Tujia is one of the ethnic minorities in China. Mainly distributed in Hunan, Hubei, Sichuan and Guizhou adjoining the Wuling Mountain area. That is, Yongshun, Longshan, Baojing, Sangzhi, Guzhang and other counties in the western part of Hunan Province; Laifeng, Hefeng, Xianfeng, Xuan'en, Lichuan, Enshi, Badong, Jianshi, Wufeng, Changyang and other cities and counties in the western part of Hubei Province; Youyang, Xiuoshan, Qianjiang, Shizhu, Pengshui and other counties in Sichuan Province. According to the fifth national census in 2000, the population of the Tujia ethnic group was 8028,133. The Tujia language is an independent language in the Tibeto-Burman group of the Sino-Tibetan language family. There is no national script, and the Chinese language is commonly used. There is no written language, and Chinese is commonly spoken. The vast majority of the people now speak Chinese; along the Youshui (originating in Hefeng, Hubei, and injected into Yuanshui, Hunan) basin, about 200,000 people still speak Tujia, and some speak Chinese as well.
The Tujia are known by many names in history. During the Qin and Han Dynasties, they were known as the "granary species" for their worship of the White Tiger, or as the "plate lintel barbarians" for their use of weaponry, or as the "Sai" for their call for "Fu". They were called the "Cherries"; they belonged to one kind of "Barbarians of Ba County" and "Barbarians of Wuling". After that, they were called "Xi Barbarians", "Louzhong Barbarians", "Bajian Barbarians", "Xinzhou Barbarians", "Yangzhou Barbarians", and "Sai Barbarians". "Xinzhou Barbarians", "Yang Barbarians", etc. During the Song Dynasty, there was a group of barbarians distinct from the Wuzhong Barbarians. Song Dynasty, appeared in the Wuling area, different from other ethnic groups and specializing in the Tujia "soil people", "soil barbarians", "soil soldiers" and other names. Later, with the large number of Han Chinese moving in, "Tujia" as a clan name began to appear.
The origin of the Tujia family is currently discussed in different ways. One says that after the Qin destroyed Ba, settled in Hunan, Hubei, Sichuan and Guizhou side of the Ba people; the second says that according to Xiangxi Longshan, Luxi, Dayong and other counties and cities unearthed neolithic cultural sites and the Tujia language place names, that the Tujia is mainly from the indigenous people of western Hunan, and the entry of the Ba people, the Han people into the fusion of the third says that according to the record of "Fuxixi State Copper Pillar", and the Tujia and the Yi language and Tujia and some of the customs of the Yi people of Yunnan are similar to the same phenomenon, that from the middle of the Tang Dynasty, the Uyguru and the Yi people of the same. It is believed to have originated from the Wu barbarians in the middle of the Tang Dynasty.
After the Tai extermination of the Ba, living in the Wuling territory of the Ba people, to fire plowing and water hoeing, fishing and hunting mountain logging for the industry, flourish. Their chiefs rely on their same species or caste blood relations to rule and maintain internal relations. The end of the Western Han Dynasty, "Wuling Yi" Tian Jiang rose up against Wang Mang usurped power. Later on, the "Zuoyang Barbarians", "Chu Lui Zhong Barbarians", "Wu Barbarians" and "Li Zhong Barbarians" all rose up against the oppression. During the Three Kingdoms period, Shu Han and Sun Wu fought for a long time over the Kui, Xia and Wuling areas, and the Tujia became an important target of their mutual competition. The long-term competition between Shu and Wu made it difficult for the people of Wuling area to live in peace. After the north and south dynasty and Sui dynasty, Wuling area forces developed rapidly, often in their own side, the central control is loose, war is frequent, social unrest. Since the beginning of Tang Dynasty, the central government has adopted tie-up system, appointed the local chiefs to be subordinate to the state and county officials to govern their land, and permitted them to inherit from generation to generation, so that the Tujia people become more and more stable, and the economic and cultural exchanges with the Han Chinese people have been strengthened day by day. Tujia people in the fight against foreign invasion, support the Red Army Long March. The struggle against the Kuomintang reactionaries made significant contributions and sacrifices.
Socio-Economic
The Tujia people are an earlier ethnic group engaged in farming. Due to their own low production technology, backward production tools and low output, the Tujia learned advanced production technology from the Han and introduced advanced production tools, thus raising the productivity level of the Tujia and accelerating social and economic progress. During the Tang and Song Dynasties, due to the tie-up prefectures and counties system, the society was more stable and the economic and cultural exchanges between the Tujia and Han were getting closer and closer, which promoted the development of production. However, they were still in the stage of slash-and-burn cultivation without practicing ox plowing, and they also engaged in fishing and hunting. Dominant feudal lords, in addition to enslavement of the people, but also from time to time to drive the "soil soldiers" to the neighboring Han captive population, property. Yuan to the Qing dynasty during the Kangxi period, the establishment of the land division system. The rule of the Tujia objectively had made the activities of the Tujia more stable geographical area, the national characteristics can be maintained. But then the landlord economy began to appear. The Yongzheng years, "land reclassification", the feudal lord economy disintegrated, the landlord economy developed rapidly. The ban of "barbarians do not go out of the country and Han Chinese do not go to the cave" was broken when the Tusi, a large number of Han Chinese farmers and merchants moved in, bringing advanced production tools and production technology, which led to the rapid development of agriculture, handicrafts and commerce. However, after the Opium War, capitalist commodities and opium were sold to the Tujia area in large quantities at the end of the Xianfeng period, and traditional craft products such as cloth, indigo and batik gradually lost their sales and suffered a heavy blow. Imperialists cheap mass acquisition of tung oil, tea, timber, medicinal herbs and other local specialties, stimulating the development of tung, tea plantation and oil, wood and bamboo processing industry, town business and market trade is becoming more and more prosperous. The guild organization began to appear. After the Xinhai Revolution, the Tujia region, frequent military disasters, the rural economy into bankruptcy, commercial stagnation, people do not want to live, until the eve of liberation, the Tujia region's economy is still very backward.
After the liberation, the Party and the State formulated and implemented the ethnic policy. The Tujia people were designated as a single ethnic group. And in 1957, the Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture was established, and in 1983, the Exi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture was established, as well as the establishment of the five autonomous counties of Youyang, Xiushan, Shizhu, Qianjiang, and Pengshui in 1983 and 1984. The Tujia people realized their right to be masters. With the support and help of the Party and the government, the Tujia people in the Wuling Mountains region have basically solved the problem of subsistence and are moving towards the road of poverty alleviation and prosperity.
Culture and Art
After a long history of development, the Tujia people have formed a colorful culture and unique customs. Folktales such as "Zhang Ancient System of Heaven and Earth", "Fighting Tiger in Meishan" and "Flooding to Heaven" have been handed down to the present day. Poetry is rich in content and varied in form, with the long narrative poem "Mianji" being the most famous. There are many varieties of folk music. Vocal music includes labor horns, mountain songs and sacred songs. Instrumental music includes percussion and wind instruments. The percussion music is called "Tujia Symphony" by the music industry, usually played by four instruments, with strong rhythm, fast melody and changing sound, which makes people fall in love with it. It is also the "title music", and there are fixed names such as "Barking Bathing", "Magpies and Plums", "Train Entering the Mountain", "Horses Crossing the Bridge", "Cow Scrubbing Itch" and so on, and there are more than 200 sets of traditional tunes. Tujia theater has Maogus, Yinhua song, Nuo opera, southern opera, You opera and other kinds of. Tujia Nuo opera, can be called "the living fossil of Chinese theater". Guizhou Tongren Tujia area, is China's preservation of the most complete Nuo opera, performance of Nuo opera most of a Nuo cultural circle, experts at home and abroad are very concerned. The traditional hand dance, eight treasures copper bell dance, jumping funeral dance simple and robust, with distinctive ethnic characteristics and a strong sense of life. "Xilangka store" (Tujia pavement) is a Tujia girl weaving unique handicrafts, weaving, colorful, with more than 100 kinds of patterns, which is known as the Tujia people's art together with the hand dance.