Dress
The costumes of the Han nationality are no different from those of other places, and the costumes of Tujia and Miao nationalities are also full of national and local characteristics. Tujia men and old people, wearing collarless sleeves full of corsets, young people, wearing Baoqing cloth or white cloth, herringbone, wearing corsets with many buttons, pants with blue and white cloth belts, and shoes with blue and white backgrounds. Women, pigtails, white cloth handkerchiefs or green silk handkerchiefs, excluding herringbone. Unmarried women, some hang their braids behind their backs, and more often wear them on their heads. After marriage, they changed their braids into bun and tied them into a net. Clothes are long, collarless, short sleeves and big cuffs. The chest is open to the right, and the cuffs on the chest are rolled with five-color plum blossom strips or silk embroidered strips. Pants also like blue, blue cloth, white waist, big trouser legs and short legs, and the upper end of the mouth is embroidered with plum blossom strips or silk strips. The shoes are slightly pointed, with a blue background and a white background, and the uppers are embroidered. Professional women are not used to wearing socks and often wrap their feet with green and white cloth. Gold and silver earrings are hung on the ears, silver or jade bracelets are worn on the wrists, gold and silver rings are worn on the fingers, and "tooth money" is hung on the chest, and a string of silver bracelets, silver bells, silver tooth strings and silver beads are tied on it, which jingles when walking. Miao women like to wear silver collars, bracelets, medals and bells around their necks. And the head is covered with blue and white cloth, which is longer than that of Tujia and Han nationality.
The costumes of Tujia children (including Han nationality) are very prominent on their hats, and the shapes of hats depend on age and season, such as "Zijin Crown" in spring and autumn, "wax gourd circle" in summer, "dog head hat", "fishtail" and "hood" in winter. These hats are embroidered with five-color silk threads into patterns and calligraphy, such as "Magpie makes plum blossoms", "Phoenix wears peony", "Long life and wealth", "Easy to repair one person" and "Happy life". In addition, silver bodhisattvas, such as "Big Eight Immortals", "Little Eight Immortals" and "Eighteen Arhats" are decorated in front of the hat, and silver medals and bells are hung behind the hat. Men and women wear silver rings on their wrists, with hollow silver hammers and bells hanging on them.
Camus autumn season
Ganqiu Festival is a large-scale folk festival held by Miao people before the autumn harvest or before beginning of autumn, which is used for entertainment, market transactions, exchanges between young men and women and celebration of the upcoming harvest.
About the origin of chasing autumn, some people say it is "the beginning of autumn", while others say it is "chasing swing". According to legend, a long time ago, there was a young man named Baguida in Miao Village, who was brave and good at fighting, upright and admired by everyone. One day, when he was out hunting and saw a Shan Ying flying through the air, he raised his hand and drew his bow, and an arrow hit him. With Shan Ying falling at the same time, there is a flower shoe. This flower shoe is exquisitely embroidered. At first glance, from a smart and beautiful Miao girl. Bajdaria is determined to find the owner of this flower shoe. He designed and built a windmill that can seat eight people at the same time, and named it "Autumn for Eight People". On this day in early autumn, he invited men and women from villages far and near to play autumn games. Swing was originally the favorite activity of Miao girls, and Bagui thought that the girl who made flower shoes would definitely come. Sure enough, his wish came true. He found the owner of the flower shoes, the beautiful girl Qi Niang. Later, they established feelings by singing Miao songs, became husband and wife, and lived happily. Since then, people have followed this example and held such activities every year.
In some places, it is said that Shennong sent a man and a woman to the East to look for seeds and plant grains for a bumper harvest. Therefore, Miao ancestors called men and women Qiugong Qiupo, and Autumn Festival was a folk festival held by Miao ancestors to thank Shennong and Qiugong Qiupo. The Autumn Festival embodies the Miao people's pursuit of bumper harvests and the prosperity and happiness of six livestock.
Crying marriage
Tujia girls stopped going out to work ten and a half months before receiving the notice from the man to get married. First, a square table was set up in the boudoir of Diaojiaolou, ten bowls of tea were put, and relatives and neighbors were invited to sit around in turn and began to cry about wedding songs. The bride is in the middle, called "banquet", the woman on the right is "banquet" and the woman on the left is "banquet". The bride began to talk, answer questions and take turns crying day and night. There are rules for crying: mother and daughter cry, aunts and nephews cry, sisters cry, uncles and nephews cry, aunts and nephews cry, and scold the matchmaker ... for three or five days, some cry for ten days and a half. The main contents include recalling the deep affection between mother and daughter, telling the pain of parting, thanking for the kindness of raising, asking brothers and sisters-in-law to take care of their elderly parents and teaching women to be human.
Weeping songs usually see mom crying and aunt crying. There are different crying characters and fixed crying characters, such as "than the ancients", "crying in the room", "ten pictures", "ten embroidery" and "December". Crying has melody and cadence, which is a very difficult art of combining singing and crying. The bride must ask the teacher to practice before (of course, it is confidential). Crying with modal particles such as "om", "man" and "alas" is sad and moving. Such as "Crying Sister":
Take a sip of well water and step on a rocky road;
Eighteen years in the same village, playing together and growing up together.
Sit on the bench every day and spend the night with the oil lamp;
Performance is the same as hemp basket, grinding is the same as grinding. ...
Another example is the crying grandfather (sound "ya") mother:
Mom, mom, I'm leaving. And help mom comb her hair.
I once remembered that the wild flowers on my temples were gorgeous. When did I get bitter gourd wrinkles on my forehead?
The cradle is still ringing in my ears, and my mother cooks her head for her daughter.
Swallows leave their nests, my food, alas, when can I come back? ……
Niang cry female:
Gong sedan chair urges the girl to go, and a lot of words are not enough;
The world leaps every three years. Why not ask Wugeng?
Hey, my son is gone, and it's hard for my mother to stay. You can start all over again in the future.
Filial piety, diligence and housekeeping, loving husband and wife.
The custom of Tujia women crying for marriage has a long history. Peng Tanqiu, a Tujia poet in the Qing Dynasty, recorded: "The song of ten sisters, loving kindness, parting after injury, full of sorrow and tears, is also a legacy of' bamboo branches'. "In ancient Zhi Zhu's words, there is a poem describing crying marriage:
It's a good season in Yao Tao, and I'm sad to say goodbye.
Crying mother crying sister-in-law, affectionate cotton wrapped in tears.
It seems incredible to celebrate a happy marriage by crying and sacrifice the dead relatives by singing and dancing, but it fully embodies the unique temperament and cultural consciousness of Tujia people.
Marriage custom of Miao nationality
Most Miao areas have a high degree of autonomy in marriage, and Miao youth everywhere have traditional forms of free social activities with the main purpose of choosing a spouse. Xiangxi is called "rushing to the edge of the field" or "meeting girls", Qiandongnan Miao people are called "tourism", Guangxi Rongshui is called "sitting sister" or "walking in the village", Qianxibei is called "stepping on the moon", and the Miao people in central Guizhou and some western regions are called "jumping flowers" and "jumping fields". In this social activity, young men and women can sing and talk in groups of three or five or individually, openly or quietly. Love in duet is the most representative and national custom in Miao marriage custom culture. Some Miao communities also have places where young people fall in love, such as Youfangping in southeast Guizhou and Girls' Room in northeast Yunnan. Miao youth pay more attention to personal talent and character than property and family.
After finding the right lover, the two sides can exchange tokens. Marriage usually requires the consent of parents. In most Miao areas, the independent marriage of young people and the arranged marriage of parents coexist. These two situations are not necessarily irreconcilable contradictions, just to see which tendency is more serious. Generally speaking, parents and children respect each other and seek advice from each other. Few people are forced to get married. Moreover, social customs allow and maintain young people's free choice. Therefore, it is more common for parents to preside over marriage after free love. The specific steps are: the young people discuss it well, and after the man asks his parents for advice, he asks the matchmaker to go to the woman's house as a matchmaker. Under normal circumstances, the woman's parents will not object, and sometimes they will use chicken divination to decide whether marriage is feasible. Once the matchmaker is engaged, the two sides will discuss the wedding date and dowry. Before marriage, the man must send a sum of money or other property to the woman's uncle's house, which is called "uncle money". If parents disagree, young men and women can elope and seek the support of relatives or social forces. Over time, parents will admit a fait accompli. Of course, some people obey their parents' orders, and a few have caused emotional tragedies because of their parents' arrangements.
There is also a form of robbing marriage or a similar form of robbing marriage. If young men and women are willing to become lifelong partners through free love, the man will invite several friends or brothers to bring or "rob" the woman to his home one night, which is marriage. Three days later, an old man who was "all blessed" was invited to take a chicken to "report the marriage" to the woman's parents and ask them to admit the marriage. Then the two sides agreed on the date and specific matters of the wedding.
The marriage age of Miao youth is generally between 16 and 20 years old, and there are also early marriages, about 145 years old. Couples who marry early usually can't live together until they are adults. In the choice of marriage, the same clan (the same surname) does not marry, giving priority to cousins, and different generations do not marry. There is basically no intermarriage between different ethnic groups, even between different branches of Miao nationality. In many areas, Miao people have this custom. On the wedding day, the husband and wife live in different rooms, and the bride spends the first night with her best man and the groom's sister. In some places, weddings are mainly held in the woman's home. Miao people in Qiandongnan have the custom of "staying at home" (sitting at home), that is, the bride will stay at her parents' home after returning home, only after being summoned on holidays or busy farming, and will not stay at her husband's home before pregnancy. Sit at home for a year or two to four or five years.
After marriage, you can divorce because of emotional disagreement and other reasons. Generally speaking, the party filing for divorce must make up for the losses caused to the other party. Widows can remarry, usually within the same generation, but this is not mandatory. Miao nationality is a monogamous family. The nuclear family and the main family are the main family structures in Miao society. Men and women have equal status before and after marriage, and women have a certain say in family affairs, but on the whole it is still a patriarchal society. Children's descent comes from the father, the descent is calculated according to the paternal line, and family property is inherited according to the paternal line. The Miao nationality has a father-son joint system, which is typical in southeastern Guizhou now, and many other areas no longer exist. Miao people have their own national surnames, and now most of them adopt Han surnames.
Expel the body
Up to now, no one can point out the real situation of corpse driving in Xiangxi.
According to the local people's unanimous statement, the corpse driver is a mage in cassock. No matter how many bodies there are, he will go there alone. It's the same as Hong Kong movies. It is better to say "lead" than "drive" the corpse, because this mage is not behind the corpse, but leading the way in front of it, knocking gongs while walking, avoiding the nocturnal people, and people with dogs lock them up. When there are multiple bodies, connect them with straw ropes, one every six or seven feet. The industry of corpse removal is difficult to work outside Xiangxi. First of all, accommodation becomes a problem. Second, people who walk at night don't know how to avoid the gong, but they come to watch the excitement. It's really scary. Third, in many villages, there is no road outside the village, and it is bound to pass through the village. In most places, corpses are not allowed to enter the village, let alone jump. At the same time, the residents along the road don't understand this situation, and they can't ask them to cooperate-they lock up the dog as soon as they hear the gong, because the dead body is afraid of dogs, and the dog pulls the clothes when it bites the dead body, and the dead body has to be thrown down. A dog is easy to deal with. It comes to a group and bites the clothes of a dead body. Even if the corpse driver is bitten, things will be very serious, but Xiangxi does not have these difficulties.
Why is there a business of "corpse driver"? Because nothing grows in the upper reaches of Yuanjiang River in western Hunan, most poor people go to Sichuan or eastern Guizhou to work as vendors, collect herbs or hunt. Those places are mountainous, with heavy malaria and extremely bad living environment. Except for the local Miao people, outsiders seldom go. None of the Han people who died in those places were rich. The Han people traditionally have a deep concept of transporting corpses back to their hometowns for burial. However, even if they have money, it is difficult to transport them by vehicles or stretchers on rugged mountain roads thousands or hundreds of miles away, so some people have created this strange economic way to transport the bodies back to Xiangxi and drive them out.
Maybe it's mysterious witchcraft, maybe it's a superstition that fools people, maybe it's just a trick to cheat money, or maybe it's just a sensational rumor? Okay, okay, okay. Please tell yourself.
Gu Fang
"Witches" in Xiangxi and "head-dropping" in Thailand are called the two great witches in Southeast Asia. Xiangxi's method is the same as Xiangxi's corpse drive, and it has not been able to point out its true situation until now. Different from corpse-driving, the way of releasing remains is almost everywhere in western Hunan, and corpse-driving is mainly spread in Yuanling, Luxi, Chenxi and Xupu counties in western Hunan. This law is commonly known as "grass ghost" in western Hunan. According to legend, it is only attached to women, harming others and harming themselves. Those so-called witches are called "grass ghosts".
No one has seen the so-called release method and appearance, except for the saying passed down from generation to generation, but it is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. Almost all Miao people believe in this law, but the weight varies from place to place.
In the conceptual world of Miao people, there are snakes, frogs, ants and so on. The method is multiplied in the person who owns it. If you can't find food, you will attack the person who owns it and ask for food, which will make the owner feel uncomfortable, so it will be released to harm others.
In fact, this daunting method is not Miao's patent. Magic techniques were widely spread in ancient Jiangnan area of China. Method originally refers to insects born in utensils, later moths born after food spoilage, and insects born from other objects are also called methods. The ancients thought that this method was mysterious in nature and extremely toxic, so it was also called poison method, which could enter the human body through diet and cause diseases. The patient seems to be confused by ghosts. Most people in the pre-Qin period refer to mysterious poisonous insects that naturally occur. Long-term superstition of poison law has formed the concept and practice of making people. According to scholars' research, during the Warring States Period, some people in the Central Plains used and taught the method of sinning.
In many remote areas of Miao nationality, medicine in the old society was backward, and many diseases could not be effectively treated. Therefore, the ineffectiveness of each visit is often attributed to the method. With the popularization of scientific and cultural knowledge and the improvement of medical level in Miao areas, the influence of witchcraft superstition in Miao areas is getting smaller and smaller.
Chenzhoufu
When a traveler realizes that he has come to Chenzhou, he is not interested in these common problems. Chenzhou is famous as a symbol of Chenzhou, and its legends and miracles are also famous for driving away corpses. The road is on the south bank of Yuanshui, passing through the north bank of the city, and naturally I look forward to the opportunity to understand this old thing.
But this curiosity of travelers will be hit. Most local people are confused about Chen. They are not interested and don't believe it. You may accidentally meet a "big" figure, which is very big, loud and stylish. His surname is either Zhang or Li (he should be Li! A typical layman, working in a chamber of commerce, is good at blowing pat into the administrative office. He will tell you that Chen's miracle is to cut off a chicken's neck with a knife, reattach it, throw it on the ground with a mouthful of water, and the chicken will run away immediately, sprinkle a handful of rice on the ground and even come back to eat rice! You ask him, "Have you seen this with your own eyes?" He must have said, "consider it a real scene." Maybe when you think about it, you will feel that you have seen it with your own eyes somewhere. It was said in a book fifty years ago. This big shot is a famous local braggart. Everything in the world seems very clear, but I don't know whether what I said is true or not, whether it is from a book or I made it myself. As usual, most local people don't quite understand what "Zhou Chenfu" is.