Population areas, customs and habits
Language
The Tujia have their own language, the Tujia language belongs to the Sino-Tibetan Tibetan-Burmese language family, the language branch is undetermined. Most of the people started to use Chinese and Chinese language very early due to the long-term intermingling with the Han Chinese, and only Yongshun, Longshan, Guzhang and other inhabited areas in Hunan Province have preserved the Tujia language intact. This ethnic group has no writing and generalizes the Chinese language.
Clothing
Tujia women's clothing is a short coat with big sleeves, left jacket with open lapel, rolled and set with 2 to 3 layers of lace, lace pants; men's clothing is a pair of lapel short shirt. "Catch the New Year", i.e., to celebrate the New Year one to two days in advance, is its important festival. Tujia men wear pipa-breasted blouses and wrap green silk kerchiefs around their heads. Women wear a left-breasted coat, rolled two or three lace, the sleeves are relatively wide, under the rimmed pants or eight skirt, like to wear a variety of gold, silver, jade ornaments.
Habitat
The Tujia people love to live in groups, and they love to live in wooden buildings with hanging feet. Building houses are a village, a cottage, rarely a single family. Built houses are mostly wooden structure, small green tiles, lattice windows, the Division of the eaves overhanging, wooden railing handrails, walking horse corner, ancient color. General home has a small courtyard, fences in front of the yard, the yard behind the bamboo forest, green stone paving, planing wooden boards installed walls, pine bright illumination, a family living in the sunrise, sunset and rest of the idyllic quiet life.
Customs
Men and women often marry each other through songs. There is a custom of "crying for marriage". Women begin to cry 7-20 days before they get married, and the songs include "Woman Crying for Her Mother", "Sister Crying for Her Sister", and "Scolding the Matchmaker". At first, they sing softly, and the closer they get to the marriage, the sadder they become. Until the crying mouth dry tongue noise, eyes red and swollen. They are good at crying as a measure of the woman's talent and virtue.
Before the Tujia system, the Tujia people practiced cremation. Tusi system period so far practiced burial, funeral organized by the soil Lao Si presided over, the soil Lao Si sacrifice the dead, the spinning wheel in the window of the sky inverted spinning three times, chanting to send the dead across the sky bridge on the heavenly court. Then pretending to be dead, around the "Ha Ha Taiwan" circle out, the children of the deceased to follow the Secretary for crying and mourning, the Secretary for singing funeral songs, blowing horns, when the artillery in the sky, crying and singing and wailing, extremely sad, lasted a few days and nights. Then will be loaded with the remains of the coffin carried up the mountain to be buried. Reform to the Republic of China period, the Tujia funeral by the Taoist priests to preside over the corpse after three, five, seven days, by the Taoist priests according to the master of the family to do different levels of the dojo, there are "small ten king", "big ten king", "overnight Su Tang There are names such as "Little Ten Kings", "Big Ten Kings", "Overnight Sodang", "One Mast", "Two Masts", "Seven Masts" and so on. Generally, the dojo fulfills the specific operation procedures such as getting off the willow bed, opening the way, recommending the dead, handing over animals, going on the ripe, scattering the flowers to solve the problem, solving the lamps, playing the burnt coffins, resigning from the spirit, sweeping the hall, etc. The relatives of the deceased wear hemp and mourning clothes. The relatives of the deceased put on hemp and filial piety, follow the Taoist priests to perform funeral rites, but also invited people to sing filial piety songs to mourn the deceased. After the founding of New China, Tu Laosi, Taoist priests stopped their activities to open memorial services to sing funeral songs instead of Taoist.
Religion
Influenced by the Han Chinese in terms of religion, they are mainly superstitious about ghosts and gods and worship their ancestors. These gods are not their own. In the past, there were sorcerers to exorcise ghosts. Some places believe in Taoism. Every New Year's festival should be a big honor to ancestors, the first and fifteenth day of the year should also be carried out a small honor. The food for ancestor worship includes pig's head, doughnut deep-fried noodle cakes, poi, chickens and ducks, and five grain seeds. In some cases, before each meal, first use chopsticks to clip a small amount of vegetables inserted in the rice on the silent moment, said the deceased ancestors please eat first, and then they began to eat, the sixth day of the sixth month of the lunar calendar for the sacrifice of the king of the soil, each village should be set up to swing the hand of the hall, will be the pig's head, fruits and other offerings placed in front of swinging the hand of the hall. October first day of the winter festival, slaughtering chickens and ducks for a feast. In addition, the Tujia people also honor the God of the stove, the God of the land, the God of the grains, the God of the rags, in the repair of houses and houses sacrificed to Luban, in addition to meat and wine, offerings, but also a large rooster.
White Tiger Worship: The White Tiger has a significant position in the minds of the Tujia people. The Tujia people call themselves "after the white tiger". Legend has it that in ancient times, the ancestor of the Tujia people, Ba Wusiang, was elected as the chief of the tribe of five surnames, known as the "granary king". He led his tribesmen to travel along the river in an earthen boat, arrived at Yanyang, killed the ferocious Yanshui Goddess, and settled down. The people lived and worked in peace and contentment, and naturally, Gogun was loved by the people. Later on, Gogun passed away and his spirit was transformed into a white tiger and ascended to heaven. Since then, the Tujia people have taken the White Tiger as their ancestor god, and have been honoring it at all times and in all places. A carved wooden white tiger is enshrined in the shrine of every family. When getting married, the man should lay a tiger carpet on the big square table in the main hall to symbolize the sacrifice to the tiger ancestor. In addition to religious piety worship, Tujia people's lives can be seen everywhere in the shadow of the white tiger. It is meant to drive away evils with the tiger's majestic view, and hope to get peace and happiness.
Dietary habits
Tujia people usually eat three meals a day, usually eat two meals during leisure time; spring and summer farming, labor intensity is greater when eating four meals. Such as rice-planting season, the morning to add a "morning", "morning" is mostly made of glutinous rice dumplings or mung bean flour snacks. It is said that the "morning" meal to eat dumplings have a good harvest, good luck. Tujia also like to eat oil tea soup. Daily staple food in addition to rice, the most common to the baguette rice. Sometimes also eat beans and rice, poi and deep-fried noodle cake is also the seasonal staple food of the Tujia people, some even eat until planting rice seedlings, the past red camas in many areas has been treated as a staple food, and now is still some areas of the winter after the regular food. Tujia cuisine to sour and spicy as its main feature. Every family has a sauerkraut jar to pickle sauerkraut, and almost every meal is made with sauerkraut. Soybean products are also very common, such as tofu, tempeh, soybean leaf skin, tofu milk and so on. Especially like to eat with residue, that is, soybean grinding fine, slurry residue is not divided, boiled and clarified, plus vegetables cooked can be eaten. Folk often put beans rice, rice plus baguette soup together with the slag to eat. Tujia drinking, especially in the festival or hospitality, wine is essential. The common ones are sweet wine and smack wine made from glutinous rice and sorghum, with low degree and pure flavor. Typical Food: The Tujia people love to eat food such as poi (mochi), bacon, oil tea, and other food, as well as combined vegetables; doughnut deep-fried noodle cake; mung bean flour (rice flour); and deep-fried poi.
Culture
The Tujia people love to sing songs, such as love songs, marriage songs, hand-swinging songs, labor songs and pan songs.
The "Hand Waving Dance" is a popular ancient group dance that includes more than 70 movements for hunting, military, farming and banquets. It is linked to ancestor worship and begging for a good harvest. No matter what kind of grand party, it must be danced. The "Waving Hands" starts on a single day of the lunar calendar and lasts for an odd number of days. Generally three days, five days, seven days. Generally on the ninth day of the first month of the lunar calendar or the third day of the third month of the lunar calendar, the number of participants are tens of thousands of people. The rhythms are distinctive, the movements are beautiful, simple and have a strong flavor of life. The epics and mountain songs are the most famous.
Mainly engaged in agriculture, handicrafts, embroidery, weaving is more famous, the earth flower pavement cover is particularly famous. In the development of economy and culture, they are more influenced by the Han Chinese, but they also retain their own characteristics. The "golden tung oil" of western Hunan and the "dam lacquer" of western Hubei are famous products in China and abroad.
"Silankapu" is a wonderful flower in the Tujia ethnic craft. Also known as "playing flower cover", it is a kind of Tujia brocade. It is a kind of Tujia brocade. With its unique craftsmanship and wonderful composition, it is listed among the five major brocades in China.
The literature of the Tujia people is best known for its narrative poems, mountain songs, and the Pendulum Song sung during the Pendulum Dance. Pendulum hand song has a big pendulum hand song and small pendulum hand song, big pendulum hand song has the nature of epic; small pendulum hand song is mostly for the bitter song, love song, the Department of lyrical works. They have strong national characteristics and unique mountainous and rural flavors. The long narrative poem "Jinji" is a combination of four lines of folk songs, sung in pairs by men and women, which reflects a broad social life with a love story as the main line.
Astronomy and Calendar
The Tujia people have accumulated a great deal of knowledge about astronomy, geography, meteorology, water conservancy, agronomy, biology and medicine during their long farming life, and have used this knowledge to guide the production and life of the Tujia people from generation to generation.
The meteorological knowledge of the Tujia people has been handed down in the form of proverbs and songs, such as: "Cloud Chao Gong, bright through; cloud Chao West, Phi Demoiselle; cloud Chao South, break the boat, cloud Chao North, under the unclean", "morning burning Xia, and so on, not burning tea; evening burning Xia, the death of the sun toad! ", "The Thunderer sings, but there is not much rain", "The rainbow rains in the east and the rainbow rains in the west; the rainbow rises in the south", "The moon plays an umbrella, and the sun breaks the rock plate; the moon gives birth to hairs, and the rain falls in the morning", "When there are clouds facing south, they break the boat; the clouds face north, and the rain does not come down. ", "rain mountain wearing a hat, no rain mountain wipe waist" and so on are through the clouds, thunder, rainbow and other celestial phenomena or the sun and the moon and other celestial bodies to predict the weather is good, high accuracy.
Tujia people also according to the mountain grass and trees, migratory birds come and go, changes in the sun, moon and stars, clouds, wind, rain, lightning and thunder alternation to schedule farming, predicting the climate, estimating the annual success of the harvest. They compile the farming experience accumulated over the generations into songs and proverbs, which are passed on orally to guide the spring planting and fall harvesting. For example: "Lao Zhang do not listen to the old question coaxing, tung blossom to be planted", "March in spring good pan flowers, full of mountain sun finches chirping, a report of the Yang Spring Festival, the second destruction of the planting of crops," warning people tung blossom, sun finches screaming season, it is also the time to planting. Another example: "Qingming to bright, rain to rain", "three volts not hot, five grain not knot; three nine not cold, not very fruit". This is based on the meteorological situation of a particular festival to speculate on the agricultural harvest good or bad.
The agronomic knowledge also rely on such proverbs, songs and rumors, such as: "plowed deep, rake rotten, a bowl of mud a bowl of rice," said the farmland to be deep plowing and harrowing, so that the harvest is good. "Deep planting taro shallow planting seedlings, red potatoes planted to Pipi", "rather plant autumn potatoes, not planting autumn buckwheat", and is teaching rice seedlings, potatoes, potatoes, buckwheat planting techniques.