Tujia Folk Beliefs and Culture — The Coming-of-Age Meaning of the Tujia Bridal Lament (Part 1)
Appendix: The Coming-of-Age Meaning of the Tujia Bridal Lament. The bridal lament was once a widely practiced wedding custom in China. In many ethnic groups and regions it has gradually disappeared or survives only in fragmentary form. In Tujia areas, however, the complete bridal lament tradition has been continuously preserved. According to the Qianlong-era "Changyang County Gazetteer" of Hubei: "Ningxiang borders Rongmei and Badong, where the people are of mixed stock..."
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Appendix: The Coming-of-Age Significance of the Tujia Crying-Marriage Custom
Crying marriage was once a wedding custom widely popular in China. This custom gradually tended to disappear in many ethnic groups and places, or only incomplete forms remained.
In Tujia areas, the complete crying-marriage custom has always been transmitted and preserved. According to the Hubei Changyang County Gazetteer from the Qianlong period of the Qing dynasty: "Ningxiang is close to Rongmei and Badong, and the people are mixed with Miao and Man. On the day of shangtou when their daughters marry, eight or nine girls are chosen, and together with the daughter they make ten as one table. On that day the parents, elder brothers and sisters-in-law, paternal aunts, and the nine girls hold garments and join hands, singing in turn. The daughter also responds in turn... The songs are long and drawn out, very sorrowful, and tears fall with the sound." Before a Tujia girl marries, she must sing the "Marriage Songs" together with family and close friends; at that time, the marrying girl must cry while singing and put on an appearance of painful weeping. As for the crying-marriage custom, the academic world almost unanimously believes that it originated in the period of transition from matrilineal clan society to patrilineal clan society, from marriage by capture, and that women's weeping originated from the shouting or crying of women when they were seized in ancient marriage by capture. The crying and shouting of women in marriage by capture, through a long evolution, developed into the later crying-marriage custom. This explanation may have some validity. However, people may ask: the crying and shouting of women in marriage by capture is not the same as crying marriage; why did this crying and shouting of women develop into a crying-marriage custom with a complete set of sung lyrics in an era when marriage by capture had long disappeared? This is what the proponents of the marriage-by-capture origin theory have never explained. In fact, the formation of the crying-marriage custom had another reason: its social function. We know that any folk custom must originally have arisen from some practical need of social life. Even if, with historical changes, the utilitarian purpose of a folk custom undergoes a series of variations, as long as the folk custom still exists, its corresponding utilitarian purpose will not die out. The Tujia crying-marriage custom is no exception. Here, we attempt to use relevant materials from ethnology and folklore to explore the social practical value of the crying-marriage custom in a certain historical period.
I. Basic Characteristics of the Coming-of-Age Ceremony
The Tujia crying-marriage custom has characteristics such as a sorrowful mood, content of elders' admonitions, content of farewell weeping, and a relatively long duration. These characteristics are very close to those of another major life ritual—the coming-of-age ceremony. Therefore, to understand the social function of Tujia crying marriage, one must first examine the situation of the coming-of-age ceremony.
The coming-of-age ceremony is the transmission of an ancient custom that admits young men and women into adult society and makes them assume life's responsibilities. Anthropologists such as Frazer, Lips, and Bock all conducted systematic research on coming-of-age ceremonies based on a large amount of material from primitive tribes. Combining their views, several notable characteristics of the coming-of-age ceremony can be summarized.
First, in ancient tribes, young men and women receiving the coming-of-age ceremony had to undergo a series of painful tests. Usually the tests for men were more severe and cruel. For example, among the Tsimshian, men receiving the coming-of-age ritual were taken by instructors to a hidden small hut called "Hain" and then had to undergo very harsh daily training. In the sacred "Hain," each person's position was strictly prescribed; they were not allowed to speak or laugh, and their eyes were fixed on the ground. They had only a little clothing and were scarcely allowed to sleep. Day and night they marched long distances over mountains and ridges under the leadership of the elders. Each man had to practice regularly to strengthen his archery ability. Women's coming-of-age ceremonies were generally not as harsh as men's, but they often also had to undergo tests that were by no means easy. For example, when Apache Indian girls in North America held their coming-of-age ceremony, after being chased by other women of the tribe, they had to endure a beating and a harsh examination. After that, she also had to dance on a new blanket to the sound of drums, driven about by people playing clowns and evil spirits. Girls in New Guinea held their coming-of-age ceremony at their first menstruation and had to endure the pain of having moon-symbol patterns tattooed on their chests and of holding a ritual in a saltwater lake. The ritual held in the saltwater lake was to have the girl lie in shallow water while old women walked over her. The harsh tests in the coming-of-age ceremony fully prepared young men and women psychologically to enter adult society and shoulder arduous tasks, and they were of great significance. As Bock said: "Rites of passage (referring to coming-of-age ceremonies—author's note) play an important role in the social life of any group. They provide a general method for coping with the life crises that occur in any society and demonstrate to individuals and the group the course of a person's life. This ritual has important psychological and social functions."
Second, in coming-of-age rituals, admonition is indispensable. The admonition was given by elders of high prestige and virtue and was often conducted simultaneously with the harsh tests. For example, in the above example, Tsimshian men in the "Hain" had to receive a series of instructions from their instructors, whose main content was "industry, trustworthiness, respect for the elderly, obedience, altruism, willingness to help others, sociability, and being a faithful husband." When the training reached its climax, the instructor recounted the most sacred secret of the Tsimshian tribe—the origin myth. After the initiate mastered the tribe's secret, the ritual came to an end. Girls in New Guinea receiving the ritual had to receive lengthy instruction on social morality and handling family relations. Among the Emberá Indians of Paraguay, once a girl reached maturity, she had to receive a month of instruction.
Third, almost all ancient coming-of-age ceremonies strongly emphasized the theme of "death" and "resurrection." When the coming-of-age ritual was held, various strange means were used to make the young people symbolically "die," and then they were made to "resurrect." The meaning was that the childhood stage had died, and after exchanging life with the ancestral spirits in heaven or with the totem, they had been reborn as powerful adults. The most common method was to smear the initiate's whole body with paint, indicating that the child had died or been devoured by wild beasts. The Tsimshian painted red, the Pangwe of West Africa painted white, and the Seransi painted yellow. There were also many methods of bringing the child into a state of exhaustion and unconsciousness to achieve the purpose of "death." For example, the Mandan Indians had a hook-suspension ritual called "Okipa." In Mandan houses there were four central posts, and the initiate was bound to a hook by ropes and suspended from one of the posts. He was naked, holding a medicine bag, and a shield was also hung from the hook. Once properly suspended, an attendant pushed him to spin, and the initiate, because of the spinning,
became exhausted; then an onlooker shouted: "He is dead!" Thereupon the initiate was placed on the ground and lay there until he either truly died or revived, during which no one paid him any attention. If the initiate truly died, it was believed that he had been taken away by the "Great Spirit" (this was very rare); if he revived, it was believed that the spirit had released him to live again. The coming-of-age custom of the Pangwe was roughly the same as the above. People placed the secluded initiate in a house of especially poisonous ants (about 200 ant nests) and let the ants bite him. Then they used the stinging hairs of a poisonous plant pod to draw blood blisters. All this was carried out accompanied by shouts of "We kill you." Women's coming-of-age ceremonies likewise had to go through the procedure of "death" and "resurrection." In the coming-of-age rituals of the indigenous inhabitants of the Gold Coast and the Slave Coast, girls had all the hair on their bodies shaved off, then bathed the whole body with ice water and smeared with grease. Their former clothes had to be completely discarded, and the priest gave them specially made new clothes of white cotton cloth, and the initiates were forced to accept a new name. If they continued to use the old name, they would be severely punished. After that, they still had to receive a series of training. Only then were they considered to have "resurrected" from "death." After the coming-of-age ceremony, the priest used the blood of a live chicken to represent their new birth, and they were decorated with colorful flowers and feathers and returned to their parents.
Fourth, the coming-of-age ceremony needs to be extended over a period of time. Generally, it may last as long as several years or as short as several months, for a variety of reasons. For example, it allows a series of elaborate rituals to be completed and ensures that young people have sufficient time to receive knowledge and skills training, but the main purpose is to let them gradually mature psychologically. Among the Aboriginal peoples of Australia, the coming-of-age ceremony lasts a very long time, because the rituals include many subjects such as circumcision, scarification, tooth-knocking, and collective traditional training. Among the Nacima people of central Canada, the coming-of-age ceremony begins when young men and women are very young and lasts for several years or even longer, not ending until the necessary knowledge has been learned. There are also coming-of-age ceremonies completed within only a few hours, but this refers only to the surface form; the inner impact of the ritual often takes a much longer time. For example, circumcision, once prevalent in many parts of the world, takes only a very short time as a surgical procedure, but the pain left to the boy and the healing of his wounds and spirit take a relatively long period.
If the characteristics of the above-mentioned coming-of-age rituals are compared with the characteristics of the custom of crying marriage, one will find that the two have astonishing similarities.
II. Basic Characteristics of the Tujia Custom of Crying Marriage
The first characteristic of the Tujia custom of crying marriage is to use song as weeping and weeping as song, desolate and sorrowful. During this time, the bride who cries marriage must undergo painful trials. As the wedding ritual procedures advance, the objects and contents of the bride's lamentations change in sequence, and the grief grows ever more intense. At first she cries overnight, revealing her sorrow through soft singing and faint humming; later she cries through the night, the tunes becoming more mournful and the lyrics more and more sorrowful, until she cries herself dry-mouthed, hoarse, with red and swollen eyes, as if mad and dazed. After such bitter weeping, the painful torment suffered by the bride who cries marriage is difficult for ordinary people to experience.
In the Tujia areas along the borders of Hunan, Hubei, Sichuan, and Guizhou, although the content of crying marriage differs somewhat by region, it generally includes a series of contents such as crying the opening sound, crying father and mother, crying the carpenter or stonemason, crying elder brother and sister-in-law, accompanying the ten sisters, crying to all relatives and friends, crying and cursing the matchmaker, crying at taking one's seat, crying while dressing and making up, crying to the ancestors, crying while putting on clothes, and crying when entering the bridal sedan chair. Below, only three representative parts are selected for analysis.
First, crying father and mother. This mainly expresses the sorrow of the bride who cries marriage as she takes leave of her parents with reluctance to part. "Crying for father is like a knife cutting the gall, crying for mother is like an arrow piercing the heart. I thought father and mother would sit together in reunion, who knew that today we must separate." The more she cries, the sadder she becomes, and the bride's body and mind are greatly shaken. "My father, my mother, your child's throat is cried hoarse, your child's tears are cried dry, your child's eyes are cried swollen, the day is getting closer and closer as I cry, the day of suffering is not far away. It is easy to leave mountains and rivers, but hard, so hard, to leave father and mother. Today I part from father and mother; I do not know on what day we shall meet again." Seeing that she is about to become another family's daughter-in-law, and thinking of her miserable future situation, her mood becomes even more bitter and sorrowful: "My father, my mother, it is hard for ten people to please one person's heart, and one person finds it hard to please ten people's wishes. As a daughter-in-law one is lowly; standing, I am three feet shorter than others; sitting, I am three fen shorter than others. If told to go east, I dare not go west; if told to go west, I dare not go east. Where can a daughter-in-law tell her bitterness? I swallow broken teeth with blood. My father, my mother, in another's house there are murderous knives and pots for boiling human flesh. They kill the monkey and strip off its monkey skin. If I serve the young ones poorly, eyebrows rise and eyes glare; if I serve the old ones poorly, chopsticks are flung and bowls are thrown down.... My father, my mother, how do you tell your daughter to live on? How do you tell your daughter to go on?" These crying songs tear at the heart and lungs and move people to tears.
Second, accompanying the ten sisters. Before a girl marries, nine girls of similar age from the same village are chosen to accompany her in crying. This is called "accompanying the ten sisters." Accompanying the ten sisters occupies the longest time in the entire process of crying marriage. Generally, night after night of accompanying crying begins one month or several months before marriage, which shows its dominant position. Crying with the ten sisters is a great chorus of women's sorrowful songs. Sisters who have been together morning and night since childhood are now about to part, so the sorrow of separation is naturally unavoidable; moreover, the bride's pessimism and fear about marriage can touch the hidden ailments of her companions and arouse strong resonance. Thus, the "thousand years of bitterness" and "ten thousand years of sorrow" condensed by generations of women are spewed forth like a volcano, impossible to stop once started. The grief, through mutual infection and intensification, becomes ever more blazing, and often the ten sisters cling together in one mass, crying as one. The Qing dynasty poet Peng Tanqiu's zhuzhi ci poem "Song of the Ten Sisters" described this scene: "The song of the ten sisters is too sorrowful; leaving mother, they stamp their feet and tears wet their clothes. Ning Mountain is near the Wu Mountain Gorge, yet it is still like the Ba women crying the zhuzhi."
Third, crying and cursing the matchmaker. In this section of crying marriage, there is both crying and cursing, entering the climax of the ritual process. Cursing the matchmaker is the most intense part of the language of crying marriage. Matchmakers in the old days did indeed cause many women's painful marriages, and many of them did indeed acquire all kinds of bad habits, being blinded by greed, smooth-tongued, and addicted to deception, but after all they merely served as scapegoats for the feudal marriage system. In fact, the hatred and resentment of the bride who cries marriage toward a specific matchmaker would differ in degree according to individual circumstances. Yet without exception they all used the most intense language. What is the reason for this? First, the songs cursing the matchmaker accumulated women's condemnation of and resistance to the feudal marriage system and the male-centered society over thousands of years; they are protest songs interwoven with blood, tears, and anger, not made by one person in one time. Second, and related to this topic, cursing the matchmaker is the total eruption of the depressed and sorrowful emotions that the bride has increasingly accumulated since the wedding ritual began. She curses without any taboo, yet the one being cursed acts as if nothing has happened, as if someone else were being cursed, with an expression of complete indifference. Precisely because of this, the bride's extremely vicious curses against the matchmaker were tolerated by society and became an established custom. Tujia women cried and cursed: "Matchmaker woman, did you come by water? Why did the giant salamander not drag you away? Did you come through the ditch? Why did the chessboard flower not peck you? Did you come from the mountain? Why did the flatpole flower not bite you? Matchmaker woman, you are more vicious than the giant salamander; when the giant salamander sees you, it takes a detour. You are more poisonous than the chessboard flower; when the chessboard flower sees you, it takes a detour. You are fiercer than the flatpole flower; when the flatpole flower sees you, it takes a detour." And she cursed the matchmaker for coveting money and goods, deceiving and harming people, and said there would surely be no good end: "Matchmaker woman, in the world only you know how to scheme, in the world only you know how to calculate. You scheme for wine and meat, you scheme for betrothal gifts, you scheme for betrothal gifts and then for shoes and socks.... The shoe soles are studded like peppercorns; may you wear them and rot your hoof-shells. Matchmaker woman, the shoes are made for you as burial shoes, the socks are made for you as a spirit tablet. Put on the shoes and walk the dead-end road; walk in the morning and be buried at night; die halfway and be buried halfway; wrapped in straw as a coffin.... A pig's head two chi long, may you eat it and rot your intestines. A pig's head with two tusks, may you eat it and die, whole family; die, all your old and young; in the next life be reborn as a cat." These intense words are generally uttered by an ordinary woman only when her pain reaches its extreme.
The above analysis shows that the bride throughout the ritual of crying marriage always plays the tragic protagonist. Regardless of how deeply or shallowly she enters the role, as long as she has gone through one procedure after another of crying marriage and finished singing one crying-marriage song after another, her soul cannot but undergo a series of painful shocks, just as in the ancient coming-of-age ceremony one underwent a series of severe trials. In ancient tribes, whether a young person could withstand the trials of the coming-of-age ceremony determined whether he could be admitted into adult society. In the Tujia custom of crying marriage, people often judged a woman according to how deeply she entered the role of suffering, evaluating her merits as a new daughter-in-law. If at marriage she only cried but did not sing, only sang but did not cry, or cried without sorrow and sang without moving others, she was considered low in talent and poor in virtue. On the contrary, the more sorrowfully a woman cried, the more she was considered virtuous and capable. This actually meant that the more a woman had undergone deep painful tempering at marriage, the more psychological endurance she had to bear the heavy burden of married life. This is consistent with the meaning of the painful trials of the coming-of-age ceremony.