The customs and habits of the Zhuang nationality are as follows:
1. Culture and art
Songs are the main content of the folk cultural life of the Zhuang nationality. They are used to celebrate festivals, weddings and weddings, welcome guests, In romance, entertainment activities, etc., ballads are often used to express feelings and add to the fun.
There are many kinds of songs with rich content, including ancient songs, drinking songs, love songs, bitter songs, hymns, pan songs, filial songs, folk songs, etc. The metrical forms of ballads include short songs, leg-breaking songs, haiku and long narrative poems, etc. Its rhymes all rhyme with the waist and feet, which is different from the rhyme of Han poetry, which is a characteristic of Zhuang poetry.
The so-called waist rhyme, whether it is four sentences of five characters or four sentences of seven characters, rhymes with the last word of the first sentence and the middle word of the second sentence (it can also be moved forward), and the last word of the second sentence rhymes. The last word of the third sentence rhymes with the last word of the third sentence and the middle word of the fourth sentence (can also be moved forward). That is, "One line of foot rhymes with two lines of waist, two lines of two and three have feet rhymed with feet. Three lines of feet rhyme with four lines of waist, and the rhymes of feet and waist are self-consistent."
Folk legends and stories are often expressed in songs to increase their vividness. This literary form that combines speaking, singing and singing is common throughout the Zhuang area. Folk literature mainly includes myths, legends, ballads, proverbs, etc.
2. Living
Most Zhuangzhai villages are located near mountains and rivers, with many buildings and stilt-style buildings. There are two types of house structure. In the southeastern region of Guizhou, the Zhuang house is similar to the Dong pattern, with a wooden structure, mostly four rows and three rooms. In the areas of Libo and Dushan in southern Guizhou, the Zhuang family's housing pattern is the same as that of the neighboring Buyi people and the Zhuang family in northern Guizhou.
3. Clothing
The costumes of the Zhuang people living in Qiannan are basically the same as those of the local Buyi people. In general, young men and women wear ordinary clothes, and some women often wear a bustier and waistband with embroidery on one end, braids on their heads, or various colored headbands to show their ethnic characteristics. In the border areas of southeastern Guizhou, the Zhuang people have lived together with the Dong and Miao people for a long time, and they follow the local customs. The clothing color of men and women is still green and black, which is similar to the local ethnic groups.
4. Funeral
When the old man passes away and has just lost his breath, he puts the body on a straw mat and stops it beside the fire hall or behind the door, and immediately reports the funeral to his uncle's family. Please ask the devil to choose a time and then move it to the corridor and park it. When the time comes, he carries him downstairs and stops at the foot of the stairs. Then the body is symbolically washed, the hair is styled and the shroud is put on, and then it is buried in the coffin. The whole family eats vegetarian food and avoids salt, and relatives and children wear white gauze handkerchiefs as filial piety. The funeral and burial time is determined based on the birth date of the deceased.
5. Festivals
Festival activities in Zhuang Township are mostly combined with cultural entertainment or religious and superstitious activities. Traditional festivals include the festival of the prime of life, the Ox God Festival, June 14th or July 14th.
In the prime of life, most people in Congjiang regard the twelfth month of the lunar calendar as the beginning of the year and the end of November as New Year's Eve. In the afternoon of New Year's Eve, each village collectively kills a "community pig" that is raised by each household in turn every year to sacrifice to the queen of the community. The pork is cut into several portions according to the number of households in the village, and is skewered with bamboo skewers and distributed to each household. After the family cooks the skewers to honor their ancestors, the whole family has a meal together, which is called "Yijiu", that is, "twenty-nine", just like the "New Year's Eve" on the 30th day of the twelfth lunar month in Han areas.
Except women and men whose wives are pregnant, all can participate in the sacrificial ceremony. From New Year's Eve to the third day of the Lunar New Year before worshiping the Earth God, people in the village and outsiders are generally prohibited from coming in and out. From the third day to the tenth day of the Lunar New Year is the period of festive entertainment activities.
The Cow God Festival, also called April 8th, is a day when people do not go to work and cattle do not go to the fields. Every family makes black glutinous rice and feeds the rice to the cattle to express condolences and respect. June 14th. Anyone who takes the twelfth month of the lunar calendar as the beginning of the year must celebrate June 14th as a holiday. This is the second largest holiday after the Chinese New Year.
If you only celebrate the Spring Festival and are not in your prime of life, July 14th will be the Hungry Ghost Festival. On this day, ducks are commonly killed to honor ancestors, girls return to their parents' homes for reunions, and some hold activities such as horse racing or swing playing.
Extended information
The Zhuang ethnic group was developed from a branch of Baiyue in ancient times. It is the most populous ethnic group among the ethnic minorities in my country, with a total population of more than 15.48 million. Among them, there are 1 million in Yunnan, mainly in Wenshan Prefecture, and also in Honghe and Qujing.
Before the unified name of the Zhuang nationality in 1965, the Zhuang nationality had many self-titles and other names. There were more than 40 kinds of names in Yunnan alone, mainly including "Nongren", "Sharen", "Tuliao", etc.
The Zhuang ethnic group is mainly distributed in Guangxi, Yunnan, Guangdong, Hunan, Guizhou, Sichuan and other provinces. Guangxi has the most. The population in 1990 was 15.48 million. The Zhuang language belongs to the Zhuang-Dai branch of the Zhuang-Dong language family of the Sino-Tibetan language family.
In the Southern Song Dynasty, folk characters composed of square Chinese characters appeared. However, it is not widely used. It is mostly used for writing place names, compiling folk songs and recording events. In 1955, the Zhuang script based on the Latin alphabet was created and promoted, and it was partially revised in 1982.
The Zhuang people are an indigenous ethnic group in Lingnan and have a long history. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, they were a branch of Baiyue. In the Southern Song Dynasty, they were called Tongren and Dingding. In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, it was also called Tu, Yi and Sha. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the name was unified as "Tong". In 1965, according to Zhou Enlai's initiative and approved by the State Council, "Tong" was changed to "Zhuang".
Limestone in the Zhuang area is widely distributed and is a world-famous karst area. Stone mountains rise from the ground, and there are caves and underground rivers in the stone mountains. The Zhuang area has a mild climate and abundant rainfall. Agriculture is the main area, planting rice, corn, potatoes, etc.
It is also rich in fruits, has a wide forest area, and is rich in precious woods such as Liuzhou fir, silver fir, and camphor wood. Panax notoginseng, gecko and fennel oil, which are famous both at home and abroad, are long-standing specialties in the Zhuang area.
More than 70% of the land in Wenshan Prefecture, Yunnan, has a subtropical climate, and the Zhuang people mostly live in the waterfront area of ????Pingba. The land is fertile, with abundant rainfall and abundant products. Crops can be harvested twice or three times a year. It is suitable for growing glutinous rice and other rice, so it is called "Mito".
The eight-treasure rice from Guangnan is particularly famous and was once used as a tribute. Wenshan's "Sanqi" has long enjoyed a high reputation internationally, and condiments such as Qiubei spicy food and Funing star anise are quite famous. ?
The Zhuang people’s staple food is rice, and they are good at making glutinous rice food. Five-color glutinous rice, rice Krispies candy, and baked rice dumplings are the best snacks for the festival. Flower rice is dyed with the juice of various colored plants and steamed.
There are many kinds of zhuang rice dumplings, and they are big in size. Generally, each weighs about 1 kilogram and looks like a pillow. During the festival, people carry big rice dumplings and parade through the streets. There is a kind of rice dumplings wrapped in brown leaves called "Ma Jiao Gang", which is made by dyeing glutinous rice black with straw ash, adding star anise powder, bacon, etc. and cooking it.
Daily vegetables include green vegetables, melon seedlings, melon leaves, Chinese cabbage (Chinese cabbage), Chinese cabbage, rapeseed, mustard greens, lettuce, celery, spinach, kale, water spinach, radish, bitter mustard, and even Bean leaves, sweet potato leaves, pumpkin sprouts, pumpkin flowers, and pea sprouts can also be used as vegetables.
Boiling is the most common method, and there is also the habit of pickling vegetables into sauerkraut, pickled bamboo shoots, salted radish, kohlrabi, etc. When it's almost out of the pan, add lard, salt, and chopped green onion. ?
The Zhuang people are not allowed to eat any poultry and livestock meat, such as pork, beef, mutton, chicken, duck, goose, etc. The Zhuang people also like to hunt and cook game, insects, and in some areas they also like to eat dog meat.
Pork is also cooked as a whole piece, then cut into hand-sized cubes, then added to the pot and seasoned. The Zhuang people are accustomed to cooking fresh chicken, duck, fish and vegetables until they are about seven or eight years old. The vegetables are stir-fried in a hot pot and then taken out of the pot, which can maintain the freshness of the vegetables.
The Zhuang people also brew rice wine, sweet potato wine and cassava wine, which are not too high in alcohol content. Rice wine is the main drink for festivals and entertaining guests. Some rice wine is paired with chicken gallbladder, which is called chicken gallbladder. Wine, paired with chicken offal is called chicken offal wine, and paired with pork liver is called pig liver wine. When drinking chicken offal wine and pork liver wine, drink it all in one gulp. Chew the chicken offal and pork liver left in your mouth slowly, which can relieve hangover and serve as a dish.
Reference: Guizhou Provincial Ethnic and Religious Affairs Commission-Zhuang