Sisters in arms (Folktales of Chinese minorities 13. - Yugur)

As a sequel to the Following folktales around the world reading challenge, I decided to start reading minority and indigenous folktales. First up are the minority peoples who live in China. You can find previous posts here, and you can follow the challenge on Facebook here.

Blue ​Cloth and Pearl Deer 

Yogur folklore

Zhang Juan & Kevin Stuart  

University of Pennsylvania, 1996.

The book contains 18 stories from the Yugur people, an ethnic group speaking languages of Turkic and Mongolian origin, who live in Gansu Province and number about fifteen thousand. The introduction talks about their history and homeland, and there is also a short study on their wedding customs. The latter are fascinating, reflecting their matriarchal-matrilinear past. The folktales have been translated from Chinese language sources.

Highlights

Image from here

The most amazing story in the book was the legend of Yangkesa and Gongerjian, two siblings. The young man married an evil woman and later died in exile in the desert. His sister set out to revive him. She learned martial arts from the fairies, fought every single creature that had eaten from her brother's body, and slowly pieced him back together. Another legend featuring strong women was the story of Geraos: the hero was protected and helped by a woman dressed as a man. Later on they were joined by a woman archer and a bandit's daughter, and they avenged the death of the hero's father together.

I liked the legend that explained why white and black horses are used in Yugur wedding ceremonies. The story was about two warring tribes, where the feud was passed down from fathers to children. When a prince and a princess came face to face on the battlefield, they decided to make peace instead. It was not easy, due to the hostility of their parents, but eventually persistent Prince Zhenersi and brave Princess Baoerde united their tribes - and even got married.

I liked the moral of the story of The archer and the geese. A lazy man pretended to be a master archer to win a princess' hand, and out of sheer luck he almost succeeded. Luckily, a young hunter managed to prove that the "master" was actually a liar and a coward.

The volume contained a version of the Epic of Gesar, known in most of Central Asia. It is an adventurous hero story, but I was actually more impressed by the legend of Queen Sarmark. She was the wife of the White Khan, and when her husband was about to lose a battle she showed up with an army of women and saved him. She later died due to court intrigue and jealousy, but even in death she managed to help her people find a new home.

I enjoyed the humorous tale explaining why the Yugur call foxes "the one with the hat".

Connections

Image from here

There was once again a tale where a girl married a snake. The snake family was kind to her, and eventually they all transformed into people. The girl's happiness made her sister jealous - from that point on, it was a classic "false bride" tale, and the evil sister turned into a snake in the end.

The plot o the blue cloth legend was familiar: the fire went out in a young woman's house, and she accidentally asked for embers from a monster. The monster followed her home and drank her blood until her husband showed up to the rescue. Interestingly, the husband was killed, and the wife took up his sword to behead the monster in the end. She buried her husband's bones wrapped in blue cloth, a funeral custom that still exists among the Yugur.

The origin legend of the An surname was the type where all old people were supposed to be killed, but a young man kept his father alive in secret. Later on, the old man's wisdom saved the entire nation. There was also a "kind and unkind brothers" type story in the book.

The resident trickster is Mula, a distant relative of the Hodja Nasreddin. He tricked rich people in various clever ways.

Who's next?

The Bouyei people