Some Theoretical Questions Concerning the Compilation of Literary Histories of Ethnic Minorities
This article discusses theoretical issues in compiling literary histories of China's ethnic minorities, focusing on how to treat and evaluate written (author) literature. It identifies three modes of minority-language literary creation: writing in the native script (e.g., Dai poet Kuba Dong), recording native speech using borrowed Han characters (e.g., Bai "Bai script" texts like Yang Xian's Shanhua Bei), and writing directly in Chinese after Han cultural influence. While folk literature should remain the focus of minority literary histories due to its greater volume, author literature must not be neglected or dismissed through crude class-background labeling, a mistake made under leftist influence. The author stresses systematically collecting long-neglected author works, citing rediscovered examples (Kuba Dong's treatise, Naxi poet-general He Huchen's patriotic verse). Case study: Naxi chieftain-poets Mu Gong and Mu Zeng, previously totally negated, actually pioneered Chinese-language composition among the Naxi and produced valuable local-color poetry, warranting nuanced reassessment.
This page publishes the bibliographic record and the project's summary. The scanned article text belongs to its publisher and is shown to readers under a research-use policy; it is not reproduced in this record.