中国赫哲族史诗伊玛堪

Preface

Xiangsou Mergen香叟莫日根

Mandu Mergen满都奠日根

Mangemu Mergen满格木莫日根

Muduli Mergen木都力莫日根

Hezhe， one of the smallest ethnic minority groups in China， is an ethnic group in-habiting in Heilongjiang province in northeast China. They are residing along the banks of the three rivers， Songhua River， Heilongjiang River and Wusulijiang Riv-er. For centuries， they have created numerous material civilization as well as spiritual civilization， such as yimakan， a type of oral literature， or storytelling， a series of epics which have been told and sung by Hezhe people from generation to generation over hundreds of years.Yimakan is an encyclopedia of ancient society in oral form in which Hezhe people tell stories about their primitive tribes and migration.Hezhe people do not have any form of written language； therefore， they have passed down their litera-ture orally within their own ethnic group. Yimakan， as a result， has been told， chanted and performed for generations up to present. "Yimakan is a kind of the heroic epics of Hezhe people or a kind of heroic narrative poems at an immature stage." （Liu Xicheng， 1997） Since the 1930s， a number of Chinese anthropologists and scholars of ethnic studies have collected more than 40 epics of yimakan and put them into Chi-nese versions. The epics of yimakan are divided into three types in length: long epics，medium-length epics and short epics. The yimakan epics， constructed in rhythm and prose， are performed by means of narration and singing from beginning to end， narra-tion in prose and singing in rhythm. The motifs of yimakan can be divided into the fol-lowing: a. the mergen' s （hero in Hezhe language） family background； b. the mergen' s as-sistants and friends； c. revenge； d. fighting against enemies； e. the strategies and mag-ic power by the mergens； f. making a proposal of marriage； g. wedding ceremony； h.retuming home in triumph； i. offering sacrifice to Deities.（Gao Hehong， 2010） The mergens， whom are highly spoken of as the heroes of Hezhe people in yimakan， take on truly male images in the heroic epics of Hezhe people.