What are the customs of the Hmong?

The Hmong generally practice a small family system centered on the paternal line. There are many families with two or three generations living together, and very few with more than four generations living together. In most cases, after a son marries, he separates from his parents and sets up another family. Parents often live with their youngest son or their favorite son.

In the family, the male head of the family has more power, followed by the female head of the family, and the adult children have the right to "participate". Only men have the right to inherit family property. In the event of separation, except for a share reserved for the parents as a "pension field", the rest is inherited by the son. If there are many brothers, the property is divided equally. There is no system of inheritance by the eldest (or youngest) son. In some places, the eldest son of the former wife is entitled to a larger share, but there is no system in place. Women do not have the right to inherit. In some places, such as part of the Miao people in the Qiandongnan area, the unmarried girl is also given a small portion of the land for her living expenses, called "girl's field", which is controlled by her parents or brothers living with her, but the girl does not have the right to enjoy it after she gets married, and some of them will only take it back after the girl's death. A son-in-law has the right to inherit property. Widows can also inherit their late husband's property if they don't marry another, or by their original husband's son if they transfer their house.

The relationship between immediate and collateral relatives of the Miao is generally close, with only a slight degree of affinity. They form a family, keeping watch and supporting each other in poverty. In the family members of the same generation, regardless of direct lineage, regardless of affinity, all brothers and sisters. For those who are of the same generation as their fathers, they are addressed as uncles and parents. Those in the same generation as the grandfather are addressed as grandfather or grandmother. For those who are above the grandfather's generation, they are called by the name of old grandfather or old grandmother. To the next generation, generally call them by their first names.

The Miao people are very concerned about family rules. To parents to filial piety, to siblings to love, respect elders, love and care for the younger generation, is a traditional virtue. The uncles and sisters-in-law should not transgress their boundaries. Elders cannot joke about their daughters-in-law or granddaughters-in-law. The younger generation can not play frivolous in front of the elders.

The cohesion within the Miao family is very strong. In their daily lives, they care more about each other. If a family has major difficulties, the family to help; there are poor people without clothes, the whole family to support. If there are disputes between them, they will criticize and persuade each other for small matters, but for big matters, they will be decided by a public meeting of the clan convened by a person of authority in the clan. The concept of unity is also very strong in the family.

The Hmong family used to have its own family name, the Hmong surname. It originated from ancient clans, generally known as so-and-so branch or so-and-so branch. Some branches were named after their chiefs, and some were named after places and animals. In order to facilitate the trace genealogy, the individual name more father and son with the name system, according to the order of the name up, it can be traced back to the origin of the family. Father and son with the name is the son's name in the front, the father's name in the back, there are some individual plus even the grandfather's name, such as the father's name Bao, the son's name is rock, that is, take the name of the rock Bao. For example, if the grandfather's name is Satoshi, the name is Iwaho Satoshi. This is the general direct lineage of adults in the formal naming method, the child to take the name is not included. Anshun area to take the name is very grand, to hide the drums of the family held a ceremony, and to do hospitality, in the seat to take the name. Purple cloud area to name a grand banquet, with a lot of four-way high table connected, from the hall has been set to the yard outside the house, the family sits on one side, the father-in-law family sits on the other side. Eat while discussing. Take the name to auspicious for the benefit, but can not be the same name with both parents and elders.

Marriage customs

Anciently, it was mostly men and women who sang to build up their feelings and tie the knot, without parental consent. Marriage is also a man and a woman of their own accord, both parents only temporary sponsorship or after the fact identified, can be said to be free and independent. If a place is agreed upon, the woman will be brought home by the man and woman to be married at the Dragon Boat Festival in May. After marriage and children, the relationship between husband and wife is fully established, the husband accompanied by his wife with gifts to see the parents-in-law.

The main form of socializing between men and women in the Qiandongnan region is "Yufang", and many villages have "Yufang Poe" and "Yufang Ping" as fixed places for men and women to socialize. If you leave this place to go to "Yufang", you will be regarded as hurting the custom and be punished. Unmarried men and women in northwest Guizhou mostly "jumping flowers" during the day to get acquainted, and then sing and talk at night, so it is also called "stepping on the moon", or "jumping moon". Through contact, if the two sides are in love with each other, can be fixed for life. Immediately called the male parent to invite the matchmaker to the female family set up, called "betrothal".

Marriage is generally held in October after the completion of the fall harvest, there are also extended to the next year, held in February. The specific date is determined by the auspiciousness of the season. Married by the man to the woman's home to meet, accompanied by the woman's mother and sisters, relatives escort, the bride walked under an umbrella. But the northwest Guizhou area Xing horseback riding, Songtao and other places, the bride is sitting in a sedan chair. During the wedding banquet, the bride was beautifully made up, dignified behavior, not smiling. The groom's dress is extremely common, rather inconspicuous. Qiandongnan most areas of the Miao wedding, the groom generally do not come to congratulate the family and friends in front of the face. During the wedding banquet, the bride only with their sisters or sister-in-law to send the bride to stay with the guests, when the guests went back to the mother's home. This phenomenon is probably related to the legacy of matriarchy.

Huangping, Shi Bing, Kerry's Miao wedding is unique: men and women decided to get married, the male side first find three or five good boyfriends to the female home to pick up the bride; the bride also asked a few good girl accompanied by a man's home to the male family parents killed chicken hospitality, said welcome. Walled young men and women also came to celebrate. Three days later, the male family to invite people to the female family to announce the wedding. If the female parents agree, they will be entertained with meat and wine, *** business women's banquets required meat, rice, wine quantity, and will be embroidered dresses and jewelry to send people to bring to the girl. On the thirteenth day, it is the man's formal invitation to the day, and the day of the organization to send the girl back to the door, the woman's family to wine and meat hospitality. This is the end of the wedding. When the guests are dismissed, the host will set up a number of wine altars at the entrance of the village to stop the guests from making a toast, and the guests will have to sing a song of thanks, and those who are not good at singing will be punished with a drink, or they will not be allowed to leave the village.

In part of Qiannan and Southeast Guizhou, after the wedding, the bride will go back to her mother's home to live permanently, until the busy or the husband's family has something to send someone to pick up to the husband's home to live temporarily. This is the case for two or three years, and then she will stay with her husband's family for the rest of her life.

In many areas of the Hmong, there are also varying degrees of aunt-schedule marriage customs, that is, the uncle has the right to take nieces for the daughter-in-law, known as the "return to the head of the mother". Generally married long niece or a daughter in the eye, regardless of the willingness of the female party, must be obeyed, referred to as "uncle family to run away". If you marry, you must prepare a gift to the uncle's family, called "still mother's money". And Qingzhen, Xiuwen, Bijie part of the Miao aunt table is the opposite: not the uncle's son married aunt's daughter, but the aunt's son has the right to marry the uncle's daughter, called "niece catch aunt".

In the Miao, divorce is relatively free. Generally, the first to file for divorce pays compensation to the other party. If the man first proposed divorce, in addition to the woman shall not ask for "betrothal money", but also to pay a "compensation money". If the woman divorces first, she must pay the man's "betrothal money" and the "wedding expenses" before she can marry again.

Widows are free to remarry in most areas. It is customary to "marry within and then without". If a brother dies and the brother has not married, the brother has the right to marry his sister-in-law, slightly compulsory, if the woman firmly disagrees, she can also marry outside. Brother died and brother widower, brother can also marry sister-in-law, but can not be forced. This kind of marriage, commonly known as "transfer room", but only between siblings. Widow "to the room", its minor children by the transfer of the husband to raise, if the Department of another marriage, can be sent away to take away the infants in infancy, the industry by the uncle to care for; until the grown-ups, the male shall return to the original family, the female listen to their voluntary.

The Miao marriage has many restrictions, the biggest taboo is the same name, the same clan not married, otherwise it will be seen as incest. This sex of the general to the Miao sex prevail, the Han surname does not work. However, there are places where the Hmong surname has been lost, and the Han surname also prevails. Part of the region as a result of the opposite sex is rare, too many descendants of the family name, to find a spouse difficult, had to be the family name of the distant branches of the family name, and the near branches of the family name of the "broken family name to open the family".

Burials

Miao burials are historically complex. There are several kinds of burials, such as cave burials, hanging coffin burials, earth burials and tree burials.

Cave Burial: After a person dies in a coffin, the casket is parked in a natural cave. This type of burial method is mainly popular in Huishui, Longli, Guiding, Pingtang, Duyun, Dushan, Luodian, Pingba, Changshun, Ziyun, Wangmu and other counties of part of the Miao. In recent years, a large number of sites of this type of burial have been found in ethnic archaeological research. Cave casket from the Wei Jin and North and South Dynasties to the Ming and Qing Dynasties, all dynasties, to the Tang and Song Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty for the most, but as late as the Ming and Qing Dynasties before the record. Changshun County, Jiaoma Township, Tianxing hole, Pingba County, the coffin hole, is one of several large cave burial group, in addition to the rotten couch can not be counted, can be recognized in the casket in more than a hundred, up to more than 500 or even more than a thousand, and all are head east and foot west oriented display. This type of burial is now extinct.

Hanging Coffin Burial: that is, after the death of the coffin, the coffin is stored in the gap in the cliff, or in the cliff hole inserted stakes, the coffin will be placed horizontally on the. As early as in the Tang Dynasty, Wuxi region has this type of burial records. In the Ming Dynasty, the Miao people in Qianzhongnan region also commonly practiced this burial method. During the Qing Dynasty, it gradually decreased and even disappeared. Before the war, only a few people retained this custom.

Earth burial: very early, there are wooden coffins, there are also sarcophagus (Qianzhong region). There are two types of burials: Shun burial and horizontal burial. Horizontal burial is an extremely old burial custom, with the head east and the feet west, which used to be popular among the Miao people in northwest Guizhou, north Guizhou, and south Sichuan, and now some people still use this kind of burial style.

Tree Burial: After death, people are wrapped up in bark and hung on trees, which is recorded in "Sui Shu. This is recorded in the "Sui Book. Geography", now most areas have been extinct, only a few areas of the unnatural death of the person used.

Elderly people dying, generally to burn "fall gas money", some to be placed on the edge of the fire fall gas, which is obviously influenced by the Han Chinese. After the death of a person, one side of the gun, firecrackers as a signal, notify the whole village; one side sent to notify the uncle's family and relatives and friends. Also give the dead shaved hair, bathe, change the birthday suit, parked body in the hall, for relatives condolences. Huishui area to park the body on a bamboo mat, hanging in the hall in the pillar beam, five or six feet from the ground. This may be a variation of the ancient hanging coffin burial.

Suspension of burial period, relatives of relatives to mourn, women's "mourning" is particularly mournful, the whole village of the village women, even if the deceased with no kinship relations, are to collectively come to the mourning, extremely sad feelings. The men from the side of the production of young and old, but also touched by the wailing and weeping.

Before the body into the coffin, the Qiandongnan region will be a few money broken in the mouth of the deceased, as the soul of the deceased back to the East of the native land of the "road fee", known as the "buy water money".

During the period of stopping the funeral, but also asked the priest to the dead "open road", explaining the soul of the dead to go, from the beginning of the earth to the Fuxi siblings to create a human smoke recounted the origin of their ancestors and migrated through the soul of the dead with the ancestor to migrate along the route according to the station of the retrograde, to return to the birthplace of this nation's eastern homeland, and the spirits of the dead ancestors to get together.

When the funeral, the filial son with a bow and arrow or sword in front of the funeral procession "open road". The intention is to show that the ancestors are to open up the mountain road, through the thorns and thorns, in addition to the demons and monsters, so the old man died, but also to clear the obstacles, so that the souls of the deceased can return to the ancestral homeland smoothly.

The cemetery is usually selected by a Feng Shui master. In Qiandongnan region, some are buried in the family cemetery, some do not choose the land. Burials are usually in wooden coffins. The main style of burial is the smooth burial, that is, the head towards the top of the mountain beams, feet towards the bottom. Wangmu, Luodian area also maintains the ancient custom of the head toward the east.

LouShun area part of the Miao people also "stop mourning to wait for the burial" of the ancient custom, that is, the coffin out of the funeral parked in the mountains for several years before entering the ground.