Song Dynasty of China Versus Griots of Africa - Essay Example

History has long since been regarded as a very important document of a country’s inheritance of its cultural values, people and its socio political and economical evolution. Historians have adopted various means of putting the facts and figures of their time. While written documents of history have been considered widely popular with the experts, other forms of maintaining the historical saga are equally important that are capable of divulging all the relevant information of the time and place. The most important facet of the history is the context of the information that is preserved for the posterity and which is used to disseminate information regarding the people and place, constituting the cause and consequences that helped shape their lives. It is important to know what constitutes the authentic or near authentic way of knowing the past practices and experiences of the people and place, irrelevant of the medium through which it is expressed. Hence our main argument is so long as one can establish a convincing connection between the context of the historical facts and the characters of the writings, the medium through which it is expressed is not important. To substantiate my arguments, I would therefore be taking the different formats of history of song dynasty of China versus griots of Africa. I would argue that while ‘song’ historians believed that written information is important for later generation so that they can learn from their ancestors, in Africa ‘griots’ were especially appointed by the kings to record the constitution and traditions of the time by memorizing the details. By examining the historical contents of the two formats of history, I would like to prove my argument with solid evidence. Writing detailed accounts of the ways of administration has long been in practice in Chinese history probably started by the latter Han dynasty. The emperors of the dynasty had special people or historiographers to take notes of all the words and actions of the emperor in the court which were later put into writings as ‘Diaries of Actions and Repose (Qtfuzhu)’ for posterity (p657). Both the good and the bad acts of the emperors were recorded per se. It is recorded in the history that once when the emperor Taizong tried to test the honesty of his officials by secretly sending his attendants to them with role of silk, he was remonstrated by the Minister Bei Zhu openly who said ‘this is not leading the people by virtue and restraining them by the rules of decorum’ (Zizhi tongiian 192626, no.16; 3:6029-CS). The main objective of writings was that the later generation of emperor and rulers of the state should be able to learn from the mistakes of their ancestors and therefore, should be able to improve their administration and thereby promote overall betterment of their people and state. A very interesting fact of history is that Su Che,(659) a prominent Chinese writer of 12th century was renowned for his great sense of responsibilities as historian and viewed heaven, sovereign and the historian as the three main authorities that helped to maintain a balance between the good and the bad in the world. It was said that the heaven bestows long and short life span to mortals and allows good people to avoid untimely death. But sometimes, the bad people are able to escape the heaven’s punishment and therefore, the sovereign steps in and metes out appropriate punishment to the bad people and rewards the good so as to help heaven in maintaining the order. Finally the historians are left with the responsibility of informing the posterity of the rewards and punishment so that bad things are not repeated! Another major objective of the Chinese historiographers and eminent travelers has been to depict in details the socio political background of the successive rulers and administrators of the state or the place. Lu Zuqian (1137-1181) believed that ‘history must be viewed not as a collection of miscellaneous facts but as the continued record of organic growth and change and thinking oneself into the past and weighing the options available at that time, a person can exercise a sense of judgment and thus gain in understanding’. The traditions and the religion are important aspect of people which are passed onto the future generations. The later Chinese historians and philosophers have made efforts to throw light on the evolving social values of different dynasties and their people. The character of the writings in the successive times have been able to show the level of understanding of not only the administrative and governing techniques but the skill with which it was interpreted has shown the general standard of living and education. Zhu XI, an eminent historian and writer strongly favored the ‘study of enduring principles in the classics, his thinking about the issues of his time was informed by the sense of history’. He had tried to simplify and record the facts based on defined criteria that facilitated easy learning and hence suitable for education purpose and making it highly popular. The Chinese historians have also been very thorough in portraying the prevailing socio political conditions of the time. They have made sure that every minute detail of the customs of the various strata of society, including their clothing, eating habits and their attitudes towards issues regarding gender, environment, class etc is accurately reflected in their writing. The conscious effort of engaging the historians by the sovereign states, have exhibited a deliberate farsightedness that is greatly appreciated by their future generation. The various documentary proofs have established an authenticity to the evolving values and changing socio political dynamics of China which seems to have given credibility to the West who rely on the written words more than anything. While written account of history is much appreciated, the other forms of information regarding the events of the past cannot be ignored. The Africans have preserved their history in the form of oral narration by special people known as griots. Historian Niane has done extensive study on the ‘griots’ and says that ‘words of griots teach wisdom and history’. The griots were special counselors of the kings and the rulers of the African states, who were appointed with the specific purpose of conserving the constitution and traditions of the kingdoms through memory alone and verbal narration of the same become one of the most important way of knowing the history of the state. They preserve traditional values of their race, in the form of narration which is extremely detailed and interesting to listen. The art is passed on generation to generation, accumulating more information of the time. The huge knowledge of the griots and their exceptional memory to recount in detail all the relevant events of the time is not only unique but it shows their acknowledgement of the imperative need to maintain their heritage and value system for posterity. The narration of Mamadou Kouyate’, a griot of Mali, is not only interesting but the details of the ancient history is backed by comprehensive description of people, events and places. Every narration is emphasised with ‘it is the word of my father; it is the words of my father’s father ..we are the depositories of the oaths which the ancestors swore..by my mouth you will learn the history of Mali’. The Africans, through griots, have successfully managed to retain their historical facts and figures that have undergone changes through time and place. The oral narration of history cannot be disregarded just because it was not written. The lack of formal education was not a deterrent for the Africans who showed their ingenuity in creating ways and means to keep a record of their traditions and value system through the ages. Though today, the griots have lost their prestigious role as official historians of the kingdom, the generations of the griots have maintained their art of narrating history. The changing times have made them narrate history in musical form which has become the highlight of African culture and traditions. Various African tribes and tribes of other countries too, have devised their unique methods of preserving their traditions and values. Indeed, one can say that written account of historical facts is a more credible way to preserve history but it is equally true that other media of maintaining records of historical values, also have the same importance because they are able to inform us about the evolution of cultural and political values of the place and people, which is the main objective of the history. It can therefore be convincingly said that both historians tried to record historical facts in their different ways and succeeded in preserving it. Reference The Confucian Revival and neo- Confucionism. pp. 657. Niane, D,T. The Words of The Griots Mamadou Kouyate’ Read More