What are the historical legends of the Hmong? What are the taboos of Miao living customs?

The Miao, an ancient ethnic group, are scattered all over the world, mainly in Guizhou, Hunan, Hubei, Sichuan, Yunnan, Guangxi, Qiong and other provinces and regions of China, as well as Laos, Vietnam, Thailand and other countries and regions in Southeast Asia.

According to historical documents and the oral tradition of the Miao people, the Miao ancestors first lived in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, and their ancestors were Chi You. "Three Miao" period moved to the Jianghan Plain, and then gradually moved south and west into the southwest mountains and the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau due to war and other reasons. After the Ming and Qing Dynasties, part of the Miao people migrated to Southeast Asian countries, and in recent times migrated from these places to Europe and the United States.

The Miao have their own language. The Miao language belongs to the Miao branch of the Yao-Miao language family of the Sino-Tibetan language family, and is divided into three dialects: Xiangxi, Qiandong and Sichuan-Guizhou-Yunnan. As a result of the long-term exchanges between the Miao and the Han, some Miao people also speak and use Chinese. The religious beliefs of the Miao are mainly nature worship and ancestor worship.

History of the legendary era:

Miao ancestor Chi You

The Miao can be traced back to the legendary Yan Huang era five or six thousand years ago. At that time, the Jiu Li tribal alliance headed by Chi You appeared in the lower reaches of the Yellow River and the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, while two other tribal groups headed by Shen Nong's and Huangdi Xuanyuan's formed on the Loess Plateau in Shaanxi and Gansu.

Yan Di and Huang Di developed along the Yellow River from west to east and fought with Chi You successively in the Zhuo Lu area. Chi You defeated Yan Di first. "Chi You chased the Emperor and fought for Zhuo Lu with nine horns." Later Yandi and Huangdi jointly defeated Chi You. "In Xuanyuan, Chi You was the most violent, so it could not be cut. So the yellow emperor for the division of lords, and Chi You war in the field of Zhuo Lu, so the flying birds kill Chi You.

After the death of Chi You, the world is in chaos, the yellow emperor painted a picture of Chi You to deter the world, so that the world is stable. But after the defeat of Chi You Jiu Li group, most people moved south, began the history of migration of the Miao. So far, the legend of Chi You is widely spread in the Miao folk, they always believe that Chi You is their ancestors.

Guizhou Guanling around the Chi Yu mythological people circulation. It is said that in ancient times, the Miao live in the Yellow River, **** there are "eighty-one" villages. Their leader is Chi You, Chi You for the people in addition to the "drooping ears of the witch", so that the people live in peace and work. Later, the witch three demon babies invited the Red Dragon public, Yellow Dragon public, drowned the Miao soldiers, captured alive to kill Chiyu, burned "eighty-one cottage". The rest of the Miao people were forced to migrate.

Religion:

The Miao have their own religious beliefs for a long time. After a long historical development, the religious beliefs of the Miao in different areas are different. In some Miao areas, due to traffic congestion, Miao people believe in primitive religion; there are also a few Miao areas, such as Weining, Shimenkan and Yuanling in western Hunan, which have converted to Catholicism and Christianity in modern times due to the influence of foreign missionaries. However, as a whole, most of the Miao still believe in the long-established primitive religion, including nature worship, totem worship, ghost worship and ancestor worship.

Nature Worship

The main nature worship objects of the Miao people are the sky, the earth, the sun, the moon, boulders, trees, bamboo, rocks and bridges. In Malipo, Jinping, Yunnan and other places, some Miao people will worship "Mother Earth and Heaven" when the crops are in full bloom, praying for a good harvest. This is a relic of the Miao people's worship of heaven and earth.

Totem System

The ancestors of the Miao have their own totems. As the Miao have many branches and are widely distributed, there are many kinds of totems they worship. Such as phoenix, maple tree, butterfly, devil dog, dragon, bird, eagle, bamboo and so on. The ancestors of the Miao people in Qiandongnan take the maple tree as their totem worship, and believe that their ancestors originated from the maple tree; in addition, they also regard butterflies as their totems, and believe that their ancestors are ancestors

Today, ancestor worship is still very popular among the Miao people. From the earliest veneration of maple butterflies, the Miao of Qiandongnan have come to regard Jiang Yang, the ancestor of mankind, as the ancestor of the Miao. Every drum society has established a "drum cave" dedicated to "Yang Gong" and "Yang Po". Xiangxi Miao worship ancestors are Nuo Nuo and mother. In order to pray for ancestors and the blessing of the gods, there are large-scale activities to kill cattle ancestor activities, such as Qiandongnan, Tongren, Songtao and other places of the ancient social festival known as "eating cattle" or "turn cattle", Qiandongnan, Anshun, Zhenning and other places known as the "cut cattle". In places like Qianxi South, Anshun, and Zhenning, it is called "Cutting the Cow". Xiangxi has "the wish to report Nuo", sacrificing Nuo Nuo male and female. During the festival, the Miao people also held ancestor worship ceremony. In many Miao areas, each family room in the center of the ancestral tablets, usually every day to sacrifice.

Wu Nuo culture

Miao belief in ghosts and gods witch has a long history, after the founding of new China is still very common, belief in ghosts and gods dozens of kinds. They divided the ghosts into good and evil: they believe that the good God can bless people, so they should often give them offerings, while the evil ghosts bring trouble to people, to pray and expulsion. It was believed that to achieve this, witchcraft should be practiced by a sorcerer. The sorcerers are the intermediaries who communicate with the ghosts and spirits. They are highly cultured and respected by the Hmong people. The witchcrafts practiced by sorcerers mainly include divination, divining and invoking spirits.