Ballads of Sister Liu Sanjie

Year: 2006

Sort: Folk Literature

Area: Guangxi province

Serial No.: Ⅰ-23

Declarer: Yizhou city, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region

There is an ocean of songs in China, and in Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, the most famous song is the Ballad of Sister Liu Sanjie.

Liu Sanjie (which translates as 'third sister in the Liu family') is a legend among the Zhuang people. Zhuang is one of the 56 ethnic groups in China and, with a population of 15 million, is second only to the Han people, who account for more than 91 percent of the nation's total population of 1.3 billion.

The Zhuang people believe Liu Sanjie was the incarnation of a lark, and she started speaking eloquently when she was only one. At the age of three, she already had a melodious voice. In her teens, she was regarded as the top singer of folk songs-songs in an antiphonal style, typical of the ethnic people in South China. At the age of 12, Liu Sanjie was already famous for her extraordinary talent at improvising songs.

Coveting her beauty and talent, a local tyrant named Mo Huairen wanted to have her as his concubine. She rejected him and the angry Mo plotted to murder her. With the help of her boyfriend and fellow villagers, she managed to escape. The two lovers sang as they traveled and eventually found ultimate freedom by turning themselves into a pair of larks.

The legend of Liu Sanjie was originally an oral tradition and later found itself in romance, drama scripts, and county annals in Guangxi.

The Zhuang people believe that Sister Liu Sanjie actually existed and it is she who spread her ballads among the Zhuang people, giving birth to the festive Folk Song Fair in the spring and autumn. The Zhuang women used to choose their husbands at the Folk Song Fair. The love songs were created and sung by Sister Liu Sanjie. Yizhou city is the Liu Sanjie's hometown and there are many of her ballads sung in the area.

However, as traditions are fading away in the country's shift to modernity, the Ballads of Sister Liu Sanjie are fading as well.