Primitive Religious Beliefs in Buyi Religion

The primitive religious beliefs of Buyi people mainly include nature worship, totem worship, ancestor worship and witchcraft. Nature worship is a very common belief form in primitive society. It is the primitive belief of primitive human beings that natural objects and natural forces have life, will and great ability. In primitive society, Buyi ancestors were almost completely under the control of the surrounding nature and natural forces because of their extremely low level of productivity and extremely poor knowledge. Various natural objects and forces, such as mountains, rocks, land, sun, wind, rain, thunder, electricity, floods, etc. , will always bring happiness or disaster, and even death. For these natural forces, primitive humans can neither understand nor overcome and prevent them. In this way, over time, people's minds will have a mysterious and fearful idea. In order to survive and live, people always try their best to understand nature and the world. Therefore, primitive people explained nature and various phenomena according to their own activities and knowledge, put people's will on natural things and phenomena, regarded all kinds of natural things and phenomena as conscious activities, and thought that the natural forces that ruled and dominated people were dominated by some mysterious and unknowable forces, which could bring happiness or disaster to mankind according to their own wishes. In nature worship, land, mountains, water, animals and trees are common objects of worship.

Land worship

Land worship is a common phenomenon in Buyi people's nature worship. Land is the support for people's survival, production, life and the growth of everything. So it was first personified and deified by primitive people. In order to pray for a bumper harvest, people have to pray for the blessing of the land. Buyi people themselves are farming people and worship the land very much. Up to now, there is still a land temple in front of many Buyi villages. There are two stones in the temple as "land gods", commonly known as "land gods" and "land women". Generally, on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, chickens, pig heads and other things are brought to the land temple for sacrifice, praying for the land god to bless the harvest.

Worship of mountain gods

Worship of mountain gods is also a common belief form in Buyi people's nature worship. The mountain peak is majestic and mysterious. Primitive humans often worship mountains as the way of heaven and fantasize that mountain peaks are "gods" At the same time, rocks are also directly related to the production and life of primitive humans. There are animals and plants in the mountains. The number of animals, plants and tools can directly restrict the early life of mankind. Therefore, people fantasize that mountain gods will manage animals, plants and treasures in the mountains. Therefore, primitive people's worship and prayer for mountains in order to gain more benefits or reduce disasters is in line with their original ideas.

Buyi people are also very grand in offering sacrifices to mountain gods, and mass activities of "offering sacrifices to mountain gods" are held every year. However, the time of "offering sacrifices to mountain gods" varies from place to place. The Anlong area in Guizhou is March 3; Ziyun, Zhenfeng, Guanling and other places are mostly on June 6. Although the time of sacrifice is different, the reasons for sacrifice are roughly the same. Legend has it that these days are the birthdays of the mountain gods, who will release many insects to destroy crops or disturb people's storage. Only by offering sacrifices to mountain gods can people save peace. When offering sacrifices, everyone goes up the mountain except the special ones, which is called "hiding from the mountain". When hiding in the mountains, young men and women engage in social activities, and the elderly exchange production experience. After the sacrifice, Zhai Lao announced the hunting agreement and farming preparation.

Worship of water god

There are two ways for Buyi people to worship the water god: one is the river god, which is intended to ask the river god to bless, control the flood and have good weather. First, sacrifice to the water god. Sacrificial activities are held on the first day of opening the seedling gate every year. At that time, the host will bring food and wine, choose the largest water inlet and outlet as the sacrificial place, insert incense paper, and pray for the water god to bless the fertile fields and prevent the water from flooding.

animal cult

The ancestors of many ethnic groups in southern China, including Buyi people, are closely related to the fishing and hunting economy, and some related animals have also become the objects of their worship. At the same time, the production tools of many farming peoples, such as cattle, are also regarded as sacred. There is an ancient dog sacrifice among Buyi people. In Buyi myths and legends, in ancient times, human beings had no seeds of food, which were brought from the threshing floor of Tianwang by dogs. Therefore, they regard dogs as sacred animals and offer sacrifices. Every year, after a banquet is held in the evening of "Eating New Year Festival" to worship ancestors, dogs are sacrificed. The elders in the family will feed the dog with the "new grain rice" and three pieces of pork in the dog food plate, and recite the sacrificial words to thank the dog for bringing food seeds to mankind.

Tree worship

In every Buyi village, an old tree is generally used as a stockade tree, mostly banyan, Liquidambar formosana or hawthorn. Buyi people have special respect for stockade trees, and they worship them with wine and meat every festival. It still depends on the Buyi people who live in dushan county and Changshun County in southern Guizhou. Legend has it that protecting the village tree can drive away the wind and rain for the people in the village and let them avoid disaster. In Jin Mu, trees rank second. Therefore, people cannot imagine and describe the spiritual sustenance of trees. Once a tree dries up or dies, people will not cut it down, but let it fall naturally and then choose another old tree to replace it. If there are no old trees, a ceremony called "Sacrifice to the Old" will be held to transplant cypress or Liquidambar formosana. Judging from the remaining folk customs, the Buyi people's worship of nature aims to pray for the God of Nature to bless the village with good weather, abundant crops and healthy people and animals. Totem worship is a more advanced form of belief than nature worship. From the perspective of human cognitive development, primitive religious forms such as nature worship are closely related to people's primitive production. The totem worship of Buyi people mainly includes dragon, bamboo and fish worship.

Xu Shen, the dragon totem of Han Dynasty, said in Shuowen: "Fujian, Southeast Vietnam, snake species". The "snake species" here refers to the belief in snake totem. In the era of matriarchal society, there are snakes as totems in Buyi clans, which are similar to dragons and have been passed down to this day, becoming the image of dragons. Buyi people regard the dragon as the totem of their own nation. People worship the dragon king every year and "play with the dragon" on festive days. The Buyi people in Guanling believe that there are dragons in the mountains and at home. Please take the dragon away when you build the house. After the house is built, a "dragon welcoming" ceremony will be held, incense and paper will be burned, and the dragon will be invited back. The bronze casting "Longbao" of Buyi people is regarded as a sacred object. In order to pray for the birth of a boy, it is often asked by future generations as a guarantor. Be regarded as a "dragon". In addition, Buyi women's dresses, headscarves and other things are also common to dragon patterns. Explain the Buyi people's worship of dragon totem.

Bamboo totem

The reason why Buyi people produce bamboo totem has both social roots and certain natural environment. The Panjiang River Basin, where Buyi people live in compact communities, has high mountains, cool air, hot climate and abundant rainfall, and lush bamboos grow on both sides of the valley. It is described in "Sacrifice to Ancestors" that the Buyi people used bamboo to build houses in ancient times: "Take bamboo as the pillar, turn with bamboo as the talent ..." This created the worship of bamboo totem by Buyi ancestors. There is also a legend about bamboo totem. Buyi ancestors were born for three months, hiding in the bamboo festival, and escaped the disaster. When he grew up, he became the king of cloth. He led his people to resist foreign aggression, so Buyi people worshipped bamboo and regarded it as a totem. In addition, in some Buyi areas, there are some customs about bamboo: if a woman is infertile after marriage, she will go to her parents' house to ask for bamboo flowers, and the important bamboo flowers will be carried on her waist to her husband's house, and she is not allowed to talk to anyone along the way. When she comes home, she will put them under the pillow so that she can have children.

Fish totem

Buyi people have two legends about fish totem worship: one is in Biandan Mountain and Pogong Mountain in Zhenning and Guanling counties, where the son of Buyi ancestors "Bao 'ertuo" fell in love with Nanhai Fish Girl and gave birth to many descendants. When the Dragon King knew this, he sent a pair of dragons to bless him. Because the offspring of the fish live in two places, the male dragon has become Biandan Mountain and the female dragon has become Pogong Mountain. The other is that an ancient Buyi leader fell in love with a fish girl, got married and gave birth to a son. The mother told her child that she had a taboo in life and told him never to fish for food. The youngest son was curious and looked around for food. The mother jumped back into the river in a rage, and later her son was killed by the leader's wife. He became a wandering soul. Later, when his wife's son grew up, he knew that he was a close relative of the same flesh and blood. He went through hardships with his father and took his brother's wandering soul home. These two stories show that the ancestors of Buyi people are related to fish, so they must quit fishing. In some areas where Buyi people live, fish is still used as ancestor worship. On holidays, you should knead noodles into flowers and fish and put them on the shrine to pay homage. Ancestor worship is also a very common belief form in primitive religion, which appeared at a certain stage when ghost worship developed. In primitive society, when the concept of clan lineage was formed and combined with ghost worship, ancestor worship gradually formed. From the ancestor worship preserved by Buyi people, people's worship of gods has changed from facing nature to facing their own families, but this shows that human beings are going out of their families to face nature, and that human beings are gradually weakening the role of natural divine power and gradually strengthening their self-awareness. In this sense, the emergence of ancestor worship also has certain positive significance. But after all, it is only a religious belief, only an enhancement and transfer of nature worship, and it has not changed its unscientific and illusory nature.

In Buyi areas, the Buyi people will hold ancestor worship ceremonies on important days such as festivals, weddings, funerals and weddings. It is believed that only with the blessing of ancestors can people and animals be healthy and have a good harvest. The custom of offering sacrifices to the male ancestors of Baotuo and Baogengdi is very popular among Buyi people. It is said that barto is the creator of Buyi nationality. His twelve books contain all the knowledge of human existence, and even the existing legends such as The Magic Book of Cloth, Gu Jie Jing and Evocation Jing are all created by barto. Therefore, whenever Buyi people hold large-scale religious sacrificial activities, they must first set up an altar to worship barto. Bao Gengdi is also considered to be the ancestor of Buyi people. In the old days, under the ancient trees next to the Buyi village, there was a small stone house with golden body, which always guarded the village. The newly married daughter-in-law must enter the village from the golden body in order to obtain village membership; The dead must be carried in front of her, so that the village can be erased and the soul can return to the place where the ancestors lived. Therefore, Buyi people also have the custom of offering sacrifices to "Baogeng Land". In addition, in some Buyi areas, there is a custom of offering sacrifices to female ancestors. It is said that the female ancestor "Wang Ya" of Buyi nationality is the leader of matriarchal society and has a high status. So the worship of "mother god" came into being.

There is another form of ancestor worship of Buyi people, that is, taking family as the unit and family ancestors as the object of worship. This is a very common form of ancestor worship. The name of ancestor worship should be written on the memorial tablet with surname and erected on the shrine in the hall. They should be sacrificed during China New Year holidays, weddings and funerals, and offerings such as chicken, pig and wine should be placed in front of shrines. At the same time, we should burn incense and paper, bow down and pray to our ancestors.

Another form of ancestor worship of Buyi people is "inviting dragons". If an old man of Buyi nationality dies, a grand memorial and burial ceremony should be held for him, so that his soul can live with his ancestors in the spirit of heaven and become a new member of the family god. This kind of funeral ceremony is considered as "inviting dragons". To hold this ceremony, under the auspices of the wizard, she will recite the scriptures for the deceased and invite the dragon to the well, so that the deceased can ride the dragon to the source of the well to get the jewels. People think that only in this way can the dead enjoy splendor in the underworld forever. In addition, the wizard will also hold a ceremony of "opening the way" for the soul of the deceased, which means opening a road to the underworld for the deceased. When escorting the way, you should make a "guide coffin" with white cloth, write down the name, time and place of death and the cause of death, hang it in front of the deceased's coffin, and let the soul of the deceased ascend to heaven along this coffin. The witchcraft of Buyi people permeates all kinds of sacrifices in its primitive religion, mainly including exorcism and divination.

drive off

In the ancient religious concept of Buyi people, it is believed that there will be "ghosts" after death. If people meet them, they will make people sick. After the wizard divines, knowing whose ghost is causing trouble, he will hold a corresponding sacrifice ceremony to beg for blessing and let the patient recover. Buyi ancestors believed that there were two kinds of ghosts: good ghosts and evil ghosts. Good ghosts don't harm people, but they are unlucky when they meet. The exorcism of Buyi people is mainly aimed at evil spirits. There are two ways to exorcise ghosts: one is a large-scale exorcism activity held in villages-sweeping villages, which is held once a year in many villages. When sweeping the village, the wizard wears vestments, wears a crown, holds utensils in his hand, recites witchcraft words, leads people to take paper products, chickens and ducks and other sacrificial items to every household, sweeps the east and west, throws the water and rice prepared by the host family at the door, then closes the door, and finally burns those paper products by the river to show that the evil spirits in the village are driven away. Second, if someone in the family is sick and thinks there are evil spirits, we should also ask a wizard to exorcise them. When the wizard goes to the patient's house, he only needs a bowl of water, so he doesn't need to take medicine. After singing, let the patient take three sips, and the rest will be sprayed on the patient's sore spot by the wizard for massage. Or hang a heavy object to exorcise ghosts. The wizard went to the patient's bed, put a steelyard on it, hung a weight on it, sat down to curse the ghost, let the weight swing back and forth naturally, and then took medicine or cursed a bowl of water for the patient to drink.

divine

This is a belief activity of Buyi people to predict good or bad luck, in the form of chicken divination, wooden divination, egg divination, copper coin divination and so on. Buyi people should make divination predictions whenever they encounter diseases, matchmaking, building houses and funerals. Such as chicken divination, it is auspicious to cook the uncut chicken legs and peel off the meat, and then look at the round eyes on the bones of the two chicken legs. If there are four eyes and the eyes are opposite, align them up and down. On the contrary, it means fierce.

This primitive religious belief of Buyi people is a very common worship of ghosts and gods, a further development of nature worship and animal worship, and an important concrete embodiment of primitive human society itself getting rid of the bondage of nature. In the process of fighting against nature, primitive people gradually strengthened their self-awareness, and they began to vaguely realize their existence and role. If human beings want to survive and develop, they need to rely not only on nature, but also on themselves. Therefore, Buyi ancestors prayed for wizards to relieve diseases and predict good or bad luck. In the primitive thoughts of Buyi ancestors, the concept of soul is different from that of ghost. Soul and body are combined, while ghost is a soul without body. It is believed that ghost can sometimes be deformed and attached to other things. At the same time, the relationship between ghosts and people is very close, which can bring disasters and benefits to people. To make ghosts bring benefits to people, we must sacrifice and worship ghosts and gods. Buyi people also have their own taboos, and outsiders are not allowed to enter the village when "sweeping the village"; When visiting Buyi people's homes, don't touch shrines and shrines, and don't put anything on the shrines; The tripod beside the fire pit is forbidden to trample; Unmarried girls cannot be carried out from the front door after death; People who die outside can't be carried into the house, and so on. Religion is a cultural phenomenon and a social ideology, which belongs to the category of superstructure. Religious belief is a historical phenomenon, which is produced under certain historical conditions and will change with the development of social history, and it will be integrated with the psychology, culture and customs of most ethnic groups.