The Buyi people
The Buyi people are one of the ethnic minorities in China. There are currently 2,545,059 people, including more than 2 million in Guizhou Province, accounting for more than 95% of the Buyi population. They mainly live in the two Buyi and Miao Autonomous Prefectures of southern Guizhou and southwest Guizhou, as well as 10 counties (cities) in Guizhou including Duyun, Dushan, Pingtang and Zhenning. The rest live scattered in Yunnan, Sichuan, Guangxi and other provinces (regions).
The Buyi area has beautiful mountains and clear waters, and the natural scenery is colorful. The famous Huangguoshu Waterfall, Guiyang Huaxi, Anshun "Dragon Palace" cave, Panjiang Iron Cable Bridge and other more than a dozen tourist attractions welcome thousands of tourists every year. In addition to tourism resources, it is also rich in wildlife and mineral resources.
The Buyi people mainly focus on agriculture and have a long history of planting rice. The Hongshui River Basin is also one of the most important forest areas in China.
The Buyi people are the indigenous residents of the southeastern Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau. They have been working and living here as early as the Stone Age. The Buyi people are related to the ancient "Liao", "Baiyue" and "Baipu". In the history of the Tang Dynasty, they were called "Southwestern Barbarians". After the Song and Yuan Dynasties, they were called "Fan" and "Zhongjia Barbarians".
Buyi language belongs to the Zhuang-Dai branch of the Zhuang-Dong language family of the Sino-Tibetan language family and does not have its own written language. The Buyi script was created in the 1950s, but it has not been widely promoted. Nowadays, more Chinese scripts are commonly used.
Since the Song Dynasty, the Buyi people have fought peasant uprisings against the exploitation and oppression of the feudal ruling class in every dynasty. In modern history, they have also fought against foreign churches, Japanese imperialism and the Kuomintang reactionaries. A nation with a glorious revolutionary tradition.
Slate houses by mountains and rivers
The distinctive feature of the Buyi people’s residence is that they live together close to mountains and rivers. Most of the residential buildings are stilt-style buildings or half-building (the front half is a building from the front, and the back half is a bungalow from the back) style stone house. Buyi areas such as Zhenning and Anshun in Guizhou are rich in high-quality stones, and there are also large flat stone slabs with basically uniform thickness that can be peeled off layer by layer. This flake stone is derived from sedimentary shale. The local Buyi people adapted to local conditions and used local materials to build slate houses with national characteristics. Stone houses are built with stone strips or blocks for walls, and the walls can be built up to five or six meters high. They are roofed with stone slabs, paved in neat diamond shapes or scaled with materials. The stone houses are not only weatherproof, but also simple and beautiful. The roofs are Take it easy and live peacefully without being depressed. In short, except for the sandalwood rafters, which are made of wood, the rest are all made of stone. Even the tables, benches, stoves, bowls, mills, mills, troughs, jars, basins, etc. used daily in the home are all made of stone. Everything is simple and honest. This kind of house is warm in winter and cool in summer, moisture-proof and fire-proof, but has poor lighting.
In Chengguan Town, where the county seat of Zhenning Buyi and Miao Autonomous County is located, most houses are built of stone, with dozens of three- and four-story stone buildings. Because the stone is light gray-white and becomes more crystal clear after processing, when you look at Zhenning during the day, the silver light shines; when you look at Zhenning on a moonlit night, it is covered with frost and snow. For this reason, it has the reputation of "Silver Zhenning" in ancient times and "Silver Zhenning" in popular culture. The stone buildings in this town have a long history of more than 600 years, so they can be called both solidified music and immortal epics.
The Buyi people pay a lot of attention to building houses. First of all, you need to ask Mr. Yin and Yang to look at the "Feng Shui" and choose a place close to mountains and rivers for the homestead. It should not only have green mountains as its back, but also face the green peaks. The best backgrounds are "Crouching Lions Guarding", "Green Dragons Encircling Protection", "Noble Man's Mount" and other mountains; for mountains, choose "Two Dragons Grabbing Treasures", "Double Dragons Playing with Pearls", "Ten Thousand Horses Returning to Their Caches", and "Shou Xing". Gaozhao" and other forms. Fortunately, Buyi areas are mostly limestone mountains, and such green mountains and green ridges are not difficult to find. When building a house, you must choose an auspicious day. One month before the auspicious day, ask a carpenter to scrap materials to make the frame of the house. On the auspicious day for erecting the house frame, worship Master Luban. After the house frame was erected, the father-in-law's family sent large beams with large flowers tied with red silk, and a band and lion dance team fired firecrackers to accompany them. When the beam is laid, singing, dancing, and banquets are held. The last step is to take the ancestral tablets and the kitchen god (charcoal fire) to the new home. The whole process of building a new house is filled with an atmosphere of joy and mutual help in Buyi villages.
The batik craft is renowned.
The Buyi people’s batik has long been famous. As early as the Song Dynasty, there are records of batik cloth, a specialty of Huishui, Guizhou. The "blue and white cloth" mentioned in the history books of the Qing Dynasty is batik cloth. Buyi girls begin to learn batik techniques from their mothers when they are twelve or thirteen years old. First heat the beeswax to melt it into wax juice, then use a triangular copper wax knife to dip it into the wax juice, carefully draw various beautiful and vivid patterns on the self-woven white cloth, and then put it into an indigo vat to dye it blue or light. Finally, the cloth is put into a pot to boil off the beeswax, fished out, washed repeatedly in the river, and dried to become a unique batik handicraft.
The batik cloth produced has rich and simple patterns, lively and bold paintings, and unique turtle patterns (also known as small ripples), which have an artistic effect that cannot be replaced by machines.
The batik art in different regions has different styles: some like to use flowers, birds, insects, and fish as batik patterns, with bold compositions and vivid images; some are characterized by rigorous structures and delicate lines; Some are based on dragon's claw flowers and terrestris flowers, with rough and bright colors... Batik art not only beautifies people's lives, but also enriches the clothes of Chinese and foreign women.
In the past 20 years, some batik factories have been built in Guizhou, and specialized art designers have created and drawn new patterns. The images of various characters and animals are richer, and the colors tend to be more diverse.
Batik cloth is mostly used for women’s headscarves, skirts, aprons, quilt covers, door curtains, and curtains. Some of them have a high level of craftsmanship and very novel and exquisite patterns. They are also used as art wall hangings to decorate living rooms, hotels and restaurants. Buyi women also add embroidery to their batik dresses to make them more charming.
In addition to batik, the traditional folk crafts of the Buyi people include tie-dye, brocade, embroidery, wood carving, stone carving, bamboo weaving, etc.
Buyi families all live separately. But even though the brothers are separated, when the property is distributed, the land for their parents' retirement should be left to the brothers, who will take turns cultivating it. After the death of his parents, the pension field was turned into a grave-sweeping field for the purpose of sweeping tombs during the Qingming Festival. Let future generations always remember the sincere entrustment and nurturing grace of their elders.