If heroic epic is the most important folk literature genre in Mongolian ancient literature, then Jianger is the representative of this genre with the longest length, the largest capacity and the strongest artistic expression. It represents the highest achievement of Mongolian heroic epic, thus representing the highest achievement of Mongolian ancient literature and becoming a peak in the history of Mongolian literature development. Among the historical types of Mongolian heroic epics, Jianger is a large-scale parallel compound epic after a single epic and a series of compound epics. Although there is only one such heroic epic in Mongolian local literature, judging from the spread and formation of the Biography of Gestler Khan in Mongolia, the structure of juxtaposed compound epics has actually become a norm of the structure of Mongolian heroic epics.
The long heroic epic "Jianger" not only inherits the two themes and themes of ancient short and medium-sized heroic epics, but also adds the themes and themes of tribal alliances, thus extending the marriage and expedition struggle between clans and tribes reflected in ancient short and medium-sized epic to tribal alliances, and extending the portrayal of clans, tribal leaders or several heroes to the portrayal of heroic groups of tribal alliances represented by Jianger and Hongjier, which profoundly reflects the Mongolian clan in a broader historical background. Such a masterpiece with profound content and many characters is second to none in ancient Mongolian literature and rare in the whole history of Mongolian literature.
The metrical change of Jianger occupies an important position in the history of Mongolian poetry development. From the phonology of Jiangger, on the one hand, we can find the initial prototype of the phonology of Mongolian poetry, such as shamanism hymns, on the other hand, we can also see the various development tracks of the phonology of Mongolian poetry on the road to maturity. This makes it not only an important material to study the development of Mongolian poetry meter, but also a basic model to study Mongolian poetry meter.
Jianggeer also provides rich contents for understanding the simple and romantic aesthetics of ancient Mongolians, such as: explaining people's feelings, integrating external physical beauty with internal spiritual beauty; The aesthetic concept of human body beauty and personality beauty of tribal heroes with strength, courage and righteousness as their basic personality characteristics; The aesthetic view of greedy, vicious and cruel python Gus is the opposite of a hero; Aesthetic concept of animal analogy; Ideal aesthetic concepts of natural beauty and social beauty, and so on. This series of unique aesthetic concepts based on nomadic culture (including hunting culture) is also of great significance to the formation and development of Mongolian traditional national aesthetic consciousness.
Jianggeer, with its unique artistic charm, is deeply rooted in the fertile soil of Mongolians. Since the birth of 13 century, it has been mainly sung by "Jiangerqi" among the people, and it has been passed down to this day. "Jianggeer Banner" refers to a folk artist who sings the epic "Jianggeer Banner" in Mongolian. They are respected by herders for their super memory and rich knowledge. In addition, because Mongolians have their own characters for a long time, there is a Mongolian manuscript of Jianger, which is circulated among the people. The manuscript is called Li Jianger. In the singing of "Jianger" handed down from generation to generation, Jianger was constantly added and deleted, and the text of the manuscript was intuitive, which made Jianger's addition and deletion more detailed and elegant than the simple oral literature.
177 1 year, that is, in the 16th year of Qing Qianlong, the sorting work of Jianger began, which was initially carried out by Mongolian princes in Xinjiang. There were 12 chapters and 32 chapters. How many chapters are there in Jianger? "Encyclopedia of China China Literature" said: "More than 60 books were collected, about 65,438+10,000 lines."
After the founding of New China, under the auspices of the people's government, experts organized the work. The first official edition of Jianggeer in China was the Mongolian version of 13 published by Inner Mongolia People's Publishing House in 1958. 1980, chapter 15 of the Mongolian version published by Xinjiang People's Publishing House; There are 15 chapters published by People's Literature Publishing House 1983 and Xinjiang People's Publishing House 1988 respectively. In addition, the jianger data book 1 ~ 9 set compiled by Xinjiang was printed in 1988. People are looking forward to the final official version of Jianger, which will become a treasure handed down from generation to generation like the finished version of Manas.
With the strengthening of globalization and the rapid changes in economy and society, the survival, protection and development of Jianger have also encountered new situations and problems, and the situation is very grim. Some famous folk artists have passed away, and those who are still alive are all over 20 years old, facing the danger of "people dying and singing". Therefore, we must pay close attention to the rescue and protection of Jianger's inheritors and materials so that this precious epic can be sung in the world.
The state attaches great importance to the protection of intangible cultural heritage. On May 20th, 2006, Jianger was approved by the State Council to be included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage list. On June 5th, 2007, confirmed by the Ministry of Culture, Jia of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and Buxair Mongolian Autonomous County, Li Rifu of Bayinguoleng Mongolian Autonomous Prefecture of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, and Xia Man folk writers and artists of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Federation of Literary and Art Circles were the representative inheritors of this cultural heritage project, and they were included in the list of 226 representative inheritors of the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage projects.