Information about Nu people

General situation of nationalities

Nu people in China are mainly distributed in Bijiang, Fugong and Gongshan counties, and Nu people also live in Lanping and Weixi counties. According to the statistics of the fifth national census in 2000, the population of Nu nationality was 28,759. The use of angry language belongs to the Tibeto-Burman language family of Sino-Tibetan language family. Languages vary greatly from place to place, and the angry words of Bijiang, Fugong and Lanping cannot be communicated. There is no mandarin, and most of them use Chinese.

Nu people call themselves "Nu people" (Bijiang), "Shi Ang" (Fugong) and "Along" (Gongshan), and they are one of the ancient ethnic groups on both sides of Nujiang River and Lancang River. They developed from the indigenous people who lived in Fugong and Gongshan in Yunnan in the early days, and were part of the "Luluman" in the Tang Dynasty. However, Nu people everywhere still retain the characteristics of claiming themselves and their own language. Since the eighth century, the Nu nationality area has been under the jurisdiction of Nanzhao and Dali regimes in Yunnan, and since the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, it has been under the rule of Mutus, a Naxi nationality in Lijiang. From the 0/7th century A.D./KLOC, the Nu people were ruled not only by the Hijikata Chizuru Sect in Weixi and the Hijikata Chizuru Sect in Ye Zhi, which belonged to the Mushi area of Naxi nationality in Lijiang, but also by the Lama Temple and the Tusi in Lanping. In addition, the Yi leaders who moved into the Nujiang area began to seize the Nu land and even plundered the Nu as slaves. After the Revolution of 1911, in 19 13, Yingpan Street in Lanping County established the General Administration of Female Hill Breeding Border, and successively set up the management committee office of Acorus calamus tube (Gongshan) and two colonial offices of Shangpa (Fugong) and Zhiziluo (Bijiang). 19 18, unified to the administrative committee office. 1933, the Kuomintang government changed three civil affairs departments into three administrative bureaus: Gongshan, Fugong and Bijiang, until the founding of New China.

socioeconomics

Nu people have long been engaged in agricultural production. By the Qing dynasty, they had begun to grow wheat and vegetables, but they still hunted animals for food, and their handicrafts also developed considerably. At that time, the Nu people had a close exchange relationship with the outside world, selling Coptis chinensis to the mainland, and businessmen of all ethnic groups in the mainland trafficked salt to the Nujiang River for exchange. After 1929, Zhiluo of Bijiang and Shangpa of Fugong were turned into regular markets, and coins such as copper coins and paper money began to circulate, and some seasonal vendors appeared among Nu people. At present, a few stone knives and axes are preserved in Nu people, indicating that they experienced the Stone Age. They used to use wooden hoes and bamboo hoes as tools for agricultural production, and some people continued to use iron tools after they started using them in the 16 ~ 17 century.

The earliest ironware used by Nu people were knives and axes. Under the backward farming mode of slash and burn, they used iron hoes. Later, an iron plow was introduced for ploughing. However, mountain agriculture is still in the stage of slash-and-burn or hoeing. The iron tools used by Nu people in Gongshan area are deeply influenced by Naxi people and Tibetans.

The agricultural farming techniques of Bijiang Nu people are more extensive than those of Fugong and Gongshan Nu people, and the backward farming methods of slash-and-burn in the early stage are absolutely dominant, which is consistent with the backward productivity level. Fugong's terrain and soil are better than Bijiang's, and the transportation is convenient, so it is easy to buy farm tools. Therefore, ploughing technology is more advanced than Bijiang. The Nu people in Bijiang, Fugong and Gongshan have different levels of productivity development and different land systems. The Nu nationality in Fugong area has a high level of individual economic development and less public land reservation, but the collective cultivated land shared by individual members is still reserved. Influenced by Tibetans and Naxi people, the Nu people in Gongshan area have a high level of productivity development. There is a geographically connected village, and there are two kinds of land ownership of the village: the barren hills and wild forests of the village are owned by the village; Cultivated land belongs to individual families for a long time. In addition, there is cultivated land between individual families. Due to the extensive use of iron in agricultural production, some surplus products have been produced, which has made the exchange develop to a certain extent. At that time, employees had been produced, and their wages were divided into physical wages and monetary wages. There are also loan relationships inside and outside Nu society. There are two kinds of loans, in-kind loans and cash loans. Most of the in-kind loans are for renting livestock and grain. At the same time, land mortgage and slavery began to appear.

Before the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC), some ancient villages in Nu nationality areas still retained some characteristics of family communes linked by blood ties. Different forms of public ownership of land and developing private ownership of individual land can be preserved among individual family members who are related by blood. Bijiang Jia Jia and Luo's family commune are well preserved. They take totem as their ancestor. The relative organization of Fugong Nu people is Tiqi, and each Tiqi comes from a common ancestor. According to the blood relationship, many close family members have been formed. Due to more and more members, under every "good health", a close kinship "easy to pull" has been formed. Asha is the leader of the family commune, responsible for handling public affairs inside and outside the commune, mediating disputes among members and handling inter-commune affairs on behalf of the commune.

Before the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC), the Nu people who lived in Tue, Lanping and a few scattered in Weixi County had the same production and living standards as the Han, Bai and Naxi nationalities, and had already entered the feudal society.

After the founding of New China, the Nu people were liberated and realized their desire to be masters of their own affairs. 1August, 954, Nujiang Wa Autonomous Region was established (including Bijiang, Fugong and Gongshan counties where Nu people live in compact communities),1September, 9571October, and it was changed into an autonomous prefecture. 1956 1 year 1 month1,gongshan dulong nu autonomous county was established. Starting from the reality of the social and economic development of the Nu people, the Party and the People's Government of China adopted different methods to help the Nu people to carry out social reform and realize the transition to socialism. Over the past 40 years, the production in Nu areas has been developing continuously and people's lives have been improving. Gongshan county, which used to be unable to make a nail, has now built a farm tool factory, and Nujiang prefecture has dozens of factories and mines in more than a dozen industries. In the past, there was no water conservancy in the dry land on the hillside, but now ditches have been dug and terraced fields have been opened, and the grain output has doubled. In the past, the roads were steep, the mountains were closed to the river, and the traffic was extremely blocked. Now, several roads have been built, a large number of post roads have been trimmed, and steel cable suspension bridges have been built on the river. The culture, education and health undertakings in Nu areas have also made great progress. In the past, the culture in Nu nationality areas was very backward. The Kuomintang administrative office ruled the Nujiang River for decades and only trained one or twenty Nu pupils. Now there are middle schools in the county, primary schools in most villages, and more than 80% of school-age children are enrolled. In the past, dysentery, typhoid fever, cholera and smallpox were very popular in Nu areas, but now a medical and health network has been initially established from the area to counties, townships and villages, which has basically controlled the epidemic of plague diseases and effectively guaranteed people's health.

Culture and art

Nu people have created rich and colorful culture and art in their long-term production and life practice. At the beginning of 1957, ancient paintings of Nu nationality-grotto murals and cliff paintings were discovered. There are cave murals painted on the wall of a cave in Bijiang County. There are seven pictures on it, such as the sun, fish, birds, cows and horses. Painting works with red pigment, with simple strokes, rough lines and vivid images. There are also such rock paintings on some stone walls. According to scholars' speculation, this painting belongs to prehistoric primitive painting art and has precious historical and artistic value.

Most of the poems of Nu people are improvised, which have a strong flavor of life and national characteristics. Their tunes have a certain rhythm, extensive content and complete form, with pipa, flute, oral string and Hulusheng. There are two widely circulated songs: The Sacrifice to Hunt the Gods and The Song of Sorrow for the Gods. In addition, there are other tunes that reflect agricultural production, such as the marriage proposal tune "Marriage Song" that reflects the love between men and women, and the elegy tune that expresses mourning for the dead. In folklore, there are Hercules A Hong and Mao Yingchong, who are widely circulated, telling the story of the tenacious struggle between the Nu ancestors and nature. Blind people seeking medical treatment and fairy grass praising truth, goodness and beauty and lashing cruelty and evil fully embody the virtues of kindness, mutual assistance and gratitude of Nu people and their hatred of evil forces.

Nu people are a people who love singing and dancing. Their dances are very rich in content, and most of them imitate the moving images of animals, such as monkey dance, chicken dance, magpie dance and bird Wu Wang. Some show life scenes and reflect production activities, such as boiler dance, laundry dance, autumn harvest dance and wheat cutting dance. In addition, there are pipa dance and heel dance. The dance moves are rough and bold, agile and powerful, and the rhythm is clear. Whether celebrating or mourning, Nu people can express their sincere thoughts and feelings by singing and dancing. For example, at the wedding banquet, the wedding songs sung by the old people start from the origin of human beings and are divided into chapters such as creation, love, sheep herding, shearing wool and wedding banquet.

Social customs and habits

Most of Nu men's and women's clothes are made of linen, and women generally wear linen robes, which are ankle-wide, and the front and rear joints of the clothes are decorated with a red edge cloth. Young girls like to add an apron to linen robes and embroider all kinds of lace on the edge of skirts. Men usually wear linen robes, with a wide chest and knees, and a cloth belt or rope tied around their waist, which can be put away from the waist to the front for easy installation. Nu men and women pay attention to decoration, while women use coral, agate, beads, shells and silver coins. Make beautiful headdresses and chest ornaments and wear them on your head and chest. I wear coral earrings on my ears and like to wrap my head with green cloth or flower headscarf. Men have long hair, wrapped in blue cloth and linen leggings, and like to carry machetes, crossbows and arrow bags on their shoulders. The Nu people's staple food is corn and adopted son. Nu people in the north of Gongshan also learn from Tibetans to grow highland barley, oats and eat highland barley noodles. Influenced by the Tibetan lifestyle, some Nu people sometimes eat ghee Ciba. Besides chicken, fish, pigs, sheep and beef, there are also game. Nu people generally like to eat thick rice porridge cooked with vegetables, and cook game together in it, which is delicious. Nu men and women like drinking and drinking. There are two kinds of houses for Nu people: wooden houses and bamboo houses, which are made of wooden boards or bamboo mats laid on wooden stakes. Generally, there are two rooms where guests are entertained outside, and there is a fireplace with an iron tripod or Shi Ding for cooking. The back room is the master bedroom, where food is stored and outsiders are not allowed to enter.

Before the founding of the People's Republic of China, the marriage of Nu people was mainly monogamous, and a few patriarchs and rich families also had polygamy. Housing transfer system is popular in various places. After the man got married, he built a new house near his parents' home, separated from his parents and was assigned a small amount of property. However, small families still maintain the obligation of agricultural mutual assistance with their parents and the whole family in their production and life. The youngest son lives with his parents. After the death of parents, the land, livestock and houses left behind were mainly inherited by the younger son. Descent is calculated according to the paternal line. The father-son name system implemented by Bijiang Nu nationality is an important symbol for calculating lineage and property. The Nu people in Gongshan have the custom of heavy mourning; The ancestors of Fugong and Bijiang women were cremated and had clan cemeteries. Currently buried.

Religious belief

Nu people still retain more remnants of primitive religion, believe in animism, pursue nature worship, and witchcraft is a common religious superstition ceremony. Some Nu people believe in Lamaism or Catholicism and Christianity.

(Excerpted from Qian Liyuan, editor-in-chief of Complete Works of Ethnic Work)

Website of the State Ethnic Affairs Commission