Tujia Folk Beliefs and Culture — Wizard Worship (Part 2)
Songs of Ethnic Migration. This portion of the Hand-Waving Songs reflects the historical shadow of Tujia ancestral migration. The Tujia ancestors came to western Hunan from far away — some from Shimidong, some from Shipailou, some from Shibaping, some from Heina Ba — seeking a suitable place to farm and settle. The ancestors crossed countless mountains and rivers, through innumerable rapids...
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 Prices, business hours, administrative divisions, and statistical data mentioned in the text may already be outdated.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.
Songs of Ethnic Migration. This part of the Hand-Waving Songs reflects the historical shadow of the migration of the Tujia ancestors. The Tujia ancestors came to Xiangxi from very far away; some came up from Shimidong, some came up from Shipailou, some came up from Shibaping, and some came from Heina Ba, seeking a safe place to settle where they could farm and live. The ancestors crossed a thousand mountains and ten thousand rivers, passed through countless rapid currents and dangerous shoals, and finally arrived in the beautiful land of Xiangxi with its green mountains and clear waters. The Songs of Ethnic Migration are the wordless history of the Tujia people, passed down orally by the Tu Laoshi; they played the role of giving the descendants of the Tujia a historical education and strengthening their ethnic consciousness, and at the same time they also played the role of propagating the ethnic morals and customs left by the ancestors.
Songs of Farming and Production. This part of the Hand-Waving Songs displays the Tujia people's agricultural activities throughout the four seasons and other kinds of labor. The farming activities of the four seasons include cutting bamboo, burning brush, digging the earth, sowing, transplanting rice, hoeing weeds, weeding the fields, eating the new harvest, autumn harvesting, and winter plowing; other labors include blacksmithing, casting plowshares, spinning hemp, spinning yarn, and weaving cloth. This part of the songs played the role of transmitting agricultural production knowledge and educating later generations to love labor and to start undertakings through hard struggle. This part of the songs was relatively widespread; the Tu Laoshi sang them, and ordinary people sang them too.
Songs of Heroic Stories. This part of the Hand-Waving Songs consists of legendary songs about heroic figures in Tujia history. What is sung in the songs includes both the heroic deeds of the ancient ancestor the Eight-Bu Great King and the contests of wit and courage between clever figures of recent times and the Tusi; it includes both the sorrowful story of the woman who invented Tujia brocade and the twisting experiences of the goddess Grandma Ami who protected Tujia children, and so on.
(4) Maogusi. Maogusi is a primitive shamanic drama for praying for a good year and seeking fertility, performed during the Sheba Day sacrificial rites, highlighting the theme of those rites. If the Hand-Waving Dance in the Sheba Day sacrificial rites was a mass activity, then the performance of Maogusi was a "professional" activity. When the Hand-Waving Dance had been danced for a certain time, Maogusi had to be performed. As soon as the Maogusi performers appeared, the masses dancing the Hand-Waving Dance withdrew to the edge of the ground and became spectators. The Maogusi performers dressed as a number of "hairy people" bound with straw and with five straw braids tied on their heads; among them, the eldest was called "papuka," meaning old grandfather, and he was the protagonist of Maogusi. It should be said that Maogusi is a relatively primitive and simple drama, but because new content was continuously integrated into it over a long period of transmission, the span of historical life it reflects is relatively long, including both scenes of hunting life and reproductions of life during the Tusi period. The Maogusi performers had to perform hunting, production, sweeping the hall, fishing, welcoming a new bride, dancing the divine staff, and other contents; the basic themes expressed by these contents can be summarized in two aspects: seeking a good harvest and seeking fertility.
Seeking a Good Harvest. This is the most prominent theme of Maogusi, and it is most fully expressed in the two scenes "Celebrating the New Year" and "Doing Spring Farming."
Before the performance of "Celebrating the New Year," each village and each household contributed glutinous rice cakes, tofu, pork, and so on, placing them on the Hand-Waving Ground for Maogusi to eat during the New Year. After Maogusi entered the ground, they made three circles, then stood separately on both sides in front of the Tuwang Temple. One person inside the temple asked questions, and Maogusi answered outside. The content of the questions and answers was:
"Where do you come from?"
"We come from the great mountains."
"Has everyone returned?"
"Everyone has returned."
"How many people are there among you?"
"There are eight of us."
Then the questioner inside the temple came out and counted them one by one in order. After the counting was finished, Maogusi held brooms and made the motion of sweeping. Going in and out, they swept while saying: sweep out the unclean things, sweep in the corn and millet. After sweeping, Maogusi knelt in front of the Tuwang Temple and ate the New Year meal. After the meal, the questioner said to Maogusi: "You must work hard at production, do not be lazy, do not run around wildly." With that, this scene ended. This is a reproduction of a fragment of New Year life, and its sweeping activity expressed the Tujia people's prayer for a bountiful year.
When "Doing Spring Farming" began, Maogusi swarmed into the ground and went to a table in front of the Hand-Waving Ground. Beside the table was the Tuwang Treasure Hall with a tiger-skin seat. Someone inside the temple asked, and Maogusi answered outside. The content of the questions and answers was:
"Where do you come from?"
"We come from Bilailu in Longshan."
"Where do you sleep?"
"We sleep at the foot of trees."
"What do you eat?"
"We eat little stones, which are hard,
"We eat palm-tree seeds, which are rough."
"What do you drink?"
"We drink cold water."
"What do you wear?"
"We wear palm leaves."
"The New Year has already passed, and a year has been gained; we are preparing to do spring farming. What have you come to do?"
"We have come to the Tuwang here to ask for a bit of cotton field to plant."
"So many of you have come; who is the old man?"
At this point, all the Maogusi vied to say that they were the old man. Finally, an old man holding a broom walked out from among the Maogusi; he was the real papuka. The Tuwang said in the temple: "Old grandfather, old grandfather, the pestilential air and damp air are heavy here with us; sweep it for us!" Thereupon the old grandfather made the motion of sweeping, then went out again, and while sweeping said: "Pestilential air, damp air, bird spirits and wild ghosts... sweep them out; corn cobs as big as water buffaloes, millet tassels as long as ox halters, rice tassels like horse tails, all sweep them before the Tuwang." After sweeping, Maogusi gathered together and made the motions of cutting firewood, burning the mountain, picking up embers, and digging the earth. In this scene, the sweeping motion appeared again, with exactly the same meaning as in the "Celebrating the New Year" scene. The various labor motions performed by Maogusi expressed the Tujia people's wish to obtain a good harvest in the new year through their own diligent labor.
In addition, the two scenes "Chasing Meat" and "Catching Fish" reflected the Tujia people's prayers for a good harvest in fishing and hunting. Take the "Chasing Meat" scene. "Meat" refers to wild beasts; calling wild beasts directly "meat" shows that the Tujia ancestors once relied on animal meat as their staple food, and the main purpose of hunting was to fill their stomachs. When this scene began, Maogusi entered the ground. One person inside the temple asked questions, and the elder among the Maogusi answered. The content of the questions and answers was as follows:
"Old grandfather, old grandfather, what have you come to do?"
"A year has passed, and there's no meat to eat. I've come here to get some meat, and also to pay tribute to the king."
"You must properly honor the Meishan God if you want to succeed in the hunt."
"Good, good!"
The old man held incense and paper in his hands, burning them while invoking the Meishan God:
"Meishan God of the East Road, Meishan God of the South Road..."
During the god-worship, a clown-like figure appeared, named "Gulousi." He also pretended to hunt, walked up to the old man, and imitated the old man in worshipping the Meishan God. After the worship, the old man led a child out to hunt. At this point, a child turned his fur vest inside out, disguised himself as a wild beast, and hid in the thickets. Maogusi searched everywhere, discovered footprints, and tracked and chased them. After running several circles, he fired a shot and caught the child wearing the animal skin, stripped off the skin, and told the child to go sell it. Gulousi then pretended to be a buyer of animal skins, turning the skin in the child's hands over and over, haggling over the price, and in the end snatched the skin and ran off. The Maogusi troupe gave chase, but ultimately failed to catch him, and dispersed cursing loudly. The solemn ritual drama of god worship, with the addition of a clown character, gained a touch of comedy and humor, which also served to meet the audience's needs.
Praying for fertility. This is another important theme of Maogusi, mainly expressed through scenes such as "Welcoming the Bride" and "Dancing the Divine Rod." Take the "Dancing the Divine Rod" scene, for example. The divine rod is a wooden stick about 2.5 centimeters in diameter and about 100 centimeters long, wrapped in thatch grass, held by the Maogusi between his legs, representing the male genitalia. During the performance, the Maogusi holds the wooden rod and performs movements such as "beating the dew" and "prying the sky." This kind of symbolic sexual intercourse movement is performed in broad daylight without avoidance, and men, women, young and old alike can watch, even young women do not shy away, because its purpose is not to display lewd movements, but to express the very serious theme of seeking reproduction and fertility. Moreover, during the performance, infertile women would even touch the reproductive rod between the Maogusi's legs with their hands, as it was said this could lead to pregnancy. This is actually a manifestation of phallic worship; people believed that the male organ possessed reproductive power, and that a woman touching the male organ could obtain reproductive power and thereby become pregnant.
2. Fusituo. Fusituo is a large-scale shamanistic sacrificial activity held on a household basis. "Fusituo" is in the Tujia language, meaning ancestral sacrifice and vow fulfillment, that is, when the head of the household had made a vow to the gods for dispelling disasters and driving away evil, or for seeking a child, once the wish was fulfilled, a shamanistic sacrifice to thank and honor the gods would be held. Fusituo generally lasts 3 days. Its shamanistic rituals include:
(1) Reporting to the Ancestors. This is the first ritual of the Fusituo shamanistic sacrifice. Reporting to the ancestors means respectfully informing the deceased ancestors of the household. Its significance lies in inviting the household's ancestral spirits to come out and receive the various ghosts and gods about to be summoned, leading them to their positions, to the banquet, to their duties, and on their return journey. On the large square table beneath the ancestral shrine in the main hall, cups, plates, and bowls for sacrificing to the ancestors are placed, and 4 cups are also placed on the left and right sides for the use of the ancestors' attendants. The offering placed on the table is a rooster. When the ritual is held, the Tulaoshi sings divine songs to the household's ancestors, essentially inviting the ancestors to come back and drink wine, to entertain the various ghosts and gods, so as to bless the descendants and help them avoid disasters.
(2) Establishing the Main Hall. Establishing the Main Hall is held on the morning of the second day. Establishing the Main Hall is also called "Zhengyue Hall," where "yue" means ghosts and gods in the Tujia language, and "tang" means altar. Zhengyue Hall means setting up an altar for the orthodox gods. The altar set up for the orthodox gods is on the large square table in front of the ancestral shrine. A winnowing basket is placed on the table, and 4 paper-cut bodhisattvas are clamped with bamboo sticks and inserted into the winnowing basket. The method of making the paper-cut bodhisattvas is to fold yellow rough-edged paper (called foot-binding paper) in half, in the shape of a human figure. The length of the bamboo sticks clamping the paper bodhisattvas is stipulated as one elbow length plus one palm width.
On both sides, guardians of the Main Hall bodhisattvas, called flag chiefs, are also inserted. The bamboo sticks clamping the guardians are slightly longer, and the guardians are only cut into half the shape of the Main Hall bodhisattvas. In the middle of the large square table, four large bowls are placed, offering to the four great gods. On both sides, wine cups are arranged with seven on the left and eight on the right, to offer to the various flag chiefs.
Establishing the Main Hall requires killing a cow or pig, and moreover, offering the "whole victim," that is, placing a small portion of each organ of the cow or pig in bowls to represent the entire cow or pig. When placing them, the offal goes at the bottom and the meat slices on top, called "heaven covering earth," and generally only two slices of meat are placed. From the Tulaoshi's chants, the orthodox gods invoked in Establishing the Main Hall mainly include: Lord Wang, Lord Dongting Hou, Longtou Daiguan Sansuo, and Old Mother Bash. After invoking all the gods, there is the praising of the gods, extolling each god's achievements to please them. Next come items such as urging them to drink wine and requesting dreams. Finally, the Main Hall is dismantled, and the Tulaoshi takes down the paper bodhisattvas and lights them on fire, passing them to the Tea Granny, who then passes them to the household head sitting in the fire-room, and at this point the paper bodhisattvas are kept burning throughout. Also burned together are the paper money for worshipping the bodhisattvas.
(3) Third Month Hall. The Third Month Hall is for worshipping the Meishan God. The Meishan God is the hunting god of the Tujia people; one account says the Meishan God is a goddess, another says the Meishan God is a dog. The altar for worshipping the Meishan God is set up in the courtyard outside the house, on a large square table, with three bowls placed on the table and three cups placed upside down in the bowls. Wine cups are arranged with three on the left and four on the right, to honor the Meishan God's attendants.
When the ritual begins, the Tulaoshi blows a buffalo horn in the courtyard, while the Tea Granny vigorously pounds the pounding mortar inside the house. As the saying goes: "The shaman blows the buffalo horn in the courtyard, the Tea Granny pounds the mortar inside." Sometimes, the Tulaoshi even jokes with the Tea Granny, saying: "If the mortar is broken I don't care, but if the pestle is broken you'll have to pay." Here, the pestle symbolizes the male genitalia, the mortar symbolizes the female genitalia, and pounding the mortar symbolizes sexual intercourse. From this it can also be seen that worshipping the Meishan God carries the meaning of praying for a child. The Meishan God worshipped for seeking a child should be a goddess.
(4) Seventh Month Hall. The Seventh Month Hall is also called the Seven Sisters Hall. The Seven Sisters are deities of fertility. Worshipping the Seven Sisters involves many obscene words, the purpose being to tease the Seven Sisters with vulgar language, to encourage them to copulate, so as to bestow children upon the mortal world. This belongs to the category of sexual magic fertility-seeking rituals.
3. Dispelling Evil. Dispelling Evil is a sacrificial magic for removing evil spirits that possess a person. For prolonged illness that does not heal, mental confusion, the onset of disasters, or things going badly, the Tulaoshi is invited to sacrifice livestock to a certain deity, perform divination and rituals, in order to dispel illness and calamity. The sacrificial victim used in Dispelling Evil does not use large livestock such as cows, only sheep. However, the sheep used in the sacrifice cannot be killed with a knife; instead, a sharp bamboo pole is thrust into the sheep's mouth, and only when blood is seen does one stop. Then the helpers kill the sheep by throwing it down, and it is then used for the sacrifice. Dispelling Evil has various rituals, and which ritual to use often depends on the specific circumstances or severity of the evil being dispelled.
(1) Ascending the Heaven Knife, also called ascending the knife ladder. Thirty-six sharp knives are tied in pairs onto a sweetgum tree trunk, made into the shape of a ladder. Then the sweetgum trunk is inserted into a large millstone, and three thick ropes are tied to the top of the trunk, pulled down diagonally from three directions and fixed to the ground, thus securing the heaven ladder firmly. When ascending the knife ladder, the Tulaoshi must hold the knife handles, step barefoot on the knife edges with the soles parallel to the blades, and climb up level by level to the top. While ascending the knife ladder, the Tulaoshi carries ritual implements such as a buffalo horn, and carries on his back a live sheep weighing thirty to forty jin; the Tulaoshi must also bite the sheep's mouth with his own mouth. Upon reaching the top, the Tulaoshi throws down the sheep, blows the buffalo horn, then supports himself on the single-legged stool at the top with his abdomen, with all four limbs suspended in the air, performing movements such as "eagle spreading wings" and "hanging golden hook upside down." When descending the knife ladder, he must switch to the other side. Sometimes, the vow-fulfiller must also follow the Tulaoshi up the knife ladder.
The sheep thrown down by the Tulaoshi is caught by helpers below, who cut off the sheep's head with a sharp knife, put it into a jar, and bury it, commonly called "substituting the corpse to fight the yang"; the mutton is divided equally among everyone to take home and cook.
The knife ladder is actually a symbol of the heaven ladder. With the help of the heaven ladder, the Tulaoshi can communicate with the deities in heaven and obtain divine power to drive away evil spirits. The reason the heaven ladder is made of knives is to show the difficulty of ascending to heaven, and at the same time, it is also a form of testing the sincerity of those who ascend to heaven.
(2) Redeeming the Soul and Aborting the Fetus. When a child is frail and sickly, listless, it is believed that he has "lost his soul and transferred the fetus," that is, his soul has transferred into the fetus of a certain pregnant woman. As soon as that fetus is born, he will immediately die. Therefore, the Tulaoshi is invited to perform rituals to abort another's fetus, preventing the fetus from being born normally, so that the child can recover from illness and regain health. The abortion magic is only used for children aged three to four.
The specific procedure is: place a long bench, put a bowl of fragrant rice on the bench, place an egg, five cups, knife-tip meat, vegetarian cakes and tofu, paper money, and fried dough sticks in the rice. After the Tulaoshi invokes the gods, he captures the soul, wraps the "soul" together with the sick child's toenails and fingernails in paper, then buries them together with the egg in a corner of the fire pit, and drives in a nail; this is the so-called abortion. The egg symbolizes the fetus, and the sick child's nails are the child's substitute. Placing the egg and the sick child's nails together and nailing them symbolizes aborting the fetus to which the sick child's soul has attached. The Tulaoshi chants while nailing: nail the dragon-phoenix fetus, the cow fetus, the horse fetus, the fetus of the six livestock. The egg package with the nail driven in is left to burn in the fire pit, some burn for three to five days, some for five to six days, until the egg is completely burned, and the fetus is then considered aborted.
(3) Building Bridges. A bridge is originally a structure connecting roads. In magic, the bridge is a tool to help people pass through life's crises, a symbolic object. In magic, the crises that bridges can help people pass through include the crisis of life and the crisis of ending offspring. The crisis of life means that a child cannot grow up healthily, called "broken bridge observation." Building a bridge means building a bridge to connect the lifeline for them. The crisis of ending offspring means a woman's infertility, considered as the bridge of reproduction being broken; once reconnected, it will be unobstructed, and the woman can conceive and bear children. In short, the bridge in magic is a sacred object connecting the path of life, and bridge-building in magic is always related to life. The Tulaoshi's bridge-building magic has various forms, such as building a seven-plank bridge, a twelve-plank bridge, a heaven bridge, and so on.
4. Rain-Praying Magic. When there is drought and crops lack rain, the Tulaoshi performs rituals to pray for rain. Mountainous areas have many caves, and the Tujia people traditionally believe that the dragon in charge of rain lives in mountain caves, so there is the "hitting the cave to pray for rain" magic. When hitting the cave to pray for rain, the Tulaoshi catches a small flower snake and drives it into the cave with a bamboo strip, commonly called "catching the dragon and returning it to the cave." People believe that after the dragon returns to the cave, it can gather clouds and bring rain. After the small flower snake drills into a certain cave, the Tulaoshi then asks everyone to carry a bucket of water on their backs and a load of livestock dung to pour into the cave, then kill a dog for sacrifice, commonly called "suppressing the dragon." This is a method of combining kindness and severity toward the "dragon" to seek the dragon's clouds and rain. Using a dog as sacrifice is to show kindness to the dragon; pouring livestock dung is to show severity, to fumigate the dragon with foul air. In the past, the Tujia people strongly believed in this rain-praying magic, believing that after holding this shamanistic sacrificial ritual, it would rain immediately.
Today, in Tujia areas, Tulaoshi are extremely rare. This is a historical inevitability, because what the Tulaoshi represented was, after all, a phenomenon of ignorance and backward culture. However, the certain role the Tulaoshi played in Tujia history cannot be denied.
The Tulaoshi were the transmitters and preservers of Tujia traditional culture, including history, literature and art, and folk customs. It is precisely through their passing down from generation to generation that many precious cultural heritages of the Tujia, a people without a written language, have been transmitted to this day. While practicing magic to heal illnesses, the Tulaoshi also used some Chinese herbal remedies and had certain knowledge of traditional Chinese medicine. They could indeed meet certain needs of the Tujia people in past eras when doctors and medicine were scarce, but this absolutely cannot be overly affirmed, because the Tulaoshi's methods of "healing" were, after all, mostly feudal superstition, things incompatible with medicine, especially modern medicine, like fire and water.