Research on the Communication of Bimo Chant in Ancestor Worship Ceremony of Yi People

. As the embodiment of Yi culture, Bimo plays an irreplaceable role in ancestor worship ceremony. At each stage of the ceremony, Bimo recites the sutras, using a different chant. This paper takes the seven-day ancestor worship ceremony of The Pude family held in Daxiyi Village, Fawo Township, Wuding County, Chuxiong, Yunnan as the research object, and summarizes Bimo chant tune throughout it, and analyzes it from the perspective of transmission.


Introduction
Yi people's ancestor worship ceremony is the largest, grandest and most varied ceremony among the primitive religious sacrificial activities. Bimo is the core of the ancestor worship. "Bi is the host of religious sacrifices, eliminator of ghosts means reading sutras or reciting sutras, and Mo means mother, teacher and wise man." [1] The ritual is performed by multiple Bimos. The chief Bimo are responsible for the formal recitation of the scriptures and the preside over the important links. The rest of the Bimos are responsible for exorcism, blessing and making the ancestral cylinder. The same as the chant in funeral. To dispel thunder, fire disaster, rats, snakes and other evil spirits.

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The Scripture of The Ghost Turning to God The Chant used in The Scripture of The Ghost Turning to God Ensure that the ancestral spirit is transformed from ghost to God.

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Recounting Ancestral Scripture The Chant used in Recounting Ancestral Scripture The same as the chant in funeral. To Telling the history of the ancestors, and each ancestor worship.

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The Scripture of medicine Offering The Chant used in The Scripture of medicine Offering In order to relieve the ancestors of diseases, so that the ancestors of the soul without pain.

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The scripture of The Blessed The Chant used in the scripture of The Blessed The same as the chant in funeral. Pray for the blessings of the ancestors. To obtain all previous ancestors' acceptance and to attend a ceremony to appease the soul of ancestors.

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The Scripture of Necromancy The Chant used in The Scripture of necromancy To gathering together the ancestor soul into the site of ancestor worship.

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The Scripture of Giving blessing Natural chant To ask the spirits of the ancestors to bless the descendants.

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The Scripture of The Circle The Chant used in The Scripture of The Circle To exorcise evil spirits from the earth.

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The Scripture of sacrifice (iii) The Chant used in Sacrifice Scripture (ii) To the clan in the past dynasties ancestral spirit of God sacrifice.
There are three stages in the ceremony: the first stage is mainly for the divination of whether to hold the ancestor worship ceremony. The second stage is mainly to worship the ancestral spirit tablet, which means that the ancestors of the family are invited to participate in the ancestral worship activity. The ancestor's spirit tablet is "invited" to the site for sacrifice, and the ancestor's soul is crossed over and the ancestor's protection is prayed for in the third stage. Bimo recites the corresponding sutras in every stage. The Bimo chant here includes "near language -far music" [2] and the chant of "near music-far language" [2] with a certain rhythm and melody as follows:

Professional Communicators
Bimo is intellectual in the Yi society and respected by Yi people. Bimo must master the knowledge and skills of funeral rites, ancestor worship, sacrificial offerings, divination, calendar, blessing, exorcism, and so on. New Bimo candidates are nurtured and trained to become real Bimo.

Systematic Forms of Communication
First, dedicated chant. A scripture corresponds to its special chant, which is generally not used in other scriptures. Even in the same scriptures, different content should be matched with exclusive chant. Take sacrificing as an example, there are three cases. One is to offer sacrifices in daily life. When offering sacrifices at home, Bimo recites The Scripture of sacrifice, using The Meal Offering chant. In the second and the third stage of the sacrificial rites, although the same sutra of sacrificial rites is used, the content of Bimo's chant is different from that of the first stage, the procedures of sacrificial rites are different, and the sutra of sacrificial rites used are also different. And the sacrificial sutra (ii) is used in the supreme sacrifice held on the last day.
Second, one chant a variety of usage. A chant can be used for different scriptures and different ceremonies. The Chant used in The Meal Offering Scripture can be used in both the Scripture of sacrifice and The Scripture of Meal Offering, and simultaneously applies to the ancestor worship ceremony and the funeral ceremony. This is a form of borrowing. Due to the decline of ancestor worship ceremonies, Bimo who could master this kind of tone died one after another, and today Bimo cannot master all the chants used in ancestor worship, so they have to borrow chants from the daily ritual into the ceremony.
Third, the chant has certain flexibility. A part of scriptures has no fixed by Bimo chant, but with their naturally chant. According to the content, Bimo is like reciting a poem emotionally. This kind of natural chant is completely controlled by Bimo and has certain flexibility.

One Single Communication Medium
Strictly speaking, Bimo chan can only be performed in the scene of ancestor worship, and can only be transmitted through Bimo.

Specific Communication Purpose
Bimo chant runs through every link of ancestor worship ceremony to ensure the holding of the ceremony and assist clan members to complete ancestor worship.

Transmission Function of Bimo Chant
Rothenbuhler pointed out that "ritual is a powerful and effective form of communication, and all rituals have the nature of transmission." [3] In the ancestor worship ceremony, Bomo chant is a form of communication.

Communicate between Man and God, Soul, Ghost
In the primitive religious concept of Yi, there is a god in all things. Yi believed that the mountains were the path to the gods and the pillars that supported the heavens. Therefore, whenever land is involved, the mountain god must be offered first. Yi believed that the soul is immortal and that people have three souls. Out of the reverence for the soul of the ancestors, Bimo and his chant act as a bridge to communicate with the soul of the ancestors, express their reverence for the ancestors, and pray to bless the future generations with good luck and peace. Meanwhile, Yi people believe that ghosts can be divided into good and evil. In the ceremony, there are many exorcism ceremonies, and Bimo and his chant communicate with ghosts and get rid of evil.

Promote the Process
Without Bimo and Bimo chant, the ceremony will not be able to proceed. Bimo chant has the function of indicating and marking to distinguish the contents of Scripture and sacrificial rites. Therefore, Bimo chant chamber achieves the function of promoting the completion of each procedure.

Unite Family Members and Strengthen Identity
Durkheim argued that, ritual is the means by which social groups periodically reconsolidate themselves. [4] Bimo chant spread the concept of Yi family, ancestor worship, animism, soul immortality and other primitive religious beliefs through sound and sound. In this way, the whole clan is integrated in the special time and space, and the members of the clan are connected, which strengthens the sense of belonging of all the clan descendants with the family relationship as the link, and promotes the identity among the clan members.

Promote the Communication of Bimo Culture
Because the inheritance of Bimo chant relies on oral transmission, with the development of The Times, many of the chant has been lost today. By chanting, Bimo can communicate with each other to learn their mastery of the Bimo chant, and then promote the development of Bimo culture.

Summary
It can be said that as a medium, Bimo chant transmits the traditional concepts, knowledge and culture of Yi people.
Today, there are some changes. Bimo chant appear in various cultural performances. And with the change of media technology, Yi ancestor worship ceremony has also become the content of media production. Therefore, we should also include new contexts in future studies.