Brief introduction of Li nationality

Li people mainly live in Dongfang, Baisha, Lingshui and Changjiang Li Autonomous Counties and Ledong, Qiongzhong and Baoting Li and Miao Autonomous Counties in the south-central part of Hainan Province, and the rest are scattered in other cities in Hainan, where they live together with local ethnic groups.

Li nationality has its own language, and Li language belongs to Li branch of Zhuang and Dong language family of Sino-Tibetan language family. Due to long-term contact with the Han nationality, many Li people can also speak Chinese. In the past, the Li people did not have their own national characters, but used Chinese characters. 1957, Li language based on Latin alphabet was created. Ancestor worship and nature worship were once popular, and now some people believe in Christianity.

The Li nationality is dominated by agriculture, as well as handicrafts, aquaculture and commerce. The coastal fishery and salt industry in Li nationality area are rich in resources. It is one of the important rubber production bases in China. There are two kinds of traditional houses of Li nationality: boathouse and golden house. The boathouse is a bamboo structure building, which looks like a canopy and is made of bamboo. The Golden House is supported by tree trunks and woven with bamboo pieces.

Li people are generous and good at singing and dancing, and their songs and dances have their unique charm. Now, "Bamboo Dance" has become the most distinctive dance performance in Hainan.

History of Li nationality

The Li nationality originated from a branch of Baiyue in ancient times, and it is closely related to ethnic groups such as Xingzhuang, Buyi, Dong, Shui and Dai. As early as before the Qin and Han Dynasties, a "Luoyue" crossed the sea from the mainland to Hainan Island. The residents of Hainan Island were called "Liao Li" in the Sui Dynasty, that is, the ancestors of the Li nationality. "Li", as a unique title of the Li nationality, is generally considered to be the deformation of "slang" after the Song Dynasty. Li people claim to be indigenous to Hainan Island. They have lived in Hainan Island for more than 3000 years.

Li music

There are more than 817,500 Li people, mainly living in Hainan Li and Miao Autonomous Prefecture in the south of Guangdong Province. Li language belongs to the Li branch of Zhuang and Dong language family of Sino-Tibetan language family. After the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC), they created the Li language on the basis of the Latin alphabet. Li people believe in ghosts and gods and worship their ancestors.

Li nationality is a nation that can sing and dance well. No matter at banquets, festivals, after harvest or at work, they can almost improvise songs with long lasting appeal and easy catchiness. This piece of music gives people happiness with its fresh and simple melody.

Li Liyi

Li people celebrate this festival.

the Spring Festival; Chinese New Year

The situation is basically the same as that of the Han people during the Spring Festival. Before the Spring Festival, every household will eat New Year's Eve, brew New Year's wine and make "lantern leaves" (that is, a kind of rice cake). Lamp leaves can be stored for a period of time, that is, they become very tough. They can be sliced with a sharp knife and then baked or fried, which has a special flavor. On New Year's Eve, we began to worship our ancestors, eat New Year's dinner and drink New Year's wine. On the first day, everyone should stay at home and stay indoors. The next day, they will go out to visit relatives and friends, or go hunting in the mountains, or touch shrimps in the river, and hold various festivals with ethnic characteristics until the fifteenth day of the first month.

March 3

Unique festivals of the Li nationality. On March 3 every year, Li Yu, a compatriot with the virtue of respecting the elderly, takes his pickled mountain vegetables, brewed rice wine and cakes to visit the prestigious old people in the village; Young men go out hunting and fishing in droves, while young women fish and cook. As night falls, boys dance traditional Li dances, and young men and women sing folk songs and complain to each other. Young men and women should wear beautiful national costumes, go to the legendary mother cave to worship their ancestors, and then have fun together and see the right people. After the photo, both men and women eat a kind of "lamp leaf" cake embedded in the sugar heart. Girls tie colorful ribbons woven by themselves around the young man's waist, and the young man will also tie ear bells on the little girl's ears or insert hairpins in the girl's bun.

Marriage custom of Li nationality

"Night outing" is a unique form of love between young men and women of Li nationality, which is closely related to "Longbuduoer". Whenever the sun goes down, young men will dress up and travel across mountains and rivers to the "sister boudoir" in remote mountain villages to find lovers by singing and playing the flute. It can be said that it is a real free love. It takes some intelligence to enter the "sister boudoir". First of all, the man should knock on the door with a song, and if the woman agrees to let him in, she will respond with a song; If you don't agree, throw a song that doesn't open the door, and the man has to find another branch. When a man can go in, don't just sit, just sing a song and sit down. After sitting down, the man will come straight to the point and explain whether he is looking for a couple or proposing marriage, and the woman will respond whether she has a lover. If there are many girls in "Dragon Boudoul", I don't know which girl wants to love, so both men and women will try to sing love songs, and the girls who are willing will naturally respond to him. Next, songs, bows and flutes that express love will come and go until they fall in love. After falling in love, the man gave the woman silver dollars, copper coins, needles, cloth shirts, waist baskets, bamboo hats and other items as gifts for sleeping together for one night. Invite each other in the future and often come and go at night. This kind of relationship lasts for one and a half months, and some last for two or three years. Of course, there are flowers left by Xie Di, so let's sing a farewell song. Then they don't interfere with each other and look for new lovers.

If a pair of lovers in the Li family love each other deeply and need to get married, they will tell their parents about the marriage. Then the parents of the man's family will choose an auspicious day and bring a dowry. Among them, betel nuts must be carefully picked and proposed to the woman's family. Betel nut should be delivered to your door, so that everyone can send you good wishes, because betel nut symbolizes the evergreen marriage and indicates that both men and women love each other and are harmonious and happy. Li people call it "putting betel nuts" or "putting clothes".

Lizu clothing

The cotton handicrafts produced by Li nationality are famous at home and abroad. Among them, "Shuang Mianxiu" is the most prominent, and it is often used as the decoration of coats, such as side flowers and back flowers. The materials used in Li costume patterns are mostly popular figures, animals, plants and geometric patterns. However, different regions have different emphases. The shapes of these patterns are childish and exaggerated, and the ideas are bold and ingenious. Use straight lines, parallel lines, squares and triangles to form neat decorative patterns. In terms of color, red, yellow and white are generally used, and the color collocation is harmonious and gorgeous. Women of Li nationality often have gold and silver foils, mica flakes, sequins or feathers embedded in their headscarves, tops and skirts, and some of them are decorated with shells, beads, copper coins, copper bells or tassels, which have produced vivid and special effects.

Li nationality diet

Li people are used to eating three meals a day, mainly rice, and sometimes eating miscellaneous grains. The first way to cook rice is to cook it in a clay pot or an iron pot, which is roughly the same as the braised rice method of the Han nationality. The other is a distinctive picnic method, that is, take off a drum, put a proper amount of rice and water on it, bake it in the fire, and cut open the bamboo tube to take out the rice when eating. This is the famous bamboo rice. If the game and lean meat are mixed with fragrant glutinous rice and a small amount of salt and put into a bamboo tube to cook fragrant glutinous rice, it will be more mellow and delicious, and it will be a good treat for guests. Sweet glutinous rice is a specialty of the Li nationality, and sweet glutinous rice stew is known as "a fragrant rice is cooked well, and a hundred families smell it".

"Leigonggen" is a kind of wild vegetable that Li compatriots often eat. It is a very delicious dish cooked with small fish and shrimp or meat bones in the river. "Leigonggen" can also be used as medicine, which can diminish inflammation and detoxify. "Nansha" is a side dish that Li compatriots used to eat, but the sanitary conditions of "Nansha" are not easy to master, and now it is rarely cooked.

"Xiang" is a kind of delicious food of Li nationality, which can only be eaten on festivals or when guests come to the door. There are "fish tea" and "meat tea".

Eating mice is also a custom of the Li nationality. Whether it is mountain rat, vole, house mouse or squirrel, they can hunt. When eating mice, first put the mice in the fire for a while, then shave, remove the internal organs, and then bake or burn them.

Most of the Li compatriots are addicted to alcohol, and the wine they drink is mostly low-alcohol rice wine, sweet potato wine and cassava wine brewed by themselves. The wine brewed from Shan Lan rice is a famous wine, which is often used as a valuable gift.

Li compatriots usually like to chew betel nuts. The way to eat betel nut is to cut betel nut into petals, wrap it with cypress leaves, add lime cream and tobacco, and chew it carefully in your mouth, which can make people drink it ruddy and refreshed. Eat areca also has the efficacy of preventing and treating diseases and beautifying, so Li compatriots regard betel nut as a healthy and long-lived food.

Typical food: Bamboo rice is a traditional food of Li nationality. In addition, there is "Xiang", which is a Li flavor dish. There are two kinds, Chinese fish tea and meat tea; Glutinous rice cake.

Li Jianzhu

Yao folk houses are good at adapting to local conditions and can be divided into "half-building style", "whole-building style" and "quadrangle style".

A "half-story building" is generally five columns and three rooms, with a mansion at both ends, or a mansion at one end or a wing extending forward at the other end. Most of the gates are on the upper floor of the house. Most of these buildings were built by Yao Hong.

"The whole building" is called "half building"; Generally built on a flat foundation along the river or halfway up the mountain. The scale and ancillary buildings are the same as the "half building". Huayao and Pan Yao live in the whole building.

"Siheyuan" is called "Siheyuan" because it connects four "whole building" houses with a small square yard in the middle. This kind of building is only inhabited by wealthy families along the river in Yao Hong.

Li custom

It is usually taboo for others to mention their ancestors' names in person; In some areas, cats are forbidden to kill and avoid eating.

Li national religion

Ancestor worship and nature worship once prevailed in Li nationality, and now some people believe in Christianity.