【Chen, Ganglong】 Politics in Mongolian Heroic Epics
    

 Chen, Ganglong (China)

  Mongolian heroic epics are not just simple hero stories. Actually, the themes and structures of Mongolian epics correspond to the political system and social organization and historical development of the Mongolian nationality. After studying the Khalkha Mongolian heroic epics, Mongolists such as NikalausPoppe point out that Khalkha epics are themed with the opposition of the centralized rule by the prairie aristocrats in the 14th to 17th century. The author shares Poppe’s views and thinks Mongolian heroic epics are more likely to be tribal war epics, and Mongolian epics all have clear political metaphors.
  The development of Mongolian epics from short single-plot epics into composite epics with complicated plots is not only the expansion and enrichment of epic's own literature styles, but also the results of tribal alliance of the Mongolian society. Tribes form an alliance through wars and marriage, and original single-plot epics of different tribes are recombined into new composite epics with complicated plots. Mongolian epics have changed from original single-plot epics into two-round "lost and found" epics and finally developed into complex parallel and composite epics of Epic Jianggar, which actually corresponds to the dynamic alliance among clans and tribes in the epics lineage. Therefore, the study of development of plot structures of Mongolian epics should also take into consideration of the political and historical issues such as tribal alliance of the Mongolian society.
  The main images of Mongolian epics are also rendered with political metaphors. The most characteristic image of Mongolian epics, devil Manggus with multi-head and single-body, is actually the symbol of tribal alliance --the more the heads, the greater the power, which in a way implies, the more tribes ally together, the more powerful the military strength is. In defeating Manggus, a hero needs to cut all the heads of Manggus, and he also needs to wipe out the soul inside Manggus-- actually, it is to destroy the core of tribal alliance. Facing the formidable multi-head Manggus, the hero needs at least one helping hand. And the helping hands more often than not are heroes who have lost their own tribal populations and pastures due to the attack of Manggus. All this indicates that when facing the strong enemy of tribal alliance -- Manggus, the hero has to join hands with other tribes to strengthen his own power so as to defeat their common enemy.
  Combining with the history of Mongolian social system, this paper discusses the political metaphors implied in the Mongolian heroic epics from three aspects: theme, structure and image. This kind of political metaphor also has an important academic reference value for understanding the foreign policies of Mongolia.
 
  About the Speaker
  Chen, Ganglong (Dulaan), comes from Mongolian, born in Jaruud Banner, Inner Mongolia in 1970. He is a Professor and Ph.D. Supervisor at the School of Foreign Languages, Peking University. He has been engaging in the research and teaching of Mongolian Studies and Oriental Folklore, focusing on Mongolian heroic epics. He has published overs 20 monographs, such as Comparative Studies of Mongolian Folklore, Introduction to Eastern Folklore, Mongolian Folklore and Civilization on Top of Grass, and over 100 articles on domestic and international magazines.