Introduction

This is a third, and very different, account of the events described in the previous two songs. The singer does not mention the young woman's personal name, "Rice-flower", but he did know that there were two conflicting traditions about her home village, and in addition that there were two traditions concerning the clan to which she belonged. He solved the problem, not by choosing one or the other, but by giving both, so that his song begins twice. In lines 1 to 6 he used one set of names, then started afresh in an identical manner, using the second set of names.

Unlike the other two, this song specifically states that the enemies were Chinese Mohammedans. After listing three successful surprise attacks, the song states that the young woman's ultimate goal was to force the Mohammedans "to go back". This presupposes that the cause of the confrontation was an incursion by these "Black Chinese" into land held by the Miao. Her effort failed because of the treachery of her younger brother. By instigating the killing of the guard dogs, he rendered the young woman and her followers vulnerable to a surprise attack, but no detail is given of when or how this took place.

At a number of points the singer introduced lines taken verbatim from older conflict songs, as, for instance lines 14 to 18, lines 21 & 22, and lines 26 & 27. However, the descriptions of major battles involving large numbers of well-trained soldiers are not always entirely apposite when applied to a relatively small local incident. The stratagem of killing the guard dogs is also drawn from an earlier song and is introduced here as a rather awkward parenthesis. It is just possible that the singer, aware that the young woman's campaign failed because she was betrayed by a member of her own family, but not knowing exactly how, recorded it using an established conventional formula from the past.

Translation
Literal Transcription
Notes

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