Chengbu, located at the junction of Hunan and Guangxi, is one of the five Miao autonomous counties in China. The scenery here is beautiful, the folk customs are simple, and the Miao people can sing and dance well. Because of its remoteness, many primitive cultures and customs are still preserved. Wedding songs are one of the more representative arts.

Miao wedding song is a lyric song sung by Chengbu Miao people in wedding customs. It originated from Miao's ancient folk songs, love songs and marriage customs, and it is a traditional folk song that has accumulated and evolved in long-term labor life and customs and passed down from mouth to mouth. Miao wedding songs are mainly spread in Wutuan, Tingping, Zhennan, Tuqiao, Kou Dan and other Miao gathering places in Chengbu Miao Autonomous County. Miao wedding songs mainly include Nine Songs, Weeping Wedding Songs and He Lang Songs, which are the soul of Miao wedding.

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In the ancient Miao village, the red and green Miao people at the entrance of the village danced a cheerful Lusheng dance, and people dressed in Miao costumes were busy organizing the wedding ceremony of "marrying women". The whole ancient Miao village is full of joy. At the entrance of the village, the elders of the two wedding procession raised the Miao family's wine bowl at the wine table and told their feelings with wine songs (old and vigorous wine songs sung in Miao language):

The wedding party raised the wine bowl and said, "Dear relatives and distinguished guests, you have worked hard and painstakingly to prepare for this wedding. (singing):

Wholeheartedly fuck bigger than the sky, and wholeheartedly do it as deep as the sea.

I have climbed several boundaries and waded several times.

Cross several bridges and many rushes.

We didn't have a car to pick us up, nor did we bring horses to pick us up.

Holding a red lacquer tea tray to pick up the distinguished guests,

There is no incense table to show the door

(Picking up singing)

Clouds rise from all directions, and fog rises from all directions.

Men come from left and women from right. Men come from left and women come from right to greet the bride.

Lohan array is spread out on the left, and the door for receiving relatives is erected on the right.

After leading the wedding procession into the gate of the bride's hall, the host receptionist politely seated the bride's mother, suona teacher and matchmaker, sifted tea and offered cigarettes. The bearer neatly placed gift boxes, colorful bears, etc. In the middle of the hall, there are lanterns and suona on the table of the Eight Immortals. The elders of the woman's clan arrange and accompany the guests who come to greet relatives or congratulate to dinner. At the dinner table, the elders on both sides fight each other with wine songs, the people on both sides entertain, and the wine bowls on the wine table clink each other.

(Nine Songs)

It is a local custom to go out as a guest and punch in and drink wine.

It's the Miao family's rule to ask questions and sober up with songs.

People on the top of our mountain use songs to relax and rice wine to relieve their worries.

Play chess happily.

In ancient times, Miao people could sing this song.

Let's learn to sing today, too

Don't lose it, don't lose it.

Bees gather flowers and fly everywhere, while phoenixes fly away.

I won't say much, and I won't say much for the time being.

Tell me who will make the sky and who will settle the land.

It's grandpa who makes heaven, but the baby makes earth.

Who set up the state capital, who set up the yamen.

(Continue to sing)

The sun emperor came to make heaven, and Fuxi Nuwa came to settle down.

Emperor Hongwu stood and Emperor Chongzhen stood.

Fifteen counties and 108 counties were established in Kyushu. ...

Nine songs are the spirit of Miao wedding songs. It is a long poem structure that only sings and doesn't cry. It has a complete set of etiquette forms, which have been handed down from generation to generation and cannot be reversed at will. Nine Songs is divided into ten chapters, more than 3,400 lines and more than 30,000 words. It begins with Miao etiquette, tells the ins and outs of Miao people, and praises the heroic history of their ancestors. It is a teaching book for Miao people to feed their offspring from generation to generation.

Weeping wedding songs

As a daughter, she never leaves her mother's body;

Leave mom at home, she will come back eventually, and she will be separated from her for half a day tomorrow.

The boudoir door is full today. I left my parents and married someone else.

As night falls, the wine song continues. Suddenly, there was a faint cry in the room, melodious and lingering. Sometimes a person cries, sometimes a group of people cry. The melody of wedding songs is simple and concise, beautiful and rhythmic.

The boudoir of the girl to be married is brightly lit, and the room is crowded with the girls' wives, who are watching and singing. The Miao bride, who has been singing a tearful wedding song in a low voice, suddenly jumped out of the bed curtain and threw herself into her mother's arms, and a tearful wedding song flew out ("Weeping Married Woman");

There are only mothers, mothers and mothers in the world, and mothers suffer for their children.

I was conceived in October and gave birth to me. Mom and mom ran to death, and I ran to life.

My teeth are broken and my feet are worn out.

I grew a foot and five inches, and suffered a lot of hunger and cold.

After three years in my mother's arms, my hair turned white

A handful of shit to a handful of urine, just to contain.

One is afraid that we are hungry, and the other is afraid that we are sick.

The third is that clothes are uglier than people, and the fourth is that they are uneducated.

My mother, my father,

How much cold food did you eat and how much rain and snow did you get?

Your hair is bitter, your bones are broken,

Your efforts have dried up.

My parents' deep gratitude has not been reported so far. Mom, mom, I'll leave mom's door as soon as the suona rings.

Who will help cook, who will bear the burden of chopping wood and feeding pigs,

Who will serve the old, the weak and the sick, and who will take care of the younger brothers and sisters.

My parents raised me up to now, an unfilial person,

It is a waste of energy for sugar bees to collect honey, and a lamp without oil is a waste of energy.

In the past, hens took care of chicks, and chicks were peaceful.

Today, the hen drove away the chicks. Mom, mom, let the chicks feed the rock eagle.

How can my mother, my mother and my son not be sad and how can they get rid of it?

Mother holds her daughter, combs her hair and dresses her, and sings while crying ("mother cries women");

Lovely girl, my heart, Jiao Jiao's son around my parents.

Being a woman at home is as expensive as gold, and your temper mother knows it.

If you marry someone as a daughter-in-law, you must change all your temperament.

Never mind your biological parents, be careful in front of your in-laws;

First, follow the wishes of in-laws, and second, follow the heart of husband.

Three meals, tea and rice, starched clothes should be clean.

Brothers and sisters all have husbands and live in harmony with each other.

Don't talk back to what your in-laws tell you. Husband and wife should speak softly.

You can only add soil to the wall, not plug it.

This is the mother's instruction to her daughter before the wedding, which fully embodies the mother's sincere love for her daughter and is the expression of simple and natural human beauty.

The mother and daughter cried and sang sadly, which caused everyone to cry and sigh. The matchmaker lifted the bride and encouraged her to sing:

There are all kinds of things in the world, sisters, men get married and women get married.

As long as brothers and sisters have good feelings, sisters are as sweet as coptis root and licorice root.

Before the matchmaker finished singing, the bride pushed away the matchmaker's hand and complained to the matchmaker ("scold the matchmaker");

The matchmaker has a flat mouth, and Huanglian sings licorice sweet.

Monopterus albus turns into a dragon, only for wine, meat and money

You go to this house for dinner and say that this house has a lot of food and a heavy burden.

Where to drink, just say you have everything.

You talk sweet words, and you coax my parents and me.

Everyone laughed at the matchmaker, but the matchmaker was not angry and helped the bride with a big smile. Holding lanterns, the elderly sang at the wedding ceremony in the corridor of Diaojiaolou:

When the golden pheasant crows, the bride gets up and dresses quickly;

Dress up and say goodbye to your ancestors and your parents.

Sisters dress up for the bride, and sister-in-law puts on the bride's wedding dress and sings (sisters cry):

There are twelve branches on Thoreau's tree. Our roots and branches are the same.

Now that the sisters are going to be separated, it is very lonely to leave Xiulou.

Parents' kindness to the world is broken.

The tree wanted to be quiet, but the wind didn't stop, and left without saying goodbye.

I have been looking forward to my hometown for a long time. How long can I stay when I come back?

The river in front of the door often flows, and the daughter's tears are long.

My brother picked up my married sister, and my sister-in-law held up a red oiled paper umbrella in her left hand and covered it with a torch in her right hand. Under the guidance of "leading mother" and "seeing off", she cried and sang in the songs of her sisters ("crying sister-in-law"):

Wearing a wedding dress is like leaving a leaf on a flower.

Like a kite dropping, like an oil lamp wick.

Flowers are red and yellow, and only my brother and sister-in-law are most worried.

Brother and sister parted ways today, and you honor your parents in front of the court.

My parents are old and sick. I hope my sister-in-law can knit a towel to keep her mother warm.

When I came to the main hall, there was a square bucket full of rice in front of the ancestral hall in the main hall, and there was a ball screen for screening rice on the bucket. The bride stopped crying. Under the cover of her sister-in-law's paper umbrella and with the help of her brother, her feet could not land on the ball screen to bid farewell to her ancestors, parents and elders in the family. Then my brother carried the sedan chair into the yard, and the bride beat her brother's back and sang sadly:

Brother, brother,

Why are you so cruel, carrying me to the fire pit?

Why do you want to help again?

You threw me on a rock,

Let me become a bird and fly to the big tree behind the house;

You threw me into the swimming pool,

Let me become a fish and swim in the river in front of the house!

The bride with a red hijab was carried to the sedan chair by her brother, and her feet could not touch the ground. Putting a red box in the sedan chair symbolizes the woman's mission of continuing the incense. The sedan chair started with the sound of three shovel eyes. With the whine of eight trombones, the bride's sad farewell song rang out in the sedan chair again:

Going out step by step, every step hurts.

I haven't thanked the girl for giving it away for nothing yet.

Cry mom, mom won't listen; Call dad, dad shouldn't.

Turning to look at my mother, I saw my parents crying.

Weeping marriage is the performance of Miao girls' filial piety to their parents, and it is also the performance of showing their wisdom to men, guests and sisters before marriage. Helping happiness with sorrow and celebrating happiness with crying is a major feature of Chengbu Miao marriage custom.

Song of He Lang

In front of the groom's door, incense tables were set up to meet him, and guns were fired to meet him. At the same time, a passerby was invited to kill the rooster. The bride enters the groom's house under the guidance of the bride, and the farewell personnel follow up.

I saw the newly written home on the shrine of the main hall, and the red light was dazzling by candlelight; The festive couplets on the pillars sparkle; There is a banner on the lintel that reads "Dragon and Phoenix Singing" in red paper. The words "Xi" are pasted on the doors and windows with red scissors; The tables and stools in the hall are neatly arranged. Have a wedding at the groom's house. The bride and groom worship the world, ancestors, parents and other elders under the guidance of the etiquette department, and all sing "He Lang Song":

Ping-pong with firecrackers in hand, stepping into your bridal chamber;

On our wedding night tonight, I will come to your house for a wedding.

Congratulations from relatives and friends, the wedding room was full of joy.

A door opened on both sides and a pair of mandarin ducks flew in;

Fly into Liang Shanbo on the left and fly into Zhu Yingtai on the right. ...

The hand-held tea tray is square, and the jade lamp is placed;

The cup is full of glutinous rice wine, and the bride and groom taste the wine.

A glass of wine is full, and both hands are used to respect the couple;

Husband and wife drink a glass of wine together, and early birth of your son jumps over Longmen. ...

He Lang Song is a Miao wedding song, which changes the sad and graceful mood of wedding songs, and praises marriage and yearning for future life in the form of hymns. Its melody is beautiful, its melody is full of connotation, its structure is concise and rigorous, its artistic conception is cheerful and enthusiastic, its emotions are intense and unrestrained, its affection is endless, and its sound is lingering.

After midnight, people in the bridal chamber set off firecrackers, blew suona and sang "the song of peace".

Suona firecrackers are noisy, send the groom to the bridal chamber quickly;

Lest the woman wait by the bed, everyone should finally have enough noise.

People sent the groom into the bridal chamber, and the song of He Lang floated in the distance.

Miao wedding songs are artistic treasures inherited by Chengbu Miao people for thousands of years. It is a living fossil for studying Miao culture and customs. Its rich connotation and beautiful melody are symbols of Miao wisdom, which has high artistic and academic value. At the same time, Miao wedding songs have been listed in the municipal intangible cultural heritage protection list by Shaoyang City for protection and inheritance.

Postscript: This paper refers to the relevant materials in Shaoyang City Records, Shaoyang Literature and History, Chengbu County Records and Selected Papers of Qin Baolai, and especially thanks to Teacher Qin Baolai and Director Ai Jun of Chengbu Cultural Center for their help in the creation of this article.

(This article is excerpted from The Living Fossil of Culture —— Excerpts from Shaoyang Intangible Cultural Heritage, edited by Ouyang Entao, published by Yangcheng Evening News Publishing House in June 2022)

: Seeking Zijiang

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The above is music about ancient marriage, which is about the sharing of Miao people. I hope this will help you after reading the names of ancient wedding music!