Where is the girl country? Is there any hint in the dialogue between Tang Priest and the Monkey King?

From chapter 53 to chapter 55, The Journey to the West described the Tang Priest's experience in the "girl country" with more than 20,000 words.

It was the Journey to the West that put a pure "country" composed of women on the literary stage. This has stirred up waves in the depths of the souls of the majority of male groups, and imagination is like a runaway wild horse galloping in the wilderness ...

Although every reader fully understands that the "girl country" is just a fiction of literati, it is still necessary to consult the materials to find out whether the "girl country" really exists in the historical sea of Wang Yang. Is there a prototype of the "girl country" described in The Journey to the West?

The author thinks that the "daughter country" in The Journey to the West is not only a prototype, but also a place where Turks live on the north bank of Huangshui River in Qinghai Province today! The author can assert that it is because a lot of evidence has been found, among which the most striking thing is that the women in the girl country are "long skirts and short coats, three locks of hair, two pieces of clothes and so on." To distinguish women's ethnic groups, we must first observe their costumes and headdresses in places where ethnic minorities live in northwest China. At least in the Ming dynasty, whenever you meet one or two women, you can tell their ethnic groups by their costumes and hair accessories, and the locals can even determine the village where they live! Before liberation, the ethnic minorities living in Hehuang Valley were only roughly divided into Tibetan ancestors, Hui ancestors and Tu ancestors (then called natives, not Tu people). In ethnic minority areas, costumes, headdresses and dialects represent the folk cultural symbols of different villages. For example, pick out the words that describe the external characteristics of the characters in "The Country of Daughters" that appeared in the fireworks of The Journey to the West's 54th trip to France, and ask the local people in Qinghai Province: What nationality is wearing "long skirt and short coat" ... "There are two more clothes? Who is the man who combs three locks of hair? The answer can only be "Turkish woman"! In addition to these, the scenes, time and characters in the novel all allude to the prototype of the "daughter country" where Turks live on the north bank of Huangshui in Qinghai Province. The specific analysis is as follows.

Where is the cool place in the west? The word "Liang" in the "daughter country" and the word "Liang" used to express political power in ancient northwest China are temporarily understood as generic terms, and "Xi Liang" means "Xi Liang". As the name of the regime, Xiliang has the following brief introduction:

Xiliang, now Liangzhou District, Wuwei City, Gansu Province, has been renamed many times since Wuwei was established as a county in the Western Han Dynasty. When Xiongnu ruled Hexi Corridor, it was called ancient Tibet. After the occupation of the Western Han Dynasty, Wuwei County was built, which was called Xiliang in the Eastern Han Dynasty. Its territory is also large and small, occupying most of Gansu and extending to several neighboring provinces.

Today's Huzhu County in Qinghai Province is located in the jurisdiction of Xiliang and Xixia in ancient times.

It is a historical truth that there is a "Xiliang daughter country" on the north bank of Huangshui, Qinghai.

Turning to history, the "daughter country" recognized by historians is "Supi daughter country". Extract and quote the following entries about "Subi's daughter country" from the Internet to prove the existence of "daughter country": (Xinjiang Human Geography (Han), No.6, page 2012,65438-19, author: close to nature)

Some wooden slips were unearthed from the site of Guo Jing, one of the 36 countries in the ancient Western Regions. Reading them, we found that Guo Jing was invaded by the powerful tribe "Supis" for a long time, and suddenly disappeared in the late 4th century and early 5th century. There are indications that "Soubise" is the country of girls, that is, the country of Supi. At present, there are at least three kinds of documents about Supi: Baltic, Tibetan and Chinese. The earliest records of Su Shi in China literature are The Book of New Tang Dynasty and The Book of Old Tang Dynasty.

At that time, people in the Tang Dynasty mainly knew Su Pi as follows: Su Pi belonged to Xiqiang, and was the most powerful among the ministries of Xiqiang at that time. "Sui Shu's' Supi' salt is particularly rich, and it will always be sold to Tianzhu, and the profit will be several times ...", making it a fertile land. Supi's territory is centered on Qiangtang, Tibet, including the whole northern Tibet Plateau, but this "mysterious" country has many unexpected systems and lifestyles. According to the custom of Supi people, Supi people maintain a rather primitive way of life.

Xuanzang recorded this strange country in the fourth volume of The Western Regions of Datang, calling it Dongnvguo or Suva sinatra Quzui Luoguo, and said that this country "takes women as the king of the world, because women call it the country".

During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, Su Pi, also known as Sun, was a country of daughters named after monkeys. They were very popular in martyrdom. There is a custom of giving priority to monkeys. The Biography of Sui Shu's Daughter Country records that Supi is a matriarchal country with two queens as supreme rulers. The big queen is mainly responsible for managing state affairs, and the little queen assists in management. When the big queen dies, the little queen will inherit the throne directly and become the big queen, and then choose the next little queen.

Local children are born with their mother's surname. Men have a low status and can only engage in manual labor such as agricultural production and hunting. The king's husband is called Jin Ju, and his social status is far inferior to that of a woman. Although the envoys sent by the female country to the Central Plains Dynasty were all men, their duties were only to carry out orders and could not decide state affairs. Supi's custom of valuing girls over boys is the most prominent in marriage. "New Tang Book" said: "Plain skin is more important to men, and women are more expensive than men." In other words, all the aristocratic women in Supi have multiple husbands. According to Tang, in Su Pi Pian, not only aristocratic women, but also women who have no money or power are both parents dead and have multiple husbands.

Yao and Shun started about 5,000 years ago, and primitive tribes dominated by Japanese people entered a period of migration and expansion. In the long historical development process, these tribes developing to the east and south formed the omnipotent Xiqiang tribal groups such as Supi, Mi Duo, Tangut, and Prynne through tribal merger, and contacted the Chinese people on the edge of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Ruoqiang is the earliest matriarchal tribe contacted, and Supi is the core of matriarchal tribe group. In the following time, with Su Shi's strong national strength, others dare not underestimate him, and finally he was valued and used by the kings of the Central Plains. They also participated in large-scale military operations, such as Military King Attack Week. Supi is a very interesting country and once had a splendid civilization. Regrettably, this nation, once dominated by the primitive system, did not survive and was eventually annexed by Tubo. However, Supi culture has developed to a certain extent and made brilliant achievements in the fields of architecture and medicine. Later generations can also see the traces of Supi culture from Tubo culture. As for today's Huzhu Halazhigou Township in Qinghai Province, there is a "Supi Village", a "Supi Gorge" at the junction of Guide County and Jianzha County in Huangnan, and a "Supi people", which is the testimony that Supi culture is unwilling to be completely eliminated by history.

The last paragraph in the above information is obviously the author's personal inference. He believes that the Supi people did not survive, and Supi Village in Huzhu Halazhigou Township, Qinghai Province is a witness that the Supi people's culture is unwilling to be completely forgotten by history. I want to say to Mr. Close to Nature: Don't be so pessimistic. Supi people and their descendants live well. I am from Supi Village, Harazhigou. On the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, all place names, ethnic names and personal names are generally transliterated from minority languages. Supi village is now called Songbu village, and there is an evolution from Supi to Songbu: Supi is the abbreviation of Su and Xianbei. In Qinghai dialect, the Chinese character "North" is pronounced as "Pi", and the homonym of "Su and Xianbei" is abbreviated as "Subei" and transliterated as "Su Pi". "Songbu Village" has been called "Surh" by Turks. The village is a Tu nationality village, and the homonym of the word "Suhe" is Tu dialect, which can also be written as "Suohe" and "Hu Si" in Chinese characters. The word "seeking harmony" in the spoken language of the master in the Western Regions of Datang is basically the same as the word "Su He" in the Book of the New Tang Dynasty. The author thinks that the "Su River" in Tang Shi and the "Suohe River" in the Western Regions of the Tang Dynasty have the same meaning as the "Songbu" village in Huzhu County of Qinghai Province today.

In the local living Buddha system of You Ning Temple, known as the "mother of Beihuangbu Temple", the first living Buddha named Songbu was born in Songbu Village, hence its name. However, it was written as "Songba" living Buddha in Qing dynasty literature. The homonym of the word "Songba" is obviously the abbreviation of "Su He Ba" (or Su He Ba), both of which mean "Su". I have a say in the identification of these words, because my family is descended from the living Buddha family of Songbu. According to the old man at home, our family is descended from the sister family of the living Buddha. The people in Suhe Village are all "Bai" people. The living Buddha of Songbu I should be surnamed Bai, and so should his sister. All the ethnic groups to which the author belongs are surnamed Bai. From the spread of surnames, the Bai family to which the author belongs has the style of "daughter country", that is, inheriting women's surnames. Generally speaking, surnames can easily become place names or village names, and vice versa.

The homonym of the word "Su River" (or Suohe and Hu Si) seems to be unique in Qinghai Province, especially referring to Songbu Village in Harazhigou Township of Huzhu County and Songbutan Village in Madan Township, its neighboring village. As a surname, "Su He" is a rare compound surname, which is also recorded in other historical materials:

Shu Wei is famous for his harmony with the country, or takes the country as his surname. After the Zhao Dynasty, all the people were bright, and the Tang Dynasty was all expensive.

Su He and his name are also: Su He Postscript, a fashion book of the Northern Wei Dynasty. Su, a bachelor of Zuo Wang in Tang Dynasty. Later, it was changed to He.

"The Biography of Tuyuhun in the New Tang Dynasty" records that Su, the minister of Tuyuhun, colluded with Tubo and destroyed Tuyuhun in Longshuo for three years. According to Shu Wei's Guan Shi Zhi: "Su He's Bi changed to He Shi Bi"; The eleventh element of the Compendium of Surnames and Yi Yun's surname: "Based on books, it is white, so the number is sum of elements". "Zi Zhi Tong Jian" Volume I о 4, the first year of Emperor Xiaowu of Jin Dynasty in Taiyuan (376), Hu Note: "Xianbei has a white department. Xianbei was the most powerful when he lived in Baishan, which was later called Baibu.

The history book "A Brief History of Clans" records: "After Wei and his surname, why did you change it?" Su He's surname was originally the compound surname of Xianbei people, and it was a descendant of Tan, an adult of the Northern Xianbei Tribe Alliance during Liu Zhi's reign in the Eastern Han Dynasty. Because of his birth, he was named Su He.

There is also a description in the Western Regions of the Tang Dynasty: "The Black Order is coming, is it vulgar?" Although people are consistent. And the ethnic groups are also divided. The painting world is closed. The proportion of indigenous people is large. Build city walls and raise livestock. Sex values money and bribery. Vulgarity despises righteousness. Marriage is rude and condescending. Women's words are inferior to men's. When you die, you burn your bones, and there are countless mourning periods. Li's face, cut ears, broken hair and split skirt. Slaughter herds of animals and offer sacrifices to ghosts. Ji Naisu's clothes are fierce and soapy. A brief description of the same style and custom. Don't talk about different politics anywhere "Of course, the Tang Priest's views on the customs of conference semifinals here are based on the values of the Tang Dynasty. The conference semifinals here obviously refer to Su, Xianbei, Tu and others. Because these customs are still preserved among the Tu people in Qinghai.

To sum up, the "daughter country" recorded in historical books, that is, the "Supi country", was originally a kingdom established by the "Xianbei" tribe in Suhe on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Because the kings of past dynasties were all women, they were called "daughter country". The word "Su He" is the surname, which means "Su Bai". People in today's Songbu village are all surnamed Bai, and Songbu Living Buddha Sect has been the owner of You Ning Temple since A.D. 1604, which can be used as evidence of the existence of "Subi Female Country" and its descendants. In the Tibetan language family, the color represented by the Chinese character "white" is pronounced "ga", and there is also a "ga 'er" family on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Lu Dongzan, the envoy who married Princess Wencheng in the Tang Dynasty, was the Gaelic middleman.

Historical and geographical conditions for the existence of the "daughter country" According to historical records, there is also a daughter country on the eastern edge of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Old Tang Shu and New Tang Shu are called "Oriental Daughter Country" respectively, but their narratives are quite confusing. Generally speaking, the clan originally originated from Xiqiang, and the national customs value women over men. The queen's name is "Bin Jiu" and the female official's name is "Gao Ba", both of which are hereditary. There are more than 40,000 families and more than 80 tribes, including Tang and Dong. People in China live in buildings and houses, scattered in the valley, with writing. During the Great Cause of Sui Dynasty (605 ~ 6 18), Yang Xiu, king of Shu, sent an envoy to appear before the court. Tang Wude sent envoys to the Tang Dynasty many times from Tianbao (6 18 ~ 742). Its queen was also subject to the official position of the Tang Dynasty. After Tianbao, he turned the man into a king and was enslaved by Tubo. In the ninth year of Tang Zhenyuan (793), he requested to belong to the Tang Dynasty (6 18 ~ 907). Since then, although his king has been made a secretariat, he has forged a good marriage with Tubo.

In fact, the name "Gaoba" (now written as Boka) is interpreted as "Gaelic" in Tibetan, that is, "Sukhe".

The formation of the daughter country in ancient Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is closely related to its geographical environment and historical background.

The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is not suitable for human habitation, and the cold and lack of oxygen lead to a harsh natural environment. However, due to historical reasons, there are a large number of plateau people living here, most of whom are Qiang people. It is difficult to verify when and where they migrated, or whether they are aborigines. However, Supi people entered the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in the Han Dynasty, and they are a branch of Xianbei Tanshihuai. Before the Tubo regime, the Supi people led the indigenous people to establish a kingdom. During the Yongjia Rebellion, several East Lake Xianbei tribes were stationed on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The joining of these ethnic groups is bound to completely break the nomadic lifestyle of the aborigines in the Garden of Eden. With the rapid development of personnel, it will bring many survival crises, grassland disputes, war disputes with the Central Plains nationalities and so on. , forcing people here only to "hold a group" to have a way out, that is, to form a tribal organization form with villages as the unit, and tribes form a kingdom through alliances.

By analyzing the living conditions of villagers in Hehuang area of Qinghai in modern times for one year, it is not difficult to restore the reasons for the formation of "daughter country". In spring and summer, if you casually enter the rural areas in Hehuang area, you will find that young and middle-aged men in the village go out to work to make a living, and most families leave behind women, the elderly and children; Some words have also appeared, such as "left-behind children" and "left-behind elderly people". In modern times, men go out to work, but in ancient times? In addition to war, it is easy to separate male groups from female groups by grazing horses in the hinterland of grassland and fighting and nomadic in the form of tribes or kingdoms.

During the Tuguhun period, Hehuang agricultural area in Qinghai was composed of women, and the adult male group they belonged to must have been nomadic on various grasslands. The description of "drinking water to give birth to children" in Journey to the West is only fiction and exaggeration of literati. In Tuguhun, all men go out to work hard, leaving only women and children at home. No one who knows will say that this is a "girl country". But if you are a scholar from other places, it will inspire you to make up stories. The nomadic life on the plateau forces the long-term separation of adult male and female groups, and it is unrealistic to form a "small family" or "big family" like the Central Plains on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. However, we have to face the problem of a large population, and the marriage system formed here is also very different from that in the Central Plains. Marriage systems such as "Walking Marriage" and "Dai Tiantou" are popular, and the formation of this marriage system also reflects the formation of the de facto "daughter country".

The dialogue between the traveler (the artistic predecessor of Monkey King on the Journey to the West) and the master (Tang Priest) in the Mi Song version of Tang Sanzang's Poems of Learning from the Buddhist Scriptures is a true portrayal of the local social situation: "Don't say that there is no one living in a deserted country, who wants to farm in a deserted county?" Human practitioners don't know that this gentleman lives in Xicheng. Come here to farm early and spend the night in the temple. "

There is also an incomplete description of the girl country. The geographical location of the girl country is at the bottom of the Huangshui River near Xining City today:

(After the daughter country, the tenth) The monk went to take a bath frequently. Shops are sparse and stay in the middle of nowhere. Although there are tigers, wolves, insects and beasts, people are not disabled at all.

The next time I entered a country, there was no one around, only the deserted house leaked rain and the grass garden was broken. Gradually, several people climbed over the mountains and planted food. The mage said: "It seems that there are counties, but there are few people, and you can meet three or five farmers." When Geng's father saw it, his eyebrows rose. The mage has a poem that says:

No one lives in barren counties, and monks go to the Suye plate.

Nowadays, when farmers meet, teachers and Shang should smile less.

Walker's poem wrote:

Don't say that no one lives in a poor country. Who wants to plow in a barren county?

Human practitioners don't know that this gentleman lives in Xicheng.

Come here to farm early and spend the night in the Heavenly Palace.

Take care of yourself when you are on the road, and don't bother looking forward to your return trip.

Walk like a fly, meet a stream before, and the flood is boundless. The mage is very troubled. Monkey Brother Monkey Brother said, "But go ahead, it's convenient." Monkey called out "Heavenly King", and the stream stopped and the flood dried up. The teacher has done it. Cross your hands and raise your fists. This is fate, and Heaven helps.

The second trip passed through a barren state, lined for dozens of miles and stopped at a village. The mage said, "There is no one there. I wonder where it is? " "Go and ask," Monkey said. Don't sigh tired. "

Walking another hundred miles, I saw a country, with population and money, buying and selling in parallel. When in Rome, do as the Romans do, and I saw a sign on the door: "Daughter Country". The monk went to see the queen. The queen asked, "Why did the monk come to this country?" The mage replied, "I was ordered by Emperor Taizong to go to the Western Heaven to learn Buddhist scriptures and make a fortune for all living beings in the East." The queen crossed her hands and made a quick confession. Monks can't eat when they go to lent. The queen said, "Why don't you eat quickly?" The monk stood up and sang, "Thanks to your kindness, it's full of sand. I can't eat it." The Queen said, "Monk Qi knows that there is no food in this country. It's just that when people from Dongtu Buddhist Temple were born in China, they all collected them on the ground, so there was a lot of sand. The monk returned to the east soil, so it is convenient to look down. " The mage got up and left a poem saying:

The queen specially set up A Qing Zhai, which was covered with sand but not pregnant.

Zhu Guo returned to Japan to learn Buddhist scriptures, and he ordered Dong Shi to set up a health platform.

When the queen saw this poem, she summoned the mage and his team to the inner palace to enjoy it. When the monk walked in, he saw fragrant flowers and seven treasures: two rows were all women, twenty-eight years old, light and beautiful, with bright eyes and eyebrows, rosy lips and teeth, cicadas with peach faces, soft clothes and chinese odyssey. When he saw the monk come in, smiling and his eyebrows drooping, he stepped forward and said, "Excuse me, monk, this is a girl country, and there is no husband. Today, when the monk came, he took it as one of them, built a temple, and invited seven teachers as abbots. The women who are close to the country get up early and return late, burn incense in the temple, listen to the scriptures and listen to the law, and plant good roots; I must see my husband again. I wonder what the monk can do? " The mage said, "I am an oriental sentient being. How can I be hospitalized?" The queen said, "Brother Monk, didn't you listen to the ancients? There is only one life, but only two. "It's a beautiful thing to live here and be king for me!"

The monk refused again and again and said goodbye. The two women, with tears streaming down their faces and frowning, said to each other, "When will I slap my husband again?" The queen then took five luminous pearls and a white horse and gave them to the monk for use. When the monk thanked him with folded hands, he left a poem saying:

May Wang Cunshan practice hard, and how long can he persist?

If you don't realize what you are doing, you will be deprived of everything.

Do not love lightness, do not love green eyebrows.

When the time comes, there is nowhere to hide. Where does the skull need clothes?

The queen and her daughters, fragrant flowers sent out of the city, the poem said:

Among them, you are a fairy, sending your future to the bamboo field.

Want to know the queen's surname and first name, is manjusri and Pu Xian.

Hundreds of miles on the way, the mage sighed. Monkey Monkey said, "I'm going with my teacher. I'm going fifty miles west of Wang Muchi."

It is hundreds of miles from Xining to Qinghai Lake today.

There is a detail in Tang Sanzang's Poems: the queen gave the mage "a white horse and a scarlet horse", which also reflects that the main business of the "daughter country" is herding horses. On the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, only in the middle of herdsman will there be a scene of separation between men and women.

Historically, in order to feed a country's people, Tuguhun Kingdom must inherit the original industry in Liaodong under the plateau climate with low grain output, and still take horse farming as its main business.

Grazing horses is different from grazing cattle and sheep. It is no problem for a person to graze hundreds of cattle and sheep. In addition to their own military supplies, most of Tuyuhun's horses are exported to the Central Plains as commodities. Keep a horse, don't tame it into a wild horse. Wild horses are useless. The pony is unruly and grows into a wild horse. Horse training should be carried out at the specified time. The foal is too small to tame and too old to tame. When trading with the Central Plains, only tamed war horses have a market, and poorly tamed and unruly horses are difficult to control and have no use value. Male horses are castrated and called horses, which are used to plow fields and pull carts; A stallion can be kept as a stallion or a military horse without castration (in fact, most stallions have to be castrated), and mares generally have to stay and breed. There are more than thousands of horses to worry about all year round. A man who is full of grain must take part in all the work. The old Tu people said that at that time the boy was recruited to release his horse at the age of twelve. Women and boys under the age of twelve, as well as old people and patients who can't release their horses, all stay at home and farm. Grazing horses, training horses, breeding thoroughbred horses, sometimes for territory, foreign trade, and guarding against horse thieves. After a series of work, men have little time to go home, and they can't go home for several years when the war is tight.

The "daughter country" formed in reality is a temporary social organization form formed under special historical and geographical conditions. According to historical records, when the Tang Dynasty flourished, the "East Woman Country" ceased to exist. The reason is that the Tuguhun regime collapsed and the men went home!

In the fifty-third to fifty-fifth chapters of The Journey to the West, we can see the details of the costumes and eating styles of China people in the daughter country, and the prototype of the "daughter country" is directed at the residence of the Turkic Group in Huang Bei, Qinghai. When "Pipa Girl" entertained Tang Priest, she served two kinds of steamed buns, one meat and one vegetarian. At the wedding of the Turks, these two kinds of food can best represent the wedding banquet of the Turks. In ancient times, only these two dishes of steamed bread were the protagonists of Turkish wedding banquets.