National customs: Shui folk customs

The Shui people, with a current population of 345,993, mainly live in Sandu Shui Autonomous County, Libo, Duyun, and Dushan in the Qiannan Buyi and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Guizhou Province, as well as in Kaili and Liping in the Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture. , Rongjiang, Congjiang and other counties, with a small number scattered in the western part of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

The residence of the Shui people is located south of the Miaoling Mountains in the southeast of the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau and in the upper reaches of the Duliu River and Longjiang River. With dense forests and picturesque mountains and rivers, it is suitable for the development of agriculture and forestry. It is the hometown of fish, rice, flowers and fruits on the Guizhou Plateau. The Shui people are good at farming, mainly growing rice.

The Shui language belongs to the Shui branch of the Zhuang-Dong language family of the Sino-Tibetan language family. The ancestors of the Shui nationality once created their own writing, called "Shui Shu". Its shape is similar to oracle bone inscriptions and bronze inscriptions. It is an ancient writing with a history of 2,000 years, but it only has more than 400 characters and is limited to religious activities. use. These texts were all transcribed by copying and there was no block printing, but the Shuishi scripts in various places are basically the same. Most people in the Shui Tribe don't know him. Chinese is commonly used in their daily lives. The Shui people have their own calendar. The water calendar is basically the same as the lunar calendar, but August of the lunar calendar is the end of the year and September is the beginning of the year. There are four Hai Days from the end of August to the beginning of October in the lunar calendar, which are the days when each village of the Shui tribe takes turns celebrating the New Year. The Shui people’s New Year celebrations are called “Jiuduan”, which is very grand and lively. At that time, gongs and drums are beaten, reeds are played, and entertainment activities such as horse racing, singing and dancing are also held. Aquatic people advocate black and navy blue.

The Shui tribe has a historical relationship with the ancient "Luo Yue" tribe, and was developed by one of them. As early as before the Qin and Han Dynasties, many tribes lived in the Lingnan area and the southeastern coast. In 214 BC, the Qin Dynasty unified Lingnan, and the ancestors of the Shui people gradually migrated north to the border of Guizhou and Guangxi; in the Sui and Tang Dynasties, they were collectively known as "Xidong Man"; in the Song Dynasty, "Fushui Prefecture" was set up there, which was commonly known as "Fushui Man"; the name of the prefecture implies that a group of people who claimed to be "water" had already formed. In the mid-13th century, a large number of Han people moved here; from the 13th to the 17th century, a large number of Han soldiers were transferred here to guard and set up camps, and their descendants gradually merged with the Shui people.

There are more than 8,000 Shui tribes in Yunnan, accounting for 2% of China’s Shui tribe population. They mainly live in Huangnihe Township, Fuyuan County, and are also found in Dahe, Long'an and other places in Yiliang County.

Clothing

Before the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Shui people were in the stage of feudal landlord economic development. They were mainly agricultural economy, mainly producing rice and also doing handicrafts. They were good at weaving and dyeing cloth, and advocated black and navy blue. . This characteristic is clearly reflected in the costumes of the Shui tribe. The men of the Shui tribe wear collarless blue shirts and melon-pipe caps, while the elderly wear long gowns, with their heads wrapped in lining and leggings on their feet. Women wear blue, black, and blue round-collared shorts with wide sleeves, trousers, knotted cloth aprons, and embroidered blue cloth shoes.

Shui women's clothing is mostly made of Shuijia cloth, and is a collarless half-length gown or gown with a large placket. The gown is above the knee and generally does not have embroidered edges. And festival and wedding attire is completely different from usual. The shoulders and cuffs of the wedding jacket, the knees of the trousers are all inlaid with embroidered ribbons, and the turbans also have colorful patterns. Wearing a silver crown on the head, a silver collar on the neck, silver bracelets on the wrists, and a silver elegant collar on the chest, the silver ornaments on the chest are only worn during festivals. Silver earrings on her earlobes, and embroidered shoes on her feet. The bride is often dressed up with flowers and grace. In addition, women's embroidered suspenders are more artistic. It is said to be a "belt", but it is actually a gorgeously embroidered "T" shaped "curtain" with straps on both sides of the upper end. The "curtain" is large enough to cover a child. It is made by wrapping a white ponytail with white silk thread, adding other colored silk threads, embroidering various patterns separately, and finally patching the embroidered patterns onto the strap fabric. The strap is beautiful and practical, and is a gift from a mother to her daughter when she gets married. A married woman carries her baby in a sling. The suspenders were intricately embroidered and were part of her personal adornment.