Hanvueng
Subtitle: the Goose King and the Ancestral King : an epic from Guangxi in Southern China
By: translated and annotated by David Holm, Meng Yuanyao
Series: Zhuang traditional texts -- Volume 1
Publisher: Brill
Published: 2015
Place of publication: Leiden; Boston
Language: eng
Number of pages: 641
ISBN-13: 9789004285613; 9789004290006
Subjects: Translations into English; Zhuang Epic poetry; Zhuang literature; Poetry
Description: This work is an annotated edition of a ritual manuscript, written in the traditional Zhuang character script. The Hanvueng epic is a narrative in verse about murderous enmity between two royal half-brothers, recited in cases of fraternal feuding, death by violence, and outbreaks of smallpox. The theme of enmity is an important one that resonates deeply in the Tai societies on the periphery of the Chinese empire. The narrative touches on many other aspects of life in the valley-kingdoms in the highlands of Guangxi: marriage and inheritance, match-making, slavery and social stratification, agriculture, hunting, fishing, raiding, livestock raising, dye-making, wild animals and plants, and the use of ritual to put things to rights.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 597-615) and index.