A Good Neighbor of Miao and Dong Nationality —— Shui Nationality
Shui nationality is one of the ethnic minorities in China. At present, there are 345,993 people, mainly living in Sandu County, Libo, Duyun and Dushan of Qiannan Buyi and Miao Autonomous Prefecture and Kaili, Liping, Rongjiang and Congjiang of Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture, with a few scattered in the west of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
The Shui nationality community is located at the southern foot of Miao Ling Mountain in the southeast of Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, and at the upper reaches of Liu Du and Longjiang River. With dense forests and picturesque scenery, it is suitable for the development of agriculture and forestry. It is the land of plenty and flowers in Guizhou Plateau. In folk songs, Shui people often describe their hometown as "as beautiful as a phoenix feather".
Shui people are engaged in agriculture, mainly planting rice. "Jiuqian Liquor" is the traditional liquor of the Shui people.
The ancestor of the Shui nationality is a branch of the ancient "Baiyue". In the Tang and Song Dynasties, it was called "Liao" together with Zhuang and Dong nationalities. In the Northern Song Dynasty, a "water-rich country" was established in the Shui nationality area. The name "clan" was first seen in the historical records of the Ming Dynasty. In Qing Dynasty, it was usually called "Shui Miao Family" and "Shui Family". After the founding of New China, the Shui nationality was officially named.
Shui language belongs to the Zhuang-Dong language family of Sino-Tibetan language family. The ancestors of the Shui nationality once created their own characters, called "Shui Shu", which are similar in shape to Oracle Bone Inscriptions and the inscriptions on bronze, but only have more than 400 characters, and most of them are used for witchcraft activities. The Shui nationality has its own calendar, which is basically the same as the summer calendar, except that the end of the year is August and the beginning of the year is September.
In the modern history of China, the Shui people wrote a brilliant chapter. 1855 10, Pan Xinjian led the armed uprising of the Shui nationality, put forward the resounding slogan of "no food and no taxes, overthrow the Qing Dynasty and enjoy peace", persisted in the struggle 16 years, and cooperated with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. From 65438 to 0909, Wu Chaojun led the uprising of the Shui nationality, Buyi nationality and Miao nationality. During the New Democratic Revolution, Deng Enming, the outstanding son of Shui people, was the only minority comrade in the first the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China Congress. During War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the War of Liberation, Shui people also actively participated in the struggle led by local underground party organizations.
Traditional women's dress
Since the 1940s, the men's wear of the Shui nationality is not much different from that of the surrounding Han nationality, but women's wear still retains distinctive national characteristics. The yarn quality of Shuijia cloth (9000 Qing Bu) woven by Shui women is fine and uniform, and the dyed blue, blue and green are deep and washable, which has been well-known as early as a hundred years ago. The original printing and dyeing process of Shui soybean milk painting has a history of more than 700 years, and its printing and dyeing products are deeply loved by the masses.
Women's dresses of Shui nationality are mostly sewn with water armor cloth, without collars, big skirts, semi-gowns and long gowns. Robes are knee-length and generally have no embroidered edges. Holiday and wedding costumes are completely different from usual. Shoulders and cuffs on wedding dresses, embroidered ribbons on trousers and knees, and colorful patterns on headscarves. Wear a silver crown on your head and a silver collar around your neck. Wear a silver bracelet on your wrist, a silver elegant collar on your chest, silver earrings on your earlobe, and embroidered shoes on your feet. Brides usually dress up beautifully and elegantly. In addition, women's embroidered suspenders are more artistic. It is said to be a "belt", but it is actually a gorgeous embroidered "T"-shaped "curtain" with belts on both sides of the upper end. The curtain is big enough to wrap the child. It is made by winding a white ponytail with white silk thread, adding silk threads of other colors, respectively embroidering various patterns, and finally splicing the embroidered patterns onto the strap fabric. Straps are beautiful and practical, and they are the best gifts for mothers to give to their married daughters.
Before marriage, Shui women like to make leisure robes with light blue, green or gray fabrics, and their tops are mostly satin. The sleeves of the clothes have shrunk compared with the past, and they look neat and curvy. The embroidered apron on the chest and the long green and white cloth scarf on the head are elegant and quiet. The cuffs, shoulders and trouser cuffs of married women are decorated with blue lace. Long hair is combed into a coil on the top of the head and inserted into the comb from the right to fix it. Some women wear white scarves horizontally outside headscarves, and some directly wrap their heads with plaid square scarves, which is traditional and fashionable.
Wedding customs and etiquette
The marriage custom of the Shui nationality has a strong traditional color and pays attention to the marriage of the Ming media. Before marriage, young men and women can make friends and fall in love by singing in festivals and fairs. Even if it is a free love, it must be a marriage reported by the media, otherwise it is impolite and will be discriminated against. Young men and women should ask someone to tell their parents after they fall in love. If the parents show their willingness, the man invites the matchmaker to the woman's house to give gifts and betrothal, and chooses an auspicious day to send someone to carry the piglets to the woman's house to "eat some wine." At the formal wedding ceremony, the big pig was carried to the woman's house to "eat big wine". Toast song should be sung at the party. Every time the hostess sings a song, the guests have to drink a glass of wine to show their hospitality by getting drunk. Family members of both men and women do not attend wedding banquets and send-offs. Except for a few places where the bride's brother carries the bride to her in-laws' house, most of them are dressed brides walking in front with a deliberately torn red umbrella, followed by the best man, bridesmaids and long queues carrying dowry. Usually leave her family at noon and enter her husband's house at six or seven in the evening. I can't enter the door until it's auspicious. Relatives of the groom's family go out to hide before the bride enters the house, and the bride can't go home until she enters the house. On the wedding night, the bridesmaid accompanied the bride, and the bride returned to her family the next day. After the wedding, the groom will invite the bride back and start the life of husband and wife. Some brides visit for the first time for a month or two, which is called "sitting at home". In fact, it is a remnant of the custom of "curtilage" marriage. On the way to the bride's wedding, thunder is the most taboo, so the wedding is held in autumn and winter.
"borrowing" and "excessive borrowing"
The festival of the aquarium is the biggest in a year. The "broken section" is calculated according to the water theory of Shui Shu. The water calendar also divides a year into 12 months and four seasons, but it starts in September of the lunar calendar, ends in August of the lunar calendar, and dates are recorded in twelve places. Every year, from the end of1February to the following February (that is, from the end of August to the beginning of 10), on the day of the Year of the Pig, festivals are traditionally held in batches all over the country. This is Duanjie, also called Guajie, which the Shui people call Duanjie.
In the Shui nationality, there is a traditional distinction between "crossing the border and not crossing it", and the order of festivals in different regions cannot be reversed or confused. About this custom, a consistent legend is that Deng Gong, the ancestor of the ancient Shui people, had two sons. His brother was assigned to the upper inner coat area and his younger brother was assigned to the lower 9000 area. It was agreed that after the harvest, we would go to Zufu to celebrate. Later, I felt that the distance was far away and it was not convenient to communicate with each other. I have decided that my brother will have a holiday and my brother will have a holiday. Today, the Shui people all over the country basically share the same surname and spend the holidays together.
Before the festival, everyone cleaned the courtyard and cleaned the room inside and outside. On the day before the festival, the festive village rang bronze drums to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new. During the festival, chickens and ducks are killed to eat new grain, soup is stewed with fresh fish, and new rice soup is prepared to entertain relatives and friends. Sacrifice ancestors on New Year's Eve (the night of the first day) and the morning of the first day (the morning of the first day), and don't eat meat. The offerings can't have other meat except fish. No meat, but no fish. The main product of ancestor worship is fish skin leek, because it is said that ancestors used nine kinds of vegetables and medicines made of fish and shrimp to drive away all diseases. Its practice is to put the washed fish belly into seasonings such as leek, pickled pepper, onion, ginger and garlic, and then stew or steam it.
At the end of the festival, young men and women played music and danced around the "Duanpo", and held horse racing, bullfighting, cultural performances, film screenings, dinners with relatives and friends and other activities. Tens of thousands of people from neighboring Miao, Dong, Buyi, Zhuang, Yao and Han nationalities took part in this activity.
The immortal hero Deng Enming.
Deng Enming is the most famous aquarium figure in China and even in the world. He has such influence for two reasons. First, he is the representative of China * * *, and everyone who knows how China * * * was founded knows him. On June 28th, 20001year, the State Post Bureau of the People's Republic of China issued a set of commemorative stamps entitled "Early Leaders of China * * * Production Party (Part I)". Deng Enming's glorious image is on the third stamp, and anyone who collects stamps or receives emails from this stamp will know him.
Deng Enming, formerly known as Deng Enming, was born in a family of aquarium workers in Shuipu Village, Libo County, Guizhou Province. 19 17 autumn, after graduating from primary school, due to family difficulties, I went to Shandong Province to take refuge in my second uncle and entered Jinan Provincial No.1 Middle School. In the May 4th Movement, he embarked on the revolutionary road and was elected as the leader of a middle school student autonomy association, the minister of publishing department and the editor-in-chief of the school magazine. During this period, he and Comrade Wang Enbomei became comrades-in-arms and further accepted Marxism–Leninism. 1920 1 1 month, organized Lixin society, founded Lixin bimonthly, and participated in the organization of Shandong * * * production group. 192 1 July, together with Wang Enbomei, attended the first national congress of China * * * as a representative of Shandong, and went to Moscow the following year to attend the first congress of the Far East production party and national revolutionary groups. After returning to China, he successively served as secretary of Qingdao Municipal Party Committee and Shandong Provincial Party Committee, and led the strikes of Ji Jiao railway workers and Qingdao Japanese cotton mill workers. 1927 Secretary of Shandong Provincial Party Committee. 1928 12 was arrested by the Kuomintang reactionaries in Jinan and led the escape struggle. 193 1 April 5, 2008, died heroically at the age of 30. As a proletarian revolutionary, Deng Enming's reputation is immortal, and his spirit is immortal.
Unique production customs
Shui nationality economy is a typical type of rice farming in mountainous areas. As early as 150 years ago, paddy fields occupied more than 80% of the cultivated land in the aquarium area. In agricultural production, Shui farmers still maintain some special customs. Judging from today's green agriculture, some practices are worth learning and popularizing.
Accumulation and fertilization of fertilizers. At present, although Shui farmers also use pesticides and fertilizers, the high cost and pollution are obvious disadvantages. In order to increase and use farmyard manure more, aquarium farmers generally use the method of cattle stepping on fertilizer to accumulate fertilizer. When they raise cattle for leisure, they keep them in captivity, put the leftover grass in the pen, and add padding soil in time, so that the cattle can mix the manure and grass soil together to make fertilizer.
Rake tool Raking the field is to rake the mud in the field and level the paddy field, so that the rice can have loose growth soil and receive water evenly. In particular, Shui farmers harrow their fields with "boat harrows" and "stone harrows". "Boat rake" is a wooden boat rake, about 1 m long. The "bottom" is flat, with wooden teeth or bamboo teeth on the outside of the bottom. If people pull the rake, the "boat" is filled with earth or stones to suppress it; If the cow pulls the rake, people will stand on the "boat" and drive. A stone rake is a rectangular stone strip. Both ends of the stone bar are drilled and pulled by ropes, and the bottom of the stone bar is engraved with thick lines. The main function of the stone rake is not to rake the field, but to level it.
Irrigation. Irrigation in the Shui nationality area benefits from nature. Build ponds or dams in valleys higher than paddy fields to store water, and then open canals to divert water for irrigation, or directly lead mountain springs and streams to farmland for irrigation. In areas with high and low water levels, ancient water lifting devices are also used, such as pipe trucks and rollover.
The production custom of "stove head" is widely popular in Shui nationality areas. "Huotoutou" is a dialect of the local Chinese dialect, and "translated into Mandarin" means "the leader who does farm work". Important farm work in Shui nationality village, such as ploughing, ploughing, seedling raising, transplanting and harvesting. You can't start work until the "living road head" starts to dry. When the farming season comes, "Huolutou" chooses an auspicious day, holds a simple ceremony, symbolically plows a ridge, inserts a few seedlings, or cuts a few handfuls of rice, and others begin to do this farm work in their contracted fields. This custom has at least two meanings, one is the emphasis on agricultural production, and the other is that "living road head" is an old-fashioned way of planting crops. It is scientific for them to master the experience of farming season according to the climate, and they can have a good harvest if they follow it.
Shui people have a clear gender division of labor in agricultural production. It is a tradition that "women don't plow fields and men don't transplant rice". Anyone who violates it will be criticized. In the past, there was a family that lacked labor and dressed up as men to plow the fields at night. Men plow, plow and repair ridges. These jobs are very laborious, and it is really difficult for women to struggle in the mud. This does not mean that women don't work hard, such as transplanting rice seedlings, mowing grass and picking hay. , nothing else. As far as the waist is concerned, almost everyone feels "exhausted" at the end of the day.
After several generations of hard work, the Shui people have dressed up the mountains and rivers where they live like a phoenix. The sparkling terraced fields, flowery gardens, stacked stilts and wooden buildings, green trees and cheerful flowing springs are just like the beautiful feathers of a phoenix. Beautiful mountains and rivers, rural scenery, earthy atmosphere, natural beauty, simple feelings, symphony with the prosperity of the city, playing the era movement of the great motherland.