Local legends in China

Name: When Zhangmulin people are born at the full moon, people always add another nickname before or after their names in addition to the names given by their parents and elders. Generally speaking, men's names are followed by "ancient" or "strange", and women's names are followed by "horse". For example, men are called "gu" or "strange" and women are called "so-and-so". Such as long XXX, short XXX, short XXX, tauren XXX, etc. And this nickname is generally recognized by the addressed person or his family, because people have regarded it as a traditional custom.

Residence: The residential structure of Hakkas in Zhangmulin basically retains the ancestral architectural structure of Guangdong, that is, the brick house with wood structure. Generally, it is a five-story, three-story and three-compartment pattern, characterized by a patio in the upper and lower middle and compartments on both sides of the patio. This kind of house is neat and symmetrical, and the main hall is spacious and bright. In addition, the structure of residential walls is also very particular. Generally, the screened sand and lime are mixed with a little yellow mud as raw materials (concrete) and washed to a height of 2-3 meters. This kind of wall has a large workload and high cost, but it is strong and durable. Two hundred years later, even if the house collapses, the sandstone wall is still intact. With the changes of the times and the continuous improvement of living conditions, especially since the 1980s, the original architectural model has been unsuitable and replaced by high-rise buildings with reinforced concrete structures.

Diet: Sweet potato rice, sweet potato, was one of the staple foods of Zhangmu people before liberation, and sweet potato rice was the staple food. There are two cooking methods, one is to cut raw sweet potatoes into small pieces and cook them with rice, and the other is to shred or chop them into small pieces and dry them in the sun and cook them with rice. Neither method needs salt or oil. Since the reform and opening up in the 1980s, people's living standards have been improving day by day, and it is very rare to eat sweet potato rice.

Salted sauerkraut: Salted sauerkraut is a regular dish of Zhangmu people in four seasons and is deeply loved by people. Especially in hot summer, clear soup and pickles are the best products. Salted sauerkraut is made in autumn and winter. Wash, air-dry and pickle the big leaf mustard (commonly known as cabbage) until it is 30% to 40% dry, cut it into small pieces, mix it with a certain proportion of raw salt, and add a little seasoning such as ginger, wine or star anise and orange leaves. After stirring evenly, put it into a special pickling tank for compaction and pickling until January. This dish is bright yellow in color, salty and sour, and has a mellow and refreshing unique flavor. Its shelf life is generally one to two years or even three or four years, and it has become a famous specialty of camphor wood.

Aikui: Aikui, commonly known as "Aiban", is a necessary food for Zhangmu people, especially Hakkas, during the Spring Festival. At the same time, it is also a gift for relatives and friends as a symbol of beauty and happiness. It is made by picking out moxa and then making it into paste. Ai-picking is to pick a kind of "quilt" in the deep forest, and then make it into "Ai Rong" through several fine processes. After that, put the wormwood into a pot and boil it, rinse it with clear water, repeatedly knead it into dough with glutinous rice paste, wrap it in peanuts and yellow sugar and steam it until it is sweet, soft and not greasy.

Fuling cake: commonly known as "hard-headed" paste, it is made of Smilax glabra on the mountain as the main raw material and rice slurry. Its function is to clear heat and cool blood, moisten lung and benefit spleen and stomach. It is a well-known health food for Zhangmu people. Its production procedure-washing Rhizoma Smilacis Glabrae, drying, and cutting into pieces; Secondly, the Toona sinensis is manually crushed and screened into powder; Thirdly, the powder and water are mixed and ground into slurry, and then the slurry is put into a cloth bag and extruded into pure slurry; Fourthly, the rice slurry is added in proportion, stirred evenly, and steamed in a bamboo dustpan or a utensil. Add syrup when eating, it's delicious and it's a good summer product.

taboo

Taboo-In the past, fortune tellers and geomancers were asked to choose a day before they went out for a long trip or made a big move. Whether starting a business, moving into a house, building a house, or burying one's ancestors to calm one's nerves, we should choose the prosperous times, thinking that this will ensure peace, otherwise it will cause trouble. With the progress of society and the popularization of science and technology, people's ideas have changed greatly, but in rural areas, this habit is still prevalent. In addition, the first day from summer to the future is the Dragon Departure Day, so don't pick urine buckets or dung buckets on this day, otherwise it will cause the "water god" to catch fire and suffer from drought; Pregnant women should avoid nailing and moving the bed in their own room, and avoid cutting things on the bed, so as not to affect the delivery or cause the baby to be disabled; After delivery, the "new moon" before the full moon should avoid visiting; There are also broken plates or cooked uncooked rice before going out for a long trip, and even crows and black magpies are flying around the house, which are unlucky signs and should not move forward. After liberation, similar taboos gradually disappeared, but occasionally reappeared among the people.

Taboos in life-avoid wearing all-white clothes and trousers, and avoid using white linen (velvet) thread as a gift in case of festive gifts, because white is regarded as mourning; It is considered bad to see snakes "playing with flowers" (mating) on the road, and we must find ways to kill both snakes to eliminate the disaster; When a hen crows, it will bring bad luck to people, so cut off the chicken's head; Usually there is eyebrow jump, which is also the entrance of eyebrow jump (it is a good thing, there is food to eat), and eyebrow jump is gone (it is ominous); When writing letters with relatives and friends, don't use a red pen, because writing letters with a red pen is considered a rude break.

Marriage taboo-when both men and women discuss marriage, they must start from the eight characters. For example, it is not suitable for marriage if the eight characters collide or the zodiac matches; Brothers and sisters avoid getting married in the same year; It is not appropriate to give a clock when you get married, because the homonym of "clock" is "end". On the day of the bride's wedding, as husband and wife, they should avoid meeting each other, otherwise it will affect the relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law in the future; In addition, widows or childless women should not make beds for newlyweds and so on.

Funeral Taboo-When you report your funeral to your relatives, you should stand up and tell them. If you eat at their relatives' house, don't sit in the right position; Find a hole for the dead and avoid digging a second place; The children of the deceased are about to get married or get pregnant, and unfilial behavior is prohibited; Don't look at the deceased and take the coffin for burial (together with Taoist priests who indicate their age and conflict with them); Relatives attending the funeral should not be sent to the cemetery, and those who are sent to the cemetery with the coffin should not return the same way; People who have lost their families should avoid giving notoginseng to the dead; Avoid visiting relatives and friends in the seventh year. In addition, the young deceased, called juvenile death, should be buried as soon as possible and avoid returning to the soil in the morning. In addition, avoid nailing coffins, which is intended to make them return to the world.

Taboos such as diet-when eating, avoid inserting chopsticks vertically into a rice bowl filled with rice, because this is a funeral ceremony. Eating on the ground is also taboo, because it belongs to eating filial piety. Avoid eating meat dishes on New Year's Day and switch to vegetarian dishes. It is said that this is a traditional custom formed by Hakka ancestors in Guangdong. Offenders are ancestors and disrespectful. Be extra careful on this day, don't break plates and utensils, don't quarrel with others, don't swear, or it will be unlucky all year.

Besides the above, there are other taboos. For example, when cleaning the courtyard on the first day and second day of the lunar calendar, it is not appropriate to throw garbage and sundries out of the venue immediately, but to stay indoors as "money". On the third day of New Year's Eve, it is the Poor People's Day, and it is forbidden to visit relatives and friends. At the same time, in the early morning of this day, it is necessary to collect the garbage and dirt that have been cleaned for several days and throw them out of the field together with brooms and dung dustpans full of garbage, as well as incense and paper money.

marriage customs

With the changes of the times, the marriage custom of Zhangmulin has been gradually simplified, but in rural areas, it is still quite particular, which is summarized as follows:

Introduction: In the past, the combination of men and women only listened to parents' orders and matchmakers' words. Today, there are still many people who match the bridge through references, so that men and women can get to know each other and get to know each other initially, which is an indispensable part of marriage.

Engagement: Men and women get the opportunity to meet and talk through introductions. If both men and women are interested in getting married, with the consent of both parents, the man can bring a symbolic gift to the woman's house. After the woman's house returns the gift, it is an engagement, which is called "chicken feet".

Daily report: Ask the fortune teller to choose an auspicious day according to the date of birth of men and women as a wedding celebration to report to the woman's home, which is called a daily report. On the eve of the wedding day, the man's family must send the gift money to the woman's family according to the original agreement (commonly known as money or gold and silver) to prepare dowry, furniture and other wedding supplies for the woman's family.

Wedding ceremony: that is, wedding ceremony. Before liberation, on the wedding day, the men's family was decorated with lanterns and colorful decorations, and the guests were crowded with banquets. At the same time, it is necessary to form a guard of honor to welcome the wedding, including the gongs and drums suona band and Xie Lang (that is, people who carry gifts such as sedan chairs, dowry, food grids and pigs, sheep, wine and meat). After the wedding reception was all ready, the person in charge of the sedan chair carried a red sedan chair for the bride and two blue bamboo sedan chairs for the wedding guests and the bride's brother. First, the double flags (two flags connected) opened the way, and the scene was very spectacular. Arriving at the bride's house, the bride walked out of the boudoir and said goodbye to her parents in tears. When leaving the gate, one person prepared a rice sieve in advance, and a bowl of water and bamboo leaves were put in. When the bride passes by with an umbrella, she pours out the bowl of water, which is called "eaves water". After arriving at the man's house, the groom kicked open the car door and took the bride into the house. After liberation, this custom has become history, and most of it has been replaced by vehicles. However, on this day, as a man's family, work is still busy. When you come back from the wedding, you should make good arrangements, such as making the bed for the newlyweds, offering sacrifices to their ancestors, and organizing wedding guests and relatives and friends who come to congratulate the bride.

Visiting the hall: that is, the newlyweds worship their ancestors in the hall. When the bride arrives at her in-laws' house, she will hold a ceremony to pay homage to the bride, that is, a young woman with many children will help her cross the brazier in the middle of the threshold (that is, the tide is getting hotter and hotter), and then she will enter the hall with the groom, and they will pay homage to the ancestral temple together. When offering sacrifices to ancestors, the groom also wears a hairpin hat, a black robe and a big red ribbon. After the ceremony, an elder shouted "Husband and wife enter the bridal chamber, the house is full of joy, a hundred years of harmony and eternal prosperity", that is, the groom raised his hand at the door of the bridal chamber to let the bride drill under his arm, and then the bride stepped into the bridal chamber.

Noisy bridal chamber: On the wedding night, the relatives, friends and neighbors of the man's family, men, women and children, get together to congratulate the newlyweds. As a token of gratitude, men should prepare wedding candy, fruit and sweet tea as a reward for their congratulations, and the bride should also prepare some food, wrap the dyed red peanuts, melon rice and candy in the bed, and then untie them so that the children can compete happily, symbolizing the birth of the golden couple in the future.

Back to the door: on the third day of their wedding, the couple went to the woman's house and called it three times according to their parents. This custom can also be cancelled because of distance or other reasons, but this indispensable gift will be added later.

In the wedding ceremony, as the married woman's house, although there is no grand ceremony of the man's house in etiquette, it is also an old saying of worship, which is roughly as follows:

(1) After receiving the good news from the man's family, the woman's family should make arrangements for her daughter's marriage as far as possible according to their own economic conditions, purchase and process jewelry hats and dowry in advance, and finalize the marriage candidates.

(2) Married women should prepare gifts, such as shoes, socks, clothes and towels. For your future parents-in-law and other elders to show filial piety to their male elders before marriage. In fact, many women engaged in this job when they got engaged.

(3) A few days before the bride's wedding, there is a custom of crying for marriage. The content includes crying about the process of growing up to thank parents for their kindness, crying about their reluctance to leave home and the feelings of leaving their sisters of the same age.

(4) On the wedding day, the woman's family will cry and scold the "Xie Lang" who came to meet. The form is a song, which means that the bride is unwilling to leave her family, and the cruel "Xie Lang" insists on pulling her to the man's house. When the bride boarded the sedan chair, the person accompanying her was in front, followed by the bride sitting in the red sedan chair, followed by Daxinniang and the bride's brother sitting in the blue bamboo sedan chair, followed by the bride's sister. The more people and dowry, the more grand the scene, the more it can show the wealth and social status of the woman's family.

(5) Except in special circumstances, those who send the wedding usually return on the same day and do not stay at the man's house.

Funeral custom

Funeral is called a white matter by Zhangmu people. In the past, feudal ethics and superstitions were very heavy, and there were many customs and habits. After liberation, most of them were simple. Today's customs are roughly as follows.

Clean body and clothes: In Zhangmu, one hundred years before death (when dying), people should make a bed on one side of the hall according to the rule that men are left and women are right, and then move to the bed to die. Generally speaking, people are not allowed to die in the bedroom. At the same time, women should comb their hair, men should shave and shave their heads. After death, a small basin of water (also called spirit water) is sent back to the river (well) by the children or brothers and aunts of the deceased, and medicine (dirty grass) and grapefruit leaves are added and boiled to give him a bath. After finishing, according to the shroud of men's doubles and women's singles, put on clothes for the deceased (father died of a dutiful son or nephew, mother died of a daughter or daughter-in-law) and put a silver coin in his mouth, which is called oral silver. Then let the dead lie on the bed, covered with a quilt, wearing a hat and white cloth shoes. At the same time, put a sacrificial table at the feet of the deceased, put a censer, put a bowl of rice, put a pair of chopsticks on the rice, put a cooked egg in the middle of the chopsticks, and put a cooked chicken and a cooked pork on the plate.

Filial mourning: it is called mourning to inform relatives and friends of the unfortunate death of family members. The people who went to the funeral stood at the door of relatives and friends, waiting for the owner to come out and give him the written obituary. Those who don't prepare written obituaries will tell the host when someone will die, be buried, attend the funeral and so on. Don't enter the house until the host pours you tea or invites you in. There are two ways: special door-to-door prosecution and obituary. Whether the father dies (called "normal sleep") or the mother dies (called "internal sleep"), as children and daughter-in-law, they should kneel down and cry to their elders, and then their own funeral service will send staff to the five generations' parents' homes and in-laws' homes. As for other relatives and friends, they will usually be notified in the form of obituaries. In the past, the father died, the clan was in charge, and the mother died, and the mother kept her word. Its purpose is to warn people to be filial before their parents die. Therefore, there is still a saying among the people that when the father dies, he is afraid of his elders at home, and when the mother dies, he is afraid of his uncle and cousin. Kneeling and crying to the patriarch and his mother's family means not only expressing sadness, but also praying for their care, understanding and help.

According to the rules of funeral etiquette, all men and women who have lost their homes should be covered with linen to show their filial piety from the time the body is moved to the mourning hall. Under normal circumstances, it is not appropriate to leave. Even if you eat, you are on your stomach and are not allowed to serve. When relatives and friends come to pay their respects, they should kneel on the side of the coffin and kowtow in return. Even Fang's clan relatives and five-clothing family members should hang their filial piety according to the system, and their daughters and daughters-in-law should cry and complain about their loved ones. At the same time, we should invite Taoist priests and post couplets. My father died at the gate, and the "strict system" was posted, while my mother died, and the "benevolent system" was posted. Doors and couplets are all made of white paper. Only the deceased with a long life put up red couplets, which means to do things that are white and popular.

Married women, nieces, granddaughters and in-laws, who are in charge of the family, should come to pay their respects after learning of the mourning, and provide libation, incense sticks, brocade, elegiac couplets and accounts. Or other aspects, especially women, will wear a triangular white cloth hat when they get home and cry all the way, which will make people cry even more. In the case of female deceased, the parents' mourning methods are particularly grand, such as slaughter.

Nailing a coffin at a funeral: the body of the deceased is put into a coffin, which is called a funeral. Funeral is divided into small funeral and large funeral. Small burial without cover, big burial. When he died, Xiao Nan knelt beside the deceased and fed him. The method is to feed the dead with one end of chopsticks first, and then eat with the other end of chopsticks to show goodbye. Children and grandchildren under the age of three should be supported by adults and passed through the coffin to avoid the deceased being close to their children and grandchildren in the future, and to avoid their illness and disaster. When one of the husband and wife dies, the other combs her hair with the deceased, that is, a complete hair comb is broken in half and placed at the foot of the corpse to show that the husband and wife are separated and never interfere; At the same time, put the favorite daily necessities of the deceased in their hands for the use of the deceased in the underworld; In addition, a string of sticky (indica rice) rice cakes should be put on the hands of the deceased and fed to the dog to eat, so as to cross the Naihe Bridge safely. Before the coffin is covered, the deceased's daughter-in-law will light incense and burn a small hole in the corner of the shroud, which means that the deceased can recognize his clothes when he arrives in Jiuquan. When you are dying, you should cover the coffin according to the auspicious time chosen by the Taoist priest, and then nail the coffin. When nailing the coffin, the male deceased was the elder of the family, and the female deceased was the elder of the family. She gently nailed the coffin in a corner, and then handed it over to the relevant personnel to nail the coffin formally. The coffin nailing personnel must leave a nail for the "descendants" (nails) to cover the coffin. After that, the dutiful son and wife still have to keep the corpse and be filial.

Prayer: beating, commonly known as playing lanterns or fasting, means asking Taoist priests to mourn the passing of the dead. The length of time spent on the highway depends on the family's economic conditions. The longest one in the past lasted for a week, and it was called playing headlights for seven days and seven nights. The average family spends the night and returns to the soil the next day. With the improvement of living standards, there will be one day and one night, two days and two nights, or even two days and three nights. Generally, people who live long are very long.

At the beginning of Taoism, there was an unchanging custom, that is, to perform Daoism on the male deceased, and the patriarch had to knock the first gong (that is, to start the gong), otherwise the elders of the woman's family, whether at home or at home, would only knock once when the gong was started. As soon as the gong rang, the whole Taoist teaching process was operated in accordance with religious procedures, and the master's family was only controlled by the Taoist during the teaching process.

The so-called Tao is an ancient custom with religious color and superstitious thoughts. According to it, it is to pray that the dead can live a supernatural life safely forever after they go to another world-hell. All this is nonsense. However, on the other hand, it has certain warning function, and even has certain practical significance. For example, in the whole process of doing Taoism, in addition to strong superstition, there is also the content of persuading people to be good and rewarding those who do evil. In the words of Taoism, it is to complain about the hard process that women have to pay from pregnancy in October to the birth of a baby, and from the growth of children to adulthood. These complaints will inspire people.

Funeral: Sacrifice means offering sacrifices to the dead. Paying tribute to the dead before the funeral is a rather grand ceremony. According to local customs, the memorial service is usually held between 8 am and 9 am. Move the coffin from the hall to the altar before the sacrifice. When the memorial service is held, it shall be presided over by relevant personnel and carried out in an orderly manner. Generally speaking, the filial son and wife are the main sacrifices first, then the relatives of the family are represented, and finally the relatives are represented. During the memorial ceremony, the host called the sacrifices, and the representatives of the memorial ceremony knelt down and read the eulogy according to the memorial procedure (that is, read the eulogy), and other participants in the memorial ceremony burned incense to worship. In every ceremony, playing eight tones, burning firecrackers and sounding earth cannons (blunt objects) are all matched, giving people a sad but solemn feeling.

After the memorial ceremony, the funeral was followed by carrying coffins. The deceased's daughter-in-law in mourning insisted on burning a torch first (no flashlight is needed now), followed by throwing "Xi" money by one person, then setting off firecrackers and supporting elegiac couplets and wreaths, the dutiful son holding the main card, then the coffin, then the dutiful son's family, the government family wearing five clothes and the married female husband. When approaching the land, the dutiful son must kneel on the roadside to "thank you", which means that he hopes the guests will stop and stop seeing him off. Other filial men, family members, and family members still have to take coffins to the cemetery. At the time of burial, there was another ceremony, that is, after a period of chanting, the Taoist priest sprinkled rice on the undertaker, and undertaker knelt in front of the grave to show that everyone was safe and every family was expensive. Then burn the main card, tear off the elegiac couplet, take off the mourning clothes and go home along another road (not the original road of the funeral). When you get home, wash your hands with grapefruit leaf water before entering the house to show that you can ward off evil spirits, and get red lines and red envelopes to show good luck. The staff responsible for working from home will clean the interior of the house after the funeral and tear off the white paper (including red paper) to show whether to go to Thailand. In addition, in the afternoon, the dutiful son, led by a clan, went to the cemetery to burn incense, light candles, bow down and restore a piece of grass at the bottom of the tomb, commonly known as going to the grave. At this point, all the funeral ceremonies are over.

Others: After handling the funeral, clean all the clothes of the deceased before his death, cut them into pieces and distribute them to filial children for preservation. This piece of trousers, which is regarded as a "warehouse" by all families, has the meaning of being prosperous by all families. Then, "making seven" for the deceased, that is, from the first day to the forty-ninth day of the deceased, the main family offered sacrifices to the deceased once every seven days, but did not offer sacrifices to "Sanqi". At the same time, according to the number of boys born to the deceased, subtract the total number of boys from the 49 days, and the actual number is less than 49. Moreover, July 7, at least a seven, can be the seventh day, the seventeenth day and the twenty-seventh day. All married women or nieces should go back to their parents' home at least on July 7th to make a seven for the deceased. In addition, July 7th is called Yuanqi, and the main family will use zongzi as a sacrifice. By the "one hundred days" of the deceased, that is, one hundred days after his death, the main family must prepare boiled eggs and peanuts as sacrifices. After the sacrifice, it is necessary to divide the body on the spot to show the "dial" day-the undead and Yang residents will be separated forever.

According to the custom, after death, people should first find a convenient crypt nearby, bury the body, wait for three to five years, then dig out the bones, put them in a clay pot (also called a golden pot), and store them on a slope or cliff in the wild until they find a good crypt in a convenient direction, and then erect a monument for permanent burial.