Myths and legends of ethnic minorities
The Chinese nation is a multi-ethnic family. In addition to the Han people, there are 55 ethnic minorities. Each ethnic group has its own myths and legends. It also plays an important role in the history of Chinese culture.
There are many mythical stories passed down orally. Because some ethnic minorities have no written language, and some ethnic groups were still in the late primitive society, slave society or early feudal society before 1949. They are not far away from ancient times, and their myths and legends are mainly told from memory. In addition to being spread in the form of prose stories, there are also a large number of myths preserved in epic poems and spread in the form of verse. Therefore, the myths and legends of ethnic minorities are generally not as scattered as those in ancient Chinese books, but rather complete and systematic. There is a certain correspondence between their theological genealogy and historical reality. And because their ancient myths and legends are still spread among the people in a living form, they maintain their original appearance. They are more primitive than the myths in ancient Chinese books, contain more primitive social sciences and natural sciences, and have a more reliable primitive cultural history. value. For example, the legend of the rebirth of human beings by the survivors of the flood is universal, and the well-known one is Noah's Ark in the Old Testament. There are many works on the theme of ethnic minorities, and they are long, with twists and turns, and are related to gourd worship, The combination of brother-sister marriage, the origin of human beings, and the origin of clans (primitive nations) contains rich historical content and each has its own national characteristics. For example, there are different explanations for the origin of human beings. At least a dozen ethnic groups say that people come out of gourds. Some are said to be derived from the mating of humans and animals, some are said to have evolved from animals or plants, and some are said to have come out of caves. There are many types of myths passed down orally by ethnic minorities in our country, ranging from astronomy to geography. The customs and customs of human life are all reflected in myths and legends in various twists and turns, which shows that they still maintain the innocence of human childhood, are full of romantic interest, and their life is full of fantasy.
The Yi people. In the past, polytheistic worship was mainly based on ancestor worship. The wizards of this tribe were called Bimo. Because they played an important role in preserving and spreading religion and national culture, they were deified in the myths and legends of this tribe. In ancient times, there were three major changes in the world: the first time because there were six moons and seven suns in the sky, the heavenly official sent Bimo down to earth to use mulberry branches and iron stem grass to clear away the evil obstacles in the universe. The storm was raging, and it was Bimo who came down to earth to save the world. The third time the flood came, the heavenly official sent three Bimo to come down to earth, each riding an ox, and the scriptures were tied to the horns of the ox. It was soaked. The scriptures were half damaged when they were dried on green leaves. Another theory is that the scriptures were scratched by eagles. Therefore, the scriptures are regarded as "heavenly books". The "Book of Heaven" is the Yi Classic, which is a collection of the ancient culture of the Yi people. Among them, the most famous Yi classic "Southwestern Yi Zhi", the free translation of the original name is "Shadow Shape and Clear and Void Qi". The book contains more than 370,000 Yi characters. , found in the Shuixi area of ??northwest Guizhou, is the most comprehensive book ever seen that records the ancient history and culture of the Yi people. The book begins with the creation myth.
The Naxi people have become an international cultural figure. Attention. According to rough statistics, there are more than 2,400 kinds of gods in the Dongba Sutra, including more than 220 great gods, more than 60 good gods, more than 60 evil gods, more than 90 ordinary gods, and more than 20 goddesses. There are more than 120 gods of victory. In addition, there are stories about the god of thunder, the god of mountains, the deified wizard Dongba, etc. It can be seen that the Naxi people have rich myths. Scholars say that the main body of Dongba literature is mythology. Dongba mythology and Dongba rituals are interdependent, and the illusory color, the charm of imagination, the loyalty of faith, and the atmosphere of confusion constitute a world where humans and gods are interdependent and connected. It is through this colorful divine world that future generations can glimpse the long-lost ancient society.
The Ewenki people living on the northeastern border of our country call themselves "living people." People in the mountains and forests are good at hunting and reindeer, and there are still remnants of bear totem worship.
Abu Kahehe has gone through many hardships, and although she temporarily defeated her opponent, the evil god Yeli, she still could not change the fate of history. I don’t know how many years passed, but the female god herself gradually transformed into a male god and was renamed Abu Kaunduli. From then on, he was the Lord of the universe and enjoyed human sacrifices. This god already has arbitrary characteristics, resembling the tribal leader in the heroic period.
It seems that the world of gods is indeed a reflection of the human world. It is not easy for a male god to seize the power of a goddess. The battle is thrilling, and the punishment for the defeated is harsh and merciless. Compared with the ancient Babylonian mythology in which a son kills his mother, and the Greek mythology in which a son kills his father, it has the same purpose. When people interpreted celestial phenomena, they personified them and created various images. Among them, the sun myth and the moon myth are the most colorful.
Many ethnic groups in the world worship the sun and have their own sun gods. On the whole, the positive factors of sun worship and sun mythology are the main ones. However, the sun gods left in ancient Chinese books are no longer in their original form, and most of them are personified male gods. Whether they are handsome or majestic, they are all radiant and are the source of warmth, warmth and brightness. Please see how magnificent the sun god of the Chu people is: The sun will come out of the east, and the fusang will shine on my threshold. Fuyu's horse is driving safely, and the night is bright and clear. Driving a dragon, chariot and boat to ride on the thunder, carrying a cloud flag and carrying a snake... Wearing green clouds and white neon clothes, raising a long arrow, shooting at the wolf! If you have trouble with Yu Hu, you will fall. If you aid Beidou, you will drink Guangxi juice! Written by Yu Jiu, the camel is soaring ①, and it is dark and dark, and it is traveling eastward! ("Chu Ci·Nine Songs·Dongjun"》
The sun god rises from the fusang tree in the east, rides his horse forward slowly, and turns the bright night into a bright one. The sun god rides on the dragon chariot and rides on the wind and thunder. The cloud flags carried on it are like long and winding snakes. This sun god has blue clouds as his clothes and white clouds as his clothes. The rays he emits are like the stars shooting at the sky. Sharp arrows. This sun god claims to raise his bow to get rid of the disaster star Sirius and then descend to attract the Big Dipper so that he can drink wine and cinnamon juice. At that time, he will pick up the reins and fly high. , passing through the underworld and returning to the east, as a natural god, people believe that the sun god crosses the sky from east to west, and then travels through the underworld from west to east and returns to the east, just like we feel. The sun always seems to rise from the water and then sink under the water. As the personified sun god, he controls the wind and thunder clouds, drives away evil and darkness in the world, and is a good god with extraordinary appearance. , there is no difference of opinion. The word "Chu" in gold is "Lin", which looks like the sun shining in the forest.
It is said that there were 10 suns in the Tang (i.e. Yangyang) Valley in the East. , there is a very tall hibiscus tree, where ten suns bathe. This place is in the north of the Black Teeth Kingdom. One sun is under the hibiscus tree, and one sun is above the hibiscus tree (see "The Classic of Mountains and Seas"). 》〉These 10 suns
They are all the sons of the goddess. Driving. These basic plots are scattered in the "Book of Mountains and Seas", which describes the journey of the sun in the most detailed way. It is "Huainanzi·Tenwenxun": After the sun comes out of Yang (Yutangtong) Valley, it takes a bath in the Xianchi and climbs the hibiscus tree at dawn. This is the morning dawn. When we walked to Qu'a Mountain, it was dawn. When we walked to Zengquan, it was time to have breakfast. When we walked to Sangye, it was time to have lunch. When we walked to Hengyang, it was noon. When we walked to Kunwu Mountain, the sun was shining brightly. ; When we walked to Wuci Mountain, we started to turn west; when we walked to Beigu, it was time for afternoon meal; when we reached Nuji, the sun was setting in the west... When we arrived at Beiquan, the Liulong chariot driven by Yihe stopped. When the sun reaches Yuyuan, it is already dusk; when it reaches Menggu Mountain, it is dark. The first night it enters the shore of Yuyuan, and the next time it shines on the shore of Menggu, there are 507,000 people. Three hundred and nine miles.
The sun is completely personified. The behavior of the sun god determines the day and night of the world. It is interesting that there is only one sun, but why primitive people say there are 10 suns.
Other peoples in the world also have a group of suns, with as many as 12, and there are also nine, seven, and five. The reason is that people do not understand the changes in celestial phenomena. When they encounter a solar halo, they mistakenly think that there are many suns in the sky. In the hot season, exposure to the scorching sun may also be mistakenly thought to be caused by multiple days. There are not as many moon myths as there are sun myths. The moon gods and sun gods of some ethnic groups often appear in the same myth. But the moon itself is changeable. The first quarter moon is a curved Emei, like a jade hook; the second quarter moon is dim and faint, with a unique aftertaste; the full moon is blue sky and clear water, and cloudless on clear days, like a jade plate hanging high in the blue sky. No matter whether the moon is waxing or waxing, I will not cause harm to the world. Whether the moon is clear or dim, it brings people infinite reverie and warmth, so people are very affectionate towards the moon. The moon is a symbol of tenderness. The shadows on the moon give people a sense of mystery.
Ancient Chinese mythology says that the mother of the moon is Chang Xi, and the driver for the moon is Wangshu. The ancients also used the moon's resurrection from the dead to explain the waxing and waning of the moon. Due to the close relationship between the moon and the sun, some peoples call the moon and the sun a pair, and regard them as one, brother and sister, or husband and wife.
Although the influence of the stars on people is not as great and direct as that of the sun, there are only two suns and moons in the sky, but there are so many stars that they are countless. And because changes in the stars sometimes coincide with changes in human affairs, the ancients came to a lot of non-scientific understandings and gave various mysterious explanations to the stars. Some stars were said to be the place where gods are located, or where there are gods. The star itself is a god. The star realm is also the divine realm, and this is how the Star God View emerged. The three gods of fortune, wealth and longevity in folk customs originated from star worship, and are called the God of Ming, the God of Si Lu and the God of Si Shou. "Da Siming" and "Shao Siming" in "Nine Songs" of Chu Ci were re-created by Qu Yuan based on folk prayers for worshiping the God of Siming. Si Ming means taking charge of people's lives. Si Ming is also the name of a star and a god. This kind of god does not have a very high status among the gods. It only plays a supporting role to the main gods. However, it has a very prominent position among the house gods. It often deals with the human world. If it finds that there is something wrong in the human world, Then he reported to the Emperor of Heaven and, depending on the seriousness of the circumstances, his life span could be reduced by three days or 300 days.
There are hundreds of epics of ethnic minorities, some of which have systematized the myths and legends of a nation. The Dai epic "Bada Maga Peng Shang Luo" (i.e. "The Instructions of the God of Creation") begins with the vast space, only rolling smoke and rising air waves, plus howling winds and sloshing water coming from the air waves. The space giant Yingba (the god of air waves or light quilts) was born. The god's mother was air waves and his father was Gale. Later, another water god fish appeared in the water. The giant god Yingba was made of dirt from his own body. He created a big fruit (i.e. the earth) and an elephant. There are 16 levels of genius, and the gods created by Yingba live in the 16 levels of heaven respectively, forming a huge pantheon. The humans created by the gods mate with each other, and the humans who reproduce are more and more More and more people eat the disease fruit of the divine world under the guidance of the green snake, and people will die from then on. The snake only sheds its skin, but because of the difficulty of living in Luwen, people also have some bizarre fantasies, such as the myths of the Yao people. In ancient times, grains were as big as gourds, and a grain of rice weighed several taels. They did not need to be sown. They grew by themselves. When mature, they rolled along the roads and paths into the granaries of every household, so everyone had no worries. After eating, the Grain God became angry and returned to heaven. People tried their best to bring the Grain God back to the earth, but all the big millet grains turned into small millet grains.
Except for the Grain God. During the period when the matrilineal clan totem system was dominant, because of some great luck or some unexpected misfortune, it happened to have an accidental connection with a certain plant, and this plant might become a totem. For example, "A Brief History of Uygur" once told the story of a tree ancestor: In the place where the Shila and Selenge rivers converge, there are two connected trees, and there is a small mound of soil between the two trees. The pile grew bigger and bigger, and there were five rooms in it, with a baby sitting in each room. The locals considered them to be godsend children. When they grew up, everyone elected the youngest and smartest among them to be the leader, and the tribe prospered. /p>
There is a Tibetan legend in some areas that after the mottled bamboo was blown down, there was a beautiful girl inside.
According to the legend of the Yi people, their ancestors popped rice from bamboo tubes. There are similar records in "Huayang Guozhi·Nanzhong Zhi" and "Hou Han Shu·Southwestern Yi Biography". The general idea is that a woman found three large bamboo sections by the water, with a baby boy inside. After being raised, he became a strong martial artist, established himself as a leader, and took bamboo as his surname. Some people also say that the three brothers escaped from the flood, and the third brother's water-proof barrel was blocked by a bush of thorn bamboo and was saved, so that the human race was preserved. Zhuang people also have legends about bamboo. The Miao people in southeastern Guizhou worship maple trees and regard maple trees as the ancestors of people. Yi Yin, the founding hero of the Yin Dynasty, had a humble background. In order to make his origin commensurate with his status, it is said that his mother turned into a hollow mulberry tree when she was escaping from a flood. Yi Yin grew out of this hollow mulberry tree. A baby coming out of a mulberry tree. (See "Lü's Spring and Autumn Edition") Some of these are plant totem myths themselves, such as the Yi people's worship of bamboo and the Miao people's worship of maple trees; some are the legacy of totem worship, borrowed by later generations. Ancient myths consecrate one's ancestors or historical celebrities. "In ancient times, people could fly like birds and go wherever they wanted, but there was no fire. During the severe cold, people had to hide in caves and eat only raw food. There is a kind of bird called "Feiluo" living in the big forest. It has fire, but it can't fly. It stays in its cave all day long, looking at other birds that can fly and being in a daze. One day, a hunter comes from it. Flying by, he saw Fei Luo being depressed and asked him why he was in a daze. Fei Luo told him about his troubles without wings, and the hunter offered to exchange his wings for its fire. After hearing this, Fei Luo was very happy and happily exchanged it with the hunter. Feilao spread his wings and flew into the sky with a cry; while the hunter got fire, but could not fly... But because of the fire, he could eat cooked food, get warmth in the cold winter, and be driven away in the dark night. Wild beasts. Fire brings great benefits to people."
This is the fire myth of the Dai people. "Bujiao" means "ancestor" or "creator". The Bujiao people live in a village in the northwest corner of Mengla Town, Mengla County, Yunnan Province. They are almost extinct, but now their population has grown again. It can be seen that their myth is very special and rare. It symbolizes that once humans understand the importance of fire, they will not hesitate to use it and they can live longer. The first generation was destroyed by floods and fires; the second generation was wiped out by the gods due to incest; the third generation were the brothers and sisters who survived the gourd, that is, the descendants of the "gourd people". This epic not only has a rich and systematic mythology, but also preserves a large number of ancient customs and legends. Finally, it describes the process of two branches of the Dai people, from branching, migration to settlement. One of them is called "Xishuangbang", "Xishuang" means twelve, and "bang" refers to the tribal group. In addition, my country's ethnic minorities also have a considerable number of prose myths. All of these are extremely precious cultural heritage of the Chinese nation and provide many reference materials for us to understand the infancy of human beings. Therefore, the cultural treasure house of Chinese mythology must be critically accepted using scientific methods and correct viewpoints.
Chinese ancient books lack records of the original grain gods. The Wa, Jingpo, Dai and other ethnic groups in Yunnan, China still have this legacy, and worship the grain spirits. According to the myth of the Wa people, the God of Grain was originally hidden under the sea by the gods, and was brought out by a snake inserting its tail into the water. Originally, the sky and the earth were not separated. Because of the earth-shaking new valley, the sky could no longer hold down the mountains, so they had to rise high and separate from the earth. It can be seen that the discovery of grain seeds played a great role in the history of human culture. Although this effect has been greatly exaggerated and even deified, this shows that corn seeds are the earliest and most powerful sacred plants discovered by humans. The Dai people's song "Calling the Valley Soul" fully expresses the sentiments of the primitive people: "O Valley Soul, you are the king; Valley Soul, you are the Lord; ... One grain of grain is worth more than two gold; one grain of grain is worth more than two gold; A grain of grain is worth more than ten thousand pounds of silver. Life depends on you, and mankind depends on you! ①" After the Jingpo harvest every year, before transporting grain from the field to the country, they hold a ceremony called "Gu Soul". The congratulatory message said: "What people can't see, millet can see; what people can't do, millet can do. The grain souls who ran away to other places will come back." They believe that those grain souls who ran away due to fright during threshing can come back. Being called back. In exchange for the wings that humans desire to fly.
(See "Chu Ci: Calling Souls" and Wang Yi's Notes) It seems that the earth god, who was originally personified, became very scary after entering the netherworld, and returned to the animal form in ancient times. Therefore, it is not so much that Tu Bo is Hou Tu, it is better to regard Tu Bo as Hou Tu’s avatar or incarnation. According to the characteristics of mythical transformation, Hou Tu can certainly transform into a strange beast god that is a combination of tiger and cow.
The Yi nationality epic "Mei Ge". ", in the "Funeral" section, it is believed that the death of humans and other living things is because the King of Heaven sows a handful of death seeds. They even think that the King of Heaven sows more dead seeds than live seeds: "A handful of living seeds are sown. Scatter three handfuls of the seeds of death. "If you scatter the seeds of death, those who will be allowed will live in the world, and those who will not be allowed will die." Because the seeds of death are sown by the King of Heaven, everyone in the world will die and hide. Not open. The negative content of the underworld myth has a direct impact on the formation of the underworld in later man-made religions, and it reveals the helplessness of ancient people towards death. This mentality is also expressed in some places in "Meige". Si is the protagonist of the Xinjiang Uighur epic "The Legend of Ogus". His father is Karahan and his mother is Queen Ayikezi. When Ogus was born, he had a green face, a red mouth, and black eyebrows and black hair. , with hair all over his body. He only drank milk from his mother for one day and then stopped eating. He soon learned to talk and walked in 40 days. His legs were like those of a cow, his waist was like that of a wolf, and he had the appearance of a panther. The back of a bear and the chest of a bear, he rode a horse and hunted like an adult.
One day, Ogus was out hunting, and a blue light fell from the sky at night, which was brighter than the moon. Bright, brighter than the sun. A beautiful girl appeared in the blue light, with a mole on her face that was as bright as fire and as bright as the North Star. She smiled, and the blue sky also smiled. When she cried, the blue sky also cried. He married the girl who was conceived in the sky and gave birth to three sons, one named the sun, one named the moon, and one named the star. Later, Ogus married the daughter of the tree god and gave birth to three sons. The two sons were named Tian, ??Shan and Hai. After Ogus ascended the throne, he held a 40-day celebration. He united his neighbors to form a large tribal alliance and conquered three countries. The green-maned male wolf led the way and conquered the Jurchens, Shendu, Tangwuti, Xiamu, and Masar. Ogus divided the country among his six children.