Folk Beliefs and Customs

Ⅹ-85Folk CustomsXichou, YunnanBatch 4 (2014)Extension Item

01 · Historical Records

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 · Core Techniques & Process

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.

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.

The evening banquet on the riverbank

At dusk the women dine on the riverbank while the men have cooked and served the meal.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

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.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

"The Rock Paintings of Wenshan", published by People's Publishing House in 2005, records that 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. Liu Shimei (official archive record of the associated inheritor): Female, of Zhuang ethnicity, born in March 1945, a native of Xichou County, Yunnan Province. From childhood she studied Zhuang children's rhymes and work songs. After marrying at 19 into Shangguo Village, Xisa Town, Xichou County, she studied the chanting of ancient sun-sacrifice songs and work songs under the senior artists Sui Shenshi, Lu Kaipin, Tian Jinqiong, and Luo Gaohui, mastering all the lyrics and singing methods. Beginning in the 1980s she has served as lead singer and principal singer in the Women's Sun Mountain sacrifice activities, mastering all the lyrics and melodies of the sun ancient songs and rendering their emotions with full expressiveness. She collected and compiled one volume of the lyrics of the "Sun Ancient Songs" and translated them into Chinese. She is a representative inheritor of the fifth national-level batch of the intangible cultural heritage project Folk Custom (Women's Sun Mountain Sacrifice). She leads six apprentices in passing on Zhuang traditional customs.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:

Wu Jishan 05-3019
Xu Shunwei 05-3020
Huang Guanghui 05-3021
Chen Jikun 05-3022
Sinapinchu 05-3023
Liu Shimei 05-3024
Zhang Qingming 05-3025
Zheng Quanguang 05-3026
Ye Da 05-3027
Li Yaohui
Luo Shengzong

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗

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