Epic Manasi of Kirgiz Ethnic Group
Whenever Kirgiz people are free and in ceremonies such as wedding, fete, festival etc., they get together with several persons or thousands of people to sing their epic Manasi.
Manasi is a magnificent majestic long epic. Epic Manasi, King Gesar of Tibetan and Jiangger of Mongolian are called three great hero epic of China.
The whole Manasi have 8 volumes and 200,000 lines. Each volume is named according to the dramatis personae in it; all volume names are listed as follows: I Manasi, II Semaitaiyi, III Saiyitieke, IV Kainainimu, V Saiyite, VI Asilebaqia—Biekebaqia, VII Sumubilaike and VIII Qiketaiyi. The whole epic is named after the first dramatis personae Manasi. The epic topic describes how 8 generations of King Manasi had unified all Kirgiz tribes together to defend invasion with other nationalities. Manasi and his offspring defended invasion from outside with their friends and comrades, punished treasons and demons inside, assisted the weak and the poor, and cherished people. The epic demonstrates the hardy spirit of Kirgiz people to strive for nationality independence and reflects the life and society of Kirgiz people in the Middle Ages.
Similar to other epics, Manasi describes scenes of wars, which includes scores of various wars with different enemies and properties. However, through the whole epic depicts a justice war to fight against any evil forces and aggressors.
Manasi is distinguished in art skill. Heroes in the epic possess power of superhuman and sentiment of human. They are brave and full of fabulous power and magnificent vigor. They are proud and overweening, while sometimes very modest and fatherly to their warriors; they shout and rage to do something foolhardy sometimes, while they are also reasonable and amiable; they achieve success and are respected by people, while they are mistaken and hit by fail at the same time. Their characters are like wild horses running restlessly and tamed sometimes. Heroes in Manasi are cavaliers on the prairie, and they deflect all vigor and enthusiasm of prairie nomadic nationalities in the past.
Tragic beauty is another feature of Manasi. In the epic are many tragic heroes and any bleeding events such as sons killed by fathers, brothers killed by brothers, nieces killed uncles, grandsons killed by grandfathers, wives killed by husbands, sacrifice of warriors etc. That sort of tragic beauty of epic is very rare. Unlike King Gesar of Tibetan or Jiangger of Mongolian that have happy finales such as victories, feasts or gods returning to heaven, heroes of Manasi often meet unfortunate end at last which make tragic effects.
Manasi is a folk literature with high art value, which combines speaking, reciting and singing of folk poesies to express the historic events explicitly. The dramatic conflicts are very complicated, lines are fluent and harmonic, it is easy to sing and can be sung in pitches more than 20.
Apart from being an art curiosity, Manasi is an encyclopedia to study history, geography, custom, religion, economy, families and marriage, music, painting and language. It is not only the valuable heritage of Kirgiz nationality but also valuable reference of literae humaniores.
