THE MANGGHUER: LIFE, CULTURE, BRIDAL LAMENTATIONS, & WEDDING SONGS 最后的三川土人: 濒危的三川土族文化、语言与婚礼歌

This study provides a window on many aspects of Mangghuer culture, through the lens of singing performances in traditional weddings. Drawing on field work in the Mangghuer community over an entire generation, Wen Xiangcheng provides insights about how traditional rituals were conducted and what their significance was in community life; he also shows how these ritual events have evolved in the last 25 years. The songs on which the study is based are transcribed from performances by cultural insiders, and provide not only insights about culture but also invaluable facts about the Mangghuer language and its use in these forms of oral literature. 本书以传统婚礼中的歌唱表演为窗口,生动而细腻地呈现了三川土族文化的诸多层面。文祥呈基于其在三川土族地区进行的长达一代人的田野调查,凭借深厚的学术造诣与丰富的文化理解,深入剖析了传统仪式的举办方式在社群生活中的意义和价值,并清晰勾勒出这些仪式活动近 25 年来的演变轨迹。本研究所依据的歌曲均来自族群内部成员的实际演唱,不仅为我们解读三川土族文化提供了独特的观察视角,更为考察三川土族语言及其在口头文学中的具体运用,留存了极为珍贵的语言样本。

Keith W. Slater, University of North Dakota

 This is an impressive, detailed, and thorough study of marriage ritual and song which greatly expands our linguistic and cultural understanding of the Mangghuer. 本书对婚姻仪式与婚礼歌谣展开了详尽且深入的研究,极大地拓展了我们对三川土族语言与文化的认知,其学术价值极具分量。 Keith Dede, Lewis and Clark College

As a Mongghul reader, I am deeply moved by Wen Xiangcheng's ethnography, The Mangghuer: Life, Culture, Bridal Lamentations, and Wedding Songs. Its meticulous documentation of our (Mongghul's) "close relatives'" intricate social customs, from traditional marriage patterns to shifts in their language, preserves a cultural depth that modernization threatens to extinguish.

Wen's study offers a compelling model for how ordinary people in rural communities can conduct ethnography. As a reflective, methodical, and self-aware insider, Wen demonstrates that ethnography need not always start in universities or abroad. It can begin at home with familiar cultural experiences and memories. Wen's research is especially relevant for those raised in rural China, particularly in counties and villages shaped by long histories of migration, ritual, and multilingual contact, through its serious, respectful, and curious observation of culture.

A major strength of this book is its clear focus as a model. One of the cultural practices Wen identifies, bridal lamentations, was disappearing. Wen asks what they reveal about gender, family, and identity among the Mangghuer. This classic ethnographic approach uses a seemingly small cultural act as a window into broader social patterns. There is much to learn from this method. Students do not need to look for grand topics or national "heritage" to study their communities. Instead, they can start with everyday activities like food preparation, seasonal work, courtyard gatherings, funerals, festivals, clothing, housing, and rites of passage, and ask what these activities reveal about values, shared knowledge, and emotional aspects of daily life.

Wen interviews older women, participates in ceremonies, documents performances, and listens to family members and stories, showing that ethnographic research depends on relationships. Wen views culture as something lived, not just a museum artifact. This approach is especially relatable for students from rural backgrounds, whose grandparents, parents, and other elders in their communities carry memory and tradition. Interviewing elders about how weddings, funerals, harvests, house-building, and similar events were traditionally carried out is both historical reconstruction and cultural preservation, illustrating that Wen's work is rooted in observation, dialogue, and listening.

Sensitivity to change is also modeled. Wen documents what Mangghuer weddings "used to be" and how and why these practices have transformed in the last few decades under the influence of public education, state policy, urban migration, tourism, and digital media. This attitude toward change is useful. Some potential ethnographers may feel their home communities are "not traditional enough" or "already modernized," and thus not worth studying. Wen shows that what disappears, what survives, what adapts, and what young people feel embarrassed about are all cultural facts worth analyzing: modernization is an ethnographic topic by itself. Rural communities are shaped by the same forces that change cities, only in different ways and at different speeds. They are not outside history.

Linguistic observation is another aspect of The Mangghuer that students can explore. It looks at how vocabulary changes across generations and how gendered speech practices preserve archaic terms. The author does not romanticize "old language." Students might be bilingual or trilingual in local Chinese dialects, and possibly Tibetan, Salar, Mongolian, Mongghul, or other languages. Wen demonstrates that language is a means of communication and a record of cultural identity and contact. Students could examine how children speak differently from grandparents by considering how nine years of compulsory education, phone apps, and social media introduce new vocabulary, and how rituals create novel speech forms in daily life.

Another valuable aspect of Wen's book as a model is its balance between affection and analysis. His writing is motivated by love for his culture, yet he observes without nostalgia. He is honest about the pressures weakening cultural continuity, but he does not blame or judge. This balanced tone is rare and difficult to achieve, but it offers students a lesson. Ethnography is most meaningful when it neither idealizes nor dismisses the community it describes.

The Mangghuer is an ethnographic project that encourages people to carefully examine their own communities, notice details that once seemed minor, and record practices before they quietly disappear. In rural China, where modernization and migration continue to swiftly reshape life, such ethnographic work is both academic and a cultural responsibility. 

Finally, Wen's book teaches that rural communities deserve to be documented by their own members. Local knowledge feels too ordinary or too close to be scholarly for many rural students. Wen proves the opposite. Closeness can be an advantage, providing access, trust, and emotional understanding that outsiders rarely achieve. When students study their own homes, they strengthen their ability to see value where others may see decline or disappearance.

 作为一名土族语 Mongghul 方言区的读者,我被文祥呈的民族志著作《最后的三川土人:濒危的三川土族文化、语言与婚礼歌》深深打动。书中细致记录了我们 Mongghul 土族人的“近亲族群”——三川土族 Mangghuer丰富多元的文化遗产:从传统婚姻模式到语言变迁,为现代化浪潮下日渐式微的传统习俗留存了珍贵印记。

文祥呈的著作为乡村社群中的文化研究者们提供了一套极具说服力的民族志研究范式。他以“局内人”的身份执笔,同时兼具反思精神、自觉意识与严谨的条理性。他的研究充分证明,民族志研究并非必须发轫于高等学府或立足于本土文化圈之外,而是可以始于故土,源于那些看似习以为常的文化经验与记忆。对于具有乡村背景的研究者而言,尤其是成长于历经漫长迁徙、仪式传统深厚、多语言交融的县域村落的群体,文祥呈的研究向他们示范了如何以严谨、尊重且充满探究意识的态度,去审视自身所属族群的文化。

这部著作的核心价值之一,在于其清晰的范本导向。文祥呈从诸多本土文化实践中,锁定了“新娘哭嫁歌”这一濒临消逝的传统习俗,继而围绕这一文化现象,探究其背后所折射的三川土族的性别观念、家庭结构与身份认同。这种以一个看似细微的文化行为作为窗口,去窥探更为广阔的宏观社会格局的研究路径,堪称民族志的经典范式,极具借鉴意义。文化研究者们可以从中习得这一研究方法:开展本土社群研究,无需执着于宏大议题或国家级“非遗”项目,而是可以从世俗生活的日常场景入手。比如,备餐习俗、时令劳作、村落聚会、丧葬仪典、节庆活动、服饰民居,以及人生仪礼等,皆是绝佳的研究切入点,进而探寻这些行为背后承载的族群价值观、集体认知与情感维度。

通过访谈族群长者、参与仪式现场、记录表演过程、倾听家族记忆与故事传承这一系列研究路径,文祥呈揭示了民族志研究对人际联结的高度依赖。在他眼中,文化绝非博物馆里尘封的静态展品,而是一种鲜活的生活实践。这一研究路径对于具有乡村背景的民族志研究者而言触手可及:他们的祖父母、父母及社区长辈,本身就是记忆与传统的承载者。向长辈求证传统的婚丧嫁娶、农事仪式、建房立屋等活动的原有样貌,既是对历史的重构,也是对文化的守护。文祥呈的研究表明,民族志绝非单纯的观察,更是一场场真诚的对话与倾听。

对文化变迁的敏锐捕捉,同样构成了这部著作的范本意义。文祥呈不仅记录了三川土族婚礼“曾经的模样”,更是用敏锐的观察力剖析了过去数十年间这些习俗演变的轨迹与动因,细致梳理了公共教育、国家政策、人口外流、旅游业发展以及数字媒体等带来的多重影响。这种看待文化变迁的态度极具启发意义:很多民族志研究者认为自身的族群文化“不够传统”或“已然现代化”,因而缺乏研究价值。而文祥呈用实践证明,现代化进程本身就是一个值得深入研究的民族志议题:那些消逝的事物、留存的传统、被改造的习俗,以及让年轻人感到“尴尬”的文化元素,都是值得分析的文化事实。乡村社群从未置身于历史进程之外,它们与城市一样,被同样的时代力量重塑,只是呈现形式与发展节奏有所不同。

语言观察是这部著作的又一特色,也是民族志研究者们值得借鉴的维度。作者并未对“古老语言”进行浪漫化描摹,而是客观记录词汇的代际演变,以及具有性别属性的语言实践对古旧词汇的留存作用。许多民族志研究者可能通晓当地汉语方言、普通话,甚至一门或多门少数民族语言。文祥呈的研究向他们揭示:语言不只是交流工具,也是文化身份与文化交融的记录载体。研究者们可以借鉴这一视角,探究孩童与祖辈之间的语言差异、手机应用程序与社交媒体如何催生新词汇,以及仪式实践如何在日常生活中衍生出新型的语言形式。

这部著作作为研究典范的另一宝贵特质,在于情感与分析的平衡。文祥呈的研究源于对本民族文化的热爱,但他的写作并未陷入怀旧情结,更未带半点怀旧滤镜。他坦诚地剖析了削弱文化延续性的各种压力因素,却不加以指责或评判。这种不偏不倚的基调实属难得,也为其他研究者们上了生动的一课:民族志研究的核心意义,在于既不美化、也不贬低所描述的社群。

《最后的三川土人》既是一部严谨的民族志研究成果,也是一份恳切的邀约,鼓励人们认真审视自身所处的社群,留意那些曾被忽视的细微之处,并在这些习俗悄然消逝之前加以记录。在中国乡村,现代化与人口迁徙仍在迅速重塑人们的生活形态,这类民族志研究早已超越了学术范畴,更是一种沉甸甸的文化责任。

最终,文祥呈的著作传递出这样一个理念:乡村社群的文化,理应由其本土成员来记录。对许多拥有乡村背景的文化研究者而言,本土知识往往因过于寻常、过于贴近生活,而被认为缺乏学术价值。文祥呈的研究恰恰证明了相反的事实:这种“贴近性”实则是一种优势,它能赋予本土研究者得天独厚的接触机会、社群信任基础,以及外人难以企及的情感共鸣。当研究者们以自己的故土为研究对象时,他们便能在他人眼中的“衰落”与“消亡”之处,发现其内在独特的文化价值。

Ha Mingzong 哈明宗, Charles University

The Mangghuer: Life, Culture, Bridal Lamentations, and Wedding Songs is a remarkable cultural treasure for both local and international readers, offering reassurance by showing that someone is interested in and working to preserve Mangghuer culture in 2025. Wen Xiangcheng provides readers with an updated study of the history, culture, clothing, embroidery, language, complex religion, daily life, and more of the Minhe Mangghuer (Tu). Included are comments on Russian explorer Grigorij Nikolaevich Potanin (1835-1920), Chinese photographer Zhuang Xueben (1909-1984), Finnish scholar Aila Pullinen's (2015) research on Mangghuer embroidery, and the rapidly changing Mangghuer cultural scene, which includes detailed descriptions of bridal lamentations and wedding songs that resemble those among the Huzhu Mongghul.

Juha Janhunen's comment in the Preface is particularly relevant: "Ultimately, the future of Mangghuer as a living language remains in the hands of the Mangghuer themselves," which is true for the Mangghuer and all Monguor.

《最后的三川土人:濒危的三川土族文化、语言与婚礼歌》无论对本土读者还是国际读者而言,都是一部珍贵的文化与学术文本——它向人们传递了一份慰藉,表明在 2025 年,仍有学者持续关注并致力于濒危土族文化的保护与传承。文祥呈为读者呈献了其关于民和三川土族历史、文化、服饰、刺绣、语言、复杂的宗教信仰及日常生活等各个层面的最新学术成果。书中不仅梳理了俄罗斯探险家格里戈里·尼古拉耶维奇·波塔宁(1835-1920)、中国纪实摄影大师庄学本(1909-1984)等人关于三川土人的文献记载,整合了芬兰学者艾拉·普莱宁针对三川土族刺绣的研究,更以客观、审慎的视角描绘了社会转型背景下正在急剧变迁的土族文化样貌。其中,对三川土族新娘哭嫁歌与婚礼歌的详细记述和深度解读尤为珍贵。这些歌谣与互助土族的歌谣在文化内核与表现形式上存在共通性,为土族内部文化同源性及地域差异性研究提供了重要的实证参照。

Juha Janhunen 在该书序言中的评论则十分中肯:“归根结底,三川土族语能否作为一门活态语言延续下去,其最终命运仍掌握在三川土族人民自己手中。”这句话不仅精准契合三川土族的语言存续现状,也适用于所有土族群体的语言与文化传承事业。

Limusishiden (Li Dechun李得春), Qinghai University Affiliated Hospital

Wen Xiangcheng brings to life the voices, memories, and performances of Mangghuer as they live and have lived, and as they sang their sorrows and hopes at weddings. Filled with vivid stories, songs, and images, the book reveals a world where tradition is beautiful, fragile, and rapidly changing. A rare and extremely valuable study of a vanishing cultural landscape.

 文祥呈生动呈现了三川土族民众当下及过往的声音、记忆与实践样态,清晰还原了他们在婚礼场景中吟唱悲戚与希冀的真实图景。书中收录了大量鲜活的故事、歌谣及影像资料,深刻揭示了一个传统既瑰丽多姿、又脆弱易损且正经历急剧变迁的文化世界,是一项针对这片日渐消逝的文化图景所开展的罕见且极具学术价值的研究成果。

Zhu Yongzhong朱永忠, Zhujiaola, Zhongchuan中川乡朱交拉人

This richly documented study examines Mangghuer culture, including religion, taboos, landscape, language, and bridal lamentations and wedding songs as vehicles of emotion, ritual, and linguistic artistry, set within the broader social history of Sanchuan. Drawing on recordings, photographs, sketches, and fieldwork, it offers one of the first in-depth linguistic and cultural analyses of these endangered genres. A critical contribution to Chinese minority ethnography, oral literature, and Mongolic language studies. 

 本书作为一部文献翔实的民族志著作,系统探讨了三川土族文化的核心维度,具体涵盖宗教信仰、禁忌体系、地域风貌、语言特征,以及作为情感表达、仪式载体与语言艺术典范的哭嫁歌和婚礼歌,其研究语境植根于三川地区更为宏大的社会历史框架之内。该民族志以实地采集的录音、照片、手绘图及田野调查成果为核心支撑,首次对这些濒危文化体裁展开了深入的语言层面与文化层面的系统性分析,填补了相关研究领域的空白,是中国少数民族民族志、口头文学研究及蒙古语族语言研究领域的一项关键性贡献。

Wang Xianzhen王献珍, Qinghai University Affiliated Hospital