Quzhou's Vanishing Folk Culture

Men don't shoulder water, women don't hold plows Most of the She people live in mountainous areas, planting rice and sweet potatoes, as well as forestry, tea and hunting. She women do not have the custom of foot-binding, and go to the fields and mountains as men do. However, it is customary for men not to carry water or plant vegetables, and for women not to hold the plow or step on the harrow. The women do not have to do this now.

Niu San Dan

The third day after the calf is born, the cow main hosts a banquet for the family, village neighbors, and distributes hemp nuclei to all the children in the village. On this day, the cow should eat rice mixed with brown sugar and drink yellow wine mixed with eggs and brown sugar. The custom has disappeared.

Lace Clothing

Women's clothing collar, sleeves, right lapel, pants lace, sleeves, pants large and short. Brides use bracelets, collars, earrings and other silver jewelry, wearing a hat shaped like a dog's head. Men wear lapel coat, large tube straight pants. The bride weaves colored ribbons around her waist at weddings. Both men and women use blue cloth to tie their legs. There are not many people who wear national costumes now.

Tasting the new rice

The elders are invited to taste the new grain. By the oldest person to eat the first mouth of new rice, with chopsticks to the bowl of rice to pick a little bit of the table, in order to show that year after year, and then everyone into the table **** meal. Prior to this, it is not allowed to put the newly harvested rice in the mouth, or even touch it with the lips. When the opening of the sickle, to cut a few rice head, rice stalks to feed cattle, so that cattle to taste the new. This custom still exists today.

Draft

In the past, most people lived in thatched bunks, building mud for the walls, covered with straw and thatch, called "draft". It is divided into three rooms: the central hall, where the ancestral incense table is placed against the wall; the kitchen on the right; and the bedroom on the left. The upper part of the bedroom is made of bamboo as a tendon and mud is smeared to form a mud building, which is called "Tulku". Now there is no draft dweller.

Fireplace Pond

The stove door dug a long pit, called the fireplace pond, for roasting fire, large / J ship family population and social needs. When the days of cold hospitality, meals, songs are sitting around the fireplace pond, so the guests to wait until it into the kitchen before saluting. New Year's Eve, to bury a large piece of burning firewood roots in the hot ashes of the fireplace pond overnight, called "cooking New Year's Eve pig", firewood root fire can not be extinguished. This custom is now abolished.

Zu-Tan

The Department of two bamboo boxes, one loaded with the ancestor of the branch incense burners, artifacts, and the other loaded with a set of cloth colorful painted "Zutu"; the map is more than 20 meters long and 0.5 meters wide, painted more than 20 She history back to the chain. The Zutu is the public property of the She tribe and may not be occupied by private individuals. The ancestor map must be hung up when the sacrificial ceremony is held.

Intermarriage of the same surname

The Greedy did not intermarry with other ethnic groups in the olden days, but internally those with the same surname and different branches were allowed to intermarry; nowadays, those with the same branch can get married after five generations. Men are not discriminated against when they join a family. In addition to child brides in the old days, there are also "child adopted children". In the Republic of China, local Han Chinese occasionally took She women as their wives, but there was no such thing as a woman marrying a She, and now intermarriage is no longer a taboo.

Singing

Festivals, festivals, all-night singing, singing is part of the ceremonial activities. Marriage, hired female singers and men sent to "Chilang" singing, there are to persuade the song, marriage song, marriage song, etc. If the good song guests, the lining of the song. If the guests come to sing good songs, the young people of different genders of the lining and the guests will come to sing songs against each other. Before the songs, everyone should put together some money for the singer among the guests, and the host entertains everyone with night snacks. The contents of the songs include fixed historical songs and story songs, as well as traditional songs used to question each other, and more improvised songs. Young men and women also sing to each other when they are working or on the way out, and they make up songs as they go along, which is called 'singing mountain songs'. Some of them fall in love with each other as a result. The She people still like to sing, but they do not sing to each other. Nowadays, the She people still like to sing, but pair singing is no longer popular among the youth.

Secret Words

To strangers of the same ethnicity who come to visit, they have to use secret words to investigate; for example, they ask, "How many times do I play a line of moso bamboo (how many slices of moso bamboo do I dissect?)?" The visitor's surname is blue, then answer "six to". If his surname is Lei or Zhong. If the visitor's last name is Lei or Zhong, the answer is "five". If the guest can answer, he will be treated as a guest of honor. Those who go out should learn the secret language and keep it secret: now some old people still know some secret language.

Ask the mouth cake

The matchmaker goes to the woman's side to make a match, and brings two packages of cakes called "ask the mouth cake". The woman accepts one packet, indicating that she is willing to consider the marriage; the woman returns the cakes after the matchmaking trip to the man's side, indicating that she does not agree with the marriage; if she does not return the cakes, the match is basically finalized

Matchmakers go to the woman's side to matchmaking, and bring two packets of pastries called "ask mouth cakes".