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At present, only in the northwest of Guizhou Weining County Yi cottage bare Jar "handful of Taiji" (translation), some comrades according to the literal meaning of the Yi language interpretation of the "change of human drama", from the whole ceremony does not involve the origin of mankind. At the very beginning of the "Handful of Taiji", Jagabu (the old mountain god) asks the 1,700-year-old "Abu Mo" (wearing a male white-bearded mask): "Where do you handfuls of specialties come from?". In the Yi language, "Xiete" means ghosts, which means that souls are transformed into human beings, i.e., the idea that people become souls after death, which is common to all ethnic groups.
The Yi believe that there are three souls after death: one soul guards the graveyard; one soul goes to the underworld; and one soul goes to the shrine. The five black masks used in the "Handful of Taichi" represent the "ghosts" that the Yi ancestors have turned into, so can the "Handful of Taichi" be interpreted as a "game of ghosts". In the three legends of the Weining Yi explaining why they hold the "Sok Taiji" activity, all of them are related to food, which is an important material condition for the survival of human beings. Two of the legends mention that the "God of Heaven" sent the "Handicap" down to help people affected by disasters to send seeds, and one legend mentions that the "God of Heaven" sent lions to help human beings to get a good harvest of grain, so the ceremony also includes a lion dance. The connection between the gods and human beings is made by the spirits of the ancestors.
In the early consciousness of mankind, there is the concept of "soul", that is, there is another "little me" that is "soul", people die or coma, the soul will be from the body's natural orifices, especially the nasal cavity and the mouth out of the body. Ancient emperors had to repair their underground palaces before they were born, i.e., letting their souls become emperors in the netherworld after their deaths. However, the soul only exists in people's dreams or hallucinations and cannot be manifested in the real world, so the ancients used masks to represent the souls of their ancestors. When the Yi held the "Summary Taiji", the souls of their ancestors were represented through masks - specific symbols.
The five masks of the "Siu Tai Ji", which are blackened with pot-smoke ink and marked with lines of lime, are the ancestral masks, which are used as mediums for praying to the gods or as offerings to the gods. These masks are used as a medium for praying to the gods or as offerings to the gods to beg the gods for a good harvest and for the removal of calamities. I believe that the tight wrapping of cloth around the body, limbs, and head of the wearer of the ancestor masks in the "Sangtaegi" is a precautionary measure taken by the wearer of the mask for fear that his or her spirit will be taken away by the spirits of the ancestors. The male-female coitus that occurs during the planting of buckwheat is a simulation of sorcery in which the union of the two sexes of human beings leads to the union of the two sexes of the grain, which leads to the reproduction of a good harvest of the grain.
Let's look at the "handful of Taiji" the whole process of the real meaning: first to pray to the ancestors, dancing bell dance (Yi funeral dance), narrating the history of migration of the Yi people with dialogues, then sweeping the plague, go to the disaster, to buy oxen, sowing, planting and harvesting buckwheat in the whole process, the middle of the intervening smoking, male and female coitus, breastfeeding the child, etc., and finally back buckwheat into the barn, buckwheat to the brothers and sisters into the wine, lion dance. From the whole process of this ceremony, we can clearly see that all the rituals are to ensure that the grain harvest simulation of witchcraft. Yi people live in a very difficult environment, is one of the worst living conditions in Guizhou minority ethnic groups. A good or bad grain harvest directly affects people's lives. It is extremely natural for the Yi to use the power of sorcery with the divine power of their ancestors' souls to express the wish for a good harvest.
In the witchcraft rituals of tribal peoples all over the world, rituals similar to the "Handful of Taiji" are very common. Tribal peoples believe that: the real or simulated fertility action in the grain roots of the crop fields after the fall is a way for human beings to imbue exhausted nature with their own exuberant vitality, and that the old woman in the "Handful of Taiji" (Mother Ada, 1,200 years old, wearing a mask, and carrying a baby on her back) here plays the role of a mother of the five grains, the also known as the goddess of the grains. The child is obviously the daughter of the grains; the mother of the grains denotes the ripe grains, while the child denotes the grains of the coming year. Obviously, the grains of the coming year can be seen as growing from the seeds of this year's harvest. To feed the child is also to instill nutrients into the coming year's crop. The nature of the witchcraft rituals is very clear when the Handful of Tej is viewed in the context of the deeper structure of witchcraft.
The five ancestor masks of the "Summary Taiji" are wooden masks of the larger size of Guizhou's masks, which can completely cover the entire face, and are made in a rough and simple manner. Five masks a plus white beard, a plus black beard, another for the hare lip, the rest does not have much difference, tone solemn, mask only in the eyes, mouth digging three holes, painted with pot smoke ink black background color on the white lime painted with lines composed of different patterns, this pursuit of simple order modeling techniques in line with the principle of primitive consciousness, that is, primitive people trying to find order and classification of the psychological reflection of consciousness.
This kind of masks in Yunnan Chuxiong Yi also have similar people (Weining Yi relocated from Yunnan), Heilongjiang Oroqen people's wooden idol is also this kind of modeling, and with the Americas Eskimo in the sacrifice of the dead with the mask is very similar, and even with the Zaire, Africa, Benna - Mubasha people in the important occasions, such as villages in the plague, the army on the warpath or the king's death to wear the mask is also very similar. It is not that the people of these three continents have any blood relationship or information transfer relationship, the only explanation is that the culture and economic development of these peoples is more consistent, at the same level, so that the psychological activities are also more consistent results.
Such witchcraft masks representing ancestral souls have a mysterious power. The Yi people revere black and choose the most readily available local colors of black and white for their paints. The white stripes against the black background create a visual effect of strong contrast, creating a sense of psychological tension that distinguishes them from the people of the Yang world. From the stylization of the elongated facial features of the masks, traces of certain animal totem worship can be seen to a greater or lesser extent. According to "Southwest Yi Zhi", the ancestors of the Yi people lived in the trees, and the beasts lived with the people, and the people and the beasts followed each other. The forest apes and monkeys, a class of mammals with long eyes, were often regarded as ancestors by the ancient ancestors and worshipped as totems, or as ghosts and monsters in the mountains. The dresser of the "Handful of Tailor-made Monkeys" makes ape-like cries from time to time, and the viewer is easily reminded of his or her own ancestors or totem objects of worship when facing this kind of masks and hearing this kind of cries. When wearing a "handful of Tet" mask, the identity of the wearer of the mask also changes from a human being to the ghost of an ancestor, so they speak with a drawl to show that they are different from the world of the living, creating the illusion of being there in person to make their sorcery more effective and to make their tribe more united under the call of the spirits of the dead of their ancestors.
To sum up, the WeiNing Yi of northwest Guizhou is a simulated witchcraft ceremony, which can be clearly reflected from the specific environment, date, special meaning of the ancestor masks, and the purpose of seeking for a good harvest of grain. At present, the comrades in the drama world define "Xiutaiji" as the primitive drama of Yi ethnic group from the perspective of drama art, or define it as a sound drama form containing dramatic beauty with the modern view of drama. Of course, the "handful of Taiji" no matter in the Weining county cultural evening performance, or in the United States, New York "Broadway" theater performance, it is certainly a drama, as if its ancestor masks in the National Art Museum of China in Beijing when the exhibition can be sure that the plastic arts in the wood carving works. If we leave the specific context of the ritual to define its form, it can be defined as various forms from various perspectives. However, once the "Szetaiji" is returned to the Yi villages at an altitude of 2,800 meters, where the natural conditions are harsh, when the fear of death covers the earth, people take out the masks of their ancestors, and with the thirst for life, gather on the lawn beside the cottage to pray to the gods to hold the "Szetaiji", it is undoubtedly a kind of sorcery ritual.
The definition of all primitive art remains a modern self-definition of the ancients in the museum. Through the ritual of praying to the gods for a good harvest through the masks of their ancestors, the Sautaiji serves as an important link between the past and the present of the people, thus strengthening their social ties and unity. The nature of the ceremony can be categorized as Nuo culture, has its cultural anthropological research value, its mask is the earliest form of Guizhou Nuo Masks in a class.
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