The Folktale of Horse Driving Town 走马镇民间故事

时间：2006年
Date: 2006
类别：民间文学
Category: Folklore Literature
地区：重庆
Region: Chongqing Municipality
编号：Ⅰ—17
Project No. I-17
申报地区或单位：重庆市九龙坡区
Name of Applicant (region or institution): Jiulongpo District, Chongqing Municipality
走马镇是重庆市九龙坡区的一个镇子，这里流传着一种由以“走马”（赶马）为职业的人群口头创作并传承的民间故事，人们通常将其称作“走马故事”。走马故事起源的确切年代无从稽考，但走马场建立于明末清初并很快得以兴盛，故事应与之同步发展，其产生形成至少已有四五百年的历史。
Horse Driving Town is a town of Jiulongpo District, Chongqing Municipality. Here is circulating a kind of folktale that originated and was passed down by word of mouth by people who made a living by driving horses. People call it a horse-driving story. The exact date of origination of the story is beyond examination, but the horse-driving ground was set up at the turn of Ming and Qing dynasties and soon prospered. The story developed along with it, so it had basically lasted for four to five hundred years or so.
由于“走马”人群的生存环境和生活阅历与常人不同，所以他们创作和讲述的故事显示出某些特点。走马民间故事内容庞杂、类型多样，除了民间传说故事的一般类型，如神话仙话、风物传说、动植物传说、民俗传说和生活故事等外，还蕴藏着其他独特的文化信息，诸如巴人图腾龙蛇的传说等。作为古代巴文化的重要遗存，这类故事的数量相当大。
As living conditions and life experience of the horse drivers were different from common folks, they created and related the story in a way of their own, too. Actually, the content of the story is miscellaneous and the type varied. Apart from the general type of folktales, such as myth, legend of relics, legend of plants and animals, legend of custom and story of life, it reveals its unique cultural features, like the legend of dragon or snake as totem of the local people. As important remains of the local culture of Chongqing in ancient times, such stories come in pretty large numbers.
20世纪80年代编纂“中国民间文学三套集成”时，在该镇采录到的民间故事目录达10915个，记录完成数达9714则，另外还采集到民间歌谣三千余首、谚语四千余条，歇后语和俗语等四千余条。全镇民间故事家共316人，其中能讲1000则故事的有2人，能讲500至1000则的有3人，能讲200至500则的有10人。
During the compilation of The Three Complete Collection of Chinese Folk Literature back in the 1980’s, the folktales collected in this town was as many as 10,915 with 9,714 successfully recorded. And there were also more than 3,000 ballads, 4,000 adages and 4,000 idioms and sayings uncovered. There are altogether 316 master story-tellers in the town, with two being capable of telling 1,000 stories each, three capable of telling 500-1,000 stories each, and ten telling 200-500 stories each.
走马民间故事具有讲述时机和场合的多样性、故事构成的多源性、本土文化与外来文化的共存性等特征。
The horse driving stories feather diversity of narrative time and places, multi-sources of story formation, and coexistence of local and external cultures.
1990年，走马镇被重庆市文化局命名为“民间文学之乡”；1992年，工农村被命名为“中国民间故事村”；1998年联合国教科文组织、中国民间文艺家协会联合授予魏显德“中国民间故事家”称号（全国共10人）。
In 1990, the Horse Driving Town was named “Home of Folktales” by Chongqing Cultural Bureau; in 1992, Gongnong Village was named “China Folktale Village”; and in 1998, UNESCO and China Society for the Study of Folk Literature and Art jointly conferred upon Wei Xiande the title “China Master Folktale Story-teller” (totally 10 people nationwide).
目前，走马故事面临严重危机，主要问题在于传承乏人。抢救、保护走马故事，不仅可以丰富民众的文化生活，而且能够为人类学、文化学、宗教学、民族学和方言学等多种学科提供研究资料。
At present, Horse Driving Town is facing a crisis – there is lack of people to inherit the stories. The salvation and preservation of horse-driving stories can not only enrich the cultural life of people, but also provide research data for fields including anthropology, cultural studies, religion, ethnology, and dialect.