Legends about the West

In the past, the Yi people worshiped multiple gods, mainly ancestor worship. The shamans of this ethnic group were called Bimo. Because they played an important role in preserving and spreading religion and national culture, they were deified. . In the myths and legends of this tribe, it is mentioned that there were three major changes in the heaven and earth in ancient times: for the first time, because there were six moons and seven suns in the sky, the heavenly official sent Bimo down to earth and swept them away with mulberry branches and iron stem grass. The evil of the universe. The second time a storm raged, and it was Bimo who came down to save the world. The third flood occurred, and the heavenly official sent three Bimo down to earth carrying scriptures. Each of them rode an ox, and the scriptures were tied to the horns of the ox. When passing through the vast ocean, the scriptures were soaked. The scriptures were placed on green leaves to dry, and half of them were torn, so the Yi script was incomplete. Another said it was half-clawed by an eagle. Therefore, the scriptures are regarded as "heavenly books". The "Book of Heaven" mentioned here is the Yi Jing, which is a comprehensive collection of the ancient culture of the Yi people. Among them, the most famous Yi classic book "Southwestern Yi Zhi", the free translation of the original name is "Shadow Shape and Clear and Turbid Qi". The book has more than 370,000 Yi characters and was discovered in the Shuixi area of ​​northwest Guizhou. It is the record that has been seen so far. The most comprehensive book on the ancient history and culture of the Yi people. The book begins with the creation myth of the world.

There are more than 2,400 kinds of Naxi gods, including more than 220 great gods, more than 60 good gods, and more than 60 evil gods. There are more than 90 gods in general, more than 20 goddesses, and more than 120 gods of victory. In addition, there are stories about thunder gods, mountain gods, half-human gods with magic hands, and the deified wizard Dongba. It can be seen that Dongba has preserved a wealth of myths. Some Naxi scholars say that the main body of Dongba literature is mythology, which is composed of illusory colors, imaginative charm, faith and confusion. It creates a mysterious world where humans and gods are interdependent, connected and indistinguishable, and gods are in human form. It is through this colorful world of gods that future generations can glimpse the long-gone ancient society.

The Ewenki people on the northeastern border of our country call themselves "people who live in the mountains and forests" and are good at hunting and reindeer. They still have the remnants of bear totem worship. After they hunt bears, they have a series of worship rituals and taboos. The bear's head, bones, internal organs, etc. are wrapped in birch strips or hay, hung on a tree, and buried in the wind. Then, people offer smoke, kowtow, and make mourning gestures to the bear, which means mourning for the ancestors and seeking the bear totem. Forgiveness.

Why do the Ewenki people regard bears as their ancestors? Their myths and legends explain this: When a hunter went into the mountains to hunt, he was suddenly caught by a female bear. The bear took him into the cave and forced the hunter to marry her. The hunter was forced to live with the female bear in the cave for several years until they gave birth to a little bear. Later, the hunter took the opportunity to escape from the cave. When the mother bear found that the hunter had escaped, she hugged the cub and chased it, tearing the cub in half on the spot, and threw one half to the hunter, and the other half remained with the hunter. The Ewenki people. This is of course absurd. No bear can turn into a human being. This is a reflection of the totem concept of their ancient ancestors. The Oroqen people and the Ewenki people are "originally two close branches of an ancient tribe" ② Therefore, the two ethnic groups circulate the exact same myths about bear ancestors. Oroqen also has a series of complex bear hunting and bear sacrifice rituals. One of the purposes is to prevent the bears they think are spiritual from attacking hunters and sharing bear meat. People take revenge. During the wind burial, a wind burial song is also sung. The content of the lyrics contains the following meaning: It was not we who killed you, but they died when your life span was up. They are called grandfather and uncle, and the female bear is called grandmother③. The myths of the bear ancestors of the Ewenki and Oroqen are relatively simple animal totem myths and are not mixed with other legends of later generations. Such myths are not uncommon among the southwest ethnic minorities. According to the legend of the Nu people, their ancestors were born from the mating of snakes and bees. The Tibetan people say that humans were born after the mating of monkeys and rock monsters. The animals worshiped by the Yi people include tigers, deer, monkeys, buffalo, sheep, rock sheep, pigs, bears, rats, etc. Eagles, roosters, green doves and more. The Qinna Kemu people of Xishuangbanna still retained a complete totem system in a rather primitive form until the early 1980s. The Kemu people do not catch or eat the totem animals they believe in, and even touching them is considered disrespectful.

The totem myth of the Little Sparrow clan says: There is a man guarding the dry valley. When the millet is ripe, all kinds of birds come to eat it. All day long, he knocked on bamboo tubes and shouted loudly to drive away the birds. One day at noon, the weather was sultry, so he used a knife to peel cucumbers and eat them. When he was putting cucumbers into his mouth with the edge of the knife, suddenly a group of millet birds came to eat the millet. He hurriedly roared loudly to drive away the birds. The knife cut open his mouth and he died. From then on, Xiaomique became the surname of the descendants of this family①.

The myths and legends of the Water Splashing Festival of the Dai people are related not only to religious beliefs, but also to the special geographical climate where the Dai people live. People choose to celebrate the festival when the local dry season and net season alternate, which means that people have to enter Busy farming season. At the same time, there are also several different legends circulating among the people. The oldest legend is preserved in the long epic "Bada Maga Peng Shang Luo"①. The compiled Chinese translation of the epic has about 13,000 lines.

The epic preserves the ancient and huge world of the Dai people. Among them, the Calendar God held Ma Yuanran arrogant and rude, and the Heavenly King Maha held him so that he closed his eyes and fell asleep for 100,000 years. Unexpectedly, the seven daughters of this god colluded with the third-level god Pa Yaying.

The seven daughters used bows made from the hair of the seven sisters to cut off their father's head for the sake of Pa Yaying's master, causing great trouble. In order to save Pengma Yuanran, the gods had to go to the forest to cut off the elephant's head and put it on him. From then on, the god became the elephant-headed god.

Seven daughters were driven down to heaven for committing the crime of killing the priest. They took turns holding the god's head to atone for their sins. The seven girls took turns holding her, one held her head, and the other six kept pouring water to prevent it from becoming a fire. You have to keep pouring it until the god no longer spits fire, and then the sins of the Seven Girls can be atone. This is the famous early content of the Water Splashing Festival of the Dai people. With the introduction of Theravada Buddhism into the Dai area from India, the content of the legend of the Water Splashing Festival has changed. This day is said to be the birthday of the Buddha, also known as the "Buddha Bathing Festival". It is said that before Sakyamuni became a Buddha, he took a bath in the river. His spirit was refreshed and his body felt very good, and he finally became fully enlightened and became a Buddha. In order to imitate the Buddha, Buddhists also hope to become a Buddha after bathing, so on this day, Buddhist temples hold a grand ceremony to bathe the Buddha and splash water on each other. Actually it came out late. When modern people celebrate the Water Splashing Festival, they mostly play with each other and bless each other, and it no longer has much religious overtones. Since humans entered the patriarchal clan society, male ancestors have replaced the status of female ancestors. In the fields of production, economy, life, and even religion, men have taken their place. There is only one thing that men can never replace, that is, giving birth to offspring. However, the reproduction of offspring is related to the survival and prosperity of a clan, which is great and sacred. In order to win this last piece of territory, men believe that men, like women, do not need the opposite sex and can also have children. Therefore, there are legends about men giving birth to children in Chinese and foreign mythology, and corresponding customs have arisen. Marco Polo, an Italian traveler from the 13th to 14th centuries, once wrote about his experiences in Yunnan: "People in this place have a strange habit. As soon as a pregnant woman gives birth, she gets up immediately, washes the baby and wraps it, She handed it over to her husband, who immediately sat on the bed and took over her place. Once she took on the responsibility of caring for the baby, she had to take care of the baby for 40 days. Soon after the baby was born, relatives and friends of the family came to see him. Congratulations. Her wife took care of the housework as usual, brought food to her husband's bedside, and breastfed her husband. "This is the customary manifestation of the man's desire to fight for reproductive rights. It can be seen that there was a struggle between the sexes for reproductive rights.

This interesting social phenomenon is vividly reflected in Chinese defense myths and legends. The Gaoshan people explain the birth of human beings this way: A huge boulder split open, and a man stepped out. The sea waves rushed towards the bamboo forest. A big bamboo suddenly split and a man jumped out. The two had similar interests and were inseparable. Their knees rubbed against each other in their sleep. One gave birth to a boy on his right knee, and the other gave birth to a girl on his left knee. This man and woman are the ancestors of the Yami people. The Yamei people are located on Lanyu Island, 70 kilometers southeast of Taiwan Island. According to statistics in 1977, the population was about 2,500. The content of their myth is very ancient. The so-called male god who rubbed his knees to give birth to a child is actually a symbol of two different clans. In other words, the descendants of a clan with a boulder as its main totem and another clan with a big bamboo as its totem practice exogamy. According to physiological characteristics, the union of a man and a woman should produce offspring, and then their offspring will match. Because after entering the patriarchal society, the goddess transformed into a male god, so it became a strange story about the union of two male gods to have children.

Abu Kahehe has gone through many hardships, and although she temporarily defeated her opponent, the evil god Yeli, she still could not change the fate of history. I don’t know how many years passed, but the female god herself gradually transformed into a male god and was renamed Abu Kaunduli. From then on, he was the Lord of the universe and enjoyed human sacrifices. This god already has arbitrary characteristics, resembling the tribal leader in the heroic period.

It seems that the world of gods is indeed a reflection of the human world. It is not easy for a male god to seize the power of a goddess. The battle is thrilling, and the punishment for the defeated is harsh and merciless. Compared with the son killing his mother in ancient Babylonian mythology, and the son killing his father in Greek mythology, it has the same purpose. When people interpreted celestial phenomena, they personified them and created various images. Among them, the sun myth and the moon myth are the most colorful.