. Man, animals and plants have their own places, and their own happiness. Meanwhile, they support each other, and have a common development. In a word, man and nature have a highly harmonious relationship. When environmental protection and ecological bal-ance become a common topic in today’s discourse, one can gain some insight by reading Hani fairy tales and legends. Therefore, digging out the eco-logical beauty from Hani folk literature still has a practical purpose. How then does Hani folk literature describe the relationship between man and nature? We find that the Hani folk literature is full of stories con-cerning how the animals and plants save mankind. Many works reflect this idea: if mankind had not been assisted by the animals and plants, it must have died out long ago, therefore, man should show his thanks to the animals by protecting them. Be-cause the animals and plants saved man’s life, and man knew to show his gratitude to them, the rela-tionship between man and nature is always good in the fairy tales, although they live in their own ways, they never disturb each other — they have a totally harmonious relationship. Moreover, man can even marry animals and have descendants with them. The harmonious relationship between man, animals and plants is a basic theme of the Hani folk literature, as well as a basic part of the Hani eco-logical understanding. The relationship between man, animals and plants reflects not only a friend-
ship, but a kind of family relation, because they can even become couples, although the couples can sometimes suddenly turn hostile — they may have disagreements or even come to blows. When this happens, the deities could help to solve the problem— this is another aspect which reflects a harmoni-ous relationship between man, animals and plants. In the Hani folk literature, the harmony be-tween man and nature is also reflected in the mutu-al assistance between man, animals and plants. In this kind of literature, man, animals and plants are always equal; they not only have a common goal and the same standards for good and evil, but also have a common language, with which man, animals and plants are able to negotiate with each other, help each other and reap their own rewards. 2 . The cultural sources of the Hani’s tradition-al ecological understanding Although literature is a creation of the writer, it reflects social life. The writers’ imaginings can-not be separated from the practicalities of place, and folk literature has its own particularity. Folk literature is created by several folk artists from gen-eration to generation. It might be a result from sev-eral people’s discussions during the creative process or when the work is passed down, hence, it is typically collective work and has typically mass characteristics. Although the individual plays a significant role in the creation of a work, the content of folk literature does not always reflect a single artist’s idea, but the idea of a group. There-fore, we say that the harmonious ecological under-standing reflected in the Hani literature actually re-flects an overall awareness of the Hani people. Why did the Hani form this kind of common awareness, then? We believe that it is decided by the Hani’s living environment and common cultural resources. Most Hani people live in the mountain-ous or semi-mountainous areas between Mt. Ailao and Mt. Mengle. The living environment partly in-fluences ideology. Because of the level of inacces-sability, and self -sufficient life style, communi-cation among the different Hani villages is rare,
however, what they see every day in their living ar-eas are mountains; therefore, their similar living environment leads them to have a similar under-standing of the mountains. The Hani are a “migrated ethnic group”. Their ancestors originally lived in the remote north. Due to natural and social causes, they moved south. Following the cultural development and improvement of natural conditions, their popu-lation gradually increased. After they stepped into the mountainous areas of Mt. Ailao, they had im-proved material conditions and peaceful life, and the population dramatically increased. Later, they settled down in the broad area of the Honghe and Lishejiang drainage basins. The Hani’s history of migration and development indicates that no matter how large a population they have, and how they are scattered, their culture has the same origin. Therefore, tracing the origin of the Hani culture is very important to understand why the Hani share a common awareness of the harmonious relationship between man and nature. Another point worth noting is that the Hani are called as an “Ethnic Group of Stories”. The Hani like telling stories, and making up stories, therefore, there are many popular stories among the Hani. This is because Hani have no writing, which makes the essence of the Hani culture lie in their oral stories. The ancestors’ stories, and their wisdom are all spread and handed down through these stories. The Hani stories actually play act as cultural carriers, burdened with the task of preser-ving culture, and playing an educational role. It is due to the influence of the ancestors’ traditional culture that the Hani have kept an awareness of maintaining a harmonious relationship between man, animals and plants. Then, which factors in the Hani’s cultural origin have promoted this awareness and made it exist for a long time? This article separately discusses the impact of the origin of the heavens, earth, man, animals, and plants, as well as the understanding of animism to this awareness.
In the Hani’s traditional religion, animism is a basic tenet. The Hani believe that the universe is created by the gods, and all things on earth are brought about by the gods. These deities infuse the things in the universe with a spirit; man cannot hurt other things, including those things without life;and the proper relationship between man and nature is harmony. A harmonious relationship means to obey the deities’ will, and is a special representation of their worship. Some people be-lieve that the formation of this kind of understand-ing is directly related to the ecological environment in which the Hani live. They live in the mountain-ous areas and conduct farming work from genera-tion to generation. The forest and water sources are their basic production materials. While using and transforming nature, they must protect and respect nature. Only in this way can an ethnic group un-dergo constant development in a difficult environ-ment—this already has become common knowledge during the process of inheriting the Chinese culture in the past thousand years. And to the Hani peo-ple, this is their principle, as well as their life philosophy. The Hani’s understanding of animism is a kind of pantheistic ideology, which belongs to religious aspect and does not fit with materialism. However the understanding of animism plays a very big role in the Hani’s formation of a self-consciousness in protecting the animals and plants, and keeping the ecological balance. Its role is not limited to an in-dividual or a local area, instead, its meaning to the whole Hani area cannot be underestimated. Hence, we take it as one of the sources for the for-mation of the harmonious natural understanding of all Hani people.