The Study On The Newly Discovered Bronze Drums Of Bunu Yao In Hechi City

The article mainly discussed 12 bronze drums of Bunu Yao which collected by the author in the field investigation of Hechi City,Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.There were four parts of the paper.The first part was a reviewed of the origin of the topic and the academic history.The second part mainly classified bronze drums.According to the classification of the mainstream of academic circles,the author compared 12 bronze drums with some chronological inscription bronze drums,and thought that they could be divided into two categories——the Zunyi type and the Majiang type:La Ya No.2 should be Zunyi type,and the other are Majiang type.With chronological inscription bronze drums,they could be divided into 3 Sub-types,as Majiang type A,type B and type C.The Majiang type were short and flat without stereoscopic sculpture decoration,which might be related to the way of use.When Zunyi type evolved into Majiang type,the bulge lines of their foot continued to moved up and turned shallow,it might was people often knocked on the waist of bronze drum,and the bulge lines were designed to frame the part of the knocking.The third part mainly discussed the function of Bunu Yao’s bronze drum and its origin.Bronze drum had the functions as artifact,sacrificial vessel,musical instruments and gathered people in the life of Bunu Yao,the occasions,ways and taboos of the use of bronze drum were all originated from the epic of Miluotuo.Bunu Yao thought the sound of animals flying was originated from bronze drum,the sound of the bronze drum was capable of prayed for rain,therefore,bronze drums were served as gods.Bronze drum were indispensable sacrificial ritual in the most solemn sacrifice——the Dahuang Yuan and most important festival——the Zhuzhu Festival of Bunu Yao,they had the function of invited god,pleased god and sent off god.The fourth part thought that,according to historical records,during the Chun Xi period in the Southern Song Dynasty,Bunu Yao had been distributed in Yizhou,Hechi,in the last years of the Southern Song Dynasty,some of them moved to the present Dahua County,and are more widely distributed in the Yuan,Ming and Qing Dynasties.The genealogy and migration history of Bunu Yao mentioned thatmore than 30 generations ago,their ancestors had been besieged by chieftains for they beat bronze drums to celebrated the wedding,and then they fled from their hometown.According to generations,this incident might occurred during the Southern Song Dynasty to the early Ming Dynasty,it proved that Bunu Yao had used bronze drum at that time,and might be earlier than the recorded in the Qing Dynasty.The custom of bronze drum of Bunu Yao might had been formed in the Song Dynasty and continued to the present.For a long time,Bunu Yao lived in mountains with dense forests,without script,as a result,they payed attention to used hearing and voice to accomplished various matters related to survival and development.As an important source of sound production,bronze drum was used as the media between deities and human in sacrificial rituals,and also used to gathered clansmen and celebrated festivals,and became important tool for Bunu Yao.For generations worshiped the bronze drum,indicated that it was the experience of production and life,and they hoped that their descendants could inherited and carried forward this culture.