I would like to spend my whole life in battlefields.”
The interesting story of Almambet, an important assistant and loyal comrade-in-arms of Manas, bears testimony to the main theme of the masterpiece. Though Almambet descended from Khitan noblemen, he sympathized with the
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oppressed Kyrgyz people and opted to fight along with Manas. In the turbulent days of fighting, Manas and Almambet had established the profound militant friendship.
4) Artistic characteristics of “Manas”
The epic is characterized by humorous and refined language, pretty metaphors and bold imagination. It is widely acknowledged as the paradigm of Kyrgyz literature.
A wide range of objects in the nature and even animals are made the best of to depict the image of different characters, such as the high mountains, vast plain, flowing rivers, lakes, fiere eagles, wild beasts, a gust of violent wind and floating clouds. For example, the vivid depiction of Manas reads as follows:
“The great hero Manas
Looks like a white tiger
If viewed from the front.
Looks like a huge dragon
If viewed from the behind.
Looks like a fierce eagle
From a bird’s eye-view.
His angry shout can upstage the roar of forty lions.”
The appropriate metaphors used in these lines help people to get a comprehensive understanding of the leading role’s distinctive appearance and the high station.
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Other pretty metaphors are included in the remarks made by Agibai when he helped Manas propose marriage to the daughter of Kara Khan. They are as follows:
“I have a hawk, Your Majesty.
You have a swan, Your Majesty.
Just let your swan fly, Your Majesty.
Let my hawk catch her, Your Majesty.”
As a matter of fact, a swan is interpreted as suggestive of Princess Kanikei while a hawk stands for Manas. The metaphors used here are appropriate. Agibai, a well-known eloquent master of language, did not mention the very word “marriage” at all while helping Manas propose marriage to the princess. However, people understand his intention completely after reading the lines containing the above-mentioned implicative allusions.
In addition to the figurative language, the epic boasts exaggeration which was deliberately used by the creators of the epic to serve as a foil to different characters. In most cases, the sharp contrast made by storytellers on purpose would lead to the super-excellent artistic effects. In order to set off the insignificance of a negative character called “Chinkojow”, the epic gives full play to the function of exaggeration. Some lines in “Semetei” are as follows:
“He lit up a tobacco leaf with the size of a sheep’s head.
The smoke puffing from his cigarette every time
Would permeate half of the clear, blue sky.”
Judging by the above-mentioned lines, people can draw a conclusion that
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“Chinkojow” is a giant. However, they have to change their mind if they read or
hear the following lines, such as:
“But if compared with Semetei,
He would look like a grain of sand beside a high mountain.”
Such a sharp contrast conveyed by the lines succeeded in setting the hero Semetei apart from “Chinkojow” , his rival in love. Such an exaggeration also shows a clear demarcation between the positive characters popular with the masses and the negative characters scorned by them.
In spite of the enormous cast, all of the characters come across as distinct personalities, convincingly and in depth. They include all the heroes of Family Manas, cruel alien rulers, contemptible secret agents and traitors.
The epic “Manas” is not only a valuable and voluminous literary heritage but also an encyclopaedia on Kyrgyz people’s history, geography, living customs, religious beliefs, society, economy, family life, music, art, language and so on and so forth. A number of historical incidents, historical figures and ethnic groups existing in ancient times are mentioned in the epic, including the Kara Khitan Khanate, the Mongol Empire, Moghulistan, Hoy-Hu, Tu-chueh, the Han Nationality, Khazak Nationality, Tajik Nationality, Uzbek Nationality, Tatar Nationality, Genghis Khan, Esen Khan and so on and so forth. In addition, an intimate description of Dzungar and Altay tribes can also be found in the epic.
5) Characteristics of many variations of “Manas”
The epic “Manas” are widely spread not only among the Kyrgyz Nationality
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members living in China but also among the ethnic group members settling in Kyrgyz Republic, Afghanistan and other countries. Up to now, Kyrgyzstan has already compiled and published the former four episodes of the epic.
Inherited, re-created and gradually brought to completion by a number of Manaschis in the past several centuries, “Manas” is not a faithful historical account. It is not a work authored by an individual at a certain time. Its plot-line is not identical to what really happened in the history. With the development of society and times, Manaschis would incorporate the new contents into the original folk legend repeatedly during the period of their respective artistic processing and creation. What matters is that different versions of the epic chanted by different Manachis who lived in the same era even contain different plots. In short, changing with the lapse of time and social temper is the most obvious characteristic of the epic. The reason lies in the fact that the folk literature masterpiece is not created by a single author living in a certain era. Instead, numerous Manaschis from various generations usually combined different materials about politics, economy, society, culture and people’s life ranging from the remote antiquity to the present time into a whole. Moreover, they even endowed a particular character in the epic with different conceptions, ideals, faiths and aspirations which took shape in different eras.
