Water boats in Changsha

River transportation in Changsha has a history of more than 3000 years. The Jin Dynasty's "Geography of Jingzhou" contains "Seven Counties in Xiangzhou, all of which came from big ships and were welcomed by thousands of people". Until the end of Qing Dynasty, the navigation in Changsha still mainly depended on wooden sailboats. Liuyang River and Laodao River in Changsha County are not only the main channels for transporting Chinese fir and bamboo, but also important ways for transporting food and passengers. Ships can go directly to the middle reaches or even the upper reaches.

There are many kinds of wooden boats, mainly including:

Backrake: both ends can be used, not afraid of wind and waves. It is a common base ship.

Liuyang Tugboat: It has a long hull and shallow draft, which is convenient for sailing in shallow water on the river beach.

Wufeng boat: commonly known as "Wufengzi", also known as "Wupengzi boat", is a commonly used wooden boat in Baishui and Jinggang areas.

Left-handers: They can be divided into three types: Diaohe, Daolin and Huyun, and they can sail flexibly in rivers and ripple waters in the city. There is a saying that there is a sky on the water.

Another kind of ferry, commonly known as "ferry", looks like cloth shoes and runs slowly, so it can only draw a short distance. Most of the people guarding the ferry are poor old people. They board the boat, commonly known as "ferry old people".

Navigation customs are complicated and there are many taboos, such as:

1. The new ship tests the water. In the old water transport custom, launching a new ship is called "testing the water". The day before the exam, the boat mainly fasted and bathed, and the husband and wife were separated. Burn incense, light candles, set off firecrackers and set off dragons before entering the water. Master Lu Ban, Lord Dongting and General yangsi are cordially invited to board the ship for protection. When a ship is launched, several people must be launched together, thinking that this can avoid capsizing and ensure the safety of the ship.

The boatman on the boat is called "reaching out" in the water and "broadsword" in the water. He is responsible for the management of windward sails, ship anchor chains, poles and poles, which is equivalent to the current co-pilot. He requires good driving skills and command ability, so he is highly valued by ship owners.

Before sailing, cook a pig's head, and the cable foreman will insert several pairs of chopsticks on the pig's head and sprinkle a glass of wine around the pig's head to worship the ship god and pray for blessing; Then everyone eats meat and drinks together. The boat mainly toasted the cable foreman personally and gouged out two pig eyes for him to eat. It is generally believed that vision can be enhanced and the depth of rocks and water can be seen clearly. If you run aground or run aground during the voyage, the optical fiber union laughs at the cable foreman: "Didn't the shipowner give you pig eyes?"

2. Do "Kaijiang". In the old days, when ships and bamboo trucks set sail, they had to hold a grand sacrifice ceremony, which was called "Kaijiang". First of all, you should choose the auspicious day of the zodiac, and the boatman or foreman should abstain from bathing and avoid sexual intercourse. Before sailing, put pigs, sheep, cows or meat, fish and eggs in front of the shrine, light incense, burn paper money, worship the water god and even make a wish. If there is no shrine on the ship, bow to the bow. Then the shipowner invited the boatman or the dealer to have a sumptuous meal and generously watched a play called "Talk and Bless the Gods" or "Bless the Gods at the Beginning". When boatmen eat "Kaijiang" rice, they all say auspicious words. In order to get a good omen, some ship owners specially invited eloquent people to congratulate Kaijiang. On the morning of Kaijiang Day, the broadsword hand or foreman sounded gong three times, and the leader of the tracker lit firecrackers, and the gong hit it right in the middle. Three gongs sounded, and after the first firecrackers were put off, the foreman stood at the bow or the bow and shouted, "Talk!" " All the workers answered at the same time: Li! "The foreman shouted again," Lift dragon sword (that is, "pick up the wooden radial paddle")! " All the workers replied in unison: "After five passes, six generals will be killed!" In this magnificent chorus, the oarsmen encouraged the oarsmen to paddle, and the ship's wooden signs fluttered in the channel.

Some boatmen prepare a Danding Chicken before sailing, and kill King Jingdong Pavilion or Bodhisattva Gong Wei at the bow before sailing. From Changsha to Dongting Lake and Hankou, it's a long way, and before dawn, the ship owner will kill the chicken and burn incense and kowtow. There is a big gong hanging on the bow of the big ship in Xiahankou, and there are boatmen who specially knock it. When sailing, amid the sound of gongs and drums and firecrackers, the owner read a congratulatory message: "Please welcome Dongting adults, sail safely without wind and waves and dangerous beaches." The gong stopped and the toast was over. Along the way, you must respect the temple when you see it. All this was sacrificed by the clean hands of the boatman. There are plates on the bow, which contain wine and rice, burn incense and candles, throw vegetarian meals and look at the temple from a distance. Every time he stops at the dock, the boatman goes ashore to worship in the temple. The ship arrived at the dock safely, which is considered as "Buddha's blessing".

3. Being "watching the fire from the other side". When a ship crosses a dangerous place, it should "cross the sea for happiness" and offer sacrifices to Lord Fu Bo's ship god and water god. During the sacrifice, the foreman stood on the "sacred wall" of the wooden boat (the horizontal pillow at the joint of the two wooden boats) with a discerning axe in his right hand and a brightly colored rooster in his left hand. He cut the chicken's throat with an axe, carried the chicken around the boat, spilled blood for a week, and then returned to the Shenfu, threw the chicken at the mouth of the tent, and immediately offered a drink to the rich man (Ma Yuan, the general of the Han Dynasty) and various immortals. After the sacrifice, set off firecrackers, untie the cable and sail. In addition, whenever thousands of red-billed crows fly over the boat when crossing the dangerous beach, the boatmen will grab the rice balls with their hands and throw them at them. No matter how the rice balls are thrown, these crows can catch them with their mouths, which is foolproof. Legend has it that these crows were soldiers of Ma Yuan, the general of Fu Bo in the Han Dynasty, and drowned here when they conquered Wuximan. After Ma Yuan's death, he became a river god, and the drowned soldiers became raven soldiers, responsible for the safety of ships and articles crossing Qinglang Beach. At this time, people regard the arrival of crows as a good omen, so they must be fed and prayed for their protection. If no crows jump on the boat, people think the boat will be in trouble.

4. Make a "blessed landing". On the water, when the ship is still three or four miles away from the dock, the boatmen will blow the magnificent horn of landing in the port. When the ship berths at the port, it will be placed on a shelf about a mile away from the dock, so that the ship can berth by inertia. When you dock, you should ring the shore drum. On that day, the owner of the ship will prepare rich food and wine to sacrifice to the ship god. After the sacrifice, the boatman will be entertained with dishes, which is called "going ashore" or "going ashore to be blessed". The dish should have fish and meat, and take the homonym of "fish" and "surplus" to congratulate the boss on selling his goods at a good price. All boatmen should get drunk before the break.

5. Sacrifice to Dongting God, Jiang God and General. In the past, most of the boatmen from Changsha to Dongting Lake set up shrines in the steering room, one foot high and two or three feet low. There are three wood carving bodhisattvas: Master Lu Ban, General and Mother Shui (either Marshal or Emperor Guan). At the same time, the boat walks in the river, and you must respect the temple when you see it. There are many temples near Dongting Lake. The big temple can't live without Dongting (Prince), and the small temple can't live without yangsi (General). Prince Dongting is Liu Yi in the folklore Liu Yi Chuan, and he is an indispensable protector of Huxiang boatmen, which has been the case since ancient times. There is Dongting Temple in Orange Island in Changsha, and there is Jiangshen Temple at the end of Orange Island. At this time, we should worship the Lord of Dongting and the three gods of anchor, rope and willow. It is said that these three things are the three treasures of Zhenhu, the Lord of Dongting, and are called the "Three Gods of Dongting". After arriving safely, the boatman must hold a "banquet" to celebrate.

Another god worshipped by boat people, General yangsi, is the famous "Land God" in Changsha. According to "Changsha County Records", "Where General yangsi got his way, the remains of Ziyuntai and Paoma Stone are still there." Ziyuntai is the place where Jinjing River passes, and the downstream of Jinjing River is Laodao River (one of the tributaries of Xiangjiang River). In other words, General yangsi's "birthplace" is on the bank of Jinjing River. He is one of the water gods of Xiangjiang River system, and the water protector in Jinjinghe-Laodaohe-Xiangjiang River area. Like other famous water gods (such as Erlang God in guanxian, Sichuan, and Xu Zhenjun in Nanchang, Jiangxi). ), General yangsi's achievement lies in "protecting the country by cutting the dragon" and protecting the peace of the territory. Legend has it that there is a dragon on the Xiangjiang River, which often makes waves and harms the people. Yangsi, who gained magical power, mounted a horse and defeated the dragon with an axe in his hand. In order to thank yangsi for defeating the dragon and saving the people from the flood, Changsha people built a temple statue for him in some places along the Yangtze River-wearing a golden helmet and shining armor, holding a sword in one hand and holding "Dinghai Shen Zhu" in the other. There is a mantra circulating in Changsha: "Master Yang Jiasi came to transport (show), only the great Dharma God." It is said that General yangsi only showed signs of minor disasters, but it is difficult to get rid of major disasters. This may be because of the "division of labor" with Dongting owners.

6. "Sail all the way". Sailing is very popular in Lugo. It is easy for boat people to remember the place names along the way in songs. They call it Sailing-Lu Ge, also known as "Waterway Song" and "Waterway Walking". For example, the ballad from Yiyang to Nanjing is: "Yiyang opens Liugong (Beach), Shatou, Yang Jiao and Cao Qing. The cat calls Mr. (the number of mouths) and counts as eight characters (whistle), while the aunt (tree) asks Guan Gong (temple). There are lice on the head of the white horse (temple) (plug the temple), and the bell (linzikou) rings to luling. There are boat (or "brand") bays, bamboo forests, listening clouds and Shile Mountain on Luling Lake. Schleswig went up the hill, and the bronze bell rang. He was very happy in Nanjin Port. Chenglingji, Daolingji and Luoshan are new dikes. There are five streets, ten girls and nine good girls in Xindi, who love to play, duck pond, woolen cloth and stone pass. Jiayu, Pazhou, Jinkouyi and Yellow Crane Tower all have the performance of Fishing Flute. The Yellow Crane Tower has no cranes and goes all the way to Nanjing. "

Different places and different waters have different "channel songs", many of which are widely circulated among the people and become people's channel traffic knowledge songs.

7. "Tune" taboo. It is very dangerous for a boatman to sail, so he is very taboo, thinking that his usual speech is a sign, calling it "breeze" or "boatman taboo" "Dragon", "tiger", "ghost", "dream", "rolling", "falling" and "sinking" are its eight taboos and must not be called by pronunciation. Generally, dragons are called "valves" or "twisted rivers"; The snake is called "Xiao Liu"; Tigers are called "cats" or "old worms", and even the "rot" and "axe" that are homophonic with tigers have to be changed, so people call sufu "cat milk", axe "mountain son" and water tofu "water film"; Ghosts call it "soaking up the old man"; The dream is called "Huangliangzi"; The word "turn" should be called "inverted" or replaced by other words, such as "sail", "sailboat" and "inverted edge" when frying fish and "turn" when sleeping; Eating fish can't be turned over, and cook the meat can't be turned over and cut off; Say "open" means "roll", say "boiled water" means "boil", say "start" and say "go" means "roll"; The word "inverted" can't be said, and things can't be put backwards; "Shen" means "floating" and the surname "Chen" means "floating" or "floating in the river"; The place name of Chenglingji should be called Fuling Ji. Even some words that can arouse association need to be avoided, such as "Zhou" and "Zhou" are homophonic, close to "loss" and cannot be said as "Zhou" or "external record"; "Liao" and "Liao" are homophonic, so we should say "Zhang Heli"; "Sheng" is similar to "God", so "Sheng Fan" means "Tian Fan"; Chopsticks should be said to be "bamboo poles", especially it is forbidden to put chopsticks on bowls, because bowls are like boats, and chopsticks were called "chopsticks" in ancient times to remind people that boats are "alive" and cannot move forward; Use a bowl to indicate "transfer"; The spoon is called "duck bitch"; The rice ladle is called "grip". In particular, there are many discharge taboos. For example, when discharging, don't say "discharge", but say "untie the cable and let's go!" When cooking, when the meal is opened, say "the meal has gone up"; Eating meat meets bones, because bones remind people of rock (stone) heads, so it is taboo to call it "eating hard meat", and meat bones should not be thrown into the water at will; The smoke from the fire, because "smoke" and "flooding" are homophonic, can't say "smoke", only "fog"; The homonym of "umbrella" and "scattering" reminds people of the disintegration of wood, which can only be said to be "flowering"; The bridge is called "two ends"; "Tower" and "collapse" are homophonic, and they are collectively called "Diamond Emperor". There are too many similar taboos to list one by one. In addition, there are some taboos, for example, crossing dangerous beaches and rivers requires gong; Water patrol only drums; Avoid covering your forehead with your hands; Bows prohibit women from stepping on them; Avoid hanging clothes on the boat; The springboard should be placed in the middle of the boat; Before loading, scrub the ship from bow to stern and from outside to inside, and after unloading, scrub it from inside to outside; When ferrying, 18 or 36 people are prohibited from being on the same boat, and so on.

8. "Respect the temple" (temple fair) along the way. In addition to the scattered worship of gods by ships, there were many collective sacrifices in the Xiangjiang River valley in the old days-temple fairs. Such as: Dongting Palace Temple Fair, Jiangshen Temple Club, General yangsi Temple Fair, Lang Ping Palace Temple Fair (Lang Ping Palace is in Yancang Street) and so on. These temple fairs are activities of non-governmental organizations. They are managed and planned by decent people elected by boat people, and the person in charge is called "the first scholar". Every temple fair, "punctuality" will issue an announcement and organize sacrificial activities. The activities of the temple fair are mainly to celebrate the birthday of the Bodhisattva, the Bodhisattva's "walking", the boatman and the people burning incense and offering sacrifices, giving a play to the Bodhisattva, and so on. The temple fair in Dongting Palace begins on the seventh day of the second lunar month, which is an old custom in Changsha. The next day, it was the "walking" day of the Bodhisattva in Dongting. When "traveling", take dozens of big triangular red flags as the leader; Dozens of gunmen followed; Then, thirty-two people carried a big sedan chair with red paint, and on the top of the sedan chair sat the "King and Bodhisattva of Dongting"; Before and after, there were more than a dozen "dragon guards" tumbling and dancing; Loud, loud; People beat gongs and drums, followed by them, and they were mighty. The boatmen on the lake (river) and the residents along the coast set up boxes to burn incense and prayed for each other. The temple fair of Dongting Palace in Orange Island lasted for three days (from the seventh day to the ninth day of February), and the most lively day was the "trip" of Prince Dongting.

February 12 of the lunar calendar is a temple fair for generals and a day for General yangsi to "travel". Its scale is not as big as that of Dongting Lord, and its time is not as long as his (only that day). Therefore, the folk proverb says, "Bodhisattva No.1 (referring to the Lord of Dongting) plays the gong, and Bodhisattva yangsi plays the gong (small gong)."

During the temple fair, local people from all walks of life will "send a play" to Prince Dongting and General yangsi to congratulate them and celebrate their birthdays. Especially on the general's birthday, there will be a separate birthday drink. Punctuality raised funds to undertake sacrificial banquets and perform plays for the gods. The purpose is to worship the gods and entertain people, interweave silk and bamboo, and make songs and dances harmonious and festive.

9. Other customs and taboos. The water transport in Changsha County is mainly Liuyang River and Laodao River. Cargo ships are called "autumn ships" and "Wu Peng ships", and ferry ships are called "paddles". Sailors are called "kidnappers". There are two boathouses: Liuyang Port and Changsha (Hua Shan) Port. The "five-port sub-boats" in Yiyang and Ningxiang can also travel between Liuyang River and Laodao River, which is called "Waihe Port". The ships shook their oars when they met. When foreign ships enter the river in the county, they must first prepare a gift and visit the "heads" of various ports, which is called "worshipping the pier".

Ship owners have been engaged in water transportation for a long time and are afraid of dangerous beaches, rocks and bad weather. In addition, there was no navigation equipment in the rivers of the Qing Dynasty, and only a few dangerous river sections were built with lanterns or poles and stakes. The night watchman beat the giant bell to guide the ships to follow the sound. In bad weather, the bell ringer will tie his feet with a mallet and hit them continuously, telling the passing ships to prepare for the shelter. At the end of Guangxu, Changsha opened a port and ships came and went. A buoy device is set up to light the plant oil lamp at night. In case of strong winds and waves, the oil lamp goes out, and vicious shipping accidents occur from time to time.

The boatman also erected wooden male and female whips at the stern, because the male and female whips were used by Weichi Gong, the general of Tang Dynasty. Weichi Gong used to guard the bedroom for Li Shimin, the emperor of Tang Dynasty, and ghosts were afraid to approach, so he was named the keeper, thinking that these two whips could curb the water demon.

During sailing, there is a saying called "Happy Rowing, Three Mo Wen", and passengers are forbidden to ask about the weather, itinerary, berths and so on. The boatman thinks that these answers are in the hands of heaven, and the boatman's good answer is a blasphemy against the water god.

Wooden boats should burn incense and worship when passing through the temple stupa to ensure safety. When a ship goes ashore for maintenance or completion of launching, it is necessary to spray chicken blood on the bow to ward off evil spirits. During the Spring Festival, the bow of the boat is covered with red, candles are lit in the cabin, and lights are used to beg for good luck on the evening of the 30th. On the first day of the lunar new year, the shipowner and the sailor boarded the ship together and slowly moved the boat up a little. This is called "heaven".

When sailing, when you see big fish or drifting objects in the river, don't shout or point at them, lest the water demon make waves. After a puffer fish (commonly known as "Jiang") follows the boat, it is necessary to burn incense to pay tribute. Boat people think that puffer fish is "the messenger sent by the river god to observe the good and evil on earth". When berthing, the bow is facing the water, and the two ships are close together, so they can't both step on it.

Bow is a sacred place. Men are not allowed to urinate in the bow, and women are not allowed to cross the bow. On the first and fifteenth day of the first lunar month, boatmen have a rare sumptuous food (commonly known as "God Blessing"). They cook large pieces of pork, worship the river god first, then cut the meat into pieces and fry it with lobster sauce and pepper, commonly known as "Chongqing pork" or "Chuanguai meat".

Working on water for a long time, boatmen have accumulated a lot of experience in observing the weather without weather forecast in the past, so as to plan ahead and make preparations early. There are many proverbs in navigation, such as: "Black cages on all sides are bound to blow strange winds", "Clouds start from the west, and rain is bound to come sooner or later", "Sunset is red, no rain is the wind", "Sunset in the western hills is a little red, and tents are set up at midnight", "Three shades (referring to the southeast and northwest), and the wind is born in darkness; It's three days of darkness and one day of light, and the wind comes in the light. " It rained early, but there was nothing at night. ""It rains everywhere, but there is no rain on the ceiling. " "The weather is hot, windy, sultry and rainy." "Three dark days in Sanming, big river depression" and so on.