The Practical Theology of the Hakka in Taiwan－ The Mother Rearing Her Child

• Main Author: 楊寶蓮
• Other Authors: 古國順
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2011
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/63792485067547142120

博士 === 臺北市立教育大學 === 中國語文學系 === 99 === The Practical Theology of the Hakka (客語勸世文) in Taiwan is a branch of The Practical Theology of the Chinese (中國勸世文). The Mother Rearing Her Child (娘親渡子) is a typical style that combines The Practical Theology of the Hakka and the rap-like musical of Hakka. Since 1968, Yang Yu-lan’s Yu-lan Song of Practical Theology (玉蘭勸世歌), afterwards also known as The Mother Rearing Her Child (娘親渡子), adopted the ping-ban (平板), or the level-like tone, and ping-ban-shi-nian-zi (平板什唸子), or the rap with level-like tone. Since then the musical style has become popular. In analyzing its lyrics, it is found that Hakka mothers’ child-rearing customs might be directly dated back to those of Dun-huang (敦煌) mothers, because of so many similarities, like huai-dan (懷躭 still to work on domestic chores or in the field while being pregnant), huei-gan-jiu-shi (迴乾就濕 for a mother to render the dry spot to the baby but keep the wet spot for herself), xi-di (洗濯 to do the laundry by the riverside). It represents the difficulties of healthy Hakka women so as to keep her families. Also, thanks to its abundance of archaic phrases, it provides some important data for the study of Hakka fork literature. The Mother Rearing Her Child can historically trace to a variety of sources in terms of its thought, its lyrics, and its performance styles. In Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties, Dun-huang folk lyrics (敦煌俗講) was composed, based on the scripts of The Sutra As Spoken by the Buddha on the Profound Kindness of Parents and the Difficulties in Repaying them (佛說父母恩重經講經文) and the lyrics (歌讚) based on The Ten Kindness (十恩德). And, the motif is about the profound kindness of parents and the way how children repay them. In Yuan, Ming and Ching Dynasties, The Precious Volume on Pregnancy (懷胎寶卷), directly passed down from Dun-huang folk lyrics, again influenced the script of On Ten-Month Pregnancy (十月懷胎), prevailing in Southern Chiang-xi. However, its richness in the idea of repaying parents makes it an ideal song in funeral or in the ceremonies by wizards. Besides, it has been mixed with tealeaf-picking dramas in Southern Jiang-xi, from which the mixture spread outwards, through tea plantation, musical players or Taoists, into Fu-jian and Guang-dong, homes of the ancestors of most Taiwanese inhabitants, and thus it has eventually spread to and become popular in Taiwan. In literature, Ho A-wen (何阿文), a tea farmer and musical artist, was the pioneer introducing the southern Chiang-xi folk song On Ten-Month Pregnancy (十月懷胎) into Taiwan. His disciples, A-lang Dan (阿浪旦, playing the female leading role in a play) and Liang A-cai (梁阿才), and afterwards their disciples, Zeng Xian-zhi (曾先枝), Zheng Mei-mei (鄭美妹), Zheng Rong-xing (鄭榮興) and the others all have made a great contribution to passing down the folk songs. Thus, On Ten-Month Pregnancy (十月懷胎) has been popular in Taiwan, chanted with such a wide variety of rhymes as Old Huai-tai(老懷胎), Huai-tai (懷胎), Bing-zi-ge(病子歌), Wu-geng-gu (五更鼓), Shu-zhuang-tai(梳妝臺), which still can be found in drama musicals and Hakka ba-in (八音). In Southern Min, except for Bing-zi-ge(病子歌), the other rhymes have altogether been lost. As for the lyrics, most of them still can be found in Hakka funeral songs and the Hakka rap-like The Mother Rearing Her Child (娘親渡子). Yang’s Yu-lan Song of Practical Theology has been popular and has thus far considered as the original source of The Mother Rearing Her Child. However, it is a hybrid of a variety of sources, such as Su Wan-song’s (蘇萬松) Repaying the Mother (報娘恩), Qiu A-Zhuan’s (邱阿專) On Ten-Month Pregnancy, Chen Huo-tian’s (陳火添) The Practical Theology o the Mother Rearing Her Child (娘親渡子勸世文) and Song on Ten-Month Pregnancy (十月懷胎歌), and the practical theological fork song Ten Thoughts on Child-Rearing (十想渡子), and some self-composed lyrics by Young herself. Afterwards, so many singers like Qiu Yu-chun (邱玉春), Li Qiu-xia (李秋霞), Hu Quan-xiong (胡泉雄), Huang Feng-zhen (黃鳳珍), Ku Hua-guang (古華光), Lian Ren-xin (連仁信) followed Yang’s steps to teach and make records. Thus, the Hakka rap-like The Mother Rearing Her Child (娘親渡子) wins popularity with the general public. This study not only delves into the history of The Mother Rearing Her Child but also compiles and does thorough study to its wording. In addition, it also makes detailed description to its rhetoric, language styles, and rhyming. It is hoped that this study is useful to the further study on The Practical Theology of the Hakka (客語勸世文), Hakka rap-like musicals, as well as Hakka folk literature. Key words: The Mother Rearing Her Child, On Ten-Month Pregnancy, huei-gan-jiu-shi, The Ten Kindness, Yang Yu-lan