Ethnic Overview
China’s ethnic minorities. Mainly distributed in Guangxi, Yunnan, Guangdong, Hunan, Guizhou, Sichuan and other provinces and regions. Guangxi has the most. The population in 1990 was 15.48 million. According to the fifth national census in 2000, the population of the Zhuang Tonggu ethnic group was 16,178,811. It is now the most populous ethnic group among the ethnic minorities in China. Most of the Zhuang people live in Guangxi. Among them, there are 1 million in Yunnan, mainly in Wenshan Prefecture, and also in Honghe and Qujing. Zhuang people are also distributed in Lianshan in Guangdong, Congjiang in Guizhou and Jianghua in Hunan. Before the unified name of the Zhuang nationality in 1965, the Zhuang people had many self-titles and nicknames. The most common self-titles and nicknames in Guangxi mainly include "Buzhuang", "Butu", "Buliao", "Buyayi (Rui)", "Bunong", etc. There are more than 20 kinds, the main ones in Yunnan include "Nongren", "Sharen", "Tuliao", etc.
The Zhuang people have their own language, which Chinese scholars classify as the Zhuang-Dai branch of the Zhuang-Dong language family of the Sino-Tibetan language family. Some foreign scholars classify the Zhuang language as a Macao language based on the cognate words of the Zhuang language. Thai language department. Zhuang language is very similar to Thai, Lao and Dai languages ??of the same language branch. The Zhuang language has its own characters, which have been used among the people since the Tang Dynasty (7th century) in China. The Han people call them ancient Zhuang characters, and the Zhuang people call themselves "sawndip", which means new characters, because these characters are made of Chinese characters. The first combination. However, this kind of Zhuang character has not been widely used among the people because of its limited use. It is mostly used for writing place names, compiling folk songs and recording events. In the 1950s, government experts from the Communist Party of China created Zhuang script based on the Latin alphabet, and partially revised it in 1982. However, this script was not promoted in Zhuang areas, but officials in Zhuang areas did. The promotion of such words without conscience seriously violates the party's spirit of seeking truth from facts and damages the party's ethnic policy.
The Zhuang nationality is a nation with a long history and splendid culture. It is generally recognized in modern ethnology and history circles that the Zhuang ethnic group developed from a branch of the Yue people in Lingnan, China in ancient times. It has close origins with Xiou and Luoyue in the Zhou Feng period, Liao, Li, and Wuhu in the Han and Tang Dynasties, and Tong (Chong, Li) people, Hao (wolf) people, and native people after the Song Dynasty. The Zhuang people are in the same line as Xiou and Luo Yue among the Baiyue people. From the Han Dynasty to the early Tang Dynasty, the Zhuang people areas continued to actively or passively accept Chinese language and culture. In today's Zhuang areas, there are some surnames that are "stronger than the local music", such as The Lu family in Panyu, the Xian family in Gaoliang and Hepu, and the Ning family in Qinzhou are called "one hundred surnames", each of which is dominant in one area. In the Tang Dynasty, Lingnan Road was divided into East and West Lingnan Roads, and the Five Government Envoys were set up in Guangzhou, which was divided into five administrations. Among them, Gui, Yong and Rong are all the settlement areas of Zhuang ancestors. During the Song, Yuan and Ming dynasties, the central dynasty strengthened its rule over the Lingnan region. It established prefectures and counties, sent officials and officials, and collected tributes. The central dynasty implemented the Jizhou and county system in the Zhuang areas and appointed famous Zhuang people to manage it as chieftains. This tribe. However, the central government's indifference and the chieftain's excessive expropriation brought a heavy burden to the Zhuang people, which made the Zhuang people unbearable and resisted many times. The "Huangdong Barbarians" uprising in Xiyuan in the Tang Dynasty, the Nong Zhigao uprising in the Song Dynasty, the Fujiang peasant uprising in the Ming Dynasty, the hundreds of years of uninterrupted uprisings in the Qing Dynasty and the vigorous Taiping Heavenly Kingdom movement all started in this area. However, all previous uprisings were suppressed and failed. The Zhuang people have made great contributions and sacrifices in the fight against the invasion of French colonists, the Revolution of 1911 and the Anti-Japanese War. The Zhuang people have a glorious revolutionary tradition.
Limestone in the Zhuang area is widely distributed and is a world-famous karst area. Stone mountains rise from the ground, and there are caves and underground rivers in the stone mountains. This kind of terrain constitutes the scenic spot that "Guilin's landscapes are the best in the world, and Yangshuo's landscapes are the best in Guilin". The coast is rich in various valuable seafood, especially Nanzhu. The Zhuang area has a mild climate and abundant rainfall. Agriculture is the main area, planting rice, corn, potatoes, etc. It is also rich in fruits and has a wide forest area, rich in precious woods such as Liuzhou fir, silver fir, and camphor wood. Panax notoginseng, gecko and fennel oil, which are famous both at home and abroad, are long-standing specialties in the Zhuang area.
[Edit this paragraph] National History
The Zhuang people mainly live in Lingnan.
The Lingnan area has been inhabited by humans since ancient times. In the pre-Qin era, the Zhuang people belonged to Luoyue and Xiou of Baiyue. As far back as the late Paleolithic Age, there were the "Liujiang people" and "Ganqian people" in Liujiang County. , the "Qilinshan people" of Laibin City, and the "Lipu people" of Lipu County. The "Qianyan people" and "Jiulengshan people" in Duan County, the "Bailiandong people" and "Dule people" in Liuzhou City, the "Baojiyan people" in Guilin City, and the "Dingmodong people" in Tiandong County , the "Lingshan people" of Lingshan County, etc. The area where these ancient humans are located happens to be the area where the ancestors of the Zhuang people lived, and it is also the area where the Zhuang people live today. Based on this, some experts speculate that the Zhuang people cannot be ruled out as the descendants of these ancient humans.
In the pre-Qin period, Guangxi was the Luoyue Kingdom, and was inhabited by the "Luoyue", "Xiou" and "Cangwu" people from among the Baiyue. The Luoyue Kingdom is a famous Fang Kingdom for the ancestors of the Zhuang people in Lingnan. It was first seen in "Yi Zhou Shu·Wang Hui", which mentioned "passerby Dazhu". Zhu Youzeng's "Yi Zhou Shu·Ji Xun Xiao" said: "The sound of the road is close to Luo, and it is suspected that That is Luo Yue. "The road is Luo, this is what it means." "Book of Yizhou", also known as "Book of Zhou", is an ancient book from the pre-Qin period. Most of the chapters are from the Warring States Period. The events of the Shang and Zhou Dynasties recorded in it must have their roots. In "Lü's Spring and Autumn Annals·Original Flavor", "Yueluo's Fungi" is also mentioned. Gao Youluo of the Han Dynasty noted: "Yueluo, the name of the country. Fungi, bamboo shoots." Yueluo is a Chinese formulation, meaning Yue (Mountain) Gu or Yue Bird, Yue people's language is inverted into Luo Yue.
The Zhuang people have made great contributions to mankind:
Luoyue and Xiou are the two main branches that make up the Zhuang people today. They have existed for more than a thousand years and created splendid rice farming civilization. The ancient culture inherited by the Zhuang people today was created by the Xiou and Luoyue people in many aspects. The rice farming culture, big stone shovel culture, dragon mother culture, bronze culture, bronze drum culture in the bronze culture, Huashan culture, etc. created by Luoyue Fangguo are precious cultural heritage of the Chinese nation. The Luoyue people, together with the Cangwu people and the Xiou people, were the first to invent the artificial cultivation of rice in my country, making great contributions to the Chinese nation and all mankind. In today's Nanning City, fourteen shell mound sites left by the Luoyue people's ancestors were unearthed, from which original stone millstones, stone pestles, stone grinding rods and other rice shelling tools 10,000 years ago were unearthed. Among them, Nanning City Such tools unearthed from the Tingziwei site were dated to 11,000 years old by C14. It is second only to Daoxian County in Hunan Province. The 12,000-20,000-year-old carbonized rice grains left by the ancestors of the Cangwu tribe of the Zhuang people are 1,000 years older than the 10,000-year-old rice site in Wannian County, Jiangxi. By the time of Luotian, the Luoyue people had been very effective in regulating the fields within their territory, and were already able to select fields according to the rise and fall of the tide. Today, all ethnic groups in South China value rice. The staple food on the table is mainly rice. The food series using rice as raw materials include rice series, rice noodles series, rice dumpling series, glutinous rice cake series, rice porridge series, and glutinous rice balls series. , rice cake series, rice cake series, rice crackers series, beverage series, rice meat series, enema series and other 12 series, which have greatly enriched people's lives. The non-staple food of pigs, chickens, ducks and geese are also transformed from rice. The Han people and other ethnic groups who moved to Lingnan from dryland agricultural areas also gave up wheat cultivation and joined the Zhuang people on the dining table to enjoy the rice farming culture created by the ancestors of the Zhuang people. This great contribution of the Luo Yue people is as bright as the sun and the moon.
The best in the world in terms of clothing: In Yuchanyan, Daoxian County in ancient central Guizhou (an area where the Cangwu tribe of the ancient Zhuang people lived), a "doily" used by humans as pottery 15,000 years ago was discovered The plant fiber weave pattern, no matter how crude, rough and childish the plant fiber weave pattern is, it is the first handmade textile that we have seen so far created by human labor. It is the first handmade textile in the world's textile industry. bud.
The best food in the world: In the Yuchanyan ruins of Daoxian County in ancient central Guizhou, artificially cultivated rice 15,000 years ago was discovered, although it only has some traces of artificial domestication. It is the first crop variety that we have seen so far created by human labor, and it is the bud of farming agriculture all over the world. The emergence of pottery is the first sign that mankind has bid farewell to the barbaric era of "eating hair and drinking blood" and entering the civilized era of "cooking cooked food".
The best in the world in terms of housing: In the late Paleolithic ruins of Zhuma Village in Linli (about 18,000 years ago) in ancient central Guizhou, a "丅"-shaped "high platform" civil structure with a corridor was discovered. "Building", it is not only the source of China's "high-platform palace architecture", but also the first "high-platform civil building" in the world.
The ancestors of the Zhuang nationality took the epoch-making first step, leading China to enter an agricultural society, triggering the greatest green revolution in mankind, and enabling mankind to break out of the uncertain life of gathering and food. A green revolution path was opened to domesticate animals, create farming, and move towards a subsistence life, which ushered in a glorious agricultural era of farming society.
The pottery invented by the Zhuang ancestors is an important symbol of the development of human civilization. It is a brand-new thing created by human beings for the first time using natural products according to their own will. People mixed clay with water and made various utensils. After drying, they were roasted with fire to produce qualitative changes and form pottery. It opens a new chapter for mankind to utilize and transform nature, which is of great epoch-making significance. The invention of pottery greatly improved human living conditions and opened up a new era in the history of human development.
The Luo Yue people have a very high level of bronze craftsmanship. The Lingshan type, Lengshui type, and Jinning type bronze drums they produced were products of the heyday of bronze drums and are the top products among the eight types of bronze drums. , represents the highest level of bronze drum craftsmanship, tall and thick, with ingenious design, exquisite craftsmanship and complicated patterns. The standing frog sculpture on the drum is reversed from the frog's 450-degree squatting position. The spine is parallel to the drum surface, and the buttocks are raised like a lion. The body is decorated with rice ears. This finishing touch is the Luoyue people's contribution to rice farming culture. special mark. The sun pattern on the drum surface tells us that the Luoyue people had their own Euclid, and they were able to express the method of dividing circles on the drum surface before BC. The method of dividing a circle is considered to be a symbol of the highest scientific level of a nation more than 2,000 years ago. According to records, only the Han people and Euclid of ancient Greece could divide a circle in the world at that time. People did not expect that the ancestors of the Zhuang people could also do it. There is just no written record. The bronze wares made by the Luo Yue people, such as upsets, circular wares, ox-headed beams, bells, and boot-shaped axes, are all of a very high level. Especially the ox-headed beams, which are exquisitely designed, with round buttons and four round eyes on the abdomen. The open buffalo head is a unique sight.
The production tools of the Luoyue people are unique. Their early shouldered stone axes and segmented stone adzes are typical Yue products. The types of copper axes cast include boot-shaped axes, fan-shaped axes, wind-shaped axes, shovel-shaped axes, round-head-shaped axes, etc. The shapes are changeable, exquisite and practical, reflecting the intelligence of the Luo Yue people. The large stone shovel made by him is unique in China. It has a long tongue shape and a girdle waist. The edges are finely processed and rounded. There are teeth at the girdle handle for fast binding. The largest one is more than 60 cm long and 20 cm wide. It is not only a production tool, but also a kind of art, and it is also an artifact when worshiping the rice god. Its design is unique. Others such as the Warring States Bronze Coffin from Xilin, the Hepu Duck Head Bronze Kuai, the Phoenix-shaped Bronze Lamp, the Human Foot-shaped Bronze Plate, etc. all shine with the wisdom of the Luo Yue people.
Huashan Culture is a world-famous art gallery created by the Luoyue people. It is mainly distributed along the Zuojiang River and its tributary Mingjiang River, stretching for more than 200 kilometers. There are also 5 locations in Pingxiang City in the Zuojiang River Basin. , Tiandeng County and other places. ***There are 84 locations, 183 locations, and 287 painting groups. The main image is a frog god in the shape of a human body, ocher red, flat painted in a projection style (ghost shadow), with both arms raised with bent elbows, half squatting into a riding position, as if breaststroke, and the whole picture appears to be singing and dancing. His attitude shocked people's hearts. The Huashan Cliff Painting is a sacred place for the Luoyue people to worship the frog god. It is depicted according to the scenes of the Luoyue people worshiping the frog god. In addition to the image of the frog god, there are also images of running dogs, deer, birds, bronze drums, gongs, stars, and the sun. The upper limit of its production period is the Warring States Period, and the lower limit is the Western Han Dynasty, which lasts for more than 700 years. A small amount was copied by later generations. Among them, the largest one is the Huashan Cliff Painting in Ningming County, which is called Byaraiz in Zhuang dialect. Byaraiz means mountain and Byaraiz means pattern. Because of its largest scale, it represents the entire Zuojiang Cliff Paintings. Compared with rock paintings around the world, Huashan cliff paintings have remarkable characteristics. The shape of the frog god is not only uniform, but also remains unchanged for more than 700 years, which is relatively rare.
The Ningming Huashan painting is more than 40 meters high and 170 meters wide. It is the largest in the world in terms of the area of ??a "location" (the rules of world rock art, no painting within 500 meters of the edge of the painting is a "location"). There are more than 1,300 identifiable characters in this picture, and the total size of all images is more than 40,000, which is rare in the world. Huashan cliff paintings are a concentrated display of rice farming culture. Such large-scale art treasures displaying rice farming culture are unique. Huashan cliff paintings are not static ancient culture, but living culture. The rice farming culture they display is still alive among the people. To this day, in the Donglan and Fengshan areas along the Hongshui River in the northern boundary of ancient Luoyue, there is still the "Frog Po Festival" to worship the national totem frog god. In the frog dance performed during the festival, the dancers wear frog-head hoods, and their jumping movements resemble the movements on the Huashan cliff paintings. The Shigong dance popular among the people in other places also resembles the image of Huashan. Therefore, dancers call the Huashan figure form the frog-shaped dance posture.
The ethnic name "Tong" appeared in the Southern Song Dynasty. Li Zengbo, a native of the Song Dynasty, once mentioned that there were "children" in Yishan in his "Memorial" to Emperor Lizong of the Song Dynasty. Zhu Fu of the Song Dynasty further stated in "Ximan Congxiao" that "there are five types of "cave people" in the south: Miao, Yao, Koulang, Bian, and Gelao." In the following dynasties, the name "獞 (Tong)" was mostly used. In the Ming Dynasty, the number of references to the name "獞" gradually increased, but it was often used together with "Yao". By the Qing Dynasty, the name "獞(child)" had been cited all over Guangxi. After 1949, after in-depth investigation and ethnic identification, the People's Government called Guangxi, Guangdong, Yunnan and other places "Buzhuang", "Butu", "Bunong", "Butai", "Buban", "Bulong" ", "Bunuo", "Buyi", "Bumin", "Buyue", "Buliao", "Buyayi", "Buman", etc. are collectively called the Tong clan. Later, because the meaning of the word "Tong" was not clear enough and it was easy to pronounce it wrongly, in 1965, following the initiative of Premier Zhou Enlai, "Tong" was changed to "Zhuang" and "Tong" to "Zhuang".
Although the names of the Zhuang people vary from generation to generation, their main origins are: Baiyue, Ou, Ouluo, Xiouluo, Xiouluo, Xiouluo, Yue, Wuhu, Liliao, Tong, Sha, Nong, Zhuang. , are of the same origin. (Refer to Huang Xianfan's "General History of the Zhuang Nationality".)
[Edit this paragraph] Eating habits
The Zhuang people in most areas are accustomed to eating three meals a day. In a few areas, the Zhuang people also eat four meals a day. Meal, that is, add a small meal between lunch and dinner. Breakfast and lunch are relatively simple, usually with porridge, and dinner is a dinner with more dry rice and rich dishes. Rice and corn are foods abundant in the Zhuang area and have naturally become their staple food.
Daily vegetables include green vegetables, melon seedlings, melon leaves, Chinese cabbage (Chinese cabbage), Chinese cabbage, rapeseed, mustard greens, lettuce, celery, spinach, kale, water spinach, radish, bitter mustard, and even Bean leaves, sweet potato leaves, pumpkin sprouts, pumpkin flowers, and pea sprouts can also be used as vegetables. Boiling is the most common method, and there is also the habit of pickling vegetables into sauerkraut, pickled bamboo shoots, salted radish, kohlrabi, etc. When it's almost out of the pan, add lard, salt, and chopped green onion.
The Zhuang people are not allowed to eat any poultry and livestock meat, such as pork, beef, mutton, chicken, duck, goose, etc. Some areas do not eat dog meat, while others love to eat dog meat. The pork is cooked as a whole piece first, then cut into hand-sized cubes, and then added to the pot with seasonings. The Zhuang people are accustomed to cooking fresh chicken, duck, fish and vegetables until they are about seven or eight years old. The vegetables are stir-fried in a hot pot and then taken out of the pot, which can maintain the freshness of the vegetables.
The Zhuang people like to hunt and cook game and insects. They have done a lot of research on the dietary therapy of Panax notoginseng. The use of Panax notoginseng flowers, leaves, roots and whiskers in cooking is very distinctive. The Zhuang people are also good at roasting, frying, stewing, pickling, and marinating. They are fond of alcohol, have spicy and sour tastes, and like to eat crispy and fragrant dishes. The main specialties include: spicy blood, torch meat, Zhuangjia roast duck, salted wind liver, crispy fried bee, five-spice bean worm, fried sand worm, skin liver grits, ginger hare meat, white-fried Panax notoginseng flower frog , Baton chicken, etc.
The Zhuang people also brew rice wine, sweet potato wine and cassava wine, the alcohol content of which is not too high. Rice wine is the main drink for festivals and entertaining guests. Some rice wine is paired with chicken gallbladder, which is called chicken gallbladder. Wine, paired with chicken offal is called chicken offal wine, and paired with pork liver is called pig liver wine. When drinking chicken offal wine and pork liver wine, drink it all in one gulp. Chew the chicken offal and pork liver left in your mouth slowly, which can relieve hangover and serve as a dish.
Typical food: The Zhuang people have many famous dishes and snacks, mainly including: horse foot pole, fish raw, roast suckling pig, flower glutinous rice, Ningming Zhuang rice dumpling, Zhuangyuan firewood handle, white-cut dog meat, Zhuang Homemade crispy chicken, braised broken-faced dog, and three-legged rice dumplings.
[Edit this paragraph] Architectural style
The houses of the Zhuang people living in dam areas and near towns are mostly brick and wood structures, with whitewashed exterior walls and decorative patterns on the eaves. For the Zhuang people who live in remote mountainous areas, most of the Zhuang cottage houses in their villages in Longji, Guangxi are tile-roofed or thatched houses with civil structures. The architectural styles generally include semi-stilt style and all-terrain style.
Ganlan is also called a wooden building or a stilted building. There are Zhuang, Dong, Yao, Miao and Han people. Mostly two layers. The upper floor is usually 3 or 5 bays and is used for people. The lower floor is made of wooden pillars, and is mostly made of bamboo and wooden boards to form walls. It can be used as a stable for livestock, or for stacking farm tools, firewood, and sundries. Some also have attics and outbuildings. Generally, the stilts are located near mountains and rivers, facing fields, with broad prospects and good lighting. One village and one community, the whole is magnificent, majestic and spectacular. In some villages, every family is connected and integrated, like a big family. Each ethnic group has its own characteristics in terms of bedroom layout. The Zhuang ganlan in Longji Township, Longsheng County, is centered on the shrine. Behind the shrine, in the middle is the house of the father-in-law (centered on the mistress), and in the left corner is the house of the mother-in-law, with a small door connected to the house of the father-in-law. The housewife's room is in the right corner. The husband's room is outside the right side of the hall. The guest room is in the left corner of the vestibule, and the girls' room is next to the stairs in the right corner, making it easier for them to socialize with the boys. The biggest feature of this layout is that the husband and wife live in different rooms, following the ancient custom. The internal structure of the current gantry has changed slightly, but the basic layout remains unchanged.
[Edit this paragraph] Clothing style
The Zhuang costumes mainly come in three colors: blue, black and brown. Zhuang women have the habit of growing cotton and spinning. Spinning, weaving and dyeing are a cottage industry. Cloth woven from self-grown and self-spun cotton yarn is called "jiaji". It is thick, solid and wear-resistant, and is then dyed in blue, black or brown. Daqing (a kind of herbaceous plant) can be used to dye blue or cyan cloth, fish pond dye can be used to dye black cloth, and diosphorus can be used to dye brown cloth. Zhuang people have different costumes. Men's and women's clothing, men's, women's and unmarried women's headwear have their own characteristics.
Men's clothing and women's clothing
Zhuang women's men's clothing has two types: right-front and double-front. The right-front shirt is turned back and has no collar. The buttons open from the right armpit to the waist and then turn to the middle. It is only three or four inches wide, and the skirt is inlaid with an inch-wide edge of colored fabric, fastened with copper buttons, and tied with a long belt. It is a tight-fitting shirt that is open to the chest and only reaches the navel, which is worn when working. Women's clothing is collarless and right-fronted, but the sleeves are larger than men's clothing. They are nearly a foot wide and as long as the knees. They are inlaid with piping, and the edges are wide and thin, usually more than two or three stripes. The inner shoulder patch is placed against the outside, and three seams are stitched. It is called a "reverse shirt". The buttons on men's and women's shirts are all copper buttons or cloth buttons. The styles of men's and women's trousers are basically the same, with piping on the trouser legs, commonly known as "cow-headed trousers". Married women have lace bellybands, and a spike-shaped tube hangs on the left side of the waistband, which is connected with the key and makes a "shala, noisy, noisy" sound when walking around. Men usually wear long robes with a short coat outside, commonly known as "long robe and mandarin jacket". At first, they wore a round hat, and later they changed to a top hat. In modern times, the Zhuang people's clothing styles have been basically modernized, but the older generation still generally wear blue and black.
Unique headwear
Unmarried women like to have long hair and bangs (to distinguish whether they are married or not). They usually comb their hair from the left to the right (about 30 to 70 cents) and fix it with hairpins. , or tie a long braid with a colorful scarf tied at the end of the braid, and tie the braid on the top of the head to fix it when working. Married women wear dragon and phoenix buns, pull their hair from back to front into a chicken (phoenix) hip style, and insert silver or bone horizontal hairpins. Nowadays, people wearing green gauze and white handkerchiefs are rare. Black handkerchiefs or flower handkerchiefs are mostly used for scarves. Most middle-aged and older women wear buns, and they like to wear embroidered foreheads. In winter, women mostly wear black woolen hats. The pattern of the hat edge varies with age. . Both men and women wear cloth shoes. Middle-aged women who work in the mountains like to wear self-made cat-ear cloth shoes, commonly known as shoe cats. They are shaped like straw sandals, with ears and heels. The ears and heels are strung together with a flat gauze belt, and the elasticity can be adjusted by tying them. . Children's headgear: A children's hat is a topless forehead-covering hat sewn with strips of embroidered cloth two to three inches wide.
Ancient books record the strong customs of "topless and barefoot" and "clothed forehead (frontal binding)", which are reproduced in children's hats. This kind of forehead-covering hat can not only protect the head but also is a kind of decoration. The baby's sling is much larger than the common Han ones, in the shape of a butterfly. The "butterfly body" is three feet long and two feet four inches wide. It has patterns or Bagua universe embroidered in the middle, but it is rarely embroidered with text. On both sides, "butterfly" is used. The "wing" is nine feet long and one foot and two inches wide. This kind of strap is called "La" in strong words. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, this kind of straps gradually changed into smaller sizes, and some straps were called "La" in Zhuang dialect. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, these straps were gradually reduced in size, and some straps were embroidered with words such as "Safe entry and exit" and "Perfect happiness" to replace the original patterns.
Both men and women wear cloth shoes.
[Edit this paragraph] Introduction to etiquette
The Zhuang people are a hospitable nation. In the past, guests who visited any house in a Zhuang village were treated like Thinking that they are guests from the whole village, several families often take turns to treat them to dinner, and sometimes five or six families eat at one meal. They usually have the habit of being guests to each other. For example, when a family is killing a pig, they must invite one person from each household in the village to have a meal together. Be sure to have wine on the table when entertaining guests to show your grandeur. The custom of toasting is "drinking and handing over cups". In fact, cups are not used, but white porcelain spoons are used.
When a guest comes home, he must provide him with the best food and accommodation within his ability. He is especially enthusiastic towards the elderly and new guests. When dining, you must wait for the eldest person to sit down before eating; the younger ones are not allowed to eat the dishes that have not been touched by the elders first; serving tea and rice to the elders and guests must be done with both hands, and cannot be handed from in front of the guests or from behind. Pass it to the elders behind your back; those who finish eating first must say "eat slowly" to the elders and guests one by one before leaving the table; the younger ones cannot eat after everyone at the table.
Respecting the old and loving the young is the traditional virtue of the Zhuang people. When you meet an elderly person on the road, you should take the initiative to say hello and give way. Do not cross your legs in front of the elderly person, do not say dirty words, and do not step in front of the elderly person. When killing a chicken, the head and tail must be presented to the old man. When meeting an elderly person on the road, a man should address him as "father-in-law" and a woman as "grandma" or "old lady"; when encountering a guest or a person carrying a heavy load, one should take the initiative to give way. If one encounters an elderly person carrying a heavy load, one should take the initiative to help and send them away. at.
[Edit this paragraph] Taboo content
The Zhuang people are taboo about killing animals on the first day of the first lunar month; young women in some areas are taboo on eating beef and dog meat; For three days (sometimes the first seven days), it is forbidden for outsiders to enter; it is forbidden for women who have given birth to children who are not yet one month old to visit the house. When boarding a bamboo house of Zhuang people, you usually have to take off your shoes. The Zhuang people are taboo against people wearing bamboo hats and carrying hoes or other farm tools entering their homes. Therefore, when you go outside the Zhuang home, you must put down the farm tools and take off your hats and hats. Fire ponds and stoves are the most sacred places in Zhuang families. It is forbidden to step on the tripods and stoves on the fire ponds. When young Zhuang people get married, it is taboo for pregnant women to participate. Pregnant women are especially not allowed to see the bride. In particular, pregnant women are not allowed to enter the maternal home. If there is a pregnant woman at home, a sleeve branch should be hung on the door or a knife should be inserted to show taboos. Anyone who accidentally breaks into a maternal home must give the baby a name and give the baby a set of clothes. A chicken or corresponding gift can serve as the child's godfather or godmother.
The Zhuang people are a rice-growing people and they love frogs very much. The Zhuang people in some places have a special "frog respect ceremony". Therefore, when going to Zhuang areas, it is strictly forbidden to kill frogs or eat frog meat. Whenever floods or other major disasters occur, the Zhuang people will hold ancestor worship activities to pray for the dragon to provide relief. After the ceremony, a monument was erected at the entrance of the village to prevent outsiders from entering the village.