Tujia Folk Beliefs and Culture — Wizard Worship (Part 1)
Chapter 9: Wizard Worship. In folk belief, the wizard is a half-human, half-divine mediator between humans and gods. He both conveys the gods' will and pleads with the gods on behalf of people, and so was once an object of worship. In the Tujia language, the wizard is called "Tima," meaning "leader" or "one who reveres the gods." But "Tima" is only the term used by the few who know the Tujia language; most Tujia...
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Chapter Nine: Wizard Worship
In folk belief, the wizard is a half-human, half-divine being who implements communication between humans and gods. He both transmits divine decrees on behalf of the gods and prays to the gods on behalf of humans, so in the past he was an object of worship. In the Tujia language, the wizard is called "Tima," meaning "leader," one who worships the gods. But "Tima" is only the term used by the very few people who understand the Tujia language to refer to wizards; most Tujia people call their ethnic group's wizard "Tulaoshi" or "Tulaosi." Corresponding to the title of Tulaoshi are also "Miaolaoshi" and "Kelaoshi." Miaolaoshi is the Miao people's wizard, and Kelaoshi is the Han people's wizard. The three kinds of wizards coexist in Tujia areas, both distinguishing themselves from one another and mutually infiltrating and assimilating. The most obvious difference between the Tulaoshi and the Miaolaoshi and Kelaoshi is that they have no scriptures passed down from masters, because the Tujia people only have their own language but no written script; the chants used in rituals are passed down from masters or improvised on the spot. As the saying goes: "The Kelaoshi has a whole scripture, the Miaolaoshi has half a scripture, the Tulaoshi plays wildly." Or it is said: "The Kelaoshi has a whole scripture, the Miaolaoshi has half a scripture, the Tulaoshi has a bare scripture."
I. The Social Status of the Tulaoshi
The Tulaoshi held no official position in the Tusi system society, but had great power, and even the Tusi had to show him some respect. In all local matters such as sacrifices, rain-praying, healing, exorcism, funerals, marriages, lawsuits, begging for children, resolving disputes, driving away the white tiger, and dancing the Hand-Waving Dance, the Tulaoshi had to preside.
The Tulaoshi came from the common people, some hereditary, some taught by masters. They did not engage in labor, living solely by performing rituals, and could marry. When Tujia families slaughtered pigs for the New Year, they all had to send several jin of meat to the Tulaoshi, and when harvesting grain in autumn, they also had to send him five jin.
Many of the "scriptures" the Tulaoshi chanted during rituals were long epic poems about ethnic origins, ethnic migration, and ancestral achievements, such as the "Hand-Waving Song." These epics were transmitted entirely by word of mouth from generation to generation of Tulaoshi, so it can be said that the Tulaoshi were the transmitters and preservers of Tujia ethnic culture.
The Tulaoshi's spirit-dancing activities certainly had the aspect of promoting feudal superstition, but the divine songs they sang, because they reflected the history and real life of the Tujia people, also played an entertainment role. The masses watching and even participating in such songs and dances could, in past eras, be considered a form of entertainment. For example: during the Tulaoshi's "redeeming money" ritual, the audience beside him would sing antiphonal songs with the Tulaoshi. One person in the audience would sing a mountain song, and the Tulaoshi had to sing a responding line. When the audience sang songs of the hills, the Tulaoshi would sing: "Ho ho ye, liaoliao shen." When the audience sang songs of the waters, the Tulaoshi would sing: "Ho ho ye, liaoliao shen, scratch twice in the Yellow River harbor." The scene was very lively. It can be said that in the old days, the Tulaoshi were the organizers or hosts of mass entertainment activities, and this was especially prominent in the Hand-Waving Dance activities.
II. The Tulaoshi's Ritual Props
The props mainly used by the Tulaoshi when conducting ritual activities include:
1. Divine Pictures
Divine pictures are props hung in the spirit hall when conducting vow-fulfillment rituals, and come in two types: painted and paper-cut. Divine pictures are also divided into main pictures and auxiliary pictures. The main picture is the one hung in the center of the spirit hall, and the auxiliary pictures are those hung on both sides of the main picture.
The main picture is a picture of numerous gods, divided into several levels, with images of many gods arranged in rows, in a polychrome Chinese painting style. The deities depicted are very diverse, including natural gods such as wind, rain, thunder, lightning, heaven, and earth; Taoist gods such as the Three Pure Ones; and Tusi gods such as Duke Peng and others.
2. Phoenix Crown
The phoenix crown, also called the Five Buddha Crown, is made of hard cardboard. Its lower end is flat, and the upper part is serrated; some have 3 serrations, some have 5 serrations, some have 7 serrations, and each serration is painted with a deity image. Throughout the entire ritual activity, the Tulaoshi always wears the phoenix crown. The Xiangxi Prefecture Museum has a phoenix crown made of straw paper in its collection, with 3 serrations, foldable, tied with red cloth strips, 18 centimeters high, 34 centimeters wide, with three deity images painted on the 3 serrations.
3. Ritual Robes
The ritual robe is a front-opening, button-down style with large cuffs and a slit hem, made of red cloth and edged with yellow cloth. On the chest, a taiji bagua (yin-yang and eight trigrams) and cloud-hook motifs are embroidered in yellow cloth; on the left shoulder is written "Qianqian Tianbing" (thousands upon thousands of heavenly soldiers), and on the right "Wanwan Shenjiang" (tens of thousands of divine generals). The back is also embroidered with a taiji bagua pattern, and on the left and right back shoulders are embroidered the characters "Ri" (sun) and "Yue" (moon) respectively.
4. Eight-Panel Skirt
The eight-panel skirt is sewn from eight panels of cloth in eight colors: red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, purple, and white. Eight small square-holed copper coins hang from the hem, and the skirt is painted with patterns of dragons, the sun, the moon, and so on. The skirt is tied at the waist inside the ritual robe and hangs down to the ground.
5. Eight-Treasure Copper Bells
The eight-treasure copper bells are egg-sized horse-mouth hanging bells cast from brass, six in total. Legend says there were originally eight, called the eight-treasure copper bells, but one each was lent to the Miao master and the Ke master, so now only six remain. The legend cannot be verified, but among the ritual implements of the Miao master and the Ke master there is indeed one copper bell each.
6. The Si Dao (Ritual Knife)
The si dao is forged from iron. The handle is carved with characters of the Northern and Southern Dippers, and what is attached to the handle is not an ordinary blade but an iron ring about 30 centimeters in diameter, on which are strung 9, 13, or 24 small iron or copper rings. Rather than a knife, it is more like a large iron ring with a handle.
Therefore, this kind of si dao has no function as a knife and is used solely by the Tu master when performing rituals.
7. Ox-Horn Trumpet
The ox-horn trumpet is made from a water buffalo horn, with a whistle made of miscellaneous wood fitted at the pointed tip, capable of producing a "wu-li wu-li" tone. Before the sacrificial ceremony begins or when touring villages and stockades, the Tu master must blow the ox-horn trumpet.
III. The Ritual Activities of the Tu Master
The ritual activities of the Tu master can be divided into large-scale and small-scale ritual activities. Large-scale ritual activities are collective sacrificial activities led by the Tu master, mainly the Sheba Day sacrifice. Small-scale ritual activities mainly refer to various ritual activities held according to the needs of a specific clan or family, generally only the Tu master performs the rites, with no participation by the masses.
1. Sheba Day is a sacrificial rite held by the Tujia people during the first lunar month. "She" means "she," the god of the soil. The Sheba Day sacrifice is mainly held at the Tusi (native chieftain) ancestral hall, and the Tujia people often regard the deceased Tusi king as the soil god. The main deity worshipped in the "Sheba Day" sacrifice should be the Tusi soil god.
The dates of the Sheba Day sacrifice fall in the first, third, or fifth lunar months. The Qing dynasty Longshan County Gazetteer records: "The native people hold competitions for the former Tusi gods. There was formerly a hall called the Baishou Hall, where a certain Tusi deity's tablet was enshrined and sacrificial offerings of meat and sweet wine were laid out. On the appointed evening, crowds of men and women gathered together. After the offerings were made, they draped themselves in five-flower brocade and wrapped their heads in brocade scarves, beat drums and sounded gongs, danced and sang, competing for several nights before stopping. The time was sometimes the first month, sometimes the third, sometimes the fifth, varying. When singing, men and women held hands, dancing gracefully back and forth, hence it was called baishou (hand-waving)." However, the Sheba Day sacrifice was mainly held in the first lunar month. The Qing dynasty Yongzheng-era Yongshun Prefecture Gazetteer · Miscellaneous Records states: "Every year from the third to the fifteenth of the first lunar month, the native people gather together, drape themselves in five-flower brocade, wrap their heads in brocade scarves, beat drums and fire guns, dance and sing. When dancing, men and women hold hands, dancing gracefully back and forth, which is called baishou. They often go all night until dawn without knowing fatigue." The first lunar month is the beginning of the year; holding the Sheba Day sacrificial activities at this time to worship the Tusi soil god is mainly to pray for favorable weather, abundant harvests, and thriving livestock throughout the year, and also to pray for the proliferation of the clan. As sung at the beginning of the Baishou Song:
To eat meat, first raise the pig well,
To eat rice, one must plant the grain well,
The Bizika wave hands to pray for a good harvest,
Welcoming a fruitful year of peace and joy.
The words left by our ancestors,
Descendants must keep firmly in mind:
The rules handed down by our ancestors,
Descendants must not forget.
Dance the hand-waving dance well and sing the hand-waving song well,
The gods are pleased and the people rejoice.
Favorable weather and rain,
Abundant fruits covering the hillsides,
Just look—
The ears of millet, like ox halters,
The ears of corn, like water buffalo horns,
The ears of rice, like horse tails,
Soybean pods like magpie nests,
Sesame pods like tall buildings.
Mung bean leaves,
One leaf can wrap three catties of salt;
Sorghum stalks,
One stalk can pole three boats.
The fat pigs raised are like water buffalo,
The yellow oxen raised are like tigers,
Sons are plump like winter melons,
And one takes a wife as beautiful as a flower.
The Bizika people do the hand-waving dance year after year,
bringing prosperity to family and people, and many happy events.
The Sheba Day sacrificial rites were mainly popular in Guzhang, Yongshun, Longshan, Laifeng, Baojing, Sangzhi and other places in the Youshui River basin. To this day, hand-waving dance activities are still held in these places, though they are now mostly mass recreational activities, and their sacrificial nature has vanished.
As a grand sacrificial rite, Sheba Day included a series of ceremonial rituals:
(1) Worshipping the gods: presided over by the Tu teacher (Tujia ritual master), it included inviting the gods, settling the gods, honoring the gods, sending off the gods, and raising the dragon-and-phoenix flag.
(2) Dancing the hand-waving dance: after the Tu teacher finished honoring the gods, he lit the torches, about ten meters long, that were set up on the flat ground in front of the hand-waving hall, making the ground bright as day. Under the direction of the Tu teacher, men and women, old and young, began to dance the hand-waving dance to the sound of gongs and drums, and to sing hand-waving songs.
(3) Singing hand-waving songs: there are two kinds of hand-waving songs, the marching-hall song and the seated-hall song. The marching-hall song is composed and sung to accompany the content of the hand-waving dance—whatever is danced is sung. The Tu teacher leads the singing, and everyone joins in with shouts. The seated-hall song is mainly sung by the Tu teacher while seated, and includes solo singing, antiphonal singing, and round singing; most are songs passed down through generations by the Tu teachers and sung in the Tujia language. This part of the hand-waving songs is vast in content and the richest of all, reflecting the Tujia people's view of creation and the course of their ethnic migration, and is a treasured heritage of Tujia culture. According to the Hand-Waving Songs compiled and translated by Peng Bo and Peng Jikuan, its content can be divided into the following aspects:
The formation of heaven and earth and the origin of humankind. The Hand-Waving Songs describe the Tujia ancestors' understanding and extraordinary imagination regarding the formation of the universe and the origin of humankind. "Making Heaven and Making Earth" says that heaven and earth were originally close together, and plants on earth could reach up into heaven. In the East Sea there was a big fish whose fins stretched into the heavenly court; the fishy smell was unbearable to the people in heaven. The heavenly people took a great axe and chopped at the fish's back. The fish, in unbearable pain, turned over, poking a great hole in heaven and a great pit in earth. From then on heaven and earth were pitch dark and in primeval chaos. Later, Zhang Gulao came to mend heaven, and Li Gulao came to mend earth. When heaven and earth were mended, the world was cold and empty with no people. The goddess Yiwu Aba came to make people: she used a gourd for the head, bamboo for the skeleton, earth for the muscles, tree bark for the skin, cowpea for the intestines, leaves for the lungs, thatch for the body hair, and so on, and thus made human beings. In the Tujia myth of creating humans, the goddess creates people using materials that all resemble human organs—one might say this is quite unique.
Tujia myths of human origin also include a flood myth, that is, a myth of the second origin of humankind. The basic plot of flood myths among various ethnic groups is: for various reasons a flood is triggered, wiping out human beings, and only a brother and sister survive with the help of some tool. Later the brother and sister marry and multiply, and human beings appear in the world once again. The Tujia flood myth also has this basic plot, though the specific details carry the characteristics of this ethnic group. The cause of the flood was that an old woman wanted to eat the Thunder God's meat and drink the Thunder God's soup, which angered the Thunder God; he sent up a flood reaching the heavens and destroyed humankind. A brother and sister escaped by means of a gourd, and later married and multiplied the human race. Afterward, the reborn humans again struggled against a harsh natural environment in order to survive and continue. The Tujia hero Luoyu, equivalent to the Han Chinese Yi, shot down ten suns with arrows, leaving two—one to shine by day and one by night. Tujia myths of the origin of heaven, earth, and humankind reflect the Tujia ancestors' childish understanding of various natural phenomena, with extraordinary imagination and full of passion; at the same time, they also express the Tujia ancestors' firm belief in understanding and conquering nature.