Living customs of Maonan people

Maonan people are one of the mountainous ethnic groups with a small population in China. The Maonan people call themselves "Ananda", which means "people from this place." The title indicates that they are the indigenous people of Lingxi. Although the Maonan people have a small population, they are famous for their long history and unique culture. The Maonan people mainly live in the Maonan Mountain, Jiandushan Mountain, Fenghuang Mountain and Dashi Mountain areas of the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau in China, while the mountainous areas of upper south, central south and lower south of Huanjiang Maonan Autonomous County in Guangxi are called "Sannan" and are known as the "Hometown of Maonan."

The Maonan people use Maonan language, which is generally considered to belong to the Dongshui branch of the Dongtai language family of the Sino-Tibetan family. Traditionally, the Maonan people did not have a written writing system. Instead, they used the pronunciation and meaning of Chinese characters to record folk songs and religious recitation books in the Maonan language or created new characters based on Chinese characters. These "local characters" were only known to Shigong and a few scholars. After 2010, a pinyin scheme for Maonan characters based on Latin letters appeared. It is now spread among some Maonan intellectuals. For details of the text, see "Maonan Net". Roughly speaking, the syntactic characteristics are SVO type (i.e. subject + verb + object), such as Maenz (he/she) bai (went to) her (market)"he/she went to the market/market"; the head is placed before the modifier, such as mus (pig) naem (black)"black pig".

Most modern political and economic words are loanwords in Southwest Mandarin, while most old Chinese loanwords are loanwords in Pinghua. In terms of pronunciation, it is generally believed that there are 8 tones (actually only 6 tones that can distinguish meanings); the initial pronunciation system of Maonan language has more than 80 initials) is more complex than that of Chinese (about 20 initials) and Zhuang language (about 30 initials). Most people in Maonan can speak Zhuang and Chinese, and those with school education can speak Chinese. Primary schools and middle schools in Maonan area use Chinese textbooks and teach them in Mandarin, but primary school teachers mostly use Maonan when discussing lesson plans. The daily language of the Xiannan Township Government in the central area where the Maonan ethnic group lives is usually Maonan. The official language of the government of Huanjiang Maonan Autonomous County is Southwestern Mandarin. Another branch of the Maonan ethnic group (accounting for about 1/3 of the population) lives in Pingtang, Dushan and other counties in southern Guizhou. It uses the "Yanghuang dialect", so it is also called the "Yanghuang people".

The Maonan people believe in polytheism and polyreligion. Before the end of the Ming Dynasty, people mainly believed in primitive religions. In the early Qing Dynasty, Zhengyi School of Taoism was introduced into Maonan ethnic areas, and several religions began to be popular at the same time. Later, Taoism occupied a major position in the confluence of Maonan culture, especially primitive religion, culture and other folk beliefs, forming the so-called "martial arts religion" mainly focusing on worshiping gods and dancing gods (returning vows), the so-called "culture and education" mainly focusing on fasting and sending people to the end, and the water and land Taoist temple where the two groups cooperated. The person in charge of worshiping rituals is called "Botao" by Maonan people, or Shigong; the person in charge of the funeral rituals is called "Mr.", or Taoist priest. The third type is a wizard who specializes in exorcising ghosts and summoning gods, called "Craftsman Mu". The rest are God Adventurers, Feng Shui Masters, and Ghost Valley Masters (also divination, etc.). In the first three types, they each have a set of scriptures. For example, Shigong has a canary and reciting lyrics (witch language); Taoist priests have "Song of Opening the Road","Elegy" and Buddhist scriptures; and wizards have a collection of witch language. Most of Shigong's recitation is long and short sentences, with three, four, five, six, and seven words in the lyrics, and there are very few long and short sentences. The Taoist's lyrics have five-character sentences and seven-character sentences, while the sentence patterns in the scriptures vary in length. A considerable part of these lyrics, scriptures and witchcraft are rhymes, which pay attention to meter and are closely related to the folk songs and ballads of the Maonan nationality. Their forms and songs are popular among the masses. Most of the written characters are written in Chinese characters directly, and some are written in borrowed characters. When singing, Shigong and wizard mostly use the Chinese dialect of Desheng Township, Yizhou City, Guangxi, and use Maonan and Zhuang; Taoist priests use Mandarin in Liuzhou, Guangxi, and use Maonan dialect for their lyrics. The nearly one million words of libretto, scriptures and witchcraft not only contain a large amount of religious materials, traditional verse and prose works, but also preserve many folk customs, history, language and writing materials, with rich cultural connotations.

Maonan people have lived in the arms of the mountains for generations and have an indissoluble bond with the stones in the mountains. In the Ganlan Building where they lived, the lower half of the Ganlan Column on the ground floor was a stone pillar; the steps leading from the courtyard into the building were stone strips; the foundation and gable walls of the Ganlan Building were made of neat stones; even the doorsill, sunstand, cow pen, pig pen, tables, stools, water tanks, and water basins were all made of stone or carved.

The Maonan people live together under the same surname and the same ethnic group. The villages are built on the mountains. Most of them are small villages with more than 10 households, and the largest one does not exceed 100 households. Houses are generally made of tile-roofed mud walls, divided into two floors: the upper floor houses people and has a sundeck built in front of them. The lower floor houses livestock and piles up debris, maintaining the characteristics of a "dry fence" building.

Maonan families are generally monogamous families. In the past, most marriages were arranged by parents, and there were legacy customs such as "not leaving the husband's home" and "transferring the house." Widow remarriage was also subject to various restrictions, which have basically changed. When people die, they are buried in the ground, and Duke Dao is asked to "recite scriptures and attend the funeral."

costumes are similar to those of the nearby Zhuang people. Both men and women like to wear blue and cyan plumes and double-plumes. Women wear a right-rimmed blazer with two laces and piping trousers, with a braid and a bun. I like to wear bracelets, silver medals and other jewelry, especially wearing flower and bamboo hats. The little girl wore a rectangular waist embroidered with exquisite patterns. The "Dingka Flower"(flower bamboo hat) is a masterpiece among the Maonan handmade products. The top of the hat is knitted with dozens of honeycomb eyes and lined with oil paper and floral cloth. In Nanmu Village, in the middle and south of Huanjiang County, silverware skills have been passed down from generation to generation. The silver bracelets, silver collars, silver unicorns, and "Five Sons Dengke" hat ornaments are made with simple and beautiful patterns and fine workmanship, which are very popular among girls.

Maonan men and women are free to fall in love, but they are not free to marry. Matchmakers are often matchmakers. There are two main forms: one is that the man's parents take a fancy to the woman first and ask a matchmaker to propose marriage. The other is that the two parties do not know each other and rely on the matchmaker to build the bridge, and then the fortune-teller calculates and looks at the eight characters of both parties.

Maonan people eat various rice made of rice and corn as their staple food. For example, Maonan rice is made from waxy corn flour, bamboo shoots, other vegetables and seasonings, mixed and cooked. It is the staple food of the Maonan people in summer. The Maonan people are also good at using rice or corn to make "rice bee babies" as an auxiliary staple food, which is a good way to relieve summer heat. Families like to eat sweet potatoes and use them as one of the auxiliary staple foods after autumn.

There are many vegetables in the Maonan area, which are constant all the time, including peas, cabbage, bitter sesame vegetables, pumpkin, sweet potato leaves, bean pods, canna, green vegetables and radishes. Among them, pumpkin is a vegetable commonly eaten in autumn and winter. It can be sliced and cooked in porridge. It can also be steamed separately.

The main sources of meat are poultry and livestock, including pigs, cattle, chickens, ducks, etc. I like to eat dog meat. In some places, there is the habit of killing dogs and eating meat during the Mid-Yuan Festival. The Maonan people generally like to eat half-rare dishes. They believe that some meats and vegetables, especially chicken, will lose their flavor if they are cooked too well. It is only appropriate to cook the duck thoroughly. In cooking, there is a saying that "the chicken is raw and the duck is cooked".

The Maonan people like many sour foods, among which "belly xing","jar simmer" and "suofa" are the most common, known as "Maonan Sansour".

"Waking up the belly": Cut the pork and beef into thin slices, mix well with raw salt powder and bite thoroughly, and leave for two or three days. Steam it with fragrant glutinous rice, place it in a dustpan to cool, rub it evenly with the meat slices, place it in the jar and seal it. It will be available in three months.

"Simmer urn": In order to be able to eat sour food at any time, every household has a special salt water jar. Maonan dialect called "urn simmer", can pickle a variety of melons and vegetables.

"Suofa": the clean snails with lard dry fry, until ripe hair fragrance, hot into the altar, and then sealed. You can remove the cover and eat it in three months. It is called "Suofa" in Maonan.

In addition to the "three acids", there are also sour peppers, sour tomatoes, sour heads, sour radishes, etc.

Maonan adult men like to drink alcohol, and there is a saying that non-alcohol is not enough to respect guests. Some people also brew their own sorghum and corn. However, most of the bottled liquor sold on the market.

Most Maonan people like to drink tea, and often use strong tea to relieve the heat in summer. When walking long distances, I often bring "wild pomegranate" or green peppers with me to quench my thirst.

Typical food: Minglun white-cut fragrant pig is a famous dish of the Maonan nationality. It is steamed with local fragrant pig and seasoning. In addition, there are sweet sweet potatoes; snail acid, garlic sour water, duck blood sauce, and tofu dish.

During festivals, the Maonan people like to use boiling water to wash beef to entertain guests. That is, according to local custom, an iron pot is placed on the fire pond. During meals, everyone gathers around the iron pot and pours raw meat and lettuce into boiling water to wash them well. Then dip them in ingredients and add wine. This is the most common form of banquet among the Maonan people. On the first day of the first lunar month, you must not curse or speak rude words; when there is a patient at home, use two sticks to place them at the door, and outsiders are not allowed to enter; you cannot use your feet on the stove. When burning firewood, you must send the thick end into the stove first.