Tujia people's culture of "driving away corpses"

Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, located in the northwest of Hunan Province, is the "Northwest Gateway" of Hunan Province, bordering Hubei, Guizhou and Chongqing, and is known as the "throat of Hunan, Hubei, Chongqing and Guizhou". Quanzhou covers a total area of 15,462 square kilometers, and now governs eight cities and counties, namely Jishou, Luxi, Fenghuang, Guzhang, Huayuan, Baojing, Yongshun and Longshan. At the end of 25, the population was 2,683,4. Among the total population, there were 2,8,6 ethnic minorities, accounting for 74.85%, including 1,15,9 Tujia people and 886,1 Miao people. The state capital is located in Jishou City. At the beginning of the People's Republic of China, Fenghuang, Gancheng, Yongsui and Luxi counties and Yongshun, Longshan, Baojing and Guzhang counties belonged to Yuanling area and Yongshun area. In August, 1952, Xiangxi Miao Autonomous Region was established, governing Jishou, Guzhang, Luxi, Fenghuang, Huayuan and Baojing counties, and managing Yongshun, Longshan, Sangzhi and Dayong counties. At the end of the year, four counties were also under direct jurisdiction. In March 1955, it was renamed Xiangxi Miao Autonomous Prefecture. In September, 1957, Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture was established, governing 1 counties. In 1982 and 1985, Jishou and Dayong successively changed their counties into cities. In 1988, Dayong City and Sangzhi County were placed under Dayong City (prefecture-level cities, that is, today's Zhangjiajie City), and Xiangxi Prefecture has jurisdiction over Longshan, Yongshun, Baojing, Guzhang, Huayuan, Luxi, Fenghuang and Jishou City so far. Because Xiangxi borders Zhangjiajie in the east, Huaihua in the south, Tongren in Guizhou Province and Qianjiang in Chongqing in the west, Enshi Tujia Autonomous Prefecture in Hubei Province in the north, and Zhiliu Railway runs through five counties and cities in the state, Jishou, the state capital, is an important material distribution center in the border area of Hunan, Hubei, Chongqing and Guizhou. Xiangxi is rich in natural resources and has great potential for investment and development.

Xiangxi folk customs

Miao people's costumes

The costumes of Han people are no different from those of other places, and the costumes of Tujia and Miao people are full of national and local characteristics.

Family men and old people, wearing collarless big sleeves and full corsets, young people, wearing Bao Qing Bupa or white Bupa, herringbone, wearing a pair of corsets, with many buttons, trousers with blue and blue trousers and white cloth waistbands, and shoes with a blue face and a white background. Women, with braided hair, wrapped in white cloth handkerchief or green silk handkerchief, do not include herringbone. Unmarried women, some hang their braids behind their backs, and more often put them on their heads. After marriage, they change their braids into a bun and tie them in a net. The clothes are long and collarless, with short sleeves and large cuffs. The chest is opened to the right, and the chest and cuffs are rolled with inch-wide five-color plum strips or silk embroidered strips. Pants also like blue, blue cloth, white waist, big and short trouser legs, and plum strips or silk embroidered strips are applied at the upper end of the mouth. The shoes are slightly pointed, with a green face and a white background, and the uppers are embroidered. Working women are not used to wearing socks, and often use green and white cloth to wrap their feet. Gold and silver earrings are hung on the ear, silver or jade bracelets are worn on the wrist, 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 teeth skewers and silver beads are tied on it, which jingles when walking. Miao women like to wear silver collars around their necks, with silver bracelets, silver medals, silver bells, etc., and their heads are covered with blue and white cloth, which is longer than that of Tujia and Han people.

Tujia children's costumes (including Han nationality) stand out on their hats, and the hat shapes are determined according to their age and season, such as "purple gold crown" in spring and autumn, "wax gourd ring" in summer, "dog head hat", "fish tail" and "hood" in winter. These hats are embroidered with five-color silk thread into patterns and calligraphy, such as "making a magpie make a plum blossom", "phoenix wear a peony", "long life and wealth", "easy to cultivate a person" and "happiness in life". Besides, silver bodhisattvas, such as "Big Eight Immortals", "Little Eight Immortals" and "Eighteen Arhats", are adorned at the front of the hats, and silver medals and bells are hung behind the hats. Both men and women wear silver rings on their wrists, and hollow silver hammers and bells are hung on the silver rings.

In recent years, these costumes can only be seen when children and women are dressed up or celebrating the big day, and they are generally not common.

Miao people's autumn festival

autumn festival is a large-scale folk festival held by Miao people before the autumn harvest or before beginning of autumn for entertainment, market exchange, interaction between young men and women and celebration of the upcoming harvest.

About the origin of catching up with autumn, some people say that they catch up with "beginning of autumn Day" and others say that they catch up with swings. According to legend, a long time ago, there was a young man named Baguida in Miao Village, who was brave and good at shooting, upright and admired by everyone. One day, when he was out hunting, he saw a Shan Ying passing through the air, so 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, it comes from a clever and beautiful Miao girl. Baguidarya is determined to find the owner of this flower shoe. He designed and manufactured a windmill that can seat eight people at the same time, and named it "Autumn for Eight People". On this day in beginning of autumn, he invited men and women from villages far and near to play autumn for fun. Swing playing was originally the favorite activity of Miao girls, and Baguida thought that the girl who made flower shoes would definitely come. Sure enough, his wish came true. He found the owner of the flower shoe, the beautiful girl Qi Niang. Later, they established feelings by singing Miao songs, and became husband and wife, and their lives were very happy. Since then, people have followed this example and held this kind of activity every year.

In some places, it is said that Shennong sent a man and a woman to the East to find seeds and plant a bumper harvest. Therefore, the Miao ancestors called the men and women Qiugong Qiupo, and the autumn festival was a folk festival held by the Miao ancestors to thank Shennong and Qiugong Qiupo. The autumn festival reflects the Miao people's pursuit for a bumper harvest of grain and the prosperity and happiness of six livestock.

the art of crying and marrying

Tujia girls stopped going out to work ten and a half months before the date when they were informed by the man of their marriage. First, a square table was set up in the boudoir of the Diaojiaolou, and ten bowls of tea were placed, and the relatives and neighbors were invited to sit around in turn, and they began to cry about the wedding song. The bride was in the middle, called "the banquet", the right woman was "the banquet" and the left woman was "the banquet". When the bride started to speak, she answered the question and cried in turn, 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 to five days, some of them cry for ten days and a half. The main contents include recalling the feelings of mother and daughter, telling the bitterness of parting, thanking for parenting, asking brothers and sisters-in-law to take care of their elderly parents, and teaching women to behave themselves.

Weeping wedding songs usually see a mother crying her mother and an aunt crying her marriage. There are different crying words, and there are also fixed crying words, such as "Compared with the ancients", "Crying in the room", "Ten pictures", "Ten embroideries" 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 secret). When you cry, you cry with modal particles such as "om", "man" and "aiyaya", which is sad and moving. Such as "crying sister":

both drink a well water and step on a rock plate road;

eighteen years in the same village, playing together and growing up.

Sit on the bench every day and spend the night with the oil lamp;

the performance of hemp is the same as that of hemp basket, and the mill is the same as that of grinding ...

Another example is crying (pronounced "Ya"). Mother:

Mother, I have to go, and help mother comb her hair again.

I once remembered that my temples were full of wild flowers. When did I get a bitter gourd wrinkle on my forehead?

The cradle is still ringing in my ears, and my mother has boiled her head for her daughter.

Swallows have gone away from their nests. Alas, when will my food come back? .....

Mother cries for daughter:

The gong sedan chair urges the daughter to leave, but I haven't said enough;

There is a leap every three years in the world. Why not ask the fifth watchman?

hey, when my son is gone, it's hard for my mother to stay, so you can start all over again in the future;

filial piety to parents, diligent housekeeping, loving husband and wife for the Spring and Autumn ...

The custom of Tujia women crying and marrying has a long history. Peng Tanqiu, a Tujia poet in the Qing Dynasty, recorded: "Ten sisters' songs, loving their relatives and loving their kindness, leaving each other after injury, are full of sorrow, and tears follow them, which is also a legacy of' bamboo branches'. There is a poem in the ancient Zhuzhi Ci:

It's a good time to say goodbye in the peach blossom season.

The weeping mother and sister-in-law cry for their sisters, and their affection is like silk.

It seems incredible to celebrate the happy marriage with crying and sacrifice the dead relatives with singing and dancing, but it fully reflects the unique temperament and cultural consciousness of Tujia people.

Miao marriage customs

Most Miao areas have a high degree of autonomy in marriage, and Miao youths 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", Miao people in southeastern Guizhou are called "traveling", Rongshui in Guangxi is called "sitting sister" or "walking village", Northwest Guizhou is called "stepping on the moon", and Miao people in central Guizhou and some western regions are called "jumping flowers" and "jumping field" and so on. In this kind of social activities, young men and women can sing and talk in groups of three or five or individually, openly or quietly. Falling in love in the form of duet is the most representative and ethnic custom in Miao marriage custom culture. Some Miao communities also have places for young people to fall in love, such as Youfangping in southeast Guizhou and Girls' Rooms 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 the pledge. Marriage usually requires the consent of parents. In most Miao areas, young people's independent marriage and parents' arranged marriage coexist. These two situations are not necessarily irreconcilable contradictions, only to see which tendency is more serious. Generally speaking, parents and children respect each other and ask for advice, and 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 talk it over, and the man asks the matchmaker to go to the woman's house to act as matchmaker after consulting his parents. Under normal circumstances, the woman's parents will not object, and sometimes chicken divination is used 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 girl's uncle's house, which is called "uncle money". If parents don't agree, young men and women can elope and seek the support of relatives or social forces. After a long time, parents will admit a fait accompli. Of course, some of them obey their parents' orders, and a few of them have caused emotional tragedies because of their parents' arrangement.

there is another form, that is, robbing a marriage or something similar to robbing a marriage. If young men and women are willing to be lifelong partners through free love, the man will invite a few friends or brothers to bring or "rob" the woman to his home one night, which is a 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 recognize the marriage. Then the two sides agreed on the date and specific matters of the wedding.

Miao young people usually get married between the ages of 16 and 2, and there are also early marriages, about 14 or 15 years old. Early-married couples usually can't live together until they are adults. In the choice of marriage, the same clan (the same surname) does not marry, and the cousin's cousin is preferred, and different generations do not marry. There is basically no intermarriage between different ethnic groups and even different branches of Miao nationality. In many areas, Miao people have the custom that husband and wife live in different rooms on their wedding day, and the bride spends the first night with her escort and the groom's sister. In some places, weddings are mainly held at the woman's house. Miao people in southeastern Guizhou have the custom of "staying at home" (sitting at home), that is, the bride will stay at her parents' home after returning home, and will only stay at her husband's home after being summoned during holidays or busy farming, and will not stay at her husband's home until she is pregnant. Sitting 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 loss to the other party. Widows can remarry, and some places have the custom of transferring houses. Generally, the same generation transfers houses, but it is not mandatory. Miao people are monogamous families. The nuclear family and the main family are the main family structures in Miao society. Women and men have equal status before and after marriage, and women have a certain say in family affairs, but they are still a patriarchal society on the whole. The descent of children is from the father, the descent is calculated according to the paternal line, and the family property is inherited according to the paternal line. The Miao nationality has a system of father-son joint names, which is now typical in southeastern Guizhou, but many other areas no longer exist. Miao people have their own national surnames, but now most of them have adopted Chinese surnames.

Up to now, no one can point out the real situation of the corpse drive in Xiangxi.

According to the local people's unanimous statement, the corpse driver is a mage wearing a cassock. No matter how many corpses there are, he will drive them alone. This is the same as the Hong Kong movie. It is better to say "lead" than "drive" the corpse, because this mage is not behind the corpse, but leads the way in front of the corpse, knocking gongs while walking to avoid the nocturnal people, and people with dogs lock them up. When there are more than one body, they are connected with straw ropes, one every six or seven feet. It is difficult for the industry of corpse removal to work outside Xiangxi. First, accommodation becomes a problem. Second, people who walk at night don't know how to avoid the gongs, but they come to watch the excitement, which is 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 jumping Prometheans. At the same time, the residents along the road don't understand this situation, so they can't ask them to cooperate-they lock up the dog when they hear the gong, because the dead body is afraid of dogs, and the dog bites the dead body and the clothes are pulled, and the dead body has to be thrown down. A dog is easy to deal with, and it comes to a group and bites the clothes of the dead body in a mess. Even if the corpse driver is bitten, things will be serious, but there are no such difficulties in Xiangxi.

why is there a business of "driving away corpses"? Because the upper reaches of Yuanjiang River in western Hunan are barren, the poor mostly go to Sichuan or eastern Guizhou to work as vendors, collect herbs or hunt. There are many mountains and mountains in those places, where malaria is very heavy, and the living environment is extremely bad. Except for the local Miao people, outsiders rarely go. None of the Han people who died in those places were rich. Traditionally, the Han people had a deep concept of transporting corpses to their hometowns for burial. However, even if they had money, it was difficult to carry them by vehicles or stretchers on the rugged mountain roads thousands or hundreds of miles away, so someone created this strange economic way to transport corpses back to Xiangxi to drive them out.

Maybe it's a mysterious witchcraft, maybe it's a superstition that fools people, maybe it's just a trick to get money, or maybe it's just a sensational rumor? Yes, yes, yes. Please tell yourself.

magic tricks in Xiangxi

the magic tricks in Xiangxi and the head-dropping tricks in Thailand are called the two great sorceries in Southeast Asia. The method of Xiangxi, like the corpse-driving in Xiangxi, has not been able to point out its true situation until now. Different from corpse-driving, the method of releasing remains in almost all parts of western Hunan, while corpse-driving mainly spreads in Yuanling, Luxi, Chenxi and Xupu counties of western Hunan. The method is commonly known as "grass ghost" in western Hunan. According to legend, it is only attached to women and harms others. Those so-called magical women are called "grass ghosts".

No one has ever seen the so-called method of releasing magic and what it really looks like, except the saying passed down from generation to generation, but it is deeply rooted in people's hearts. Almost all the Miao people believe in magic, but the weight varies from place to place.

In the Miao people's concept world, there are snake tricks, frog tricks, ant tricks and so on. The method has multiplied in people who have it, and if they can't find food, they will attack the person who has it and ask for food, which will make the owner feel uncomfortable, so they will let it out and endanger others.

In fact, this formidable trick is not a Miao patent. The technique of magic has been widely spread in ancient Jiangnan area of China. At first, the method refers to insects born in utensils, and later, moths born after grain corruption and insects born from other objects deterioration are also called the method. The ancients thought that the method had mysterious nature and great toxicity, 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 and confused. Most people in pre-Qin dynasty referred to the mysterious poisonous insects that were naturally generated. The long-term superstition of poisonous methods has developed the concept and practice of creating people. According to scholars' research, in the Warring States period, some people in the Central Plains used and taught the method of creating evil people.

Many remote areas of Miao nationality are backward in medicine in the old days.