The first category is ancient heroic narrative poems, also known as "heroic epics". This kind of narrative poem is generally very long. There are several or dozens of masterpieces, such as The Biography of King Gesar by Tibetans, Manas by Kirgiz, and The Biography of Jianger and Gestler by Mongolians. There are also short stories with complete plots and self-contained, such as Biography of Oguz by Uighurs, Qiangge War by Qiang people, Alpamis by Kazakhs, Gunagan by Mongols and Xiretu by Brave Prince. In the form of poetry, there are both verse and prose. In particular, the system of rhyming and prose makes heroic narrative poems widely circulated among the people in the form of rap and deeply loved by the audience.
Ancient heroic narrative poems are generally believed to have originated in the late primitive society, the early slave society or the early feudal society. The development of heroic narrative poems of all ethnic groups in China is unbalanced, and the time of the emergence and formation of specific works is still inconclusive. But on the whole, it is closely related to the wars between tribes and tribal alliances experienced by all ethnic groups in history. At this stage, the social production organization and military organization are unified, and there are frequent struggles between tribes, and hero worship has become a popular social trend of thought at this stage. Ancient heroic narrative poems, in terms of ideological content, mainly show tribal expeditions and praise the fighting deeds of tribal heroes. Such as Gesar, Manas, Jianger, Honggu and Oguz. , are the symbols of wisdom and strength of the tribes in the epic. In tribal wars, the winners' achievements are concentrated on the heroes in the epic, while the losers often appear as demons.
The appearance of ancient heroic narrative poems is mainly based on the real life at that time, but it also contains the factors of myth and creation epic. Some of them are based on ancestor worship and narrative poems created by "cultural heroes". For example, most heroic narrative poems are naturally related to mythical narrative poems, such as the tracing of ethnic origin, the migration of ethnic groups, the remains of totem worship, the depiction of ancient sacrificial ceremonies, and the recollection of ancient social customary norms. Even the miraculous birth of heroes and the fantastic narration of war scenes are branded with myths.
The second category is modern heroic narrative poems. People and events in modern history are generally created on the basis of real people and events. For example, Gadamer of Mongolia, Song of Tao Ketao, Song of Zhang Xiumei of Miao, Mulan Poetry of Southern and Northern Dynasties, Zhong Jiu Nao Cao of Han (anti-grain biography) and so on. Most of them were gradually developed on the basis of short songs and oral legends produced at that time or later. It originated from a long-term class society and was a reflection of the marriage system and customs at that time. Generally speaking, there are few mythological factors in this narrative poem. Different from creation narrative poems and ancient heroic narrative poems, it does not reflect major events in tribal history. It mainly shows the love entanglement in personal life, the contradiction between personal reasonable demands and social system customs, and sometimes it also shows people's ideals and wishes through the happy combination of young men and women.
In the treasure house of folk literature of all ethnic groups in China, folk narrative poems reflecting marriage and love are very rich. Ancient narrative poems of the Han nationality (mostly short stories) include Meng in The Book of Songs, Novel Taken from the Mountains in Han Yuefu, Peacock Flying Southeast in Jian 'an Period at the end of Han Dynasty, and recent works include Double Lotus. There are many narrative poems of ethnic minorities, among which A Bing and Sanluo of Dai nationality, Hamei of Miao nationality, Golden Rooster of Tujia nationality, Brothers Ma Wu and Sisters of Hui nationality, Aref and Sainaim of Uygur nationality and Saliha and Saman of Kazak nationality have great influence.
The characters in love and marriage narrative poems are relatively complete and vivid, the language is generally natural and vivid, and some are concise and vivid. Some works are very lyrical and infectious.