Y is for the Yi (Sani) epic of Ashima (Women's Epics A to Z)

This year my theme for the A to Z Blogging Challenge is Women's Epics. My goal was to read 26 traditional epics from around the world that have women as their heroes. Because epics like this do exist, and they are fascinating! Read the intoduction post here.

Ashima
Sani (Yi)

The Sani are a branch of the Yi people who live in Yunnan province in China. Ashima's story, sung in a long narrative poem and handed down through the oral tradition, is one of their most popular folk epics. Variations of the poem were collected and compiled in 1953 by researchers from Beijing, and published as a composite "most complete" version. It was then translated into English and published in this volume (translated into rhyming verses). The book comes with a short introduction that has an undercurrent of centralized propaganda, so I an not entirely sure whether the "composite version" of the story has been altered or not.

What is it about?

TL;DR: Ashima, a beautiful girl is kidnapped by an evil man as a bride for his son. She resists the marriage, and her brother shows up to rescue her. He succeeds through a series of challenges, but on the way home he loses Ashima anyway.

The story begins with a couple who live a peaceful life with their two children: a brave and strong boy Ahei, and a beautiful, hard-working daughter Ashima. When Ashima grows up, she becomes famous far and wide as the perfect girl. An evil rich man named Rebubala decides to take her as a wife for his son. However, when his messenger comes to ask for the girl, her family squarely refuses - they want Ashima to marry a man she loves. Ashima rejects the rich man's suit. Rebubala, angered, sends people to kidnap her. The girl is snatched away, and the whole community grieves for her. Ahei, who is away pasturing his flocks, has a nightmare and returns home. When he finds out Ashima is gone, he immediately sets out to rescue her.

Ashima is taken to Rebubala's stronghold to wed his son Azhi. But she stands up to her kidnappers, refuses to marry the man, and calls them on their lies and their threats. She is beaten and thrown into a dungeon to break her will. When Ahei arrives, Azhi challenges him to a duel of sung riddles, but Ahei easily outsings him, and answers all the riddles. When he is let inside, Rebubala challenges him to see who can cut down more trees. Ahei easily fulfills the tasks: he chops down more trees than Azhi - and then he has to put them back, and does that faster too. Then he has to sow rice, and then pick it all up, but once again he is better at it than Azhi. Still, he loses three grains. He eventually manages to find them with the help of an old man (birds took them).

The challenges having failed, Rebubala and Azhi decide that they will sic their tigers on Ahei at night. While he sleeps, they send three feroicious tigers up the tower stairs to his room. However, Ashima plays warning music on her flute, and Ahei stands ready. He kills the three tigers, and skins the biggest one, then puts the skin back. In the morning, the villains are shocked to see the dead tigers, but they soon challenge Ahei to skin the largest. Ahei yanks the skin off, winning the challenge.

However, Rebubala still refuses to give up the girl. He locks Ahei out of the fortress. Ahei responds by shooting arrows over the wall with such force that no one can pull them out of where they struck. In the end, Ashima is summoned and she pulls them out with ease; finally, she is given back to her brother.

However, as the siblings ride away, Rebubala summons a storm. As they are crossing a surging river, the waves sweep Ashima away. She reappears to her brother later, standing on a rock in the ravine, and tells him that she had transformed into a spirit: she became the echo, and always answers when her people call.

The highlights

While in this epic Ashima doesn't rescue herself, she is still presented as a very stong and brave character. She rejects the suit, doesn't bow to threats, sees through lies, and states loud and clear that she will only marry a man she loves.

I adored the opening of the story that described how much the parents loved Ashima and how they celebrated her birth. It was similarly touching to read the part where they talked about their love for her to the wily messenger who brought the proposal from Rebubala. They wanted her to be happy, and they described unhappy marriages in great detail, fearing for their daughter's future.

I also liked that Rebubala's wickedness was described by saying that bees didn't visit his flowers, and ants didn't go inside his house.

A GIRL DOESN'T ALWAYS HAVE TO RESCUE HERSELF TO BE A STRONG CHARACTER.

Do you know of other heroines who are strong in different ways?