Liu Shimei

01 · Lineage & Regional School

Liu Shimei, Female, Zhuang, from Xichou, Yunnan, is a fifth-batch national representative bearer of Folk Beliefs and Customs (Ⅹ-85). The tradition is documented in Xichou, Yunnan. Within the regional tradition and school record of Folk Beliefs and Customs in Xichou, Yunnan: The Women's Sun Mountain sacrifice is mainly practiced in Shangguo Village, Xisa Town, Xichou County, Yunnan Province. Those who come from the four townships to celebrate the festival fill the river shoal and drying grounds; each stockaded village sends glutinous rice and colored head-cloths according to old custom, and seats at the river-shoal dinner are arranged in the order in which the villages arrived. The whole village's sacrifice is still led by the boding; male guests only wash vegetables, light fires, and carry tables on the periphery — no heavy work before and behind the altar is let out of the insiders' hands, and this division of labor is itself part of the ritual custom. The ancient sun-sacrifice songs are sung in lead-vocal and principal-vocal forms: one verse of the ancient song carries one legend; song masters from the four townships come to sing in contest, and who opens the tune is decided by the person who lights the fire that day. The Women's Sun Mountain sacrifice can be traced back to the reverence for the sun in matrilineal clan society. Rock paintings serve as corroborating evidence: as recorded in "The Rock Paintings of Wenshan", Zhuang ancestors left more than 170 rock-painting works with over 400 patterns on multiple rock faces within Wenshan Prefecture, among which many are sun motifs — proof that the Zhuang ancestors had a custom of sun worship long ago. Ritual customs led by women, such as inviting incense and receiving fire, accumulated layer upon layer on this basis: the three divisions of inviting the god, serving the god, and sending off the god form a distinctive pattern of their own, breaking the shared sun worship into festivals run separately by each village and stockade, unchanged year after year. The inheritor Liu Shimei learned to sing the ancient sun-sacrifice songs from several senior artists from the age of nineteen; that these songs can now be passed down in a Chinese translation is the key to this sacrifice's survival despite having no writing system of its own.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Born in March 1945, female, Zhuang ethnicity, a native of Xichou County, Yunnan Province. She learned Zhuang children's songs and work songs from childhood; after marrying at nineteen into Shangguo Village, Xisa Town, Xichou County, she studied the singing of the ancient sun sacrificial song and of work songs under veteran artists including Shen-shi, Lu Kaipin, Tian Jinqiong and Luo Gaohui, and mastered all the lyrics and methods of singing. From the 1980s she served as lead singer and principal singer in the women's sun mountain sacrificial activities, thoroughly mastering all the lyrics and melodies of the ancient sun song and performing its emotions with full expressiveness. She collected and collated one volume of the lyrics of the Ancient Sun Song and translated it into Chinese. Within the documented technical tradition of Folk Beliefs and Customs in Xichou, Yunnan: The Women's Sun Mountain sacrifice is mainly practiced in Shangguo Village, Xisa Town, Xichou County, Yunnan Province. This festival and ritual activity originates in the early Zhuang worship of the sun god and related myths and legends. Its main content includes the legend of women sacrificing to the sun, the Sun Mountain and the sacrificial ground, men serving women on the day of the sun sacrifice, the offerings to the sun goddess, and the rites of the sun sacrifice. The sun-sacrifice rites further include such concrete segments as the women bathing and changing clothes, ascending the Sun Mountain, cleaning the sacrificial ground, arranging the offerings, chanting the "Ancient Songs of the Sun Sacrifice", sharing the offerings, the men preparing the evening feast, and accompanying the sun goddess at dinner. It is a traditional folk-belief custom passed down through generations among the Zhuang people. The Women's Sun Mountain sacrifice originates in the ancestors' reverence for and worship of the sun during matrilineal clan society; according to expert analysis, this festival has a history of at least several thousand years. Each year early on the first day of the second lunar month, the men steam glutinous rice dyed golden yellow with "duopeng" (a plant) to serve as sacrificial offerings. In the morning, women aged 16 and above bathe and purify themselves, don festive dress, and take part in the sacrificial activities. At noon, the women, crying out "Chazhe Tangwenluo" ("the sun has been found"), gather at the altar before the sacred tree beside the village (the grove where, legend says, the sun hides). The "boding" (host of the sacrificial activity) uses a red rooster to invite the sun, then carries it in a palanquin up to "Botangwen" (the Sun Mountain) behind the village. Next, the boding arranges the offerings before the sun god's seat and recites the sacrificial words; the women bow in worship and sing the ancient sun-sacrifice songs, then share the offerings. At dusk, the women go to the river shoal for a communal dinner. The Women's Sun Mountain sacrifice is performed by women aged 16 and above, led by the boding. Apart from the boding and his apprentices, who are male, all other participants are female. This heritage project has a distinctive character among the cultures of various peoples who worship and sacrifice to the sun. It makes the singing of narrative ancient songs the main content of the sacrifice; the timing, procedures, and content of the sacrificial activity are complete, the organization tight, and the norms orderly; it is carried out year after year and passed down from generation to generation. At the same time, it is an important coming-of-age rite for Zhuang women: after taking part in the sacrificial activities, girls who have reached 16 may go courting at the flower-street fairs, exchange love songs, and choose a spouse. The Women's Sun Mountain sacrifice has been passed down through generations; its ritual activities carry rich symbolic meaning, involving coming-of-age rites for local Zhuang adolescent women as well as the market-fair song-exchange and spouse-selection activities that follow the sun-sacrifice rites. It is a concentrated expression of local Zhuang sacrificial culture, food culture, costume culture, song-and-dance culture, and courtship culture. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Golden sticky rice coloured with duopeng": Before dawn the men steam sticky rice coloured golden with a plant called duopeng, setting aside a portion for the deity. "Bathing and the dress of the young women": Girls of sixteen and above bathe, dress in full regalia and take part; the age marks entry into courtship and song. "The cry of finding the sun and the offering of a red rooster": At noon the women cry out that they have found the sun; the officiant sacrifices a red rooster and has it carried up the sacred hill. "Chanting the ancient sun song": The officiant sets out offerings, recites the invocation, and the women bow and sing the ancient song before sharing the food.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

She is a national representative bearer of Folk Beliefs and Customs (the Women's Sun Mountain Sacrifice), a fifth-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. She leads six apprentices in transmitting traditional Zhuang customs.

04 · Associated Heritage Item Dossier

05 · Fellow National Bearers Lineage

National representative bearers recorded under the same item code, ordered from the first to the sixth batch. Batch order is not a teacher–student relationship.

06 · Archival Sources & Bibliography

1. Liu Shimei · National Representative Bearer Archive