Tujia marriage law

In history, the marriage system of Tujia nationality experienced primitive marriage forms, such as group marriage, punaluan family marriage and pairing marriage, and finally entered monogamy. Tujia people's modern wedding customs, we can appreciate their unique national customs from their wedding ceremony. Brother-in-law and sister-in-law system: In the past, in Tujia customs, if the brother died and the younger brother was not married, he could marry the widowed sister-in-law, which was called "brother and brother sitting in bed"; If the younger brother dies early, the older brother can marry his sister-in-law, commonly known as "brother sits in his bed." Only when the younger brother or elder brother is unwilling to marry a widowed sister-in-law or sister-in-law, and no man of the same age in the husband's family is willing to marry, can a woman marry outside. And if the wife dies and the wife and sister are not married, the brother-in-law can continue to marry the wife and sister, commonly known as "filling the house." This kind of brotherly marriage ceremony and sister-in-law system are the remains of pairing marriage in Tujia modern marriage customs. The "daughter's party" in western Hubei, the "onion picking party" in Longshan, Baojing and Yongshun in western Hunan, the "touching rice" in Tujia wedding, and the tryst after men and women waved, all have the color of pairing marriage. ? "Looking for Momomi": dialect, translated into Chinese means looking for the groom's agent. When the sedan chair is married, the groom can't go with the sedan chair, so he can only send an agent to meet him. After the man's sedan chair arrived, the girls who accompanied the bride flocked to the wedding procession to look for it. When they found it, they smeared cigarettes on his face. Girls look for "Momomi" and other boys dress up as "Momomi" to play together, get to know each other and choose the right person. Before 1949, the influence of uncles in Tujia area was also enormous. In marriage, the most important thing is to "return the bones." There is a proverb in Tujia area: "An aunt's daughter wants to reach out and marry, and an uncle's family wants to call across the river." When choosing a wife, any aunt's daughter should first consider her uncle's son. Even if the aunt's daughter has reached the age of marriage, the uncle's son is still young and has to wait for him to grow up. My aunt's daughter wants to marry outside, but it is certainly possible if her uncle doesn't want bone seeds. At this time, the man should provide rich gifts to his uncle's family instead of bone seeds. This kind of custom of returning bone species to aunts and cousins, which exists at the same time in Tujia areas, is the legacy of the marriage custom of pairing marriage. ? "Song as the medium": Before the reform, "Song as the medium" gave Tujia youth full autonomy in marriage. Every holiday party or wedding, young men and women are dressed neatly and beautifully, and gather in one place to sing and dance freely, so as to choose the right person. If both parties are interested, they will communicate with each other and finally ask their parents for instructions. With the permission of Tulao, they can go to Tuwang Temple to worship and get married. Don't ask for money when you are engaged or married. You don't need a sedan chair to get married. After the reform, local people have frequent exchanges with Han people, and the government has also strengthened "education", stipulating that marriage must have a media certificate and a sedan chair. The wedding ceremony has also become complicated, and the marriage mode ordered by parents and agreed by the media has replaced the free choice of marriage. ? Modern marriage customs: The marriage customs of modern Tujia people are deeply influenced by China culture, and are almost the same as those of local Han people. Compared with the marriage custom in the era of "taking songs as media", it lacks a lot of happiness of free marriage and love, but in some ceremonies, it is still not difficult to see the nostalgia and yearning of Tujia men and women for free marriage. ? Weeping marriage: Tujia girls have been learning to sing wedding songs since childhood, so that they can show their talents when they get married. Crying well can make people sad and moved. A woman who can't cry or marry will make people laugh. Began to cry half a month or a month before the wedding. At first, I cried intermittently. The closer I get to the wedding, the more often I cry. The day before the wedding, the bride and relatives and friends left soon, and even cried and sang all night until they got on the sedan chair. The content of the wedding song includes crying for parents, brothers and sisters, ancestors, cursing the matchmaker, combing one's hair, wearing flowers, wearing naked clothes (naked clothes, shoes and handkerchiefs are the shroud, shoes and handkerchiefs of the old woman's death, and the bride wears them to symbolize a hundred years of life), crying for keeping her mother's meal, crying for getting on the sedan chair, etc. In the past, most of the crying songs were about leaving sorrow and women's misfortune, complaining about the pain caused by arranged marriage and clan system, and also expressing the feelings of inequality between men and women. The lyrics of the song "Wedding Scare" are easy to understand, but it is rhythmic and catchy to sing. Weeping wedding songs have long sentences and short sentences, but most of them are five or seven words. The whole music is full of movement and strong appeal. ? As the wedding approached, the bride cried day and night. On the day before the wedding, the woman's family will hold a bar mitzvah ceremony for her soon-to-be-married daughter-"Dai Hua Jiu Li" (in some places, it is called "Accompanying 10th Sister"). It means that the girl has grown up, and she has to bid farewell to her girlhood and take on the heavy responsibility of having children and forming a family. At the flower-wearing ceremony, the woman's parents invited nine unmarried girls to accompany them, giving the newly-married bride a face, head, red flowers and adult women's clothes. During this time, the bride will cry on her head and wear floral clothes. Peng Qiutan, a Tujia poet in the Qing Dynasty, described the crying wedding in "Dressing in Flowers and Wine Ceremony": "The songs of ten sisters are too sad, so don't burst into tears. The Maiwu Gorge in Ningshan Mountain is still like Ba Niang singing bamboo branches. "