Tujia girls are ushered in with cries on the day of their wedding festivities. Brides cry more than half a month before the wedding, some to cry more than a month, at least three or five days. Tujia people also can sing the wedding song, as a measure of the woman's talent and virtue of the mark. Crying marriage songs are "crying parents", "crying brother and sister-in-law", "crying uncle", "crying sister", "Crying for matchmaker", "Crying for combing hair", "Crying for flowers", "Crying for resignation of father and mother", "crying ancestor", "crying on the sedan chair" and so on.
Crying for marriage originated from the lack of freedom of marriage for women, and they used the song of crying for marriage to accuse the evil marriage system. Today, marriage is free. Tujia girls still cry for marriage, but now it is just a ritual.
The Song of Crying for Marriage
The Song of Crying for Marriage is a customary folk song of the Tujia people. In the month before a girl gets married, she has to sing the Song of Crying for Marriage, which tells the unfortunate fate of the Tujia women under the feudal system of arranged marriages and their feelings of longing for their relatives. According to custom, the girl to cry and sing seven days to half a month, the most to cry and sing a month, straight to cry until the voice is hoarse still do not stop crying.
The form of crying and singing of the Song of Crying for Marriage is divided according to the process of getting married, and is divided into three forms: "one person crying and singing" and "two people crying and singing" and "crying and reunion". The "one-person weeping and singing" means that the girl cries about her destiny, her ancestors, her parents' kindness, her brother's and sister's love, and the abominable and detestable deceptive behavior of the feudal marriage and the matchmaker, and so on.
There are many stars in the sky and the moon is not clear, and my father has taken great pains for me.
The kindness of my father is inexhaustible, and it is hard for me to finish my speech.
One is afraid that we will suffer from hunger, the other is afraid that we will get sick,
Three is afraid that we will be dressed in uglier clothes than other people, and we will wear the stars and the moon and take a lot of pains.
The fourth fear is that we will be uneducated, so we will be sent to school to study,
To raise your daughter as a human being, we will spend money on her.
One foot and five inches of the girl's plate, just short of bringing it to the mouth;
hard times and hard days, freezing and starving, and heartbreaking!
Daughter's life is a mistake, her parents' painstaking efforts have been wasted;
I am leaving my parents today, and my heart is drenched with tears!
It's hard for me to take my parents to the end of my life when I can't be filial to them.
It's hard for me to come to the world in vain when I can't see the light in the water!
"Two people crying" is called "sister crying", that is, by the married girl first crying, accompanied by the weeping people on the side to console the weeping, inserted from the end of the sentence, the two people weeping and singing together a fall (there are also two people on the weeping and singing) naturally form a facsimile of polyphonic music. Walled relatives and friends every night to accompany the cry, non-relatives and non-friends of the girls also invited each other, groups to "hit the slope" (Tujia language, that is, to participate in the study of the wedding cry), such as the sisters on the cry:
Sisters: "twelve yards on the Solo tree, we have the same root and the same yards;
This time the sisters to be separated, leaving the embroidery house so lonely. The first time I saw you, I was so happy to see you!
Sister: "We have the same father and the same mother;
The sisters are leaving now, and it's hard to break up the love!
Sister: "The Solo Tree is on the opposite side of the table, my sister's heart is hard to forgive;
Throw your sister in-laws to go, and only come on New Year's Day!
Sister: "I hope that you will be more generous in your heart!
"Crying reunion" is also called "accompanied by ten sisters", is a unique form of Tujia girls crying marriage. The bride was married the first night, parents invited relatives and neighbors in the unmarried girl 9 people, even the bride *** 10 people in the bride's boudoir sitting around the table, singing all night, so it is called accompanied by ten sisters song. Ten sisters sitting around a table, first by the bride crying "ten pendulum", the bride cried "a pendulum", the cook on the table set the same dish, set up, the rest of the nine sisters took turns to cry, and finally by the bride to cry "ten collect! ", the chef and then the same will be the same wine and vegetables into the dishes collected, accompanied by ten sisters activities came to an end. Crying marriage lyrics are many, "ten pendulum", "ten harvest" have cried the virtue of the ancestors, parents of the grace, sisterhood, brother and sister-in-law of the wise, the love of the native land, etc., and sometimes also scolded the matchmaker. Sometimes, they also scold the matchmaker. Most of the accompanying cry is the lingering words that are hard to part with. The sound of the seven Yu eight sentences of jingles, such as "parents than heaven and earth, nurturing education heart broken, the trees want to be quiet but the wind does not stop, grace before the report on the parting of the. I'm looking forward to my return, but how long will I be able to stay here? The river in front of the door is flowing, and my daughter's tears are dripping."
The musical structure of "The Song of Crying Marriage" is a "linking song" structure, which is the repetition of a long musical section. During the process of crying and singing, the melody changes slightly due to the change of lyrics, but the base and ending notes of the melody remain unchanged, and the melody of each phrase is descending from a high pitch, and the ornamentation is more frequently used in the melody.
The music of the Song of the Weeping Marriage is a solid song, and the words of the cry-singing form a fixed chapter, which is extremely rich in content, and the language is refined and simple, with the general structure of five-word sentences and seven-word sentences, which rhymes with catchy and is easy to sing and popularize. According to the marriage program, there are "crying father", "crying mother", "crying brother and sister-in-law", "crying sister", "Crying brother", "crying uncle", "crying uncle", "crying grandfather", "Crying for the matchmaker", "Crying to say goodbye to the ancestors", "Crying to dress up", "Crying to eat the rice of the departing mother", "crying for wearing dewy clothes", "crying for getting into the sedan chair", "crying for all the guests", "crying for settling down" and so on, which is a relatively It is a systematic history of Tujia women's blood and tears, and also an indictment exposing the feudal system of bought and sold marriages.
Remaining Bones
The Tujia people practiced monogamy, and before the liberation of the country, there was the custom of aunt-uncle cousin marriage and house-filling marriage. Aunt-uncle table marriage, also known as "return bone seed", is more common in the Tujia, "aunt's daughter reach out to take, uncle's family to be called across the river," said.
Fill-the-house marriage
Fill-the-house marriage refers to the custom of a brother's death to collect his sister-in-law and a brother's death to round up his family, which is a kind of forced marriage that was banned after the founding of the People's Republic of China.
The Tujia people are very cautious about the marriage of people with the same surname, limiting it to marriages between people with the same surname of different clans or marriages outside of the five suits, while marriages within the five suits are considered to be a great rebellion. As a matter of fact, even the same-surname marriages that conform to the Tujia marriage rules are still not recognized by the majority of the Tujia people.
Historically, the Tujia people were relatively free to marry, and men and women could be married after free love and with the consent of both parents. In Enshi Shiyao, Dashanting and other places, there is a "daughter will" custom, that is, every year on the 12th day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar, young men and women through the "daughter will", free love, tied for life. After the reclassification, the Tujia were forced to implement the parents' orders, the words of the matchmaker's arranged marriages, the Qing dynasty Qianlong "Hefeng County Records", "as for the son-in-law, by grandparents, parents presided over, do not have to ask the woman would like to be. If the woman is shameless, claiming unwillingness, may as well decide to punish according to the law, one with the hiring, lifelong change."
It
Turkish people before the reclassification, there is a "back marriage" custom, that is, the bride is carried by their relatives to the male side; reclassification, the bride is carried by their relatives to the door, and then sit or walk. Whether in a sedan chair or on foot, all have to wear dew clothes.
The Tujia welcome the bride's door ceremony is unique. Tujia young men and women get married, men and women each invited a person who can speak the way when the chief, the male chief (also known as the road supervisor) to lead the welcome team to the female side to meet the bride, the female side to set up a table outside the gate, the two sides of the chief of the song or to the white. If the male chief sings and wins, the table will be moved to allow him to enter the gate; if the male chief loses, he will have to crawl under the table.
After the groom and the bride of the Tujia ethnic group pay their respects, the two sides should run to the hole together and grab the new bed, commonly known as "grabbing the bed". The habit of sitting on the bed is usually male left and female right, to the center line of the bed as a boundary. The bride has a plan, often grabbed to sit on the center line of the bed, in order to symbolize the future status in the family. The groom is not willing to show weakness, try to squeeze the bride outside the line, each other, until the groom to uncover the bride's head, the bride smiled sweetly, grabbed the bed on this end, and then husband and wife **** drink a cup of wine.
Tujia young men and women three days after marriage back to the bride's home, commonly known as "back to the door", generally return on the same day.
The marriage customs of the Tujia people in Eshi
The Tujia people are known for their diligence and courage, wisdom and intelligence, and their ability to sing and dance, and thousands of years of cultural deposits have formed a colorful Tujia culture. As one of the important contents of Tujia culture, Tujia's marriage custom is also a great sight to behold.
The marriage customs of Eshi Tujia are the same as those of Tujia in other places, and they are unique. The music of their marriage can be divided into two stages.
One, marriage prelude
In the long feudal society, men and women can not be free to marry, young boys and girls combined with the whole by their parents, that is, the so-called "parental orders, matchmakers," the marriage from the beginning of the proposal, although the procedures are well, but it is a little cumbersome.
The matchmaker. The man asked a man who can speak well and is familiar with the family situation of both sides (mostly women, commonly known as matchmakers) to the woman's home to propose marriage, and then the woman also asked someone to secretly find out about the man's family situation.
Harmonization. If the woman is interested, the matchmaker will communicate the birthdates of both men and women, and ask the fortune-teller to "combine the eight characters". If the two parties' characters match, the two parties will be married verbally.
Determination of marriage. The eight characters are compatible, you can take, so the betrothal is also known as "take eight characters". By the male party to buy red gengshu, written on the male birthdate, and then installed in the refined invitation box, the matchmaker to go to the woman's home will be the woman's birthdate into the same gengshu, that is, the formal betrothal.
Recognition. The man chose an auspicious day to prepare all the clan tea (a number of pork knuckles, noodles, etc.) to the woman's home, the woman invited the clan to relatives gathered in the hall. Under the light of the lamps and candles, the men are guided by the matchmakers to be humble, call their fathers and mothers, and call their aunts and uncles.
Reporting. That is, the man went to the woman's home to report the date of the wedding. Thereafter, the male preparations to enter the final stage. The eve of the happy period, the male preparation for the bride price. The so-called "bride price", nothing more than noodles, wine, cakes and sugar, "long gun short gun" (pig long hooves called the long gun, short hooves called the short gun). Face-saving male party, often the whole pig to send, called "gift pig". Men also need to prepare for the wedding clothes, women are also busy preparing for the "dowry", during which the furniture bedding, pots and pans, mirrors and makeup of the increasing number of things, the bride is embroidery and cutting, rushed to make the quilt cover pillowcase and in-laws of the shoes and socks.
Crying marriage. Most of the crying marriage in the ten days and a half months before the wedding, the bride-to-be invited neighboring girlfriends to help do needlework. Silver needles flashing, colorful lines flying, girls crying while doing, crying and not sad, crying and seemingly sad, crying in the music, seem to cry real music, singing and crying mixed, false and real, real and fake, crying melodious twists and turns, very rich sense of joy, revealing the naivety of the Tujia girls. The content of the crying parents, crying brother and sister-in-law, crying sisters, crying ancestors and so on.
The prelude to marriage is a long process, less than a year and a half, more than a decade or eight years, as for the "baby marriage" and "finger for marriage" is up to one or two decades.
Speaking of the marriage customs of the Tujia people, we can not help but mention the Tujia people more popular situation: the Tujia people like to "aunt table to open the family, the aunt table to open the family", the so-called "kisses on the family". It is said that "the aunt's daughter, reach out and take", "aunt's sister, their own". The first people lacked scientific knowledge of physiological heredity and were only keen on "adding relatives to relatives", but did not know the harm that inbreeding could bring. In addition, the Tujia people also have "brother died to collect sister-in-law, brother died to collect daughter-in-law" custom.
Second, the wedding song
Tujia people commonly known as the wedding celebration for the "overjoyed", the most exciting than the wedding process of the "accompanied by ten sisters" and "accompanied by ten brothers
The most exciting part of the wedding process is the "ten sisters" and "ten brothers".
"Accompanying ten sisters" on the first night of the wedding celebration. It was the night of two or three hours, "incense" on the red candles, smoke, smoke, lined up in the middle of the hall a few large tables. On the table neatly displayed a number of sugar confectionery, peanuts and melon seeds and fresh fruit, etc., in the melodious music began to "accompany the ten sisters". First by the "support guest Division" (the proprietor invited by the articulate, quite good etiquette and good management of the affairs of the people) to invite a number of wedding ceremony to participate in the bold and good song of the girl, and then by the special arrangements for the seat, the seat in the middle of the shy and lovely bride, on either side of the bride is sitting with the bride's age, and the bride with the good girl, which is known as the This is the so-called "accompanying girls". The rest of the big and small girls are seated in turn. "Zhi Ke Si" released his throat, staccato, a simple toast, after the order to start. Sister songs (i.e., customary songs) are sung in order from east to west, starting with the "opening song," followed by other songs. Most of the songs are about praise, exhortation, love, blessing, and banter. At the end of the accompanying ten sisters, they will sing the "Round Table Song", such as "a pair of phoenixes flying out of the forest, a pair of magpies followed by a pair of magpies, phoenixes shouting flowers and results, magpies catching the sound of the fruit reunion, flowers and fruit, fruit reunion, flowers and fruits reunion for ten thousand years." In the process of singing, there is often a climax. Some bold good song, loud and clear voice of the girl, often call each other, each leading the way, attracted the onlookers of the family and friends applauded. The bride is also often "forced" to sing a few songs, shy face overflowing with joy.
The men's "accompany ten brothers" program is basically the same as "accompany ten sisters", but the members of the seat are mostly teenage children, and the content of the song is also a little different from the atmosphere of interest and "accompany ten sisters", often inferior to the "accompany ten sisters". The first is the "Battle of the Birds", which is the first of its kind in the United States.
In the "accompanied by ten sisters" and "accompanied by ten brothers" the next day after dawn, is the wedding day. Early in the morning, the male line of dozens of people in the "escort ceremony Mr." (the general manager of the marriage team), led by a large number of people came to the door of the woman's home. Men marrying people to, the female side of the cannon blowing to show welcome, but inevitably "stop the door gift" - the female side of the bride price and the bride's clothing and jewelry sent to receive the male side, the female side of the Branch Guest Division and the male side of the gift of the Mr. that is to be each show! Talent, speech, show all the belly of the Wentao etiquette, if the man's etiquette is not good enough, or Mr. escorting the word is poor, will be punished, but the punishment is really less, often in laughter to accept the punishment, and add some elements of celebration. But even so, Mr. Baili should not be careless, and the woman may want to take it seriously. For this reason, most of the men's rituals are played by articulate and respected men.
Women in the hospitality of the wedding party and many friends and relatives, the bride-to-be is also in the final makeup. After the mat, the marriage team that tied the dowry, to be tied ready, in the music and the sound of firecrackers, the bride by her brother or brother back to the middle of the hall, to say goodbye to the ancestors, parents, and then back on the sedan chair, the bride did not look back until the in-laws, the sedan chair carried to the male gate fell from the bride to help two cross-brother grandmother to get out of the sedan chair in style. The bride kicked the threshold when entering the door (commonly known as "sealing", meaning that the couple less quarrels in the future). The third day after the wedding, the bride and groom together back to her mother's home, commonly known as "back to the door. In the mother's home to stay overnight to return, but there are also the same day to return.
The male party to marry the bride returned on the day known as "marrying the door pro", but there are men and women farther apart, the male party to marry the team need to live on the female side of the next day before returning, which is called "marrying overnight pro". Individual places even if the two sides are not far from each other, there are also "married overnight pro". After the liberation, Exi's countryside still have "crying marriage", "accompany ten sisters" and other wedding rituals and customs of the legacy, but the content of some changes, and the rituals fade, especially in the town has basically disappeared.
The marriage customs of the Tujia people highlight the culture of the Tujia people, but also reflects the national characteristics of the Tujia people, which has the dregs and the essence. The "bride price" and "eight characters" are the dregs, while "accompanying ten sisters" and "crying marriage" and other customs reveal the cultural essence. The cultural essence of the custom of "accompanying ten sisters", "crying marriage", etc., should be carried forward and absorbed without hesitation.