Pumi Nationality

The word Pumi is a phonetic translation of Pumi. It originally means "white", which is a national self-claim. Pumi people in different places also call themselves "puyingmi", for example, Pumi people in Lanping, Lijiang and Yongsheng call themselves "puyingmi"; The Pumi people in Ninglang call themselves "purimi" or "PEIMI". In the Pumi language, "Mi" means people. "Pei", "Puying" and "Puri" mean "white". Therefore, Pumi means "white". Pumi people call themselves "white", which is related to their ancient advocating of white and symbolizing auspiciousness with white.

Other nationalities have different names for the Pumi nationality. For example, the Tibetan and Naxi call it "Ba" or "Bo", the Yi call it "wozhu", and the Lisu call it "liupa". It is called "Baju" or "Xifan" in Chinese historical documents. In his name of the Pumi nationality, the word "Xifan" has appeared in the Jin Dynasty. In the early Jin Dynasty, Zhang Hua's book of natural history, Volume 3, strange animals, contains: "on the mountains in central and southern Sichuan, there are macaques, seven feet long, capable of walking and walking,... Xipan tribes are often afraid of it." it can be seen that Xipan tribes were active near Shu county at that time. Since the Tang Dynasty, the name Xifan has also been used to call Tubo, or Tubo is another name of Xifan. "Xifan" and "Tubo" are recorded separately in the general examination of documents of the Song Dynasty. The Xipan recorded in the literature includes several self claiming ethnic groups with similar ethnic origins and languages, of which the Pumi nationality is only one with a large number of people. In addition to the Pumi nationality, it also includes a part of the Tibetan nationality.

In October 1960, the State Council officially named the Pumi nationality according to the wishes of the people of the nation.

From the Chinese historical records, national legends and Ethnological data, the Pumi nationality originates from the Diqiang group, an ancient nomadic nationality in China.

According to historical documents, the Pumi nationality, formerly known as "Xipan", originated from the ancient Diqiang group. The ancestors of the Pumi nationality originally lived in the south of Gansu Province and the east of Qinghai Province. Later, they entered the east of the Qinghai Tibet Plateau and gradually went down the Yangtze River along the Jinsha River and Yalong River. Before the 7th century AD, they had been distributed in Yuexi, Mianning, Hanyuan, Jiulong and Shimian in today's Sichuan. They were one of the main nationalities in Xichang at that time. The "White Wolf" Qiang is one of the Qiang who moved to the south. The "White Wolf" calls itself "Brown". It is called "Zuo" in ancient Chinese books. It was fixed as Xifan after the song and Ming Dynasties. The tribal alliance led by the "White Wolf" tribe is the basis for the formation of the Pumi nationality. The national legend can confirm the origin of Pumi nationality from another level. According to the legend of the Pumi nationality, their ancestors originally lived in the Qinghai Tibet Plateau. They first lived in the snow covered "bengmuliwa" in the Kunlun Mountains. They were nomads along the borders of Qinghai, Gansu and Sichuan. Later, they gradually migrated from the plateau along the Hengduan Mountains to the warm and lush areas, and moved south to the Dadu River west of Qionglai mountain in Sichuan. The old Pumi, who is now familiar with history, always likes to sing "Gongga ridge song" during festivals to express his respect for his ancestors and his remembrance of his hometown. In the "Kailu Sutra" read during funeral, Pumi people often regard Batang, Litang and Gongga Mountain in Sichuan as the residence of their ancestors and the home of their souls. The soul sending route of Yongning Tuozhi Xipan in Ninglang county passes through Sichuan in the northwest and has been sent to the birthplace of ancestors in the north. The soul sending route of Ninglang xinyingpan is from south to north, around Lugu Lake, and through Sichuan to Qinghai.

During the Tang and Song Dynasties, there were many records about "Xifan" in historical books. According to the history of the Song Dynasty, people at that time "such as Xifan seeking a good horse to center the city", which shows that the Pumi nationality had close contacts with the Han nationality and other nationalities in the Song Dynasty. The Yuan Dynasty was an important period for the formation of the Pumi nationality. The yuan army recruited a large number of "Xipan" to fight in Yunnan. After the extinction of the Yuan Dynasty, the "Xipan" departments left in Northwest Yunnan were the main components of today's Pumi nationality. Since the 13th century, the Pumi have successively moved to Ninglang, Lijiang, Weixi and Lanping to settle down. After the Pumi moved to Yunnan, they ended their nomadic life, mainly engaged in farming, animal husbandry, hunting and handicraft production. During the Ming Dynasty, Pumi people were appointed as chieftains. Later, they were gradually replaced by Naxi chieftains, and Pumi people became the subordinates of Naxi chieftains.

The Pumi nationality originated from the ancient Diqiang, which can also be proved from the perspective of Ethnology and linguistics. The ancient Qiang people had the custom of advocating Bai and cremated, as did the Pumi people. During the Eastern Han Dynasty, white wolf and other tribes presented the White Wolf song to the king of Han Dynasty, which is the oldest Qiang language record handed down. In recent years, scholars have found that the 34 words in the White Wolf song are exactly the same as or only slightly different from the Pumi language. Linguistic studies have proved that the Pumi nationality is the descendant of the ancient white wolf country.

Clan organization is the traditional social organization of Pumi nationality. It is mainly manifested in two aspects: one is to organize religious activities with the clan as the unit; Second, in the funeral activities, the existing clan organizations are closely linked with the birthplace of their ancestors, and the souls of the dead are returned to the birthplace of their clan ancestors. Each village is composed of several clans. Each clan has a common Mountain God, tree god and Longtan God. They should hold common sacrificial activities. There are common cemeteries, forests, wastelands and pastures in the clan for the use of members of the clan. Under the control of clan concept, all members of society should participate in major activities collectively. After the founding of new China, after peaceful consultation and democratic reform, the public property of the clan has been collectively owned, and the clan ownership has disappeared, but the clan public cemetery is still preserved.

In 1949, the Chinese people's Liberation Army successively liberated Lijiang, Lanping, Ninglang and other counties. Since then, the Pumi nationality has gained new life and entered a new era of socialism. Under the leadership of the party, the Pumi region carried out anti bandit, anti hegemony, land reform and other movements, completely overthrew the feudal ruling class, allocated land and livestock, the majority of the Pumi people were masters of the country, glowed with great labor enthusiasm, the living standard has been preliminarily improved, and an unprecedented new situation has emerged in the Pumi region.

In order to ensure the equal status of the Pumi nationality in politics and enable the Pumi people to enjoy the right of national autonomy, the state has established a national township in the Pumi area since 1954, and officially approved the establishment of Lanping Bai Pumi Autonomous County in November 1987. The party and government also attach great importance to the training and use of Pumi cadres, and a number of Pumi cadres have continued to grow in the struggle practice of political power construction and consolidation. In the mid-1950s, some of these cadres either grew up as main leading cadres in Pumi areas or were elected as deputies to the National People's Congress.

Agriculture

planting

Pumi people are mainly engaged in agriculture. More than 90% of the cultivated land is mountainous and there are few paddy fields. They are basically in a self-sufficient natural economy. Its production technology is roughly similar to that of the neighboring Han, Naxi and Lisu nationalities. It has generally entered the ploughing stage, and only a few areas still have the slash and burn farming method. Iron tools such as plough, share, axe, knife, rake and sickle are widely used in production, which are mainly transported from Han areas. Crops mainly include corn, wheat, broad beans, barley, oats, highland barley, buckwheat, etc. because the growth of crops largely depends on nature, the output is very low. "A slope in spring and a basket in autumn" is a portrayal of this backward situation. Land use and management methods are mainly divided into rotation and intercropping. Rotation is the continuous replacement of crop varieties in the same field to make full use of and adjust soil fertility; Intercropping, also known as interplanting, is to plant one or several crops in the same land every year to improve land use efficiency. Pay attention to the use of fertilizer. The commonly used fertilizers include green manure, stable manure, grass ash fertilizer, etc. The agricultural labor of Pumi nationality takes individual families as the unit, and men, women, old and young have a natural division of labor of gender and age. During the busy farming season, there is a primitive custom of changing jobs among the masses. They help each other and benefit each other without compensation.

In terms of land system, before the founding of new China, the Pumi in Lanping, Lijiang and other places were in the stage of landlord economic development, and the Pumi in Ninglang and other places were in the stage of feudal lord economy. The economic development of the Pumi nationality is uneven, and most of the land is occupied by chieftains and landlords. In Lanping and other places, landlords and rich peasants occupy about three-quarters of the arable land. For example, in Yangshan village, the third district of Lanping County, there are 34 households, including 3 landlords. Each household covers an average area of 150 mu, accounting for nearly half of the land of the whole village. The 18 poor farm labourers occupy only a small part of the land or no land at all. In Ninglang Area, the Ming Dynasty set up Yongning local magistrate, which is an area ruled by Naxi chieftains, with strong remnants of Lord economy. In addition to the exploitation and oppression of the national landlords, the Pumi people also bear all kinds of labor and pay numerous exorbitant taxes to the hereditary landlords and managers of the Naxi nationality. Due to class differentiation, the pawn and sale of cultivated land are very common, especially the purchase of paddy fields from foreign farmers by Pumi landlords in the river valley.

Aquaculture

The Pumi nationality used to be a nomadic nationality, which is good at raising and grazing. Therefore, animal husbandry plays an important role in the production and life of the Pumi nationality. Animal husbandry mainly raises cattle, horses, mules, sheep, pigs, chickens, dogs, etc. There are two kinds of cattle: yellow cattle and buffalo. Yellow cattle are used not only for servitude, but also for food and sacrifice. Buffalo is only used for cultivated land. Horses, mules, etc. are used for riding and transporting goods by camel. In addition to food, cattle and sheep are also used for sacrifice.

Gathering and hunting are also an integral part of the social and economic life of the Pumi nationality. Collecting fire grass is an ancient traditional activity. It is to make clothes and collect raw materials for people. Every year, every family should send people up the mountain to collect them for one to several months during the hemp spinning season. Hunting is organized in groups of three or five people, mostly during the slack season. Before the founding of new China, under the control of the chieftain, hunting had to pay mountain tax. Each village has a strict mountain boundary, which can not be crossed arbitrarily. The animal head, front legs, leopard skin, musk and other top-grade products in the hunt must be dedicated to the chieftain, and the rest shall be divided equally by the hunters.

handicraft industry

The handicraft industry of Pumi nationality is mainly the processing of agricultural and sideline products, including textile, leather, iron manufacturing, wine making, oil pressing, bamboo weaving, etc. The wooden lacquer bowl in Ninglang Area is well-known for its exquisite workmanship. Before the founding of new China, there were no ironworkers of their own nation, only carpenters made simple production tools. Textile is made of hemp, sheep hair and yak hair on a wood loom. "Sulima" wine is a unique traditional famous wine of Pumi nationality.

business

Pumi people live mostly in mountainous areas with underdeveloped transportation. There is no regular market, and there are few commodity exchange activities. Generally, foreign businessmen enter the mountainous areas with daily necessities, go from village to village, and carry out exchange door to door. These merchants brought iron tools, cotton cloth, salt and tea in exchange for Pumi pig fat or grain. Later, seasonal horse racing and business activities gradually emerged among the Pumi nationality, ranging from Muli, Xikang Ganzi and other places in Sichuan in the north to Lijiang and Dali in the south. Commodity exchange was barter at first, and then money was used as the medium, resulting in unequal exploitation.

faith

The religious beliefs of the Pumi people are mainly primitive religions, and a few Pumi people also believe in Taoism or Tibetan Buddhism. "Dingba religion" is the main form of primitive religion of Pumi nationality. Pumi wizards used to be called "dingba", so their primitive religion was called "dingba religion". However, later, "dingba" was renamed "Han GUI" or "Shibi", and "dingba religion" was also renamed "Han GUI religion". "D" refers to land and "Ba" refers to religion on Pumi land. The highest god of "dingba religion" is "badinglamu", which means "mother tiger god on Pumi land". She is the embodiment of "white forehead tiger" and the ancestor of the matriarchal clan worshipped by Pumi people. "Badinglamu goddess" It is a natural stone statue, located in a cave on the hillside of cizi mountain, Wujiao District, Muli County. Pumi people think she is an omnipotent goddess. People go to worship her in groups to pray for the blessing of Ding Ping'an and everything will be all right. "Han GUI" can only be held by some Pumi surnames and has a high social status because they hold the divine power. "Han GUI" Each Pumi family has a fixed "Han GUI" and each "Han GUI" has its own believers. When believers want to engage in religious activities, they can only ask their own "Han GUI" to preside over them. Han GUI must be familiar with the genealogy and soul sending route of believers, so as to serve as a bridge for believers to connect with God.

Other primitive religious beliefs are mainly manifested in nature worship, ancestor worship and polytheistic belief. The main religious activities include offering sacrifices to mountain gods, Longtan gods, kitchen gods and ancestors. In the concept of Pumi nationality, all disasters and changes in nature, human and animal life and death and pain are considered to be the work of gods. Therefore, whenever such things happen, wizards should be invited to kill animals, sacrifice and chant scriptures Pray for disaster relief and peace.

Sacrificing mountain gods is one of the most solemn sacrificial activities of the Pumi nationality. Each village and clan has a public mountain god, and each family has its own mountain god tree. The sacrificial ceremony is divided into public sacrificial mountain god ceremonies of the whole village or clan collective and private sacrificial mountain god ceremonies of each family. The public sacrificial Mountain God is held once a year, and it needs a cow or sheep to sacrifice. During the sacrificial ceremony, the personnel of the whole village or clan go The main contents of the ceremony are chanting scriptures, praying and offering sacrifices presided over by wizards. The performance ceremony of "shooting mountain ghosts" will also be held in Ninglang and other places. Some places will sleep in the God forest that night, drink and sing, and return the next day.

Offering sacrifices to the God of Longtan is also one of the most solemn sacrificial activities of the Pumi nationality. Longtan is a mountain spring water. Sacrifices are also divided into public offerings and private offerings. In addition to chanting scriptures and other ceremonies, collective activities are also held in the evening. People light bonfires, listen to the old people talk and sing the ancient songs of the Pumi nationality, drink and eat meat, dance and sing, which has become an activity integrating religion and folk entertainment.

Offering sacrifices to the kitchen god is a daily ritual of offering sacrifices to the ancestors of the Pumi family. The representatives of the ancestors are "Optimus Prime" in the center of the main house and the iron tripod in the fire pond, as well as the "zangbala" enshrined behind the fire pond God is the object of sacrifice together. Before eating every day, put a little food on the tripod of the fire pond and sprinkle a few drops of tea to show respect to the ancestors. In case of family life events such as festivals, marriage and child naming, all people should salute to Tibetan Bala, tripod and fire pond sacrifice.

The religious classics of the Pumi nationality mainly include the guiding Sutra for guiding the soul to return to the sect, the soul summoning song for curing diseases and expelling evil spirits, the three legged song for sacrifice, the Balla song for sacrifice to Tibet, the mountain god song, the Dragon God song, etc. most of the classics take singing as the carrier and are passed down orally in ritual activities.

language

Pumi language belongs to the Qiang branch of the Tibetan Burmese language family of the Sino Tibetan language family. Pumi language can be divided into southern and Northern languages. The Pumi language in Muli, Yanyuan and other areas of Sichuan province belongs to the northern dialect, and the Pumi language in Ninglang, Lanping, Lijiang and Weixi areas of Yunnan province belongs to the southern dialect. There are great differences between dialects and it is difficult to talk. There are also differences in vocabulary and pronunciation in a dialect area.

The use of Pumi language can be divided into three types: one is the pure use of Pumi language area, including four administrative villages of Qinghua, Yushi, Sanjie and Dayang in Hexi Township, Lanping County and Wenquan Township and Cuiyi Township, Yongning District, Ninglang county. The Pumi people here are proficient in their own language. One is mainly Chinese or other national languages, supplemented by their own national languages. Another is that Tibetans use Pumi language, mainly in some areas of Muli and Yanyuan counties in Sichuan. Pumi language was once the main communication language here. The Pumi people live in a multi-ethnic environment, and most of the men are fluent in the languages of Yi, Bai, Naxi, Han and other nationalities. Nowadays, the younger generation mostly uses Chinese as the language of daily communication.

The Pumi people do not have their own language. In history, the Pumi people in Muli and Ninglang used a simple picture character. In addition, the Pumi people here also use a text spelled with Tibetan letters to spell the original religious classics of Pumi pronunciation, which are used to record their own historical legends, poetry stories, etc., but mainly witches ("Han GUI") are used for religious activities, which some scholars call "Han GUI Wen" classics. Since modern times, Chinese has been widely used in Pumi areas.

Architecture

Except for a few Chinese style tile roofed buildings, most of the houses of the Pumi people are plank house and wall structure buildings or wooden ridge buildings.

"Wooden ridge house" is a pure wood structure, with wooden plate covering the top, and the four walls are overlapped and stacked with wood. It is also called "wooden barrier" locally. Each house is surrounded by a courtyard. The main house facing the gate is rectangular or square, with four corner columns and a square column in the center. It is called "Optimus Prime", which is considered to be the place where the gods are located. The wing room and the gatehouse are two floors, with people living on the upper floor and livestock or sundries stacked on the lower floor. There is a fire pond (Guozhuang) in the main room, and there are berths on the left and right of the fire pond. Usually, the family board and lodging, discussion and hospitality by the fire pond in the main room are the center of family activities. Guozhuang used to refer to the three stones of an iron pot in a fire pond, but later most of them changed to an iron tripod. The tripod can be handed down from generation to generation. It is a valuable utensil in the family. The larger it is, the richer the family becomes. Guozhuang in modern times refers to a stone with religious color in front of xiahuotang. People need to offer it from time to time to pray for the safety of people and animals and the bumper harvest of grain. There are no windows in the room. Two skateboards are lifted from the roof during the day for daylighting and ventilation. Skulls of cattle, sheep and wild animals are hung outside the gate to ward off evil spirits and wish livestock prosperity. Hanging pig bones in the room symbolizes wealth, and hanging pig urine bubbles is considered to have the effect of fire prevention. Married children who have not separated live in side rooms. There is no fire pond in the room. After having children, another residence will be built.

diet

The Pumi people eat corn as their staple food and rice, wheat, highland barley, etc. There are few kinds of vegetables, including green vegetables, radishes, eggplants, melons, etc. The traditional diet includes stone baking Baba, lamb stomach cooking meat and barrel cooking. Zanba noodles is a traditional food of Pumi nationality. The method is to fry the food, pound it into Zanba noodles in a hand or foot pestle, and wash it with cold or boiled water. When drinking tea, it can be used as snacks. When going out to work, hunt and travel, it can be carried with you. Pasta can be baked or boiled. All kinds of grain can be processed into powder. Common foods include baked Baba, baked thin flour cake, boiled noodles, etc.

The Pumi people like meat, mainly pigs, sheep, cattle and chicken, most of which are pork. Pork has fresh meat, pig fat meat and bacon. It likes to cook into lump meat. When entertaining, if it is a feast, cattle, sheep or pigs and chickens should be slaughtered in front of the guests to show their sincere hospitality. When the guest leaves, the host will give a piece of pig fat meat, which is called "scattered members".

Pig fat meat is a special way for Pumi people and Mosuo people to process whole pigs, that is, after the pigs are slaughtered, the bones and viscera are removed, the salted meat is made with salt and pepper, and then the pig skin is sewn up to become pig fat. Because it looks like pipa, it is also called "Pipa meat". Cut it off in circles when eating. The amount of pig fat can often reflect the wealth of a family. Ordinary families make one or twenty pig fat every year. It can be stored for several years. Some rich families store 20 or 30 pig fat. Pig fat is a superior gift given by Pumi people. The Pumi people also make their own bacon and sausage, and the preparation method is roughly the same as that of the Han nationality.

Since the Ming and Qing Dynasties, with the continuous introduction of Han dietary culture, the dietary customs of Pumi nationality have changed greatly. For example, every family in Lanping, Wei Xi and Lijiang will brew their own Baijiu, and cooking technology has also been greatly improved. When rich people treat guests to red and white wedding events, they will cook four dishes and eight bowls of dishes. Tables and stools are made by Bai craftsmen, and kitchenware is mainly purchased. After the founding of new China, the dietary culture and customs of the Pumi nationality have been basically the same as those of the neighboring Bai, Naxi, Lisu and other nationalities. The dietary cooking customs and Chinese dishes of the Han nationality are the main ones.

Pumi people have a taste for tea. At least three teas a day: morning tea, noon tea and dinner tea. Some people also drink tea before going to bed, called evening tea. Generally, a small tea pot is used to put tea into it and boil it into strong tea. It tastes strong and bitter. Pumi people also like to drink butter tea. The production method is to put a piece of butter or lard in the tea bucket, add a small amount of salt and melon seed kernel, pour the boiled water into the bucket, and stir it in the bucket with a tea stick until the oil and water are integrated, and then drink it.

Wine is also a favorite drink of Pumi people, including Shaojiu and Shuijiu. Water wine is similar to beer. Men, women, old and young love to drink it. It is also an essential thing for hospitality. There is a local saying that "no words without wine". During weddings, funerals and gatherings, the ox horn cup is used to hold water and wine, which is called ox horn wine. The host takes it as a decent thing to get the guests drunk.

Clothes & Accessories

According to the historical records of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, in the history of the Pumi nationality, men braided braids, wore Tibetan hats, knives, felt, earrings, sleeves on their left hand and barefoot. Women wear thin braids on their shoulders, much jewelry, skirts and bare feet; The clothing of the Pumi nationality is more traditional in Ninglang Area. Generally, before the age of 13, regardless of gender, they wear a right placket linen long shirt, men don't wear pants and women don't wear skirts. The girl left a braid in front of her hair and tied red and green beads. The boy left a braid on the front and left and right of his head without wearing beads; The clothing of adult men is roughly the same everywhere, mainly wearing linen short clothes. Wear wide trousers. The outer cover is a long sweater and an embroidered belt made of wool. Rich people wear long clothes. Wrap your legs with cloth or felt below the knee, wear a knife at the waist, barefoot, or wear straw sandals in summer and rough cow leather shoes in winter; Old men grow long hair and wrap it around the top with silk thread. Or shave your head, leave a pinch of hair on your head and wrap it around the top. The head is wrapped in a handkerchief or wearing a felt hat. Recently, bowler hats are popular, and some are decorated with gold edges. Women's clothing is the most colorful. Pumi women in Ninglang and Yongsheng have long hair and braids

Thick for the United States, outsourcing black cloth big Baotou. The coat has narrow sleeves and high collar, wears a large skirt and a pleated skirt. In the spring and Autumn period, the jacket is sewn with corduroy, and the collar and hem are inlaid with gold and silver edges. It is called "Phnom Penh clothes", which is the most luxurious clothes for women. She likes to tie her waist with wool ribbons, wear sheepskin on her back, wear silver chains on her chest, and wear bracelets, rings, necklaces, earrings, jade pendants and beaded headwear. The women's clothing of Pumi in Lanping is deeply influenced by the local Bai nationality. They generally wear linen or wool skirts. The front of unmarried women's headdress is pasted with multi-layer embroidered lace square scarves. Silk thread is mixed in the braid, tied up the cloth handkerchief from left to right, and wear a black melon skin hat. Some wear two braids on their heads. Before marriage, they wrap their heads with double-layer sky blue cloth with thorns, and there is a red head rope tied outside. Use black cloth to wrap your head after marriage. A few women who pay attention to decoration weave their hair braids into 12 strands, decorated with 12 pairs of red and white beads, silver rings on their ears, coral and agate beads on their necks, wear "three whiskers" or "five whiskers" silver chains on their chest, and wear fancy shoes or homemade pig leather shoes on festivals and weddings.

After the founding of new China, the Pumi nationality, together with other nationalities, was more influenced by the clothing culture of the Han nationality, and the clothing tended to be simple. Women's headwear generally only use flower handkerchiefs, wear large skirts and long clothes with necklines, lapels and cuffs, wear red, black and green collared coats, wear black or white square waistbands with color borders, and wear some simple ornaments. In addition to ceremonies and festivals, most men everywhere wear Han clothes. With the deepening of reform and opening up, the younger generation of Pumi nationality has more accepted some Western clothing culture. Suits or jeans have become people's daily clothes.

family

The family and marriage of Pumi nationality have experienced the development process from matrilineal system to patriarchy, from group marriage to monogamy. Before the founding of new China, patriarchal families and monogamous marriages were established in most areas of the Pumi nationality. Large families prevail in Ninglang and Yongsheng areas, most of which are paternal families, and most of them are small families in other areas. Only the Pumi people living in four or five villages in Yongning area of Ninglang County near Lugu Lake, under the influence of the local Naxi people, implement walking marriage and matrilineal system.

The parents of paternal families are not arbitrary. Male parents not only preside over daily affairs, but also major issues are discussed and decided by the whole family. The parents are the father and elder brother, who are respected by the whole family.

At present, the patriarchal areas of the Pumi nationality are mostly small families. The average population of each household is 4-5. The family is inherited by men, and women are people with different surnames. Older men are parents. Under the leadership of parents, family members implement a division of labor according to gender and age. The family property is inherited by male lineal relatives. The family property is divided equally among the sons, the young son is the owner of the house, and the parents leave a pension industry to live with the young son.

The uncle power in the Pumi family is very prominent. Uncle's right is the same as that of his parents. Every year, his nephew will go to his uncle's house to pay New Year's greetings. His nephew and children will also go to see his uncle after they wear pants and skirts at the age of 13. His uncle will give clothes, accessories and even large livestock. Uncle has the right to intervene in the marriage of nieces and children, especially nieces. Uncle's family has the priority to marry. After the death of a married woman, she must first report the funeral to her uncle's house. Her uncle comes to hang in white felt, and her son-in-law must bow to flattery. The matrilineal family of Pumi nationality only exists in several villages where walking marriage is implemented, and is composed of descendants of the same ancestor. Brothers and sisters belong to the same family. If they do not live separately, their children still belong to the same family. As it is a walking marriage, the spouses of male and female members of the family are not included in the matrilineal family, and their spouses live in their respective mother's homes. The children born to sisters are the heirs of the family, while the children born to brothers and their bets are not members of the family. Everyone has his own mother and family, while his biological father is an "outsider". The parent of a matrilineal family is usually the mother or eldest sister. She is the core of the family and is respected by the whole family. Under the matrilineal system, the children born to a betrothal marriage belong only to the mother. According to traditional customs, men have no obligation to raise their children, but have the responsibility to raise their nephew and children. Under the matrilineal system, children do not belong to the mother, but to the mother's whole family. They are the heirs of the family and will support all the elders in the future. The uncle regarded his nephew and children as his own flesh and blood.

The direct relatives of the Pumi nationality are exactly the same as those of the Han and Bai nationalities. The difference is that the appellation distinction between collateral relatives and aunt relatives is not obvious enough. For example, among collateral relatives, the names of uncle and grandfather, uncle and grandmother, sister and sister-in-law are the same, and among aunts and cousins, uncle and uncle, aunt and cousin are the same. To some extent, these appellations reflect the marriage system of clan marriage and aunt aunt priority marriage in the history of Pumi nationality.

literature

The Pumi nationality has created many imaginative, beautiful and gorgeous folk literature works, including a large number of myths and legends, and the times are also older. Such as "the flood rises to the sky", "the creation of the earth", "the story of catching red deer" and "gadami", are myths and legends about the creation of the earth, the origin of mankind and national migration. The characteristics of its myths and legends are that after the flood, human beings either rely on brother and sister marriage to reproduce, or in the form of human fairy matching. The origin of giving sheep, the story of the dog Savior and the origin of hunting are stories that explain the origin of some important customs of the Pumi nationality. For example, the origin of giving sheep's son explains the origin of the most solemn "giving sheep's son" ceremony in the Pumi funeral culture: it is said that the two brothers (also known as nephews or father and son) went to a distant place to learn scriptures, went to wild mountains at night, and the young hid in Tussah leaves that spread day and night for the night. The elderly held a sword to protect themselves, which was eaten by mosquitoes and lice as big as turtledoves. The young tried every means to make the elderly rest, and finally sacrificed sheep to achieve their goal.

Pumi folk poetry is well-known for its broad genre, diverse tunes, rich flavor of life and broad mass base. It is a real unity of poetry and song. His poems can be divided into custom songs, folk songs, bitter love songs and happy songs. Among them, custom songs are poems sung during relevant custom activities. Most of them retain the traditional style of Pumi music. When singing, they have specific environment, form and content, including history songs, marriage songs, funeral songs, social sacrifice songs and Life songs. Historical songs include creation song and ethnic origin song. The tunes are narrative and mostly sung by the elderly alone; Folk song is a lyric song sung in the scenes of mountain grazing, labor and walking. It has the forms of solo and duet between men and women. The lyrics are mostly improvised, and the content mostly reflects love life, natural scenery and labor production. Among them, the number of love songs is the largest, such as grazing cattle song and horse Gang song; Bitter love songs mainly sing solo, or sing the hardships of labor, or the difficulties of parents raising children, or the loneliness of married women, or the pain of lovers' birth and separation. The emotional combination of Ci and Qu is compact, and it often makes people cry when singing to the emotional place; Happy songs are short songs that express happy emotions. Most of the content is to praise the scenery of the hometown and yearn for a better life. For example, gongjialing song is an ode to the hometown.

Since the reform and opening up, especially the implementation of the western development, a large number of national writers and poets have emerged in the Pumi nationality, including the poem ah, Lugu Lake and the large-scale music and dance epic mother river.

education

The Pumi people attach great importance to the education of children. The education of young children includes labor education, customary law education and moral education.

Paying attention to children's education is a fine tradition of every Pumi family and the whole village community. Holding adult etiquette for teenagers is an important social education. When children reach the age of 13, an adult ceremony will be held on New Year's Eve. At that time, the children who join the society will be reunited according to their gender and have fun all night. When the rooster announces the dawn, he returns home immediately to participate in the traditional Adulthood Ceremony. For a boy, his uncle takes him to the front left of the fire pond, steps on the grain bag and pig fat with his feet, holds a sharp knife in his right hand and silver dollars in his left hand, symbolizing courage and wealth. After the wizard's sacrifice, his uncle changed into short clothes and trousers and tied a belt. If it is a girl, her mother will take her to the right front of the fire pond, step on pig fat and food, hold linen thread, earrings and other accessories in her left and right hands, and her mother will change her linen coat and white pleated skirt. After changing clothes, kowtow to the kitchen god and elders, and give cattle, sheep and ornaments to relatives and friends to express their blessings. After the bar mitzvah, young men and girls become full members of the family, have the right to participate in social networking, and some begin to participate in major production labor.

At the beginning of the founding of new China, the party and the state opened a number of primary schools in Pumi areas. In the 1970s, almost every Pumi village set up primary schools and joint high schools.

music

In case of marriage, funeral and festival, the Pumi people will hold a "Duel" competition. The lyrics include labor production, marriage, funeral, religion and other themes, such as "song of sacrificing the mountain god", "Elegy", "welcoming song", "four seasons song", "welcoming song", "Horse Driving song", "sheep herding song", "spinning song", etc. Most of them are narrative songs, with short tunes. They mainly focus on the love life of young men and women, and express the love of both sides through duet singing.

Pumi people also like to sing Naxi, Bai and Han folk songs. The singing of songs has a broad mass base, with specific environment, form and content. The accompanying instruments include flute, hulusheng, four string piano, harmonica, harmonica, suona, etc.

dance

Pumi dance has a wide variety and rich content. There are both self entertaining and communicative dances, such as rub duel and hulusheng dance; There are also simulated and ceremonial dances, such as "Fuwa duel"; There are also sacrificial and funeral dances that worship heroes, nature and ancestral gods, such as waking Eagle duel, zhaixi duel, etc.

The dance mainly reflects the life of farming, hunting, textile and other production labor, accompanied by hulusheng, flute and so on. The dance steps are vigorous and lively, with beautiful and vivid tunes. Tiaoguozhuang is a traditional dance form of Pumi nationality. It is usually held in the courtyard or on the dam in the evening. When dancing, we always light a fire in the middle, which is similar to the indoor Guozhuang, so it is called tiaogozhuang.

In addition, the common dances are "Chu bad" (i.e. "Da Tiao"), "Chu and", "handkerchief pull", "Xi Ma dance", etc., which are mostly collective dances. When dancing, both men and women, old and young, join the dance ranks and get together happily. They often dance tirelessly late into the night.

festival

The Pumi have their own festivals. It is mainly the Spring Festival, the 15th National Day, winding the cave, turning the mountain, tasting the new festival, etc. in some places, there are also festivals such as Qingming Festival and Dragon Boat Festival.

The Chinese New Year is the most solemn festival of the Pumi nationality, usually from three days to half a month. In Ninglang, the beginning of the year is the seventh day of the twelfth lunar month, while Lanping and Weixi celebrate the Spring Festival in the first month. Lanping has the custom of killing new year pigs for a feast. No matter how many guests come, they always give each person a fire roasted elbow meat and a bowl of bone soup to show the meaning of "kinship as flesh and blood" and "Brotherhood". On the evening of the 30th of the twelfth lunar month, male parents will worship the "door god" and "Guozhuang", and then the whole family will gather around the Huotang to have a reunion dinner. On the morning of the first day of the lunar new year, each family offered offerings to Guozhuang and Longtan. The prayers mentioned the names of the dead ancestors of all families in the same clan, their three generations of ancestors and all famous mountains and rivers to welcome the new year and pray for a bumper harvest. On New Year's Eve, the Pumi people in Ninglang first set off three guns, blew conch and offered pig heads at Guozhuang. The next day, he went to the roof to worship the head of the room and took new water. If there are boys and girls over the age of 13 at home, a grand ceremony of "wearing pants" and "wearing skirts" should be held. During the Spring Festival, people of the same clan of the Pumi nationality invited to collectively go up the mountain to graze and have dinner together. Each family brought rich dishes. Young men and women should hold horse racing, target shooting, racing, wrestling and other recreational activities.

The 15th National Day is a festival celebrated by the Pumi people in Ninglang. The time is on the 14th of the twelfth lunar month. At that time, people wear bright new clothes, go camping in the mountains and hold a bonfire party. The next day, they prayed around the "mani pile", and young men and women sang, danced and talked about love.

The Pumi nationality in Yongning area of Ninglang will hold the activity of "circling the cave" on the Dragon Boat Festival, burn incense in the cave to ward off evil spirits and pray for more children and grandchildren. On the Zhongyuan Festival, I went to the "zhuanshishan meeting" to sacrifice the goddess of "dry wood". This festival is not only a religious festival, but also a festival for young men and women to socialize and entertain. During the Spring Festival harvest, every family makes wine to make new rice. Sometimes, the rice balls in the first meal of new rice are given to the dog to show their respect for the dog.

marriage

The marriage of Pumi nationality is dominated by monogamy. Before the founding of new China, the Pumi nationality practiced clan exogamy. The choice of spouse is decided by parents, and it is popular for uncle to marry first. The age of marriage is earlier. The woman is 15 years old and the man is over 18 years old, or they get married after the initiation ceremony at the age of 13. The two sides of Pumi intermarriage have the custom of continuing marriage for three generations, which is called "Pro three generations". Finger belly marriage and childhood engagement are more common. The non uncle marriage of Pumi nationality in various places generally goes through several steps, such as proposing marriage, respecting Guozhuang, choosing a date, and going to a wedding. After selecting the object, the man explains his intention to the woman's house. If the woman's family agrees, the man's parents ask the matchmaker to bring a gift to the woman's house. The woman summoned the family elders to meet with the man. The woman opened the engagement wine brought by the man and offered it to the Guozhuang to honor the elders. After drinking, the marriage was determined. After the engagement, the two sides exchanged gifts through negotiation, small gifts and festivals, and the families of the two sides had close contacts. The man proposes to the woman's house in the year when he is scheduled to be married. After the other party agrees, he usually chooses a good day to hold the wedding in the winter leisure bimonthly.

In the area of Lanping and Weixi, the "duet" is popular on the wedding day. When the man's wedding team arrived, the woman still closed the door, so the matchmaker sang a happy song to tell that the marriage between the two sides was in line with the will of heaven. When the woman heard what she liked, she opened the door to welcome in and accepted the gifts and gift money - "open the door money". Welcome relatives to kowtow when they see the woman, old and young, and thank them for betrothing the bride to the groom. At dawn the next day, the bride was dressed up, carried out by the bride's brother, put on the horse's back, and drank "out of the village wine". At the bridegroom's house, the welcoming family sang the "open door tune", and the bride was helped into the bridal chamber by two middle-aged women. Then, a new couple paid homage, the man set a banquet, sang ancient songs and danced Guozhuang all night.

After the grand wedding, the bride should start the life of "not leaving her husband's house". The time when the bride does not leave her husband's house in Lanping area is usually several years, while in Ninglang Area, it ranges from several years to ten or twenty years. It is often not until the bride is pregnant that she really lives in the man's house. It can be seen that although Pumi women are engaged and married earlier, they often go to their husband's house very late. Generally, after the age of 25, a few do not sit at home until the age of 30 or 40. During this period, the man will marry the bride four times and hold four wedding ceremonies. According to the old habit, a girl should at least go back and forth after marriage and try to escape back to her mother's house. If you sit in your husband's house after one welcome and two welcome, it will be considered a disgraceful thing.

The Pumi nationality in Ninglang Area still retains the ancient custom of "marriage snatching". To the agreed date of marriage

The woman will hide the bride in his house, and her relatives and friends are ready to plunder the man's relatives. When relatives arrived, the woman rushed up and robbed all the gifts she carried. The man could not resist and redeemed the gifts with tea afterwards. On the wedding day, the bride's parents still let her go out to work without notifying her in advance, and the man sent someone to forcibly abduct her home. When the bride arrives at the man's house, the "Han GUI" will hold a decontamination ceremony for her in order to drive away the dead of the woman who follows the bride and make her belong to the new family from now on. On this day, the man will have a big banquet for guests to celebrate. The Pumi cannot divorce after marriage. If her husband dies, the woman is generally transferred from her husband's family to her brother-in-law. If there is no transfer object, it will be transferred within the family. If there is no object within the family, it will be decided by the mother-in-law's family. After recruiting a son-in-law or leaving his children, he will remarry to outsiders, and the remarriage bride price will be accepted by the mother-in-law's family.

After the founding of new China, the old marriage system of the Pumi nationality has changed. Young men and women have embarked on the road of freedom of marriage, the phenomenon of arranged marriage by parents is less, the concept of equal marriage has been broken, and the phenomenon of "not leaving the husband's house" has disappeared. The scope of intermarriage among young people has also expanded from their own nation to other Han, Bai, Tibetan, Naxi, Lisu and other nationalities, and the traditional marriage customs have changed greatly.

funeral

The funeral of the Pumi nationality is very grand. The traditional burial custom is cremation, and some can also be buried in earth. Cremation is practiced in Ninglang Area, mainly in Lanping area close to Bai nationality, and there are both kinds of burial customs in Weixi County. According to the traditional custom, close relatives should be notified to visit when people are critically ill. When people die, they should fire guns and inform all families in the village. After hearing the funeral, the villagers go to mourn with rice balls, pig fat and other items. After a person dies, wash the body and bind the body into a flexion sitting position. The reason for binding corpses is to restore the deceased to the original state of birth, so as to facilitate the regeneration of adults. The time of cremation is decided by the wizard. Each village has a crematorium.

On the eve of the funeral, move the body into a painted square coffin, park it by the fire pond of the main house, and hold the ceremony of "chanting scriptures and sending souls to the sheep". "Give the sheep" is the most solemn ceremony in the burial ceremony of the Pumi nationality. The Pumi language is called "Shi bulongbi" or "Ren Ken", which means "send the dead to the ancestral source". It is said that after people die, the dead need a white sheep to guide them back to their ancestral origin, so this is the case. The ceremony of "giving the sheep" is presided over by a wizard. During sacrifice, wine and fried noodles are sprinkled into the sheep's ears. If the sheep shakes its head, it means that the dead are happy and the whole family is lucky. Then filial men and women knelt down and invited the sheep to drink in turn, and relatives kowtowed to the sheep and said goodbye. Then a specially assigned person killed the sheep to take the heart. After the sheep's heart was offered, the wizard sang the guide to the road to guide the dead to return to their ancestors along the migration route of their ancestors. Hundreds of people participated in the "giving sheep" ceremony. People had a collective banquet called eating Pai wine. Meanwhile, the old people will sing all the ancient songs since the founding of the world, one of which is called the story of oak tree, which tells the cause of sheep. We should also sing the song of life rules to educate young people.

At the funeral, four people carried the coffin to the crematorium, split the coffin with an axe, and the body fell into the framed wood pile. The relatives and friends who were buried could return. The family members knelt down and cried bitterly to say goodbye to the dead. The wizard reads the cremation Sutra to comfort the dead. The next day, the children of the deceased went to the crematorium to pick up 13 bones and put them into the small mouth bulging urn. The mouth was not covered and a small space was left at the bottom, which means the passage for the soul of the deceased. The urn of the same clan is concentrated in a cemetery, commonly known as can mountain. The urn is arranged in chronological order, with the elders at the top and the younger at the bottom, male left and female right.

Cao Xinhua

It is the first famous singer of Pumi nationality at home and abroad in history and a first-class actor of Yunnan song and dance troupe. In the spring of 1975, Cao Xinhua was selected from the literary team of Ninglang Yi Autonomous County to Yunnan song and dance troupe and went to Shanghai Conservatory of music for further study. He successively participated in the performances of China Art Festival, Shanghai Art Festival, Yunnan Art Festival and Asian Games Art Festival, and sang songs such as "friends from afar, please sit on the Pumi flower bed", The life image of the Pumi people was reproduced on the stage. Cao Xinhua has also performed in Myanmar, Thailand, Singapore and other countries, which has been welcomed by the people of all countries. There has also been a piece of Oriental rosy clouds, which shows the dress art of 55 ethnic minorities in China, and was named "top soloist" by the Ministry of culture of the people's Republic of China and the Department of culture of Yunnan Province. He won awards in ethnic minority youth song Grand Prix, the first Yangtze River Song Festival folk song competition, the first national Strait Tongle excellent folk song Grand Prix and other events.

Yang Zhaohui

Pumi scholars. He graduated from the Department of Chinese literature of Yunnan University for Nationalities in 1975. He knows Pumi, Bai, Susu and Nama languages. He also has a certain understanding of Naxi, Tibetan and Yi languages. He is now a researcher of the Institute of minority literature of Yunnan Academy of Social Sciences and a member of China Folk Writers and Artists Association, Yunnan Folk Writers and artists branch, Yunnan ethnic society, Yunnan religious society and Yunnan ethics society. Yang Zhaohui is the first senior scholar in the field of Ethnology in the history of the Pumi nationality. Since 1980, he has scientifically studied the similarities and differences between the Pumi nationality and other related nationalities in history and culture, as well as the interaction between them. He has successively published and published a large number of academic monographs and papers, It fills the gap in the Pumi nationality's Monographs in the fields of literature, religion, history, folk custom, language and so on.

Ruodiki

Ruo Diji, a Pumi nationality with a Chinese name of Cao Wenbin, is one of the famous contemporary young poets of ethnic minorities. He was born in Cuiyu Township, Ninglang County on December 3, 1967. CPC member, university culture. He has written poetry anthologies "I once belonged to the primitive boundlessness", "selected Lyric Poems of ruodiki", "there is no cleaner water than tears", etc. He has published works in people's literature, poetry journal, national literature, everyone, star poetry journal, writer, poetry anthology, poetry tide, Shanghai literature, Furong and other journals. His works have been selected in the Yearbook of Chinese New Poetry 1999, the Yearbook of Chinese New Poetry 2000, the selected works of Chinese poetry 2004, etc. Some of the works have been translated into foreign languages. His works won the second prize in the "Southern cloud" poetry competition of Yunnan daily in November 1990; In November 1997, he won the fifth national Horse Award for ethnic minority creation; In October 1999, he won the Third Frontier Literature Award; In December 2000, he won the third Yunnan literature and Art Creation Award; In September 2001, he won the fifth Frontier Literature Award; In August 2002, he was awarded the "top ten cultural people in Xiaoliangshan" by Ninglang county Party committee and government; In September 2002, he won the 7th National Horse Award for ethnic minority literary creation; In December 2004, he won the excellent work award of people's literature and the first place in the work promotion list of literature and art daily; In February 2005, he was nominated for the 2004 poet award of the third Chinese literature and Media Award; In March 2005, he won the highest honor award and the second prize of single work of the first Lijiang literary and Artistic Creation Award; In December 2005, he won the 7th Yunnan Daily literature award; The anthology of poems "there is no water cleaner than tears" is a nominated work for the fifth Lu Xun Literature Award.