Paiyao costumes
The Yao people have created rich and colorful culture and art during their long historical development. Colorful and simple costumes are an integral part of its culture and art. As early as the Han Dynasty, there were records of the lustful and colorful clothes of its ancestors. For thousands of years, although the Yao people have been in a state of migration and nomadic farming, their clothing still maintains the distinctive characteristics of the Yao people, which include various styles, eye-catching colors, simple patterns and exquisite craftsmanship.
Headdress
Paiyao men, women and children all have long hair, which is knotted into a conical military shape on their heads. For the sake of beauty, their buns are wrapped with red, green and yellow yarn, and 1 to 3 pheasant tails are inserted into them. Earrings made of aluminum, tin or silver, and several collars around the neck. This is generally the same dress for men and women. The obvious difference between men's and women's headwear is: the men wear a red scarf, which is more than a foot long, and wraps the top of their head like a big millstone, with a cocktail tail like a sword, which looks very powerful. The women's circle is wrapped in an embroidered headband, which is also wrapped with jade bracelet-shaped baigutong (a spongy tree pistil) or wild barley beads. The pheasant tail is inserted with white soft feathers, and inserted with Decorations such as silver hairpins or hairpins and mountain flowers look very beautiful and dignified. Any woman wearing a headscarf is a sign of marriage. Unmarried girls do not wear kerchiefs on their heads. In Yao Pai in Junliao, Daping and other places, married women wear large bamboo shell boards on their heads to form a small building, and wear various silver medals and silver hairpins, which are solemn and dazzling and show the characteristics of the Yao people. In addition to headdresses and necklaces, women also wear aluminum or silver bracelets, and women from wealthy families wear jade bracelets and gold earrings. Children often wear iron or aluminum anklets to avoid evil and bring good luck.
Clothing
Both men and women in Paiyao wear loquat-fronted clothes without collars and buttons. This kind of wide and long skirt is worn on the body, folded on the chest, and then wrapped around the navel with a belt more than one foot long. Wear bucket pants that are as wide as a bucket and are as short as the knee. This kind of clothing is made of locally made roving cotton cloth, dyed in indigo, coffee, brown and black and other colors. The cloth is solid and durable, and the upper edge is embroidered or white, making it look beautiful, simple and unique to the Yao family. There are also clear differences between men's and women's clothing. Men's clothes are shorter than the navel; women's clothes are longer than the thighs. The men wear red loincloths and the women wear white sash, which is clearly visible. Because they were wearing bucket trousers, their feet were tied below the knees. The feet were tied with white cloth, black cloth, or yellow and white patterned cloth, and they were wrapped from the ankles to the knees to connect with the trousers. In the past, they all wore straw sandals or cloth shoes, and most people wore rubber shoes or Jiefang shoes. No matter what kind of shoes they are, they are all bought in the Han area. Yao women can embroider, but not make shoes. Perhaps our ancestors did not have the habit of making shoes, and this is still the case today.
Paiyao also has festive costumes and wedding dresses, which are usually worn when going out to visit relatives and friends, going to the streets and markets, and during festivals. These costumes are all embroidered with patterns and patterns, and the patterns are based on life, such as birds and animals, flowing water and clouds, mountain flowers and wild grasses, vines and climbing vines. Almost all kinds of strange scenery in nature are integrated into the ingenious embroidery of Yao women. . At the same time, it is also equipped with an apron and a colorful cloak, which are colorful and have different patterns, making them dazzling. The cloak is covered with metal-shaped bronze drums, bronze medals, gongs, golden dragons, white horses, unicorns, lions, phoenixes, etc. Wearing gold flower and silver hairpins, bronze medals and bronze drums on their heads, the golden light sparkles when they walk and jingles when they dance. This kind of attire is prepared by the men themselves, and the women bring it from their parents' families with their dowry, and it belongs to each person for their lifetime use. When they reach their 100th birthday, they will use it as birthday clothes and be buried in fine clothes.
Normally, the Yao family carries other equipment with them: men's shotguns, animal skin bags (to hold gunpowder, tobacco leaves and sundries), sharp-nosed hatchets, and San Bo Bao. The embroidered Yao bag, tall sun umbrella and hook-tipped sickle are also three treasures of the women's world.
Changes in Clothing
As for Paiyao costumes, during the unprecedented Cultural Revolution period, some people proposed to destroy the Four Olds and force the Yao people to modify them into Chinese styles, which was strongly opposed by the Yao people. Some Yao compatriots who joined the army, went out to study and returned to their hometowns still grew their hair and wore clothing and wore Yao clothes back home. Because they live in the mountains and ridges, they are engaged in mountain labor such as afforestation, hunting, and plowing. Often climb mountains and ridges, cut through thorns and thorns, and wear a headscarf to prevent the head from being stabbed by awn leaves and thorns; wear shorts to facilitate walking on rugged roads; and tie your feet to prevent attacks by venomous snakes, mountain locusts and mountain flow rocks. Therefore, except for some young people who go to the market and change to Hanfu, middle-aged and above Yao people still wear Yao clothes. On a high mountain with an altitude of more than 800 meters in Liannan, the Millennium Yao Village in Nangang, Liannan Yao Autonomous County, known as the "No. 1 Yao Village in China", is the largest, oldest and most distinctive Yao Village in China. The surrounding mountains are steep, the streams are flowing, and the peaks are numerous. Looking up, you can see rows of neatly arranged classical buildings and houses scattered all over the hills. The ancient houses are all built with blue brick walls and black tile roofs. They have unique shapes and are extremely spectacular.
Generation after generation, the Yao people have continued to open up mountains, build villages on steep mountains, live in groups, and have complete water supply facilities. At the same time, they reclaimed farmland and planted dry grains; planted bamboo and wood on the steep slopes of mountains to create patches of forest; where there were water sources, they reclaimed terraced fields along the mountains and planted rice. They built the village gates, walls, stone arch bridges, stone paths, stone coffin tombs, and blue brick houses built in the Ming and Qing Dynasties during the Ming Dynasty. Although they have lasted hundreds of years, their style still remains.
The Millennium Yao Village is a big "fortress". The mountain stronghold is built on the mountainside which is easy to defend but difficult to attack. It is fortified everywhere and has strict barriers. It is said that it has resisted enemy attacks many times in history.
The restored gate of the village we saw is about 7 meters high and 2 meters wide. The sides and top of the gate are all made of hard stones. The left and right sides of the gate are also made of stone walls. It is one meter thick, enough to feel its solidity.
There are no hotels in Yao Village. It is best to stay in the homes of Yao people, eat and live with them, and just leave some money when you leave. You can also live in Liannan County. Overview
Yao Village is the hometown of singing and dancing. Every October 16th, Panwang Festival, Shuangtang Festival, July 7th Singing Festival, New Year Touring Festival and other grand festivals, Yao family men, women and children gather together. They went out to play folk songs in the arena, singing antiphons, pan songs, or fighting songs. They sang until midnight, and they didn't stop until they were hoarse. Among them, the "Singing Song Hall" has become a traditional folk event in Liannan Yao Autonomous County and was included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage lists. The Yao people love to sing from sunrise to sunset. The sound of singing is like a mountain stream, with thousands of branches flowing together to form a river.
Yao songs
Yao songs are an integral part of the oral literature of the Paiyao people. Singing is a daily routine for the Yao people, and men, women, old and young are all good singers. In their daily lives, they often use songs instead of words. For this reason, Yao people began to learn singing since they were young. Every New Year's Eve in the Yao family, the elders teach the younger ones how to sing. Men learn to sing celebration songs for weddings and funerals, etiquette songs for dealing with others, songs of integrity for production and labor, songs of knowledge, etc. Women learn to sing embroidery songs, childbirth songs, etc. These songs have a certain style, allowing children to learn them at an early age so that they can socialize easily when they grow up. Usually, the old people like to sing long narrative songs after tea and meals, often singing one story all night long, just like the mountains and streams, which are sweet and sweet. Because singing is so popular, the Yao people go to the mountains to work, sing impromptu, answer each other with songs, or sing fighting songs at the throat, you sing and I sing, which is full of fun.
Yao songs are mainly composed of long and short sentences without any definite structure. It can be said that they are all in free form. The music melody of its songs does not change much, and there are only several main singing styles such as mountain climbing tune, love song tune, and Shiye tune. The lyrics are written according to the content of the song, but Yao singers are very flexible in choosing the mode. In the mountains, they usually sing the mountain climbing tune or the antiphonal tune across the mountain. When they sing narrative at home, they sing the free narrative tune. For example, in "Song to Congratulate the New House", the guest congratulates the host on moving into a new house, using a free narrative tone.
If you are playing antiphonal songs or fighting songs, use rough and heroic antiphonal songs across the mountain; if you are working or hunting in the mountains, use mountain climbing tunes with strong mountain charm.
Although there are not many modes in Yao songs and the scales do not change much, the content of Yao songs is very rich and all-encompassing. Yao songs are included in everything in the world. Specifically, there are "etiquette songs" used for communication, including weddings and funerals; there are "production songs" that spread production knowledge; there are "love songs" that talk about love; there are "historical narrative songs" that sing historical legends and stories. , such as "Water Flooded Sky", "Pangu Song", etc.; there is "Shiye Song" that spreads religious beliefs; there are also "Liu Sanmei", "Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai" that flowed in from Han District and Zhuang Township, and songs that sing about new life of various carols, etc.
Dance
In addition to singing, the Paiyao people also like to dance. The more popular ones include "Long Drum Dance", "Wandering God Dance" and so on. Most of these dances reflect the production struggles and living customs of the Yao people, reflect the thoughts, feelings and ideal wishes of the Yao people, and have the unique style of the Yao people. The dance movements are rough, brave, unrestrained, vigorous and free; the rhythm is bright and agile. The dance vocabulary imitates climbing up and down mountains, crossing streams and valleys, felling and transporting trees, fighting dragons and tigers, etc. The images are vivid and can be understood at a glance. The cultural life of the Yao people dares to keep leaping forward. In addition to respecting the traditional festivals of the Yao people and carrying out mass entertainment activities, the People's Government of the autonomous county also holds ethnic cultural performances every few years to promote Yaoshan literature and art. Songs and dances reflecting the life of the Yao people emerged at the historic moment. Some wonderful programs such as "Embroidery Dance", "Tea Picking Dance", "Hunting Dance", "Umbrella Dance", etc. were refined and processed to form a repertoire, which became popular in the Yao District and were selected and presented. Participated in various performances in provinces, cities and across the country. ShuoGetang
ShuoGetang is the most solemn and largest traditional festival for the Bapai Yao people to celebrate the harvest. According to "Guangdong Xinyu": On the sixteenth day of mid-winter, when the fields were built, Zhu Yao went to the temple for a meeting, called the singing hall, where men and women gathered to dance and sing. At the same time, you can get married freely and the etiquette is simple. It can be seen that the Yao people's singing hall held on October 16th of the lunar calendar is a traditional festival to spread historical knowledge and celebrate the harvest of a year of hard work.
The singing and dancing of Yao Village is very "ritualistic". First, the salute (cannon) is fired. As soon as the nine-gun cannon is fired, people "come out of the singing hall" with great interest. The mighty singing hall procession was led by the host of the ceremony - "Mr. Gong", followed by the Luo Umbrella and Bamboo Banner Team, followed by the Long Drum Team, Ox Horn Team, Gong Team, Suona Team, Song and Dance Team, etc. Waiting, drums and horns are noisy, singing and dancing.
After the people who came out of the singing hall arrived at the "Getangping", they performed the "Crossing State Dance". According to legend, when the ancestors of Paiyao migrated to Liannan, they passed through nine states and ten prefectures in one go. After many hardships, the "Crossing State Dance" got its name. The following Chang Drum performance is legendary. This is a traditional folk dance passed down from generation to generation in Liannan Paiyao. According to legend, a long time ago, a hard-working and handsome young man named Tang Dongbi rescued a heavenly fairy named Fangsha Thirteenth Sister. The two fell in love with each other and got married. But when the Jade Emperor found out, he ordered Thunder God to descend to earth and force the fairy back to the palace. The fairy asked Tang Dongbi to cut down the harp tree and make a long drum, dance and hit it seventy-two times before they could meet in heaven. Tang Dong complied and they were reunited as expected.
From then on, the Yao people danced the long drum to express their blessings for loyal love. Since ancient times, they have practiced a monogamous marriage system and strictly restricted blood marriage. Intermarriage is not allowed between clans with the same surname. Even if they have different surnames, aunts and uncles cannot marry. Intermarriage can only occur after three generations.
The main way for Yao people to talk about marriage is "Yu Sha Yao" (that is, singing love), and they can freely choose their sweetheart through "antiphony". Singing to talk about marriage is sometimes performed during festivals, and some are performed across the mountains while working in the mountains. The most popular one is to sing in front of the window of the woman's house at night. When Yao girls grow up to around 18 years old, young men will come to sing at night. Sometimes a young man alone invites the girl to sing, and sometimes several young men take turns singing at the same time. If the girl has feelings for the man singing, she will sing duet with him; if not, she will silently pass the torch from the window. In addition to expressing her refusal to court, the kind-hearted girl also hopes that the young man will not be discouraged, use this torch to light the way, and go elsewhere to find a girl for love and courtship. Among the many suitors, if a young man is chosen by a girl, the other young men will not only not be jealous, but also heartily congratulate him on singing wooing and winning love.
After the marriage is successful through singing, the two parties will give each other tokens. Usually the girl will give the boy an embroidered brocade bag or a red scarf, and the boy will give the girl silver earrings, silver hairpins, silver bracelets and other accessories. Then, the man will ask a matchmaker to go to the girl's house to negotiate a marriage, and the parents will usually agree to their daughter's choice. After obtaining the consent of the woman's family, the man will bring gifts such as chicken, pork, tofu, rice wine, salt, tea, etc. to the woman's home for a "wedding engagement ceremony", commonly known as "sending salt packets" to agree on a wedding date. The man prepares materials for the wedding, and the woman prepares the "dowry".
The man's betrothal gift is mainly "marriage meat". Each "marriage meat" is 3 to 6 pounds of pork, depending on the number of in-laws of the woman. In addition, there are symbolic red envelopes, wine, chicken, etc. The woman does not insist on it. Under normal circumstances, a few hundred yuan can cover the cost of the betrothal gift.
In the past, the woman’s dowry mainly consisted of embroidered “wedding dress” and firewood. The woman needs to cut dozens of loads of firewood for the dowry, which shows that the bride is a hard-working and frugal person. In addition, there are also dowries such as quilts, buckets, washbasins, hatchets, hoes, and sun umbrellas (the rich also have a small amount of fields and forests). If you marry a girl, you will need to pay money to marry her. After the reform and opening up, the lives of Yao people have improved, and many people have purchased televisions, washing machines and other electrical appliances as dowries.
In Paiyao weddings, there is a peculiar custom of "fried soybeans". On the night before the girl gets married, the young man who is going to be the groom dresses up and goes to the bride's house with the best man to visit the bride. After eating the bride's "fried soybeans", the groom and the best man left immediately. The bride invited her best friends and her boyfriend, with whom she had sung and fallen in love, to fry soybeans, boil peanuts, make strong tea, and entertain her warmly. Everyone ate, drank, sang, and blessed each other until dawn.
The bride’s wedding banquet will be hosted by her uncle. After the wedding banquet is over, the couple gets married. The sister-in-law dresses the bride. After asking the husband (grandmaster) to recite the Yao Sutra, the bride puts on her shoes backwards and goes out of the hall (meaning that although she is married, her heart is still towards her natal family), salutes and bids farewell to her ancestors, grandfather, grandmother, parents, etc., and sends her married uncle and sisters off. The sisters-in-law and others, while consoling her, sent the bride out of the house, held up her parasol and set out on the road.
On the way to the wedding, whenever she crosses a stream or a bridge, the bride takes the opportunity to behave coquettishly and make things difficult for the groom, standing at the head of the bridge or by the stream and refusing to walk. At this time, the groom knowingly carried the bride on his back, and everyone laughed and laughed.
The wedding procession arrived at the Yaozhai intersection of the groom’s family. The singers sent by the groom’s family had prepared rice wine to block the road and held a welcoming singing ceremony. Both parties drink a bowl of wine to show respect to each other every time they sing a song. It takes about half an hour to sing before welcoming the bride into the village.
When the bride arrived at the door of the groom’s house, her husband recited the Yao Sutra, held an exorcism and blessing ceremony, and then was taken into the bridal chamber. At the wedding banquet, the host and guests eat, drink and sing to each other, blessing and praising the bride and groom. During the wedding banquet, the bride brings a basin of hot water and is led by her mother-in-law to wash hands with the groom's relatives and friends and introduce them to him. The relatives and friends give red envelopes as a greeting gift. The wedding banquet will last for several hours before it is over.
Paiyao implements the system of living with the husband and taking the father's surname. Even the adopted son or the son-in-law must take the father's surname. In a Paiyao family, the husband is the head of the family and is in charge of the financial income and expenditure and social activities, but he does not have exclusive authority. He often discusses matters with his wife. Men and women are equal, husband and wife are harmonious, share joys and sorrows, and divorce is rare. In the past, the divorce procedures for Paiyao people were very simple. If there was a bad relationship and the persuasion of relatives, friends and Yao elders failed, they could get divorced. They each asked their uncles, brothers and Yao Lao to testify, and brought a bamboo tube of wine to the village road. After drinking the wine back to back, Yao Lao cut the bamboo slip into two pieces, and the husband and wife each held one piece and said goodbye. The divorce was considered effective. Divorce and remarriage are not discriminated against, but the wedding ceremony is slightly simpler than the wedding of a daughter. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Yao people consciously went to relevant government departments to go through the formalities when getting married or divorced, but their unique marriage and love customs still remained.