The Compairson Between Manchu’s Manuscript And Ewenki’s Oral Version Of Nishan Shaman

This thesis focuses on the comparison between Manchu’s manuscript and Ewenki’soral version of Nishan Shaman (a famous shamanic legend which is widely spreadamong Manchu, Oroqen, Ewenki, Daur, Hezhen and other minorities). In1961, theSoviet Union scholar M·Ð'олкова published the manuscript The Legend of NishanShaman, namely the Vladivostock Version. For the later half century, many scholarsstudied about it, and it has been regarded as one of the most important historicalphilologists. Since the Vladivostock Version is the longest and the most complete script,it is regarded as the main script to study by most scholars.Manchu handwritten version and Ewenki oral version are compared from theperspective of historical philology and folk literature in this thesis. First, it analyzes thedifferences about the plots and contents, aiming to express how different minoritiesrecord the same legend. On the basis of this, it discusses the elements which make upthese differences and then shows their peculiar features of nationality,religion andinheritance.However, Manchu’s manuscript and Ewenki’s oral version of Nishan Shaman sharethe same theme, which tells a legend about a Shaman seeking for the soul. The laterversion shows its peculiar features of diverse nationalities, compound religions andprogrammable inheritances.Compared with Manchu version, the four oral versionswhich show their peculiar features of Nomadic cultures,unity religion and variabilityinheritance are messy and disordered in terms of different tellers in different moodand situations.In a word, Manchu’s manuscript and Ewenki’s oral version both record and inheritfolk culture. As for their differences, except for the analyses that is discussed in this paper, other factors due to particular tellers are also worthy of further discussion andresearch.