Origin of the Tujia People
Legend says long, long ago, a great flood covering the sky rose, drowning everyone in the world except a brother and sister on South Pole Mountain. The Taoist Wuji of the Southern Heaven calculated with his fingers and knew the mortal world had suffered calamity. He walked out of Wuji Palace and looked down at the mortal realm, seeing it cold and desolate, with no human trace. He thought: if there were no common people in the mortal world...
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The Origin of the Tujia People
Legend has it that long, long ago, a great flood rose to the heavens, and all the people in the world were drowned. Only a brother and sister on South Pole Mountain survived. The Daoist Wuji of the Southern Heavens calculated on his fingers and knew that the mortal world had suffered calamity. He walked out of the Wuji Palace and looked down at the mortal world, seeing only a cold and desolate land, with no human habitation. He thought: if there were no common people in the mortal world, would it not be like a plate with a piece missing? Then the world would no longer be a world. Looking more carefully, he suddenly saw a man and a woman in the mortal world picking wild fruit, and felt a surge of joy: "Good, there is a way!"
It turned out they were a brother and sister. On the day of the flood, the two had hidden inside a large bamboo tube. Though they had not drowned, after the flood receded came drought, and life became even harder. So they cried out to heaven: "O Heaven! Give us water! Save the living beings of the mortal world!" At their cry, a clear spring indeed descended from the sky. The brother and sister drank their fill. Then a gentle breeze blew, and a five-colored cloud drifted over, on which stood an old man with white hair and a youthful face. The brother and sister knew he was an immortal from the upper realm and bowed down before him. The Daoist said: "Your sins are not yet atoned, which is why your lives were preserved. Now the people have perished unjustly. To continue the human race, I command you two to change from siblings into husband and wife. This is a union made by Heaven!" Hearing this, the brother and sister waved their hands repeatedly: "No! No! We are brother and sister—how can siblings marry in this world?" The old Daoist said again: "Though you are siblings, you are of different yin and yang. Now that humankind in the mortal world is extinct, if you do not become husband and wife, how can the human race continue?" The brother and sister still refused. The Daoist grew angry: "If you do not become husband and wife, I will cut off the heavenly water and let you die of thirst!" With that, he waved his whisk, and the spring indeed stopped flowing. Seeing the spring cut off, the sister grew anxious. After thinking for a while, she said to the Daoist: "If you want me to marry my brother, you must agree to one condition: here are two millstones. My brother will carry one on his back and stand on the East Mountain top, and I will carry one and stand on the South Mountain top. We will roll the millstones down the mountain at the same time. If the two millstones come together, I will agree; if not, we remain brother and sister as before." Hearing this, the Daoist agreed readily. So the brother stood on the East Mountain and the sister on the South Mountain. The Daoist shouted: "Ready—go!" The brother rolled his, and the sister deliberately waited a moment before rolling hers. Yet the two millstones rolled all the way to the foot of the mountain and fit together perfectly without the slightest deviation. The old Daoist laughed: "This is the will of Heaven, beyond human power!" Then he waved his hand, and the spring gushed forth again. But the sister still refused: "This time I won't agree. Let us each light a fire on our respective hilltops. If the two streams of smoke merge together, then we will marry." The Daoist laughed: "As you wish!" The brother and sister lit their fires. The two streams of smoke drifted and drifted, and in a moment merged into one. The old Daoist looked at the sister and laughed: "Now there is nothing more to say, is there?" The brother and sister had no choice but to live together. The old Daoist laughed heartily: "This is the will of Heaven, beyond human power!" Then he waved his hand, and the spring gushed forth again. But the sister still refused: "This time I won't agree. Let us each light a fire on our respective hilltops. If the two streams of smoke merge together, then we will marry." The Daoist laughed: "As you wish!" The brother and sister lit their fires. The two streams of smoke drifted and drifted, and in a moment merged into one. The old Daoist looked at the sister and laughed: "Now there is nothing more to say, is there?" The brother and sister had no choice but to live together.
Ten months later, the sister gave birth to a lump of flesh. The brother found it very ugly, so he threw the lump on the ground, chopped it into mince with a knife, and scattered the mince into the river, the thickets, the grass, and onto the rocks. Unexpectedly, the Daoist Wuji saw it all clearly from the upper realm. He rode a cloud down and, facing the flesh and blood scattered everywhere, blew a breath of immortal air. The mince immediately turned into a crowd of lively boys and girls. Before leaving, the old Daoist conferred upon the brother the title "Old Man of the East Mountain" and upon the sister "Holy Mother of the South Mountain," charging them to raise these children well. The Old Man of the East Mountain and the Holy Mother of the South Mountain found it inconvenient to call so many children, so they gave them surnames separately: those transformed from poplar trees were surnamed Yang, those from rocks were surnamed Shi, those from reed grass were surnamed Lu... and thus the Hundred Family Surnames came into being. Later, the brother and sister died of old age, and the children buried them respectively on the East Mountain and the South Mountain. Thereafter, during the first to the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, the Tujia people would offer wine and food on the ancestral shrine in the main hall, burn incense and paper, and worship their ancestors, praying to the Old Man of the East Mountain and the Holy Mother of the South Mountain for peace and protection. The Tujia shaman's incantation is also chanted thus: "Old Man of the East Mountain, Holy Mother of the South Mountain, we invite you! Invite across the mountain, respond across the mountain; invite across the water, respond across the water. Reverently we invite the two holy ones to manifest their divine power..."