A Brief History of the Tujia—Living Customs (Part One)
Section Two: Living Customs. In the long course of mountain agriculture, the Tujia gradually formed their own way of life and customs. After the gaitu guiliu reforms, as large numbers of Han entered the mountains to cultivate land, economic and cultural exchange between Tujia and Han increased, and many Han customs were adopted. Because the Tujia live in an area bordering four provinces and municipalities, they share with neighboring peoples...
This article has been compiled from historical materials on 'Zhangjiajie Tour Guide Network' (33519.com · Specialty Foods / Cuisine / Customs section). Prices, business hours, administrative divisions, and statistical data mentioned in the text may already be outdated. Before traveling, please refer to the latest announcements from merchants, scenic areas, and local competent authorities; the parts involving folk legends and folk customs are local historical and cultural anecdotes, provided for cultural reference.
Section 2: Customs of Daily Life
In the long course of engaging in mountain agriculture, the Tujia gradually formed their own way of life and customs. After gaitu guiliu, as large numbers of Han people entered the mountains to cultivate land, economic and cultural exchange between the Tujia and Han increased day by day, and they also absorbed many Han customs. Because the Tujia lived in an area bordering four provinces and municipalities and influenced one another's customs with neighboring ethnic groups, there were many differences in customs from place to place, but their main customs were still the same or similar.
I. Festivals
In the past, because the Tujia ancestors were industrious and martial and repeatedly established military achievements, sacrifices to ancestors and praise of their merits were passed down through the ages and became major festivals. In Yongshun, Baojing, and other places, "every year in the third month, they killed white sheep and beat drums and blew sheng to sacrifice to ghosts; on the eighteenth day of the fourth month and the night of the fifteenth day of the seventh month they sacrificed to ancestors; on the ninth day of the ninth month the whole village slaughtered animals to sacrifice on Double Ninth, to repay the earth's merits; at year's end on the night of the twenty-eighth day of the twelfth month they sacrificed to ancestors, called honoring ghosts, and forbade hearing the sounds of cats and dogs." It can be seen that the festivals prevalent in Baojing and Yongshun had as their main content honoring the Tuwang and sacrificing to ancestors. The Tujia people of Yongshun County "whenever celebrating the New Year, first set up the spirit tablet of the deceased tusi in the front of the house, offering fish and meat; the spirit tablets of their own ancestors were placed behind the door; chickens and dogs in the house were all hidden away, saying that the ghost lord was in the hall and they dared not offend or disturb him. Each village set up a ghost hall, said to be the yamen of the released native official's ghost." For the Tujia, celebrating the "Gan New Year" and honoring the Tuwang and sacrificing to ancestors were the most solemn occasions.
Because the Huguang tusi and Sichuan tusi rose and fell differently in history, and powerful clans and great surnames also rose and declined in turn, festival sequences also differed from place to place. Within Yongshun, "on the third day of the third month they sacrificed to ancestors, on the fourth day they sacrificed to the tusi, and the next day they sent Daoists to sacrifice at the Ma Fubo Temple." On the sixth day of the sixth month, because "Mao Gang tusi Qin Hou of the Ming was executed and blood splashed on his clothes, nearby residents aired out clothes to mourn him, called drying the dragon robe." It is said that on the fifteenth day of the eighth month "the heavenly gate opens"; once the heavenly gate opened, until the fifteenth day of the tenth month was the time for honoring the Tuwang, and Tujia people in each village set their own regular dates for sacrifice, with the length of ritual varying.
After gaitu guiliu, Tujia sacrificial rites changed considerably. Taking Yongshun County as an example, "in sacrificial rites, gentry families at seasonal and year-end sacrifices always sacrificed to their ancestors; at Qingming they sacrificed at the graves, called hanging and sweeping; at Zhongyuan they offered to ancestors, called burning packets; the whole county did the same." For the Gan New Year, the household gods were placed in the main hall, and sacrificing to the household gods became the main object of sacrifice. "As for sacrificing at ancestral graves in early the tenth month, sacrificing to the first ancestor at the winter solstice, and sacrificing to early ancestors at the Beginning of Spring, these were only occasionally practiced," and became residual sacrificial forms, no longer common or solemn.
The Dragon Boat Festival is also called the Duan Yang Festival or Double Fifth Festival. The fifth day of the fifth month is called Lesser Duanwu, the fifteenth day of the fifth month is called Greater Duanwu, and the twenty-fifth day of the fifth month is called Final Duanwu. On this day the Tujia had many customs, such as eating zongzi, hiding from the noonday, racing dragon boats, wearing mugwort, hanging calamus, carrying fragrant pouches, driving out the five poisons, drinking realgar wine, and hanging longevity threads. In the past, before the first Duan Yang arrived, the Daoist in the temple would voluntarily send a "talisman" printed on yellow paper, called the "Duan Yang talisman," printed with patterns of "cloud dragons spreading rain," "white tiger seated in the hall," and the five poisons—centipede, snake, scorpion, gecko, and toad—along with the words "abundant harvest of the five grains and prosperity of the six livestock." The Daoist pasted it on the wall at the center of the main hall, then received a reward of one sheng of corn from the householder and left. The Duan Yang talisman remained pasted until the day of the Final Duan Yang, when each household began to take it down on its own and burn it with incense and paper, the so-called "transforming the talisman to present auspiciousness."
Xiangwang Festival. Xiangwang was the Ba people's ancestor Lin Jun. Legend says that King Xiangwang met his end in the Qingjiang River on the sixth day of the sixth lunar month. To sacrifice to the ancestor of their own ethnic group, nearly forty Xiangwang temples were built along both banks of the Qingjiang River. Every year on the sixth day of the sixth month, Tujia people put on clean clothes and went to the Xiangwang Temple to burn incense, burn paper, and present offerings of fruit.
Yueban Festival. From the tenth to the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month is the Yueban Festival, commonly called "celebrating Yueban," also known as the Zhongyuan Festival, Ghost Festival, or Festival of the Dead. The Tujia attached great importance to this festival, with sayings such as "the New Year is small but Yueban is great" and "Yueban surpasses Qingming." During Yueban, descendants had to invite the ancestors home, offer food (sprinkling water and rice), and burn paper money (burning packets in front of the house).
She Day. The second day of the second lunar month is She Day, held to seek the Earth Bodhisattva's protection for the safety of people and livestock and to grant a year of good harvest. On this day the Tujia held a series of activities: every household made She rice and rice cakes, killed chickens, and prepared wine to honor the She god. Tujia of the Tian surname had to carry pots, bowls, ladles, and basins to the Earth Temple to join the Earth Grandfather and Earth Grandmother in the She meal; in some places Tujia held a grand She outing ceremony, with activities such as welcoming the gods, praying to the gods, throwing torches, and throwing brooms, and they also danced the Sheba dance and slaughtered pigs.
Knife-Sharpening Festival falls on the thirteenth day of the fifth lunar month. Rain was considered good on this day, because Lord Guan had to sharpen his great saber, and so the rain was called "knife-sharpening rain." The farming proverb says, "If you do not grant me knife-sharpening water, I will not grant you dragon-robe drying." In Badong there is a saying: "On the thirteenth of the fifth month the knife is sharpened; the great knife sharpens and brings the Yangtze's water, the small knife sharpens and brings the Yandu River."
Insect-Shooting Day was on the evening before the Awakening of Insects. On that evening they used lime to draw a bow and arrow on the ground, called "shooting insects," aiming to destroy insect pests while they were still stirring, preventing them from multiplying and harming the crops and delaying farm work.
Double Ninth Festival. Every year the ninth day of the ninth lunar month is the Double Ninth Festival. Each household made osmanthus wine and Double Ninth cakes to honor the Earth God, and people outside the family were not allowed to share them.
By the eve of the founding of New China, viewed overall across the border region of Hunan, Hubei, Chongqing, and Guizhou, Tujia festivals other than the Gan New Year were relatively close to those of the local Han people, and the residual forms of rituals honoring the Tuwang and sacrificing to ancestors preserved in various places were also quite inconsistent. In Tujia villages deep in remote mountains with poor transportation, customs of sacrificing to the Tuwang could still be glimpsed.
The Tujia people of Laifeng County have retained a relatively strong legacy of customs from the Tusi period. From the third to the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, they sacrifice to their ancestors and the Tuwang (local chieftain kings), and perform the hand-waving dance at the Tuwang shrine. The Tujia regard the eighteenth day of the fourth lunar month as a major festival (in practice, they celebrate on the seventeenth), when they "slaughter pigs, make large minced-meat dishes, steam glutinous rice, sacrifice to ancestors, and also entertain guests" (in Longshan and other places, they sacrifice to ancestors on the night of the eighteenth). On the sixth day of the sixth lunar month, they sun the dragon robe, marking the day of Qin Hou's death, and first slaughter an ox to obtain the "ten complete parts" (meat, tongue, intestines, heart, etc.). They steam rice and offer it at the Tuwang shrine to honor the Tuwang, then the whole village gathers for a communal meal. In the tenth lunar month, on the first day, they hold the Winter Sacrifice, "slaughtering chickens and ducks, making rice cakes, and setting out feasts for guests" (in Longshan and elsewhere they still sacrifice to the Tuwang). On the twenty-third (or twenty-fourth) of the twelfth lunar month, they celebrate Minor New Year; in a month of thirty days, they celebrate the New Year on the twenty-ninth, and in a month of twenty-nine days, on the twenty-eighth. Among these, the eighteenth of the fourth month, the sixth of the sixth month, the winter sacrifice, and the spring-welcoming New Year's tune are the most grand.
Before the founding of New China, the celebration of the Gan Nian (Rushing New Year) varied from place to place; generally, both the major and minor New Years were moved forward by one day. Because of different surnames, the major New Year might be moved forward by two or three days. In Longshan, there was also a distinction between families with and without deceased members; families with deceased members had to celebrate the New Year one day earlier than those without. There were also those who celebrated the Gan Nian for three to five days or more to sacrifice to ancestors and the Tuwang.
In the Tujia villages of Youyang and Xiushan, before the founding of New China, some regarded the eighteenth day of the third lunar month as a major festival. In some Tujia villages of western Hubei, the Daughter's Festival was celebrated on the twelfth day of the seventh lunar month. Women, regardless of age, dressed up in new clothes and gathered together, either singing and dancing in antiphonal style or trading with one another. Young men and women paired off to seek friends, and some made vows and pledged marriage.