The Tujia — Religious Beliefs
VII. Religious Beliefs. The Tujia practice polytheism along with worship of Tujia kings and ancestors. The objects of their worship are often related to myths and legends, and to their hunting traditions, mountain agriculture, and the rise and fall of the chieftain system. Daoism, Buddhism, and Christianity were also introduced successively, exerting a certain influence on Tujia beliefs. Vestiges of nature worship...
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VII. Religious Beliefs
The Tujia people believe in multiple gods, as well as Tujia king worship and ancestor worship. The objects of their belief and worship are often related to myths and legends, and to their skill in hunting, their engagement in mountain agriculture, and the rise and fall of the chieftain system. Because Daoism, Buddhism, and Christianity were also introduced successively, they also had a certain influence on Tujia beliefs.
Remnants of Nature Worship
In the past, under the influence of the concept of the immortality of the soul, the Tujia regarded all things in nature and social life as being governed by souls, spirits, or deities. The ancestors of the Tujia were renowned for their skill in archery and hunting, and were called a people of fishing and hunting, eating meat, and believing in ghosts and shamans. Every spring, Tujia people liked to hunt in groups. During the slack seasons of autumn and winter, they either hunted together in several households or hunted in one or two households. Before and after each hunt, they sacrificed to the hunting god. In places such as Longshan, Laifeng, Yongshun, Baojing, Xiushan, Youyang, and Guzhang, the hunting god was called "Meishan Niangniang," "Yunxiao Niangniang," "Meichang," or "Meishan Tudi." Many legends about Meishan Niangniang becoming the hunting god circulate in this area. In the Longshan and Laifeng areas, Tujia legend says that in ancient times there were seven sisters, and the seventh sister was Meishan Niangniang. She loved hunting passionately. As soon as she saw an animal's footprints, she knew what kind of wild beast it was, when it had passed, how many there were, and where they were hiding. Her arrows flew true, hitting the target every time, and every year she shot dead dozens of bears. After she was murdered, she became the hunting god. The Tujia all worship and make offerings to her, praying for abundant game and protection from wild beasts harming people. Her shrine is set up on the right side outside the house, made of three bricks. When worshipping her, hunters must dress neatly and must not expose their chests or bodies, and must offer the wild game they have caught as sacrifice. Only after the ceremony may they divide the meat and eat. On New Year's Eve, Meishan God must be worshipped. During the sacrifice, pig heads, glutinous rice cakes, pig trotters, new clothes and shoes, and silk and satin are placed on the table, and people kneel and bow to her. At dawn the next day, the offerings are put away. It is said that doing this ensures a peaceful mountain year and abundant game for the Tujia. Normally, before "going on a hunt," Meishan Niangniang must be worshipped at midnight. The heads and feet of rare birds and beasts obtained from hunting must be hung outside the house or sent to the home of the Tujia priest (shaman), to be offered as sacrifices before the Tujia king's tent when sacrificing to the Tujia king.
In some places such as Changyang, Wufeng, and Hefeng, the Tujia "hunt" must be preceded and followed by sacrifices to the hunting god Zhang Wulang. According to legend, Zhang Wulang was an expert hunter. While hunting, in order to save his fellow hunters, he unfortunately fell off a cliff and died upside down. Later generations did not forget him and worshipped him as a god. Another legend says that after Zhang Wulang died while hunting in the mountains, his hunting dog did not return home. People often heard someone blowing horns and whistling on the mountain where he died. Later, when hunters made offerings to him, the mountain became peaceful and the hunting dog returned home. Before hunters go out hunting together, they must first worship Zhang Wulang, ask him to "open the mountain," and make vows: "For big gains, big thanks; for small gains, small thanks." When hunters leave home to hunt, they turn Zhang Wulang's statue upside down before entering the mountain; upon returning from the hunt, they set the statue upright again and sacrifice with the heads of wild beasts.
The Tujia of Youyang, Xiushan, Qianjiang, and Shizhu believe that the mountain god governs wild beasts and wild birds, so before and after hunting, they all worship the mountain god. Some villages even have temple fairs for competing in honoring the mountain god, which are very lively. In the Youyang and Xiushan areas, in addition to regarding "Meichang" as the hunting god, there is also a hunting god legend in which "Meichang" was mistakenly transmitted as "Meishan." It says that Meishan was a general under Erlang Shen, skilled at hunting, and was enfeoffed as the hunting god. In any case, regardless of which legend about the hunting god exists in the Tujia region, the location where the shrine is placed is always secret. They believe that if outsiders know the location of the hunting god's shrine, it will lose its efficacy; and whoever intentionally mocks the hunting god will suffer the god's severe punishment, becoming either deaf or mute.
Before Liberation, the Tujia people had long practiced farming with extensive cultivation and meager harvests, and believed that every aspect of farming was governed by souls and deities. In the Tujia region bordering Hunan, Hubei, Chongqing, and Guizhou, before the founding of New China, there were Earth God temples everywhere. Several kinds of "Earth Gods" were worshipped in the Earth God temples: the "Mountain God Earth God" governed the five grains on the slopes; the "Family Ancestor Earth God" governed the raising of poultry and livestock; and the "Meishan Earth God" governed hunting and prevented wild beasts from entering houses and harming people and livestock. Every New Year, sacrifices were made to the "Earth God." The second day of the second lunar month is the Earth God's birthday. Some farming households killed chickens and offered wine, meat, glutinous rice cakes, incense, candles, and paper money as sacrifices. On this day, Tujia families surnamed Ran would bring cooking utensils and food to the Earth God temple to cook and make offerings; Tujia of other surnames cooked at home, also using several kinds of food, first sacrificing to the "Earth God," and then eating.
In addition, some villages, during the New Year festival and on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, worship the "Five Grains God," the deity governing the five grains. In some villages, on the third day of the first lunar month, the Five Grains God's shrine is placed in the hillside fields, and after the autumn harvest it is brought back home. During the tenth lunar month, the Five Grains God must be worshipped. Regarding the origin of the Five Grains God, there are also several different legends among the Tujia. One legend says that the Five Grains God was originally a dog, who brought the grains from the Western Heaven. At that time, there were no five grains here. The dog went to the Western Heaven to fetch the five grains, climbing mountains and wading through water, its body soaked through. When it reached the grain-drying ground, it rolled over, and its whole body was covered with the five grains. But on the way back it had to wade through water again, and all the grains on the dog's body were washed off by the water. Only its tail, which was raised up, kept the grains from being washed away and brought them back, and only then did the five grains exist here. Therefore, after worshipping the Five Grains God, a piece of meat must be given to the dog. In some villages, when worshipping the Five Grains God, plows, harrows, and hoes are placed in the middle of the main room's doorway, and incense is burned, wine and meat are offered, and people kneel and bow. Some Tujia believe that fields have a field god and mountains have a mountain god, so they worship the field god in the fields and the mountain god on the mountains, praying for a good harvest the following year. Some believe that the Green Sprout God governs whether crops are good or bad, so on the day of tasting the new harvest on the sixth day of the sixth lunar month, they must worship it with newly ripened corn, fresh chili peppers, and wine. Among the Tujia along the Qingjiang River in western Hubei, it is believed that Xiang Tianzi is both a clan god and a river god. Normally, when rafting past the Xiangwang Tianzi Temple or rushing through "Xiangwang Rapids," they set off firecrackers and pray. The sixth day of the sixth lunar month is Xiangwang's birthday. All wooden rafts and boats must dock in front of the Xiangwang Temple. Boatmen must kill a rooster, sprinkle the chicken blood on the bow of the boat, and after worshipping Xiangwang, they also hold a communal meal and worship the gods, praying for safe and smooth sailing.
Some farming households, in order to seek the Boat God's protection for their children, entrust their children to the Boat God and name them "Chuanbao" (or "Chuanbao"); those entrusted to the Rock God are named "Yanbao" or "Yanbaozi"; those entrusted to the Water God are named "Shuiwo" or "Shuiwang." Some also have children wear silver locks, in order to lock the child's soul and prevent demons from taking the child's life.
Before the founding of New China, Tujia women in northwestern Hunan mostly believed in "Ami Mama" (Aimai Popo) or "Bashan Popo," regarding her as the goddess in charge of protecting children's growth. When a child was born in a family, they would cut a paper bodhisattva holding an umbrella and paste it on the cupboard or on the boards of the fire pit room, which meant Ami Mama had arrived at the house. The child's mother had to pay respects to her after every meal. On the first and fifteenth of each lunar month, the housewife had to make offerings to her. There are also different legends about the origin of Ami Mama. One legend says that long ago there was an old couple with no children who made a living by weaving straw sandals. One day, they saw people going to a great temple in the mountains to pray to the gods, so they followed up the mountain to pay respects. But when they reached halfway up the mountain, the husband fell dead beneath a cliff. Just at that time, the emperor had a crown prince who cried day and night without stopping. A few days later, the old woman who made straw sandals went to the imperial palace to beg for rice. As soon as she entered the room, the crown prince stopped crying. The emperor and empress were both delighted and quickly asked: who is this person coming from outside? After the emperor found out, he had her look after the crown prince in the palace. It turned out that the crown prince was the reincarnation of Straw Sandal Grandpa, and Straw Sandal Grandpa and Grandma were reunited. Later, the Tujia came to regard Straw Sandal Grandma as the guardian deity of children — she is Aimai Popo, Ami Mama.
Before the founding of New China, the wealth-bringing deity worshipped in Tujia villages was called the "Four Officials God," also known as the "Official God." It was the deity in charge of livestock (in some places, he was believed to oversee people's health, etc.). Generally, his shrine was placed on the left side of the main hall, behind the main door, or in a corner of the house. Offerings were made to him on every Qingming, Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival, and New Year's Eve. Among these, the New Year's Eve sacrifice was the most grand. During the sacrifice, they would chant: "Official Heavenly God, General of the Gate, we sincerely worship you, please protect us. Going east brings benefit in the east, going west brings benefit in the west; may wealth come from all four directions, the five grains flourish, the six livestock thrive, and water and grass stay green. May a hen grow as big as a grass mound, a rooster weigh eight or nine jin, a pig grow to 300 jin, and the planted grain grow as long as an ox tail and millet as thick as a mallet." Some farming families, when burning incense to worship him on New Year's Eve, would also place six paper figures on a stool. After the worship was completed, they would set the paper figures on fire to divine whether the six livestock would thrive. If the paper figures did not fall over, it meant raising livestock would be "greatly auspicious and prosperous." Besides festivals, if someone fell ill or pigs or cattle went missing, people would also pray to the Four Officials God. The ritual was for the afflicted family or the person who lost the animal to scatter millet (or rice) and "press the code," that is, wrap three sticks of incense in three paper spirit money and quietly take them to a remote place in the wilderness, pressing them under a stone as an offering to the Four Officials God, who could then relieve people of illness or help recover lost livestock.
Totem Worship
Among the Tujia people in the Qingjiang River basin, the ancient "Lin Jun legend" still circulates to this day. It is said that his ancestor was Wu Xiang of the Ba clan, who was later elected as the chieftain of the five-clan tribe and called "Lin Jun." After his death, his soul transformed into a white tiger and ascended to heaven. Because the white tiger needed to drink human blood to survive, his descendants had to use human sacrifices when worshipping ancestors. From then on, the white tiger was their ancestor deity. Before the founding of New China, in western Hunan and Hubei, there were legends of killing people to sacrifice to ancestors. It is said that about 150 years ago, the only son of a Tian clan chief in Huolongping, Xianfeng County, offended the White Tiger God, so the clan chief bought a beggar to replace his son in "repaying the human head vow." On the night before the human sacrifice to ancestors, the beggar had to sleep in the same room as his son so that the head could be taken for the offering. But because it was dark, the person taking the head mistakenly cut off the head of the only son. Therefore, the clan chief changed the human head vow to a vow of stabbing an ox and taking the ox head instead, with the beef eaten together in a communal meal to honor the ancestor deity. In the Enshi area, the three great clans of Qin, Tian, and Xiang changed the once-popular human head vow to a vow performed by a wizard "opening a blood mouth." Before the founding of New China, each household of these three clans had an "altar," believing that after their ancestors died, their spirits resided on the altar, and descendants had to make long-term offerings to ensure peace. If they made a vow to the three lords (ancestors) when something happened, they had to repay the lords' vow afterward. When repaying the vow, the presiding ritual master would cut a gash on his own head with a knife and drip blood onto a long string of paper spirit money, which was then hung on the main door of the vow-repaying family or burned — this repaid the ancestors.
The Tujia people worship the white tiger as a totem, and further divide the white tiger into the Hall-Sitting White Tiger, Hall-Crossing White Tiger, Wealth-Consuming White Tiger, Liangshan White Tiger, Light-Calamity White Tiger, Painted-Deity White Tiger, and others. What the Tujia worship is called the "Hall-Sitting White Tiger." Every household needed a white tiger sitting in the hall, and every family had to set up an altar to worship the "Divine Tiger." Tujia people in Youyang, Xiushan, and other places long ago placed a stool in the middle of the back wall of the main hall as the shrine for the Hall-Sitting White Tiger; Tujia people in Laifeng offered the Hall-Sitting White Tiger on the family shrine. Tujia people in Changyang, Badong, Jianshi, and Wufeng, when dancing to worship ancestors, had to sing the "Song of Pregnancy," and the white tiger sung about in the third section is the family deity. They believed that the "Hall-Crossing White Tiger" was a wild deity, and if a white tiger crossed through a family's hall, a child would die. As the folk saying goes: "When the white tiger crosses the hall, if there is no disaster, there will surely be misfortune." If a child remained ill for a long time and the Tujia wizard divined that it was due to offending the "Hall-Crossing White Tiger," then they had to "drive out the white tiger" and "nail down the white tiger." Some Tujia legends in Longshan say that the Hall-Crossing White Tiger was originally the concubine of a Tujia king. Because she was cast aside by the Tujia king, she angrily threw herself into water and died, later transforming into a white tiger that harmed the children of Tusi descendants everywhere. Some Tujia couples who remained childless for a long time believed it was the white tiger causing trouble, so after autumn they would drive out the white tiger to seek a child. In Yongshun, Tujia ritual masters (Tujia wizards), Miao ritual masters (Miao wizards), Daoist priests, or fortune-tellers could all drive out the "Hall-Crossing White Tiger." When performing the sorcery, they would nail a wooden stake under the eaves at the door and tie a rooster to it. The Tujia ritual master would take a peach wood branch and strike and chase wildly in all directions, chanting incantations and scattering the five grains (millet, rice, sorghum, corn, etc.). After beating about for a while, when the rooster crowed loudly, the Tujia ritual master would say the white tiger had been driven away or nailed down.
Worship of Tujia Kings and Ancestors
In Tujia areas, the system of native officials and Tusi rule existed for a long time in history. When the Tujia king was alive, people revered him out of fear of his feudal authority; after the Tujia king died, they believed his soul still existed. Although he had become a deity, he still managed the affairs of the Tujia people just as when he was alive, so the people also had to worship the Tujia King God and seek his protection. In Longshan, Laifeng, Yongshun, Xuan'en, Baojing, Xiushan, and other places, there were "Tujia King Temples" or "Tujia Lord Temples." Some offered the image of the Tujia king in "Tujia King Shrines" or "Hand-Waving Halls," and Tujia ritual masters also painted the Tujia king's image in diagrams of the various deities.
Before the founding of New China, the Tujia people of western Hunan worshipped Duke Peng, the Good Man Tian, and the Great Official Xiang as Tujia King Gods. In Yongshun and Longshan, there was also the "Eight Departments Heavenly God Temple." Legend says the Eight Departments Heavenly Gods were praised generals of Duke Peng, and after death they all ascended to heaven and became divine Tujia officials and generals. For the three great clans of Peng, Tian, and Xiang, it was believed that the Tujia king governed both life and death, so the Tujia King Temple was the family temple of the Peng, Tian, and Xiang clans; for other surnames, the Tujia King Shrine was a "clan temple." Some people set up altars at home to worship the Tujia king, placing it in the center of the main hall, while the ancestral tablets of their own family could only be offered behind the door of the main hall; some farming families only offered the Tujia king's altar and did not worship family ancestors. During festivals and New Year, they all had to sacrifice to the Tujia king and Tujia lord. In particular, from the first to the fifteenth of the first lunar month, when holding the "Hand-Waving" New Year festival or the "She Day" sacrifice, it was extremely solemn and grand. Before the "Hand-Waving," they first had to sacrifice to the Eight Departments Great Gods and Tujia Kings. After the Tujia ritual master presided over the ritual, he would then lead Tujia men and women, old and young, in drumming, singing, and dancing. In Enshi, Lichuan, and other places, there was also the "Three Comforting Palaces."
Tujia people in Hefeng, Wufeng, and other places worshipped the "Three Gods Temple." The main deity on the altar was the Tian family deity, and local people of all surnames mostly went there to worship and pray. The three deity statues were offered incense in turn by all farming households, and they often went to the temple to divine and seek medical help. At the end of each rotation, a great sacrifice was held, using pigs and sheep as offerings. Tujia and Miao commoners alike went to worship the gods, singing and dancing, and holding a grand deity-racing assembly. The Tujia people of Gaoluo Dong south of Xuan'en city even established the Tian Taiweng Shrine, worshipping the Gaoluo Tusi subordinate Dong chief Tian Taiweng. The Tujia Lord Temples in Xiushan, Youyang, and other Tujia areas of southeastern Chongqing mostly enshrined native officials and Tusi of the Yang and Ran surnames. In Tujia villages such as Jiujiang, Miaojiang, and Xiaojiang in Xiushan, all were places where the Tian Tujia king once governed, and the Tujia Lord Temples were for enshrining the Tian Tusi kings of past dynasties. Local residents also believed that the Tian Tujia king was the most efficacious. Every spring and autumn, they held great deity-racing sacrifices. Tujia people from various places all went to burn incense and worship the lord, and also traded some goods along the way, making the temple fair grand and lively.
After the Qing Dynasty's "replacing native officials with centrally appointed officials" reform, ancestral halls were built in the vast Tujia areas, and more and more families offered sacrifices to family ancestors. Only in relatively remote mountain villages were traces of Tujia lord or Tujia king temple worship preserved. By the eve of the founding of New China, relatively intact Tujia King Temples, Xiang Wang Temples, Three Comforting Palaces, and the like had become very few. As the Tujia people came under increasingly strong Han influence, the vast majority of farming households set up in their homes a "Heaven, Earth, Ruler, Parents, Teacher" tablet. Some also offered on the family shrine a bronze or wooden statue of Peng Shichou on horseback. Some wrote "Xiang Wang Tianzi" on the back of the spirit tablet for worship; some farming households offered Heaven and Earth in the main hall; and on the wooden rack over the fire pit they offered their own family ancestors. Some Tujia farming households in Baojing County, western Hunan, had to offer sacrifices to ancestors outside the door on every festival. Legend says their ancestors went to build the Great Wall in the Qin Dynasty and never returned, so at New Year they had to burn incense and worship ancestors outside the house. Some Tujia farming households, to honor their own ancestral great-grandmother (Papa), on New Year's Eve inserted Chinese toon wood pestles on the large and small doors and the toilet door — this was for Papa to use when returning home for the New Year.
"Tima" and Sorcery
Before and in the early period after the founding of New China, some Tujia people still believed in ghosts and spirits. In the Tujia language, wizards were called "Tima," and in Chinese they were called "Tujia ritual masters," "Tusi sons," or "Tujia masters." Under the native official and Tusi system, Tujia kings made heavy use of Tujia ritual masters to practice sorcery in order to achieve the goal of ruling the Tujia masses. There are several legends about the origin of the Tujia ritual masters. The more common one is that the founder of the Tujia ritual masters went to the Western Paradise to fetch scriptures and obtained half a scripture book and eight bronze bells. On the way back, the Ke ritual master asked him for half the scripture and two bronze bells. When the Tujia ritual master went to the Western Paradise again to fetch scriptures, the Buddha would no longer give him any scriptures. The old Buddha of the Western Paradise said: "The Ke ritual master has one scripture; the Miao ritual master has half a scripture; the Tujia ritual master has no scripture, but moves scriptures randomly, and whatever he says proves efficacious." From then on, the ritual implements used by Tujia ritual masters in sorcery were only the master knife, chopping knife, six bronze bells, and bamboo baskets, with no scripture books.
Before the Qing Dynasty's "replacing native officials with centrally appointed officials" reform, Tujia ritual masters were attached to the native official and Tusi system and held considerable power. They managed virtually everything in Tujia villages: sacrifices, vow-making, vow-repayment (also called "redeeming money" or "shaking the baby"), weddings, funerals, births, dispute mediation, difficult divination, and ceremonial hand-waving, and so on. But Tujia ritual masters generally did not leave productive labor; they could marry and raise children, and could also inherit the practice of sorcery hereditarily. When farming households slaughtered a pig for the New Year, they had to give the Tujia ritual master two jin of meat, and after the autumn harvest five jin of grain; his usual income from practicing sorcery was also fairly substantial.
When a child in a farming household fell ill, they often invited a Tujia ritual master to divine and would make vows to him. After the autumn harvest in the seventh and eighth months, the Tujia ritual master would go separately to the vow-repaying families. First they hung up the "White Emperor Heavenly King deity image" (some also placed the image of Duke Peng on horseback on the offering table), slaughtered an ox as a sacrifice, and placed beef and rice on the incense table, where the Tujia ritual master prayed. After the ceremony was completed, the host family had to cut a piece of meat from every part of the ox's body and give it to the Tujia ritual master. Some Tujia farming households, fearing a child would be difficult to raise, would invite a Tujia ritual master to "pass the gate" when the child turned three. If one family could not afford it, several families would invite him together, at great expense. Farming households without children had to invite a Tujia ritual master after autumn to build a platform and pray to the gods for a child. Before performing sorcery, he would first hang the deity image on the platform built outside the house, place cakes molded in the shape of children on top of the already arranged beef and tofu, and then perform the sorcery. After the ritual was completed, the Tujia ritual master took some beef and tofu home, while the host family and other childless farming households took the cakes home. The couple also had to hide in a corner of the house, worship the Maiden God again, and quietly share and eat the cakes, because the Tujia ritual master deceived the people by claiming that eating such cakes could bring fertility.
Tujia ritual masters were also the presiding figures for sending off the dead. Some farming households also invited Daoist priests or spirit mediums to pray for the deceased. After an elderly Tujia person in western Hunan died a normal death, a Tujia ritual master had to be invited to chant scriptures — in fact, to sing divine songs. When clan members and relatives and friends came to offer condolences, old songs had to be sung. At the start of the funeral sacrifice, the bereaved family had to slaughter an ox to sacrifice to the gods and the deceased. When the coffin was carried out, if the deceased was male, the Tujia ritual master would hang a firewood knife and tobacco pouch on himself; if the deceased was female, he would carry a bedroll on his back and hang up shoes. The bereaved relatives would surround him crying, holding him back and not letting him go, asking Heaven not to take the deceased and praying that the dead could come back to life. After the funeral was over, the bereaved family had to distribute the beef to the Tujia ritual master and the mourners, at great expense. Some farming households often fell into debt for several years because of this.
When Tujia people in Yongshun, Longshan, Baojing, and other places fell ill, some did not go to a doctor but instead stabbed an ox or sheep to invite a Tujia ritual master to sacrifice to ghosts and spirits and drive away the illness demon. If someone fell ill after carrying green grass into the house, they had to invite a Tujia ritual master to "drive out the green grass ghost." If they offended the "Mayang Ghost" and contracted an incurable disease, the Tujia ritual master had to be asked to invite the "Tujia Bodhisattva" to protect them and improve their condition.
Only after the Qing Dynasty's "replacing native officials with centrally appointed officials" reform did the power of Tujia ritual masters gradually shrink. Some only presided over religious rituals, while others also worked as "Tujia doctors" ("witch doctors" or herbal doctors). By the eve of the founding of New China, only in deep mountains and old forests far from county towns or market towns were a small number of Tujia ritual masters still active, and the practice of traditional sorcery was on the verge of extinction.
Daoism, Buddhism, and Christianity
Daoism and Buddhism spread into Tujia areas relatively early. The Five Pecks of Rice sect of Zhang Lu in the Eastern Han Dynasty was once popular in the "Ba Commandery and Nan Commandery Man" region. During the Xiankang period, the Xianfo Temple was built in Laifeng, with three giant Buddha statues inside — Sakyamuni, Maitreya, and Dipankara — and nineteen smaller Buddha statues. Before the founding of New China, many people of all ethnic groups in the border region of Hunan, Hubei, Chongqing, and Guizhou went there to burn incense. Yonghe Temple in Wanmu Township, Youyang, was built in the eighth year of Yonghe of the Eastern Jin Dynasty (352 CE), showing how early Buddhism spread into Tujia areas.
By the eve of the founding of New China, Daoism was somewhat more flourishing than Buddhism. Daoism was relatively closely combined with the primitive religion believed in by the Tujia people, and this is clearly reflected in the deity image diagrams hung by Tujia ritual masters. The Tujia people's primitive religious belief, centered on worshipping ancestor deities, had already been strongly influenced by Daoism, and the two penetrated each other and were mixed together.
Christianity spread into Tujia areas much later than Daoism and Buddhism, had less influence, and also met with strong opposition from the Tujia masses. In the early twentieth century, missionaries from Belgium, France, Finland, Spain, Britain, the United States, and other countries came one after another to preach in the rural areas where Tujia and Miao people lived together in the border region of Hunan, Hubei, Chongqing, and Guizhou. Because some foreign missionaries served as tools of imperialist aggression and stirred up ethnic relations, they aroused the anger of the Tujia, Miao, and Han peoples, who repeatedly held struggles against foreign aggression in the border areas of Hunan, Hubei, Chongqing, and Guizhou, fully demonstrating the patriotic spirit of the Tujia, Miao, and Han peoples of our country.
By 1920, Christianity had spread into Yongshun, Baojing, Guzhang, and other places, and some churches were built in various places, but their scale was not large, and not many Tujia people believed in Christianity. Buddhism and Daoism, however, coexisted with the Tujia primitive religion without conflict, and apart from monks and nuns, very few people worshipped idols.
In short, before the founding of New China, the Tujia masses were severely bound by religious authority; religion played a serious inhibiting role in their political, economic, and cultural development. After the founding of New China, with the economic and cultural development and prosperity of Tujia areas, the Tujia, Miao, and Han peoples gradually threw off the shackles of religious authority and achieved ideological liberation.