Xiushan Miaozuyangma Festival
01 · Historical Records
The origin of the Xiushan Miao Sheep-and-Horse Festival can be told from an old story of migration. According to the traditional singing of the Yangma Guge (Sheep and Horse Ancient Songs), the ancestors of the local Miao originally lived in Nanchang, Jiangxi, and migrated in stages to Xiushan. This group suffered long oppression from bandits, and on the 26th day of the fourth lunar month in the third year of the Hongwu reign of the Ming dynasty, they suffered a raid. Outnumbered, the Miao leader tied a sheep to a war drum and fastened bronze bells to a horse, burying them in the dust to lay a bewildering array of sheep, drum, horse, and bells; he also used the juice of fruits and vegetables to stop an infant's crying, and the Miao laosi (ritual specialist) turned the fruits and vegetables into snakes and insects, covering the assembly of the clanspeople, so that the whole group turned from danger into safety. This old episode has been reported back year after year, and so it became a festival.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Among them, the custom system of Bao'an Village in Shidi Town is the most representative. Bao'an Village, Shidi Town, lies at the western foot of the Chuanhegai ridge in the northeast of Xiushan County, adjacent to Longshan and Baojing in Hunan, close to National Highway 319 and the Youshui River, with relatively convenient transport. This group suffered long oppression from bandits and was raided by bandits on the 26th day of the fourth lunar month in the third year of the Hongwu reign of the Ming dynasty. Outnumbered, the Miao leader tied a sheep to a war drum and tethered a horse with bronze bells in a concealed spot in the dust, laying a bewildering array of sheep, drum, horse, and bells, then gathered the clanspeople to prepare to flee. A woman on her way back to the stockade had an infant crying ceaselessly in her arms, almost exposing their position. In desperation, the woman hid in a vegetable plot and used the juice of fruits and vegetables to stop the infant's crying; the Miao laosi then turned the fruits and vegetables into snakes and insects, covering the assembly of the clanspeople and turning the whole group from danger into safety. When the bandits charged in, the startled sheep and horse made the war drum thunder and the dust rise; the bandits, thinking the Miao had brought reinforcements, dared not act rashly, and the Miao were able to escape safely. After the Miao settled in the Chuanhegai mountain range of Xiushan, to repay the lifesaving kindness of the fruits and vegetables and of the sheep and horse, they designated the 26th day of the fourth lunar month as the Vegetable-Repayment Festival (Baocai) beginning the following year, and held the Sheep-and-Horse Festival on the next day falling on the wu or wei earthly branch. The ritual venues of the Sheep-and-Horse Festival include Miao stockades, Miao family courtyards, vegetable gardens, and the sheep-and-horse ground; its main contents include the festival's ritual customs, offerings to the Vegetable Goddess, offerings to the Sheep-and-Horse Gods, miscellaneous drama performances, agricultural trade, and the sharing of the paotang (freshly slaughtered pork) feast. During the ritual preparation stage, sheep and horse effigies are fashioned, decorated gates and offering platforms built; pigs are slaughtered, glutinous rice cakes pounded, couplets written, market stalls set up, and offerings prepared, while clanspeople, relatives, friends, and guests are widely invited. The offering to the Vegetable Goddess takes place on the 26th day of the fourth lunar month: each family worships the Vegetable Goddess at the garden gate, then picks fruits and vegetables and offers them again in the kitchen. During the offering to the Sheep-and-Horse Gods, each family lets its sheep and horses graze freely on nearby hillsides; even if the animals mistakenly eat crops, they may not be driven away. The ritual activities also include: each family erecting decorated gates at the entrance to the sheep-and-horse ground to welcome visiting clanspeople, relatives, friends, and guests; building an offering platform at the sheep-and-horse ground and arranging offerings such as pig heads to worship the Sheep-and-Horse Gods; Miao elders recounting old tales (baigu), telling the ancestral stories and the migration history; Miao people singing and chanting the Yangma Guge; the Miao laosi leading the people in the Sheep-and-Horse Dance and the Fruit-and-Vegetable Dance; local Miao people and visiting clanspeople, relatives, friends, and guests performing folk songs, dances, and small plays; and all participants sharing the paotang long-table feast.
Making the sheep and horses, building the gate and altar
Beforehand the sheep and horses are made up, a decorated gate and an altar are built, pig is killed, glutinous rice is pounded, couplets written and stalls raised for the visitors.
Reporting to the goddess of vegetables
On the twenty-sixth day of the fourth lunar month each household offers at the garden gate, then picks vegetables and offers again in the kitchen.
Reporting to the gods of the sheep and horses
The sheep and horses are turned loose on the nearby slope and are not chased off even when they eat the crops, a deliberate repayment for the noise that once turned away the raiders.
Telling the past and singing the old song
Elders recount the ancestors and their migrations while the people sing the old song, the singers filling in place names the verses leave vague.
The sheep-horse dance and the vegetable dance
Led by the ritual officiant, the people dance the sheep-horse and vegetable dances, replaying the old stratagem and the saving vegetables as gratitude itself.
The long-table banquet
All who have come, hosts and guests alike, sit at one long table of boiled pig parts, the ordering of seats briefly dissolving the line between host and visitor.
Seeing the guests out at the gate
The festival closes only when the guests are seen out through the decorated gate on the chosen day, so the thanks given early is discharged at the end.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Xiushan Miao Sheep-and-Horse Festival is a folk festival activity held by the Miao people of Xiushan, Chongqing, to repay the lifesaving kindness that fruits, vegetables, sheep, and horses showed their ancestors in the dangers of migration. It circulates in the Chuanhegai mountain range area within Shidi, Liren, Songnong, and Longchi towns and Yongdong Township of Xiushan County, with the local Miao of the five surnames Wu, Long, Liao, Shi, and Ma as the main inheriting group. According to the traditional singing of the Yangma Guge, the ancestors of the local Miao originally lived in Nanchang, Jiangxi. On the day of the wei earthly branch, the local people send the visiting clanspeople, relatives, friends, and guests out through the decorated gates, and only then does the Sheep-and-Horse Festival draw to a close. With the repayment of gratitude to the fruits, vegetables, sheep, and horse that benefited the clanspeople as its core element, the Xiushan Miao Sheep-and-Horse Festival sees the joint participation of neighboring ethnic groups; it strongly promotes harmonious coexistence between humanity and nature as well as ethnic unity and progress, is an important representative of Xiushan regional culture, and has considerable value in social, historical, cultural, artistic, and academic terms.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
This festival takes as its essential meaning the giving of thanks to the fruits, vegetables, sheep, and horse that benefited the ancestors, with the joint participation of neighboring ethnic groups; it does much to promote harmony between humanity and nature and ethnic unity, occupies an important place in Xiushan regional culture, and its social, historical, cultural, artistic, and academic value all merit attention. The Chuanhegai mountain range around Shidi, Liren, Songnong, and Longchi towns and Yongdong Township, where the festival circulates, is the area where this custom is fully preserved; the local Miao of the five surnames Wu, Long, Liao, Shi, and Ma are the main inheriting group, with Miao elders recounting old tales, the Miao laosi leading the dances, and the singing of the Yangma Guge each having its own role.
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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