Gansu Minqin is a relatively old county in Gansu and even In China. In the fourth year of the first year of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty (101 BC), Minqin set up a county, which has a history of more than 2,000 years. Minqin camel breeding has a long history, because of its special geographical location and natural environment, in history has created an indissoluble relationship between Minqin and camels. The "Chronicle of the Relics of Zhenfan" records that Minqin in the eleventh year of Ming Chengzu Yongle has been established, the camel system has been fixed, every five households raise a camel, three years doubled, where five dings raise two camels are exempt from the difference, half of the land is levied, five dings raise five camels, the grain is exempted, one ding super raises a camel, according to the routine reward, "the number of camels in the town has increased, not a few years, the number of which is to 100,000."
Minqin people not only raise camels, but also use camels as an important land transportation on the ancient Silk Road, and those who have been industrious and brave in charge of camel caravans on the Silk Road for generations are called camel passengers, and they have formed some specific rules and customs in long-term transportation, which have been followed for a hundred years. They and their caravans made an important contribution to the trade of goods on the Silk Road and the spread of civilization. In 2011, Minqin Camel Guest was announced by the Gansu Provincial People's Government as a provincial intangible cultural heritage list item.
For a long historical period, the breeding of camels by minqin was relatively concentrated, and the areas with large number of breeding included Donghu Town, Zhongqu, Quanshan Town, Suwu Township, Sanlei Town and so on. The most famous camel keeper is Ma Yongsheng in Donghu Town in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, commonly known as Ma Million. It is said that there are more than 300 peaks of majiaguang white camel, and Ma Yongsheng runs a business and opens a tea house, and its business is spread throughout the thirteen provinces of the country. Beijing, Xi'an, Luoyang, Lanzhou and other places have his larger tea house warehouses. On the main camel roads "Baosui Road" and "Hanzhong Road", Ma's caravans are endless. He was given the title of "Yongsheng" by Yongzheng, "Edict" by Xianfeng, and "Ma Hesheng by the official merchants", and in 1907 the Qing government issued successive edicts to grant Ma Xiangting, a member of the protector of the country, ma Xiangting of the Ma family as the "Cargo Administration Doctor". The Minister of Commerce Zhang Zhidong wrote an inscription congratulating him, and the emperor also gave the second daughter in the palace to marry the second son of Xiangting, Tong Qing, and Xuansheng. Ma Shi also did not forget the royal grace outside the west gate of Minqin County, and eight tree monuments were formed into a monument pavilion to commemorate it. Unfortunately, the stele pavilion was destroyed by the "Cultural Revolution", and now there are only two cypress trees, which are green and tall, and they are used to see the sky. During this period, the people's diligent camel breeding reached its peak, and there were as many as 3,000 camel households, and the total number of camels was about 40,000 or 50,000 peaks.
Minqin is located in the Tengger and Badain Jaran two major deserts surrounded, in the case of science and technology, transportation is very backward, can only rely on camels for commercial trade, camels are the main means of transportation for the circulation of goods, people to migrate. Most of the places the camel caravans passed were deserts, Gobi and grass, and they were often uninhabited for more than ten days. Camels do not drink or eat for several days, and they walk without mistake, because the camels have water bladders in their belly, which can store water, and the hump can store nutrients in the hump, which can be supplied as usual. This special structure of the camel has earned it the reputation of "Desert Boat". Camel caravans mainly carry goods or passengers, and in general, local products such as furs, licorice, cistanche, goji berries and minqin native cloth are transported to the outside world, and silk, cloth, steel, cotton, industrial products and daily necessities are transported.
Camel caravans have a certain number of formations, and every 11 is a small team, commonly known as "one handful". Generally, large households have about 5 to 7 camels. In order to prevent the camel from escaping from the reins or encountering robbers on the road, the last camel of the camel caravan hung a "Jing Bell" on its neck, the sound was crisp and pleasant, "Zhao Lingzi" was made of copper, with a large bowl mouth, the mouth edge was shrunk inward, and there were four stilted copper (or iron) cores, embellished on the "ten" shaped wire. In order to prevent wild beasts from invading and transmitting information to each other, large camel bells were hung in the middle of the camel caravan, made of thin iron sheets, and shaped like miniature flat buckets. It is about a foot long, about four or five inches wide, about one or two inches wide on the side, and a log core is tied inside, and a bunch of red tassels are tied to the center of the core. Camel bells are generally tied to the fat, strong, graceful walking style, and rich experience in ringing the bells. It is said that the treasurer hears the camel bell at a distance at home, he can distinguish whether it is his own camel team or someone else's camel team, and he can distinguish the trading trend and business profit and loss from the camel bell, the camel bell rings very humane, when he hears the sound of "grunt, grunt", it is "gold, gold", "dingdang, bangdang", is "rich, rich"; on the contrary, "ding-dong, ding-dong, ding-dong", is "down stove, down stove, poor stove" ...
For each "one" camel, there must be 1 to 2 people in charge of the special pull, these people are called "camel handle", and those who have been pulling camels for many years or even a lifetime are called "camel guests". Camel guests are experienced, courageous, resourceful, able to cope with all kinds of harsh conditions and deal with emergencies. If there is a strong wind and snow on the way, it is impossible to set up a tent, the camels will pull the camels into a circle and lie down one by one, people will blow away the snow in the circle, lay on the fur foot pedal mattress, cover the sheepskin coat, sleep under the neck of the camel, the thick hair under the camel's neck can completely cover the person, and if the night is not moving, the person can spend the night warmly.
The Minqin camel caravan has important significance and influence on the material life and spiritual culture of the Minqin people, not only for the introduction of daily necessities for the Minqin, expanding foreign trade, the local products of the Minqin, and promoting the development of commercial goods, but also because the camel caravan is mostly desert and no man's land, in the long-term transportation, the Camel passengers of the Minqin have gradually accumulated various experiences in the survival of the wild, cultivated and tempered the strong and indomitable will and the spirit of bearing hardships and standing hard work of the people of Minqin.
With the development of modern transportation industry, camels and camel guests have gone away from people's memories, "camel guests", hair-planting mattresses, foot felts, sheepskin jackets, fire hammers, melodious camel bells, crisp bells have become the memories of the older generation, and young people can only glimpse the glory of the past in the literature. Today, camels, camel bells, etc. are still alive in front of the world as props for tourist attractions.
Cao Zongrang's father was once a well-known local camel guest, Cao Zongrang learned a lot of industry experience from his father, although as a camel caravan and camel passengers in transportation withdrew from the historical stage, but many of the folk objects of the camel caravan were collected and preserved. In 2011, Cao Zongrang was announced by the Gansu Provincial Department of Culture as the representative inheritor of the provincial intangible cultural heritage list project Minqin Camel Guest.
Source | "Colorful Customs - Gansu Folk Customs"
Image | Source network (if there is infringement, please contact us)