The origin of the Buyi people?

The Buyi people call themselves "Buyi", "Buyayi", "Buzhong", "Burao" and "Buman", which may be the origin of the ancient "Liao", "Man" and "Zhongjia" The origin of the titles "Barbarian Liao", "Liao Liao" and "Yi Liao". From the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties to the Tang Dynasty, both the Buyi and Zhuang people were called "Li Liao", "Man Liao" or "Yi Liao". After the Five Dynasties, the Buyi people were called "Zhongjia" and the Zhuang people in the Song Dynasty were called "Tong". "Zhong" and "Tong" still have the same pronunciation.

Introduction to the ethnic group

The Buyi ethnic group is one of the ethnic minorities in China. There are currently 2,545,059 people, including more than 2 million in Guizhou Province, accounting for more than 95% of the Buyi population. They mainly live in the two Buyi and Miao Autonomous Prefectures of southern Guizhou and southwest Guizhou, as well as 10 counties (cities) in Guizhou including Duyun, Dushan, Pingtang and Zhenning. The rest live scattered in Yunnan, Sichuan, Guangxi and other provinces (regions).

The Buyi area has beautiful mountains and clear waters, and the natural scenery is colorful. The famous Huangguoshu Waterfall, Guiyang Huaxi, Anshun "Dragon Palace" cave, Panjiang Iron Cable Bridge and other more than a dozen tourist attractions welcome thousands of tourists every year. In addition to tourism resources, it is also rich in wildlife and mineral resources.

Buyi language belongs to the Zhuang-Dai branch of the Zhuang-Dong language family of the Sino-Tibetan language family and does not have its own written language. The Buyi script was created in the 1950s, but it has not been widely promoted. Nowadays, more Chinese scripts are commonly used.

The Buyi people mainly focus on agriculture and have a long history of planting rice. It is known as the "Rice Nation". The Hongshui River Basin is also one of the most important forest areas in China.

National History

The Buyi people are the indigenous residents of the southeastern Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau. They have been working and living here as early as the Stone Age. The Buyi people are related to the ancient "Liao", "Baiyue" and "Baipu". They were called "Southwestern Barbarians" in the history of the Tang Dynasty, "Fan" and "Zhongjia Barbarians" after the Song and Yuan Dynasties, and "Zhongman Barbarians" in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. After the founding of New China, they were collectively known as the Buyi people.

The Buyi people have the same origin as the Zhuang people and are a branch of Baiyue in ancient times. Today, the Buyi people still retain some of the customs and habits of the ancient Yue people, such as living in stilt-style houses and beating bronze drums. Some people also believe that the Yelang Kingdom in the Western Han Dynasty is related to the Buyi people today. Some Buyi people call themselves "Buyi" and "Buyue", and some Buyi people call themselves "Buyi" and "Buman". After the founding of the People's Republic of China, they called themselves "Buyi" according to their own ethnic identity. name.

Since the Song Dynasty, the Buyi people have fought peasant uprisings against the exploitation and oppression of the feudal ruling class in every dynasty. In modern history, they have also fought against foreign churches, Japanese imperialism and the Kuomintang reactionaries. A nation with a glorious revolutionary tradition.

Ethnic diet

The staple food is mostly rice. Folks like to use a special cooking utensil "Zengzi" to steam rice into rice. Buyi people generally like to eat glutinous rice, and often regard it as a staple food to improve their lives or adjust their taste. Cold dishes, "frozen meat with moss", "jelly mixed with peas", etc. are the favorite foods of Buyi people. Sauerkraut and sour soup are essential for almost every meal, especially women. There are also blood tofu, sausages and flavored dishes made from dried and fresh bamboo shoots and various insects.

Most Buyi people are good at making pickles, bacon and tempeh. The unique folk pickle "hydrochloric acid" is famous both at home and abroad. Among the meat dishes, dog meat, dog enema and beef soup pot are the top dishes. When slaughtering pigs, the Buyi people are accustomed to put some salt in the blood basin first, and then stir it with the pig blood. After solidification, add chopped green onion, condiments, and minced meat to the water to make soup, and cook it with the pig blood, which is called "activating blood". The best dish for entertaining guests. The Buyi people in Guizhou like to use scalpers for cooking when they are attending weddings or funerals.

Wine plays an important role in the daily life of the Buyi people. After the autumn harvest every year, every family brews a large amount of rice wine and stores it for drinking all year round. The Buyi people like to entertain guests with wine. No matter how much the guests drink, as long as the guests arrive, wine is served first, which is called "welcome wine". When drinking, use a bowl instead of a cup, and follow the rules of guessing and singing.

The Buyi people have many traditional snacks, especially the Buyi people living in Yunnan, who are good at making rice noodles, bait cubes, pea flour, rice cold cakes, etc.

The Buyi people are generous and hospitable, and their characteristic is that during the Maple Leaf Festival on February 3rd (or March 13th) every year, many Buyi people use various plant pigments such as liquidambar leaves to dye their glutinous rice into colorful colors. , make glutinous rice to entertain guests and distribute to relatives and friends.

Ethnic architecture

Slate houses close to mountains and rivers

The outstanding feature of Buyi people’s residence is that they live together close to mountains and rivers. Most of the residential buildings are stilt-style buildings or half-building (the front half is a building from the front, and the back half is a bungalow from the back) style stone house. Buyi areas such as Zhenning and Anshun in Guizhou are rich in high-quality stones, and there are also large flat stone slabs with basically uniform thickness that can be peeled off layer by layer. This flake stone is derived from sedimentary shale. The local Buyi people adapted to local conditions and used local materials to build slate houses with national characteristics. Stone houses are built with stone strips or blocks for walls, and the walls can be built up to five or six meters high. They are roofed with stone slabs, paved in neat diamond shapes or scaled with materials. The stone houses are not only weatherproof, but also simple and beautiful. The roofs are Take it easy and live peacefully without being depressed. In short, except for the sandalwood rafters, which are made of wood, the rest are all made of stone. Even the tables, benches, stoves, bowls, mills, mills, troughs, jars, basins, etc. used daily in the home are all made of stone. Everything is simple and honest. This kind of house is warm in winter and cool in summer, moisture-proof and fire-proof, but has poor lighting.

In Chengguan Town, where the county seat of Zhenning Buyi and Miao Autonomous County is located, most houses are built of stone, with dozens of three- and four-story stone buildings. Because the stone is light gray and white, it becomes more crystal clear after processing, so when you look at Zhenning during the day, the silver light shines; when you look at Zhenning on a moonlit night, it is covered with frost and snow. For this reason, it has the reputation of "Silver Zhenning" in ancient times and "Silver Zhenning" in popular culture. The stone buildings in this town have a long history of more than 600 years, so they can be called both solidified music and immortal epics.

The Buyi people pay a lot of attention to building houses. First of all, you need to ask Mr. Yin and Yang to look at the "Feng Shui" and choose a place close to mountains and rivers for the homestead. It should not only have green mountains as its back, but also face the green peaks. The best backgrounds are "Crouching Lions Guarding", "Green Dragons Encircling Protection", "Noble Man's Mount" and other mountains; for mountains, choose "Two Dragons Grabbing Treasures", "Double Dragons Playing with Pearls", "Ten Thousand Horses Returning to Their Caches", and "Shou Xing". Gaozhao" and other forms. Fortunately, Buyi areas are mostly limestone mountains, and such green mountains and green ridges are not difficult to find. When building a house, you must choose an auspicious day. One month before the auspicious day, ask a carpenter to scrap materials to make the frame of the house. On the auspicious day for erecting the house frame, worship Master Luban. After the house frame was erected, the father-in-law's family sent large beams with large flowers tied with red silk, and a band and lion dance team fired firecrackers to accompany them. When the beam is laid, singing, dancing, and banquets will be held. The last step is to take the ancestral tablets and the kitchen god (charcoal fire) to the new home. The whole process of building a new house is filled with an atmosphere of joy and mutual help in Buyi villages.

Culture and Art

The culture and art of the Buyi people are colorful. Traditional dances include "Bronze Drum Dance", "Weaving Dance", "Lion Dance", "Sugar Packet Dance", etc. Traditional musical instruments include suona, yueqin, dongxiao, wooden leaf, flute, etc. Earth opera and lantern opera are favorite operas of the Buyi people. The Buyi homespun cloth woven by the farmers themselves has long been famous. In recent years, enterprises specializing in the production of Buyi brocade, batik cloth and ethnic craft clothing have been established one after another, and their products are exported to Southeast Asia, Japan, Europe and the United States.

Batik Technology

The Buyi people’s batik has long been famous. As early as the Song Dynasty, there are records of batik cloth, a specialty of Huishui, Guizhou. The "blue and white cloth" mentioned in the history books of the Qing Dynasty is batik cloth. Buyi girls begin to learn batik techniques from their mothers when they are twelve or thirteen years old. First heat the beeswax to melt it into wax juice, then use a triangular copper wax knife to dip it into the wax juice, carefully draw various beautiful and vivid patterns on the self-woven white cloth, and then put it into an indigo vat to dye it blue or light. Finally, the cloth is put into a pot to boil off the beeswax, then taken out, washed repeatedly in the river, and dried to become a unique batik handicraft.

The batik cloth produced has rich and simple patterns, lively and bold paintings, and unique turtle patterns (also known as small ripples), which have an artistic effect that cannot be replaced by machines.

The batik art in different regions has different styles: some like to use flowers, birds, insects, and fish as batik patterns, with bold compositions and vivid images; some are characterized by rigorous structures and delicate lines; Some are based on dragon's claw flowers and terrestris flowers, with rough and bright colors... Batik art not only beautifies people's lives, but also enriches the clothes of Chinese and foreign women.

In the past 20 years, some batik factories have been built in Guizhou, and specialized art designers have created and drawn new patterns. The images of various characters and animals are richer, and the colors tend to be more diverse.

Batik cloth is mostly used for women’s headscarves, skirts, aprons, quilt covers, door curtains, and curtains. Some of them have a high level of craftsmanship and very novel and exquisite patterns. They are also used as art wall hangings to decorate living rooms, hotels and restaurants. Buyi women also add embroidery to their batik dresses to make them more charming.

In addition to batik, the traditional folk crafts of the Buyi people include tie-dye, brocade, embroidery, wood carving, stone carving, bamboo weaving, etc.

National marriage customs

Marriage among the Buyi people is monogamous. Intermarriage between people of the same clan or surname is strictly prohibited. The customs of "cousin marriage" and the transfer of houses between brothers and sisters are also preserved. Young men and women are free to fall in love before marriage. Unmarried young men and women from all over the world like to take advantage of annual festivals, markets and group gatherings to freely combine three or five people to seven or eight people to talk, laugh and sing, talk or Express each other's feelings. When a man falls in love with a girl, according to tradition, he must find a third party to accompany him. In some cases, his sister-in-law will introduce him. If the woman has this intention, she can meet alone in a quiet place to further sing folk songs and express her feelings until both parties give each other tokens, which shows that they have made a lifelong vow.

When getting engaged, the groom's parents ask a matchmaker to go to the bride's house and give her certain gifts such as wine, meat, and rakes. If the other party agrees, the second matchmaker will use the "horoscopes" of both men and women as "validations" for each other. As long as the "horoscopes" match, the wedding date can be chosen. The amount of betrothal gifts in this area pays special attention to the number of "six" or "even". It is said that the homophony of "six" is the homophony of "lu", which means that both people will be blessed if they get rich after marriage. When getting married, the groom does not welcome the bride, but only invites a few young men and women with whom he likes to greet the bride. The bride usually walks to the groom's house holding an umbrella, but some also ride on horseback or in a sedan chair. The newlyweds live in different rooms on the wedding day and return to their parents' home the next day. The Buyi people in the settlement area still maintain the custom of "not leaving their husband's house" or "sitting at home". Some take two to three years or even five or six years to live in their husband's house. Most of the Buyi people living in mixed areas have abandoned this custom.

Etiquette and Customs

The Buyi people are hospitable, enthusiastic, generous and sincere. Anyone who comes to the village, whether relatives, friends, old friends or strangers, will be treated with wine. Buyi people are very polite and do not welcome guests who are foul-mouthed or rude.

Buyi families all live separately. But even though the brothers are separated, when the property is distributed, the land for their parents' retirement should be left to the brothers, who will take turns cultivating it. After the death of his parents, the pension field was turned into a grave-sweeping field for the purpose of sweeping tombs during the Qingming Festival. Let future generations always remember the sincere entrustment and nurturing grace of their elders.

National Costumes

The Buyi people mostly live in Pingba or in villages near river valleys. Men and women like to wear blue, green, black, white and other colored cloths. Young and middle-aged men usually wear turbans, double-breasted shorts (or long gowns), turbans, and long trousers. Most elderly people wear double-breasted shorts or long gowns. Women's clothing varies from place to place. Some wear right-folded clothes, trousers or pleated skirts, and silver bracelets, earrings, necklaces and other jewelry. Some like to embroider flowers on their clothes, and some like to wrap their heads with white towels.

Buyi girls have the aura of making batik since they were young. Most of the clothes they wear are sewn by themselves, fit well, are simple and elegant.

National Festivals

The traditional festivals of the Buyi people are basically the same as those of the Han people except New Year (Spring Festival), Dragon Boat Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival. They include "February 2nd" and "March 3rd". , "April 8th", "June 6th", "June 24th", "Ox King Festival" and other festivals rich in national characteristics. The most solemn festival is "June 6th" of the lunar calendar. In some places, there are "Yangba Scattering Festival", "Little New Year", "Twenty-ninth of the twelfth lunar month", "Twenty-seventh of the first lunar month" and "March 3rd", and there are also Han festivals.

Most people make glutinous rice or glutinous rice cakes to eat. The elderly drink wine and tell stories, and the young people sing folk songs on the hillside grass.

The "Yangba Scattering Festival" is a unique festival of the Buyi people in Xiliang Township. It is set on the Shen (Monkey) day after the rice planting (Grain Rain) every year. On that day, each family brings rice dumplings, wine and meat, incense, candles and paper money to the fields to offer sacrifices to the "Bodhisattva", praying for good weather, the elimination of pests, and a good harvest.