Wedding Customs
01 · Historical Records
The marriage customs of the Yugur people encompass almost the entire oral tradition of the ethnic group: the ancient language, folk songs, myths and legends, proverbs and stories are packed into the wedding together with etiquette, and beneath them lie old traces of Shamanism, primitive worship, and Buddhist belief. They carry cultural content inherited over several millennia; the breadth of participation and the diversity of forms are hard for the marriage customs of other peoples to match. For this reason there is a full-scale long rite of three segments in one day, with more than ten procedural steps and twenty-eight points of etiquette; the blessing and praise verses (zhuzanci) are the most demanding part of this rite, and must be taught line by line in person by the elders to the next generation.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Yugur marriage customs are an important component of Yugur folk culture. They contain rich content — the ancient language, folk songs, myths and legends, proverbs and stories, and traditional etiquette of the Yugur people — and also embody traditional cultural content inherited over several millennia, such as Shamanism, primitive worship, and Buddhist belief. Their richness of content, distinctiveness of character, breadth of participation, and diversity of form cannot be matched by the marriage customs of other peoples. Yugur marriage customs include both arranged matches by the words of matchmakers and the command of parents, and free love. Upon reaching marriageable age, the man's side prepares the betrothal gifts, and the marriage is formally contracted through matchmakers with a grand wedding ceremony. Yugur wedding ceremonies are numerous and grand, mainly comprising more than ten procedural steps and twenty-eight points of etiquette: seeking the match and betrothal, choosing people and inviting guests, the natal family's banquet, the young woman donning the headdress (toumian), the reluctant farewell and escorting of the bride, stopping for refreshments and welcoming the bride, horses trampling the tent, shooting arrows and worshipping heaven and earth, crowning the bridegroom, examining the banquet tables, singing praises at the wine feast, the bride making tea, and the return visit to the bride's natal home. The main procedures take three days: the first day holds the bride's departure ceremony at the woman's home, the second day holds the marriage ceremony at the man's home, and the third day concludes the proceedings. In addition, the Yugur people have another kind of marriage custom — the lejiyao (waist-tying) marriage of the Eastern Yugur language area and the tent-pole headdress marriage of the Western Yugur area; it was only a ceremony, not a real marriage contract, and is now lost. Yugur wedding ceremonies are mainly distributed in Minghua Township, Dahe Township, Huangcheng Town, and Kangle Township of the Yugur Autonomous County of Sunan, Gansu Province.
Proposal, betrothal and sending for the bride
Marriage may be arranged by matchmakers and parents or begun in free courtship; at the proper age the man offers gifts and proceeds to proposal and betrothal.
The bride's headdress
Before leaving, the bride is dressed in her headdress, the most resplendent moment of the rite; an older pole-mounted variant has been lost.
Horses trampling the tent
The horsemen drive straight at the tent and thunder past it, the most imposing passage in a grassland wedding; only then does the tent open.
Shooting the arrow at the sky-and-earth rite
Heaven and earth are saluted by shooting an arrow at a distant mound, and crowning the groom completes the dressing of the bridegroom.
Inspecting the banquet and the wedding songs
Relatives inspect the laid table before the feast begins, and the blessing songs are chanted by skilled elders in a lively, flowing rhythm.
The bride serves tea and the return visit
The bride serves tea bowl by bowl as her first duty in the new home, and a return visit brings both families together to close the rites.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Yugur marriage customs are mainly distributed in the area of Minghua Township, Dahe Township, Huangcheng Town, and Kangle Township in the Yugur Autonomous County of Sunan, Gansu Province. This area was formerly divided into eastern and western parts: the lejiyao (waist-tying) marriage of the Eastern Yugur language area and the tent-pole headdress marriage of the Western Yugur language area were both merely ceremonies rather than true marriage contracts, and are now lost. What still proceeds today is the line of formally contracted marriage through matchmakers; the main procedures take three days — the first day holds the bride's departure ceremony at the woman's home, the second day holds the marriage ceremony at the man's home, and the third day concludes.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Wedding Customs · Wedding Customs · Wedding Customs · Wedding Customs · Wedding Customs · Wedding Customs · Wedding Customs · Wedding Customs · Wedding Customs · Wedding Customs.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
With social development and the improvement of living standards, traditional ways of life have changed rapidly, and Yugur marriage customs are approaching loss; fewer and fewer people understand the rites, taboos, customs, and praise verses within them, and without protection the entire marriage custom will face extinction. An Fucheng (from the official file of the associated inheritor): Male, Yugur ethnicity, born in December 1943, native of the Yugur Autonomous County of Sunan, Gansu Province. Under the verbal instruction and personal example of his mother Genaer and his maternal uncle Sitan'er, he began at seven or eight years old to learn to recite the blessing and praise verses used in traditional Yugur weddings and children's head-shaving ceremonies. After mastering them, he sang and recited them at traditional Yugur weddings and children's head-shaving ceremonies in Huangcheng Town; his sung verses had a bright rhythm, and his words and content were lively and fluent. He is able to sew Yugur costume. In 2001 and 2005, at art festivals held in Kangle Township, he twice demonstrated the main processes of traditional Yugur weddings and children's head-shaving ceremonies, promoting and spreading traditional Yugur culture. Representative inheritor of the fourth national-level batch of the intangible cultural heritage project "Marriage Customs (Traditional Yugur Marriage Customs)." In recent years he has passed on the blessing and praise verses he mastered to his two sons.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Anfucheng 04-1986
- Mojinghai 05-3058
- Lan Yugen 05-3059
- Lei Qisong
- Wu Yumei
- Fang Weihua
- Guojinglin
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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