Cultural Significance in the Cicada's Chorus: Snippets of Dong Dagon

Author: Wu Dingguo, Deng Minwen / Country: Mainland China
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-12-01
Features: Where do Dong songs come from? There are many beautiful legends in the Dong folk tradition, such as The Legend of Seeking Songs, Buying "Que" from Heaven, The Origin of Dong Songs, and Si Ye Singing His Way to the Dong Villages. The Origin of Dong Songs goes like this: In ancient times, people could only speak but not sing, and life was dull and lifeless, just like eating without salt. One day, birds on the mountain told the people that there was a song tree in the sky, where the gods gathered to pick and sing songs, creating a lively atmosphere. The birds often flew up to eavesdrop and learned some songs to teach the people. However, the birds did not learn the songs completely—some had heads but no tails, and some had tails but no heads. So Si Ye, a young Dong man, proposed that they go up to the sky to steal songs. Ban Gu Ma and the elders and young people in the village agreed, and the birds also supported them. After discussing it, they decided that the eagle, magpie, and oriole would carry Ban Gu Ma, Si Ye, and Chan Gu Niang up to the sky to steal songs. When they arrived in the sky, they happened to find Long Lin Jing, the guardian of the song tree, dozing off. They quietly climbed up the song tree to pick song fruits. Chan Gu Niang, seeing so many song fruits, was overjoyed and began to sing. Her singing awoke Long Lin Jing, the guardian of the song tree, and Sa Yang, the god who oversaw the songs. Seeing the situation, Ban Gu Ma called everyone to quickly climb down the tree and run back. Si Ye wanted to pick more song fruits but was caught by Long Lin Jing. Ban Gu Ma ran halfway back but, seeing Si Ye was gone, panicked and fell off the eagle's back, dying at the foot of the immortal mountain. In the end, only Chan Gu Niang, the eagle, and the oriole returned to the Dong villages with the song fruits.
When the song fruits were stolen from the sky, Sa Yang, the god who oversaw the song tree, was furious. She demoted Long Lin Jing to the mortal world and ordered her to bring Si Ye back to the human realm. Si Ye returned to the Dong villages and, to commemorate Ban Gu Ma, built a tomb for her at the foot of the immortal mountain and planted the song fruits he brought from the sky near her tomb. Soon, a song tree grew from Ban Gu Ma's tomb, bearing many song fruits. The people at the foot of the immortal mountain and the birds in the mountains came to pick and learn songs. The singing shook the heavens.
Late at night, Sa Yang secretly descended to the mortal world to investigate and discovered the song tree. She cut it down with her own hands and threw it into the river. Long Lin Jing, who had been demoted, found the song tree in the river and swallowed all the song leaves and fruits. The next day, when people came to learn songs, they found the song tree lying in the river, with no song leaves or fruits left, only a huge fish swimming around. They guessed that the fish had eaten the song leaves and fruits. To retrieve the beloved songs, they gathered money and straw, made a four-hundred-pound hook and a three-hundred-foot-long straw rope, and used a small ox as bait. Finally, they caught the big fish. It turned out to be Long Lin Jing, who had been demoted by Sa Yang. When they opened its belly, they found no song leaves or fruits but only a large bubble. Si Ye cut the bubble open and found the song leaves and fruits inside. The people were overjoyed and rushed to divide the fish and share the songs. To ensure that every village and hamlet had songs, Si Ye intentionally left some behind when dividing the songs.
The next day, Si Ye brought a pair of large baskets and filled them with songs, carrying them around the Dong villages. Along the way, he scattered a little song seed in every village he visited. When he reached a place called Sanlong, his pole broke, and one basket fell into "Liudong" while the other fell into "Jiudong." Thus, Dong songs spread widely in these places.
P12-13