苗族古歌中的苗族祖居地与民族迁徙

Ancestral Homes and Ethnic Migration in Ancient Folk Songs of Hmong

苗族口传经典中有关于苗族祖居地的情况、苗族迁徙的缘由及其迁徙的历程。作为无文字的苗族并非是没有历史的民族,作为经典叙事的苗族古歌不仅是苗族的信息系统,而且是苗族民族认同和价值观的重要体现,并影响社会的构成。根据不同区域苗族古歌关于祖居地和迁徙历程的叙述,可以得知苗族在远古时期就是中国南方一个分布范围较大的族群,至少东起洞庭湖西部河流的下游,西到古巴蜀的南部山地,也就是长江上游中游的交界地带。历史上的苗族因不同原因,都有一个从河流的下游向上游的云贵高地迁徙的过程;尽管因迁入不同的生态环境,苗族内部差异增大,但其社会的深层结构仍有相似之处,即各族群对于死后灵魂回归祖居地及其祖先的迁徙历程十分重视,这也是各方言区各支系苗族古歌的核心内容。

The classics of Hmong oral tradition discuss Hmong ancestral homes, the reason and the history for Hmong migration. It is not true that the none - literate Hmong do not have their own history. The ancient folk songs of Hmong, as the classical oral tradition, do not only function as Hmong information system, but represent Hmong iden- tity and value and influence the structure of society. The narration about the ancestral homes and migration history in the ancient folk songs of Hmong in different regions indicates that Hmong used to be a large ethnic group in south Chi- na. Due to different historical reasons, Hmong people migrated from the lower stream to Yunnan and Guizhou Plateau in upper stream of Yangtze River. Though divergence in Hmong people has increased after they migrated to different regions, similarities still exist in the deep structure of the society. Among different groups of Hmong people, great at- tention is still paid to dead souls＇returning ancestral homes and to Hmong migration, which is the core of the ancient folk songs of Hmong.