Who knows the customs of Xiangxi?

plain boiled water

I remember watching the Xiangxi amorous feelings performance one night, and several scenes were impressive: one was crying to get married; Second, drive the body; Third, the placement method. Talking about these things with friends is quite novel for everyone. It's not that we people are ignorant. Think about it. Historically, the mountains in Xiangxi, Hunan Province were densely forested and the traffic was inconvenient. In the past, there was little contact with the outside world. In addition, there are many ethnic minorities, Tujia and Miao, whose unique national cultures have cultivated unique customs and habits.

Crying to get married

After studying the books carefully, I know that the custom of crying marriage actually exists in many ethnic minorities. Although marriage is a happy event, everyone should be happy. But from the woman's point of view, marriage means that the daughter leaves her mother, and the mother and daughter are separated. It is human nature to cry. People in some places will be accused of being unfilial if they don't cry when they get married. But when the daughter got married, she cried so hard, so lingering, so sad, so emotional, so ups and downs, which is unique to Tujia people in western Hunan. It is said that Tujia girls should receive this kind of education from the beginning of being sensible. There are a lot of tricks in this. It is better to cry and sing than to get married in tears. Tujia people can sing and dance well, and singing folk songs is also called "shouting songs" in the local area. Because there are many peaks and dangers in Xiangxi Mountain, it is common to shout across the mountain. Tujia people have developed a loud voice since childhood to facilitate daily communication. Weeping marriage, as a unique marriage custom of Tujia nationality, Tujia girls began to learn to cry marriage when they were about ten years old. Generally, it is passed from mother to daughter, from sister to sister, or from girl to girl, and it is completely passed on by word of mouth. When a daughter cries when she is married, she will be praised and respected by people, and she will have a high status when she is married to her husband's family. Some newly-married wives were cried when they entered the door, and their mother-in-law handed the key symbolizing family rights to the newly-married wife on the spot. The marriage between the two sides was confirmed, and the man gave a bride price. He began to cry and sing three months before marriage, almost once every three to five days, and cried and sang every night before marriage. The content of crying is generally about the feelings of parents, sisters, aunts and so on. Weeping wedding songs vary from place to place, from person to person and from time to time, and the tune remains the same. Weeping words can be freely used, but there are also fixed lyrics, such as Biezu Song, Love Village Song, Biegu Nian Song, Biejie Sisters Song, Shangjiao Song and so on. I once remembered that the wild flowers on my temples were gorgeous. When did I get bitter gourd wrinkles on my forehead? Swallows leave their nests with their hair. When will they turn back with mud? "Mother also cried," gongs and drums sedan chair to urge women to go. I haven't said enough. Every three years in the world, why not jump to the fifth watch? "Honor your in-laws and be diligent in managing your family, and your husband and wife love each other in the spring and autumn." Mother and daughter are deeply in love, urging them to hold hands, and the true feelings are touching.

Expel the body

What is "corpse driving"? That is, a man drives the body away with a whip. People die just like the lights go out. Everything is empty when they die. How can you walk with a zombie? It sounds incredible, but it is indeed a unique custom in western Hunan.

Xiangxi has been called a "wild land" since ancient times. The mountain is high and the road is dangerous, isolated from the world; Second, most of them live in ethnic minorities and are discriminated against as uncivilized "barbarians". Since the Ming and Qing Dynasties, troops have been stationed to settle down and defend the border, and local people also regard it as the "right way" for soldiers to eat food. During the Taiping Rebellion in Qing Dynasty, Zeng Guofan organized the Xiang Army, including a Miao Army. The Miao army is brave and good at fighting, and the battlefield is dangerous. It can be called Yao Yong's teacher. There are also some Xiangxi people doing business in Yungui area. Because they want to find their roots, these Xiangxi people will be transported back to Xiangxi for burial regardless of the dangers of mountains and roads. The industry of transporting corpses came into being. In feudal times, people believed that people had ghosts when they died, and it was a terrible thing to transport corpses. Taoism prevailed in western Hunan, so some Taoist priests and wizards became the protagonists of transporting corpses. It is said that in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, there was still the phenomenon of driving out corpses. When passing by the village entrance, the Taoist priest shouted with lanterns: "All households, close the doors, chickens and dogs go home, please make way early!" There are also curious people who witnessed this scene. The Taoist priest took the dust and shouted. Several bodies behind him were dressed in long black dresses and their feet jumped. When encountering a bend or current, the Taoist priest shouted and gave a command, and the viewers were all amazed. People pass this magical phenomenon from mouth to mouth and become more mysterious. At that time, there was a business in Xiangxi, including collecting and transporting corpses and an inn that specially received corpse-driving accommodation.

Atheists believe that it is impossible for a corpse to walk by itself. There must be an organ in it. Later, I saw an article on Sina Travel. com, which told me that in the early days of liberation, PLA troops were stationed in Xiangxi to suppress bandits. When they were stationed in a town, it was reported in the morning that a corpse driver had entered the town. The commander suspected that it was probably a bandit who escaped disguised as a corpse, so he took people to the inn where the corpse was driven. It was a long time before someone answered the door, and the commander became more and more suspicious. When I opened the door, I saw a corpse driver eating at the table, and a row of corpses stood on the wall. The careful commander found that there were many bowls and chopsticks on the table, so he questioned them severely. The corpse driver is timid. Go to the body and lift the robe of the body. It turns out that there is a living person standing under every corpse! At this point, the secret of the corpse driver was revealed. The so-called walking dead are originally carried by the living.

Other articles disclose that after receiving the corpse, the corpse driver should decompose the trunk, keep only the limbs and head to reduce the weight, then fix it with a bracket and tie it to the person who carries the corpse. When they arrived at the funeral home, they heard the cries of the relatives of the deceased, and the body fell to the ground with a bang. The corpse driver drank the crowd back again, dressed the dead again, filled the body with cotton and put it in the coffin. This is a very professional industry. It is said that the corpse driver is very strict in recruiting apprentices. First, he must be strong. Second, be bold and cautious; Third, we must be smart. Apprentices can only carry corpses in the first few years; Then you can pick up the body, dismember it and pack it; After several tests, I learned some key skills, such as chanting and drawing symbols.

Nowadays, corpse handling has long been history. Imagine trudging on the rugged mountain road in western Hunan. It's a shame that some ignorant people believe in this.

Gu Fang

Writer Shen Congwen is from Fenghuang, Xiangxi. He once wrote in Xiangxi: "Xiangxi is both a Miao area and a bandit area. Women are more likely to cheat, and men especially like to kill people. " When I arrived in Xiangxi, I often heard people tell vivid stories about "releasing demons". Someone once told a story that an educated youth from Shanghai jumped the queue in Xiangxi and fell in love with a local girl. Later, before returning to the city, the educated youth and the girl made a pledge of eternal love and ate a meal specially made for him by the girl, who gave him her virginity. After the educated youth returned to Shanghai, his family strongly opposed his continued contact with girls in western Hunan, and there were fewer and fewer letters. Half a year later, the young man got a strange disease for no reason and was admitted to the hospital. He became thinner and thinner, but he couldn't find the cause. At this time, the girl who fell in love suddenly appeared in front of the hospital bed. The girl poured a glass of water for the young man. The young man drank this glass of water and immediately felt refreshed. The girl calmly told him that he had been poisoned before, and there was an antidote in the water just now, but the poison could not be completely removed unless they got married. Young people's families will never object to their marriage again.

The theory of "poisoning" is not unique to Xiangxi. History books have long recorded it. Zuozhuan? 6? In Zhao's works in 1 year, there is such a record: Say: What is Dharma? Yes, I said,' it is also born of obscenity, drowning and confusion. Yu Wen, the vegetable bug is a trick, and the flight of grain is also a trick. "It is said here that" Fa "is the product of troubled times, and that" vegetable worms are Fa ". In ancient times, "magic" was often associated with witchcraft. There are records of "witchcraft as a curse" in all previous dynasties. During the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, there were many witchcraft cases in North Korea. In addition, there are legends of "poisoning" in Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan and Guangdong. The ancient famous doctor Sun Simiao's Qian Jin Fang recorded the symptoms of "poisoning". "Poison poisoning, let a person heartache, such as teeth. Or vomiting blood, like carrion, black as paint. " So whether there is "poison" in the end, the official has never investigated and verified it, and it is difficult to draw a conclusion. I think it may be that the ancients encountered intractable diseases, such as tumors, liver cirrhosis and ascites, which were difficult to diagnose with the means at that time and had to be attributed to "poison".

Xiangxi people call people who cast magic "grass witches". Generally speaking, most people who perform magic tricks are women. First of all, you have to raise a method. According to local legend, on the fifth day of May, you will catch poisonous insects, such as snakes, scorpions, spiders, centipedes and toads. , and put them in a vessel for them to bite each other. In the end, the poison king will be left. After his death, he will be dried in the shade and ground into powder. This is the method of poisoning. "Gu Cao's grandmother" hid it in her nails, put it on and waited for an opportunity to play her nails, and put it in food or tea, which made people unconsciously poisoned. To untie the bell, you need to tie it, and only those who release it have the antidote. The people of China must cry out for solutions to those who publish the methods. There is a very interesting phenomenon here. Most of the magicians are women. Many ethnic minorities still retain the tradition of matriarchal society. Due to the development and progress of society, men gradually get rid of the control of matriarchal families. At this time, women are often on the defensive or weak, and it is an effective means for women to strengthen this control. As for some stories that use magic to maintain love, they are more sympathetic to the weak women.

Did anyone play magic today? Not long ago, Hunan Satellite TV had a short film about a reporter looking for someone to recruit in Xiangxi. After many twists and turns, the reporter found a family that is said to have put a trick in a remote mountainous area. This family is discriminated against in the local area because of its eccentric reputation and lives in a remote yard outside the village. There are only four women in the family, the youngest is only a teenager, and the family is very poor. When the reporter asked him if he could play tricks, he just smiled.

Fang Fa, an ancient and mysterious legend. Today, with the development of science, its harm has gradually faded in people's lives. I hope this is just a legend, not a fact. I hope that people who suspect that they have been cheated will get rid of their heart disease as soon as possible. I hope that the people who will be cheated in the legend will no longer be discriminated against and return to normal life in society.