What is the custom of "robbing marriage" of the Yi people?

Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan is the largest Yi inhabited area in China. Before 1950s, China was still in a slave society and was ruled by slave owners. Slaves completely lost their personal freedom, and slave owners were free to buy and sell slaves. A female slave is worth fifteen or sixteen sheep, but a dozen young male slaves are not worth a good horse. In the marriage system, buying and selling marriage is one of the main characteristics of slavery marriage.

Besides arranged marriage, there are other marriage forms of Liangshan Yi people. For example, aunts and uncles have priority in marriage (aunts and cousins don't get married), the system of transferring houses (brothers and dead brothers marry their sisters-in-law) and the custom of not leaving their husbands' homes are all circulating. One of the more distinctive is the custom of robbing marriage.

The Yi people rob marriage into two types: violent robbery and imitation robbery. The former often resort to force without media participation. After robbing relatives, they will talk through the matchmaker; If both men and women get understanding, they can get married formally; If they can't get along, they may hold a grudge, and some even fight with men and women for a long time. This custom of violently robbing relatives is rare in today's Yi areas. More often, it is a farce to spoof "robbing marriage."

When getting married formally, there will be a farce of robbing the marriage, but this time it is not at the woman's house, but on the way to get married. On this day, the bride was beautifully dressed, and the woman's family sent someone to send her halfway, while the man's family robbed the bride on the way, which became a handover ceremony.

About 3 million Yi people live in Yunnan and Guizhou provinces. Although the residence is scattered, the traditional marriage customs are similar. The custom of robbing marriage is also popular in Yunnan and Guizhou Yi areas. More than 10 days before the girl got married, the young men and women in the stockade were ready to splash water. They often set up checkpoints at the crossroads where the bride must pass, nail stakes and tie a trip net there, and put ten buckets of water on the roadside to make it difficult for the bride to escape. Generally speaking, splashing water at a wedding ceremony is splashing water, even in the twelfth lunar month. Yi people believe that the more water is poured on the wedding guests, the happier the marriage will be in the future.

Marriage robbery is an ancient form of marriage, which was compulsory at first and became a symbolic expression in later generations. In addition, as a marriage ceremony, snatching marriage is relatively simple and requires little bride price, so it is mostly adopted by the poor. In modern society, the number of free marriages has increased, so robbing marriage has actually lost its original meaning.