Qiang Nationality Year

Qiang Nationality

The Qiang Year is a traditional festival of the Qiang people, also known as the Year of the Youth, which is held on October 1 of the lunar calendar every year. In Maoxian area, there are special regulations for the celebration of the Qiang Dynasty: there were no adults in the whole village who died in the year of the Qiang Dynasty, otherwise they could only celebrate the Spring Festival. The traditional festival of Niuqiang is held on November 1 of the lunar calendar every year, with a one-day festival period. On this day, the cattle should rest and be fed bread and wheat straw. In some places, the sun-moon-shaped steamed buns should be hung on the horns of cattle, and then let them out of the circle and move freely. The owner went to Niuwang Temple to burn incense and paper, and slaughtered one sheep and one chicken to pray for the safety of the farming cattle from the plague.

On June 7, 2008, Mao County, Wenchuan County, Lixian County and Beichuan Qiang Autonomous County of Sichuan Province declared that the Qiang Year was included in the second batch of national intangible cultural heritage list with the approval of the State Council.

Festival History

History of the Qiang Nationality

The Qiang nationality is one of the nationalities with a long history in the family of the Chinese nation. At present, they mainly live in Maoxian, Wenchuan, Lixian and some areas of Songpan in Aba Prefecture, Sichuan Province.

traditional festival

The Qiang year, also known as Xiaonian, is a traditional festival of the Qiang people. It is on the first day of October in the summer calendar every year. During the festival, families get together and each family uses flour to make sacrifices of chickens, sheep and cattle in various shapes to worship their ancestors, and then distributes mutton to each family. Then invite relatives and friends to come home and drink the "smash wine" made by ourselves while drinking and singing. He also danced "Guozhuang Dance", "Lanshou Dance", "Pigu Encouragement" and held "Push Pole" competitions.

In Maoxian area, there are special regulations for the celebration of the Qiang Dynasty: there were no adults in the whole village who died in the year of the Qiang Dynasty, otherwise they could only celebrate the Spring Festival. Niu Wang Hui Qiang traditional festival. It's a one-day holiday. On this day, the cattle should rest and be fed bread and wheat straw. In some places, the sun-moon-shaped steamed buns should be hung on the horns of cattle, and then let them out of the circle and move freely. The owner went to Niuwang Temple to burn incense and paper, and slaughtered one sheep and one chicken. He prayed that the cattle would be safe from the plague.

Major activities

The Festival is held on the first day of October of the lunar calendar every year, usually for 3-5 days. Some villages will celebrate until the tenth day of October. According to folk customs, when the Qiang Dynasty passes, they also wish to worship God, to worship the gods of heaven, mountain gods and landowners (Zhai Shen). The whole village will have a reunion dinner, drink freely, and dance Sharon until they have a good time. The whole ceremony was presided over by Xu, and the drinking ceremony was opened by the respected elders of Zhai Zhongde. During the festival, relatives and friends can congratulate each other and greet each other.

The foothills of Fanjing Mountain

On the first day of October in the lunar calendar, Qiang people in Qiang villages and Lacquer Tree Ping in Jiangkou County ushered in their grand festival of celebrating the Qiang Year. On that day, families in the whole village pasted couplets, slaughtered pigs and sheep, and celebrated the New Year with songs and dances.

Lacquer Tree Ping Qiang Village, Taoying Township, Jiangkou County, located in the eastern part of Fanjing County, is situated on a high mountain with an elevation of more than 900 meters. There are more than 280 people in the whole Qiang Village. It is the only village inhabited by the Qiang people in our province, and it still retains the customs and customs of this nationality.

In the morning, the reporter and the Propaganda Department of Jiangkou County Committee drove along the winding Panshan Highway to the Qiangzhai Village of Lacquer Tree Ping. Some families were busy pasting couplets, some were killing pigs and sheep, and some young men and women were dancing and singing folk songs. The sound of firecrackers rose and fell one after another. The whole village was completely immersed in the grand atmosphere of the New Year.

Radish Village

When the drum of Qiang Mountain in the radish village is still ringing in Yanmen Grand Canyon, and Shibi's solemn expression is absent in people's eyes, we can't help asking: How many intangible cultural heritages still exist in ancient Qiang?

Opening up history by hand, people will naturally not forget the common sense of "Dongyi, Beidi, Nanman, Xiqiang". Even the Chronicle of the Six Kingdoms called Yu Xing in the Western Qiang Dynasty. "Wu Yue Spring and Autumn Period, King Yue Wuyue's Biography" also says: "Tan married a daughter of the Shen family, named"Female Play", young and fruitless, playing in the mountains, meaning that people feel, so pregnant, threatened and high birth density. Home in Xiqiang, terrestrial said Shi Nyu, also in Xichuan, Shu.

The saying of "Yu Sheng Xiqiang" can be widely confirmed from some ancient books and folklores. Mr. Zhang Taiyan, a close friend, has studied Yu Sheng-shi-nu, Qiang and Jiang, and known Qiang as Jiang's surname. "Guoyu Jinyu" said: "The Yellow Emperor is made of Ji Shuicheng, the Yan Emperor is made of Jiang Shuicheng, which is different from others. Therefore, the Yellow Emperor is the Ji and the Yan Emperor is the Jiang." "Jiang's surname comes from Xiqiang, while non-Xiqiang comes from Jiang's surname." Mr. Gu Jiegang said in his article "The Relations between Yu and Sichuan": "The Xia Nationality originated in Northwest China and originated in the upper reaches of the Yellow River and Minjiang River. Therefore, the relics of the Xia Nationality in the upper reaches of the Yellow River and Minjiang River."

Scholars have a strong interest in the origin and history of the ancient Qiang and China, while people living in the area of the ancient Qiang remain in fragmented folklore about the culture and history of the ancient Qiang.

Xu Shen's "Shuowen Sheep Department" explains Qiang: "Qiang, Xirong shepherd also. From man, from sheep; sheep speak as well." The ancient Qiang people lived by herding sheep, and sheep became the earliest totem worship of the Qiang people. But precisely because this worship occupies a dominant position, people naturally forget another important historical fact. Is "Niu" a totem worship of the Qiang people? Although "cattle" can not be linked with the ancient Qiang people from the philological point of view, an important folk custom tells us from the side that "cattle" was domesticated by the Qiang people long ago and became an important symbol of the emergence of farming civilization in the ancient Qiang. The ancestors of the Qiang nationality sacrificed totems and ancestors, including the contents of offering sacrifices to the ox king, on the first New Year's Day in October of the lunar calendar. Therefore, the New Year Festival is also called Niu Wang Festival (the birthday of Niu Wang Bodhisattva). Every year on this day, every household feeds cattle with several liters of noodles, makes buns of highland barley noodles and hangs them in a string on the horns. They also hang red on the horns, polish them with lard or butter, and then catch up with the mountains and let them play freely.

It can be seen that the ancient Qiang people are no worse than sheep in respecting and worshipping cattle. So, is this folk custom telling people that "cattle" is also the totem worship of the Qiang nationality in the annual events of the Qiang calendar?

The records of ancient Qiang in ancient books have far-reaching historical value for the study of ancient Qiang, and many folklores circulated in ancient Qiang area can prove some historical facts in the records. This will undoubtedly bring some enlightenment to the strategy of "cultural Yangzhou" of "building Tibetan and Qiang cultural corridor" in the process of building the first state of Tibetan region in China. How to further tap and develop the Qiang culture, constantly enrich and deepen the characteristics of the "Tibetan and Qiang Cultural Corridor" and innovate the working ideas of "Yangzhou Culture" deserves the consideration of everyone who pays attention to the Qiang culture.

Entering the Qiang family to celebrate the Qiang year, the turnip village celebrates the Qiang year on November 10. On the first day of October of the lunar calendar, the villagers of the turnip village hold the annual mountain worship activities according to the traditional customs. The mountain worship activities begin with the melodious sound. Old Shibi Wang Mingjie led the elders and villagers in the village to blow Suona and carry sacrificial goats from the village. He walked around the village and then arrived at Linpan Mountain after the village. He led the people around the God tree and danced sheepskin, drummed and chanted Shibi Song Sutras, offered sacrifices to mountain gods, tree gods and village gods, and expressed their spiritual religious beliefs and thanks to Wugu Fengdeng. To reach their wishes for peace, peace and auspiciousness in the coming year.

At night, the villagers gathered by the campfire, roasting sheep, singing folk songs, dancing Sharon, and then gathered for a reunion dinner, drinking and singing.

Qiang New Year

The Qiang calendar year is also known as the Qiang New Year Festival. The Qiang language is called "Japan, America and Auspiciousness", which means auspicious and happy festivals. It is also an annual national traditional festival for the Qiang people to celebrate a bumper harvest and talk about reunion. Its connotation is similar to the Spring Festival in the Han Dynasty and the Tibetan festivals in the past years.

After the transition from nomadic people to farming people, according to the iron plate of the October calendar of the ancient Qiang Sun and the "Shibi" of the Qiang people, the first day of September in the Qiang calendar (that is, the beginning of October in the lunar calendar) is calculated as the Qiang calendar year, and this day is the most solemn and favorite day of the Qiang people. A festival to celebrate.

From spring planting to autumn harvest, farmers who had worked hard for a year entered the fallow season, and cattle who had worked hard for a year gained temporary freedom and were put on the mountain. It is a very happy thing that the grain is in the warehouse and the pigs and sheep are in the pen. The migrant workers rush home one after another, so people begin to sing and dance and celebrate the harvest.

As the Qiang people practise spiritual worship and polytheism, they not only connect their destiny with the land, but also place their hopes on the heaven. They hope that God will protect the Qiang people. Every year, they will have good weather and good health. Therefore, every year during the Qiang calendar year, they will hold the "Sacrifice to Heaven and Return to Wish". Ceremony. At the same time, the Qiang people formed special feelings with the cattle during their long-term productive labor. The Qiang people believed that the harvest of grain could not be separated from the help of Lord Niu, so the custom of "Niu Wang Hui" still exists in some areas.

Strictly speaking, "Mountain Festival" is a kind of behavior to express the good wishes of the Qiang people (called "vows" by the people), while the Qiang calendar year is a way of expressing the good feelings of the Qiang people (called "vows" by the people). Therefore, sacrifice to the mountains will be "Spring Prayer" and "Autumn Remuneration" in the Qiang calendar year. It belongs to agricultural activities, which not only reflects the light of the traditional culture of the ancient Qiang nationality, but also shows the profound connotation of the Qiang folk culture.

Primitive Wedding

At 4 or 5 o'clock in the morning, the morning table opens. The whole process is full of strong human feelings. Because of the cold temperature, the villagers at the same table said that their food and wine were specially used to drive away the cold. They could not help shaking their frozen hands and drinking with the villagers the earliest wine they had ever drunk in their lives. Sure enough, the wine drove the cold severely, and it made the alpine night less cold. In the city people's view, their life is not rich, or even a little poor, but the simplicity of life does not affect the happy generation of married people in the dress, we are ready to start, married to the man's home, the day of good worship is counted out, so at about 6 o'clock, we are ready.

In the fierce sound of firecrackers, the speech bell of the courtesan, the whisper, the bride was carried by her brother to the sedan chair, then a dark, all the way, all the way blowing, all the way to set off firecrackers. Married people must be in the front, followed by the Suona team, guests, then the sedan chair, dowry, accompanying the team. Knowledgeable politicians go all the way, shout all the way, shoot all the way. Anyway, they will shoot all the way across the bridge. All marriages are red.

In addition to traditional clothes and daily necessities, the bride's dowry also adds a big red bedspread, refrigerator, etc. Sisters who send their relatives also fall in love with the fashion of lipstick and eyebrow painting.

From the point of view of the clothes of sending relatives and villagers, the national characteristics of Qiang men have been erased completely by modern civilization, and their national clothes have been replaced by suits, sportswear and tourist shoes. However, women "stick to tradition" and they inherit the personality and beauty of the Qiang people. First, the groom will hold a ceremony of thanking the ancestors and hanging red. With the voice of the guests, the ceremony will be completed step by step. Then the worship Hall of the bride and groom will be held. It is said that the more red the groom wears, the more good luck he has.

In this way, the bride was picked up by the groom in the sound of Suona and firecrackers and started a new life. Then the bride-in-law is introduced to Huating. It is very important and indispensable to hold a church-worship ceremony. Every ceremony must be completed by them. The guests invited by the man and the woman are their own. Then the church is called, and what they do is to worship heaven and earth first. Then Kitchen King, followed by parents and good guests. Anyway, somebody will take a mat in another direction, and the bride and groom will turn around, always turning all four directions.

Finally, there is a solemn unveiling ceremony. Before worship, the bride is allowed to wear any jewelry. You have to worship the church before you can take it with you.

Before the bride arrives, she must first set off firecrackers, and then know what the politicians say. Then her uncle kills chickens, paints them with chicken blood at the door, and then sets them at the door with a knife handle. As soon as the bride is carried into the house and the lid is opened, she is attacked and bombed by a group of relatives and friends. Then the bride and groom are sent into the cave to wash their faces and wear jewelry.

Dance The Qiang people will celebrate the Qiang New Year until the tenth day of October of the lunar calendar. During this period, the Qiang people's families begin to kill pigs, so they can eat blood steamed buns. The most important traditional festival of the Qiang people is the Qiang New Year. The time is the first day of October in the lunar calendar. Stop working and go out during the festival. At home, flour is used to make various kinds of sacrifices for calves, lambs and chickens to worship ancestors and gods. In some places, Duangong danced to the divine forest, killing sheep and scattering blood in front of the altar to worship the god, and the mutton was distributed to the families to bring back, then the family and invited relatives and friends to drink homemade wine, singing wine songs, dancing pot farm dance, to celebrate the harvest.

The Qiang people are a people who can sing and dance well. Men, women, old and young mostly sing their own national folk songs, whether in labor production, marriage or funeral, they must sing and dance. And festivals are the best time to sing and dance. Therefore, during the holidays, the Qiang people have to sing and dance to their heart's content. Wine song is a traditional form of singing in the couplet of "drinking" in New Year's Day. When singing, the host and the guest sit side by side, singing in turn, the rhythm is slow and the melody is beautiful, the voice is high, the dragging tone is tactful, with elegant and simple graceful style. The lyrics are long, expressing auspiciousness, expressing gratitude and congratulations, or narrating family history and recalling ancestors'achievements. Festival singing is often accompanied by dancing. The forms include "Tiaoguozhuang", "Tiaojia", "Leather Encouragement" and so on, and "Tiaoguozhuang" is the most popular. When dancing, when singing and falling, men and women change positions with each other, resulting in a festive atmosphere of warmth and joy. About half a minute later, one hour later, two minutes later.

At most dozens of men and women participated, accompanied by singing and drinking, often singing and dancing. The main instrument accompanied by singing and dancing is the Qiang flute. This is an ancient six-step double-pipe clarinet. In addition, there are gongs, bells, suonas, sheepskin drums, huqin, harmonica and other instruments. These instruments can play, play and play national tunes with unique style, which makes the festival people extremely happy.

Inheritance value

A Centralized Display of Qiang Culture

The Qiang nationality is one of the oldest nationalities in our country, and it is known as a nation with root-seeking cultural value. Qiang culture has a great influence on Tibetan-Burmese culture, which is an important part of Chinese culture. In 2009, the Qiang Year Project declared by China entered the first batch of "List of intangible cultural heritage urgently in need of protection".

"Harmony of Heaven and Man" is the most advocated concept of the Qiang people. This respect and worship for the sun, moon, mountains, natural things, local areas and ancestors is vividly reflected in the ceremony of the Qiang Year.

The Qiang Year, held on the first day of October of the lunar calendar every year, is a comprehensive folk activity that integrates sacrifice, singing, dancing, skill performance, knowledge imparting, costume and banquet. Under the careful guidance of Shibi, the organizer of the Qiang Year Event, villagers dressed in festival costumes held solemn mountain worship ceremonies, killing sheep and sacrificing gods. Then, under the leadership of Shibi, the villagers will dance skin drums and Salang dances. During the activity, Shibi sang the traditional epic of the Qiang nationality, while people sang, drank and enjoyed themselves. As a social activity, the Qiang Year has the supreme appeal and cohesion for every child of the Qiang nationality.

Current Situation of Folklore

There are fewer and fewer people celebrating the New Year of the Qiang calendar. There are only 20 villages that can hold the ceremony of the Qiang calendar.

A great earthquake in 2008 has greatly destroyed the Qiang people's living space and made the world focus on the cultural essence of this ancient nation again. According to the researchers of Sichuan Music and Dance Research Institute, who are responsible for the specific declaration work, the endangered situation of Qiang culture had been highlighted before the earthquake. Qiang people have migrated many times in their history, merged with Han people and other nationalities more frequently, and accepted modern civilization earlier. Its residential area is located in the upper reaches of Minjiang River and Jiuzhaigou tourist ring line. The information is more fluent. Many young people go out to work. Their interest in traditional Qiang culture is weakening. In addition to the impact of foreign culture, fewer and fewer people celebrate the Qiang New Year. Nowadays, the number of villages that can hold the Qiang Year activities in a complete way in accordance with the traditional way has decreased from more than 100 to more than 20. The number of people participating in mountain sacrifices and collective celebrations has declined sharply, with only 100,000 people in general. 5.12 Wenchuan Earthquake seriously damaged the natural and human environment of Qiang Nian activities: many people died in the main cultural inheritors; the social space and cultural sites on which they relied, such as sacrificial sites such as Shenshan, altars, villages, towers, etc., were severely damaged; the implements related to Qiang Nian, such as statues, costumes, performing utensils, etc., were seriously damaged; and the Qiang Nian collected by successors and researchers for many years. Data and archives were largely lost in the earthquake.

Project protection

Implementing subsidies for representative successors, building seminars and museums

In order to find out the survival status of Qiang's activities after the earthquake and establish complete data archives, the cultural departments of the communities concerned in Qiang's activities carried out on-the-spot investigation and left behind image data, and carried out census, registration and registration of the main inheritors of Qiang's years. On this basis, the national financial allocation of 400,000 yuan, Sichuan Institute of Music and Dance is responsible for the completion of the "Qiang Year Event Heritage Records" database construction.

Since 2009, the state finance has subsidized 20 representative inheritors of the Qiang Dynasty recognized and nominated by the Chinese and Sichuan Provincial Committee of Experts on the Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage each year, so as to ensure their basic livelihood and concentrate on the inheritance of the Qiang Dynasty. In order to provide material guarantee for the inheritance of the Qiang Dynasty, the local governments and cultural departments of the communities concerned with the activities of the Qiang Dynasty organize some personnel who have mastered the traditional construction skills of the Qiang people to reinforce and repair the original places of worship of the Qiang Dynasty damaged by the earthquake. The places of worship of the Qiang Dynasty to be repaired should be identified by the representative inheritors of the Qiang Dynasty, and please explain that they should restore their original appearance in a more traditional way. The cultural inheritors who have mastered the production process of traditional Qiang Year activities make a number of activities.

According to the plan, Wenchuan will be in Weizhou, Mianxiao, Yanmen, Longxi, Keku, Caopo, Lixian will be in Puxi, Taoping, Xuecheng, Maoxian will be in the towns of Heihu, Qugu, Sanlong, Dixi, Fengyi, etc. in their respective jurisdictions, and Beichuan will set up Qiangnian Cultural Customs Institute and Museum in the new County town. The inheritance mechanism will be formulated and perfected by the cultural departments of the communities concerned with the Qiang Year activities, and training courses will be organized and held regularly, with Shibi and representative inheritors as the imparters. People of all ages of the Qiang people will be widely absorbed to learn, and live exhibitions will be held regularly in the Qiang Year Cultural Museum to build a platform for people to know and understand the cultural heritage of the Qiang Year at any time.