Culture of the Hezhen people

Herzhe people have their own language, Herzhe language belongs to the Tungusic language family - Manchu Na Nai branch, did not form the written word, before the founding of the general use of Manchu, after the founding of the majority of the general use of Chinese. Herzhe folklore colorful, with a long history of traditional national culture, myths, legends, folk songs and stories, passed down from generation to generation. Hezhen myths, such as: "Morrigan shoot the sun", "the moon", "Dipper", "rainbow", "the legend of the mountain god", "the legend of the tiger", etc., with national characteristics. "Imakan" is a form of rap literature unique to the Hezhen people. Often in the hunting grounds, net beach or fishing village soil building thatched hut rap. It is characterized by singing ancient history and heroic stories. "Imakan" said a section of singing, without musical accompaniment. Large parts of the Imakan are sung for many days, and small parts are sung for a few days. The storyline is vivid, graphic, and free-form. The content of "Imakan", some of them glorify heroes, and some of them tell about the innocent love between young men and women. According to the survey of the Hezhen folk preservation of the "Imakan" works more than 40, has been recorded in the "Hir Daru Morrigan", "Man Doo Morrigan", "Manggmu Morrigan", "Antu Morrigan", "Xiangshou Xiazhichu Morrigan" and so on more than ten. In addition, there are "said Huli" and "Trengu" and other forms in the folk are also very popular. The "Hulik" is a literature that focuses on storytelling. The content includes fables, fairy tales, myths and other genres in a lively, short and concise form. It is usually told by the elderly to children for their enlightenment. Trengu" content is mostly legends, such as "the legend of the swan girl", "the legend of the Golden Deer" and so on. The Herzhe people have language but no writing. For a long time, only folk literature. Writers literature is only developed after liberation.

The Hezhen pattern art is very developed, they are often made of fish skin, animal skin on the clothes, shoes, hats, bedding, embroidered with a variety of cloud patterns, flowers, butterflies and geometric patterns. In tableware, birch skin products carved on a variety of bipartite continuous patterns, cloud patterns, landscapes, flowers, birds and animals, etc., vivid images, beautiful and chic modeling. Women in the lapel, shawl, waist hitch, hat, trouser legs, etc. with colored thread embroidery patterns, designs are more exquisite. Especially the color embroidery on daily necessities such as "rooster with flowers", "flower basket and lotus root" and other patterns, novel and chic composition, especially wonderful. The Herzhe people embroidered and spliced all kinds of patterns on different products, reflecting the intelligence of Herzhe people and aesthetic group consciousness from different angles with their unique forms. Herzhe pattern art absorbed the essence of the Han pattern art, and constantly innovate, both rich in the national flavor, but also reflect the characteristics of the production and life of the nation, extremely rich in national characteristics, is an important part of the Chinese embroidery, pattern art treasure trove. Before drinking the first sip of wine, the Hezhen people have to use chopsticks to dip a little wine into the air and sprinkle it on the earth to show respect to the ancestors and the gods. But do not like to drink tea, sometimes also millet fried caramelized water to drink, or the wild rose and young leaves and small Quercus flower buds picked and dried to make water to drink as tea, but most of the year round like to drink raw cold water.

Hetzhe women have to eat millet porridge and rice porridge, crucian carp soup, gaga fish soup, rabbit meat soup, and "Mowin Gu rice", noodles, noodle soup, eggs and other food. Green vegetables should not be eaten for three days after delivery to avoid diarrhea of the mother and baby. During the menstruation period are eaten boiling hot rice, so as not to get cold, affecting the health and milk.

Hezhe people after death, must be made of flour fried thin noodle blocks and various shapes of thin noodle snacks, for the table, people attending the memorial activities also eat. In the process of the engagement of young men and women, to set up a banquet to feast on both sides of the elders and matchmakers; to welcome the bride, the man's old man to the woman's old man to toast three cups of wine. Wedding banquet, the bride to face the wall "sitting blessing", until the people who sent the family away after the banquet, can only get off the ground and with the groom *** eat pig's head and tail, the groom ate pig's head, the bride ate pig's tail, meaning husband and wife, unity and harmony, and finally the bride bride and groom *** eat noodles to show that the love of love, to old age.

After the first day of marriage as a daughter-in-law but also get up early to see the in-laws, tea and do some housework, the Hezhen people generally through the production of food to measure the daughter-in-law is smart and capable of marrying home. In addition, the Hezhen people can also end their single life by exchanging marriages, robbing marriages, raising child brides, and taking people as son-in-laws. For widows, they can remarry after they have observed mourning for their former husbands. After the founding of New China, these customs have gradually been forgotten, and the marriage customs of the Hezhen people and the Han people are no longer very different.

There is also a gesture that has been passed down among the Hezhen. If a man raises the index finger of his right hand with his back to a woman, it means that the man is to this woman, in this life, not to marry her. Swan Dance: The home of the Hezhen people, there are a lot of swampy areas, every year in the spring blooming season, a group of white swans competing to fly. In the folk have been circulating a beautiful lyrical swan dance, but unfortunately now basically lost. According to the hunter Ge Changsheng old man recalled that when he was young, he saw the women dancing the swan dance in Ghardang, Fujin County. They wore colorful lace robes and danced with their arms as they sang, sometimes imitating the sound of swan calls. The dance used to be sung and danced at home and in the fences of the yard during the annual festivals. The old man remembered the action, began to cross the legs half squat, arms stretched to the sides of the up and down slowly waving, then feet forward, as if the swans in the river free swing, speed becomes faster, legs up before and after staggered jumping, two arms upward fluttering, as if the swans are chasing each other to play.

Hakon Buli: In the past in the Hezhen folk also circulated a collective dance, the Hezhen language called "Hakon Buli", "Buli" that is, "jump", "Do", "dry" meaning. In the early years in Wanli Huotong, Susutun, Fujin Gaerdang area of the annual festival, there are many young men and women jumping "Hakang Buli" dance. This dance, both men and women agree, you can jump with, not jumping people sit and watch. As a result of the long years, will dance "Hakonburi" is not many people. Its dance moves are three steps forward together, pulling hands, clapping, turning and so on.

Pirisile: also known as "Pirikin", this name is a translation of a foreign language. According to the people who will dance this dance is "tap dance", the basic action is "tap step", the number of dancers is not limited, the movement is unified, the dance skills of skilled people, you can use your feet to kick and beat out a variety of complex rapid rhythm, people are happy and excited. Pirisile dance, may be from abroad, in the Herzhe people and has changed a lot, formed the style of the nation, became a form of folk dance Herzhe. Herzhe folk songs have more than 10 kinds, the content involves all aspects of life, there are happy songs, sad songs, ancient songs, fishing songs, hunting songs, rituals and customs songs, love songs, cradle songs, narrative songs, new folk songs and so on. Women love to sing "Marriage Rincao" (similar to folk dances) and old men love to sing "Imakan". "Imakan is a form of folk rap, similar to the drums of the north, and is characterized by its epic form. The Hezhen village is full of joyful atmosphere when the moon is in the sky and the bonfires are brightly lit.

The Herzhe ditty is beautiful and melodious, both the tune and the rhythm will make people feel the undulation of the river waves and the fishing boat rowing in the light swing. But all men and women of all ages can touch the scene, sing a few improvised tunes. The main tunes are Hnina tune, married to the broad tune, shaman tune, Imakan tune, white Ben out of the tune, happy tune, sad tune, the old man tune, the girl tune and so on. "Hnina" is a folk tune, mostly hummed by women in the labor of bright and light tunes, it is elegant and clear, loud and clear, melodious.

Famous Hnina tune "Ussuri boat song", "spring production song"; "marrying broad" is a pure and simple emotions, soft and melodious, widely circulated lyrical songs, used to celebrate the beauty of nature, express the infinite love for the home of the mountains, rivers, landscapes, fertile land, the wilderness. Marrying tone in the famous "Songhua River meeting love song"; shaman tune on behalf of the "jumping deer God Hatchet God song", "jumping God returned to the song", "home sacrifice God song", etc., mainly in the shaman jumping God activities sung; catchy, popular with the masses of the Imakan tune Su Jing "Xir Daru Morrigan" as a representative work; white out of the tune, more than the old lady to the children sang the story of the song of the tunes, tone of the slow tone long, and lively, such as the "long worm brother and sister", "the long worm brother and sister", "the long insect", "the long worm brother and sister", "the long worm brother and sister", "the long worm brother and sister", and "the long worm". The long worm siblings", and other happy tune singing joy, such as the joy of the "post-liberation life"; sad tune sadness, there are "the past painful days" sung in tears; old man tune and the girl tune, is an imitation of the old man and the young girl's voice, to express the character of the characters, traits and psychological activities of the tune.

The Herzhe ancient musical instruments handed down to the "Toumu Hanyu" and "mouth to the zither". "Empty wood containing to" is now lost; "mouth to the piano" has a wire folded into a shell, the center of a long thin piece of steel, contained in the mouth to play.

Mouth harp: the Hezhen people called the mouth harp "empty Kangji". The ukulele box is shaped like a small fish, as long as the middle finger, are made of bent steel, placed between the lips and teeth blowing, while using the fingers to pluck the strings. It can be used to play both cheerful tunes and sad tunes. Girls and boys often use the harmonica to convey their heartfelt messages. If a fisherman has a family funeral, after arriving at the fishing ground, he must set up a pile of fire on the net beach and cross over the fire to smoke the bad luck. During the fishing period, it is forbidden to speak strange words or lies, otherwise the gods will be offended and the nets will return empty.

The Hezhen believe in shamanism, believe that everything has a spirit.

The people believe in "everything" of the original religious concepts, the mountain gods, river gods, tree gods and other gods of nature everywhere careful to worship, lest inadvertently offended and incurred disaster. Jealous of killing birds flying to live in the room, believe that it is the soul of the dead single change, there are flying to cast the room is its soul to "reincarnation". If you kill them, you will have the misfortune of sterility. Jealous of leather burial, that is, the dead spirit can not ascend to heaven, and can not be reborn as a human being.

Hetzhe taboo dog meat, which is the northern Tunguska nation **** the same customs, need to pay extra attention.

Uzhigong Festival

Uzhigong Festival is a newborn festival of the Hezhen people, born in 1985. Wurigong means entertainment or cultural and sports conference, held every two years, usually in the fifth and sixth lunar month, lasts three days. The content of the festival is rich and colorful, in addition to a variety of national sports and athletic activities, there are the most lively mass gathering and drinking activities.

Herzhe Spring Festival

The Spring Festival is the most joyous festival of the year for the Herzhe people. On New Year's Eve, everyone is busy with cooking the New Year's dinner, cutting the windows and gluing the lanterns. On the first day of the year, girls, women and children put on new clothes embroidered with cloud borders and go to friends and relatives to pay tribute to the New Year. Hospitality of the Herzhe people set down a fish feast to entertain the guests. There is a very tasty feast that includes hot and sour Tala Chang (raw fish), crispy fried fish hair, and clear, bright red salmon roe. The respected folk poet, Imakan, offers his best wishes in poetry on the occasion of the Lunar New Year. Old people toast to him, listen to his stories, and enjoy themselves. Women play touching blind paste and throwing bones. Teenagers are obsessed with skiing, skating, shooting straw targets, pitchforks and other competitions. Everywhere is singing and laughing. Hezhen people pay attention to etiquette, manifested in all aspects of life.

Respect for the old and love the young Hezhe people pay attention to etiquette, respect for the old and respect for the elders of the good social customs. Later generations go out and come back, and elders meet, to elders kneeling, in turn, to parents, brother and sister-in-law to greet, to show respect. The elder kisses the forehead of the younger generation to show affection and love.

Hospitality

The Hezhe, who live in the Tongjiang and Raohe areas of Heilongjiang, are mainly engaged in fishing and hunting, and have a diet of raw fish. Guests visit, often cold raw fish hospitality, first invited guests to eat a mouthful of fish, showing respect for each other. If the guest does not eat, it is considered rude. The head of the fish must be offered to the guest as a sign of respect, and the fish dishes served on the table always have the head of the fish facing the guest. When eating the dish, always use chopsticks to point the fish head, signaling the guest to eat. Scientific experiments have shown that the fish head contains high protein, high nutritional value, especially crucian carp head is nutritious and delicious.

Prayer ceremony

In the north, the Herzhe people in the old days that, after the death of a child, its soul first into a sparrow, and then reincarnated as a human being. Women over the age of 30 who have not yet given birth to a child are regarded as lacking a reincarnated soul and must ask a shaman to find a soul to seek a child. Before the ceremony, the woman who seeks a child should secretly tie a knot in the shaman's hat and belt or the fluttering belt of the god's skirt. Shaman in front of the god pole off the god clothes found this knot, then asked who is pulled, the woman immediately kneeling in front of the god pole wine, wishing, begging God to give children. The shaman then beat the drums and prayed, and ordered the child seeker to the shaman's home within three to four days to take the soul of the fetus. At that time, the couple who seeks a child carries a "soul bag" made of roe deer skin or buckskin to the shaman's house, and sits side by side on the edge of the kang, with the shaman's two assistants holding their shoulders. When the shaman is dancing in the house to find the soul, as long as one of the couple's shoulders shakes, it is considered that the soul has been possessed, and the shaman puts down the drum in his hand, picks up the bag, and blows a breath into the bag. After the child is born, the couple must thank the spirits with cows, horses, pigs, sheep and so on.

Spiritual rituals

After the death of a person, people have to hold some rituals related to him or her, called "spiritual rituals". This is a reflection of the concept of the immortality of the soul.

The Hezhen people believe that the seventh night after the death of a man, the ninth night after the death of a woman's soul to go home. That night, the family of the deceased will be made of paper clothes, meals, etc., placed in the front door, and put a bowl of ash to verify whether the ghosts go home. The next morning, the right ash left on the marks of chickens, ducks and other animals, indicating that the soul came back, and vice versa. What kind of animal traces left indicates that the soul of the deceased has attached to the animal.