The appellation of Naxi people varies from dialect to dialect: Lijiang and other places call themselves Naxi people, while Ninglang and Yanyuan in Sichuan call themselves that day, Naru or Naheng. According to Naxi language analysis, "Na" means "big" or "noble", while "xi", "Confucianism" and "Heng" mean "people" or "clan". 1954, according to the wishes of our nation and with the approval of the State Council, "Naxi" was regarded as a synonym for * * * *. Naxi people have their own language and writing. Naxi language belongs to Yi branch of Tibeto-Burman language family of Sino-Tibetan language family, which is roughly divided into two dialects with Jinsha River as the boundary. Dialects can't communicate with each other, but the standard language of Naxi is the western dialect of Naxi as the basic dialect, and the pronunciation of Dayan Town in Lijiang County as the standard sound. In the long historical process of Naxi nationality, there used to be Dongba language and Goba language. Dongba is a hieroglyph created by Naxi people more than 1000 years ago (before the Tang Dynasty). It is composed of hieroglyphics, phonetic symbols and additional symbols, and it is the only living hieroglyphics still circulating among the people in the world today. Naxi Nationality Religion believes in Naxi, Dongba and Tibetan Buddhism. In addition, the Naxi people in Lijiang also generally believe in "Three Flowers" and become a multi-religious people. Like most ethnic minorities in Yunnan, the social economy of Naxi nationality is unbalanced. Before the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Naxi inhabited area in Lijiang County was a feudal landlord economy, and capitalist industry and commerce appeared. Some areas in Zhongdian County still retain the remnants of the Lord's economy; Ninglang is basically still in the stage of feudal Lord economy, maintaining the remnants of pairing marriage and matriarchal family. In the long-term historical development of Naxi culture, Naxi people have created splendid culture with local characteristics and formed and developed their own religious beliefs and customs. Dongba religion is a unique religion of Naxi nationality, and Dongba culture is named because it is preserved in Dongba religion. It mainly includes Dongba characters, Dongba scriptures, Dongba paintings, Dongba music, Dongba dances, Dongba musical instruments and various sacrificial ceremonies. Dongba culture of Naxi nationality is unique among all ethnic groups in Yunnan and is the pride of Naxi nationality. For example, Dongba is of great academic value for studying comparative philology and human cultural history. On the one hand, Dongbajing preserves many ancient words, which is an excellent material for historical comparison between Naxi language and other related languages, on the other hand, it records a large number of ancient Naxi documents. With the development of Dongba culture, Naxi people have learned and absorbed the advanced cultures of other nationalities, especially the Han nationality, thus enriching their own cultural and artistic traditions and contents. Since the Ming Dynasty, the aristocratic landlords headed by Li Jiang Tusi first accepted China culture, and they all wrote poems. For example, Mu Gong once wrote "Selected Poems of Snow Mountain", and Mu once wrote poems such as "Clouds are light and ink is light". The folk customs of Naxi people generally live in dam areas, river valleys and semi-mountainous areas. Most of the houses in the dam area are tile houses with civil structure, and the pattern is "three rooms and one wall". In mountainous areas, most of them are low wooden houses built with wooden boards. In the marriage and family of Naxi nationality, monogamy is practiced in most areas. In the old society, marriage was decided by parents, and they were free to socialize before marriage. The Mosuo people around Lugu Lake in Ninglang still retain the remnants of matriarchal families and pairing marriages. With the implementation of the Marriage Law, some ancient marriage customs are gradually changing.
Naxi traditional festivals
Dongbahui
On the fifth day of the third lunar month, Dongba, where Naxi people live together, gathers in Yushui Village, Lijiang, the Dongba Holy Land in central China, and holds the annual Dongba Fair. On this day, Dongba people came to Dongshiluo Temple in Yushui Village early. Light incense burners, burn incense, worship God and ancestors, worship Dong Ba Zu Dong Ba Shiluo, recite scriptures and do things. Dongba Club is also an opportunity for Dongba to "compete" and show its talents. Dongba from all over the country read Dongba Sutra and danced Dongba dance according to their own style. Then, exchange experiences and learn from each other. They all love their nation and their country.
culture
. National cohesion and sense of national responsibility unite them, and Qi Xin works together to inherit and carry forward the ancient Naxi culture.
Will insist
On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month every year, it is the "big society" of Naxi nationality in Lijiang. By then, Lijiang will be crowded with people, and the streets will be full of bamboo and wood farm tools, fruit trees and flowers. Bangbang Club marks the end of Spring Festival activities and the beginning of spring ploughing production. The conference evolved from the "YMCA" and was originally held in a temple. After the early Qing Dynasty, the venue was moved to Old Town of Lijiang and gradually developed into a bamboo and wood farm tool market for spring ploughing. In recent years, the trading content of fruit seedlings and flower bonsai has been increased, and the meeting place has also been moved from the ancient city to the new city. In addition to the club meeting in the county town on the fifteenth day of the first month, there is also the Baisha agricultural tools exchange meeting on the twentieth day of the first month. In Naxi language, it is called Baisha Dangmeikongpu, which means Baisha Dabaoji Palace is open. This is the annual opening of temples such as Baisha Dabaoji Palace, Liulidian and Dadingge, which have continued since the Ming Dynasty, allowing people to burn incense and worship Buddha. Later, it evolved into a traditional festival focusing on farm tools trading. There are not only various farm tools, but also children's toys and daily groceries at the exchange meeting, so as the saying goes, "you can buy anything except the head of a chicken."
Sanduojie
"Three Flowers" is the deity of Yulong Snow Mountain, and a legendary hero who can enlist good warfare and help the poor, so it has been worshipped by Naxi people as a protector for thousands of years. According to Dongba ancient books, Sanhua belongs to sheep, so in the past, Naxi people from all over the country went to Yulong Temple (Beiyuedian) in Baisha, Lijiang every year on the eighth day of February and the sheep day in August, and some even held a ceremony of "offering three flowers" in their own homes. In addition to sacrificial activities, there are various entertainment activities. As the eighth day of February coincides with the blooming of "10,000 Camellia" in bright spring, the Spring Festival Day of Naxi people's outing has gradually formed. 1In August, 986, the Standing Committee of the Eighth National People's Congress of Lijiang Naxi Autonomous County passed a resolution to designate the "Three Flowers Festival at 8: 00 on the second lunar month" as a traditional festival of Naxi people. Every year the county has a holiday, the county government will arrange various festivals, such as holding various exhibitions, enjoying flowers in the garden and holding relevant academic seminars. At that time, tourists will flood in, and the whole city will be jubilant, singing day and night, and it will be very lively. Today, Naxi Three Flowers Festival has become the biggest large-scale folk cultural activity in Lijiang.
March meeting
Lijiang March will be held in March of the lunar calendar every year for seven days. It turned out to be a rainy day on the Dragon Boat Festival. In the Qing Dynasty 10, Yuquan Dragon Shrines was built in Heilongtan, north of Lijiang, and the Longwang Temple Fair was held here for three to five days in March. After the Revolution of 1911, Lijiang commerce persuaded the trade unions to exchange the worship of the Dragon King for department stores, and set up a livestock and trading market mainly for horses in the forest lawn in the north of Yuquan. Businessmen from far and near kept coming, and Yuquan gradually became the center of Jumaji, which began in March and evolved into Jumaji material exchange meeting, which has continued to this day. During the meeting in March, in addition to exchanging mountain products medicinal materials, local products, daily necessities and horses and livestock, sports competitions, folk songs and ancient music performances were also organized. Lijiang City is crowded with people and full of festive atmosphere.
July meeting
Lijiang July Festival, held in the middle of July in the lunar calendar, is another important festival of Naxi nationality. The session lasts about ten days. Because it mainly deals in large livestock such as cattle and horses, it is also called "July Horse Racing Club". The July meeting has a long history and is well known. It is said that the ancestors of Naxi people worshipped Lian, endured the flood for the rest of their lives, met and fell in love with Princess Tiandi, broke through many obstacles and finally got married. When they created the world from the sky, they also sent the horse market in the Heavenly Palace back to their hometown, so Lijiang had a sudden horse festival. In fact, France has been known as the "land of flowers and horses" since ancient times. Horses have long been used to make friends with Sichuan merchants here. There are many wonderful descriptions about the life of raising horses in Dongba Sutra written in Naxi hieroglyphics. Lijiang horse is well-proportioned, with small eyes, short and thick neck, strong and muscular, strong in four forces, hard in hoof, hardworking, light in gait and good at climbing mountains and crossing mountains. Suitable for carrying, riding and pulling, it is not only widely used in the local area, but also exported to many places every year. In the Ming Dynasty, due to the needs of military affairs and transportation, excellent donkey breeds were introduced from Shanxi, accompanied by good local horses, which suddenly developed. At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, Mu Tusi sent local horses to Beijing to pay tribute. During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, a horse and livestock trade suddenly appeared at the Longwang Temple meeting in Li Dian every March. In the early years of the Republic of China, on the basis of horse racing in various places, the July horse racing conference was held on the hillside west of Lion Mountain in Old Town of Lijiang. After liberation, with the prosperity and development of the national economy, the ancient July will be more prosperous and become a new grand event for trading horses, exchanging materials and spreading culture. With the increasing scale, the venue has also moved to a wider Red Star exchange venue in the southeast of the county. During the festival, Naxi people came to Dayan town with livestock, agricultural and sideline products and various Chinese herbal medicines. Brothers and sisters of Han, Bai, Yi, Tibetan, Baoliao, Pumi and other ethnic groups in neighboring areas also attended the meeting in national costumes. Merchants from Tibet, Sichuan, Guizhou, Shaanxi, Henan, Hebei, Anhui and other places also came from afar to participate in the grand event. People rushed to the meeting, went to the meeting, watched exhibitions and performances during the day, and the flow of people from the street to the venue for three kilometers never stopped. At sunset and dusk, the lights are on, and Sifang Street, Xinjie Street and Square are full of people. Some people play the flute, some people play the lusheng, some people duet Gucci Tune, and some people dance Ariri and Omida in circles. Today's Naxi July Fair has truly become an exposition of new frontier features and an exchange of national friendship, which shows its uniqueness more and more.
Naxi Festival
The festivals of Naxi people in Diqing include the Spring Festival in the first month, Tomb-Sweeping Day in February 8th and March, Duanyang Festival in May, Torch Festival in June and ancestor worship festival in July. One of the most distinctive and grand festivals is February 8.
February 8th: The eighth day of the second lunar month is the most grand traditional festival of Naxi people in Diqing, especially in Bai Di on March 8th. Also known as "tidal white water". During the day, thousands of Naxi, Tibetan, Yi and Hui people who came from all directions gathered in Baishuitai to participate in the activities of worshipping Baishui God. People first burn incense and kill chickens to worship heaven, and then perform song and dance performances and horse races, which is very lively.
On the eighth day of February, it looks more like a large-scale group outing. On this day, people in the village put on national holiday costumes and set foot on the road to Baishuitai in droves before dawn. When we arrive at Baishuitai, we first burn incense and kowtow in the begging hole in front of the stage as a family, and then go to their fireplaces for a picnic. From ancient times to the present, the location of each fire pit is the same, because families or families have set up shrines above the fire pit. On that day, Naxi people should first worship their ancestors by the fire pond, and then go to the big incense burner next to Baishuitai Spring to worship their ancestors. After the ancestor worship, they sat by the fireplace in their respective homes and enjoyed all kinds of dishes and cakes that had already been prepared. In this cigarette entanglement, people in Wushuwan first sang and danced "Chiyuan" dance, and people from other villages joined the dance team like people. Suddenly, song and dance merged into an ocean of joy.
clothing, food,shelter and means of traveling
According to relevant historical records, Naxi ancestors had the custom of "both men and women wear sheep's clothing", which may be related to the more developed animal husbandry and the nature of nomadic people. The Naxi men seen in Li Yuan Jing are mostly "good at hunting, holding short knives and decorated with dragonflies", while the women are "covered with blankets and soap clothes, stumbling and fluttering; Women's haircut Qi Mei, with hemp rope as the skirt ". By the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, the clothing of Naxi men was almost the same as that of Han men, and women's clothing changed from wearing skirts to wearing more pants, but it still retained distinctive national characteristics. Women in Lijiang wear women's cotton-padded jackets with wide waist and big sleeves, short front and long back, purple or navy waistcoats, pleated aprons, trousers, boat-shaped embroidered shoes, and a sheepskin shawl with seven loops and seven pairs of hanging ears, commonly known as "Dai Yue Dai Xing". Married women comb their hair on their heads and wear round gauze hats; Unmarried girls wear braids at the back of their heads and cloth headscarves or black velvet hats. Naxi women in Zhongdian County and Deqin County, Yunnan Province often wear open-necked linen double-breasted robes with colorful patterns on their upper bodies, linen pleated skirts on their lower bodies, colorful ribbons around their waists, sheepskin shawls on their backs and cloud-headed boots on their feet. Young women generally like to have long hair. They mix colorful silk threads or wool bun in their braids, which is similar to the headdress of Tibetan women in neighboring areas. Married women usually wrap their heads in red cloth and then wear disc-shaped silver ornaments commonly known as "bone matching"
On the other hand, Mosuo people along the lake have more contacts with Tibetans, and the number of people who believe in Tibetan Buddhism (Lamaism) is increasing day by day. Most men have changed their Tibetan clothes. Women wear colorful coats, pleated skirts, ribbons around their waists and sheepskins on their backs. They weave a thick fake braid from the hair on the yak's tail and wear it on their heads. Then they wrapped a circle of blue-black silk thread around the fake braid and hung it to their waist, which looked beautiful and generous.
The ancestors of Naxi people may have practiced in caves in the early days, and some history books call it "Momo Cave Man". Later, I gradually learned to build a "wooden shack", that is, using logs stacked vertically and horizontally as the wall, adding rafters when the base is about 10 feet, covering it with wooden boards, and then flattening it with stones. In the main room, the fireplace is the activity center, the bed is next to the fireplace, and cooking is also done on the fireplace. There were tile houses in Lijiang in the Ming Dynasty, but most of them were the residences of chieftains and chiefs. With the development of social economy and culture in Naxi area, tile houses with wood and stone structures and civil structures have been widely used in towns and villages in dam area. This kind of tile-roofed house is mostly a two-story building. The roof foundation is made of large stones, with adobe or masonry in the middle and covered with wooden boards. The eaves of the house protrude, and two "wind-fire boards" (some of which are decorated with "hanging fish") are nailed at both ends of the truss beam to protect the wooden parts from rain erosion. The doors and windows of the main house are decorated with flowers, birds and animals, and pebbles and tiles with various patterns are embedded in the dam, so it is beautiful and comfortable to replant flowers and plants.
Mosuo people along Lugu Lake still live in "wooden houses", each family has at least one main house and a stable, while people with large population or wealth have built four houses to form a courtyard. The main room is generally composed of main room, upper room, lower room, back room and warehouse. There is a big fire pit in the main room for cooking and heating; The fireplace is covered with wooden boards, which can be used by the whole family for eating, discussing, offering sacrifices and meeting guests, and is also a place for elderly women and children to sleep at night. The upper room is the old man's bedroom, the lower room is the place where food is processed and pig food is cooked, and the back room is used to pile up sundries. There are three or four small rooms in the upstairs room, which serve as the "greenhouse" for young and middle-aged women in the family to receive male xia. Although this "wooden box" building is simple, it is warm in winter and cool in summer, and it can also resist strong earthquakes of magnitude 7 or so.
According to historical records, in ancient Naxi people mostly ate buckwheat, barnyard grass and round roots. Since the Ming and Qing Dynasties, on the basis of absorbing a large number of advanced production technologies and new crops of Han nationality, the agriculture of Naxi nationality has developed rapidly and its life has changed. Corn, wheat, rice, barley and barnyard grass are staple foods. Farmers in the dam area often open vegetable gardens in front of and behind their houses and grow some vegetables to support themselves. At the same time, Naxi people have the custom of killing pigs every winter and twelfth month, making ham or bacon, which is generally cut and eaten, and lard is used as edible oil. People usually bring their own pickles, lobster sauce, liver sauce, sausages, preserved eggs and so on. Under normal circumstances, three meals a day are mostly dry rice, with rice or rice and corn mixed, and two or three dishes and soup. In winter and spring, I like to eat steaming hot pot dishes; In the busy summer season, most farmers use rice wine mixed with cold water to quench their thirst, and some places also eat fried noodles and butter tea in the morning. Naxi people like drinking, drinking tea, smoking leaves and eating spicy, sweet and sour food. The staple food of urban residents is mainly rice and wheat flour, which is generally small and refined, and vegetables are supplied by suburban vegetable farmers. There is a famous Lijiang ham Baba in the city, which is delicious.
Sacrifice to heaven and ancestors
The March 8th Naxi people worship the heavens once a year and their ancestors three times. On the fourteenth day of the twelfth lunar month, people will be invited to make wine, cook and sing. People will be "looking for a car" on the evening of the 30th. On the first day, the kitchen god will kowtow. The next day, they will wash their hair, feet and clothes, and go to the river to drink water. On the third night, the gods were invited to make sacrifices at home. On the fourth day, we will kill chickens, burn incense in heaven, kowtow and sip, come back to shoot arrows after the activity, and have dinner at the priest's house after the activity. At dawn on the 5th, I carried out a big pig and cooked three pots. After dinner, I watched Good Arrow in Heaven and Friends of the Crow. Old people eat wine and meat, and then everyone eats together. Go home in turn after dinner. On the sixth day, families offered their own sacrifices. On the 8th, he carried another pig to worship heaven. On the 9th, I sacrificed a pig to heaven. This is the end of the whole worship activity.
Ancestor worship: once on the sixth or seventh day of the first month or on February 12th, once in June and once in November. Generally, three chestnut trees are used for sacrifice, and each family sacrifices itself.
funeral
In terms of funeral customs, the Naxi nationality in Lijiang always practiced cremation before "improving soil and establishing streams". After death, people are carried to the crematorium on the mountain or outside the village with bamboo baskets or uncovered wooden coffins for cremation. After a while, they will clean up the remains and hold a funeral. In the early Qing Dynasty, after "changing the soil to establish a stream", the stream officials appointed by the central government explicitly changed cremation to burial for many times, all of which failed with the saying that "the natives are still confused about the curse and the blessing". It was not until the Qianlong period that officials tried their best to mobilize a small Naxi leader to bury his mother, and people gradually changed cremation to burial, with no disaster in sight. But in some remote mountainous areas, the custom of cremation still exists.
When a person is dying, an elder in the family is holding a paper bag, which contains a little broken silver, tea powder and rice. Be sure to put this paper bag into the mouth of the deceased when he falls down. This move is intended to continue the precious "qi" of the deceased, thus promoting family reproduction and future generations' prosperity. In addition, activities such as mourning, mourning and stopping spirits should be conducted under the command of a respected family elder, and some ceremonies should be presided over by Dongbajing. After death, people usually stop for three days to attend the funeral; For three days after the funeral, the family still had to make sacrifices every day. Next, a series of activities such as "Doing for Seven Days", "Hundred Days" and "Nian Zhai" will be held to pay homage to the deceased. Dongba or Lama will be invited to recite the scriptures at home, and the whole sacrifice activity will come to an end until the "three-year fast" on the third anniversary of the death. Women who died in childbirth, children who died prematurely and other abnormal deaths are generally not allowed to be buried in family cemeteries or cremated in family or village crematoriums.
Mosuo people basically maintain the custom of cremation, but before the funeral, they should tie up the body, put it in a linen bag and bury it in a hole in the back room of the main house for a period of time (up to 49 days). In addition, after cremation, there are some customs, such as putting some bones in small bags and sending them to the family cemetery for burial. These customs have changed a lot now.
Naxi people attach great importance to the custom of life and death. In terms of fertility, Naxi people in many areas have always maintained the custom of seeking children, and there are many places for pregnant women to seek children. Childbirth is usually done by elderly women from wealthy families with children and grandchildren. It was not until around the 1960s that they generally turned to hospitals or health clinics to give birth. After the child is born 10 day, the father needs to send someone to his parents-in-law, uncle and uncle, and send rice wine and eggs for good news during menstruation. After the congratulations, relatives and friends will come to congratulate you and give you gifts such as hens, eggs, rice and baby clothes and hats. Before the child's full moon, Dongba should be invited to preside over the naming ceremony and invite all relatives and friends to attend. After the full moon guests are invited, they are allowed to go out with their children on their backs, and pregnant women can also get out of bed to participate in housework. When the child reaches 1 year-old, we must invite one-year-old guests to put down pens, ink, paper, iron carpenter tools and needlework in public places, so that the child can "grasp the week" and predict the future. The Mosuo people on the bank of Lugu Lake think that the more women there are, the more blessed they are, because as long as they have girls, they can continue the "roots" of the matriarchal family.
marriage customs
Due to the historical origin and different geographical distribution among branches, Naxi people have formed their own unique marriage customs and family patterns. The Naxi people living in Lijiang have been monogamous for a long time, while the Mosuo people living around Lugu Lake at the junction of Yunnan and Sichuan provinces used to live a "Axia" (that is, close heterosexual friends) marriage life. There are patrilineal, matrilineal and patrilineal and matrilineal forms of marriage and family in the same nation, which has long attracted widespread attention and become a hot topic in academic research.
The Naxi nationality in Lijiang has been practicing monogamy for a long time. In the old society, the marriage of children was often decided by parents, and the matchmaker was invited to fix them up, and then they were hired by betrothal, wine invitation and wedding ceremony. When a boy is seven or eight years old, his parents will pay attention to finding a wife for him. If the birthday of the girl and her son is harmonious, he can ask the matchmaker to bring a pot of wine to the woman's house to propose marriage. With the consent of the woman's parents, you can choose an auspicious day to hold a ceremony to send a bride price, commonly known as "sending wine." At this ceremony, the man's family must give the woman's parents a "four-color gift": a jar of about five pounds of white wine, two packs of tea, four boxes of brown sugar and two liters of rice. After the "Send some wine" ceremony, if either party thinks this marriage is inappropriate, they can go back on their word. If the woman goes back on her word, she must return the bride price given by the man, but if the man wants to go back on his engagement, he can't ask for the bride price, just let the matchmaker inform the woman. After a year and a half, the man's family will also send a second bride price to the woman's family, commonly known as "sending a big one." In addition to the above-mentioned "four-color gift", the gift also includes a seven-foot-long homespun, two dresses, half a piece of pork, a pair of jade bracelets or silver bracelets, and some cash. The woman's family also gave the man a pot of white wine, two boxes of brown sugar and some bazin. After the ceremony of "sending big wine", both sides can't regret getting married, otherwise they will be discussed. When young men and women reach the age of 18, they can choose a fixed date for their wedding.
In terms of marriage, Naxi people in Lijiang usually marry their uncles and aunts, and the uncle's son has the priority to marry the aunt's daughter. Therefore, under normal circumstances, the aunt's daughter will be selected by her uncle's son before considering marrying an outsider. In some places, there is also the custom of "changing rooms", but in general, my brother marries his sister-in-law after his death, while my brother rarely marries his sister-in-law. In addition, Naxi people rarely divorce, because it is generally considered that divorce is a disgraceful thing and will never divorce unless absolutely necessary. After divorce, the woman can go back to her family, and the bride price is generally not refunded. According to traditional customs, widows can remarry whether they have children or not. After the founding of New China, young men and women's rights to freedom of love and marriage have been fully and effectively guaranteed.
Most Naxi families in Lijiang are monogamous paternal families, and all their children take their father's surname. The way of property inheritance is from father to son, and from son to grandson. Father has the right to decide family affairs. A childless family can adopt a son-in-law, but it must obtain the consent of the main near relatives in advance, and all children must take their mother's surname, so as to enjoy the inheritance right of family property. Naxi families are mostly main families with three or four generations living under one roof, and the number of nuclear families where young couples live together gradually increased after 1950s and 1960s. Families with many children also have the custom of separating their sons after marriage. In the process of separation, sons often share the means of production and living such as fields, livestock and houses equally, and the youngest son has the priority to choose. Generally, the youngest son inherits the ancestral home and assumes the responsibility of supporting his parents and offering sacrifices to the ancestors.
Mosuo people living in the area around Lugu Lake at the junction of Yunnan and Sichuan once had a strange "xia" marriage. The characteristic of this marriage system is that men don't marry women. Men visit women's homes at night and return to their own homes the next morning to engage in productive labor. Husband and wife do not form the same family. The conclusion of this relationship between Xia and Xia is based on the principle that close relatives of maternal blood do not get married, and is generally not limited by age, money, seniority, grade and nationality.
According to the traditional customs of Mosuo people, when girls and boys reach the age of thirteen, they will hold ceremonies of "dressing up" and "wearing pants" respectively, which indicates that they have reached adulthood and can begin to participate in some labor and social activities. Generally speaking, from the age of 15 and 16, women and men can live with the opposite sex from the age of 17 and 18. They established the relationship between xia and Xia through daily contact, festivals, temple fairs and other social activities. The main conditions for choosing xia are beauty, youth and ability. In the early days of xia's relationship, the man's visit to the woman's house was often in a relatively secret state, and it would take several months to openly meet the woman's family. When meeting, the man should give some gifts to the woman's elders to show his respect and gratitude. This kind of Axia marriage is basically based on the woman. Every girl who has had a bar mitzvah has her own "xia Room" at home to receive male xia. As long as all the men who no longer like her are closed, the relationship between xia will be over. In addition, all the children born during xia's communication were raised by the woman, and the property was completely inherited by the matriarchal line. Because xia's marriage is characterized by easy combination and easy separation, both men and women rarely have strong xenophobia or jealousy, and are indifferent to the dissolution of the relationship with xia, and rarely have disputes over it.
Associated with this form of marriage, Mosuo people once had a matriarchal family form. Its main feature is that each family is headed by an elderly or capable woman, who is responsible for arranging daily production and life, managing warehouses and property, hosting family sacrifices and receiving visiting guests. Family members are mainly composed of grandmothers and their brothers and sisters, mothers and their brothers and sisters, children of brothers and sisters and others, generally including two to four generations. There are about ten people in each family, and some families have as many as twenty or thirty people. All family members live a married life in xia, and the property is entirely inherited by the mother, and the lineage is also decided by the mother. Therefore, Mosuo people recognize the traditional concept that "women are bones, and if they are missing, they will be cut off". When a family has no heiress, she always tries her best to adopt a daughter to continue her bloodline.
science and technology
The Naxi people, who live in Yulong Snow Mountain and Jinsha River, have accumulated a lot of scientific knowledge in astronomy, calendar, animal husbandry, agriculture, medicine and so on in the long-term practice of agriculture and animal husbandry production and social life, and a number of accomplished scholars and experts have emerged.
Many ancient scientific and technological knowledge of Naxi people is circulated among the people in the form of fairy tales and recorded in Dongba scriptures with hieroglyphics. According to the Dongba Classic, there are dozens of proper nouns about astronomical phenomena in ancient times. From the classics such as Bagetu and the Origin of the Chinese Zodiac, the Naxi people have long had a clear concept of four characters and four corners (similar to the gossip of the Han people); Created a calendar with the full moon as the fixed month, 30 days per month, one year 12 months and 365 days * * *, and recorded the days, months and years with the zodiac. From the observation of astronomical phenomena and biological activities, people have also explored a set of laws about wind, rain, flowers, snow and various bird activities, so as to distinguish the characteristics of seasons and carry out farming activities in a timely manner.
Naxi people are famous for raising horses. Lijiang horse is another name of the famous Dali horse, and there is a special book "The Origin of Horse" in Dongba Classic. Lijiang is one of the famous "Dali horse" producing areas. Lijiang horse is one of the excellent breeds in China. It is small and lean, can bear loads, is good at climbing mountains and mountains, and has strong adaptability, and can walk continuously for two or three months. Recently, the agricultural department introduced an improved variety of Kamaba to mate with Lijiang horse, which made it develop greatly.
Lijiang Naxi Autonomous County has gradually established and improved the technical network of agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and medicine, and trained nearly 10,000 scientific and technological personnel. They have carried out in-depth scientific research activities and made remarkable achievements in rural modernization. For example, potato is the main food crop in the mountainous area of Lijiang. In view of the serious virus damage, variety degradation and other problems, the county agricultural department summed up the sexual reproduction technology suitable for the local area after long-term experiments, and adopted technical measures such as seedling transplanting and potato utilization, which basically solved the problem and achieved high yield. For another example, after the promotion of excellent wheat varieties in this county, the wheat output has also increased substantially year after year.
In the mid-1960s, according to the policy of developing rural economy in an all-round way and on the basis of repeated scientific experiments, the science and technology departments in Lijiang promoted new apple planting techniques such as "selecting more buds and changing the head by grafting", which improved the apples planted in the county. By the end of 1970s, the annual output of apples in the county had reached more than one million kilograms, making it one of the emerging apple production bases in Yunnan Province.
Naxi nationality is located in Hengduan mountain area, with mountains, valleys and flat dams alternating, fertile soil, long sunshine time and abundant rainfall, which is suitable for the growth of various plants. Yulong Mountain, known as the "plant treasure house", is rich in more than 500 kinds of Chinese medicinal materials, of which more than 200 kinds of precious medicinal materials are sold throughout the country. Lijiang's medical undertakings have made great progress, eliminating infectious diseases such as malaria, cholera and typhoid fever, gradually reducing common diseases and frequently-occurring diseases, and greatly improving people's physique.
Ludian Township in Lijiang Naxi Autonomous County is a famous "hometown of medicinal materials", with this as the center, more than 400 medicinal materials cultivation research and planting fields of different scales have been established in Lijiang area.
In addition, Naxi people have a group of middle and senior scientific workers distributed all over the country, such as famous historians and educators at home and abroad, Professor Fang Guoyu, wheat breeding experts Zhao Zhongxiu, Mu, Yang Feng and other famous people. They have made due contributions to the cause of Naxi and the motherland.