Legends about the West

Yi people used to worship many gods, mainly their ancestors. Witches of the Yi nationality are called Bimo, and they are deified because they have played an important role in preserving and spreading religion and national culture. In the myths and legends of this clan, it is mentioned that there were three great changes between heaven and earth in ancient times: the first time was because there were six bright moons and seven suns in the sky, and the celestial officials sent Bimo down to earth to sweep away the evil obstacles of the universe with coriaria branches and iron stems. The second time was when the storm raged, Bimo came down to save the world. In the third flood, Tianguan sent three bimos down to earth with scriptures. They each rode a yellow ox with scriptures tied to its horn. After the flood in Wang Yang, all the scriptures were soaked. The scriptures are basked in the green leaves, and half of them are dyed, so the Yi scriptures are incomplete. Another said it was scratched by an eagle. Therefore, scriptures are regarded as "heavenly books". The "heavenly book" mentioned here is the Book of Changes, a collection of ancient Yi culture. Among them, the most famous Yi classic "Southwest Yi Zhi" is translated into "shadow, shape and turbidity". The book * * * has more than 370,000 Yi languages, which were found in the northwest of Guizhou and the west of Guizhou. This book is the most comprehensive record of the ancient history and culture of the Yi people. This book begins with the myth of creation.

There are more than 2,400 kinds of Naxi people, including more than 220 kinds of great gods, more than 60 kinds of good gods, more than 60 kinds of evil gods, more than 90 kinds of generals, more than 20 kinds of goddesses, and more than 0/20 kinds of victory gods. In addition, there are Raytheon, Mountain God, protector Mocha demigod, deified wizard Dongba and so on. Where there is God, there is God's story. It can be seen that the East has preserved the richness of myths. Some Naxi scholars say that the main body of Dongba literature is myth. Dongba myth and Dongba ceremony are interdependent. Illusory colors, the charm of imagination, the loyalty of faith and the confused atmosphere constitute a mysterious world in which man and God are interdependent, indivisible and humanized. It is through this colorful sacred world that future generations peep at the long-lost ancient society.

The Ewenki people who live in the northeastern border of China call themselves "people who live in the mountains" and are good at hunting and reindeer, and there are still remnants of bear totem worship. After they hunted bears, there were a series of worship ceremonies and taboos. First, the bear's head, bones and five internal organs were wrapped in birch sticks or hay, hung on a tree and buried in the wind. Then, they offered cigarettes and bowed down to mourn, meaning to mourn their ancestors and seek forgiveness from the bear totem.

Why do Ewenki people regard bears as ancestors? Their myths and legends explain that a hunter was suddenly caught by a mother bear while hunting in the mountains. The mother bear took him into the cave and forced the hunter to marry her. Forced to Yuannai, the hunter and the mother bear lived in the cave for several years until they gave birth to a bear. Later the hunter took the opportunity to escape from the cave. The mother bear found the hunter escaped. He chased the bear with his arm, tore it in half on the spot, threw it to the hunter and kept it for himself. What remained was the later bear, and what was thrown to the hunter was the later Ewenki nationality. This is of course absurd. No bear can become a man. This is a reflection of the totem concept of their ancient ancestors. Oroqen and Ewenki are of the same origin, "originally two close branches of an ancient tribe" (2). Therefore, the two ethnic groups share the same myth about bear ancestors. The Oroqen people also have a series of complicated bear hunting and sacrifice ceremonies, one of which is that they are afraid that the spirit bear will retaliate against hunters and people who share the bear meat. When you are buried in the wind, you should also sing a wind burial song. The lyrics imply the following meaning: We didn't kill you, but your life is over and you are dead. They call the male bear grandpa and uncle, and the female bear grandma. The bear ancestor myths of Ewenki and Oroqen belong to simple animal totem myths, which are not mixed with other legends and stories of later generations. Such myths of southwest ethnic minorities are even more rare. According to the legend of Nu people, their ancestors were born by the mating of snakes and bees. Tibetans say that monkeys mated with rock monsters and became human beings. The animals worshipped by Yi people are tigers, deer, monkeys, buffaloes, sheep, rock sheep, pigs, bears, rats, eagles, chickens and turtledoves. Until the early 1980s, the diligent Kemu people in Xishuangbanna still kept a complete totem system, which was quite primitive in form. Kemu people don't catch or eat totem animals they believe in, and even touching them is considered disrespectful.

The totem myth of the little sparrow clan says: there is a man guarding the dry valley. When the millet is ripe, all kinds of birds fly to eat. He knocked on the bamboo tube all day and shouted to drive away the birds. One noon, it was sultry, and he peeled the cucumber with a knife and ate it. When the cucumber was being delivered to the mouth with a knife, suddenly a group of millet finches came to eat millet. He screamed in a hurry to get rid of the bird, and the knife cut his mouth open, and the man died. Since then, Xiaomi Sparrow has become the surname of the descendants of this family.

The myths and legends of the Dai Water-splashing Festival are not only related to their religious beliefs, but also related to the special geographical climate of the Dai people. People choose local dry season and online season to celebrate festivals, which means people will enter the busy farming season. At the same time, there are several different legends circulating among the people. One of the oldest legends is preserved in a long epic "Badama Jiapeng Shangluo". The Chinese translation of this epic is about 13000 lines.

The epic has preserved the Dai people's ancient and huge spiritual world. Among them, the calendar god praised Ma Yuanran for being arrogant and rude, and the heavenly king Maha praised him for sleeping with his eyes closed for 65,438+ten thousand years. I didn't expect the seven daughters of this god to collude with the third-level god Pai Yaying. In order to send Yaying's queen, seven daughters cut off their father's head with a bow made of Seven Sisters's hair, which caused great disaster. In order to save Ma Yuanran, the gods had to go to the forest to cut off the elephant's head and install it for him. Since then, this god has become an elephant god.

Seven daughters fell from the sky for the crime of killing the priest, and they took turns holding God's head to atone. Seven women took turns hugging each other, one holding her head, and the other six kept splashing water to avoid a fire. The sins of the seven women can only be redeemed when the gods stop breathing fire. This is the early content of the Dai people's famous Water-splashing Festival. With the introduction of Hinayana Buddhism from India to Dai areas, the content of the legend of Water-splashing Festival has changed. This day is called Buddha's Birthday, also known as "Buddha Bath Festival". It is said that Sakyamuni bathed in the river before becoming a Buddha, feeling refreshed and feeling good, and he had to be completely awakened to become a Buddha. In order to imitate the Buddha, Buddhists also hope to become a Buddha after bathing, so a grand bathing ceremony will be held in the Buddhist temple on this day, and water will be thrown at each other. Actually, it's very late. Modern people celebrate the Songkran Festival, mostly playing with each other and blessing each other, with little religious color. Since mankind entered the patriarchal society, male ancestors have replaced female ancestors. In the fields of production, economy, life and even religion, men have occupied their position. There is only one thing that men can never replace, and that is having children. However, reproduction is related to the survival and rise and fall of a nation, which is great and sacred. In order to win this last piece of land, men think that men can have children without the opposite sex, just like women. Therefore, there are legends of men having children in Chinese and foreign myths, and corresponding customs have emerged. Kyle Polo, an Italian traveler from 13 to 14, once wrote about his experience in Yunnan: "People in this place have a strange habit. As soon as the pregnant woman gives birth, she gets up, washes the baby, wraps it up and gives it to her husband. The husband immediately sat on the bed and took her place. As soon as she takes on the responsibility of nursing the baby, she must take care of it for 40 days. After the baby was born, the relatives and friends of this family came to congratulate later. And her wife does housework as usual, sends the meal to the bed for her husband to eat, and feeds her next to her. " This is a customary expression of men's psychology of trying to compete for reproductive rights. It can be seen that there was a dispute over reproductive rights between the two sexes.

This interesting social phenomenon is vividly reflected in China's myths and legends. The Gaoshan people explained the birth of human beings in this way: a huge stone cracked and a person came out of it. The waves were rough, and the waves rushed to the bamboo forest. A big bamboo suddenly cracked and a man jumped out of the L. The two were inseparable. In their sleep, their knees rub against each other. One has a boy on his right knee and the other a girl on his left knee. This man and a woman are the ancestors of Yamei. Tooth beauty, located in Lan Yu Island, 70km southeast of Taiwan Province Province, has a population of about 2,500. The content of their myth is very old. The so-called male god who gives birth to children by rubbing his knees is actually a symbol of two different clans. That is to say, the descendants of a clan whose totem is mainly Stonehenge and another clan whose totem is Dazhu intermarry. According to physiological characteristics, a man and a woman should combine to give birth to offspring, and then their offspring will be matched again. Because after the patriarchal society, the goddess became a male god, so the combination of two male gods to have children became a strange theory.

Abu Kahehe went through a lot of hardships. Although she temporarily defeated her opponent, the evil god Yale, she still could not change the fate of history. I don't know how many years have passed, but the goddess herself has gradually transformed into a male god and changed her name to Abu Kahn Li Du. From then on, he was the master of the universe and enjoyed human sacrifice. This god is arbitrary and looks like a tribal leader in the heroic period.

It seems that the gods are indeed the refraction of the world, and it is not easy for the male gods to seize the power of the goddess, reaching the level of disowning the six relatives. The battle was soul-stirring, and the sanctions against the defeated were severe and ruthless. Compared with the Babylonian myth of killing mother and the Greek myth of killing father, it has the same effect. When people explain astronomical phenomena, they personify them and create various images. Among them, the sun myth and the moon myth are the most colorful.