The ethnic name "Tujia" means local people in local Chinese. Tujia people call themselves "Bizka", which means local people.
Population and Distribution By the end of 1990, the population was 5,704,220. They are mainly distributed in the northwest of Hunan Province, Enshi area of Hubei Province and the east of Sichuan Province, and live together with the Han and Miao nationalities.
Historical origins Tujia ancestors have a direct relationship with Cubans. But at present, there are different opinions about its source. One is a bird man who moved from Guizhou to Xiangxi in ancient times; In addition, it is said that he is a descendant of white craftsmen who moved from Jiangxi to Xiangxi in the late Tang Dynasty and early Five Dynasties (about 9 10). Tujia people in western Hunan and western Hubei are called "natives" and "natives" in historical records, and the name "Tujia" began to be used in local chronicles in the late Qing Dynasty.
The spoken and written languages of Tujia belong to the Tibeto-Burman language family of Sino-Tibetan language family, and their branches are uncertain. Most people speak Chinese. Except for Yongshun, Longshan and Guzhang in Hunan, Tujia language is still intact. This nation has no written language, and Chinese is widely used.
Religious culture is influenced by the Han nationality. In religion, it is mainly superstition of ghosts and gods and worship of ancestors. These gods are not their own. Witches used to exorcise ghosts. Some places believe in Taoism. "Hand-waving dance" is a popular and ancient group dance, including hunting, military, farming, feasting and other more than 70 actions. The rhythm is distinct, the movements are beautiful, simple and full of life. Epic and folk songs are the most famous.
Customs and ballroom dancing "Bobo Dance" are their very popular activities. It is related to offering sacrifices to ancestors and praying for a bumper harvest. No matter what big party, we should dance. "Waving" begins on a certain day of the lunar calendar and lasts for odd days. Usually three days, five days, seven days. Generally, tens of thousands of people will attend on the ninth day of the first lunar month or the third day of March.
Men and women fall in love and get married after many songs. Have the habit of "crying and marrying". Women begin to cry 7-20 days before they get married. The songs that cry for marriage include "Women Cry for Mother", "Sister Crys for Sister" and "Scolding the Matchmaker". I sang softly at first, and the closer I got to the wedding day, the more sad I became. Until I cried my mouth dry and my eyes were red and swollen. They regard whether they are good at crying marriage as the standard to measure women's talent and virtue.
Tujia women's dress is a short jacket with big sleeves, a left-lapped jacket with 2 ~ 3 layers of lace and side pants; Men's wear is a double-breasted coat. "Happy New Year", that is, to pay a New Year call L ~ 2 days in advance, is an important festival.
Mainly engaged in agriculture, handicrafts, embroidery, weaving more famous, especially soil flower bedding.
Historically, the feudal lords' economy developed from the Five Dynasties (907-979) until Yongzheng (1723- 1735) in the Qing Dynasty, and gradually transitioned to the landlord economy. Before the founding of New China, the social economy was in the development stage of feudal landlord economy. After the founding of New China, social reform was implemented and two autonomous prefectures were established together with the Miao people.
[Introduction to Nationality]
Tujia nationality, with a population of 5704223, mainly lives in Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture of Hunan Province and Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture of Hubei Province. In addition, Shizhu, Xiushan, Youyang, Qianjiang and other counties in Sichuan Province are also distributed. Tujia people call themselves "Bizka", which means "an indigenous people". More than 2,000 years ago, they settled in present-day western Hunan and western Hubei, and were called "Wu Lingren" or "Wuxi people" together with other ethnic minorities. After the Song Dynasty, Tujia people were called "Tu Ding" and "Tu Min" respectively. After the founding of New China, it was officially named Tujia according to the wishes of Tujia people. Tujia nationality has its own language and belongs to the Tibeto-Burman language family of Sino-Tibetan language family. Because most people have lived with the Han nationality for a long time, they began to use Chinese and Chinese very early. Only a few areas in Longshan, Yongshun and Guzhang counties in western Hunan still use Tujia language. Tujia nationality is mainly engaged in agricultural production, influenced by Han nationality in economic and cultural development, but it also retains its own characteristics. "Golden Tung Oil" in Xiangxi and "Bashang Paint" in western Hubei are famous brands at home and abroad. "Xilankapu" is a wonderful flower in Tujia national craft. Also known as "flower bedding", it is a Tujia brocade. With its unique technology and wonderful composition, it is listed as one of the five tapestries in China.
[Religious custom]
Tujia people used to be superstitious about ghosts and gods and worship their ancestors. Every year during the Spring Festival, they have to make big sacrifices to their ancestors, and they also have small sacrifices on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. Ancestor foods include pig's head, jiaozi, Baba, chickens and ducks, and whole grains. Before each meal, someone used chopsticks to put a small amount of food on the meal in silence, indicating that the deceased ancestors were invited to eat first, and then began to eat. On the sixth day of the sixth lunar month, every village should set up a wave hall, in front of which pig heads, fruits and other sacrifices will be placed. In October, on the first day of October, winter is sacrificed, and chickens and ducks are slaughtered for a banquet. In addition, Tujia people worship the kitchen god, the earth god, the grain god and the tapir god, and they also offer sacrifices to Lu Ban when building houses. Besides wine and meat, they also want a rooster. White tiger worship: White tiger has an important position in Tujia people's minds. Tujia people call themselves "White Tiger Queen". According to legend, in ancient times, the ancestor of Tujia nationality, Bawu Township, was promoted to the chief of the tribe with five surnames, and was called "Lin Jun" in history. Lin Jun led the tribe members down the river in a mud boat, went to Yangyan, killed the fierce goddess of salt water and settled down. People live and work in peace and contentment, and natural Lin Jun is deeply loved by people. Later, Lin Jun died, and his soul became a white tiger and ascended to heaven. From then on, Tujia people regarded the white tiger as their ancestors and never forgot to worship it everywhere. A white tiger carved from wood is enshrined in the shrine of every family all the year round. When getting married, the man should spread a tiger blanket on the spacious table in the main hall, symbolizing the sacrifice to the tiger ancestors. Besides religious worship, white tigers can be seen everywhere in Tujia people's lives. Its original intention is to use the tiger's heroic eyes to exorcise evil and suppress evil, hoping that the wings will be peaceful and happy.
[Eating habits]
Tujia people usually eat three meals a day and two meals in their leisure time; Eat four meals in spring and summer when the labor intensity is high. For example, in the transplanting season, a "premature" meal should be added in the morning, mostly snacks such as glutinous rice dumplings or mung bean powder. It is said that eating glutinous rice balls as a "premature" meal means a bumper harvest and good luck. Tujia people also like to eat camellia soup. Besides rice, bibimbap is the most common staple food. Sometimes they also eat bean rice. Baba and unity are also the seasonal staple foods of Tujia people, and some even eat them. In the past, Hongshan medicine has been regarded as a staple food in many areas, and it is still a standing food in some areas after winter. The main feature of Tujia cuisine is sour and spicy. Every folk family has a sauerkraut jar, which is used to pickle sauerkraut, and almost every meal is inseparable from sauerkraut. Bean products are also very common, such as tofu, lobster sauce, bean leaf skin, tofu milk and so on. I especially like to eat mixed dregs, that is, grinding soybeans into pulp, boiling them to clarify, adding vegetable leaves and cooking them. People often eat bean rice, corn rice and slag soup together. Tujia people's drinking, especially during festivals or entertaining guests, is essential. Among them, sweet wine and miscellaneous wine brewed with glutinous rice and sorghum are more common, with low degree and pure taste. Typical food: Tujia people like to eat Baba bacon, oil tea and other foods, as well as assorted dishes; Tuanxiang; Mung bean powder (rice flour); Fried rice cakes.
Tujia astronomical calendar
Tujia people have accumulated a lot of knowledge in astronomy, geography, meteorology, water conservancy, agronomy, biology, medicine and so on in their long-term farming life, and used these knowledge to guide the production and life of Tujia people from generation to generation. ?
Tujia meteorological knowledge has been handed down in the form of proverbs and ballads, such as: "the clouds are light and the wind is light;" The cloud faces west, covered with hemp fiber; The clouds face south, the ship is wrecked, the clouds face north, and the rain is not penetrated. "In the morning, we burn the chardonnay and wait for tea; In the evening, the scorching sun scorched people, and the toad died. "Lei Gong sang, but it didn't rain much." "The east rainbow rises in the sun, and the west rainbow rises, and the south rainbow rises." "The moon throws an umbrella, the sun breaks the rock, the moon grows, and the rain falls." "The rainy mountain wears a hat, and the rainy mountain wipes its waist" all predict the weather through the observation of clouds, thunder, rainbows and other celestial bodies or the sun and moon. ?
Tujia people also predict the climate and estimate the annual harvest according to the dry vegetation in the mountains, the coming and going of migratory birds, the changes of the sun, the moon and the stars, and the alternation of clouds, storms and lightning. They compiled the farming experience accumulated from generation to generation into folk songs and proverbs, which were passed down from mouth to mouth to guide spring planting and autumn harvest. For example, "Lao Zhang doesn't listen to the old question, tung blossoms should be planted" and "every spring in March, birds are singing all over the mountains to publicize the spring and destroy crops", warning people that tung blossoms and birds are singing, and it is time to plant. Another example is: "Qingming wants to be sunny, Grain Rain wants to be drenched", "It is not hot in dog days, and the grain does not bear fruit; It was not cold on March 9, and the fruit was not very good. " This is based on the meteorological conditions of specific solar terms to infer the quality of agricultural harvest.
His knowledge of agronomy is also passed down from generation to generation by such proverbs and folk songs, such as: "The ploughing is deep, the rake is broken, and a bowl of mud and a bowl of rice", which means that the farmland should be deeply plowed and carefully raked, so that the harvest is good. "Planting potatoes deep and planting seedlings shallow, planting sweet potatoes on Pipi" and "planting autumn sweet potatoes without planting autumn buckwheat" are also teaching the planting skills of rice seedlings, sweet potatoes and buckwheat.