The Tujia — Social Customs
X. Social Customs. Beginning in the 1950s, the author conducted social and historical surveys of ethnic minorities in the border regions of Hunan, Hubei, Chongqing, and Guizhou. Since the 1980s, the author has spent one or two months every year or two visiting or working in Tujia areas. The social conditions there are worlds apart from those before the founding of New China. Especially in the 19...
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 Prices, business hours, administrative divisions, and statistical data mentioned in the text may already be outdated.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.
10. Social Customs
Beginning in the 1950s, the author went to the contiguous areas of Hunan, Hubei, Chongqing, and Guizhou to conduct social and historical investigations of ethnic minorities. Since the 1980s, every year or two the author has always spent one or two months visiting or working in Tujia areas. Compared with before the founding of New China, the social appearance there is truly as different as heaven and earth. Especially after 1979, the appearance of the prefectural seats, county towns, and some townships there can be called completely renewed, which is admirable.
Regional Autonomy
During the period of the Kuomintang, Chinese ethnologists and anthropologists conducted relatively long field investigations in Xiangxi. In the preface to the book Xiangxi Miao Investigation, in addition to recording that the Miao were an ethnic minority, they also acknowledged that there was a kind of "Turen" in Xiangxi. However, the Kuomintang government did not recognize at all that there were Tujia in Xiangxi.
During the War of Resistance Against Japan, the Kuomintang Hubei provincial government once sent people to western Hubei to look for the tomb of Ba Manzi, but found nothing. They only found Tusi remains in the Laifeng area and also said that there were "Turen" activities there, but did not acknowledge that the Turen were the Tujia.
After the founding of New China, the people's government sent professors, experts, and ethnic affairs workers in disciplines such as ethnology and ethnic linguistics many times to the contiguous areas of the four provinces of Hunan, Hubei, Chongqing, and Guizhou to conduct systematic and comprehensive field investigations of the Tujia's territory, language, economic life, and psychological qualities built on a common culture, and to conduct research and identification in conjunction with Tujia history, ethnic name, and ethnic consciousness. In October 1956, the State Council announced that the Tujia were a single ethnic group in our country. From then on, the Tujia, like other fraternal ethnic groups, gained equal ethnic status and enjoyed the right to manage their own internal affairs. In September 1957, the Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture was established. Within the prefectural government there were three Tujia serving as deputy prefects. This was the first autonomous prefecture established by the Tujia and Miao jointly exercising regional autonomy.
Since reform and opening up, in order to solve some ethnic problems left over from history, the people's government restored the Tujia ethnicity of some people in the border areas of Hunan, Hubei, Chongqing, and Guizhou. In 1980, two Tujia autonomous counties, Laifeng and Hefeng, were established in Hubei. In December 1983, the autonomous county status of Laifeng and Hefeng was abolished, and within the original Enshi prefecture area, the Western Hubei Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture was established (later renamed "Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture"). This was the second autonomous prefecture established through Tujia regional autonomy. The ethnic minority status of some people in the Fuling area of southeastern Chongqing was restored. On November 7 and 11, 1983, Xiushan Tujia and Miao Autonomous County and Youyang Tujia and Miao Autonomous County were established; on November 10, 13, and 18, 1984, Pengshui Miao and Tujia Autonomous County, Qianjiang Tujia and Miao Autonomous County, and Shizhu Tujia Autonomous County were successively established. The establishment of the five autonomous counties in southeastern Chongqing satisfied the long-cherished wishes of ethnic minorities for many years and greatly mobilized the enthusiasm of the people of all ethnic groups in southeastern Sichuan to accelerate socialist modernization.
In Tujia concentrated areas, two autonomous prefectures and nine autonomous counties have been established. The joy of the Tujia and Miao people in obtaining the right to ethnic regional autonomy is difficult to express in writing. Whenever there is a celebration meeting, the Tujia people are always so passionate and unrestrained, singing and dancing to praise the Chinese Communist Party's ethnic policies, and singing an improvised song of praise:
Each suona sounds a single note,
Every leaf flute pours out true feeling.
Gongs and drums beat in time with dancing steps,
Mountain songs sing of the Party's grace,
Tujia autonomy brings spring everywhere.
Towns and mountain villages have changed their appearance
More than fifty years after the founding of New China, the Tujia concentrated areas have changed rapidly; truly the sky has changed, the land has changed, and the people have changed too. People who return from Taiwan or overseas to their hometowns to visit relatives or sightsee all exclaim with one voice: "I can't even find the roads anymore; it has completely changed."
In the contiguous areas of Hunan, Hubei, Chongqing, and Guizhou, with the gradual improvement of urban transportation and the great development of industry, agriculture, and forestry, exchanges inside and outside the mountain areas have become more frequent, Chinese and foreign trade has flourished, and Tujia mountain villages and towns have improved year by year.
Luoyixi in Guzhang County of the Xiangxi Autonomous Prefecture was formerly mainly a river wharf on the bank of the You River for entering and leaving Yuanling, and resident merchants only dealt in miscellaneous goods such as oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar. Now the Zhi-Liu Railway and the Jishou, Yongshun, and Dayong highways all pass through here, making Luoyixi a water-land transportation hub in the northern part of the autonomous prefecture. Here is built the largest timber storage yard in the autonomous prefecture, with an annual timber throughput of more than 40,000 cubic meters. Modern buildings stand row upon row, and it has become a new town in northwestern Hunan.
The Tujia of Yesanguan in Badong, western Hubei, formerly had a weak concept of commodities and never engaged in commerce. With the opening of the highway from Wuhan to Enshi, local production has developed day by day, and among farmers the number of individual households that are both merchants and farmers has continuously increased. In order to facilitate urban-rural exchange, the government has organized and guided this, and the tertiary industry has developed very quickly. Yesanguan has now become a new type of market town.
Xituo in Shizhu County in the Tujia area of southeastern Chongqing was originally only a resting place and market for people from Qianjiang, Xianfeng, Laifeng, and other places going to Yunyang to traffic salt. There were only 11 boatmen transporting by wooden boat on the Yangtze River. Now it has become a fine port on Yangtze River shipping. The annual throughput of the Shizhu Shipping Company alone has reached 80,000 tons. Highways can reach Lichuan and Wangchang in western Hubei and connect with the Sichuan-Hankou Highway, promoting the rise of modern industries such as shipbuilding. Modern high-rise buildings have been built in rows, making it look like a newly emerging mountain city.
The first county town to become a city is Enshi City, where the seat of the Enshi Autonomous Prefecture government is located. Before the founding of New China, this place was described as "when vehicles pass, dust turns into dragons; when it rains, the whole road is mud," a true portrayal of Shinan Town. The town had fewer than 10,000 Han and Tujia residents. Today, with the great development of economic and cultural undertakings, civil aviation aircraft fly back and forth from Wuhan to Enshi every day, the urban area has expanded four or five times compared with before liberation, and the population has increased to nearly 80,000.
County-level towns in Tujia areas have developed very rapidly over the past fifty-plus years. Almost every town where a county seat is located has modern transportation, industrial and mining enterprises, and schools. Since reform and opening up, Longshan in northwestern Hunan, due to the rise of the cigarette industry, has transformed the entire county town. With the opening of the Zhi-Liu Railway in Dayong County, industrial and agricultural production accelerated; in particular, Zhangjiajie has built a new type of airport, urban construction changes every year, and tourism has risen suddenly as a new force. It has now become a national-level tourist city and is a dazzling pearl in Tujia areas. Zhongxiang Town, where the seat of Youyang Tujia and Miao Autonomous County is located, was a small town of fewer than 5,000 people before the founding of New China, with small houses, low eaves, narrow streets, and broken river embankments. After the founding of New China, the county town's residents increased to 24,500, 27,000 square meters of concrete pavement were laid, and the streets are flat and spacious. Buildings rise high, more than 11,000 trees were planted, greening and beautifying the environment, and a scene of prosperity has appeared.
The changes in Wufeng Town are even more prominent. Before the founding of New China, this small town had fewer than 1,000 people, only two individual handicraft households engaged in sewing and handmade small farm tools, and a few private merchants, with less than 500 meters of simple streets and alleys. After the founding of New China, with the development of production, there are now 15 large and small factories run by the county and town; newly built streets total 4 kilometers in length; 2,800 meters of tap water pipes have been installed, and a 2,000-meter-long sewage drain has been built; every household has electric lights, and many residents have home appliances; the town residents have increased to 10,871, making it the night pearl by the Tianchi River at the foot of Wufeng Mountain.
New Customs Among Ethnic Groups
Relations among the Tujia, Miao, and Han in the contiguous areas of Hunan, Hubei, Chongqing, and Guizhou have also undergone marked changes with the transformation of production relations and the implementation of the policy of ethnic regional autonomy.
Before the founding of New China, among the ethnic groups living in the contiguous areas of the four provinces and municipalities, as a result of the ethnic discrimination and oppression carried out by the ruling classes of past dynasties, barriers between ethnic groups were very deep, and "enemy rivers," "enemy dams," and "enemy villages" could be found everywhere.
After the founding of New China, as early as the 1950s, farmers of all ethnic groups in Tujia concentrated areas formed deep ethnic friendship in the course of common labor. Because Tujia farmers in Tianjia Township of Guzhang had no water due to drought and could not plant rice, and had to switch to planting sweet potatoes, Miao farmers in Longbi Township spontaneously organized friendship support teams, climbed mountains and waded through water for more than 100 li, and delivered sweet potato seedlings free of charge to Tianjia Township to help their Tujia brothers in production and disaster relief. In 1958, Longshan County wanted to build the Yunhe Reservoir, but it would submerge a small part of the land of Laifeng and Xuan'en Counties. Through consultation among the three counties, Laifeng and Xuan'en Counties took the initiative to properly resettle the migrants in the reservoir area. In 1959, in order to expand the reservoir's benefits, the three counties organized Tujia and Han farmers from the three counties to fight hard for a whole winter and expanded the benefited area of more than 40,000 mu of rice fields in Laifeng and Xuan'en; everyone happily called it the "Brotherhood Reservoir." As people of all ethnic groups sang in praise: "People of all ethnic groups are one family, close as brothers and linked heart to heart; shoulder to shoulder and hand in hand in production, prosperity for every household will soon arrive."
In the 1980s, with the thorough implementation of the policy of regional ethnic autonomy, the new-type relations among the various ethnic groups in the border area where the four provinces and municipalities meet were further developed, and cooperation between townships became even better. Huanglian Township in Baojing County of the Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture and Bao'an Township in Xiushan Tujia and Miao Autonomous County in southeastern Chongqing, which before the founding of New China had been in a state of estrangement with no contact between their ethnic groups, have now become friendly and cooperative. These two multi-ethnic townships are separated by the Yudong River, connected only by a single-log bridge, making travel extremely inconvenient; whenever the mountain streams rose, schoolchildren crossing the bridge could easily fall into the river if they were not careful. In 1985, after consultation, the two townships pooled funds and voluntary labor to build a large bridge together; during construction they fought unitedly, overcame one difficulty after another, and finally erected a bridge of friendship among the ethnic groups. Because the people of Huanglian Township had suffered deeply before the founding of New China from the lack of education, they took the initiative to establish an ethnic primary school; the villagers of the Miao village vacated their houses to serve as classrooms and offices, and with the people of three ethnic groups from two provinces contributing labor and materials, the "Xiangchuan Friendship Primary School" was quickly set up; it has 54 Tujia students, 85 Miao students, and 14 Han students, all diligently studying there. This school was born in ethnic unity and developed in ethnic unity, and in 1984 it was rated by Hunan Province and the Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture as an advanced collective in ethnic unity. Once, when the people of various ethnic groups in Da'ao Village of Bao'an Township were working on the mountain, a cattle shed caught fire and would soon have spread to the whole village; when the villagers of Dabao discovered this, they braved danger and waded across the water to put out the fire, saving the farm cattle and homes. In 1981, both Da'ao Village and Dabao Village suffered a severe drought; more than 20 mu of fields in Da'ao were especially badly affected, so Dabao sent over water pumps to help fight the disaster. In 1986, to carry out spring plowing well, the two villages jointly contributed funds and labor to build a water channel more than 50 meters long. Dabao had no electricity for lighting, so Da'ao ran power lines over to Dabao, making Dabao brightly lit at night as well. These two villages inhabited by multiple ethnic groups help each other, learn from each other, and advance together, becoming a model of ethnic unity.
In the multi-ethnic area where the four provinces and municipalities meet, the former "Feud River," "Feud Flat," and "Feud Village" have today become the "Friendship River," "Mutual-Aid Flat," and "Unity Village," and this has already expanded into a zone of cooperation among townships, districts, counties, and prefectures; especially in the last three or four years, the cooperative zone has expanded even faster.
Historically, the people of all ethnic groups in the border area of the four provinces and municipalities lived separately on their own sides of the boundary; after the founding of New China, they increasingly crossed the border to interact, and through mutual economic support and cultural exchange they became as close as one family. Brothers born in the same year, even if not of the same ethnic group, often "become sworn brothers" or "form age-mates," and young men and women of all ethnic groups are no longer bound by ethnic identity and intermarry. As a result, families in this area often contain two or more ethnic backgrounds. Of the 14 households in Dabao Village of Longshan County, 13 housewives come from Xuan'en on the opposite bank, while 80% of Dabao's Tujia girls have married into Xuan'en County. In multi-ethnic families, comparing unity, mutual aid, cooperation, and common progress has become a prevailing custom. In Gelache, Laifeng, Enshi Prefecture, there lives a Tujia mother in her sixties named Zhou Biyu; for more than 20 years she has voluntarily taken nine young orphans who lost their parents into her home to raise them, and has also voluntarily supported seven elderly people who were widowed, childless, or alone. Among these men, women, old, and young, there are Han, Tujia, and Miao. She washes and cooks for them, serves them tea and water, so that the young are cared for and the old have support in their final years. Her household's production is in good order, the family is well-off, and the whole family is harmonious; the masses call Mother Zhou the "Volunteer Mother" and call her home the "Household of Ethnic Unity."
In the contiguous area of Hunan, Hubei, Chongqing, and Guizhou, the Tujia, Miao, and Han peoples, in their common labor and common struggles, have formed socialist ethnic relations, just as the Tujia masses sing:
The sun comes out and shines on the mountain village,
Mountain after mountain and ridge after ridge press close together.
Village links to village, stockade to stockade,
Wooden towers and tiled houses stand in row after row.
We drink from the same well,
We cut firewood on the same mountain.
We go together to clean the well,
We come together to plant trees.
The clear spring water flows without end,
The towering mountains never decline.
Water wraps the green hills, the hills mirror the water,
Tujia, Miao, and Han cannot be separated.