The totem of Naxi nationality in Yunnan: frog worship

Totem worship plays a very important role in primitive society, such as the unity of social groups and blood groups and the mutual recognition of social organizations. Naxi ancestors worshipped tigers, trees and stones, as well as cows and frogs. They all have one thing in common, that is, they all worship totem as the ancestor of all things. Frogs play an important role in Naxi culture. Now let's learn the story of Naxi people and frogs.

Legends about frogs

A long time ago, a god frog married a beautiful Naxi woman. One day, the wife found that her frog husband had become a warrior with both talents and looks, so she stole his frog skin quietly and let him burn it, so as not to turn back into a frog. The husband agreed to his wife's request and told her to swear devoutly when burning frog skin: "May the wisdom and fools in the world be different and the rich and the poor be balanced." Knowing that his wife was happy, he mistakenly said when burning frog skin: "May the human world be smarter and more stupid; I wish the rich in the world richer and the poor poorer. "Since then, there have been rich and poor people, smart people and stupid people in the world.

There is also a fairy tale that the gods want to give the water of wisdom to all beings on earth. But the crow was wrong, and let a person drink the wisdom water. Birds and beasts waiting to share the wisdom water saw that the wisdom water was finished, and immediately rushed up angrily and pulled out all the hairs on people. When the beast was ready to kill, the frog quietly licked the wisdom water left at the bottom of the bowl, and then had a brainwave, pointing to the river and saying, "The wisdom water is not for people to drink, but poured into the river." When it was finished, it pretended to catch the river and jumped into it with a sigh, thus diverting hundreds of birds and animals and saving mankind.

Since then, Naxi people have regarded frogs as intelligent and kind creatures friendly to human beings. They are not allowed to hurt frogs, let alone eat frog meat. They also decorate frogs on shawls as auspicious totems, which are handed down from generation to generation and never forget.

For Naxi people who grow rice and wheat for a living, the primitive custom of worshipping frogs is of great benefit to protecting the ecological environment and agricultural production. The yield of rice and wheat in Lijiang is the highest in Yunnan.

Preliminary study on frog totem theory

Naxi people have their own religion-Dongba religion. Dongba religion is a primitive religion that has not been completely transformed into an artificial religion. Later, Dongba religion had more advanced beliefs than nature worship, such as the worship of ghosts and gods, ancestor worship, etc., but it has never completely got rid of the original worship of "animism" until today. According to objective logical thinking, everything in the world is worshipped by Naxi people, which shows that Naxi people do not have a single totem. Of course, it does not conform to the "frog totem theory."

There is no mention in Dongba classics and Naxi folklore that frogs are related to humans. In the Genesis of Dongba Sutra, it is said: "Chongren Lian, the ancestor of mankind, did not listen to the advice of the gods and married a goddess with vertical eyes. One of them gave birth to a snake and a frog, but thought it was natural and abandoned the frog. Later, he married a horizontal-eyed goddess and bred human beings to this day. " From this record, we can see that frogs can't be the totem of Naxi nationality, otherwise which nationality will abandon its totem? Because all ethnic groups in the world are in awe and worship of their totems, how dare they abandon them?

Dongba culture of Naxi nationality also tells the story of a golden frog. Dongba sutra "The Origin of Natural Gods" says: "Natural gods in all directions come from the eggs of golden giant frogs." In another Dongba sutra, The White Bat Takes the Divination Sutra, it says: "Because the giant frog swallowed the divination sutra taken by the white bat from the sky, it was shot dead by the sharpshooter in the sky, thus forming the Eight Diagrams (similar to the Eight Diagrams, used for divination to calculate the orientation, five elements, Jiugong, heavenly stems and earthly branches and so on. ). "The records here have nothing to do with the fact that frogs are the totem of Naxi people, not to mention that Naxi people will not ask the gods to kill their national totem. Judging from this record, it is not true that frogs are the totem of Naxi nationality.

Many frogs are mentioned in hundreds of Dongba Scriptures of Dongba religion of Naxi nationality, but these frogs are mentioned as a kind of thing in nature and have nothing to do with human beings. The scripture makes it very clear: "Frogs are the race of natural gods. If humans hurt snakes and frogs, they will be retaliated by the god of nature. We humans will inadvertently hurt these small animals in our production and life, and humans often sacrifice to the god of nature. At the ceremony, humans rewarded the natural gods in the form of "wooden signs". "

Obviously, this is the worship of nature under the background of primitive religion "animism", and these natural things are not beyond the consciousness of Naxi ancestors about their homologous beliefs. Later, with the development of human society, nature worship can no longer meet the needs of human beliefs, and the continuous strengthening of human self, family, clan and other consciousness concepts has led to the saying that "human beings and nature are half-brothers" and related belief forms. This is also the value of Naxi culture, because no nation in the world has retained the transition period between these two kinds of worship, but Naxi has been passed down to this day. Of course, this is beside the point.

In Naxi nationality, if a frog enters the house, people will send it away without hurting it. Many people think that this is the expression that Naxi ancestors regarded frogs as ancestors' souls and gods. Actually, it is not. Naxi ancestors did this because they thought that frogs came into the house to represent the arrival of natural gods and to remind or pray for something. As a nation mainly engaged in agriculture, animal husbandry and hunting, it is inevitable to make some moves if you are a little careless. Therefore, sending frogs into the house with a little good wine and tea is the same as the ritual of offering sacrifices to the natural gods, which accords with the Naxi people's psychology of asking the natural gods to forgive them for accidentally destroying nature. This has nothing to do with the fact that frogs are the totem of Naxi nationality.