The Tujia — Literature and Art
VIII. Literature and Art. Through long years of productive labor and social life, the Tujia people created a rich and colorful folk literature with their diligence and wisdom, including myths, legends, stories, fables, proverbs, riddles, ballads, long poems, and short songs. Written works consist mainly of poetry, prose, legends, inscriptions, and genealogies, among which the Zhuzhi Ci are the most elegant. Myths...
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VIII. Literature and Art
In their long-term production struggles and social life, the Tujia people created splendid and colorful folk literature with industry and wisdom, including myths, legends, stories, fables, proverbs, riddles, ballads, long poems, short songs, and so on. Written literary works include relatively many poems, prose, legends, stele inscriptions, and genealogies. Among them, bamboo-branch lyrics are the most beautiful.
Myths and Legends
Myths and legends are an important part of Tujia folk literature. Ancient myths and legends mostly describe the origins of humankind and nature and changes in primitive society, and were passed down from generation to generation. Such tales as "The Flood Reaches Heaven," "Brother and Sister Marry," "Grandpa Eagle and Grandma She," "Prince Xiang," "Ba Wuxiang," "Lin Jun Turns into a White Tiger," "Nine-Jointed Ox Horn," "Eight-Eared Pot," "Tujia Divine Horse," and "Cloud-Stepping Straw Sandals and Earth-Subduing Whip" are all wondrous explanations of the origins of humankind, ethnic groups, and surnames.
"The Flood Reaches Heaven, Brother and Sister Marry" is also circulated among some ethnic minorities in central-south and southwest China. However, the Tujia version has its own characteristics. In places where the Tujia language is spoken, Fuxi and his sister are said to be the seven sons and one daughter born after Zhang Guolao and Li Guniang ate eight golden pills, leaving only the two siblings "Busuo" and "Yongni" (Fuxi and Yibu), and some call them "the Luo siblings" or "the Nuo deity siblings." The flood legend says that in remote antiquity, when the floodwaters reached the sky, only Fuxi and his sister, hidden in a bottle gourd, remained in the world, living in the mountain forests. Through "divine instruction," the brother and sister married under a mulberry tree. The sister gave birth to a great ball of flesh (blood); a pair of scissors fell from the sky and chopped it into pieces; when the minced flesh was scattered in the soil, there were the "Tujia," and when some was thrown into the fields, there were people surnamed Tian.
Among the Tujia people of Qingtaiping in Badong, the story of "Grandpa Eagle and Grandma She" mainly says that in remote antiquity, two ancient tribes had a fierce armed clash. One tribe was beaten until only an 18-year-old girl named She Xiangxiang remained. She fled
to a deep mountain cave to hide, but was washed by an underground stream in a rocky ravine to the mouth of another cave. Just as she could neither go up nor come down, fortunately a divine eagle flew from the sky and carried her on its back to the barren mountains of Baping, where she settled, and it accompanied her every day as she opened the mountain and farmed the land. One day, while sleeping, Yu Xiangxiang dreamed that two small eagles rushed into her bosom, and therefore she became pregnant, giving birth to a daughter named Zhilan, the elder sister, and a son named Tianfei, the younger brother, who lived together with the divine eagle and She Xiangxiang. Because the brother and sister were both born by the pool, they took the surname Tan. When Zhilan and Tianfei grew up, She Xiangxiang, on her deathbed, told them never to forget the kindness of Grandpa Eagle, to revere Grandpa Eagle, and not to shoot eagles. After She Xiangxiang died, the mountain was still uninhabited. So the brother and sister agreed to walk around the mountain back to back, and if they could meet, it would mean heaven intended them to be united, and they would marry. However, Tianfei lost his way in the dense forest, but thanks to a divine bird's guidance, he finally met Zhilan under a large tree, and the brother and sister became husband and wife, bearing children, and thus there were the Tan-surnamed Tujia of Baping Pool.
Rather famous myths and legends include "Zhang Guolao Made Heaven, Li Guolao Made Earth," "The Sun and the Moon," "Male Stone Pillar and Female Stone Pillar," "The Wicked Dragon Fights the Mountain King," and "The Ginkgo Tree's Blossoms Are the Most Beautiful." They tell these myths in an enchanting and moving way.
"Zhang Guolao Made Heaven, Li Guolao Made Earth" says that in the primeval flood, it rained violently for seven days and seven nights, and the earth became a vast ocean. Only two siblings survived, hiding in a white gourd. Later, the white gourd was left by the water on a rock. The two siblings poked their heads out to look, and saw only chaos: heaven had no top, and earth had no shell. Only on the cliffs to the left and right sat two old men, Zhang Guolao and Li Guolao. What was to be done? To survive there had to be heaven and earth. So the brother and sister asked Zhang Guolao and Li Guolao to "make heaven and create earth." Zhang Guolao made heaven in seven days and seven nights. When he opened the Southern Heavenly Gate, a thunderclap awakened Li Guolao, who was sleeping late. He looked up and saw that heaven had already been made, so in a flurry he hastily made the earth. He took the earth to join it with heaven, but the earth was too big and would not fit. Li Guolao squeezed it with both hands and pressed the earth until it was the same size as heaven, but in doing so he squeezed out bumps and lumps of various sizes, and these lumps became the mountains on earth. Once heaven and earth were made, the earth was still a vast ocean. Li Guolao then used his feet to draw crooked little paths on the earth to let the water flow away. In this way the rivers of the earth were formed, and the flood receded.
"The Sun and the Moon" is also an interesting myth. It is said that after the brother and sister married and had eighteen surnames of Tujia, Guanyin Bodhisattva took them up to heaven. The elder brother became the moon and always came out at night; the younger sister became the sun and always came out in the daytime. The brother and sister took turns day and night watching over their descendants. But the younger sister was uneasy, always afraid that others would laugh at her for marrying her brother. So Guanyin Bodhisattva gave her a packet of embroidery needles, and whoever looked at her she would prick in the eye with an embroidery needle. Therefore, when people look at the sun, there are colorful needles that prick so that they cannot open their eyes.
"Why the Mulberry Tree Always Bends" is also a myth and legend of the Tujia ancestors explaining the origin of the sun and the moon. It says that when Zhang Guolao was making heaven, he saw that there was too much water on the ground, so he made twenty-four suns to shine day and night. They dried the earth until it was parched, with no grass or trees growing and the ground cracked. At this time, a frog suddenly discovered a mulberry tree that grew as high as heaven, climbed up the trunk to the sky, and ate one sun in a bite, eating twenty-two in succession. When it was just about to eat the remaining two suns, it was discovered by Luoying. Luoying hurriedly waved a club and bent the mulberry tree, so the frog could no longer eat the suns in the sky. From then on, grass and trees grew on the earth, but the mulberry tree could never straighten its waist again. Luoying let the two suns, one shine in the daytime and one shine at night; the one that shone at night was the moon. Although this is a myth and legend, it is indeed a fact that mulberry trees are especially numerous in Tujia areas and always grow crooked and bent.
Tujia myths and legends often praise the deities they believe in and deify ethnic leaders or heroic figures. Such figures as "Prince Xiang," "Duke Peng," "Old Official Xiang," "Good Fellow Tian," "King Qinli," "Wu Zhuchong and Rebachong," "The Eight Tribes' Heavenly Gods," "Mountain God and Earth God," and "Hunting God Meichang" are relatively famous.
"Prince Xiang" is relatively widely circulated in the Qingjiang River basin. Legend says that Prince Xiang once used an ox horn as a signal and led the Tujia ancestors to dredge all the tributaries of the Qingjiang River, so there is a saying that "Prince Xiang blew the ox horn and blew out a Qingjiang River." Later generations, when sailing boats or floating timber rafts on the Qingjiang River, all had to first sacrifice to Prince Xiang. Another legend says that long ago there was a war on the Qingjiang River. People all hid in the Prince Xiang Temple cave on the mountain. Enemy soldiers pursued them to the opposite mountain and fired three cannon shots at the Prince Xiang Temple cave, when suddenly the cave door closed. Afterwards, they saw only a person sitting atop the high mountain cave, stretching his feet down to the river below the cliff to wash them. When the enemy soldiers saw such a huge person, they no longer dared to attack.
There are many myths and legends about "Xiang Laoguanren," and all of them portray him as a man of both wisdom and courage among the ancestors of the Tujia people. Legend has it that Xiang Laoguanren could tame a black horse, and the emperor summoned him specially. The emperor asked: "How many people are there in your household?" He replied: "As many as there are millet seeds in three dou, three sheng, and three bowls." The emperor asked again: "How many people cook and carry water?" He answered: "Seventy cook, eighty carry water." The emperor asked once more: "How big is your house?" He replied: "A thousand pillars touch the ground, ten thousand doorways for coming and going." The emperor asked again: "With such a big house, how do you sweep the floor? How many lamps do you light at night?" Xiang answered: "The wind sweeps the floor, the moon lights the lamps." The emperor could not figure out what he meant, and thought to himself that in any case he was no match for him. He pressed on with more questions: "Then what about food and lodging?" Xiang Laoguanren answered: "I eat golden rice and silver dishes, use chopsticks of ivory with skin but no bone, use bowls of jade and emerald; by day I drink water from the riverside, by night I sleep on a one-legged dragon bed. Three boats went downstream hauling salt; one sank at Moying Shoals, and we went three days short of salt." Xiang Laoguanren answered as fluently as a flowing stream, and his words left the emperor dumbstruck. The emperor thought: Xiang Laoguanren's carefree palace surpasses the golden throne hall, outdoes the abode of immortals, and exceeds the house of emperors. Though he himself was honored as the Son of Heaven, he was not his equal. Yet even as he thought this, he said aloud: "You are accomplished in both civil and martial arts, and blessed with wealth and honor. I now bestow upon you ten bottles of imperial wine to show my imperial virtue. Do not fail my expectations." Xiang Laoguanren accepted the imperial wine and left the court. The next day he rode his black horse, galloping swiftly homeward. At Baima Ferry he drank the imperial wine and was poisoned to death (some say he was killed). To commemorate his wit, among the three statues in the Tuwang Shrine, Xiang Laoguanren is one. In truth, Xiang Laoguanren's dialogue with the emperor was just off-the-cuff answers. He was a poor commoner of the Tujia people, yet the emperor was intimidated by him and wanted to put him to death as quickly as possible, which reflects the emperor's ignorance and incompetence.
Legend has it that "Mei Chang, the Hunting Goddess" lived at the foot of Meishan Slope in the Wuling Mountains. Her father was highly skilled in hunting, and Mei Chang followed him into the mountain forests to learn hunting from childhood, developing excellent martial skills. On Meishan there were seven fierce tigers; six were killed by her father, and one remained, bringing harm to the people. One day, this fierce tiger was rampaging along the east bank of the Youshui River, killing residents and passing travelers, biting poultry and livestock, terrifying every household into shutting their doors, and leaving no travelers on the roads. Mei Chang resolved to eliminate this black tiger, so she went into the mountains alone with her hunting gun to seek it. She fought the tiger for half a day and finally killed it. Her clothes had been torn to shreds by the tiger, her body covered with wounds, and she too died on the mountain. To commemorate this heroine who rid the people of a menace, the Tujia people called her the Meishan Grass Goddess, and whenever there is a festival or when returning from a hunt in the mountains, they offer sacrifices to her.
Stories
Beside the blazing bonfires on the mountain or by the tripod fire pit, Tujia youth most love to listen with eager ears as the elders "tell old tales." A story, a joke, a fable, or a riddle-guessing game—it is truly lively. Liu Depei of the Wufeng Tujia Autonomous County has told more than 500 stories, covering a wide range of subjects, told vividly and with great feeling.
Among the Tujia people of the Hunan-Hubei-Chongqing-Guizhou border region, many can tell of the bravery and wonder of the Tujia kings, and also sing of the cruelty of the tusi chieftains. For example, "Wu Zhuchong and Peng Shichou" tells the story of Peng Shichong and Wu Zhuchong going to war during the Five Dynasties period. Wu Zhuchong had two great generals under him, one named Kedong Maoren and the other Luli Gaba, both of immense strength, able to lift a thousand jin. One day, Peng Shichou placed many small ants on a cracked rock. He said to Maoren: "Your strength is great—let's see if you can kill these ants with one punch." Maoren laughed: "What's so hard about that? I can kill a tiger with one punch, these little ants are nothing." So saying, he struck down with his fist, but the ants were not all dead. He punched several more times until his hand bled, yet the ants were still crawling. Then Peng Shichou used his fingertip to kill the ants one by one, and said to Kedong Maoren: "You punched several times and couldn't kill them, but I need only one finger. Why don't you surrender?!" Kedong Maoren then surrendered. But Luli Gaba was still unconvinced, so Peng Shichou took out a single straw and said to him: "You say your strength is great—if you can throw a straw across the river, I'll admit defeat." Luli Gaba threw several straws in a row, and all fell into the river. Then Peng Shichou, unhurried, bundled the straws together and tossed them across the river in one go, and Luli Gaba also surrendered to him. After that, Peng Shichou defeated Wu Zhuchong and other cave lords and became the Tujia king. This story is just a fragment of Peng Shichou's clever conquest of the eighteen man dong. The language is concise, and it successfully portrays Peng Shichou as a leader of both wisdom and courage among the Tujia ancestors.
"The White-Nosed Tujia King" tells of a white-nosed Tujia king who appeared among the Yongshun tusi in former times and took 48 wives in all. His nose often itched, and whenever it itched he had to kill someone, smearing the blood on his nose before he felt comfortable. When he had nearly killed off all his subordinates, he feared the Tujia common people would rise in rebellion, so he issued an order forbidding commoners to roof their houses with tiles; all tile-roofed houses were to be converted to wooden houses, so that sitting in the old tusi city he could see what the common people were doing in their homes. After the wooden houses were built, the white-nosed Tujia king went up a high mountain and ordered people to set fires below. In an instant, flames filled the air and shouts shook the heavens, yet he merely laughed loudly on the high mountain—truly tyrannical to the extreme.
The stories of the Tujia people are as numerous as stars. The better known ones include: "The Clever Boqika," "Reqiru," "The Legend of Katier," "Balie Subdues the Dragon," "Clever Scheme at the Brothers' Ferry," and so on.
"Xiang the Beggar Petitions" is an amusing story of the common people contending with a prefectural official. Xiang the Beggar, originally named Xiang Guangrui, was witty and resourceful. He lived at Qianjiawan in front of Baiyi Stockade in Wufeng. Because of the heavy grain taxes imposed by the Jingzhou prefectural official, the Tujia people had no means of livelihood. Yet the stone kilns and streams there always froze in midsummer, and the ice melted once the heat passed, but the authorities did not know this. So Xiang Guangrui went in the dog days to fetch a block of ice and carried it to the prefectural office to present his petition. As soon as he saw the official, he knelt and reported: "The Tujia people suffer bitter cold; in the sixth month ice forms. I beg Your Honor to remit our taxes." The prefectural official witnessed this with his own eyes and believed it to be true. He ordered the land and grain taxes abolished and even erected a stone tablet inscribed with four large characters: "Prefectural Order, Permanently Abolished." To this day, this stone tablet at Baiyi Stockade still stands unmoved.
The joke stories circulating among the Tujia people are sharp in language and full of wit, and are welcomed by the broad masses. For example, "The Landlord's Family Has No Conscience" tells of the hired hand Du Laoyao, who on the twenty-third of the twelfth month was preparing to go home. As he was packing his bundle (that is, his luggage), the landlord, afraid he might take things from his house, watched from the side and said: "Du Laoyao, you haven't lost those worthless jackets and trousers of yours, have you!" Du Laoyao smiled and said: "I shouldn't think so!" Du Laoyao left, but the landlord was still searching and looking around, when suddenly Du Laoyao burst back in and called out to the boss. The landlord asked: "What is it?" Du Laoyao shouted: "My conscience is lost!" The landlord retorted: "Your conscience?" Du Laoyao asked the landlord: "Did you hide it?" The landlord cursed: "Hmph! Search the whole house, front and back, as you please—my family has no conscience!"
The fairy tales and fables popular in Tujia villages are short and refined, strongly philosophical, with profound meanings and rich mountain-people characteristics. "Why Does a Monkey Have a Red Scar on Its Bottom" is because it loves flattery and dislikes bad news. Once, a crow hurried over to tell Big Brother Monkey, the mountain king: "The mountain is going to catch fire!" The magpie heard this and said: "With Big Brother Monkey as mountain king, this mountain won't catch fire." Hearing the magpie's flattery, the monkey was delighted and, forgetting himself, fell fast asleep. Later, when the mountain fire blazed up, the monkey was still dreaming, and only woke when the fire burned his bottom, narrowly escaping death. But a red scar was left on his bottom.
Tujia people, old and young alike, love guessing riddles. Even in antiphonal singing, dancing, and storytelling, riddles are indispensable. Tian Taidou recorded in a bamboo-branch poem: "Pumpkin and red beans carefully cooked, to draw neighbors to husk the night corn; one riddle no one can guess, and by lamplight and moonlight they all mock one another." The Tujia mountain villages of Wufeng abound in corn. At autumn harvest, neighbors are invited at night to husk corn, guess riddles together, joke and play, sharing the joy of the harvest. Liu Depei, a folk storyteller of Wufeng, has composed more than five hundred riddles, concise in language and combining local ethnic and regional characteristics, greatly welcomed by the Tujia masses, and already published in the Wufeng folk customs series. Tujia folk also use a great number of proverbs and two-part allegorical sayings to express their ideals and feelings.
Songs and Poems
"Farmers sing mountain songs offhand, north path and south field answering drum and gong." These are lines from the Wufeng Qing Dynasty Tujia poet Tian Taidou on farming. They show that the Tujia region has had a tradition of good singing since ancient times. Today, Tujia mountain villages hold singing contests every year. Once they start singing, they can forget food and sleep, and for days and nights the lyrics of their antiphonal songs do not repeat. On the road, whether they meet acquaintances or strangers, once they sing in response they can establish friendship; meeting in the morning, they can sing until the sun sets behind the western hills, and still warmly invite you to visit their Tujia village. So it is no exaggeration at all to say that the Tujia mountain countryside is an ocean of song.
Tujia men, women, old and young can all sing. There are traditional ancient songs passed down orally from the ancestors, as well as a great many new songs sung impromptu, with an enormous range of content. From astronomy and geography to labor and production, customs and habits, religious beliefs, ethics and morals, and social interactions; from ancient times to the present, nothing is excluded. Through question-and-answer, lyrical expression, debate, ridicule, and other forms of antiphonal singing, they express all kinds of emotions, in unrestricted forms. Thus most of the lyrics are also singable poems, and only a small number of folk rhymes are transmitted through recitation. The poetry embodies the Tujia national character, gives voice to their innermost feelings, and is a tool for exchanging thoughts and feelings, imparting production knowledge, social ways of life, and philosophical and moral principles.
The folk songs of the Tujia region are extraordinarily rich and can be roughly divided into labor songs, songs of bitter sorrow, love songs, custom songs, and children's songs and nursery rhymes. Because before the founding of New China most Tujia people in most places could speak Chinese, folk songs were mostly sung in Chinese, though some were also sung in the Tujia language.
The weeding gong-and-drum song, sometimes called the "digging-earth song," is a type of labor song. It is said that when the Tujia ancestors settled in the Hunan-Hubei-Sichuan-Guizhou region, they would strike gongs and beat drums while working. Later, for collective land clearing, digging, weeding, and tea picking, they would beat "mountain gongs and drums" and sing mountain songs. When several families or a dozen or even dozens of families gathered together, Tujia people would voluntarily join in the "mountain gong and drum" singing, without expecting pay. As recorded in a Hefeng bamboo-branch poem: "Planting rice and weeding, gongs and drums sound; men and women fill the mountain slopes; babies laid in the shade; men call the song and women answer." Weeding songs generally consist mostly of seven-character four-line or seven-character five-line verses. Antiphonal singing involves inserting padding words or "call openings" into the main lyrics, with varied inserted lines—this is the main characteristic of weeding songs. For example, the "Encouragement Song":
Lead singer: The sun comes out, the hillside turns yellow,
The weeders are busy, busy indeed.
Chorus: The clamor of gongs and drums shakes the sky,
Weeding past several ridges (mountains).
Labor chants are also varied, all closely tied to life and work by streams and ravines, with ethnic characteristics. In labor such as boating and rafting on rivers, quarrying stone, building bridges and roads, constructing dams and dikes, and building houses, chants are used to coordinate operations and reduce fatigue; the chants are mostly led by one person who directs, with everyone responding, each sound high-pitched, vigorous, and powerful.
In Tujia antiphonal singing, love songs make up a relatively large proportion. Examples include "Songs of Making Friends," "Songs of First Love," "Songs of Praise," "Songs of Longing," and "Songs of Farewell"; the riddle songs are largely inseparable from the Tujia historical tradition of "using songs as matchmakers." Legendary love songs such as "Ten Loves" and "Ten Farewells" have been passed down to this day, and impromptu singing is most common. The lyrics are pure and true, using metaphor and allusion, expressing emotion through meaning. For example, "A Tree of Flowers on the Cliff":
A tree of flowers on the cliff,
The whole mountain glows red with them,
The bees do not come to gather,
In vain a whole tree blooms.
Across the mountain I see that mountain red,
I want to pull it over and plant a clump,
In the morning I go out with three ladles of water,
At dusk I return and mound the roots,
With such care the flowers still won't redden.
Songs of bitter sorrow are the Tujia people's mournful songs recounting exploitation and oppression in the old society. Examples include "Songs of Resistance," "Songs of Complaint," "Songs of the Long-Term Hired Hand," "Songs of Bitterness for the Twelve Months," "Songs of Bitterness of the Single Man," and "Songs of the Bitter Daughter-in-Law." Some bitter songs express both suffering and longing for a better life. For example, a passage from the "Song of the Long-Term Hired Hand" popular among the Tujia of Changyang before the founding of New China:
A loofah has nine ridges,
In this world a hired hand's life is hard,
Before midnight he's already called to rise,
Before dawn he's driven out the door.
Driven all the way to the black pine forest,
Only at midnight does he get back in.
Another example is the mountain song "The Tujia Look Only to the Communist Party":
In the five barren months and sixth month, we long for cool breeze,
In the tenth and twelfth months, we long for the sun.
The Tujia long only for the Communist Party,
Just like a child longing for its parents.
The Tujia people have a set of customary songs covering clothing, food, housing, and transportation, birth, aging, illness, and death, marriage and funerals, beliefs and rituals, and social systems. For example, there are wedding custom songs and bridal lament songs for marriage; funeral songs for old age and death; various god songs for sacrifices; and birthday celebration songs, house-raising and beam-setting songs, and so on.
The bridal lament song is a free-verse lyric poem. Girls practice singing bridal lament songs from a young age, such as the popular "Sorrow of Parting" in Changyang:
Growing up, one must part,
Once parted, when will one return!
Though parting always has a day of return,
How long can one stay after returning?
From Sichuan come eighteen shoals,
From every shoal one sees Mount Emei,
On Mount Emei there is everything,
Only peonies and Chinese peonies are lacking.
Sister is leaving,
Brother is sad, and sister-in-law is sad too,
Before the gate flows a clear river,
When sister comes to visit mother, do not fear its depth.
The tunes of Tujia children's songs are the same as those of local folk songs, only the tunes are simpler. For example, the children's song "Big Moon" popular in Wufeng is quite widespread, and there are also "Lullaby" and others, with soft tones and slow rhythms.
Among the folk songs of the Tujia people, besides a large number of short songs, there are a certain number of long poems. Among them are many narrative poems, such as "ancient songs," "god songs," as well as epics and historical songs (including revolutionary praises). They all bear the brand of their times, are rich in folk song characteristics, have vivid plots, simple wording, and strong artistry. For example, in the "Tima God Song" sung in the Tujia language, one passage of lyrics narrates ancestral origins and the philosophy of life; the Chinese translation is:
Oh!
Hey!
Since Pangu separated heaven and earth,
The ancestors of Nongbo came here,
Day and night they opened wasteland and produced,
Day and night they produced and opened wasteland.
Year after year (ah) the wind and rain are favorable,
Every household is kept safe.
To eat, one must dig the soil,
To eat meat, one must raise pigs,
To wear clothes, one must plant cotton,
Only then is nothing lacking.
In 1864, Tian Siqun, a Tujia person from Changyang, Hubei, following the White Lotus uprising ten years earlier, raised high the banner of anti-Qing resistance and rebelled against the Qing court. "Tian Siqun's Rebellion Song" is a long narrative poem circulated among the Tujia folk of Changyang, totaling two hundred and twenty lines.
Between 1928 and 1935, a revolutionary base area was established in the border region of Hunan, Hubei, Sichuan, and Guizhou. Thereafter, a large number of long narrative poems praising the revolution and eulogizing revolutionary heroes circulated among the Tujia people. For example, in "To Join the Red Army, One Fears No Killing," popular among the Tujia people of Xuan'en in western Hubei, it says:
Fear no poverty, fear no poverty,
The bones of the poor are greatly different.
Bones hard as iron sand,
Blood must dye the world red.
The sun comes out, red across the sky,
Shoulder the spear and follow He Long.
He Long follows the Communist Party,
In the Communist Party there is a Mao Zedong.
When eating vegetables, eat the heart of the cabbage,
When joining the army, join the Red Army.
The poor follow the Communist Party,
In the dark night there is the Big Dipper.
You follow He Long to join the Red Army,
I will stay and raise the children.
If you don't return for ten years, I'll wait ten years,
One day you will come back.
Written Literature
The written literature of the Tujia people emerged relatively late. According to historical records, although during the Han and Tang dynasties there were Han Chinese civil officials and scholars who established schools and spread Han culture in Tujia areas, their influence on the Tujia people was minimal. During the Ming Dynasty, it was stipulated that the sons of tusi (native chieftains) could not inherit their positions unless they studied Chinese writing, and they were required to enroll in schools in neighboring prefectures. From then on, the Tujia upper class was increasingly influenced by Han culture. After the "gaituguiliu" (replacement of native chieftains with appointed officials) policy in the Qing Dynasty, prefectural and county schools sprang up, charity schools and private academies increased, and enrollment quotas expanded. Driven by the imperial examination system, Tujia scholars emerged in large numbers, Han culture rapidly permeated Tujia areas, and written literature flourished.
During the tusi period, Peng Shiqi of the Yongshun Tusi Office in Huguang wrote the Yongshun Xuanwei Si Zhi (Records of the Yongshun Pacification Commission), and Peng Mingdao wrote the Taoshi Yishi (History of Fleeing the World). In the Rongmei Tusi Office, starting from Tian Shijue's study of literature, four or five generations of his descendants excelled at poetry and prose. Tian Zishou founded a poetry school and wrote the Yixu Shicao (Poetry Manuscript of Yixu). Tian Shunnian of the late Ming and early Qing was well-versed in the classics, histories, philosophical works, and belles-lettres, and was a prolific author. His works include the Ershiyi Shi Zuan (Compilation of the Twenty-One Histories), Ershiyi Shi Buyi (Supplement to the Twenty-One Histories), Rongyin Shishu Lu (Records of Rongyin's Family Traditions), and Tian Shi Yijia Yan (Words of the Tian Family), among others. He also wrote numerous poems, collected in the Baihu Tang Ji (White Tiger Hall Collection) and Qingjiang Jixing (Record of a Journey on the Qingjiang River), etc. According to the Ran Family Genealogy, from the fifteenth-generation tusi Ran Tianzhang onward, almost every generation of tusi excelled at poetry and prose, producing "poetry collections" or "collected poems and prose." The twenty-first-generation tusi Ran Tianyu wrote the poetry collection Zhanzhan Yan Ji (Modest Words), and the twenty-second-generation tusi Ran Qibiao wrote the Yongcui Xuan Shiji (Poetry Collection of the Emerald-Embracing Studio). Ma Douhui, a retainer of the Shizhu Tusi, wrote in his prime such poetry collections as the Bofeng She Gao (Manuscript of the Wind-Fighting Society), Huangcao Gao (Wild Grass Manuscript), and Pomoyin (Ink-Splashing Chants), which were compiled into the Zhuxiang Zhai Shiji (Poetry Collection of the Bamboo Fragrance Studio). All of the above are outstanding examples of written literary works from the Tujia areas of southeastern Sichuan.
After the "gaituguiliu" policy in the Qing Dynasty, schools were established in Tujia areas just as in the interior, and imperial examinations were held to select officials, resulting in a proliferation of literati and poets and a great increase in writings. Peng Qiutan of Changyang wrote the Qiutan Shiji (Poetry Collection of Qiutan) and Shanyi Ji (Collection of Cherished Arts), among others. Tian Taidou of Wufeng participated in compiling the Changle Xianzhi (Gazetteer of Changle County) and wrote the Baiyi Shanfang Shiwen (Prose and Poetry of the Hundred-and-One Mountain Studio) and Wanghe Lou Shichao (Poetry Manuscript of the Crane-Gazing Tower). Xiang Zhengbin of Laifeng compiled the Xiang Shi Lidai Gongjue Zhengzhi Ji (Record of the Merits and Ranks of Successive Generations of the Xiang Family). Peng Yongxing was a prolific author, having written the Weilou Shanfang Pianti Wen (Parallel Prose of the Flavor Tower Mountain Studio) and Fengtu Zhi Riji (Diary of Local Customs), among others. After Youyang Directly-Subordinate Prefecture was established, three Tujia scholars successively passed the imperial examination at the jinshi level: Ran Guangbing, Cai Shiyou, and Chen Jingxing. They studied Han Chinese books diligently and achieved further advancement, producing even more poetry and prose. Chen Jingxing, born in Qianjiang in the nineteenth year of Daoguang (1839), composed no fewer than a thousand poems in his lifetime; his collections such as Zhuangyou (Grand Travels), Motie (Grinding Iron), and Tianju (Rural Dwelling) contain nearly 700 extant poems.
Ancient and modern Tujia writers all studied Chinese writing. Among literary poetry, the one that best embodies Tujia ethnic characteristics is the zhuzhici (bamboo-branch song), followed by ancient-style poetry.
The Tujia ancestors, the Ba people, were skilled at singing Ba songs and were already outstanding in ancient times. When the Ba people sang, they accompanied themselves with short flutes, struck drums with bamboo branches, and danced in step. This tune pattern was also called "Yangliu" in the Liangshan area of eastern Sichuan. During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, Li Daoyuan recorded two-line zhuzhici Ba songs. In the Tang Dynasty, Liu Yuxi compiled them into zhuzhici, and through the dissemination of Bai Juyi, Lu You, Huang Tingjian, and others, they became one of the poetic forms loved by all ethnic groups of the time.
The content of zhuzhici mostly records the mountain and river scenery, production and daily life, and local customs of Tujia areas. The language is fresh, often using homophones, free and mellow, forming a style of its own.
The zhuzhici written by Peng Shiduo record the grand occasion of the Tujia people playing the "hand-waving dance" to celebrate the New Year from the third to the fifteenth of the first lunar month:
In Fushi City, brocade makes the nest,
By the Tujia King's palace, water ripples in the pond.
Ten thousand red lanterns, a thousand layers of people,
A single lingering song of the hand-waving dance.
Tian Taidou wrote many zhuzhici recording local customs. Among them is one about the Lantern Festival:
From door to door lanterns shine bright as jade jars,
The New Year's atmosphere, customs simple and grand.
All night the Lantern Festival flower drums pound,
Willow-flower tunes in Sichuan accent resound.
Another example is the ancient-style poem composed by Tian Siqun, which is still popular and sung among the Tujia people of Changyang:
In the sacred village the dragon spring glows at night,
Affectionately given to me by my friend Zhang.
Elite troops well-drilled, fierce as tigers in might,
The precious sword re-sharpened, frosted white.
It is not that I wish to harm the common folk,
But because those in power have turned to wolves.
Writing to serve the nation still seems too slight,
There is a way to make all equal and right.
Music and Dance
The ancestors of the Tujia people were renowned for their skill in Ba-Yu song and dance. Even today, the Tujia folk "customarily delight in song and dance," and there are still many legends and stories about folk masters of song and dance. Their music and dance possess the elegance of the southern mountains and distinct ethnic characteristics, and are deeply loved by people of all ethnic groups. Most songs have no instrumental accompaniment; some require percussion instruments; some are sung solo; some are sung while dancing; and some are led by one singer with others joining in the chorus. The forms of singing are varied. The entire melody uses few notes, the tones are simple, and the melody is clear and easy to learn and sing—this is an important reason why Tujia folk songs have a broad mass base and vigorous vitality.
Mountain songs are a common form of singing, and their vocal styles can be divided into three categories. The first has a high pitch, wide range, large melodic fluctuations, free rhythm, long drawn-out phrases, many filler words, and unrestrained emotion. Singers often adopt the song style used when calling songs from mountain peaks, mostly singing solo. The second is the flat-tone mountain song, with a relatively steady melody and delicate expression of feeling; singers mostly use their natural voice to sing lyrical and narrative songs in the open countryside. The third is the low-tone mountain song, a tune often sung by Tujia women before the founding of New China; it has a smaller volume, a low and gentle tone, a winding and mild melody, and a strong sense of rhythm. When sung, it is like weeping and complaining, well-suited for both narration and expressing emotion.
The instruments played by the Tujia in the mountains include the tree leaf, dongdongkui, leather drum, short flute, and suona, among others. They excel at wind and percussion music. Tujia men and women, from childhood, enjoy putting leaves to their lips and blowing whistles for fun; when a little older, they use evergreen leaves to play mountain song melodies. The tree leaf can produce crisp, pleasant tones, with a sound like the warbling of birds, melodious and loud; when accompanying songs, it is fresh and moving.
In the Longshan Luota Tujia settlement area, there is a folk legend called 'One Vine.' It tells of a girl named Qinai from Yanagou in Longshan Luota. From childhood she was clever and lovely, able to sing mountain songs and play the dongdongqiu. Young men all loved to listen to her. A young man named Laowu from Cuotani often worked with Qinai, played wooden leaf music, and sang antiphonal songs, and they fell in love. Qinai's mother agreed to the marriage between Laowu and Qinai. But later Qinai was noticed by the Tujia official Tian Yu, who wanted to marry her to his son. When sending a matchmaker to plead his case failed, he sent soldiers to seize Qinai and marry her to his son Tian Guangfu. In the bridal chamber, Qinai struggled with Tian Guangfu and threw him to his death, and Tian Yu threw her into the death prison. Laowu gathered people to break into the prison and rescued Qinai. The two fled deep into the mountains and, beneath kudzu flowers, sang mountain songs longing for relatives and cursing Tian Yu. They sang and sang, pouring out all the bitterness in their hearts.
No one could say exactly how many mountain songs they sang. Later, the old Tian Yu sent soldiers to surround the mountain and search for them, intending to execute them. The two then hanged themselves on a single kudzu vine, dying unyieldingly. After Qi'nai and Lao Wu died, the mountain wind blew for three days and three nights, and in the sound of the wind people could faintly hear their mountain songs and the sound of the tree leaf. In Luota, whenever the mountain wind blows, the elders always murmur: "Qi'nai and Lao Wu are singing and playing the tree leaf again," praising their spirit of resistance and commending them as masters of mountain songs and the tree leaf.
The dongdongkui is a single-reed vertical flute of the Tujia people. It is made from a thin bamboo tube about 15 centimeters long and about 2.5 centimeters in diameter, with four small holes and the lower end cut at a slant, thus forming a dongdongkui. Its fundamental tone is divided into two modes: gong and zhi. Tujia women and children enjoy playing it, and traditional tunes such as "Baliedong," "Laiyo Lai, Laiyo He," and "Daiduli" are still preserved. Most have lyrics, so it can be used both for playing and for singing as a folk song. The music played on the dongdongkui is soft, cheerful, lively, and graceful.
About the dongdongkui, a beautiful legend still circulates in Tasha, Longshan, western Hunan. In Suoduo of Tasha lived two brothers, Xiang Fu and Xiang Qin. The elder brother was lazy and gluttonous, spoke differently to different people, and later became a Tujia official and the richest man. The younger brother farmed diligently and busied himself with learning arts, becoming a master of the dongdongkui. Whenever Xiang Qin played, trees listened and flowers bloomed, and a hundred birds gathered around. Later, he played for the cave god in the cave palace for three days and three nights. The cave god said he still could not move the heavenly gods, so he gave him a golden dongdongkui and told him to study and practice diligently. Xiang Qin received the precious dongdongkui and could not put it down. He practiced every night; after learning for a hundred days, he could play the calls of a hundred birds, and after learning for one thousand one hundred and eighty nights, he could play all the sounds of nature, such as wind, rain, and thunder. Xiang Qin practiced the dongdongkui so diligently that he became a spirit. When the Tujia brothers wanted wind, he played the dongdongkui and wind came; when the Tujia elders wanted rain, he played and rain arrived; when the Tujia villagers had no mountain delicacies or game for the New Year, he played and there were delicious foods for the New Year. The dongdongkui became his priceless treasure. His brother Xiang Fu wanted to present Xiang Qin's precious dongdongkui to the prime minister of the female Tujia chieftain (the Tujia official in charge of general affairs in the tusi office) in order to gain promotion. So Xiang Fu first sent his wife to trick Xiang Qin into handing over the "treasure," and when that failed, he sent soldiers to seize the dongdongkui. The Tujia people elected Xiang Qin as their leader and prepared to attack the old tusi city. When the female Tujia chieftain learned of this, she announced at the drill ground of the old tusi city to the Tujia people: Xiang Fu, who was obsessed with official rank, and the prime minister, who took bribes and perverted the law, would be thrown into prison to await punishment; Xiang Qin was appointed as a master artist and was to take the dongdongkui to teach in the forty-eight caves. Thereafter, thousands upon thousands of Tujia youth could play the dongdongkui, and during festivals they would play it to accompany dances.
Tujia children can make short flutes four or five inches long from small bamboo tubes and play melodious tunes on them. Children tending cattle and sheep most enjoy playing songs on them.
In western Hunan and Hubei and southeastern Chongqing, the "daliuzi" (percussion ensemble), "dajiaye," and "hualuogu" (also called "panluogu") use instruments such as the chess-piece drum, first cymbal, second cymbal, Tujia gong, and horse gong. Three to four people play in ensemble with ingenious coordination and distinct rhythm, and can perform more than a hundred beautiful vocal tune patterns such as "Daoban," "Lianbaju," "Yangge," "Chuanhao'er," "Meng Hu Xia Shan" (Tiger Descending the Mountain), and "Long Bai Wei" (Dragon Wags Its Tail). When the Tujia people weed hillsides or pull up rice seedlings, some also beat gongs and drums and play the suona, interspersed with singing. When reclaiming wasteland or opening fields, they always beat the weeding gong and drum.
The Tujia people excel at dance. Most dances are combined with song and music, and some appear in forms combined with primitive drama. According to a survey in Enshi Prefecture, there are 68 kinds of traditional dances, including playing the "hand-waving dance" (jumping Shebaba), "jumping funeral dance," "chuanhua," "playing shuashua," "beating flower drum," "eight-treasure copper bell dance," and "bamboo stick dance."
Before the founding of New China, the "hand-waving dance" was generally performed after dinner each year from the third to the fifteenth of the first lunar month (some extended to the seventeenth). The "small hand-waving" lasted either three evenings or seven evenings. In the areas of Matizhai, Longche, and Luota in Longshan, a grand hand-waving was held once every three years and lasted seven days and seven nights before it ended. The grand hand-waving was also an activity to worship ancestors, and included not only military movements but also agricultural dances.
The characteristics of the Baishou Dance (Hand-Waving Dance) are: step out with the left foot while swinging the right hand, step out with the right foot while swinging the left hand, and the arc of the two hands swinging generally does not exceed the shoulders or the space between the eyebrows. There are three forms of swinging: "single swing," "double swing," and "whirling swing." The content expressed includes: "pressing palms together" and "Guanyin seated on the lotus," which are related to sacrificial rites; and "slashing and burning the fields," "planting the five grains," and "spinning cotton," which are related to labor and daily life. There are about 40 sets of dance movements, most of which are refined and full of the flavor of daily life, expressing the bold and uninhibited ethnic character of the Tujia people.
"Tiaosang" (Funeral Dance): Because the lyrics end with the cry of "Sa'erhe," this dance is also called "Tiao Sa'erhe." It is an ancient funeral sacrificial song and dance of the Tujia people in western Hubei. During the Tiaosang, a skilled singer acts as the song leader, beating a drum before the deceased and calling out the song. Two, four, or eight people join in the song and dance, singing while dancing. One person holds the drum and leads the singing, with the others joining in. The drum holder directs the dance with drumbeats and changes the tunes with drumbeats. The heels follow the drumbeats and the drum follows the heels, with no stringed accompaniment. After dancing one or a few sections, the group drinks a cup of wine. When one group tires, another group takes over.
There are many sections of the Tiaosang dance, including dozens of types such as "Four Big Steps," "Rolling Body," "Yao Gu Jie," and "Rhinoceros Gazing at the Moon." While dancing, participants sing and dance simultaneously. The dance postures mostly maintain a bent waist, arched back, bent legs, and downward quivering of the hips, with feet in a splayed position and hands swinging left and right in front of the chest. When very elderly people dance, they almost have to squat while dancing.
The lyrics mostly narrate the life deeds and happy events of the deceased, praise the martial valor and merits of the deceased and their forebears, extol the deceased's noble virtue of diligence, and also recount interesting incidents from the deceased's social life. There are also condolences to comfort the bereaved family. The singing styles are divided into high-pitched and level tunes, with very distinct rhythms that are pleasant and moving to the ear.
After the founding of New China, cultural workers at the Cultural Center of Changyang Tujia Autonomous County created the "Bashan Dance" based on the traditional "Tiaosang" dance, which is deeply loved by the Tujia people. The Bashan Dance now has 6 sets in total, namely "Half Moon," "Leaning Body," "Four Harmonies," "Willow Swaying in the Wind," "Magpie Perching on a Branch," and "Two Dragons Swinging Their Tails." The dance steps are mostly small flat steps, point steps, and four big steps. Two people, dozens of people, or even over a hundred people can participate in pairs, and dance partners can also be exchanged. The "Bashan Dance" is the artistic crystallization of modern Tujia song and dance, and has become a form of entertainment loved by people of all ethnic groups in western Hubei.
The Eight-Treasure Bronze Bell Dance: The eight-treasure bronze bell was originally one of the "ritual implements" used by Tujia priests when presiding over sacrificial rites. According to Tujia legend in Youyang, the eight-treasure bronze bell symbolizes the precious horse ridden by the Tujia priest, and the five-colored silk ribbons tied to the bronze bell are the horse's mane. The dance mostly imitates actions such as raising horses, washing horses, teasing horses, mounting horses, straddling horses, trotting horses, galloping horses, and reining in horses, so it is also called the Horse Dance.
Among the song-and-dance performances relatively popular among the Tujia people today, the Huadeng (Flower Lantern) is foremost; in some places it is also called "Dihuagu" or "Wanshuashua." People of all ethnic groups in the Changyang area of Hubei like to perform this dance on occasions such as weddings, birthday celebrations, good news announcements, or after labor, calling it "Da Huaguzi." Xiushan Huadeng is divided into three types: single flower lantern, double flower lantern, and flower lantern opera. There are over 220 kinds of flower lantern dances, and the content mostly consists of singing about the lives, love, and production knowledge of working people, historical legends and stories, celebrating the New Year and wishing for a good harvest, and celebrating peace.
In the Tujia region, western Hubei alone has 7 opera genres and 12 kinds of quyi (folk performing arts). The "Maogusi" (or "Mao Gushi") performed by the Tujia people of Xiangxi during the "Tiaonian" (New Year celebration) has the prototype of primitive drama; there are also Yangju and Youxi operas. Because the Tujia had early contact with the Han and were deeply influenced by Han culture, by the late Ming and early Qing dynasties at the latest, opera troupes had already appeared here. The Liuzi Opera of Hefeng may have originated from Liangshan tunes and was probably already prevalent in the Tujia region by the Song Dynasty. Nanxi and Nanqu are both products of the combination of Tujia and Han cultures.
Maogusi is an early dramatic form of the Tujia people, once popular in the areas of Longshan, Yongshun, and Guzhang. Although it does not yet have a complete dramatic form, it already has simulated characters and story plots, expressing content through spoken dialogue. The characters portrayed in the play are all figures from the three generations of the Tujia's ancient ancestors. Performers wrap their entire bodies in straw, with five braids on top of their heads, symbolizing that their ancestors' entire bodies were covered in hair.
In the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, the Rongmei Tian family chieftains introduced Chu tunes, Qin tunes, and Kunqu from Han areas into the Tujia region of western Hunan and Hubei. By the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, Han opera combined with local folk music to form the "Nanju" with local characteristics of western Hunan and Hubei. It has nearly a thousand repertoire pieces, mainly performing legendary stories and historical dramas, with high-pitched vocal styles rich in the mountain village flavor of the Tujia.
"Nuoyuan Opera" is also called "Tudi Opera" (Earth God Opera). In the early period after the founding of New China, the Miao and Tujia people of western Hunan and Hubei and southeastern Chongqing still had the custom of fulfilling Nuoyuan vows, and had operas for thanking the gods. Some were performed by one or two people, three or four people, or six or seven people, and some by more than ten people singing this kind of "divine opera." Some of its content involved feudal superstition. There are over 30 tune types for the singing, with percussion accompaniment for the vocal responses, and it basically already possesses the form of drama.
The quyi (folk performing arts) of the Tujia region are diverse and varied, with special styles of speaking and singing. This is another flower produced by the exchange and combination of Tujia and Han literature and art, with a history of over a hundred years. Nanqu has dozens of tune types, of which more than ten are commonly performed, and there are as many as over a hundred traditional repertoire pieces.
Mantangyin (plucked-string singing) is a new quyi genre created by cultural workers of the Wufeng Tujia Autonomous County based on the vocal tunes of shadow puppetry. The performance form is mainly seated singing, with the main prop being a locally made pipa. Performers play and sing simultaneously, interspersed with dialect spoken passages. The form is lively and can both express emotions and describe scenery, as well as narrate long stories. It is a quyi genre loved by the people of all ethnic groups in the local area.
Crafts and Fine Arts
The crafts and fine arts of the Tujia people are rich and colorful, fully reflecting the intelligence and wisdom of the working masses. Exquisite crafts and artworks are often attached to Tujia handmade products and buildings. They mainly include textiles, weaving, embroidery, and batik. Among textiles, those with relatively high artistic level are "Xibu" and "Dongjin." Tujia women are skilled at weaving Xibu and "Xilankapu" (translated into Chinese as "flowered bedcover"), which is their specialty.
During the Qin and Han dynasties, the ancestors of the Tujia were skilled at weaving fine and delicate cloth called "Congbu," which was a precious tribute item presented to the imperial court. By the Song Dynasty, the Tujia people in the border region of Hunan, Hubei, Chongqing, and Guizhou presented "Xibu" as tribute to the court, which maintained the traditional characteristics of "Congbu." Among the other precious tribute item "Dongjin," "Xilankapu" was the most exquisite, standing out even among the ethnic minorities of central-south and southwest China, and was long ago recorded in historical annals. Many stories about skillfully weaving Dongjin are also circulated among the Tujia people. "White Fruit Flower" is one of them. A girl skilled in colored weaving, in order to weave the white fruit flower that blooms at midnight onto her "Xilankapu," went to observe under the white fruit tree late at night for a long time. This caused her sister-in-law to falsely accuse her to her father-in-law of going out at midnight to meet a lover. The old man believed it to be true and actually beat the girl to death with his cane. Thus, the originally white white fruit flower was stained red by the girl's blood.
Tujia girls begin learning colored weaving from the age of eleven or twelve, and some go to places like Longshan and Laifeng to take skilled craftsmen as teachers. At the time of marriage, a girl must have a Tujia flowered bedcover as part of her dowry, otherwise she will be looked down upon or mocked. Therefore, before marriage, Tujia girls always work from dawn to dusk, putting their hearts and blood into diligently and meticulously making their beloved Tujia flowered bedcover. Generally, blue or black is used as the base yarn, and then colorful silk threads or cross-stitch threads are used to weave various dazzling artistic patterns. The decorative patterns of colored weaving are generally divided into three categories: first, patterns drawn from natural objects; second, various geometric pattern designs; and another category that is mostly text patterns. Among these, geometric patterns account for a relatively large proportion. Tujia flowered bedcovers are generally made by joining three pieces of "Xilankapu" together, with each piece having woven borders at both ends, forming a splendid pattern across the entire quilt surface, elegant and beautiful.
The patterns of Tujia flowered bedcovers are diverse and gorgeous. Laifeng alone has over 300 kinds, mostly drawn from Tujia life. For example, "Tujia King's Five Seals," "Wedding Procession," "Forty-Eight Hooks," "Table and Chair Flowers," "Butterflies Pouncing on Peonies," "Four Phoenixes Carrying Peonies," and so on. These designs are unique in conception, elegant in form, vivid in expression, and lifelike, truly reflecting the life, history, and customs of the Tujia people. After the founding of New China, the traditional Tujia weaving craft of "Xilankapu" was further developed and improved. In October 2003, the "Xilankapu" displayed at the Chinese Culture Festival held in Paris, France, was unanimously praised by Parisians and guests from various countries.
Tujia women like to embroider on shoe uppers. Many girls begin learning to make shoe-upper flowers at the age of eight or nine. Slightly older girls learn cross-stitch and "qianhua" (also called "zhuanghua"). They mostly use white homespun cloth or colored cloth as the base fabric, and use silk threads or cross-stitch threads to embroider various pictures on the base fabric, including geometric patterns and birds, beasts, insects, fish, flowers, grasses, trees, and natural scenery. They also love embroidery, often first embroidering various patterned borders with colored threads, then rolling them onto the edges of garment fronts. Some directly embroider flowers on the corners of garments. Fine embroidery can be found on bed sheets, curtain valances, pillows, handkerchiefs, ribbons, pouches, and aprons. Before the founding of New China, the Tujia had a lyrical song:
The white cloth handkerchief has four corners,
On the four corners are embroidered wild geese.
Even when the handkerchief is worn out, the wild geese remain,
One does not look at appearance but at skill.
This shows how much Tujia girls cherish their own carefully done embroidery. And their works are generous in structure, brilliant in color, and rich in mountain village and ethnic characteristics.
The baskets, back-baskets, and carrying baskets they weave from bamboo strips are all very exquisite. The shrine buildings such as the "Xiangwang Tianzi Temple" and "Tujia King Shrine" in the Tujia region collectively reflect the superb artistic level of the Tujia people in practical art.