Yi Military Exercise Festival
The Yi Military Manipulation Festival is on the 26th day of the sixth month of the lunar calendar. It is another grand festival of the Yi people in Fuchang Village, Midu County after the Torch Festival-the Military Manipulation Festival. On this day, Abibai (the king) gathered all men, women and children in the village to gather in the Tuzhu Temple to sacrifice and entertain the gods, and to train "soldiers", praying for a bumper harvest and peace. According to textual research, this festival has been lost in other Yi areas in China.
There are 113 households and 385 people in Fuchang Village, Hongyan Town, Midu County, Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province. The villagers are from the Laluo branch of the Yi nationality. The Yi language of Fuchang Village calls the Battle of Soldiers "Adu Knock"."Adu" means the king, and "Knock" means drill, which means that the king drills soldiers before embarking on an expedition.
The Cao Bing Festival is a commemorative event for the local Yi people. It is said that in ancient times, there were frequent wars between tribes, and the Yi tribes had fewer soldiers and soldiers. In order to resist external invasion, enhance the quality of soldiers, and improve combat effectiveness, sacrifices, divination and drills of soldiers were carried out before sending troops to pray for victory in the war. Since then, it has been passed down from generation to generation without interruption.
In recent years, the village has established a system to assign six families to take charge of preparatory work every year, and the group is convened by "Abi", equivalent to the tribal leader. During the festival, the village bought a black boar, and the whole village gathered in the Tuzhu Temple to kill pigs. Each household pays 500 grams of rice to cook the big pot, and the pork is divided equally among households. The pig's head and pig's feet are used on diet. Each household pays RMB 10 for the annual activity expenses, and the insufficient part is subsidized by the villagers 'group. Each household pays one liter of broad beans, which symbolizes horse feed.
The personnel participating in the exercise included 1 Abibai, the "King" disguise, 2 "Guards"(male, aged 15-18), and 10 "Soldiers"(male, aged 12-15). The "King" was wearing a traditional Yi cross-placket with a sheepskin coat, carrying a large sheepskin bag and holding a 1-meter-long military control stick.
The "Guard" wore a double-pronged shirt and carried two five-color dog-toothed flags. The flagpole was about 2 meters long. The "soldier" wore a double-pronged shirt and carried a five-color flag on both sides, with a flagpole about 1 meter long. 1 horn trumpeter. On the day of the Soldier Exercise Festival, villagers from the neighboring villages of eight townships habitually went to Fuchang Village to visit relatives and friends to watch the Soldier Exercise Festival. In recent years, more and more foreigners have come to watch, with about 500- 1,000 people every year.
The exercise begins after breakfast and ends at dark that day. The activity is divided into three parts: leading troops, maneuvering troops, and singing songs. The protagonists of the two parts of leading the troops and commanding the troops are the "King" and the "Guard". The last part is to sing and see off, wishing their loved ones a smooth journey on the journey and a safe return.
On the day of Soldier Manipulation Day, after breakfast, at Hai o'clock, the trumpeter blew the horn and Abi announced the beginning of the Soldier Manipulation activity. Everyone was solemn and solemn. The "King" held a baton and led the "guards" and "soldiers" to kneel neatly in front of the incense table in the hall. After the "King" recited the sacrificial scriptures and placed the sacrificial objects one by one to pay tribute to the sun, moon, Guanyin, earth lord, dragon king, mountain god, and earth, he "went out of Cao" to a Tang millet tree outside the temple called the "Commanding Tree" to worship wine, meat, and tea, burn paper and fire, perform divination, and request leadership of troops. After leading the troops back, the "king" led the "soldiers" to kneel down in front of the table in the combat ground, burning paper, fire, and divination, asking if they could start the combat.
"Ah Du..." The "King" gave the order and began to use the troops. The "King" held a baton and chased the "soldiers" on the battlefield. During the pursuit, the "King" used the baton to pry the "guard", and the "guard" also used the flagpole in his hand to pry the "King". The "soldiers" fought against each other until they pried their opponents down. It's a round to knock down your opponent. At the end of each round, the king led the "soldiers" to kneel down at the table in the center of the field to divination and predict whether they could go to war. The flag of one color is withdrawn at the end of each round, indicating that the people of this square formation can go out. In this way, five rounds were pried until the flags of the five colors were collected, which means that all five square formations could go out and win the battle. After the exercise, the "King" broke off the head of a hen that had not laid eggs with his hand, threw the chicken to the temple gate, and predicted the situation of the war and the development of the village this year from the direction of the chicken's neck. The chicken's neck extending inward means that the war is not smooth and the village's development is not good this year; the chicken's neck extending outward means that the war is smooth and the village's development is good this year.
After the exercise, the villagers began to sing and sing the tune of sending the men off to war: "What is the best fruit? The fruit is good for Torch Festival. What is the best year to call? The year is a good year for this year." In this way, I wish the world peace and wish my loved ones a smooth journey on the journey and a safe return.