Supplementary knowledge of folk taboos

Our country is based on agriculture, and there are many taboos in the old society.

Avoid spring thunder in farming. Generally speaking, it is forbidden to get off work when playing Spring Thunder for the first time. This is especially the characteristic of the Shui people in Guizhou: the first spring thunder in the first month should be avoided for nine days, the second for seven days, the third for five days, the fourth for three days and the fifth for one day. You can't plow during a thunderstorm. Digging and sowing, if taboo, will have bad rain, pests and crop failure. On the one hand, it shows farmers' fear of natural disasters, on the other hand, it is also related to the grasp of climate. For example, it is reasonable to use spring thunder to determine the time of spring ploughing. However, in previous spring thunder, the cold wave did not stop and the crops were frozen, so it is forbidden to plough the land prematurely.

Han people in Guizhou also avoid cooking glutinous rice during the seedling season. According to folklore, cooking glutinous rice when sowing will make the seedlings yellow. Silkworm farmers also have many taboos, which are mainly popular in sericulture villages in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces.

In April, the sericulture season came, and several guests locked the door and washed away the silkworms. "West Wu Zhicheng" records: April is the silkworm month, and every family is idle. It is not enough for the government to hook up, collect and use it to celebrate and hang it. This is called silkworm ban.

There are seven taboos in sericulture. "Silkworm Collection" says: Silkworm has seven taboos: from childhood to adulthood, it is forbidden to smoke; Avoid wine vinegar; Avoid musk oil and gas; Avoid feeding fog leaves; Avoid feeding hot leaves; Avoid side collision; Avoid mourning for pregnant women.

Hunting is also taboo. In order to catch some wild animals, it is often necessary to sacrifice some animal gods first and implement some taboos.

Hunters of Hezhe nationality in Northeast China are forbidden to say strange words and big words when they enter the mountains, thinking that they will find nothing. Don't sit on the stump on the left, or you will take the seat of the mountain god and offend him; When having a picnic, the pot should be placed smoothly, and the hanging pot is not allowed to shake; Don't knock on the utensils; Don't dig the food in the pot with a knife, or you will lose your hunting luck. Ewenki hunters in Northeast China are afraid of disunity and boasting among hunters, and are forbidden to disclose the hunting direction and place. Even for family members, they are forbidden to burn cracked firewood, thinking that it will anger Bainacha (the mountain god) and cannot catch wild animals.

The boatman also has many taboos.

Han nationality and some minority boatmen living by the water have taboos about saying "capsize" and "sink" before and after sailing, for fear of drowning people. Don't turn the fish upside down when eating or frying it. Sailors are not allowed to roll up their trouser legs. A full meal doesn't mean full (because it's close to heavy sound), but it's called adding. Don't put chopsticks on the bowl after dinner, thinking that the bowl is still a boat, chopsticks are still chopsticks, and chopsticks are close to leaving a sound, indicating that staying on the boat is stagnant. Yangzhou shipowners should avoid calling themselves bosses, but should be called boatmen or shopkeepers. Because the boss said that the board on the boat would fall apart when worn out, it was unlucky to call the boss.

There are also taboos in raising and killing pigs. The Bulang nationality in Yunnan adopts stocking type. When sows give birth, they usually give birth in the grass. If a pig gives birth to a baby at home, it is taboo to think that there are ghosts on the pig. If you want to kill suckling pigs to solve the disaster, you should kill them with one knife and avoid killing them with two knives, which is called clean knife. When entering the knife, the butcher will even say that you are raw. Women and children can't watch. After the knife goes through the pig's throat, throw it on the ground. Don't point the knife at the owner's house, or there will be something bad in the house. You can't hang the pig in the right place when opening it, so as not to offend the gods. Use a blowtorch belt for boiling water used to kill pigs and remove hair. After boiling water is poured into the pig barrel, the lower end of the blowtorch is immersed in the soup barrel, and the upper end is blown along the barrel from the mouth to show that the next pig will grow fast and big. When the pig's head is shaving, it should leave a pig's hair as big as a palm at the tip of its tail, which shows that it has a head and a tail. There is a taboo to sell pigs instead of ropes in Han areas. After the pigs were tied up and taken out, they tied the tied pigs back with ropes, thinking that if they were sold together, their luck would be taken away. Tujia folk taboos are partly unique to themselves and partly influenced by other ethnic groups, especially the Han nationality. These taboos run through the production and life of Tujia people.

Marriage taboo

Avoid getting married in spring. The year without spring, that is, the year before spring begins, is called "poor year" in some places, and the poor word of poor year is a taboo for marriage. In some places, it is believed that "getting married in poor years and not raising children" may stem from the lack of the word "spring". In some places, it is taboo for a family to get married twice in the same year, and some stipulate that roommates can't get in, that is, marry daughters and daughters-in-law.

Avoid one-day marriage. In Yes Man, marriage is a happy event for both men and women. If it is on Singles' Day, it means bad luck, so the wedding date is more than two days.

Avoid sending widows and pregnant women. Relatives and friends of the bride send the bride to get married, but widows and pregnant women don't. Even prevent widows and pregnant women from watching the wedding, so as not to cause disharmony between newlyweds.

Don't be afraid of happiness. Before the wedding, the man invited two people who are both children, willing to work and good at managing the family to light two red candles at the same time in the flower hall and put them in the shrine, which is called "tying candles". Don't light a bad candle, or it will go out halfway. If the candle goes out before it is burned, the couple will be in trouble and can't grow old together.

Widows, pregnant women, parturients, babies, people who wear filial piety, tigers or people who have birthdays are not allowed to enter the "noise room".

Avoid letting the bride get the upper hand. After the newlyweds worship heaven and earth, the bride and groom go straight to the bridal chamber and sit on the wedding bed. Male left and female right, no more than the center line. Sometimes when the bride sits in the middle line, the groom will try his best to push her out of bounds. When the two sides were in a fight, the groom suddenly took off the bride's headscarf, and the bride smiled and announced the end of the bed grab. These customs of "preemptive strike" reflect the struggle between paternal line and maternal line when paternal line replaces maternal line, which is an ancient heritage.

Tujia nationality, like other nationalities, has always attached importance to marriage under the influence of the thought of "three unfilial, no heir is the greatest" and regarded marriage as a lifelong event. Therefore, many taboo customs are for the sake of peace and prosperity after marriage, and some are due to etiquette constraints.

Dietary taboo

At the banquet, guests should respect the host, avoid eating before the guests, and forbid the guests to move first. The so-called "host does not move, guests do not eat." Don't knock on empty bowls, and don't eat in front of elders or at banquets for the elderly. Avoid taking away empty plates when eating, which means "driving away guests". Avoid sharing a pear between two people and "separating". Don't stand behind others with a bowl in your hand when eating. People think that eating behind others' backs means eating behind others' backs, so others will "eat behind their backs". When eating, men and women don't sit at the same table, especially the daughter-in-law can't sit at the same table with her father-in-law. This is mainly influenced by the Han nationality and dominated by the concept of despising women and gender segregation.

Don't buckle the bowl when eating. It feels like taking medicine. Buckle the bowl on the table after drinking the soup, indicating that you won't get sick and take medicine in the future.

When eating, it is forbidden to drop rice, scatter rice and "leave some rice at the bottom of the bowl", which is the psychological expression of folk worship and love for food. It is generally believed that "if you practice grain, you will be struck by lightning." Don't knock on the bowl with chopsticks when entertaining guests.

It is forbidden to lie down after a meal, that is, it is unhealthy to lie still after a meal.

There are also many taboos on eating Chinese herbal medicine when you are sick. Because of some effects of food on the body and the different characteristics of food and medicine, some foods are particularly taboo after getting sick and taking medicine, which is called "taboo", such as avoiding eating "hair" when treating trauma and pustules, that is, fish, eggs, onions, garlic and so on. Avoid eating greasy and fishy things when treating dysentery. Chinese medicine practitioners in rural areas should also avoid eating dog meat and other kinds of animal meat with five claws, otherwise his medicine will not work. This is related to its vulgar taboo of sacrificing this meat to the gods.

Tujia people regard eating as a major event. Dietary taboo customs, mostly from the subjective desire to protect themselves, in order to prevent diseases, loss of life and disasters caused by eating and drinking. Some taboos are also mixed with many superstitious ideas and etiquette restrictions.

Residential taboo

To build a house, you need to choose a good foundation. Choose a foundation according to the trend and avoid going against the trend. To build a house, you must choose an auspicious day. It is forbidden to attack the old man, and it is forbidden to break ground on the old man's head. The housing base should be low before and high after, and should not be high before and low after. As the saying goes, "the former is high and the latter is low, deceiving the Lord." Don't say unlucky things when building a house. If you build a pigsty, don't say "can't be caged" and other languages. Living in a family room and whistling indoors is taboo, especially at night and in other people's homes.

Social taboo

When guests enter the door, they should be warmly greeted and offer their seats. Don't be silent. Light tea and wine are usually provided to guests. Wine is proud of respecting customers, don't drink it yourself, and don't respect customers. When entertaining guests, underage children are forbidden to eat at the table, especially daughters and daughters-in-law. The banquet table should be sewn on the gate and the guests should sit on the table. Old people are alive and children are not allowed to celebrate their birthdays. Avoid borrowing money from other people's homes in the middle of the night, commonly known as "not breaking money at night." Accommodation guests are arranged by the host family, and male guests, female guests and daughters are not allowed to stay in the bedroom. Don't say unlucky words on festive occasions and when you go out, for fear of being poisoned by words.

Animal and plant taboos

Magpie is the master of good luck, and crow is the master of evil. "Crows take the lead, and there are disasters without disasters." It is unlucky for a bird to shit on its body. Avoid watching animals make love, as the saying goes, "Don't watch dogs in February, don't watch snakes bask in the fog in March". People who think they will lose their skin when they meet snakes. In July, snakes and frogs came to the house, and they couldn't kill them, so they had to drive them away. It is generally believed that snakes and frogs are the embodiment of ancestors. The flowering of bamboo indicates disaster. As the saying goes, "bamboo bloom, people move", "bamboo bloom, people die".

Natural objects and solar terms taboo

Avoid "it thunders for nine days", as the saying goes, "it thunders for nine days, but it's cloudy for a hundred days". It's clear and rainy, and it's sunny in Grain Rain. It doesn't rain in the long summer, and the plowshares hang high. It means that in the long summer, it never rains in bad years, and it rains rainbow. Don't use your fingers. Avoid rainbows in the south and north. As the saying goes, "the east rainbow rains in the west, and the south rainbow comes out to sell children." It is forbidden to leap in July, and there is a saying that "leap seven does not leap eight, and leap eight drags the knife to kill", which is the main disaster year. Avoid two springs a year, as the saying goes, "two springs a year are not conducive to cattle and sheep" and "two springs are one winter, and ten cowsheds are nine empty". The first day of the first month is the most important day for people. Don't quarrel and cry on the first day of the first month, and don't say unlucky words such as "death", "illness", "going back to time" and "beheading". The quarrel in the first month ruined a year. Avoid going to bed early (sleeping late) on the first day of the first month. As the saying goes, "Go to bed early on the first day of the first month, and be lazy all the year round". Avoid seeing a doctor and taking medicine in the first month. Don't sprinkle water to sweep the floor on the first day of the first month, so as not to sweep away wealth. In the first month, it is forbidden to touch the ground before and after the ancestral grave, commonly known as digging the aura of ancestors.

Other life taboos

Don't use a tripod on the pedal stove and the kang, and avoid clothes, pants, shoes, socks and other dirty things piled up on the stove, so as not to offend the kitchen god. Avoid beating gongs and drums at home. Don't break ground every Friday, don't do needlework at the age of 30, and don't kill pigs and sheep. Avoid the tender melon with your fingers, or it will rot. Avoid breaking ground, knocking on doors, tearing down doors and moving furniture in pregnant women's homes, so as not to scare pregnant women and cause miscarriage. Avoid hanging women's trousers on men's clothes and hats