Studies of Tujia Ancient Social System and Culture — Funeral System Culture (Part 3)
Funeral activities also served to strengthen clan cohesion. In the Tujia view, funerals (white celebrations) are the affair of the entire clan, while weddings (red celebrations) are the affair of relatives. This means that when someone dies, the entire clan voluntarily comes to help—those with money contribute money, those with strength contribute strength—making it a lively occasion to jointly bury the deceased properly. Relatives, meanwhile, must bring gifts...
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Funeral activities were also an activity that strengthened clan cohesion. In the view of the Tujia people, funerals (white celebrations) were the affair of the entire clan, while weddings (red celebrations) were the affair of relatives. This meant that when someone in a family passed away, the entire clan should actively come to help, contributing money if they had money and strength if they had strength, making it lively and jointly burying the deceased well. Relatives, by contrast, had to bring gifts to offer condolences. The Tujia people said that relatives only came to drink and feast, but the various activities involved in the burial ceremony were not closely related to relatives. Weddings were different: in wedding activities, relatives played the leading role, while the clan, as circumstances required, symbolically came to drink. This customary division shows that in the development of the Tujia, there was struggle and balance between clan (patriarchal) forces and kin (matriarchal) forces, and this funeral custom emphasizing the clan was clearly the result of Han cultural influence.
Second, the Tujia funeral system highlighted the status of the eldest son and maintained the concept of patriarchal authority. The activities in the funeral ceremony directed at filial sons can be divided into three categories: the first category consists of rituals binding on all filial sons; the second category consists of rituals directed at the sons' generation; and the third category consists of rituals specially highlighting the status of the eldest son. For example, throughout the funeral procession, the eldest son had to wear full mourning attire and drape long hemp over himself, leading the way before the coffin. Before burial, the eldest son had to run from the well toward the mountain side and climb over a ridge in one go, which symbolized that later generations would be better than the previous ones, and so on. During the funeral rites, the deceased's children, daughters-in-law, sons-in-law, and paternal nephews all had to hold a mourning staff. If the father died, a bamboo staff was used, symbolizing that the father's integrity was external; after the grave was piled up, the filial sons' mourning staffs were all placed before the grave, and the eldest son's staff was chosen to be inserted at the grave mound, taking the meaning of not forgetting one's roots, but in reality emphasizing the eldest son's status, a surviving custom of primogeniture.
At the same time, Tujia funeral activities were also permeated with various concepts of divine and clan authority. Whether the Tima of the north or the Liuluo of the south, they all evolved from the sacrificial officials of the ancient Ba people. They themselves represented the gods, and their activities represented the activities of the gods. In particular, the Liuluo of the south had since ancient times been filled by people of the Tian surname (the Tujia of Changyang County also retain the tradition of sacrificial officials being held by people of the Tian surname. It seems that in the era of the Ba people, the Tian surname specialized in managing sacrifices), therefore, they considered themselves to have special status and attained a position equal to that of the White Emperor Heavenly Kings, so much so that after joint deliberation by the seven surnames, in celebrations such as weddings and funerals, the ritual for the Tian surname was changed to "five above and seven below," while other surnames still used "three above and seven below." "Three above and seven below" meant placing three bowls on the offering table and seven bowls below the table, signifying that the three White Emperor Heavenly Kings occupied the upper position and the seven surnames of the covenant occupied the lower position. But the Tian surname was permitted to move their ancestral tablets to the upper position, becoming "five above and seven below," with five bowls on the table and seven bowls below the table. From this, one can see the divine authority of the Liuluo themselves in funeral activities.
Tujia funeral rites had strict hierarchical regulations, often determining the elaborateness or simplicity of the funeral according to the seniority of the deceased. This regulation reflected the intervention of patriarchal principles characterized by paternal and clan authority in funeral activities. For example, in the Tujia areas of western Hubei, there was the custom of delayed burial. If the deceased died before elders or peers of the same generation, the coffin had to be placed in a coffin shed built outside the house, and only after the elders or peers of the same generation died could it be taken up the mountain for burial.
Finally, the Tujia funeral system also transmitted the Tujia's primitive religious beliefs. The funeral dance of the Tujia in western Hubei can be said to be a behavioral mode of cultural psychology constructed by the Tujia ancestors upon totem worship and ancestor worship, bearing the dual imprints of totem worship and ancestor worship. These dances were either performed by primitive humans to please the gods, imitating the movements of totem worship objects, dancing and stamping; or performed by ancestors to commemorate and sacrifice to their forebears, displaying their great historical achievements through vivid and expressive dance performances.
As an ethnic group that lived for a long time in mountain forests, the Tujia ancestors established in their psychology a cognition of kinship between themselves and the tiger, developing a certain fear and awe of the tiger, and thus elevated the tiger to the totem position capable of determining the fate of the ethnic group and individuals. As the famous Soviet anthropologist E. Haitong said: "Totem worship is the religion of the nascent clan. ... Belief that the group originated from the totem; belief that members of the clan group can transform into the totem or the totem can transform into humans; belief that there exists a blood kinship relationship between members of the clan group and animals, plants, and other totems, and the consequent reverence for the totem—these are the basic core of totem worship concepts." From existing ethnological research materials, we can see that in the lyrics of the funeral dance, the white tiger is mostly the object of praise. For example, in "Ten Dreams" it is sung: "In the third dream the white tiger sits in the hall, what sits in the hall is the family god." In "The Fortune-Telling Song" it is sung: "I divine neither wealth nor joy, the white tiger sits in the hall before me." From the dance movements and postures of the funeral dance, we can also see the lingering influence of totem worship among the Tujia ancestors. The performance movements of the funeral dance are filled with a strong color of tiger totem worship. For example, when performing the funeral dance, dancers generally maintain a posture of bending at the waist, arching the back, bending the legs, and trembling the buttocks downward. The performers hold empty fists with both hands and sway left and right, much like "a tiger washing its face"; they turn left and right rhythmically like "a fierce tiger swaying its tail"; they leap and overturn, bending legs and arching the body like "a fierce tiger descending the mountain"; when facing each other with intense gazes and striking elbows with swinging arms, they resemble "a fierce tiger pouncing on its prey."
At the same time, historical records also indicate that the funeral custom of the Tujia in western Hubei originated from the worship of the white tiger by the Ba people and their descendants. The "Book of Later Han: Biographies of the Southern Man and Southwestern Yi" records: "When Lin Jun died, his soul transformed into a white tiger. The Ba clan, because the tiger drank human blood, thus sacrificed humans to it." The "Ba clan" here refers to the descendants of Ba Wuxiang Lin Jun, namely the Tujia people in the Qingjiang River basin area. The "Kuizhou Tujing" records: "The Ba people esteemed martial prowess, beating drums and stamping songs to express joy and sorrow. ... When parents first died, they beat drums to express grief; their songs must be wild, their crowds must dance—this was the bravery of the white tiger." The "Guizhou Prefecture Gazetteer" says: "The Ba people were fond of stamping their feet, beating drums for sacrifices, and shouting and howling to express joy and sorrow." The "Hubei General Gazetteer: Geography Section" says: "The Ba people were fond of singing, called stamping-foot white tiger affairs." From this it can be inferred that the funeral dance evolved from the Ba people's "stamping songs," "stamping feet," and other "white tiger dances" used to sacrifice to the white tiger.
The funeral custom of the Tujia in western Hubei also embodies the Tujia concept of ancestor worship. In the view of the Tujia people, the attitude toward the deceased is the attitude toward ancestors, because after death, the final destination of the soul departing from the body is to seek the place where the ancestors gathered. Thus, the funeral song and dance served as an intermediary between the living and the ancestors. People held lively and grand funeral ceremonies, both to comfort the deceased and to worship the ancestors. The objects of their ancestor worship were Lin Jun and King Xiang Tianzi. The Tujia "Opening Song" sings: "Opening heaven, heaven has eight trigrams; opening earth, earth has five directions. The ancestors are above, your land is below. King Xiang opened up the territory, our people guard the land and farm. ... Singing men, sing out! Dancing children of the funeral, dance!" These lyrics, in a specific way, express the Tujia people's reverence for King Xiang Tianzi. Legend has it that King Xiang Tianzi was exceptionally brave and martial, and once led the clan to develop the Qingjiang River basin area, establishing outstanding merits for the survival and reproduction of the clan. Therefore, later generations often used the funeral dance to worship King Xiang Tianzi. Also according to the "Book of Later Han: Biographies of the Southern Man and Southwestern Yi": "The Man of Ba Commandery and Nan Commandery originally had five surnames: Ba, Fan, Qin, Xiang, and Zheng. All emerged from Mount Wuluo Zhongli. On the mountain there were two caves, red and black. The son of the Ba clan was born in the red cave, and the sons of the four other clans were all born in the black cave. There was no ruler or chief, and all served ghosts and spirits. They then together threw swords at a stone cave, agreeing that whoever could hit it would be honored as ruler. The Ba clansman Wuxiang alone hit it, and all marveled. They also ordered each to ride a clay boat, agreeing that whoever could float would be made ruler. The other clansmen all sank, only Wuxiang floated. Therefore they jointly established him, and he was Lin Jun." Lin Jun was the first ancestor of the Tujia people in the Qingjiang River basin. For this reason, the Tujia "Sacrifice to Ancestors: Divine Song" sings: "Heaven gave birth to people, earth gave birth to people, our clan mother was the Salt Goddess. Mount Wuluo had five children, Ba Wuxiang was titled Lin Jun. The many lord mountains have their origins, descendants flourish from the beginning. Singing shamans make offerings, sacrificing to their ancestors, from ancient times flowing to today." Thus, the Tujia people borrowed the unique art form of the funeral dance to pray for the ancestors' protection of later generations and to express later generations' worship of their ancestors. The ancestor worship characteristics of the funeral dance demonstrate that "under certain circumstances, the common ancestors of people can become the collective object of their worship. ... People through fixed religious rituals try their best to please it, obtain its favor, make various prayers to it, and so on. Generally, only the word 'deity' is applicable to these ancestral figures. The ancestral groups in mythology are precisely connected to the society of the living through a spiritual bond."
II. The Tujia funeral system expresses the Tujia people's optimistic life consciousness
Death is the ultimate choice in life that every living individual must face. However, the Tujia people can face death with a calm and optimistic attitude, dissolving the sorrow that death brings to people by indulging their passions. The Tujia regard the normal death of the elderly as taking the "smooth road," as a transformation of life into another form of existence. Thus, in the view of the Tujia, when an elderly person passes away, it is not a sad event but a joyous one, worthy of lively celebration. They say: "If you can't afford to make tofu to give as a gift, beat funeral drums all night as your gift"; "Lively accompany the deceased, happily hold the funeral." Therefore, the funeral dance scene is exceptionally lively, as recorded in the "Changyang County Gazetteer": "Beating drums and stamping songs, their songs must be wild, their crowds must dance." During the funeral dance, one person stands on the left side of the coffin beating the drum and leading the singing. The drum leader is generally someone highly skilled in singing, dancing, and drumming. As soon as he beats the drum and calls out the song, the dancers immediately join in the chorus. The dancers are male, mostly in groups of two or four, dancing facing each other in front of the coffin. The performers follow the drumbeat and singing of the drum master, changing rhythm and tunes at any time. When the mood becomes intensely excited, the drum master will even leave the drum area to join the ranks of dancers, dancing hand and foot with them, dancing as if drunk and crazed. At this time, the onlookers around the scene, infected by the atmosphere, will also join the funeral dance.
The funeral custom of the Tujia in western Hubei expresses the Tujia people's fearless view of death. The Tujia show a unique concept of the cycle of life and death in their understanding of life and death: where there is life there is death, and death is survival in another dimension of time and space in the form of the soul; from life to death is a cyclical and repetitive process of movement. This view of life and death is prominently expressed in their funeral rituals and funeral lyrics. For example, the Tujia "Departing Soul Bids Farewell to Home" describes the deceased's reluctant attachment to the human world where they lived in life:
The newly deceased enters the room and raises their eyes to look, looking at the mosquito net and then at the bed;
The newly deceased sorrowfully bids farewell to the bed, no longer enjoying blessings in bed;
The house and net are parted from today, from today's parting each goes their own way;
The bed and net were created by their own hands, left to descendants for ten thousand years...
The lyrics of "Sending Off the Soul" express the Tujia people's understanding of death and their cognition of the mutual transformation between body and soul:
The newly deceased hears the voice of the Jade Maiden, tears involuntarily soak their clothes;
What cannot be abandoned must still be abandoned, what cannot be let go is cast aside;
The newly deceased with tears boards the sedan, the funeral banners flutter in the air.
Escorting the deceased to the main gate,
The deceased sheds tears and raises their head,
Escorting the deceased to the great court gate,
Mouth calls to the filial children not to escort further,
Mouth calls to the deceased to walk slowly;
Secretly speaking to the children of the years.
The deceased's eyes are soaked with tears;
The filial sons and daughters turn back...
From this it can be seen that the Tujia people transcended the fear of death, believing that life and death have no boundary and that yin and yang communicate. Thus, the dead can still "visit" their loved ones in dreams, "reuniting" with them in the world of dreams. Although life and death belong to two different domains, or two different worlds, these two worlds are not isolated from each other or absolutely separate in their existence; on the contrary, there exists some channel of connection. Therefore, the Tujia do not regard life and death as a pair of diametrically opposed contradictions, but as two modes of existence capable of infinite communication and mutual transformation.
The open-minded attitude and optimistic sentiment expressed in the funeral dance when facing death are precisely the transmutation and derivation of Daoist life philosophy in the Tujia region. Historically, the Bashu region was the birthplace of Daoism, and thus the thought of Laozi and Zhuangzi had a profound influence on the Ba people. Laozi and Zhuangzi believed that humans come from nature, make a journey through the world, and then die according to natural law, returning to nature. Death is a very ordinary matter, and thus people need not grieve excessively over it. The "Zhuangzi: Perfect Happiness" records: "When Zhuangzi's wife died, Huizi came to offer condolences, but Zhuangzi was beating a drum and singing." The Daoist outlook on life of laughing at death and facing it as a return home indeed has a certain marvelous correspondence with the Tujia view of life that the body dies but the soul survives and the soul returns to the totem.
III. The Tujia funeral system displays the Tujia people's passionate love life
The funeral custom of the Tujia in western Hubei contains rich content of love and passion, displaying the Tujia people's fervent love life. When performing the "Sa'erhe," the most popular is the antiphonal singing of love songs, as the saying goes, "Without romance, it's not lively." If the "Sa'erhe" in form is indeed as described—"parents die, drums announce the funeral, the crowd must dance, the songs must be wild"—then its inner meaning belongs to human survival and the reproduction of the species. At the same time, it also conveys the strong local bonds and fiery romantic love between Tujia people. In the funeral dance scene that lasts all night, it is always filled with the unrestrained singing of men and women in love:
Woman: From this mountain I gaze at that mountain high,
Man: O ya o gu'er jie ya wei,
Woman: Gazing at that mountain is ya,
Man: Sister's good lover.
Woman: The sister is born with a face so fair,
Eyebrows curved, eyes dark,
At night without a lover she cannot sleep.
Man: Cutting grass requires a sharp knife,
Wooing a sister requires a clever tongue,
If sister is willing, come quickly.
Man: The lover comes holding an umbrella from the high mountain,
Sister makes big shoes up in the mountains.
Woman: With my left hand I take my lover's umbrella,
With my right hand I hold my lover to my breast.
Generally speaking, the flirtatious banter between men and women in love is utterly incompatible with the solemn sorrow of a funeral—the emotional contrast is extreme. Yet when the Tujia people hold a funeral, they harmoniously and naturally fuse these two poles of strongly contrasting emotion into one, and it is accepted by everyone. The reason lies in the Tujia people's distinctive view of life and death. They believe that the death of an elder means a decrease in the members of the clan, and the only way to make up for it is to encourage the reproduction of the clan's population and the bearing of new life—and the love between men and women is the necessary path to bearing life and multiplying the population. Here, the mutual affection of men and women actually takes on the solemn significance of continuing the clan.
The movements performed in the funeral dance include, for example, "Old Tree Twining Its Roots"—dancers entwine their arms around each other and bump hips; "Old Man Pushing a Cart"—imitating the motion of pushing a cart, two people rhythmically thrust their bellies and sway their hips. There are also movements such as "Dogs Locking Hips" and "Beauty Basking Her Shame," which faintly convey the lingering resonance of primitive fertility worship. The performance of sexual movements in the funeral dance ritual is in fact an impassioned performance of sexual worship. Whether it is the sexual language and mood in the antiphonal songs between men and women, or the sexual movements and sexual innuendo on the funeral dance ground, all are without exception expressions of the Tujia people's consciousness of ethnic reproduction, and precisely a reflection of Tujia sexual worship.
Perhaps many scholars take a negative attitude toward the content full of love and passion in the Tujia custom of funeral dancing, considering it a discordant note in the funeral rites. But when we connect the provocative lyrics and teasing sexual movements in Tujia funeral customs with their cultural psychology of life consciousness, we discover that the Tujia people attach great importance to the continuation and reproduction of the group's life, and it is then not hard to understand this special phenomenon. As Mr. Yang Changxin has said: "Funeral customs are the concretization of the concept of death. The Tujia 'funeral dance' is not performed to play mournful music of grief for the living, but to bid farewell to the deceased... Explained in terms of the meaning of human reproduction, it also accords with the Tujia view that where there is life there is death, and that death is new life." "If we re-examine the entire funeral culture of the Tujia from the perspective of their concern for survival, we will find that what permeates their entire funeral culture is precisely that strong life consciousness and enterprising cultural spirit." The Tujia people use the ritual of "celebrating the funeral and congratulating the death" to express their concern for survival, even loudly singing love songs—some bawdy, some flowery—to dilute the sorrow of death, arouse people's passion for life, and emphasize the responsibility of human survival. This precisely displays the Tujia people's bold and open-minded, optimistic and upward-looking wisdom of survival and the radiance of reason.