The Art of Bi and Xing (Simile and Evocative Imagery) in Naxi Dongba Scriptural Literature
Li Jingsheng applies the classical Chinese poetics categories of bi (simile) and xing (evocative imagery) -- called "daozhen" in Naxi -- to formulaic phrases in Dongba scriptural chants used in soul-delivery, wind-sacrifice, and calamity-averting rituals. Through examples such as "hearts are set at ease, spirits are at peace" and "the flowing water spits forth foam... the tree trunk grows branches," he shows how these evocative phrases, chanted collectively during ritual, fuse feeling and image to intensify communal religious emotion. He argues Dongba xing-phrases differ from those in the Book of Songs in being more strictly formulaic, placeable either before or after the main line, and expressive of collective rather than individual emotion, and speculates that primitive poetry's evocative phrases in general were likely similarly formulaic.
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