BCP Social Sciences & Humanities ISSS 2022 Volume 16 (2022) 435 Analysis of the Narrative Art and Emotional Expression of the "Crying Marriage Songs" of Guizhou Daozhen Gelo Ethnic Minority Shun Li School of Chinese Language and Literature, Yunnan University, Yunnan, China 920154752@qq.com Abstract. As a traditional marriage custom of Gelo ethnic group, Crying Marriage Songs have shown their unique emotional power through historical development and cultural inheritance. The procedure can be divided into starting, crying, and parting. In terms of the narrative art, the performative act of crying and singing is characterized with diversified objects, improvised content based on inheritance, and multiple forms. As for the emotional expression, the songs of crying marriage custom reflect not only the social life and historical situation, but also crying women's thoughts and cognitive processes, indicting the feudal ethics such as arranged marriage and sale of marriage. As a poetic art, the crying songs that contain a rich emotional charm show the national psychology, temperament and aspirations of the Gelo people. Keywords: Daozhen Gelo; Crying Marriage Songs; Narrative Art; Emotional Expression. 1. Introduction "Crying Marriage is a custom of the Han, Tujia, Gelo, Hani, Zhuang and other ethnic groups in China, and the Crying Marriage Songs are the folk songs sung by the brides and their female relatives and friends at the wedding ceremony." [1] The Daozhen Gelo "Crying Marriage Songs" is a general term for the songs sung by the girls three to seven days before they get married. The songs are mainly sung by the brides, together with the emotional performances and interactions of their adult female relatives who accompany and cry with them. The former expresses the life experiences and hopes of young girls, while the latter expresses the feelings and perceptions of married women in their later life. In cooperation with each other, they complete an epic of the spiritual and emotional world of women in Mount Geshan. As an important form of expressing family love and other emotions, "Crying Marriage Songs" not only show Gelo women’s helplessness and painful rebuke to arranged and mercenary marriages, but also convey their deep attachment to friends and families. The heavy and sincere sentiment is mixed with fear and helplessness, but there is also a strong spiritual force of ethical resistance contained in it, behind which the truest perceptions of Gelo married women are formed. The paper presents the results of a field study on the Gelo and Miao Autonomous County that is conducted with the research methods of hometown folklore (Daozhen Gelo and Miao Autonomous County is the hometown of the writer who is a Gelo people.), cultural anthropology, sociology and other disciplines. Meanwhile, the author explores Geshan Women's emotional experience brought by the Crying Marriage Songs from the perspective of the narrative arts of Gelo folk songs. It is worth noting that the original lyrics obtained with the help of Wang Qianmei (Wang Qianmei, born on September 22, 1950 (lunar calendar) in Tongjiagou Gelo Village, Yangxi Township, Daozhen Gelo and Miao Autonomous County, is brought up with Geshan culture, who has only 13- day school education. As an expert in Gelo "Crying Marriage Songs", she is the representative inheritor of the "Gelao Crying Marriage Songs", an intangible cultural heritage project at the provincial level in Guizhou Province, municipal level in Zunyi City, and county level in Daochen Autonomous County.) and others, and Gelo people’s crying performances are analyzed in this paper to experience the real feelings of the girls getting married in the Gaozhen Mount Geshan and to feel the strong emotional power inside. BCP Social Sciences & Humanities ISSS 2022 Volume 16 (2022) 436 2. Historical Development, Cultural Inheritance, and Crying Marriage Procedure As a cultural phenomenon shared by multiple regions and ethnic groups in China, the Crying Marriage custom has undergone a long historical evolution. "Historically, the Daozhen region was once completely or partly governed by the Ba County in the Qin Dynasty, the Zangke County in the Han Dynasty, the Mingyang County in the Sui Dynasty, the Yelang County in the Tang Dynasty, the Zhen County in the Ming Dynasty, the area under the realm of zhenzhou, and the Zhen'an County. In the early years of the Qing Dynasty, it came under the control of Guizhou from Sichuan." [2] Due to the influence of historical, geographical and ethnic factors, there are a variety of crying marriage songs with different tones. In The Book of Rites, there is "嫁女之家，三夜不息烛，思相离也"(The Book of Rites (noted by Zhang Shuguo). Qingdao: Qingdao Publishing House, 2009: 256. The sentence means that in a family whose daughter is going to be married, the family members will stay up for as long as three nights to express their attachments to each other. (Literal meaning: for the family whose daughter is going to be married/they will keep on talking for three days/all they do are expressing their affection and the unwillingness to separate)) "In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, with the ‘land reform’, the feudal landlord system gradually replaced the feudal lord system. [3] As the land reform deepens, the Han culture was widely spread and the feudal marriage system and feudal ethics began to poison the Gelo women gradually. During this period, the crying marriage songs started to break the traditional feelings of parting and gratitude, and often attacked feudal ethics. For instance, in the song "Cursing the Matchmaker", the lyric "天下妹妹天下哥/姻缘莫听媒胡说/哥妹 有心自相爱/无媒成亲万年和"(One of the Ancient Books of the Gelo Ethnic Minority in Guizhou Province: Crying Marriage Songs (compiled by Wang Qizhen). Guizhou: Guizhou Nationalities Press, 1993: 117. The lyric here means a long-lasting marriage depends on the couple's love for each other, instead of the matchmaker's words. (literal meaning: all the boys and girls/don't be fooled by those matchmakers/you will find the one in your eye/love will be eternal if the marriage is not urged by them)) attacks the pernicious effects of the arranged and mercenary marriage system on women in Mount Geshan. Besides, the ethics of patriarchal society also brought oppressive spiritual shackles and actual hardships to the Daozhen Gelo women. All of those factors contribute to the consolidation and development of the crying marriage custom of Daozhen Gelo people, and accordingly to the further improvement of the local "crying marriage songs". In addition, there are several reasons behind the wide spread of the "Crying Marriage Song" as a cultural heritage in Daozhen. For example, the tradition that "men should not welcome the bride" makes Gelo girls feel uneven, and the customary belief that "a man whose wife is three years older than him can live a rich life" (Folk adage. It means that the women are three years older than her husband. Early marriage and wife being older than the husband are characteristics of Daozhen Gelo marriage.) makes Gelo women have strong psychological burden of taking care of the family alone after marriage. "From the age of 12 or 13, Gelo girls begin to learn crying marriage songs." [4] There are also similar folklore sayings, such as "A Gelo girl who can’t cry at her wedding is a fool." (According to Wang Qianmei, if a Gelo woman does not know how to "cry" at her wedding, she will be regarded as a "fool" by the locals. Therefore, the mothers of Gelo girls either teach their girls in person or find someone to teach them how to "cry".) The standard for "crying" refers not only to the ability to shed tears, but also to the competence of making up new songs for people and other things based on "inherited traditions" (The "inherited traditions" mainly include the basic lyrics, melodies, and sentence structures of the traditional crying songs, which are classic and statutory. This is the "fixed" part of the crying songs.). At the same time, the upcoming transformation of social roles from "Gelo daughter" to "Gelo daughter-in-law" also makes Gelo women anxious. These external "norms" and internal emotions are so intertwined that Gelo girls have to melt the "crying songs" into their blood. On the one hand, "crying and singing" becomes a reasonable way for them to express their emotions. On the other hand, learning "crying marriage songs" is also an inevitable way to follow social norms and protect themselves. BCP Social Sciences & Humanities ISSS 2022 Volume 16 (2022) 437 The procedure for singing and crying at the wedding of Daozhen Gelo people can be divided into opening voice, crying, and parting. "Generally, at the night before the wedding, friends and relatives of the girl’s family gather together. Then the girl’s mother starts the crying marriage song and leads the girl to ‘cry’." [5] The initial part called "starting" is mostly led by the mother or aunts. As the prelude, it mainly includes the advice to the married daughter, such as being filial to her in-laws, serving her husband, obeying the rules of her in-laws, and not being overly concerned about her parents. Then follows the married woman’s cry, first for her mother, then father, and finally for others. On the morning of the wedding day, the girl has to "cry" again with deeper emotions when leaving her parents’ home. The doors, beds and other objects on the way are the target of crying. After "crying", the girl will be carried on a carriage by her older brother or adult younger brother. Then, the girl's family will carry the carriage and turn it over to the bearer, and the girl will board the carriage and depart formally. "It is hard to see her again when she grows up and gets married." (According to Wang Qianmei, girls' parents bring up their daughters with great effort, but after marriage they basically live in their husband's home, taking care of their in-laws. Women seldom go back to their parents' home except under special circumstances.) Marriage is a turning point for a Gelo girl, who will live with her husband's family and seldom see her parents again. Emotions are embedded in the crying marriage songs sung by the bride. In the crying and singing, the most sincere, natural, concentrated and unique feelings of a Gelo girl can be truly sensed and understood. 3. Emotional Performance, Content Features, and Crying and Singing Forms As singers of crying marriage songs, brides present emotional performances "on purpose", which are related to customary cultural rituals, not for artistic purposes. It is defined by ethnic artists as "cultural performances". [6] According to Zhang Boyu, such emotional performance is a ‘non-artistic’ ‘artistic process’ [7] that the performer must perform during a certain ceremony. In the process of singing crying marriage songs, Daozhen Gelo women, regardless of their mental state, are required to express their sadness and pain. For example, in the "crying for mother" song, the lyrics "往年开的 随娘长/今年开的离娘花. " [8] (The sentence means in the past years, the flowers grew with the mother but this year, the flowers bloomed away from the mother, which implies that the girl is leaving the family.) are considered to express the attachment to the mother. And usually, the singer performs with certain actions such as knocking on the table or the hoe. Moreover, in the vivid performance, the lyrics are partly "improvised". All the external things, such as tables, chairs, stools, flowers and hoes, may become the "targets" of the singer’s emotional performance, and they are added into the traditional tones as new fragments, showing the inner feelings of Gelo girls. In particular, in the songs "crying for parents" and "crying for matchmaker", due to their relatively longer duration and greater content, most of the lyrics are improvised. Other parts of the song are more fixed because of the shorter time and simpler content. "The song order of each ‘crying marriage’ is arranged according to the customs, forming a complete large ‘suite’ and a long lyrical poem." [9] Finally, the bride herself is the main character of the emotional performance. The "improvised" lyrics makes the performance more extensive and complex. During the "crying marriage", Gelo bride cry and sing sadly as they change into their new wedding dresses, step into the hall, hold the door square, kneel to farewell their ancestors, and pass the gate with the help of others, while performing "interactions" at the same time. (This kind of "interaction" appears in the specific physical performance, for example, sometimes the female guests at the wedding will cry with them.) The various crying objects make the singing content diversified. Daozhen Gelo crying marriage songs cover a wide range of targets, including fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters-in-law (called eldest brothers), uncles and aunts-in-law (called maternal uncles), uncles (called foreign uncles), honorary father (called fathers), brothers, matchmakers, hair combers, cooks, young daughters-in- law, unmarried and older people, and childless people. In addition to relatives and friends, they also cry for the rituals and items associated with the wedding, such as hair combing, dressing for the wedding, the package box, the socks, the ancestors, and the marriage carriage. BCP Social Sciences & Humanities ISSS 2022 Volume 16 (2022) 438 Besides, the inherited and "improvised" lyrics make the singing content show a combination of "change" and "no change". "The main activity of the crying marriage custom is ‘crying’, which contains not only touching tunes but also systematic lyrics." [10] As an emotional response, "crying" can be easily influenced by the environment, and "crying marriage", as an emotional performance over the emotional response, features a certain degree of historicity and topicality. On the one hand, the Daozhen Gelo Crying Marriage Songs have formed a relatively fixed sentence structure and melodic tunes. Most of the lyrics are neatly written in seven characters with appropriate interjections, which involve the methods such as description, comparison, and association. In addition, dialects, idioms and slang words can also be found in lyrics, such as "扯几转" and "落墨"(The phrase "扯几 转" means "to turn over several times", the subjects of which are mainly "布(cloth)" and "被子(quilt)". It is used in conjunction with "cloth" and "quilt". The phrase "落墨" means "to write down".). The tunes tend to be simple and less diverse, within a range of one octave. Most of them are in the Chinese national five-tone mode, with a few decorative tones, making it easy to master and sing. The lyrics often end with a trill, the so-called "ticking sound", which is conducive to expressing the attachment and farewell between a bride and her relatives in Gelo. On the other hand, the crying lyrics are also characterized as changeable. Different objects, situations, moods, and specific emotions expressed lead to variations in the traditional crying lyrics. "The rhyme is variable. A poem may use one rhyme only, or one rhyme for a paragraph, or one rhyme for every two or four stanzas, making the seven- character lyric dynamic." [11] The clever use of rhyme makes the crying songs more compelling. Under the conventional lyrics, melodies and phrase structures, Gelo women build or reconstruct the contextual images, making the songs richer in content and more expressive in mood, such as the lyrics in "crying for brothers", "大河涨水小河翻/小河坎上栽牡丹/牡丹开花莲二朵/骑驴扬马来送我/海 椒发叶绿茵茵/请您兄弟来送亲/海椒开花瓣瓣白/请你兄弟来送客。"[12] ((literal meaning: The rise of large rivers will make the smaller ones to beat the banks/on the banks of the river are beautiful peonies/blooming flowers on both sides/they are riding the horses or neddies to farewell me/See? the pepper sprout, dynamic and vibrant/Thanks for your brothers to see me off/See? the white pepper blossom everywhere/thanks for your treatment my dear brothers). The lyrics depict the wedding scene, the bride's brothers accompany her to the groom's home.); the lyrics in "crying for honorary father (making farewell to father) – packaged boxes", "大河涨水小河翻/小河坎上栽牡丹/牡丹开花莲二 朵/包口红箱来送我/一口红箱四角亮/拿来冤家装那样/一口红箱四角轮/冤家有衣装不成。"[13] ((literal meaning: The rise of large rivers will make the smaller ones to beat the banks/on the banks of the river are beautiful peonies/blooming flowers on both sides/my father packaged a large red box to see me off/bright and heavy as the red box/but what will my bridegroom fill in it/large as it is/I cannot pack up what I want). The lyrics depict the beautiful red wedding boxes to show the bride's attachment to her families.), the lyrics in "crying for matchmakers", "大河涨水小河黄/小河坎上栽 白杨。"[14] ((literal meaning: The rise of large rivers will make the smaller ones to suffer/on the both banks of the river are planted the white poplar) The lyrics depict the river scene.); and the lyrics in "crying for cooks", "大河涨水小河黄/背起背篼进碾房/碾房碾米风簸扬/风簸扬米盖盖筛。 "[15] ((literal meaning: The rise of large rivers will make the smaller ones to suffer/I get into the graining room with backpack behind/we are busy working with the rice/everywhere in the room lies on the rice containing pan). The lyrics depict the busy cooking scene at the wedding.) It is easy to find in the lyrics sung by Wang Qianmei that the objects they cry for can be different. Some originated from the symbol images created by the ancestors, like "大河涨水小河…"((literal meaning: The rise of large rivers will make the smaller ones …)), "小河坎上…"((literal meaning: on both the banks of the river …)), etc. In addition, the stanza structure is almost always a neat seven- word form, which is flexible and not too rigid. In their performances, it can be seen that the melody of the Daozhen crying marriage songs is relatively homogeneous, consisting almost always of four notes: 5, 6, 2 and 1, all within the octave, and almost always with a trill at the end of the note to express crying state. These are the 'unchanged' parts of the Daozhen crying mariage songs. It can also be noted that there are a number of phrases that have been created in response to the situation, and BCP Social Sciences & Humanities ISSS 2022 Volume 16 (2022) 439 local scenery and characters have been integrated into new and creative lyrics for the cries, such as 牡丹 ("peony"), 白杨 ("white poplar"), 背篼 ("basket barrier on the back"), 板凳 ("bench"), 钥 匙 ("key"), 红箱 ("red box"), 冤家("lover"), 海椒 ("sea pepper"), 兄弟 ("brother"), etc. These are the parts that can be flexibly "changed". When a Gelo girl in on the way to her wedding, she may sing "peony" when she sees "peony", or "sea pepper" when she sees "sea pepper", and this part of the lyrics is all derived from the scene and from her feelings, with no absolute rules. These "changes" make Daozhen's crying marriage songs more contemporary and evolve on the basis of stability. Almost all of the 'crying marriage songs' from different eras in Daozhen were composed by married women in Ge Shan, most of whom could barely read or write. However, the rhymes in the songs are a mixture of "the changed" and "the unchanged"(The language of the Gelo people in Daozhen County has been assimilated by the mandarin spoken by Han nationality. The words they use are all from Mandarin, and they speak with many Sichuan accents, and the people are generally less educated. "Rhyme" here means that it rhymes when sung in the dialect. For example, the last character 脚 ("feet") and (说) ("say") in the lyrics "白杨斗的板凳脚/一来就拿话来说"(literal meaning: foot of stools made by white poplar/once they arrive, they start to talk) are rhymed in the local dialect.). The application of literary devices like "Fu", "Bi", "Xing" often appears (Three figures of speech in ancient Chinese poems. Fu is like the parallelism, Bi like analogy, simile and metaphor, and Xing serves as a device to introduce the themes and things poets would like to show their emotion.). For example, in "Crying for Literati", there is a chant: "读书之人当先生/读书之人才开心/读书之人好做官。[16] ((literal meaning: Those devoted themselves in reading literature will finally become teachers/only in this way can they be happy/and it will be better if they become officials).)" The figure of speech Fu used here demonstrates the singer's expectation of being educated. In the work "Crying for the Catering Supplier", the figure of speech "Bi" is adopted in the lyrics "青杠叶子黄又黄/好像下午的 太阳/芭蕉叶子两面青/像是衣服的补丁" [17] ((literal meaning: the leaves of oaks turn yellow time and time again/they look like the sun in the afternoon/both sides of plantains are green/which is like the patches on the clothes).), which connotates the effort that the catering organizers made for the wedding. In the piece"Crying for Farewelling My Brothers", there are lyrics like "海椒发叶绿茵茵/ 请您兄弟来送亲/海椒开花瓣瓣白/请你兄弟来送客 [18] ((literal meaning: See? the pepper sprout, dynamic and vibrant/Thanks for your brothers to see me off/See? the white pepper blossom everywhere/thanks for your treatment my dear brothers).). "The song first mention the "sea peppers" and then show the affection towards brothers. The mixture of various emotions that come to life in the actual scene is touching. The extraordinary artistic wisdom of the married women from Daozhen Geshan is reflected in the artistic creation of the couplets, whose impromptu composition both enhances the emotions and prompts further changes to the content of the crying marriage songs. In terms of the form, the crying marriage songs are characterized by its "all-in-one" style. The performance of the bride from Geshan organically combines crying and singing together. They sing with tears and the audience will be moved by their emotions. During the crying marriage period, the bride should cry for the people around her in order of their affinity. If the person being cried for is female, she should cry with the bride. For the males, they should say words of comfort to the bride [19]. In the emotional performance of the " Crying Marriage", friends and relatives around her are all foils to the performance, with different roles and scenes, but all serve the emotional expression of the main character. Brides of Geshan, as the protagonists of the "crying marriage" performance, always use "singing while crying" as the core of the play, interacting with the other characters around them with deep or shallow, more or less realistic, expressions of their own complex spiritual and emotional worlds. Fei believed that according to Fei Yuanqin, the uniqueness of the Gelo's "crying marriage songs" is reflected in four aspects, namely, brides as the leading singer, the others accompanying her, songs sung in pairs, and songs sung in turn [20]. The most common type of "crying marriage" is: brides are the protagonists and others accompany them. The grief and sorrow are infective to the surrounding. In this case, "crying as companion" is the main task for the foil, which is in concert with the protagonists. Brides sing along with the beloved ones and fully express their sadness. Foils also BCP Social Sciences & Humanities ISSS 2022 Volume 16 (2022) 440 sing back with tears. This has formed a tradition among the female in the wedding scene. Brides with cry together with her female friends and relatives. The bride is experiencing the wedding ceremony while the female around will also become her or have been her, so they can resonate with her. The protagonists and their foils, present a big play of crying marriage, which is very poignant and extremely compelling. When they sing in turn, brides will interact with her relatives and their affection with each other will be fully demonstrated. In this regard, "crying marriage" is not a performance of the bride alone, but is intertwined with the close relation and bride's beloved. The main characters are always interacting and communicating with the supporting characters around her. Although the content of the songs and the status of the supporting characters are highly variable, the protagonists themselves and the supporting characters are always committed to the emotional expression of the protagonists in the performance. It is in the emotional performance of the protagonists and supporting characters that the "all-in-one" feature of singing form is reflected. 4. Language for Emotion, Perception Process and Rebellion to Old-Fashioned Ethic Du Yaquan once suggested: "The things in the universe, which are perceived and known by us, are so diverse that they cannot be organized.[21] " In Du's view, there are no manifestations in the universe other than substance, life and soul, and what is felt and known is to be found in these three. The process of perception is the process of feeling and knowing substance, life and the mind. Crying marriage songs are closely related to the life of girls from Geshan and their songs are created from their delight and sorrow. These songs are actually verbal literature becoming richer with several generations going by. The lyrics of these songs also contain their complicated feelings towards the world. Though Gelo Ethnic group has its own dialect, it does not have its own characters. Therefore, the songs actually epitomize their history, custom and culture. These songs can be called as the encyclopedia of the local people [22]. Through the crying marriage songs, it is easy to identify the life of girls and the status quo, and even to delve into their spirits and expectation. Besides, it should be noted that the perception process of the girls from Geshan, or the progress of their perception to the substance, life and soul can be divided into two stages: the stage of feeling and the stage of cognition. The two are not mutually independent. Instead, they are inextricably interwoven with a shared goal – to express the brides' emotion directly and deliver their view towards the social reality. From the perspective of perception stage, the most touchy-feely experience for them must be the wedding ceremony. The emotion of separation they feel is the most obvious one they can perceive, including their affection to their relatives, their affection to their relatives, the unwillingness to leave, and their plaint for their tragedy. As for the recognition process, it is not so easy to figure out before they spend much time on learning about themselves. For example, they curse those matchmakers, which reflects their dissatisfaction even hatred towards the arranged marriage by a third party and mercenary marriage. Songs sung by the mothers reflect the man-power society and the restriction on the young of feudal ethics. These songs indicate the accusation and rebellion. More specifically, the perception stage can be found in the song "Crying for the Twelve Months" and "Crying for Uncles". In the former one, the lyrics write "正月梅花开得早/随父随母千年好/二月梅 花开成团/离父离母一时难 [23] ((literal meaning: The plum blossoms bloom early in the first lunar month / To be with my father and mother must always be good / The plum blossoms cluster in February / It will be hard to leave my father and mother)). When 梅花 ("the plum blossoms") are in clusters, gathering together, the daughter has to leave her parents. The daughter's reluctance to let go of her parents is evident. As for the latter, it writes风吹杨柳一张叶/望我娘母要分离/一张票儿四 角方/该给表弟买田庄 [24] ((literal meaning: The wind is blowing willow leaves/ I am going to be away from my mother/ There is a note of four corners/You will buy a farmhouse for my cousin (your son).). These words are sung for expressing the feelings of separation. The brides have to settle down with their husbands and it is hard to see their relatives again. However, her cousins(the sons of their uncles) can take the "note" and "buy a farmhouse". The emotions of unjust fate and misfortune come BCP Social Sciences & Humanities ISSS 2022 Volume 16 (2022) 441 to the fore, as the two in the same family are destined to live two different lives. When it comes to the cognition process, the song "Curse for the Matchmakers" and "Persuasion of the mothers" can be taken as two examples. In the former one, the lyrics contain the following words: 媒人是根杵路棒/ 过河丢在河坎上/…….[25] ((literal meaning: The matchmakers are all obstacles on the road/I will throw them away after I leave).) As for the latter, it sings: "你把饭菜都煮好/一样一样摆桌上/头碗 双手递公公/二碗双手送婆娘……" [26] ((literal meaning: You should cook good meal for them/set the table well/the first bowl of rice should be given to your father-in-law/ the second goes to the mother-in-law).) During the feudal period, the status of Gelo women in Daozhen County was very low. In this song, what the mother tries to tell is the moral code at that time. The women are required to do menial chores the day after they settle down in her husband's family. Their marriages are arranged by their families or the matchmakers' words [27]. Arranged marriages completely deprive Gelao women of the freedom to choose their spouses, with the parents becoming the absolute presiding decisionmakers and the matchmakers becoming the marriage contributors. In arranged marriages, "the final marriage agreement between the families through the matchmaker is essentially a 'mercenary marriage' disguised as a form of sale of marriage. [28] " Therefore, those matchmakers who seek to set up marriages for sale and profit become the main target of the cries of the married girls in Geshan. To their parents, girls can only feel resentment but cannot lose their temper. If they do so, it is not ethical and filial. That's why they keep their anger in their hearts and turn it on the matchmakers. In the perception process, they get more profound understanding than that in the process of feeling which requires a certain amount of time to become inwardly aware. It is only when a married woman realizes that the root cause of her grief is the feudal marriage system and feudal ethics that she is able to voice her ethical rebellion in a real sense in her wedding song. What is also noticeable is that in the perception process, their words uttered when they cry are embodied in a spiritual language, reflecting their rebellion against arranged marriages, mercenary marriages and feudal ethics. It has always been difficult for Gelo females in Daozhen to make their voices heard in life, and it is only during the crying marriage part that they are given an opportunity to give vent to their complex emotions and open up a corner of their true spiritual world to others. After China's liberation, the marriage system was changed to one that advocated freedom and monogamy. This abolished arranged and forced marriages and the buying and selling of marriages, thus gradually freeing the Gelo women from the constraints of the feudal marriage system and feudal ethics. With the time going by, crying marriage songs are disappearing due to the fairer and freer environment. Most of the Gelo women in Daozhen who can still sing the crying marriage songs are women who got married before the 1970s and are at least 50 years old. Moreover, some songs appraising the Marriage Law appeared, which replaced those songs now. It writes: "你我姊妹们啦/ 现在翻了身/不比从前包办婚/自选自配成啦……/男子二十女十八/正合婚姻法呀。[29] ((literal meaning: To dear our sisters/we now stand up and mastet our own fate/the life is much different from the age of arranged marriages/we choose our mates on our own/…/the male in 20 and female in 18/it meets the law of marriage).)" Apparently, the old government system, plus the matchmakers and arranged marriages confined them a lot and they could only let their emotion out in the crying marriage songs. It was only in the post-liberation era that they were able to "choose and match themselves" and truly embrace freedom and gratitude in their songs. 5. Conclusion "Crying marriage songs are oral literature that has been handed down and enriched by Gelo women for generations. They do not know the tedious rules of literary composition, but their wisdom makes their artistic practice allude to metaphysical theory, such as rhyme, rhetoric, the use of Fu, Bi, Xing, and so on, thus demonstrating their extraordinary artistic talent. " As a living fossil of language, the crying marriage song has become a folkloric landmark due to its unique narrative art and the expression of emotions. By reflecting on the fate of women and their rights in marriage, the songs create a rich artistic world of rebellion, history and culture, and emotional entanglement in their BCP Social Sciences & Humanities ISSS 2022 Volume 16 (2022) 442 content. The lyrics of the crying marriage songs are not only associated with the times and society, but also reflect the thoughts of the Gelo women. The perspectives of the crying procedure and the form of the crying song serve as a distinctive carrier to reflect the multifarious pressures imposed on Gelo women by the times. The mixture of various emotions in the crying process also reflects the idea of filial piety and equality inherited from the history and culture, as well as their pursuit of beauty and hope, and their struggle against the absence of freedom and inequality in marriage, etc. From the words and songs, the Gelo women show their memory capacity, performance abilities, and even their aesthetic awareness and ad hoc creative wisdom. Through reflections on tradition and inheritance of culture, the crying marriage songs, integrated with a world of ethnic poetics and unique aesthetic experiences, reveal women's introspection in the everyday and struggle. These songs condense the unique inspiration of the Gelo women and display the hidden secrets of the spirit, brimming with unique charm. References [1] Jiang, Z.Y., & Mao, Z. T. Analysis of the Artistic Characteristics of Tujia Crying Marriage Songs: Taking the Tujia Crying Marriage Songs in Southwestern Hubei as an example. 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