How about the linguistic and cultural characteristics of the Miao people in western Hunan?

Located in the southwestern border of Hunan Province, Suining, channel two counties in the old Miao frontier, the main ethnic group is the Miao. From Qin to Tang and Song dynasties, the southwest Hunan Province for the "five barbarians". Since the Ming and Qing dynasties, the history of Suining, Chengbu for the "Miao frontier" or "Miao frontier area", until the middle of the Qing dynasty has not been allocated to the "province". Due to the brutal suppression and ethnic discrimination by the ruling class, most of the Miao in Southwest Hunan gradually accepted the culture of the Central Plains and became "ripe Miao". The "ripe Miao" and the "raw Miao" are two inseparable parts of the Miao, but as far as cultural characteristics are concerned, the culture of the "ripe Miao" is neither the authentic pure Miao culture nor the Han culture, but a culture that retains the basic elements of the Miao culture. But in terms of cultural characteristics, the "ripe Miao" culture is neither authentic pure Miao culture nor Han culture, but a kind of "hybrid culture" that not only retains the basic characteristics of Miao culture, but also permeates the components of Han culture in the Central Plains. Therefore, the study of "ripe Miao" culture helps us to understand the origin and development of Miao culture.

Language is the carrier of culture, and culture is the connotation of language, and the two are interdependent and inseparable. As Mr. Luo Changpei said in Chinese People and Chinese Writings, "Language and writing are the cultural crystallization of a nation. The past culture of this nation relies on it to pass on, and the future culture relies on it to advance". Therefore, taking the Miao (ripe Miao) language of Southwest Hunan as a perspective, it allows us to understand the unique and rich regional cultural characteristics of the ripe Miao culture of Southwest Hunan and the historical process of its development and evolution through the phenomenon of language.

"Pinghua" is the self-proclaimed name of the Miao language of Suining and Chengbu in southwest Hunan Province (there are some Miao in Chengbu who call themselves "People's Language", but they belong to the same dialect as "Pinghua"). Modern Miao "Pinghua" is a kind of minority Chinese that has been basically sinicized, but still has some remnants of the underlying Miao language, which itself is an important symbol of the sinicization process of the Miao people in southwestern Hunan. The vocabulary system of a national language can most directly and sensitively reflect the cultural value orientation of the nation. This paper aims to explore the culture, customs and psychology of the Miao society in Southwest Hunan through the investigation and study of the vocabulary of "Pingtong", just as the American sociolinguist, Mr. Ernst Engberg, said: As the American sociolinguist Ernst Ernberg said, "One of the ways in which a society's language reflects its corresponding culture is in the content of its vocabulary or in its words." The corpus of this paper comes from the author's personal investigation of more than 3,000 items of vocabulary in the Pinghua language of Guanxia Miao Township, Suining, and from the vocabulary section of the book Qingyi Miao People's Language of Chengbu, Hunan, written by Li Lan (2004). In the following, we will talk about the cultural connotations of the Miao "Pinghua" vocabulary in terms of geographic features, production, living customs, beliefs and national psychology.

I. Geographic characteristics of the Miao people in western Hunan

Suining and Chengbu are located at the southern end of the Xuefeng Mountain Range and the northern foot of the Nanling Mountain Range. The territory is characterized by high mountains and steep hills, streams and rivers. The territory belongs to the central subtropical mountain climate, with less summer heat, less winter cold, mild and humid, and four distinct seasons. The territory is rich in forest resources, and Suining, for example, has a high forest coverage rate of 68.3%, ranking first in the province. Qing Tongzhi version of the "Suining County Records", "Products" contains 143 species of forest and understory plants. Most of the Miao people live by the mountains and water, and they have a direct understanding and knowledge of the natural environment. For example, as one of the 17 key bamboo-producing counties in the province! "Ping language" in the "bamboo" named especially rich, there are: water bamboo, bamboo, bamboo, bamboo, bamboo, bamboo, bamboo, bamboo, bamboo, bamboo, bamboo, bamboo, bamboo, bamboo, bamboo, bamboo, bamboo, bamboo, bamboo, bamboo, bamboo, etc., as well as ornamental value of the gold bamboo, bamboo, bamboo, bamboo, bamboo, and so on. As the saying goes, "eat mountain by mountain", rich forest resources also become the source of heat in the daily life of the people, according to Li Lan provided by the Chengbu Qingyi Miao people in the words of the fire to warm the "firewood" named on ten kinds, such as: fir firewood, white oil (poplar) firewood, mulberry firewood, There are dozens of names for "firewood" for burning fire, such as: fir firewood, white oil (poplar) firewood, mulberry firewood, willow firewood, tung leaf firewood, peach firewood, plum firewood, cherry firewood, etc.

The dense forests and deep valleys provide good habitats for wild animals, and the names of wild animals in Suining and Chengbu Miao "Pinghua" (human language) are rich, for example, mammals such as wild boars, old bugs (tigers), tigers (tigers), monkeys, bears, prickly pigs (hedgehogs), leopard dogs, weasels, and so on, Leopard dog, weasel, etc., reptiles, only the name of the snake there are more than ten kinds: five-pace snake, hundred-pace snake, snake, eye snake, oil hemp snake, big bowl snake, bamboo leaf green, branding iron head, two-headed snake, five brocade snake, scales snake, withered snake, red chain snake, stinking snake, water snake, chicken snake, piglet snake, and so on. It can be seen that the unique natural geography has penetrated and enriched the vocabulary of Hmong "plain language".

Two, Xiangxi Miao production, living customs

Qing Yongqian period of the implementation of the policy of land reclassification, although the nature of the obvious ethnic oppression, but the improvement of the customs of the Miao region is still playing a very important role, such as the uncle of the aunt of the marriage of the custom was banned. After Xianfeng, Tongzhi, the Qing dynasty further implementation of the assimilation of the Miao policy, repeatedly ordered regardless of raw Miao, ripe Miao, all shaved hair, change skin color. Miao living customs around the obvious changes, southwest Hunan Suining, channel, Chengbu and other places, Miao men's clothing and the local Han people have no difference. After the Republic of China, fewer and fewer women wore skirts and more and more wore dress pants. Miao men also no longer stay hair buns, no longer wear earrings. The production and living customs of the Miao people in southwestern Hunan Province are not significantly different from those of the local Han Chinese.

Mr. Wen Duanzheng (2003) pointed out: "As old folklore disappears, the general trend is that the dialect words reflecting such folklore also disappear. In fact, some dialect words sometimes do not disappear completely with the disappearance of folklore, and they are more solid than the folklore that formed them." Some of the words in the "Ping dialect" of the Miao people in southwestern Hunan have also preserved and reflected some of the production and living customs of the local Miao people that have disappeared or are in the process of disappearing.

For example, in the past, the Miao people of Chengbu and Suining used to go hunting in the mountains in their spare time, which was called "hitting the mountains" and "catching the mountains". Hunting, the first honor "Plum Mountain God", hunting, all contact with the plum tube as a signal. After hitting the prey, according to the principle of "whoever sees it has a share" for distribution. The first shot down or the first knife stabbed the beast of the beast head and skin. The head of the beast is cut by pressing back the ear of the beast, and cut it off where the ear goes. Replacement of the gun can be more than the average hunter to share a pound of meat, called "share the muzzle meat". Collar meat is also divided into the first circle, the second circle. The first to find the footprints of the prey, can get four feet. The rest of the participants in the hunt and the presence of the people who see, according to the number of people evenly distributed, even if the women holding a child passing by to see, but also to be divided into two parts. Now, due to the implementation of national environmental protection laws, hunting activities are gradually reduced, the above retained the ancient legacy of the folk vocabulary also gradually faded from the people's daily language.

Another example is that during the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, the young men and women of the Miao ethnic group in southwestern Hunan had "jumping over the moon to seek a spouse", "jumping over the drum to choose the right pair", and "falling in love with a song", "Grass marking the secret meeting" and other forms of courtship, after the liberation, with the implementation of the new marriage law and young men and women in contact with the form of increasing diversity, the above forms have gradually disappeared, and those words associated with the old folklore only a few older people still vaguely remember.

Of course, a good portion of the vocabulary active in today's southwest Hunan Miao "Pingtai" still reflects the unique and rich ethnic, folk and regional customs of today's Miao people. The following is the author's record of Suining (Guanxia) Miao part of the folk vocabulary:

Rice flour meat rice flour meat is the Guanxia Miao village celebrations on the most popular delicacies, the guests came, the table dishes and then sumptuous, but if there is no rice flour meat, it will be considered very unseemly, the rice flour meat is used to cut into small pieces of pork mixed with fried rice flour, five spice powder, salt and monosodium glutamate and other seasoning, mixing, and then put into the cauldron to be cooked, can be eaten. It can be eaten. One cage per seat, each cage ranging from five to six catties. Many villages still have the habit of pinching the vegetables, the seat only eat side dishes, and the rice flour meat all pinch, with a bamboo skewer to take away. If there are absent guests. The host also want to clip on a string, and personally sent home. Therefore, there is a local saying: if you can't finish a bunch of rice flour meat, you can't be counted as a mountain man.

Wu rice is black rice. It is a kind of tree leaf juice (the Miao family called it black rice leaf fat with soaked glutinous rice steamed, the color blue-black, the taste is fragrant. The eighth day of the fourth month of the lunar calendar, is the Guanxia and even the county's Hmong Yang "girl's day", this day either married or to be in the word of the girl is to eat Wu rice.

Value seat Guanxia Miao family banquet, will ask the neighborhood competent women to value seat, that is, similar to the work of the restaurant waiter, responsible for passing food, entertaining a table of guests, the difference is that the value of the table and the official guests enjoy the same treatment; meat dishes are the main dishes of the Miao banquet, the host will be based on their own economic situation of the decision of a table with a few kilograms of meat, generally five pounds of meat, a table of nine people, the host will be divided into meat, a table, a table, a table, a table, a table, a table, a table, a table, a table, a table, a table, a table, a table. Nine people, the host will divide the meat into nine, then the value of the table is also a share.

Over fifteen Dragon Boat Festival is also the Guanxia Miao family valued festival, they will go to relatives, welcome friends, in order to avoid you invited, I also invited the rush, so the local Su, Yang two big surnames agreed: Yang family over the fifth of May, Su family over the fifteenth of May, to avoid this embarrassment.

Three, western Hunan Miao beliefs and customs

Southwest Hunan Miao people live in the mountains and old forests, for the topography of the mountains of strange shapes and forms, a variety of natural phenomena, the celestial body of the changes in the wind and clouds, the world's fortune, etc., all to the traditional culture and traditional concepts of the Miao to be interpreted to the heart of the people, the degree of the nature of the thing, and then produced the worship of all things of the pious psychology. In Suining, Chengbu Miao beliefs and customs in ancestor worship, Discus worship, nature worship and man-made objects worship and so on. The first time I've seen this, I've seen it, and I've seen it, and I've seen it, and I've seen it.

Hunan Gaosi Peng and described the "drinking Suining city building gift Wan Ambassador" poem said: "...... maple door camphor ridge clump nymphs, rumored to be the disc gourd house ......" maple door camphor ridge that is today's The area around Guanxia Miao Township, Suining County, is said to be the place where Disc Gourd lived. Suining Miao people have always had the custom of respecting and loving dogs, and when they pay homage to the Bodhisattva, they ask him to bless their children as healthy as dogs, and they love to bring a "dog" word to their children's names, and they love to wear a "dog's hat" to their children's birthdays, and they call it "a dog crossing the bridge", and they call it "a dog crossing the bridge" when they are sick. The children's birthdays are called "dog crossing the bridge", and when the children are sick, they are called "do dogs". When eating, the first bowl of rice in the pot must be fed to the dog, every year in July to taste the new festival is actually honoring the dog festival. This is entirely a "dog totem" worship, is a specific manifestation of the worship of Discus, showing the traditional culture of the Miao ethnic characteristics.

Four, Xiangxi Miao ethnic psychology

As mentioned earlier, the southwest Hunan Miao "flat language" is loaded with a kind of ripe Miao culture, on the one hand, it accepts and spreads the advanced scientific and technological culture of the Han Chinese, on the other hand, in the depth of the Miao culture of the "genetic On the one hand, it accepts and spreads the advanced scientific and technological culture of the Han Chinese in the central plains, and on the other hand, it keeps the "gene" of Miao culture at a deep level. As far as "Pinghua" is concerned, it is the product of the Miao people in southwest Hunan abandoning their mother tongue and switching to the dominant language, Chinese, which itself is the result of the collision and fusion of the two cultures of Miao and Han. From some ancient words preserved in "Pinghua", we can speculate that the Miao people in Southwest Hunan may have been in contact with the Han culture since the Middle Ages. For example: walk (run), line (walk), face (face), arena (nest), ugly (ugly), in the eye (beautiful), return (return), ou (tea cup), pa (wash towel), dress (dress), sing (bow), sieve wine (pouring wine), cattle pen, pig prison, food (but also cigarettes, food and wine, etc.), chopsticks (chopsticks), sleep (sleep), magistrate (yamen), catching the test, open the door to the Meng (also known as the hair of the Meng). Based on the fact that the Mandarin personal pronouns "I, you, and he" correspond to "I, er, and yi" in the Chengbu Qingyi Miao dialect, Li Lan judges that among the personal pronouns of ancient Chinese, "I" was first used in the Shangshu, and "I" was first used in the Shangshu. In the ancient Chinese personal pronouns, "I" began to be used in "Shangshu", "Yi" is mainly found in the literature of the Wei and Jin Dynasties, and "he" and "you" appeared only in the Tang Dynasty, so the Qingshu Miao dialect was influenced by Chinese language from the Han Dynasty, the Wei and Jin Dynasties, to the Tang Dynasty. The Chinese language has been influenced by the Chinese language until the Tang Dynasty.

It is clear that the Miao people in southwest Hunan have a long and far-reaching history of contact with Chinese culture, which has led to the phenomenon of language transfer. But on the other hand, as far as the national psychology is concerned, the Miao people in southwest Hunan who speak "Pingtongue" (human language) have identified themselves as Miao rather than Han for generations, and this sense of national identity is very strong and clear, which is specifically expressed in the following aspects:

First#, the identification of their own language. The author in Suining, Chengbu survey will come across such people, they often insist that what they say is the real Miao language. Some of the words in "Pinghua" are also very nationalistic. For example, "guest" means "Han Chinese" or "Han Chinese"; "guest language" means "Han Chinese" or "Chinese language"; "read foreign books" means "read books in Chinese" and so on. In addition, analyzed from the perspective of linguistics, some components of the Miao language have been preserved as the underlying words of "Pinghua". For example, "一" in Chengbu Miao has different readings of "文白", when it is used alone, it is read in Chinese, which is consistent with the Chinese language, and when it is paired with a quantitative word, such as "一粒" in "一粒", it is read in white, which is consistent with the white reading in other local languages. This white pronunciation is corresponding to the Miao language in other places, which means that the white pronunciation is the bottom of the original Miao language, and the text pronunciation is the pronunciation from the Chinese language into the Miao language. It can be seen that the Miao people in southwestern Hunan originally spoke Miao, but were influenced by the Chinese language and switched to Chinese, but this transformation is a long and gradual change for the users themselves is difficult to recognize.

Secondly, there is the recognition of the Miao culture. It should be said that today's "plain-speaking" Miao people in southwest Hunan have basically been Sinicized in terms of language and clothing, and most of their production and living customs are not significantly different from those of the Han Chinese. However, some traditional customs still retain the cultural characteristics of the Miao. For example, the Miao in Chengbu's Baimaoping, Lanrong, Pengdong, Dayang and other places still have the custom of "Miao New Year", which is also known as "October Festival" and "Celebration Drum Hall". Celebration of the drum hall", that is, in the tenth month of the lunar calendar in the eleventh or the day of the Oh, Miao villages are to be held in worship of ancestors and gods, to celebrate the activities of the grain harvest. Another example, all the "mature Miao" on the worship of ancestors are very pious, "would rather kill their bodies, not digging their graves", "mature Miao" traced back to the "raw Miao" is The "mature seedlings" are the "raw seedlings", whose memory of their ancestors is actually the memory of the seedlings.

In summary, language is the carrier of culture, and culture is the connotation of language. The language of any nation is loaded with the deep cultural connotation of that nation. From the viewpoint of historical development process, "matured Miao" is the irresistible development trend of "raw Miao", therefore, "Pinghua" as the carrier of "matured Miao" culture in southwest Hunan, is the most important language in China. Therefore, as a carrier of the "ripe" culture of southwest Hunan, it is a work of both academic and social value to continue to carry out in-depth investigation and research with it as a perspective.

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