Study of Institutional Culture in Ancient Tujia Society—Marriage System Culture (III)
Section 3: Marriage Customs. Changes in any marriage system or form cannot escape the dominance of social forces; they evolve continuously in the historical process of human social development. However, marriage customs expressing a marriage system or form possess relative independence. When a marriage system or form, along with social institutions and modes of production...
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Section 3 Marriage Customs
The changes of any marriage system or marriage form can never escape the domination of social forces; it evolves continuously in the historical process of human social development. However, the marriage customs that express a marriage system or marriage form possess relative independence. After a marriage system or marriage form disappears with changes in the social system and mode of production, the related marriage customs are still tenaciously transmitted or preserved. In traditional Tujia society, there once appeared various marriage customs such as "bone-seed marriage," "marriage by capture," "second marriage," and "levirate," and from these marriage customs we can see the historical traces of changes in the Tujia marriage system.
I. "Bone-Seed Marriage"
According to historical research, before the Qing Dynasty, the custom of "guzhong marriage" was widely practiced in the areas inhabited by the Tujia people. Records of "guzhong marriage" can be found in extant historical documents. For example, in the Qianlong edition of the Hefeng Prefecture Gazetteer, Mao Junde's "Proclamation" states: "The local customs of this prefecture... when taking a wife, no distinction is made between those with the same surname, and cross-surname maternal cousins are also taken without regard to mourning regulations, or else it is said to be yielding to kinship. There are even those who do not rely on matchmakers, and merely because a matter was once mentioned in a single word, it is called 'fanghua' and treated as a binding contract. Furthermore, distant relatives and maternal kin of the bride's family may also seize control of arranging the marriage." The fifth article of the "Regulations" issued by Mao Junde states: "The practice of wives abandoning their husbands and fleeing secretly should be prohibited. In former times, Tujia women, whether because the husband's family was poor or because of trivial quarrels, would abandon their husbands and flee back to their natal homes. Yet the father and brothers of the bride's family would not admonish her, but would take her side, sheltering her for months and years, indulging her in whatever she did, and even breaking faith and destroying agreements, recklessly claiming she could remarry..." "According to the old regulations of the Tusi, the daughter of a paternal aunt must marry the son of a maternal uncle, and this is called 'guzhong.' Regardless of age, if a girl from the paternal aunt's family is more than ten years older, she must wait for the maternal uncle's son to come of age before they can marry. If this custom is not followed, the paternal aunt's family must compensate the maternal uncle's family, typically with a cow. According to the old custom, when a daughter is born, she must first be betrothed to the maternal uncle's family, as the saying goes, "If the uncle's family wants her, they will call across the mountains." If the girl marries elsewhere without returning to the uncle's family, the uncle's family is entitled to compensation.
The core of 'bone-seed marriage' is to ensure that the son of the maternal uncle's family has absolute priority in choosing the daughter of the paternal aunt's family, ensuring the continuation of the maternal uncle's 'seed'. This marriage custom is actually a revival of blood-relationship concepts from primitive marriage during the Tusi era. Although people have already abandoned patrilineal pairing, it has continuously evolved in the historical process of human social development. However, marriage customs that express the marriage system or marriage forms possess relative independence. When a marriage system or form disappears with changes in the social system and mode of production, the related marriage customs are still tenaciously passed down or preserved. In traditional Tujia society, various marriage customs such as 'bone-seed marriage', 'bride capture', 'second marriage' and 'levirate' once appeared. From these marriage customs, we can see the historical traces of changes in the Tujia marriage system.
I. "Bone-Seed Marriage"
According to historical research, before the Qing Dynasty, the marriage custom known as "guzhong hun" (bone-seed marriage) was widespread in the Tujia inhabited areas. Records of "guzhong hun" can be found in extant historical documents. For example, in the Qianlong edition of the Hefeng Zhouzhi (Hefeng Prefecture Gazetteer), Mao Junde's "Wengao" (Proclamation) states: "The local customs of this prefecture... when taking a wife, no distinction is made between those with the same surname, and cross-surname maternal cousins are also taken without regard for mourning regulations, otherwise it is said to be yielding to kinship. Furthermore, some do not rely on matchmakers, but merely because a matter was once mentioned in a single word, it is called 'fanghua' (letting words out), and this is held as a binding pledge. Also, distant relatives or maternal relatives of the bride's family may likewise control and arrange the marriage." The fifth article of the "Tiaoyue" (Regulations) issued by Mao Junde states: "The custom of secretly fleeing from one's husband should be prohibited. In former times, Tujia women, because the husband's family was poor, or because of trivial quarrels, would flee back to their natal home. And the father and brothers of the bride's family would not admonish her, but would take the woman's side, sheltering her for months and years, indulging her in whatever she did, even to the point of betraying righteousness and breaking agreements, recklessly claiming she could remarry..." "According to the old regulations of the Tusi (native chieftains), the daughter of a paternal aunt must marry the son of a maternal uncle, and this is called 'guzhong' (bone-seed). Regardless of age, if a girl from the paternal aunt's family is more than ten years older, she must wait for the maternal uncle's son to come of age before they can marry. If this custom is not followed, the paternal aunt's family must compensate the maternal uncle's family, typically with one cow. According to the old custom, when a daughter is born, she must first be promised to the maternal uncle's family. There is a saying: "If the uncle's family wants her, they will call from across the mountain." If the girl marries elsewhere without returning to the uncle's family, the uncle's family is entitled to compensation.
The core of "bone-seed marriage" was to ensure that the son of the maternal uncle's family had an absolute priority right of choice over the daughter of the paternal aunt's family, and to ensure the continuation of the maternal uncle's family's "seed." This marriage custom was in fact the revival of blood-relationship concepts in primitive marriage during the Tusi era. Although people had already abandoned the concept and form of paternal sub-blood-relative marriage, they could not abandon their attachment to blood relations in marriage. Therefore, from the perspective of marriage practice, "bone-seed marriage" was a substitute or derivative form of "brother-sister marriage," and it did not break out of the trap of marriage between blood relatives.
During the Tusi period, the closed natural environment and the backward social mode of production of the Tujia people were important reasons for the emergence and continuation of the "bone-seed marriage" custom. During the long period of Tusi rule, in the Tujia areas, "boats and oars could not pass through, the households were scattered sparsely, and there were rarely those who gathered as clans and lived together; people of the five directions mixed together and were separated and cut off from one another." Even in the areas of the garrisons, it was also "sparsely populated, with no more than one or two dozen households of residents along the upper and lower stretches. Vegetation was lush and the wilderness vast; the roads were all narrow winding paths, rugged and full of danger, with the tracks of beasts and horses crisscrossing the way." This closed natural environment made social interaction among people difficult and made the range of marriage choices extremely narrow. At the same time, because the social mode of production was backward, "in all farming and going out and coming in, men and women went together." Women were an important labor force in family production and also the creators of family wealth. In order to prevent the labor force from flowing outward because of the emergence of a marriage relationship, or to allow the consumption costs of raising a daughter who married out to receive a certain compensation, the Tujia chose the method of "bone-seed marriage" to balance the variable between family property and the form of marriage.
II. "Marriage by Capture"
In the Tujia marriage customs of the Tusi period, there existed a symbolic custom of "marriage by capture." Lu You of the Song Dynasty once recorded in his Laoxue'an Biji: "Among the Man peoples of Chen, Yuan, and Jing prefectures... before marriage they first made a secret agreement, then waited for the girl on the road, seized and bound her and brought her back; the girl also angrily struggled and cried for help, but in fact it was all pretended." In his book Xiangxi Tujia Customs, Mr. Yang Changxin once described the Tujia "marriage by capture" custom in places such as Fenghuang and Jishou in Xiangxi before the Qing Dynasty. "When a young man from one Tujia village fell in love with a young woman from another Tujia village, they would agree on the wedding date in advance. The bridegroom would invite the young men of his own village to go on schedule to the woman's village to seize the bride. Along the way they beat gongs and drums and raised lanterns and torches as they rushed toward the woman's village. Upon arriving at the bride's home, after seizing the bride they stuffed her into the bridal sedan chair and carried her off at once. The bride's brothers and clan relatives would deliberately chase and block them, and only when both sides reached a standoff would the man give some money and plead with the woman's side." This kind of "marriage by capture" was merely a formal vestige of marriage by seizure. It was still based on the free love and marriage of both man and woman, and was not the seizure or capture of a woman by force of arms.
In the course of changing times, the Tujia custom of "marriage by capture" gradually evolved into a component of the wedding-welcoming rites and acquired new cultural connotations. For example, in the areas of Laifeng in western Hubei, Yanhe in eastern Guizhou, and Xiushan in eastern Sichuan, a "gate-blocking" ceremony was prevalent. When the man's wedding-welcoming procession arrived with the bridal sedan chair at the woman's gate, the woman's gate-blocking official would set up a table to block the gate and sing: "Holding a pair of mandarin ducks as proof, the host has asked me to block the gate." The man's master of ceremonies had to answer in song. If he responded slowly or could not answer, he would be refused entry. At this point, the man's side had no choice but to push the gate open and go "seize" the bride. The "gate-blocking" ceremony and the "bride-seizing" custom added a festive atmosphere to the new wedding rites, symbolizing that it was not easy for a man to "take" a wife and that the bride should receive the family status and social status she deserved. However, it also reflected the primitiveness of marriage by seizure. "Closing the gate to welcome the son-in-law, or what is called 'refusing the relatives,' is a survival of the ancient custom of marriage by capture. In most cases, it appears as follows: when the man's wedding-welcoming procession arrives at the woman's home, the woman's family closes the main gate and refuses to let the welcoming procession enter."
Colleagues in theoretical circles often cite the "line statements" of the Zhun hexagram in the Zhouyi to prove the origin relationship between the custom of marriage by capture and the system of marriage by seizure during the period of exogamy among ancient clans and tribes. "Zhun ru zhan ru, cheng ma ban ru, fei kou hun gou... cheng ma ban ru, qi xue lian ru." It is generally believed that marriage by seizure arose at the end of primitive society in the evolution from pairing marriage to individual marriage. The pairing marriage system practiced "the husband follows the wife in residence," with the man "living under another's roof." As men's position in social production became increasingly important, they demanded no longer to "marry out," but instead to "take" the woman back, changing "the husband follows the wife in residence" into "the wife follows the husband in residence." This transformation in the mode of marriage was realized through violent seizure, and thus the custom of "marriage by capture" appeared.
What scholars truly care about may not be the era in which marriage by seizure arose, but rather its main purpose and cultural significance—namely, that it promoted the transformation of the marriage system toward individual marriage and promoted the transformation of the family form centered on matriarchy toward the family form centered on patriarchy. The early French Marxist Lafargue, in his article "On Folk Songs and Rites and Customs Concerning Marriage," clarified the essence of the system of marriage by seizure. He pointed out: "When writers explained these marriage customs, they could not find their true meaning, because they isolated this meaning from the nationality and customs on which it depended, and valued only the act of pretending to seize the betrothed. I believe that if the customs are comprehensively examined... another explanation can be obtained. These explanations make us fully understand that the above-mentioned strange customs have already lost their meaning; at the same time, they give us a concept of the customs of the primitive patriarchal family." The Tujia custom of "marriage by capture" could be preserved in an era when monogamy was the mainstream marriage system for many reasons, but in terms of its general significance for existence, it lay in the fact that it adapted to the objective demands of increasingly expanding patriarchal authority and was retained as a means of consolidating and developing patriarchy in class society; at the same time, as a form of ritual, it "became a means for people to conclude marriage contracts and strive for marital autonomy, adding infinite joy to wedding ceremonies and making the festive and lively wedding scene rise to climax after climax in brilliant and varied splendor."
III. "Second Marriage" and "Levirate Marriage"
This marriage custom was relatively prevalent in the areas of Enshi and Changyang in western Hubei. "Second marriage" refers to a man taking a second wife and a woman remarrying. If a man's former wife had died, then when the newly married wife entered the home she first had to go behind the door and "pay respects to the elder sister," that is, bow to the man's deceased former wife, so as to prevent her from causing trouble later. When a widow remarried, upon leaving her original husband's home she could only go out through the back door, and in a forest or by a rock cliff some distance from her original husband's home she had to take off the clothes of her deceased husband's family and put on the clothes of her new husband's family, tying a straw rope around her waist, and wait for her new husband's family to come and carry out a symbolic bride seizure. "Levirate marriage," also called "taking over the room," meant that if the elder brother died, his wife married the younger brother; or if the younger brother died, his wife followed the elder brother. But in some Tujia areas of Changyang, levirate marriage was limited only to the younger brother's wife; if the elder brother died, his wife could not remarry to his younger brother. This was because folk belief generally held that an elder brother's wife was like a mother, and for a younger brother to marry her would carry a suspicion of incest. Levirate marriage was also called "brother-in-law and sister-in-law coming together," or "bed-sharing husband and wife."
IV. "Crying Marriage"
When a Tujia daughter married out, she absolutely had to cry over her marriage. There were "crying-marriage songs" for crying marriage, and a girl who cried beautifully and movingly was called a clever and bright good girl. Therefore, among the Tujia people, "crying marriage" was a traditional skill. Tujia daughters had to begin learning to cry over marriage from the age of twelve or thirteen. Crying marriage generally began one month before the wedding, though some began two or three days or one day before marrying out. The bride's family, while preparing her dowry, poured out their feelings of parting. A girl who could cry would not repeat herself within a month; she had to cry for ancestors, for father and mother, for elder brothers and sisters-in-law, for sisters, for the matchmaker, and for herself. The form of crying was to use song in place of weeping and to accompany weeping with song. The lyrics included traditional patterns and also impromptu creations inspired by the scene. Tujia girls used the form of "crying" to pour out the emotions in their hearts. When crying marriage, the mother began first:
Peach blossoms bloom in a water-red hue, many dowry guests have come.
Do not take offense if the hospitality is poor; do not cast aside the loyalty of the peach garden.
After the mother spoke her words of welcome, she then cried for her daughter:
Chrysanthemums bloom in a stretch of yellow,
With coarse tea and plain rice I raised you grown,
The daughter took it up and cried:
Your daughter is about to leave her mother.
Do not forget the grace of upbringing.
Tung blossoms bloom in a stretch of white, only a daughter cannot do it.
Mother bore and mother raised you for eighteen or nineteen years, how can mother and child be separated.
The mother then turned back to comfort her daughter:
Lotus blossoms bloom petal by petal,
When the lotus seed falls to the ground it bears a noble son,
The lotus pod bears seeds row after row.
Mother and child must in the end be separated.
In this way, they cried until the day the girl entered the bridal sedan chair. The Tujia people's "crying marriage" was like a song contest, with forms such as solo, antiphonal singing, round singing, accompaniment, and chorus.
V. "Accompanying the Ten Sisters" and "Accompanying the Ten Brothers"
"Accompanying the Ten Brothers" and "Accompanying the Ten Sisters." This marriage custom was popular in the Qingjiang River basin area of western Hubei. On the evening of the bridegroom's wedding, nine young boys around twelve years old had to be invited to sit around a table with the bridegroom. The seated "companions of the bridegroom" were called "accompanying the ten brothers." The bridegroom sat at the head of the table, and the nine others sat on both sides. A cup of wine was placed at the feast, and a song master was chosen to open the order and sing the opening song. Then, one by one in turn they sang; those whose singing did not conform to the rules were fined wine. When singing, according to the needs of different tune titles and song melodies, there were solos or antiphonal songs, or one person leading the singing with everyone joining in the chorus. The lyrics were mostly phrases of mutual flattery and congratulation, expressing congratulations to the newlyweds. "Accompanying the Ten Sisters" was held after the girl had bathed and had her face threaded; a banquet was set and nine unmarried women were invited to accompany her, carrying out the rite of a girl leaving the boudoir. During the feast they drank wine and sang, and this was called the "Daughters' Gathering." That night, the girl's family set up a place in the central hall, joining several large square tables into a banquet surface. Candles burned high on the shrine, and after the elders washed their faces and hands, they burned incense and paper. After the bride performed the rite of reporting to the ancestors, she kowtowed one by one to the elders among family and relatives. After the rites were completed, the singing began. The accompanying girls opened the performance first, each singing one song, after which guests at the gathering challenged one another to continue singing, and they dispersed only at dawn after enjoying themselves fully. The lyrics mostly took as their main content exhortations to the bride to fulfill filial duties after going to her husband's home, observe propriety, manage the household diligently and frugally, and treat people harmoniously. When the singing reached its climax, they often used riddle tunes to discuss the past and present and each displayed their abilities. No one yielded to anyone else, and the songs rose one after another in great liveliness; it was truly a grand gathering for the daughters. Section IV Family Conditions
The family is a kinship group produced by marriage relations and blood relations. In the class society before "replacing native officials with centrally appointed officials," the monogamous individual family was the main form of Tujia family structure. Compared with the family conditions of other ethnic groups in the same historical period, the family types, family relations, and family functions of traditional Tujia society had their own specific cultural connotations.