Original Author: Shi Shougui
In the Xiangxi Miao, the largest, highest-grade, longest-lasting, most expensive, and most personnel-involved ancestor worship activities are the vertebral cattle, which are also called eating feces, and the vertebral cattle are called "Nengni" in Miao language. Although this article is a brief description, due to the deep historical foundation, the thick cultural heritage, the historical misunderstanding is larger, the specific content is more, the space occupied is longer, etc., we can only divide it into three major articles to introduce to you, namely, one of the introductions to the vertebral cattle ceremony, the second introduction to the vertebral cattle ceremony, and the third introduction to the vertebral cattle ceremony. Let's briefly describe the content of its rituals.
Nine Tributes to the Great Ancestor (Photo by Zhou Jianhua)
First, the original root of the vertebrate cow
There are many legends about the original roots of the Hmong vertebrate cattle in the folk:
One of the legends says that the great ancestor "Lin Dou Lin He" (Miao "Lin Dou" is the god of law and law, "Lin He" is the god of the balance) who ordered the cattle king Niu to lead the cattle to the nether realm to help mortals plough the fields, and the cow king wanted mortals to play big gongs and drums, enlarge cannons, and send thousands of people to the heavenly palace when they returned to the palace to ascend to heaven, so that they would be willing to negotiate with the great ancestors in the nether realm, and obtained the permission of the great ancestor. Now that the bull king is about to ascend to heaven and return to the palace, mortals will play big gongs and drums, put cannons on the ground, and gather thousands of people to dance drums and sing songs to send the cow king to heaven, which is one of the ancient roots of the Miao people.
Legend no. 2 says that the cow is the symbol of the Huanzhao clan, and it is said that its clan was the earliest clan on the mainland to train cattle and cultivate cattle. HuanZhuan allied with other clans to fight with the Jiangyin Ji surname Huan Clan, and after the defeat of the Huan Huan Alliance, it was discussed with the Huan Clan to kill cattle and gradually evolved into the later vertebrate cattle.
Legend No. 3 says that the ancient ancestor of mankind, "Milk Mother Ma", (that is, the god mother dog father), gave birth to twelve Miao brothers and twelve guest brothers. After these sons grew up, Marnie returned to the original golden nest and hid alone because of the appearance of dog statues from time to time, fearing that she would be ugly in front of her sons. When the twelve Miao brothers went up the mountain to hunt, the twelve guest brothers looked around because they had not seen their father Ma Mi for a long time, and asked all the bamboo, trees, flowers, mountains, rivers, earth, stones, livestock, birds and beasts, etc. They all said that they did not know where their father was, and when they asked about the buffalo, the buffalo told them that Ma Mi returned to the golden nest and the silver nest. So the twelve disciples went to the Golden Nest and the Silver Nest to look for their father, and when they went to the place of the Golden Nest and the Silver Nest, they did not see their father but only saw a big yellow dog, and mistakenly thought that the big yellow dog had swallowed his father and encroached on his land, so they beat the big yellow dog to death. He came back to inform his mother, "Milk Hammer", who heard that her husband had been killed and fainted on the ground, and after being rescued, learned that it was because of the buffalo leaking that Ma Mi was killed, and she was indignant. When the twelve Miao brothers returned home from hunting in the mountains, they instructed them that future generations of ancestor worshippers must kill buffalo for their sake.
The fourth is said to be a commemoration of the hunting scene of ancient ancestors. When the cattle are vertebrate, people gather in a large circle, like a hunting in the mountains. Tie the cow in a trap so that it spins and runs to represent the prey. The vertebrate cattle people painted their faces and smeared their faces, reproducing the images of primitive people. The shuttle logo represents a wooden stick sharp tool, which is used to spine the prey. After the cattle vertebrae fall, the limbs are divided and allowed to be carried away directly by the mother uncle (Ji Lu), the wife uncle (Ji Lu), the uncle (Ji Ga), and the sister (Ji Ya), representing the small groups to directly distribute the prey in the mountains. When the bull dances the drum, the love of men and women does not need to be hidden (matriarchal social group marriage has no owner), vulgar words, no suspicion. These are the instinctive reflections of primitive human sexual reproduction, which is the true reproduction of the group marriage sex behavior of the primitive era after human beings entered civilization as "Milk Mother" (that is, the god mother dog father).
Feeding the cow water (Photo by Zhou Jianhua)
2. The ancestral god worshipped by the vertebrate cow
In the ceremony of the Great Ancestor Sacrifice of the Vertebrate Cow presided over by the Miao master "Badai Xiong", the name of this great ancestral god is called "Lin Dou Lin He". (Some places are called "Liu Dou Liu Xi", and some places are called "Liaodu Liaotian", these are the differences in accents, the meaning is the same) What does this "Lin Dou Lin And" mean? Let's first say "Lin Dou": its meaning of "forest" is great, for the largest, for the supreme, for the domination, for the power, for the extreme (the Miao language is known for having a multi-meaning saying). The "bean" is the world, for the universe, for the immovable, for the unchangeable, for the irrefutable, for the eternity. The word synthesis is the greatest, immovable, immutable, irrevocable, eternal master of the universe. What is it in this universe that makes the Hmong people so revered as the greatest eternal god? This is what we usually call the "law of nature," and it includes the laws of the world and the afterlife.
Say this law. For example, the birth, old age, illness, and death of human beings and even all living beings, that is, life, prosperity, and death, etc., are controlled and dominated by non-subjective wishes; Another example is the orbit of celestial bodies; Spring, summer, autumn and winter in the seasonal climate, warm and cool, cold and summer, etc., these are all natural laws, manpower cannot be swayed, and they are eternal and unchanging. Therefore, we say that the laws of law are the greatest and eternal masters of the universe. In the Hmong language, this is "lin bean".
Let's talk about these performances. This performance is a very mysterious thing. For example, fetal animals are born to suck milk and seek food without any teaching; Yin and yang harmonize on their own, and men and women love on their own; The heat of fire and the cold of ice; The rigidity of gold and the softness of water, the rejection of the opposite sex attraction of the same sex, etc., this is the performance. This eternal, unchanging, immovable nature is the greatest and eternal master of the universe. In Hmong terms, this is "lin bean".
Secondly, let's talk about "Lin And". This literal translation of "Lin And" should be a big name. In ancient times, especially in the Miao people, in addition to measuring the weight of things, the word "Lin" was added, which became another more important meaning: that is, to measure the fairness and justice of all things, justice, justice, public morality, and public law, collectively known as balance and righteousness (meaning that only balance is heavenly reason), which is "Lin And". For example: in primitive society, people do their best, even distribution, symbiosis and coexistence is "Lin And", in personnel exchanges, courtesy, righteousness, honesty, loyalty and trustworthiness is "Lin And", in interpersonal relations, respect for the elderly and love the young, filial piety and tolerance is "Lin And", in charity, accumulation of virtue and fraternity, charity donation is "Forest And", on environmental protection issues, maintaining ecological balance is "Forest And", in the country and collective, the Constitution and laws, rules and regulations, treaty provisions are "Forest And"... "Lin And" embodies in many aspects the principles of fairness and justice, fairness and morality, and public law that social development must rely on for human survival, and only by doing things and living in accordance with this principle of heaven can we achieve the goal of happiness, beauty, superiority and glory. Therefore, the term "Lin And" is called the "code of conduct" of human beings in the world. Strangely enough, the people's court used the balance design as a metaphorical symbol of fairness and justice.
In summary, Lin Dou is a congenital, generative, fixed and unchanging eternal law. Lin, on the other hand, is a acquired principle that must be attached to the survival and development of the world. Lin Doulin and, the two rely on each other, complement each other, this is the Miao vertebrate cattle sacrifice worship of the concept of ancestral gods, this god is not a certain god of the Miao people or a certain person or a place name in history, but a concept god specializing in the rules, sex and philosophy of the universe, the reason why the ancestors of the past called it the great ancestral god, because this law and code of conduct are irresistible and cannot be violated. At the same time, the vertebral cattle are the largest, most expensive, most involved and longest-lasting sacrifice activities in the Miao ancestor worship ceremony, so the ancestors of Badai called it the Great Ancestor.
Why should we publish and make public here the core secrets of the internal core secrets that these Miao people, especially the Miao Badai group, should never have spoken about? The purpose is to let people come out of the historical "Chu culture is witch and ghost culture", "Miao people are a nation that emphasizes witches and ghosts", "Miao people believe in ghosts and believe in gods", "Miao people are barbaric, ignorant and backward", etc., and re-understand the Miao people, because these are more than 5,000 years, the academic circles at home and abroad have never had the slightest information and have never read a word and a line of words and never heard a word, and, In history, it has always been from the perspective of negative influence to understand and judge Hmong culture, including a large number of Hmong scholars.
The vertebral cow is a history book, the vertebral cow is a string of footprints, the vertebral cow is a major philosophy, the vertebral cow is a culture, the vertebral cow is an ancient picture scroll, the vertebral cow is an ancient information library, and the vertebral cow is a carrier used by the ancestors of the Miao people to record and inherit human history and culture, and it is a living fossil of the original ecology. The vertebral cattle activity weaves together the philosophy, logic, concept, consciousness, thickness, authenticity, docileness, kindness, subordination, obedience, rampage, domineering, bullying, slaughter, killing, cruelty, bloodshed, aggression, injustice, scourge, misery, endurance, helplessness, good and evil, good and bad, and the final interpretation rights belong to "Lin Dou, Lin He".
The altar of the vertebrate cattle, bless the smooth success of the vertebrate cattle (Photo by Peng Jingquan)
Third, the cause of the vertebrate cattle
The ancient legend of the cause of the vertebrate cattle is a kind of ritual activity for the establishment of tribal clan associations, which is held jointly with a tribe or a clan, several villages and several villages, or a village and a village. In modern times, this is not the case, and it is held separately from one family to another. There are also a variety of reasons for the vertebrate cattle, and the reasons for the single-family vertebral cattle are described separately below.
(1) Due to illness
In the past, once the Miao family was infected with lung disease, bronchial asthma, tuberculosis tuberculosis, heart disease, kidney disease and other internal diseases, taking a variety of herbs, after several years of ineffective treatment, people would ask the master Bu Qing, Xiao Shi calculation, or according to the water bowl, fan turn over the disease book, or Bu Mi Gua, or ask the grass handle, peach immortals, look at yin and yang, ask the question over and over again, after many places, many teachers and people all said the same, is to respect the great ancestral god to be cured, they asked Badai to come to the home to hold a great wish for the vertebrate cattle, and if the patient is cured in his period, the main family will prepare offerings. The vertebral cattle ceremony is held at the time of the election of the day.
(2) Because of weirdness
There are repeated anomalies in the home of Dafan, all kinds of strange (also known as strange or strange) continue to occur, such as the growth of yellow fungus in the rice barrel, the dry soil of the hall house, the hen chirping, the rooster laying eggs, the pig eating the crest, the dog eating, the chicken pecking the egg, the house is chaotic, the apparition in the house is often appearing, the well-sown grain seeds are swirled in several circles in the field, the hallucination is called, the fire is long boiling the pot of water, the cooking is not cooked, the wine is poisoned, the birds suddenly die in the present, the sky is dripping blood for no reason, and so on, the Miao family calls these phenomena sixty-four monsters. Legend has it that these are the harbingers that are about to occur, before the great calamity. If these strange things only happen once or one, if they occur many times repeatedly, then the head of the household asks the masters everywhere to ask for calculations, and if many people in many places say that the results are the same, they all want to worship the great ancestors, and finally come to make a wish, and only after three years have not had a great disaster consider choosing an auspicious period to hold the vertebral cattle ceremony.
(3) Asking for children
Those who have been married for a long time and have no children or who have no children in a wrong way, through the return of the wish of the child, the construction of roads and bridges, the donation of good money and money everywhere, the extensive work of poverty alleviation and maintenance, the relief of suffering and difficulties, and other meritorious and good deeds are childless, and there are also those who have made a great wish for the vertebral cattle, and those who have children on schedule will only choose to hold the vertebral cattle ceremony on an auspicious date.
(4) Seeking wealth
Those who want to be rich or above in the middle family, there are also those who wish to make a big wish, and if they become rich in the period, they must choose the auspicious period to hold the vertebral cattle ceremony.
(5) Others
In the past, after dozens of generations of development and prosperity, some families have been developed from dozens to hundreds of households, and their residences have developed from their own villages to other places, and their families need to branch out into branches, according to the customs and concepts of the Miao people, they must eat three cows to separate the 'soul security cloth' of their branches. The cloth strip is 1.28 feet long and 0.28 feet wide, made of silk lattice cloth, which is indispensable for important festivals such as eating pigs and vertebrate cattle, and is a sacred legal object for maintaining family unity and security. The strip of cloth is cut from the center point of a silk family weaving cloth with a length of 3.3 zhang and a width of 0.24 zhang, rolled into a tube and loaded into a small purple bamboo tube, which is usually not allowed to be opened, can not be placed flat, and cannot be upside down, and the mouth of the small bamboo tube is wrapped in a piece of money paper (dark coin) and placed in the ancestral altar of the Miao master "Badeixiong".
Altar of the Vertebrate Cow (Photo by Ma Shaohui)
4. Offerings and objects needed for the cattle
Offerings include two pigs, two roosters, one cattle, one buffalo, more than 100 catties of glutinous rice with rice, glutinous rice (beef liver rice), sweet wine, liquor to taste, tofu, green oil, tobacco tea, rice, soybeans, side dishes, etc.
Objects include three new tables (several norths), two new benches (Menghui), two new short stools (get back), two new wooden plates (nests), one new wooden frame (Grid Chop), one cow pillar (Tu Niu Ni), two new wooden skewers (TuRan Ang), one new sleeping mat (nest basket), one new umbrella (color display), more than 100 bowls (nest this), beeswax one stone (Gade), ten stones of money paper (head tie), five hundred incense sticks (incense), one stone grinding fan (Wo Rou), one iron three-legged (nest carrying), one iron pot with ears (nest night), One gourd (knife waiting), one small bamboo basket (nest spell), two sievings (nest laughter), one set of horn wine glasses (grid oil), one koshi (nest borrowing), one straw horse rider (Denei Ganong), one white paper knife (50 sheets), ten pieces of red, green, yellow, and black paper, a pair of sighs, a pair of trombones, a big gong side (MengJiong), a big drum side (Menglong), a set of ground reinforcements (3), a suitable amount of gunpowder, 30,000 firecrackers, two shuttle labels, five bamboo sticks, banana leaves (recorded), spoons (enough) and so on.
Vertebrate cattle (Photo by Ma Shaohui)
5. Ritual procedures for the vertebrate cow
Legal procedures and timing (preparatory work, etc. are not marked here)
Day 1: Eat pigs, send cattle, honor family ancestors, etc.
Day 2: Worship the god of thunder, worship the god of millet, worship the god of the sun and the moon, pay homage to the god of the great ancestor, etc.
Day 3: Seal the paper bundle, set up the altar, greet the great ancestor in the afternoon, salute the door wine, comfort the guests after dinner, shake the wooden frame of the side door to recite the ancient words of the vertebrae, please the great ancestral god, pay homage to the nine offerings, send nine present nine offerings, dismantle the altar, open the drum, plant rice in the valley, dance the drum at the same time, pay homage to the evening offering wine and dinner, repeat the invitation to the great ancestral god, etc.
Day 4: Erect cattle pillars in the morning, toast early wine and rice, bundle cattle, simply recount the invitation to the gods, feed the cow water, drive out the ghosts and isolate the fire, protect the church to collect the leftovers, pray for blessings and stay in the air, build roads, hand over cattle and send cattle, draw vertebral circles, send shuttle labels to wipe the face, go around the pillars and vertebrae, at the same time, the rattle guard field in front of the god table set up by Badai in front of the door, worship the cattle blood and burn the horseback straw man (send the gods), send the cattle to the soul of the cattle, pay homage to the gods such as the ancestors, send the ancestors, the ancestors, and send the guests.
Day 5: Dump the cattle farm, dismantle the cattle pillars, clean up the objects and return them to the owners, and pay homage to the buffalo head at night for money.
Vertebral cattle (Photo by Zhou Jianhua)
6. Distribution of offerings
Pig. Left front leg (raw meat) and breast, pig head under the lid, tail on the hind legs of the small meat and part of the five offal meat skewers to the uncle. The right front leg and the pig's head are covered with Badai. The throat and lungs, the rice bowl meat, and half of the neck belong to the knife hand. The rest is put into the pot for the public to enjoy, and one of the hind legs is returned to the Lord's house.
Scalper. Cut the meat of its front and back legs into a palm-sized piece (cooked) of 90 slices, and use the pieces to put on a total of 18 skewers, each with 5 slices, and hang on the two meat sticks above the hall. Its tripe is cut into 9 round pieces of meat to pad the bowl to worship the gods. The beef neck belongs to the knifeman and the winemaker, and the chest and back meat belong to Badai, and the rest can be treated as side dishes.
Buffalo. The hind legs with tails belong to the mother uncle (to be busy Yoshiko), the hind legs without tails to the wife and uncle (Du Busy Jilu), the left front leg to the uncle (to be busy Jiga), the right front leg to the sisters (the degree of busy Jiya, the sisters can be divided together), the ox blood is used to pay homage to the great ancestor and send the great ancestor god back to the house, the beef liver is used to honor the ancestors and other gods to send the gods back to the house, the neck is returned to the knife hand, the back waist meat is returned to the wine bald (wine master), the chest and waist meat are returned to badai, the bull's head is returned to the master, the internal organs are enjoyed by everyone, and the horn is hung on the second pillar of the hall house.
Author:
Shi Shougui, male, Miao, (1951-2022), a native of Dadongchong Village, Dongmaku Township, Huayuan County.
The 32nd generation of the ancestral Miao master of the family, "Badaixiong"
The 11th generation of the guest master "Badeza"
Folk is holding the altar of the 18th generation
The first director of the Xiangxi Cultural Research Association
President of the Badai Cultural Society
He is a member of the State Qu Artists Association
Vice President of the Chinese Folklore Society Xuanyou Cultural Research Base
He is a member of the Poetry Association of Hunan Province, Xiangxi Prefecture and Huayuan County
Representative inheritors of the fourth batch of provincial intangible cultural heritage in Hunan Province
Member of the Seventh and Eighth CPPCC Committees of Huayuan County
The first top ten people who moved Huayuan
Visiting Professor, Jishou University
Director of Miao Badai Culture Research At the China Hehe Cultural Research Center
He has long been engaged in the excavation, compilation, translation and inheritance of Miao culture such as Badai culture, Taoist funeral culture, folk customs and ritual culture, etc., and has made great achievements. More than 200 disciples were taught. He has published 4 books, including "Compilation of Miao Dojo Science Instruments", "Interpretation of Miao Shi Tongshu", "Ancient Songs of the Miao People in Western Hunan Province", and "Ancient Songs of the Badai of the Miao People in Western Hunan Province", with a total of more than 7 million words. He has performed more than 30 episodes of the Badai Hmong TV show. From 2009 to 2011, Tuanjie Bao reported on it 13 times, Hunan Daily reported on it 9 times, and Guangzhou Daily and China Nationalities also reported on its deeds.
He has won the third prize of the national qu art exhibition, the state and county literary creation and cultural contribution award, the advanced individual award of the research association, the provincial excellent paper award, the advanced individual award of the CHINESE People's Political Consultative Conference, the advanced inheritor award and other awards 15 times. Its Badai culture research base has established three major rituals, two major systems, eight major plates, and thirty-seven types of Miao culture database of Badai culture, becoming the only Miao Badai culture unit in the country and even at home and abroad.
Shi Shougui's compilation of the "Xiangxi Miao Folk Traditional Culture Series" that reflects the mainstream of Miao culture is that he has spent many years pursuing the Miao Badai culture, investing more than 300,000 yuan, excavating, translating, and compiling. The "Miao Badai Culture Series" was included in the 2018 National Publishing Fund Fund funded projects, and was published by Central South University Press in 2019. The complete series of books has a total of 26 volumes, with a word count of more than 8 million and more than 1,400 pictures, which can be described as a set of "huge works". It comprehensively and systematically introduces the historical origins, astronomical geography, humanities and nature, ethics and morality, diet and clothing, medicine and health, production and life, invention and creation, interpersonal communication, literature and art, music score, fertility and reproduction, customs and etiquette of the Miao people in western Hunan Province.
The deeds of Shi Shougui, the representative inheritor of the non-heritage of folk customs (Miao "Badai"), and his dedication to Miao culture have been reported many times in various books and periodicals, CCTV channels, and television stations at home and abroad.
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