Zhuang Nongdong Festival
01 · Historical Records
The origin of the Zhuang Nongdong Festival lies hidden in the unit known as the dong. In Zhuang, dong refers both to terrain such as flat land and plains and to settlement space and farming-irrigation space, while nong means “down” or “to hold”; attaching a festival to a specific dong produces the Nongdong. The dong can also stand for the festival itself, so attending the Nongdong Festival is called “leaving the dong” (chu dong). Rice farming is the foundation of this whole system: a dong needs water diversion, leveled plots, and mutual aid between neighboring dongs, so the periodic chu dong grew from an economic arrangement of mutual aid, step by step, into a festival combining ritual offerings and prayers, courtship through antiphonal song, and recreational and athletic amusements.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Zhuang Nongdong Festival is a traditional large-scale festival held regularly by the Zhuang people with the dong as the unit, integrating ritual offerings and prayers, social gatherings, antiphonal courtship singing, commodity trade, and recreational and athletic entertainment. “Nongdong” literally translates in Zhuang as “going down to the dong”: nong means “down” or “to hold,” and dong refers both to terrain such as flat land and plains and to settlement space and farming-irrigation space. The dong also stands for the festival itself, so people refer to attending the Nongdong Festival as “chu dong” (leaving the dong). The Zhuang Nongdong Festival is mainly found in Longzhou, Daxin, Tiandeng, and Jiangzhou counties (districts) of Chongzuo City, Guangxi, and in Funing County, Yunnan, among other places; the Nongdong festivals of Longzhou and Daxin are the most representative. The Zhuang Nongdong Festival is held mainly in spring and autumn, most commonly between the first and fourth lunar months, with a small number held in autumn. The first lunar month is the start of spring plowing; the Nongdong held then is called the “dong qiuwu,” also known as the “head dong,” and prays for favorable weather throughout the year. It is held in public spaces such as village temples, with the rites presided over by the “bujiang” and the “miexiang,” and is attended by everyone, men and women, young and old. The third and fourth lunar months are the rice-transplanting season; young men and women from different villages work for one another and sing antiphonal songs, giving rise to the “dong shaomao,” meaning the “young maidens and young men's dong festival,” also called the “tail dong.” Its participants are mainly young people, it is held on hillsides, and its purpose is courtship through song. Historically, natural villages have had festival dates that were fixed yet staggered by agreed custom, so as to ensure that everyone could travel to each dong and take part in its activities. Taking the dong as its unit, the Nongdong Festival centers on communal ritual offerings and prayers, courtship through antiphonal singing between young men and women, and gatherings among relatives and friends; it also stages commerce, dragon and lion dances, grabbing the firecannon (qiang huapao), embroidered-ball tossing, top-spinning, and other traditional athletic competitions and performance entertainments, making the festival rich and colorful. The Zhuang Nongdong Festival is transmitted collectively, with large numbers of participants and a broad sphere of influence; it is one of the most representative traditional festivals of the Zhuang people. Zhuang villages also open their doors to guests; people of neighboring groups such as the Yao and the Han gladly take part, reflecting openness and inclusiveness. In transmission, certain special groups play a very important role in organizing and carrying out the activities. Traditionally these include the dong masters such as the budong and the doulao, and the headmen such as the guanban and the langban. The specialists who preside over the “qiuwu” rite include the bujiang and the bu mo, Zhuang terms for male ritual specialists of the written type, while the “miexiang” is a female oral ritual specialist; in the rite they follow the fixed “tangfo” (wu lu, the shamanic route) as their procedure to complete the ceremony. There are also the groups of song masters and singers: the antiphonal singing of the harvest-praying “head dong” is strongly knowledge-based and formulaic, requiring song masters to supply the lyrics and young men and women to sing in response, providing a platform for the singing, transmission, and dissemination of Zhuang oral literature. The large body of ritual chants and song lyrics performed by the ritual specialists, song masters, and singers at the Nongdong Festival systematically reflects the production and life of Zhuang society; these oral literary works are strict in meter, cover astronomy, geography, ethics, and morality, and are performed with attention to procedure and ritual protocol. They are a vivid embodiment of the Zhuang people using song as speech and conveying feeling through song, and of Zhuang society using song as ritual, and they have high historical and literary value. The festival takes the dong as its unit yet also transcends the limits of the dong, embodying a harmonious cultural view of relations between humanity and nature, among people, and between people and society; it has positive significance for today's rural governance and rural revitalization.
The head festival of prayer
The first month brings the spring ploughing and with it the head festival, held in the village temple by the ritual specialists, attended by all ages for rain and a good year.
The tangfo and the oral rite
Male ritual specialists and a female counterpart conduct the rite by a fixed sequence called the tangfo, recited step by step without deviation or disorder.
The young people’s song slope
In the third and fourth months, planting time, young men and women help each other and sing on the slopes in what is called the youth’s festival, made for courtship by song.
The flower-cannon contest and the embroidered ball
Alongside worship and song come fairs, dragon and lion dances, the flower-cannon contest, the tossed embroidered ball and spinning tops, mostly at the youth festival.
Song masters at the head festival
Song masters supply the lines for the head festival’s couplets, sung by young men and women; the texts are metrically strict and cover geography, morality and astronomy alike.
The headmen of the dong
Village headmen of several kinds call the gathering, prepare the ground and keep order; the person running the rite changes between seasons even though the ritual does not.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Zhuang Nongdong Festival is mainly found in the four counties and districts of Longzhou, Daxin, Tiandeng, and Jiangzhou in Chongzuo City, Guangxi, and in Funing County, Yunnan, among other places, with Longzhou and Daxin being the most representative. The affairs of each dong are managed by headmen such as the budong, doulao, guanban, and langban; the qiuwu rite is presided over by the male ritual specialists bujiang and bu mo together with the female oral ritual specialist miexiang, all three following the fixed tangfo wulu sequence in the rite. Historically, natural villages set fixed yet staggered festival dates by custom so that everyone could make it to each dong's activities. The groups of song masters and singers are centered on the harvest-praying antiphonal singing of the head dong, which is the most knowledge-based and formulaic.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The Zhuang Nongdong Festival has a long history, a wide distribution, strong collective transmission, and long continuity, and it carries a profound rice-farming culture.
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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