Miao is one of the oldest ethnic groups in China. In the long historical development process, Miao nationality has evolved in dress, festival, marriage, funeral, entertainment, etiquette, taboo, diet and so on, and gradually formed its own unique customs and habits. This paper specially collects and sorts out the folk customs and materials of Miao nationality for your reference!
First, clothing.
There is little difference between men and women in Xiangxi Miao costume, and they are all colorful; Dressed in flowered clothes, pleated skirts, long hair, ochre flower handkerchiefs, boat-shaped flower shoes and various silver ornaments.
During the Yongzheng period of the Qing Dynasty, after the government ordered the clothing to be divided into men and women, it changed a lot, and many people even put on the clothes of the Han people. Today, for example, the Miao people in Yongshun, Longshan and other counties are no different from the Han people in dress. However, in Huayuan, Baojing, Fenghuang, Jishou, Guzhang, Luxi and other counties, Miao costumes still have their own characteristics.
Miao men's clothing is relatively simple; I wear a cloth handkerchief on my head, a double-breasted coat, long sleeves and small sleeves, short pants and big pants, and I like to wrap my blue feet. There are two kinds of head handkerchief: green handkerchief and flower handkerchief. Handkerchiefs are more than a foot long, as many as three feet. When they are intertwined, they are mostly cross-shaped and as big as hats. The colors of clothes are plaid, full blue, full blue and so on. Among them, plaid cloth is the most distinctive. There are usually seven buttons. Some young people wear as many as seven clothes, which makes people envy their wealth and boldness. Only the bottom pair of clothes is buckled on the outermost layer, and the bottom two pairs are buckled on the second layer. . . . . And so on until the innermost seven pairs of buttons are buckled. So you can see layers of new clothes from the outside, which is not interesting.
Contrary to the simple costumes of Miao men, the costumes of Miao women are very delicate and complicated.
Toupa: Toupa of Miao women varies from place to place. Miao women in Fenghuang County have a short handkerchief more than three feet long. From the forehead to the back of the head, even the ears are wrapped inside. Miao women in Huayuan and other counties like to use black handkerchiefs (wearing white handkerchief to prevent their parents from dying), which are neatly folded, neatly wrapped, unbiased and oblique, and tied at the end just right. Miao women in Jishou county have mixed hair, while flowers are used in the adjacent areas of Fenghuang county and black flowers are used in the adjacent areas of Huayuan county. Miao women in Luxi, Guzhang and eastern Jishou wear white headscarves. There are four pairs of cyan Hua Die embroidered on the handkerchief, which is simple and beautiful and has a unique charm. The so-called "there are four corners on the handkerchief, and moths embroidered on the four corners" refers to this white handkerchief.
Jewelry: Miao women's jewelry, exquisite shape, a wide range. According to the raw materials, there are gold ornaments, silver ornaments, copper ornaments, aluminum ornaments and jade ornaments. And silver ornaments are the most common. From the wearing parts: silver hat, silver basin, rockhopper, Sushan earrings, collars, bracelets, rings, toothpicks, belt buckles, etc. And bracelets and rings must be worn often. From the modeling point of view, there is only one kind of earrings, including melon seeds hanging earrings, pomegranate earrings, plum blossom needle earrings, circle earrings, faucet earrings, plum blossom hanging melon seeds hanging earrings, rake earrings, faucet melon seeds hanging earrings and so on.
Clothes and others: Miao women's clothes, long waist, big sleeves and short sleeves, no collar. The cuffs are about a foot or longer. On the chest and cuffs, it is customary to roll, embroider or wear yarn, and add railing petals. Some also need to embroider cloud-digging hooks on the front and back edges of the fork and swing. Clothing styles are full-breasted, without double-breasted. It takes dozens of working days to make a set of Miao women's underwear, which is beautifully made through sewing and embroidery. The pants are shorter and the legs are bigger. The number of piping, embroidery or yarn on the edge of trousers is the same as that of clothes. The dress is long and wide, with embroidered lines covered with waste edges, rolling railings and large and small petals, which are colorful and dazzling. The shoes are full of embroidery, with a big head and a big mouth, and the back is wearing ears.
After the founding of New China, in some areas where Miao and Han people lived together, Miao costumes were greatly influenced by Han people, and some young people also changed into Hanfu.
Second, festivals and celebrations
Miao people have many festivals and large-scale activities. Taking the Miao nationality in western Hunan as an example, the most representative ones are:
1. Catch up with last year. On the first month of the lunar calendar, the Miao people in Xiangxi are most keen to catch up with the New Year's Fair, and the date is decided by each place. Catch up with the Spring Festival. On that day, men and women, old and young, dressed in festive costumes, invited each other and went to the scene in droves. The annual market is full of people, bustling and lively. People can not only exchange materials, but also participate in or watch activities such as swinging, lion dancing, playing with dragon lanterns and climbing knives and ladders. Young men and women also make more use of this opportunity to have sex with each other. What's more, the singers show their abilities, and walk in twos and threes, saying the ancient and modern, singing together, or congratulating each other, or telling traditional stories, or improvising new words. The more people sing, the higher their interest, and the more people listen, the more energetic they are. Even if it is snowing heavily and freezing, the annual trade fair will be held as scheduled.
2. March 3rd. This is the traditional song and dance festival of Miao nationality in western Hunan. On this day, the Miao people automatically gathered in the appointed song field to participate in singing, listening to songs, dancing and watching dances, which was enjoyable.
3. catch up with Qingming. This is a large-scale song meeting unique to Miao people in western Hunan, also known as "Qingming Song Meeting". According to legend, because Miao people live in remote mountainous areas, all their daily necessities have to be exchanged in remote Han areas, and they are often cheated. Therefore, the Miao people agreed to take Tomb-Sweeping Day as their own venue, exchange materials with each other and meet relatives and friends at the same time. This way. Over time, today's "Qingming Song Festival" was formed.
Tomb-Sweeping Day has a traditional central venue. The Miao people in the east of Jishou catch up with Tomb-Sweeping Day, and its center venue is on the Danqing Tomb-Sweeping Day every year. At that time, Miao singers will sing with their hands on their cheeks, and you will sing and I will come on stage, beaming. Some sang until it was dark and refused to finish the meeting, singing all night.
4. Look at the Dragon Field. Every year, from the day of Grain Rain in the third month of the lunar calendar, I watch Dragon El every day, which used to be called Dragon Watching Day, and then I watch the invasion of Japan every day. Men, women and children have a day off and take an active part. If you do farm work on this day, it is a taboo. Therefore, Miao people attach great importance to "dragon watching".
5.april 8th. "April 8" is the name of a hill in Luochaojing Township, Fenghuang County. Legend has it that in ancient times, there was a Miao leader named Yayi, who led the Miao people to fight against the rulers. He once organized villages to drink chicken blood in the current "drinking blood depression" and vowed to unite and fight to the end. And agreed to meet on a mountain on April 8. After the uprising, the insurgents won again and again, reaching Sichuan and Guizhou. On April 8 of the following year, Yayibuxin died around Guiyang Fountain. In order to commemorate this national hero, it is convenient for the Miao people to hold commemorative activities on April 8 every year to remember Yayi's achievements and sweep the graves for the war victims. After the uprising of Ganjia Miao people in Qing Dynasty, the rulers banned Xiangxi Miao people from holding this activity, which made the Miao people lose a very meaningful traditional festival. After liberation, with the approval of the State Ethnic Affairs Commission, "April 8" was designated as a festival for the reunification of the Miao people.
6. June 6th. This is an ancient custom, and it is an ancestor worship activity for the Miao people to commemorate their ancestors of six men and six women and hope that they can have six men and six women to reproduce. Every year, on the sixth day of the sixth lunar month, Miao people in Luochaojing, Fenghuang County will hold a grand song meeting in Guliangshan. Miao people from surrounding counties such as Huayuan and Jishou, and Songtao and Tongren in Guizhou also came to participate. The number of people attending the meeting often reaches 20 thousand to 30 thousand.
7. July 7th. This is a traditional drum meeting of Miao nationality, which is most popular in Jishou, Aizhaipo and Guzhang. Every year on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, Miao people put on new clothes, gather in the drum field, beat drums and dance, and indulge in joy.
8. Catch up with autumn. Catching autumn is one of the large-scale festivals of Miao nationality in western Hunan. Every year in "beginning of autumn", the Miao people will stop their farm work, put on their holiday costumes, invite friends to accompany them, and happily flock to Akita from all directions to participate in or watch various recreational activities. Traditional autumn farms include Aizhai Farm in Jishou County, Malichang in Huayuan County, Gouliangshan in Fenghuang County, Tanxi in luxi county and Liangjiatan. On this day, the crowd on the autumn field jostled shoulder to shoulder. On the hillside not far away, people are trembling, flowers are in full bloom, songs are curling up, and people are laughing.
The origin of chasing autumn, some people say "beginning of autumn Day", others say "Swing". According to legend, a long time ago, there was a man named Bagui in Miao Village. The young people in Dajia are upright, brave and good at shooting, and everyone admires them. One day, when he was out hunting, he saw a Shan Ying flying through the air, so he drew his bow, shot Shan Ying with an arrow and dropped a flower shoe. This flower shoe is exquisitely embroidered. You can tell at a glance that it was made by a clever and beautiful Miao girl. Bajiadya is determined to find the owner of this flower shoe. With the help of villagers, he designed and manufactured a windmill-shaped swing 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, Baguida's wish came true. In the autumn field, he found the owner of the flower shoes-the beautiful girl Qi Niang. They established feelings by singing Miao songs, formed a couple and lived a very happy life. Since then, people have followed suit, holding such activities every year, choosing couples, and forming the "Chasing Autumn" activity.
9. Cherry Club. There are many cherry trees in Miaoshan. Whenever the cherry ripens in spring, young Miao men and women will gather in the cherry forest and sing folk songs for social activities. This activity is called "Liubiwa" in Miao language and literally means "cherry picking" in Chinese. Some Miao villages in Huayuan County and Baojing County are the most popular.
10. Tiaoxiang Party. Fragrant sticks are popular in Jishou, Guzhang, Luxi and Yuanling. When it is held, it is mainly about dancing and other recreational activities.
Three. Miao culture
Miao is an ancient and colorful nation, calling itself "Mu", "Meng", "Damu" and "Daji". He said there were several situations. First, according to the color of clothing, it is called "red seedling", "flower seedling", "white seedling" and "black seedling" respectively; Second, according to the crops they live in or grow, they are called "highland seedlings", "Bazhai seedlings" and "planted in Jiangmiao". Third, the rulers of the old society insulted them, such as "seedling", "ripe seedling" and "hemp seedling". After the founding of New China, it was collectively called Miao. Miao people in Guangxi account for 5.5% of the national Miao population, accounting for 1% of the population in Guangxi, ranking fourth after Han, Zhuang and Yao. Miao people in China are mainly distributed in Guizhou and Hunan, while Miao people in Guangxi mainly live in northern Guangxi, northwestern Guangxi and mountainous areas bordering Hunan, Guizhou and Yunnan. The biggest feature of Miao nationality is that it is rich in all kinds of wood and local products and maintains a splendid and simple national traditional culture.
Miao people are rich in folk literature. Because there are no words for thousands of years, this kind of literature can only be created, performed and passed down orally, so oral literature has become the most common form of Miao literature, with a huge number. In many oral literature, there are poems, stories, fables, riddles, jokes, jingles and other forms.
Miao poetry emphasizes phonology, including five-character style, seven-character style and long and short sentences. The language is concise, harmonious, well-proportioned and easy to understand, which can express rich thoughts and feelings and has strong artistic appeal. It is the most important embodiment of Miao folk literature and has a wide range of applications. For example, close relatives and friends greet each other and say goodbye, men and women love each other, and even act as matchmakers, mediate disputes, make village rules and regulations, educate children, describe genealogy and family rules, and sometimes express them in poetry. Poetry is also used for entertainment at work, and poetry is used to eliminate fatigue after work.
Creation song: it is a very old fairy tale song, which mainly tells the origin of heaven, earth, sun and moon and the generation of all things. Such songs include Song of Creation and Song of the Origin of Everything.
Ancestor songs: mainly describe the appearance of human beings, the origin and migration of ethnic groups, such as Song of the Origin of Human Beings and Flood. The theme of this kind of songs is positive and enterprising, which reflects the real history in a tortuous way to some extent and has the value of historical research.
Marriage song: It reflects the evolution of Miao nationality from internal marriage to external marriage, and from matriarchal system to paternal system, and is a rare material for studying marriage history. Among them, the most famous ones are Brother and Sister Marriage, Wedding Song, Marriage between Men and Women, Receiving the Son-in-law in Zunyi, Northern Guizhou, and Song of Farewell.
Migration song: it exists in a large number among Miao people. Miao people everywhere have their own migration history, so they all have their own migration songs. Among them, Xiang Xiu Matthew in Songtao Tongren area, Yang Lu dialect in northwest Guizhou and Gro Ge Sang in Guiyang area are famous. The migration songs of Songtao and Qiandongnan reflect this grand scene and express the fierce struggle between people and between people and nature. It is a heroic epic, which is of great value to the study of Miao history.
Songs and words for discussion: reflect the social organization of the ancient Miao nationality, mainly describe various social ethics and codes of conduct, and persuade people to do good.
Songs of productive labor: everywhere. Among them, Qiandongnan Prefecture is the most complete, with embroidery songs, cotton planting songs, textile songs, batik songs, wine-making songs, shipbuilding songs and so on. The theme is positive, mostly works that encourage people to work hard and create a better life.
Kugger: It's a poem about class and nation. Some accuse the toast, some accuse the landlord and bully, and many denounce the government.
Uprising struggle song: also known as anti-union song, mostly to accuse the old and praise the people's resistance struggle. For example, the songs of southeastern Guizhou, the Taoxinchun of southern Guizhou and northwestern Guizhou are very representative. This kind of songs are full of passion and fighting spirit.
Love song: It is a song sung by young men and women when they are in love. The writing is subtle and beautiful, full of lyricism. There are confessions, questions and answers, etc. And most of them are expressions.
Because there is no written language, most of the written documents of Miao nationality in history are written in Chinese, and the number is very small. Before the founding of the People's Republic of China, it was only found in Hunan and eastern Sichuan. In recent years, some Miao literati poems have been discovered in Guizhou. During the reign of Kangxi in Qing Dynasty, Zhang, Zhang, Zhang Mande, a tribute student from Xiaolimeijiang in Daozhen County, were all famous for their works, and they all wrote the poem "Shaded Mountain Residence". Poems by Long Shaone, a Miao scholar in Qing Dynasty, were also found in Liangjiang Township, Jinping County, including four volumes of Liangchuan Collection published by 1878, which concentrated the author's main poems. The content mostly describes the local customs of Dong village in Miao township, with strong local flavor. During the Republic of China, Liang Juwu, a famous Miao scholar in Leishan County, also wrote some poems. His political prose is full of the feelings of ethnic minorities, revealing their political powerlessness and economic difficulties. After the founding of New China, with the concern of the Party and the government, the Miao people began to have their own team of writing and literature creation, and a number of Miao writers emerged. Many of their works have won awards in China, and some of them have been translated and introduced to foreign countries, which have been well received. In the research, collection, collation, translation and publication of folk literature, there are also a group of their own talents, and many achievements have been made.
musical instrument
Lusheng is the most representative traditional musical instrument of Miao nationality, which is very popular among ancient Miao nationality. In modern times, Miao people in the border areas of Hunan, Hubei, Sichuan and Guizhou were widely used in other places. Lusheng tune is also the most representative tune in Miao music, and it often varies from place to place. There are several kinds of traditional tunes, such as dance music, substitute songs, inquiry songs and sacrifice songs, each of which has several tunes. The rhythm of the dance music is relatively light, giving people an obvious sense of cadence. The melody of the song is soft and euphemistic, with an ending. The inquiry song is slow and clear in rhythm.
Besides Lusheng, there are suona, awn pipe, harp, flute, flute, gong and drum. Suona is widely used in various places, and is equipped with drums and leather drums. In Songtao, Tongren and Sinan areas, suona is widely used as a representative musical instrument of Miao people in this area. It is often played in festivals and festivals, with more than 30 tunes, which are mainly used to play funeral songs in other areas. Mango tubes popular in Leishan, Danzhai and other counties are made by installing copper springs on a single tube and penetrating into a bamboo tube. The big one is hollowed out from the trunk, about six feet long and six or seven inches in diameter. The small one is a bamboo tube, which is two or three feet long and three or four inches in diameter, and plays a deep acoustic role. The flute, flute and flute are all made of a single bamboo, generally with only five notes. Except Songtao, Tongren and Sinan, other areas are still using bronze drums, especially Leishan, Taijiang, Majiang and Pingtang. Qin is not common among Miao people, only in Weining and Taijiang, and there are ancient gourds in Danzhai area. There is also a bamboo harmonica in western Guizhou, which is about three inches long. Gong and drum are widely used in various places, with different sizes, and are mostly used for festivals.
dance
Lusheng Dance: It is the most representative Miao traditional program in the whole province except Tongren area. It has a long history and entered the court performance in the Northern Song Dynasty. There are two main types of large formations: two in a straight line and one in a circle. Under the guidance of dozens of young men in the former blowing sheng, dozens to hundreds of young women followed the Lusheng High-five Festival, making a three-step retreat and marching around the venue in turn.
music
Miao music includes folk songs, lusheng, suona and Qin Xiao, among which folk songs and lusheng are the most common.
Historical songs: mostly sung for middle-aged and elderly people, with recitation form, often singing a paragraph and telling a truth. The lyrics are also very long, ranging from dozens to hundreds to thousands of lines. For example, the song of creation, the song of ancestors' migration, the song of marriage seeking roots, the song of reason and so on. Historical songs are the most complete and representative in Qiandongnan Prefecture, with simple tunes, bright beats and powerful.
Love song: A folk song sung by young men and women. Many tunes, soft and lyrical, are usually sung in a low voice. Some places, such as Liuzhi and Qinglong Miao love songs, also have lofty and heroic characteristics.
Ge Fei: It is named for its high-pitched singing. Generally speaking, young men and women sing in pairs when communicating. Also have a plenty of spare time, in order to express a happy mood, improvisation solo, there are also many people chorus. Even hundreds of meters apart, the audience can clearly hear the lyrics. This kind of song is the most famous in Qiandongnan.
Mourning song: it is a kind of mourning song for the normal death of the elderly. The melody is sad, and the lyrics mean sad. When a singer sings to sadness, he often cries, while the listener often tears. There are Miao people in southeast Guizhou, south-central Guizhou, northwest Guizhou and north Guizhou. The mourning songs of the Miao people in Liupanshui are even more famous.
Most Miao music tunes follow the traditional singing method. The main achievement of famous artists lies not in the updating of tunes, but in the creation, modification and perfection of lyrics, so the tunes have not changed much. There are famous singers everywhere. The late Tang Dehai, a Miao singer in Leishan County, Qiandongnan Prefecture, is one of the best. I have mastered the traditional singing methods of Miao ancient songs and folk songs and can sing a few folk songs. He wrote thousands of lyrics, including Han Miao's new songs alone 1300.
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