Tujia Children's Rhymes of Zhangjiajie
"Woodpecker, pecking the treetop, pecked a carp weighing two and a half jin. Mother wants to eat it, son wants to see it, father saves it for the half-month festival." This Tujia children's rhyme vividly and expressively captures the subtle details of daily life, full of vivid flavor. In Tujia villages, such crisp children's rhymes drift everywhere, always evoking a sense of spring's brightness and vitality. Children's rhymes, like a thread of flowing...
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 Prices, business hours, administrative divisions, and statistical data mentioned in the text may already be outdated.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.
"Woodpecker, pecking the treetop, pecks a carp weighing two and a half jin. Mother wants to eat it, son wants to see it, father keeps it for the half-month festival." This Tujia children's rhyme vividly and expressively reproduces the tiny details of everyday life, full of vivid flavor of life. In Tujia villages, such crisp children's rhymes drift everywhere, always making one feel a kind of spring brightness and vitality.
Children's rhymes, like a line of flowing spring, ripple with a light and lively melody, guiding and nourishing the children, letting their hearts flourish with lush greenness and brilliant colors of flowers.
From the moment children come out of the womb, parents have prepared one children's rhyme after another for them. In swaddling clothes, there are short lullabies. "My little baby, sleep now, sleep quickly, don't cry, grow up quickly, my little baby," accompanied by throat sounds and nasal sounds like "yo um." A crying, fussy child, amid this low humming and this gentle spring breeze, will slowly drift into dreamland. When the child begins to babble, new content is introduced. To help children understand shame from an early age, adults teach them "Little Bug, Fly": "Clap boards, tease the little bug, the little bug flies, flies to Grandpa's house. Grandpa doesn't chase the dog, and bites the little bug's hand; Grandpa doesn't kill the chicken, and the little bug won't go back; Grandpa doesn't beat the egg, and the little bug won't eat; Grandpa doesn't kill the goose, and the little bug won't cross the river." (Tujia people give children lowly names, calling them "little bug.") While singing, they teach the child hand over hand to make the bug-flying gesture. After singing, they point at the child's left and right cheeks with a finger, and rub the child's nose, "This is ugly too, that is ugly too, the nose is scraped for lard." This means that being greedy is shameful, and little bugs must not be like that. Diligence is the foundation of being human and also a traditional virtue of the Tujia people. "At three you can see how you'll be as an adult, at eight you can see how you'll be in old age." Adults teach some rhymes about diligence. "Selling Tofu" says: "A bean is round and round, ground into tofu and sold for money. Others say my business is small, but a small business earns big money." To help children understand closeness and distance from an early age, they teach them "Turning the Mill": "Turn the mill, crank the mill, the cakes turned out are whiter than anything. Turn cakes to welcome Grandma, but Grandma won't eat the child's sour cakes; turn tofu to welcome Uncle, but Uncle won't eat the child's sour tofu; turn mixed dregs to welcome Auntie, but Auntie won't eat the child's sour mixed dregs..." On summer nights, when the family comes out to cool off in the moonlight, and fireflies come flying with their torches, the mother will use the firefly as a prompt and, in a question-and-answer linked-verse style, test the child's memory: "Firefly, come every night, Grandma invites you to tea. What tea? Bean tea. What bean? Yellow bean. What yellow? Cinnabar yellow..."
Without realizing it, the child has grown up and can go out by himself from the stilted house and the courtyard to play where the children gather. On nights with stars and moon, children often play until midnight. They sing rhymes while playing games. Many children sit in a long row on the ground, and one child distributes imaginary fruit, while the children sing together: "Sit in rows, eat fruit, one for you, one for me, save one for little sister who is asleep." Through the game, the children learn that when there is something good to eat, they must think of others who are not present. If there are only a few children, they can play counting rhymes and games like "One Two Three Four Five." The children chant, "One two three four five, go up the mountain to fight a tiger. The tiger wasn't caught, but a little squirrel was. How many squirrels are there? Let me count," while pointing with their fingers. More rhymes and games describe and reenact scenes of production and life. For example, "Golden Swallow Rows" imitates farmers going up the slope: children join hands from tallest to shortest in two rows, singing together the tune "Golden swallow rows, silver swallow rows, suona, suona, wearing straw sandals. Gold goes up the slope, silver goes up the slope, swallows, swallows go up the steep slope." After singing, the two at the head of each row raise their joined hands to form a gate, and the children pass through one by one from the end to the front, vividly portraying a scene of climbing a mountain. Another example is "Big Moon, Little Moon," which depicts the Tujia people's early morning labor: "Big moon, little moon, brother gets up to make bamboo crafts, sister-in-law gets up to pound glutinous rice, mother-in-law gets up to winnow with a basket." "Sugarcane Stalk" reflects the scene of marrying off a daughter: "Sugarcane stalk, sweet as honey. The flowered sedan chair arrives at the door. Father cries three times and carries her onto the sedan chair, mother cries three times and locks the sedan door, brother cries for his dear sister, sister-in-law's crying is just for show." In just a few words, the true state of life is sketched out. Through rhymes and games, children draw closer to the scenes of production and life, and gradually move toward physical and psychological maturity.
There are also children's rhymes that are purely for fun. Some are good-natured teasing of people, such as "Strange Girl": "Strange girl, making straw sandals. Makes them today, sells them tomorrow. If she can't sell them, she throws them in the river"; and "Yellow Ox Pisses": "One cries, one laughs, the yellow ox pisses. Bumps into two pig bladders, picks them up and runs away." These are light mockery of odd temperaments and fickle expressions. There is also a category called "upside-down songs," which deliberately violate common sense and say things backward to add fun. For example, "Catching the Robber": "On the fifteenth night under the big moon, the robber comes out to steal rice soup. The deaf man hears footsteps, the blind man sees him enter the kitchen, the mute shouts loudly for help, the lame man crosses the wall in one step, the man with no hands grabs him by the hair to look, and it turns out to be a bald monk." Another example is "Telling Lies": "Lantern fruit, roll up the slope, a three-year-old child can sing. Going there I saw a sheep lay an egg, coming back I saw a horse grow horns. In the thorn bushes fish spawn, at the rapids birds build nests, four ounces of cotton sink in the water, a pair of millstones swim across the river." This kind of children's rhyme gives people a fresh and relaxed pleasure. They do not need accompanying actions, are simply passed on by word of mouth, and do not require a specific occasion.
Children's rhymes, in this way, accompany the children. With the history, culture, scientific and technological information, and national spirit they carry, through nimble, lively, witty, warm, and distinctive forms, they give children their first enlightenment: awakening the mind, broadening the horizon, training expression, cultivating emotion, and stirring in their eyes, ears, and hearts ever-lasting songs of orioles and swallows, letting their years be like a song and their hearts be like a song.