Brief introduction of Miao nationality
Mainly living in the southeast of Guizhou Province, Damiao Mountain in Guangxi, Hainan Island and the border areas of Guizhou, Hunan, Hubei, Sichuan, Yunnan, Guangxi and other provinces. Population: 970,000. Miao nationality has a long history. In China's ancient books, there are records of Miao ancestors more than 5,000 years ago. This is the clan and tribe called "Nan Man" from the Yellow River valley to the south of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. Miao people have no written language, and Miao language belongs to the Miao branch of Miao Yao language family of Sino-Tibetan language family. Miao people live on high mountains, mainly in agriculture, and the crops are upland rice. Bags, buckwheat seeds, potatoes and beans, cash crops are hemp, usually grown and spun by themselves. Miao people are rich in folk oral literature, such as ancient songs, poems and love songs. Miao people are also good at dancing, and Lusheng dance is the most popular.
Miao nationality has its own language, which is divided into three dialects: Xiangxi, Qiandong and Sichuan, Guizhou and Yunnan. After 1956, the Latin alphabet writing scheme was designed. Due to the long-term contact between Miao and Han, a large number of Miao people are fluent in and use Chinese.
Agriculture is dominant in Miao areas, supplemented by hunting. Miao people's arts and crafts such as flower picking, embroidery, brocade, batik, paper cutting and handcraft are magnificent and colorful, and they are well-known at home and abroad. Among them, the batik process of Miao nationality has a history of thousands of years. There are more than 130 kinds of Miao costumes, which can be compared with the costumes of any nation in the world. Miao nationality is a nation that can sing and dance well, especially love songs and wine songs. Lusheng is the most representative musical instrument of Miao nationality.
Miao history
Miao nationality has a long history, and its ancestors may be part of the ancient three south areas. One theory originated from the "mane" people in the Yin and Zhou Dynasties. During the Qin and Han Dynasties, they mainly lived in western Hunan and eastern Guizhou, including in the name of "Changsha-Wuling Revolution" or "Wuxi Man", and then gradually migrated and scattered in the southwest mountainous areas. Others believe that it is related to the ancient "Jiuli". Miao people in Sichuan, Guizhou, Hunan and other places have regarded Chiyou as their ancestors so far. Legend has it that Chiyou is the king of Jiuli. Five thousand years ago, the Jiuli tribe clashed with the Huangdi tribe, withdrew from the lower reaches of the Yellow River and occupied the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Gradually form a "three seedlings." After the 2nd century BC, most Miao ancestors have moved to Hunan, Hubei, Sichuan and Guizhou. The Miao people in Hainan were soldiers who went from Guangxi in the16th century.
Miao music
The Miao population is about 3.92 million, mainly distributed in Guizhou province, and the rest are scattered in Yunnan, Hunan, Guangxi and Sichuan provinces. Due to the long-term dispersion, the Miao language, costumes and festivals vary greatly from place to place. Miao language belongs to Miao Yao language family of Sino-Tibetan language family, and they have designed a script scheme in the form of Latin letters.
Worship many gods.
Miao songs play a very important role in Miao cultural life. Whether it is a festival or a wedding, Miao songs are everywhere, and the famous "flying songs" are folk songs sung in "tourism" activities. The tune shows people a group of swallows with reeds dancing gracefully with swallows and girls.
Miao etiquette
Miao people attach great importance to etiquette. When guests visit, they will kill chickens and ducks to entertain guests. If you are a distinguished guest from afar, the Miao people are used to inviting guests to drink croissant first. When eating chicken, the head of the chicken should be given to the older guests, and the drumsticks should be given to the youngest guests. In some places, there is also the custom of dividing chicken hearts, that is, the oldest owner in the family gives chicken hearts or duck hearts to the guests with chopsticks, and the guests can't eat them themselves, so they must divide the chicken hearts equally among the old people present. If the guest drinks less and doesn't like fat meat, it can explain the situation. If the host is not reluctant, but dissatisfied with eating and drinking, it is considered to look down on the host.
Miao people pay attention to truth and sincerity, and are very enthusiastic. Most of them avoid glitz and hypocrisy. Host Lu Yu guests don't take the first step, don't walk in front; Use honorifics in conversation; Welcome guests to wear holiday clothes; For distinguished guests, wine is welcome outside the village; When the guest arrives at the door, the host will call the door and inform the hostess at home that she will sing and open the door to welcome the guests; In front of the guests, the hostess does not climb upstairs; At the banquet, chickens and ducks are the most precious delicacies, especially the heart and liver. It should be given to the guests or the elderly first, and then the guests will share it with you. The order is first long and then small. Guests should not call the host "Miao Zi"; They prefer to call themselves "Meng".
Miao people celebrate festivals.
Stepping on Huashan Mountain is a grand traditional festival of Miao people in China, which is usually held on the first, third and sixth day of the first lunar month. In all counties where Miao people live, flower poles will be erected these days and a grand stepping on Huashan Mountain will be held. This is not only a good opportunity for young Miao men and women to fall in love, but also an important place for Miao people to carry out cultural and recreational activities. Miao people, old and young, dressed in gold and silver, rushed to the foot of the flower pole from all directions, playing reeds, playing tricks, bullfighting, wrestling, playing thrush and climbing the flower pole.
Back-pounding Festival is very popular in some areas of Funing County. It is held from the third day to the fifteenth day of the first lunar month every year. This is a festival for young Miao men and women. During the festival, young men and women gather on the scenic hillside. When the back-beating began, men flocked out and rushed to the girl they chose, with one hand around the girl's neck, the other hand covering her eyes, and other boys hitting her on the back. Not to be outdone, the girl struggled with a smile. When you break free, catch that young man and deal with him as he deals with you. Throughout the venue, men chased women and jumped around. Tired of playing, men and women find a place to make local calls (that is, two bamboo tubes with a long line in the middle, each of which can hear the voice of talking and singing), pour out sweet words to each other and form a partner. After falling in love, tell your parents that you will get married on an auspicious day.
Marriage custom of Miao nationality
Miao nationality is monogamous, and young men and women have traditional social activities before marriage. For example, "meeting girls" is the way for Miao youth to fall in love freely. The traditional festival of Miao nationality is the annual Huashan Festival (held on the fifth day of the first lunar month, also known as "stepping on Huashan Mountain"), which is the most prosperous festival of Miao nationality. During the festival, young men and women dressed in festive costumes get together to sing and perform drum treading, lion dancing and lusheng, which is very lively. In addition, the Miao people also celebrate the Spring Festival and other festivals of the Han people.
Glutinous rice is also an essential food for young men and women to fall in love and get married. Miao people in Chengbu, Hunan Province gave each other glutinous rice cakes painted with mandarin ducks as souvenirs. When the wedding is held, the bride and groom should make a toast, and the person in charge of the wedding also invites the bride and groom to eat glutinous rice cakes painted with dragons, phoenixes and dolls.
Miao costume
It is the nature of Miao girls to like to wear silver ornaments. They tied a bun on their heads, about 20 cm high, and made a beautiful silver corolla. There are six jagged silver wings inserted in front of the corolla, most of which are the patterns of two dragons playing with beads. In some areas, in addition to silver pieces, silver horns with a height of about 1 m are inserted into the silver crown, and the tips of the horns float in color, which makes them more noble and rich. There is a silver ribbon at the lower edge of the silver crown, and a row of small silver pendants hang down. The silver collar worn around the neck has several layers, mostly made of silver pieces and small silver rings. Wearing a silver lock and a silver collar on his chest, wearing a silver cloak on his chest and back, and hanging many small silver bells. Earrings and bracelets are all made of silver. Only the two sleeves are embroidered with lux as the main tone, but the cuffs are also inlaid with a wide circle of silver ornaments. The costumes of Miao girls often weigh several kilograms, and some have been accumulated and passed down by generations. Known as "a fairy dressed in strange clothes and wrapped in white." The craftsmanship of Miao silver ornaments is gorgeous, exquisite and ingenious, which fully shows the wisdom and talent of Miao people. Miao costumes are not exactly the same everywhere. Men usually wear cloth shorts, but Miao women generally pay attention to clothing, especially clothing, which is extremely exquisite and has many flowers. Some skirts have more than 40 layers, hence the name "pleated skirt". The patterns embroidered on the dress are antique and colorful. Women are good at weaving, embroidery and batik, with exquisite craftsmanship.
Miao diet
In most areas, Miao people have three meals a day, and rice is the staple food. Fried Baba is the most common fried food. If you add some fresh meat and sauerkraut as stuffing, the taste will be more delicious.
Most meat comes from livestock and poultry farming. Miao people in Sichuan and Yunnan all like to eat dog meat, and there is a saying that "Miao's dog is Yi's wine". In addition to animal oil, Miao people's edible oils are mostly tea oil and vegetable oil.
Pepper is the main condiment, and in some areas there is even a saying that it is inseparable from pepper. There are many kinds of Miao vegetables. Common vegetables are beans, melons, greens and radishes. Most Miao people are good at making bean products.
Miao people everywhere generally like to eat sauerkraut, and sour soup is a must for every family. Sour soup is rice soup or tofu water, fermented in a crock for 3-5 days, and then used to cook fish and vegetables.
The food preservation of Miao people generally adopts pickling method, and vegetables, chickens, ducks and fish like to be pickled into sour taste. Almost every Miao family has a jar for curing food, which is collectively called a sour jar.
Miao nationality has a long history of brewing, and has a set of techniques from koji making, fermentation, distillation, blending and cellar storage. Camellia oleifera is the most common daily drink. Miao people in Xiangxi also specially made a kind of scented tea. Sour soup is also a common drink.
Typical foods mainly include: blood soup, Chili bone, Miaoxiang Guifeng soup, cotton vegetable cake, insect tea, scented tea, fish paste, sour soup fish and so on.
Miao architecture
Due to long-term scattered living, different regions have their own characteristics. Most houses are made of wood, and the roofs are covered with tiles, fir bark or thatch. In central or western Guizhou, thin slate is used to cover roofs. Mountainous areas are mostly diaojiao buildings; Hainan Island and Zhaotong, Yunnan Province are inhabited by long thatched houses or "fork houses" built with cross trunks; Xiangxi area is full of stone houses.
Most Miao people live in mountainous areas, and their houses are made of hedges, bark, tiles, or gables, bamboo chips or sawdust, and are divided into bedrooms, kitchens and stables, with simple furnishings. Some Miao people live in the dam area, and their houses also have tile houses with water and soil structure, which are divided into three rooms, with side doors on the left and right and a gate in the middle, that is, the main entrance. In some Miao people, the main entrance is generally not allowed to go in and out casually. Only when there are weddings, funerals, sacrifices and other activities at home can you go in and out through the main entrance.
Miao custom
When you are a guest in Miao family, remember not to eat chicken head. Guests are generally not allowed to sandwich chicken liver, chicken offal and chicken legs. Chicken gall and chicken offal should respect old women, and chicken legs should be left to children. When you leave the Miao host family, you must say "Wow Zhou" politely, which means "thank you" and thank the Miao family for their hospitality.
In some Miao areas, it is forbidden to wash and drink rice retort, rice bag and rice basin at any time, and only when eating new rice, to show that the old rice has passed away and welcome the new rice. Washing at any time will wash away the family wealth and there is not enough food. Drinking raw water in the mountains should not be directly drunk. You must mark the grass first to show that you are killing sick ghosts. Don't touch other people's clothes on the roadside, so as not to catch leprosy. Avoid children playing with small bows and arrows at home for fear of shooting their ancestors. Avoid crossing the child's head, or the child will not grow tall. It is forbidden for women to sit on a bench with their elders.
It is forbidden to kill and beat dogs and not to eat dog meat; You can't sit in the Miao ancestral hall, and you can't step on the tripod on the kang with your feet; Do not whistle at home or at night; Cann't you shoot ash and eat fire? Rake; No bound Miao people are allowed to be used when frolicking; Don't enter the house when straw hats, branches or wedding and funeral ceremonies are hung on the door; Lu Yu is newly married, so don't wait in the middle.
Miao religion
Miao people's religious beliefs are mainly primitive religions, and they attach importance to worshipping natural gods such as mountain gods, tree gods, hunting gods, rain gods and fire gods. In the case of a storm, they should burn meat to offer sacrifices to ghosts. If the child is ill, he should worship the stone god; When adults are sick, they should kill pigs to sacrifice to the well god and take "spiritual water" to treat diseases; If you have misfortune at home, you should "be a cow ghost", that is, "push the cow and make a wish" and pray for the blessing of the gods. Believing in the god of wealth, there is a "wealth-opening door sacrifice". In an instant, a red cloth one foot square is nailed to the door, and the demon king curses to kill chickens and sacrifice them to show his desire for wealth. Ancestor worship is also very popular among Miao people. The biggest ancestor worship festival is the "Victoria Song" Festival after autumn every year. Usually, when family members encounter unlucky things or have nightmares, they will kill chickens to worship their ancestors and ask the devil to put a spell to convey their children's prayers to their ancestors and gods. Some Miao people also believe in Taoism. Dedicated to Guanyin, Guandi, Tianwang Bodhisattva, Panpiao and other gods. Some Miao people are called "White Horse", some are called "Ang", some are called "Almighty", and some Miao people in Zhaotong are called "Pomo". "Po Mo" used to write and read Confucian classics in Chinese. In the past hundred years, Christianity and Catholicism have been introduced into Miao areas in Yunnan, and the Seventh-Day Adventist China Branch (in Fumin), Christian Missionary Association (in Lufeng), Southwest Christian Federation (in Yuanmou), Western Missionary Association (in Wuding), Shimenkan Church and other church organizations have been established in Zhaotong, Chuxiong and Qujing, respectively, making some Miao people believe in Christianity and Catholicism.
Miao people used to believe in animism, worship nature and worship their ancestors. Drum Music Festival is the biggest ritual activity of Miao nationality. Generally, a small sacrifice lasts for seven years and a big sacrifice lasts for thirteen years. It is held on the second day of October to November in the lunar calendar. At that time, a roe deer will be killed and a Lusheng dance will be performed to commemorate the ancestors. Invite friends and relatives to get together during meals to enhance feelings and family harmony.