The customs and habits of the Qiang people

· Qiang customs: The Qiang people call themselves "Rima", "Ribiao", or "Ruma" and "Erma", which are the same name. "Qiang" is another name, from sheep, from people, meaning They are the "shepherds of Xirong". Historically, the Qiang people are famous for raising sheep, so the Qiang people have a very close relationship with sheep, and they still retain the custom of worshiping "sacred sheep". The Qiang language belongs to the Qiang branch of the Tibeto-Burman language family and is divided into north and south. Two major dialects. The southern dialect is spoken in Fengyi and Tumen District of Mao County, Weizhou and Mianchi District of Wenchuan County, Tonghua and Xuecheng District of Li County; the northern dialect is spoken in Shaba, Chibusu District of Mao County, Zhenjiang and Rex of Songpan County. There are also some dialects in each dialect, and the pronunciation differences between adjacent villages are also obvious, so there is a saying that "there are different villages within five miles, and different customs along the highway." Qiang people who are close to Han and Tibetan areas generally understand Chinese or Tibetan. Historically, the Qiang people did not have their own ethnic script, so in 1989, the creation of Qiang language was on the right track and has now entered the trial promotion stage.

The Qiang area still retains its original religion, where animism and spiritual worship of various faiths are prevalent. The gods worshiped by the Qiang people can be roughly divided into four categories and more than 30 types, including nature worship and ancestor worship. , spiritual object worship and totem worship, except for the god of fire, which is represented by Guozhuang (fire pond), the others are symbolized by a kind of white quartz stone (called A'er in Qiang language, which means the white stone god), and are widely worshiped and enshrined. The white stone god at the highest point in the middle of the roof is the Mupita of the God of Heaven.

Historically, there were no ethnic religious organizations or temples in the Qiang area, and their religious occupations were all Qiang shamans (called in Chinese) who were not separated from productive labor. Duan Gong is called "Xu" in Qiang language, and "Shibi" is honored as "Abba Xu"). "Xu" is only for men who can get married and have children. , there is no written record in the book, and it is passed down by word of mouth and is passed down to this day. The scriptures are composed of four words and one sentence, two sentences and one verse. The main instruments of "Xu" include monkey head hat, sheepskin drum, The magic of "Xu" includes gongs, magic sticks, swords, tokens, animal bone seals, ram's horns, etc. People), step on the red pot, step on the birch, open the red mountain, draw the water bowl, etc. Before doing the "Xu" practice, wash the ground with clean water, burn the body with cedar, or kill the white chicken to worship the ancestors. , such as mountain sacrificial ceremonies, coming-of-age ceremonies, etc., it is necessary to abstain from eating onions, garlic, fasting and bathing 49 days in advance to show devotion and respect to the gods. Diseases, unexpected filth, summoning spirits, eliminating disasters, looking at Feng Shui, even repairing and building houses, marrying men and women, naming newborns, saving the souls, etc. must all be presided over by "Xu", so they have a very high status among the Qiang people. , is not only an intermediary between humans and gods, but also a cultural disseminator, and also plays a role as a spiritual leader.

The most solemn national festivals of the Qiang people are the "Mountain Sacrifice Festival" (also known as the "Zhuanshan Festival") and the "Qiang Mountain Festival". "New Year Festival" (also known as the Qiang Calendar Year) is held in spring and autumn respectively. In spring, people pray for good weather, and in autumn, they thank the gods for a good harvest. In fact, it is a kind of farming activity in spring to pray for autumn rewards, but it is always full of strong religious significance. The colors also reflect the glory of the mysterious culture. The time for holding mountain sacrificial meetings is not uniform in various places. They can be divided into the first month, April and May, and can also be held once or 2-3 times a year. The procedures for mountain sacrificial meetings are extremely complicated, and the legends about the sacrifices vary from place to place. There are differences in different totems, and they can be roughly divided into three types: "Sacred Sheep Sacrifice Mountain", "Sacred Ox Sacrifice Mountain" and "Dang Dog Sacrifice Mountain". The ceremony is mostly held on an empty dam in the sacred forest. In some places, road sacrifices are held for three days after mountain worship, and it is prohibited to go up the mountain to cut firewood, cut grass, dig seedlings, hunt, etc.

The Qiang New Year Festival is celebrated every year on the first day of the tenth month of the lunar calendar. It usually lasts for 3-5 days. In some villages, it lasts until the tenth day of the tenth month. According to folk customs, during the Qiang New Year, people are still willing to worship gods and offer sacrifices to the gods of heaven, mountains and land owners (village gods). The whole village will have a reunion dinner, drink and dance until they part ways happily. The entire ceremony was presided over by "Xu", and the sipping wine was opened by a respected elder in the village. During the festival, relatives and friends can congratulate and greet each other.

Historically, Qiang men who have reached the age of fifteen still have the custom of holding a coming-of-age ceremony (crown ceremony). Relatives, friends, and friends need to be invited to sit around the fire beforehand. The person to be crowned wears new clothes, kneels down and worships the statue of the ancestor of mankind, and at the same time accepts the gift "Xu" represented by the God of Heaven - a five-color necklace tied with white male wool thread. Afterwards, the elders of the clan will narrate the history of the ancestors, chant scriptures and pray (commonly known as "peace protection") by "Xu" to offer sacrifices to family gods and goat gods.

Due to the constraints of natural conditions and environment, the Qiang people in the upper reaches of the Minjiang River mostly have their production and living customs stuck in the stage of farming culture. Where they live, they "live close to the mountains and build houses with stones." They eat and wear clothes. They grow and harvest by themselves, and are self-sufficient.

Housing Qiang people's houses are generally built with stones from the local materials. They are divided into two or three floors, and most of them are flat-roofed houses with yellow mud on the back. The two-story houses are built with livestock pens and toilets to protect them from rain, and are slightly sloping to facilitate drainage; the bottom floors of the three-story houses are livestock pens, and the houses are connected by a single wooden ladder. They are Qiang villages, located in the upper half of the mountains and in the river valleys. They are row upon row and are very spectacular. According to the "Wenchuan County Chronicle" of the Republic of China, "the Qiang village houses look like Western-style buildings from a distance."

(The Qiang Qiong Cage is another characteristic building of the Qiang people. "The height is more than ten feet" and has not declined over the years.

Qiong cages are made of stones, with four, six, eight and eight edges, and clear vertical lines. Generally built at the entrance of a village, it serves as a defense during wartime and also functions as a beacon tower. It is a cultural phenomenon of the Qiang people.

In the history of clothing, Qiang clothing was mostly made of self-produced hemp and processed and spun into threads, commonly known as "linen shirts", or made from cow wool hanging on threads, commonly known as "linen shirts". There are also cloth shirts, mostly blue. Men wear a belt around their waists, and women wear flower aprons around their waists. They wear sleeveless sheepskin jackets, and their feet are wrapped in bangles, and they wear straw sandals or "yunyun shoes" (Qiang embroidered cloth shoes). After liberation, many Qiang people in the river valley wore Han costumes.

The staple food is self-produced corn, wheat, wheat, beans, potatoes and vegetables. The main food items include steamed rice, roasted steamed buns, razor-shaped steamed buns, noodle pieces (noodle pieces), melazi (noodle soup), potato glutinous rice cake, etc. Specialty foods include steamed wine, blood buns, etc. Homegrown orchid cigarettes are commonly smoked. Qiang District is rich in cash crops such as apples, peppers, and walnuts, which are currently sold at home and abroad.

Marriage The Qiang people practice monogamy. Historically, there have been customs of "finger kiss", "baby kiss", "swap marriage", "sales marriage", and "kidnapping". Engagement also has procedures such as "flower night", "main wine", "thanking guests", and "returning to the door", which is extremely grand. Men are not discriminated against when visiting women's homes. After getting married and having children, it is customary to give rice as a blessing and drink full-moon wine.

In addition to cremation, funerals also include burial, open burial, rock burial and other customs.

The Qiang folk literature is extremely rich. The famous long narrative poems "Mujizhu and Douanzhu" and "The Battle of Qiang Ge" are not only national epics, but also precious cultural treasures. Folk stories such as "The Flood Reaches the Sky" and "The Creation of the World" reflect the unique aesthetic and artistic views of the Qiang people. The Qiang people are a nation that is good at singing and dancing. The beautiful Sharon dance and moving folk songs are the crystallization of the traditional national culture.

The Qiang people’s cross-stitch embroidery is exquisite and plays an important role in the history of my country’s arts and crafts.

From "living by water and grass" to "living in the mountains, building houses with rocks", the Qiang people have gone through a long period of time and created a splendid culture. They have made great efforts to develop the southwestern frontier and safeguard the reunification of the motherland. A huge contribution. The Qiang culture is rich and colorful and has a long history. In the new era, the Qiang people have given new connotation to Qiang culture. The Qiang people are taking advantage of their natural advantages and resources to vigorously develop hydropower, tourism, agriculture, industry and commerce. With forests, fruits and livestock growing, the Qiang region will have a better future. The Qiang culture will be more splendid and dazzling.

· Qiang diet: The main foods of the Qiang people include corn, wheat, highland barley, beans, soybeans, peas, buckwheat, etc.; there are also rice, flour, etc. transported from the plains of western Sichuan. Vegetables include round radish, cabbage, pepper, lotus root, etc. She often eats sauerkraut made by herself, three meals a day. Food preparation and cooking are relatively simple. The common method is to add vegetables to corn porridge, which is called "mailazi"; Half-cooked rice is mixed with cornmeal and steamed. If the rice is based on cornmeal, it is called "gold-wrapped silver" or if it is rice-based, it is called "silver-wrapped gold". Some use highland barley or wheat as fried noodles for grazing or eating when going out. The Qiang people rarely eat fresh pork. They usually kill pigs after the winter solstice. The pork is cut into long strips and hung on the beams of the kitchen. It is smoked and dried into "pig fat". The color is preferably smoked yellow. The traditional concept is that this The longer the "pig fat" is stored, the better. The fresh lean meat after killing the pig is washed and stuffed into the small intestine to make sausage, which is usually eaten during the New Year.

Both men and women, old and young, like to drink home-brewed highland barley and barley wine. It is also called highland barley mixed wine or when brewing, the highland barley or barley is cooked and accompanied by distiller's yeast, put into a jar and mixed with wine. It becomes sour after being covered with grass or clothing for 7 days. When drinking, open the altar, pour boiling water, insert a thin bamboo tube, and take turns sucking. Generally, drink half of it and then add water until it tastes good. I used to smoke orchid cigarettes, but now I smoke more cigarettes. In villages close to Tibetan villages or in villages where Tibetans live together, older men and women generally take snuff.

· Qiang Etiquette: A popular etiquette of drinking and sipping wine to entertain guests is among the Qiang people in southwest China and other ethnic minorities. When a distinguished guest comes to a home, the host often invites the guest to drink the local unique Paotan wine (i.e. "suck wine") to show respect. First, the table and the wine jar filled with glutinous rice wine are placed in the main room. There are no seats around the table, and the guests stand around the table. Before drinking, the host asks the housewife to come out to open the altar and bring a basin or bowl filled with hot water. People use thin, thin bamboo to suck up the water, and then pour it into the wine jar, so that the wine does not overflow or overflow. Then, the host and guest took turns to drink the wine from thin bamboos. When the wine is almost finished, water must be added until the wine tastes light.

· Qiang taboos: 1. Pregnant women are not allowed to enter the kitchen before they are one month old, for fear of offending the kitchen god and the household god Bodhisattva; they are also not allowed to see strangers, for fear that strangers will bring ghosts in.

2. Pregnant women are not allowed to enter the newlyweds’ new house.

3. Patients are forbidden to see strangers and set up a bench outside the ward to refuse outsiders entry. Whistling in patient rooms at night is prohibited.

4. Do not place chopsticks horizontally on the bowl after a meal, nor can you drink wine upside down, because this is a ghost-respecting ceremony.

5. Avoid sitting on thresholds and stairs.

6. Avoid shouting and cursing loudly on the first day of the first lunar month, and hide fire tongs, ropes, and kitchen knives, because these things symbolize unlucky things.

· Qiang funeral: fire grave, Qiang funeral custom. In the Yanmen Township area of ??the Maobo Autonomous Region, there are several fire graves in one village.

These fire tombs are located near villages. They are shaped like wooden wooden doors, about five feet square, and have small doors. After a person dies, the coffin is burned together. The ashes are swept through the small door and thrown into the fire grave. In some places, there is a fire grave for several people.

In the old days, the Qiang people had three forms of burial: burial in water, burial in water, and cremation. Cremation is a burial ritual passed down from ancient times. After liberation, only some areas in the north still practiced cremation, while other areas had changed due to the influence of the Han people. Those who died violently, died from infectious diseases and other abnormal deaths were still cremated. The person was cremated three days after his death. Before cremation, you must ask Duan Gong to recite a mantra, and then carry it to the crematorium. There is a movable wooden house there, which enshrines the traditional gods of the tribe. At this time, the wooden house is moved to another place, and the coffin that should be cremated is placed in the original place. place, then piled firewood around and burned the coffin. At this time, the relatives of the deceased sit around and learn martial arts and dance funeral dances. After incineration, the ashes are buried underground or in a cave.

· Qiang marriage and family: The marriage form of the Qiang people is basically monogamous. Before liberation, young men and women did not have the freedom to fall in love. Free love was regarded as detrimental to family tradition, and marriage was not free. Feudal marriages by buying and selling were prevalent. Children's marriages were subject to the orders of their parents and the words of matchmakers.

There are three procedures when getting engaged. First, "open the mouth to drink", that is, drink. When a man and a woman are still underage, the man invites a matchmaker to arrange marriage with the woman he likes. If the woman agrees, the parents will propose a certain period of time for the man to hold a banquet at the woman's home, which is called "opening wine". At the banquet, the woman proposed the amount of the bride price, and the two parties agreed, indicating that the engagement was initially successful. A few months later, the man's family goes to the woman's house to prepare a banquet to entertain close relatives, called "Xiao Dingjiu". At this time, some betrothal gifts are given and placed on the altar to show solemnity. During the "big wedding ceremony", the two families will agree on the wedding date in detail. The man will have a banquet with guests and entertain the woman's relatives and friends. At this time, the man will pay the betrothal gift according to the agreement, and especially prepare a penny to give to his mother-in-law. During the entire engagement process, the girl must not Revealed and hidden in the house or in the homes of relatives and friends.

The Qiang people are basically a monogamous patriarchal family, and each family is a production and living unit. In general, immediate family members live together, and most family members are grandparents and grandchildren. Most of them are parents and children. On average, there are 3 to 5 people in each family. Except for the only son, families with many children will separate and start independent families after their sons grow up and get married. Parents leave one son to support them in their old age and to carry on the family line. Most of them are the youngest sons.

In the family, the elder male is the head of the family, and the father is the head of the family. If the father dies, the son can take charge of the family. If there is no heir, the family property will be inherited by the father's relatives. Men are always in a dominant position in the family and can control family income and expenditure, arrange production, decide on marriage and property inheritance, preside over ancestor sacrifices and participate in major social activities. Women, on the other hand, are in a dominant position. Not only do they not have the right to inherit property, they cannot participate in major sacrificial activities, and they cannot talk or laugh with men casually. Since Qiang women occupy an important position in productive labor, apart from plowing the fields, they are responsible for all farm work and housework from planting to harvesting. Due to the remnants of matriarchy, they also have greater power and authority in the family. status. For example, their opinions must be consulted on the marriage of children, and if there is no child property, the son-in-law can inherit the family property, etc. In addition, maternal uncles have greater power in the family. Major events such as weddings and funerals, family separation, inheritance of family property, etc. all require their consent and are handled by them.

Qiang Festivals: The most solemn national festivals of the Qiang people are the "Mountain Festival Festival" (also known as the Zhuanshan Festival) and the "Qiang New Year Festival" (also known as the Qiang Calendar Year), which are held in spring and autumn respectively. In spring, people pray for good weather and in autumn, they thank God for a good harvest. This is actually a kind of farming activity that prays for good harvests in spring and autumn, but it is always full of strong religious color and reflects the glory of ancient mysterious culture. The time for holding mountain sacrificial meetings is not uniform in different places. They can be divided into the first month, April and May, and can also be held once or 2-3 times a year. The procedures for mountain sacrificial meetings are extremely complicated, and the legends about the sacrifices vary from place to place. There are differences in different totems, which can be roughly divided into three types: "Sacred Sheep Sacrifice Mountain", "Sacred Ox Sacrifice Mountain" and "Dang Dog Sacrifice Mountain". The ceremony is mostly held on an empty dam in the sacred forest. In some places, road sacrifices are held for three days after mountain worship, and it is prohibited to go up the mountain to cut firewood, cut grass, dig seedlings, hunt for crops, etc.

The Qiang New Year Festival is celebrated on the first day of October in the family calendar every year. It usually lasts for 3-5 days. In some villages, it lasts until the tenth day of October. According to folk customs, during the Qiang New Year, people are still willing to worship gods and offer sacrifices to the gods of heaven, mountains and land owners (village gods). The whole village has a reunion dinner, drinks, and dances until they part ways happily. The entire ceremony was presided over by "Xu", and the sipping wine was opened by a respected elder in the village. During the festival, relatives and friends can congratulate and greet each other.

Other gatherings

March 3: Married women worship the Empress Bodhisattva on March 3 every year, praying to God for children and keeping them safe.

March 12: Every year on March 12, a sheep is slaughtered in the village to pray to the Bodhisattva of the Earth to bless a good harvest. Roads are forbidden for one day to prohibit passers-by from entering the village. This day is called "Green Miao" meeting".

July 7th: Unmarried women have a "Qiao Ya Meeting" on July 7th every year. That is, invite girls from the neighborhood to get together, sing, dance, and have fun.

November 1st: On November 1st every year, go to the Niuwang Temple to burn incense, light wax, burn paper money, and kill a sheep and a chicken to pray to the Niuwang Bodhisattva for the safety of the cattle. On this day, all the cattle in the village have a day off, so it is also called the "King of Cows Meeting".

Shanwang Hui: The "Sanwang Hui" is to pray to the Mountain King Bodhisattva to bless the six livestocks and prosper the crops.

During the meeting, a sheep is slaughtered. The meeting period of the Sannoghui varies from village to village.

Guanyin Hui: "Guanyin Hui", three times a year, the first time is March 19, the second time is June 19, the third time is September 19, pray Guanyin Bodhisattva blesses the safety of all people in the village.

Sichuan Lord Meeting: "Sichuan Lord Meeting" is held on June 24th every year in villages to worship the Sichuan Lord. On that day, the whole village rests, wears new clothes and flowers, sings and dances, and holds a banquet. It is the largest temple fair.