A Brief Analysis of "Grotesque" Forms and Phenomena in Ancient Naxi Culture
This article examines the "grotesque" (guaidan) as a mode of expression in ancient Naxi culture, particularly the Dongba classics. The author first situates "grotesque" as a cross-cultural aesthetic category, noting its presence in Western languages and tracing its manifestations from Greek tragedy and myth through modern architecture and Chinese literature (from Chu Ci to Lu Xun), suggesting a shared underlying pattern in human civilization's artistic development. Turning to Naxi Dongba texts such as "Lubanlurao," "Chongbanzha," and "Duaishuai," the author argues these works are likewise saturated with grotesque imagery and technique. Five categories of grotesque expression are identified: (1) the "vapor-sound-egg transformation" cosmogony, (2) human-god-ghost-demon narratives, (3) creation/world-making myths, (4) anthropomorphized objects/creatures, and (5) exorcism/debt-repayment rituals. Detailed textual illustrations from the epics describe primordial chaos generating eggs that hatch deities, tribes, and opposing black-white worlds, exemplifying the grotesque's cosmological and mythic function within Naxi culture.
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