Chinese Nation - Maonan nationality

Maonan people mainly live in Shangnan, Zhongnan, and Xianan mountain areas of Huan Jiang County, Guangxi, and the river valleys of Kapu River and Liudong river at the junction of Pingtang county and Dushan County, Guizhou. The rest of the Maonan people live in the towns of Shuiyuan, Mulund, Chuanshan, Luoyang, and Xi’an in Huan Jiang County, as well as the surrounding counties (cities) such as Hechi, Nandan, Yishan, Duan, and Huishui in Guizhou.

Maonan people believe in polytheism. Before the end of the Ming Dynasty, the Maonan people mainly believed in primitive religion. In the early Qing Dynasty, Zhengyi Taoism was introduced into the Maonan area. Later, Taoism occupied the main position in the confluence with Maonan culture, forming the so-called “martial education” mainly focusing on worshiping gods and jumping gods (returning vows), the so-called “cultural education” mainly focusing on fasting to see off the dead, and the land and water Daochang cooperated by two groups of people. Among the clergy engaged in religious activities, there are ghost masters, Taoists, witches, Mr. Guigu, and Patong. They all belong to different families and have a clear division of labor. They specialize in legalism and receive certain remuneration. Maonan, who is in charge of worshiping deities, is called “Bo Tao”, or “Wu Jiao”, or “Shining” or “Gui Shi”.

Making and returning vows are the most important and common collective religious activities of the Maonan people. Maonan people have to make a wish in advance for everything. Generally speaking, it’s OK for them to make a declaration in front of the gods. If you can fulfill your wish, you should fulfill it according to your wish. In Maonan dialect, “vowing” is called “fear”. It is avowing activity to pray to long live empress for a son and other gods for peace in and out, prosperity of people, and good weather all year round. There are two kinds of votive activities: “Huangyan” and “Hongyan”. Huangyan is a small-scale sacrificial activity for a single family to pray to God, while “Hongyan” has a large scale and many rituals. In addition to inviting Shigong to dance with gods, 18 livestock such as chickens, ducks, cattle, and pigs should also be killed as sacrifices. If this generation does not do it, the next generation will have to repay it, the sacrifices used will be doubled, and the ritual time will be longer.

The food of Maonan people is mainly rice and corn, supplemented by sorghum, millet, sweet potato, and pumpkin. One of the biggest characteristics of their diet custom is “Baiwei uses acid”. I like pickled sour meat, sour snails, and pickled vegetables. They are all traditional dishes for guests. There are many kinds of acid food, especially the most famous “Maonan three acids”, which is also called “belly awake”, “sure”, “Weng simmer” by Maonan people. “Belly wakes up” is to cut the pig and beef into thin slices, mix with raw salt, put it for two or three days, after the water is dry, steam the right amount of fragrant glutinous rice into rice, then put it in dustpan to cool, knead with the cut meat evenly, and put it in the jar to seal tightly. The longer you marinate in the jar, the more delicious it tastes. It is a sign of the Maonan people’s deep enthusiasm to treat guests with “belly wake up”. Sue is a kind of snail soup with a special sour taste. The preparation method is to dry fry the washed snails with lard, wait until they are thoroughly cooked and fragrant, pour them into the jar while they are hot, and seal them for three months before uncovering them for eating. “Urn simmer” is a kind of saltwater pickle jar. It is used to pickle all kinds of vegetables, such as radish, beans, cucumber, ginger, pepper, and so on. This kind of pickle jar can prevent melons, fruit, and vegetables from spoiling after a long time.

In addition to cooking rice and porridge with rice, Maonan people also like to make various kinds of food with staple food or coarse cereals, such as “Maonan rice”, “glutinous rice cake”, “sweet potato” and so on. Drinking is a major hobby of Maonan people. Every wedding, funeral, and guest’s home should drink. Almost every family uses their own rice, corn, sweet potato, pumpkin, and other brewed liquor, the degree of alcohol is not high, generally about 20 degrees. Most of the adult men of Maonan Nationality smoke, but they smoke local dry tobacco leaves and seldom use foreign cigarettes.

Maonan costumes are similar to Zhuang and Mulao people nearby. According to gender, age, season, use, and social status, they have formed various types and styles.

Men and women like to wear blue and cyan placket and cardigan, avoid wearing white clothes, only wear when funeral. Men’s clothes are called five-button clothes, without lace. It is characterized by five bright copper buttons, so the Maonan language is called “bone and”, which means five-button clothes. One collar button, three on the right side, perpendicular to the collar button, one on the navel, with a placket at the bottom. The pocket is sewn in the right skirt. When they were in full dress, they wore a black scarf, about eight feet long. From left to right, it is regularly wrapped around the head. At one end of the scarf, there is a cloth whisker, which shows the top of the head. When walking, the cloth whisker shakes and looks like a small sheep’s horn, so it is called a sheep’s horn scarf. In the Maonan dialect, it is called “hanging claw”. When they are in full dress, they have to wear an eight-foot black belt around their waist. The two ends of the belt are inlaid with red, green, yellow, blue, and white wool to form serrated whiskers. The colored cloth around the waist should be exposed at both ends, with wide trousers underneath and cloth shoes with white soles and black sides on the feet.

Maonan women usually wear blue or blue right front top, and the biggest feature of women’s clothing is the left front top and trousers with three black lace. Most of the clothes are cyan or blue cloth, with silver ornaments and top card flowers, wearing dignified and beautiful, simple and generous. The girls also tied a small rectangular apron with beautiful patterns embroidered on it. With silver bracelet, blue and white match.

Maonan women love to wear embroidered shoes, including “Shuangqiao”, “Mobi” and “You”. “Double bridges”.

Shoes with red, green two colors, inlaid into two lace on the vamp, like two stone arch bridge across the river, also like a pair of rainbow water absorption, hence the name. “Cat nose” shoes are made of five color ribbons, which are embroidered with cloud lotus patterns on the uppers. These embroidered shoes are usually kept in boxes and worn only when they go to weddings and relatives. Usually, wear black cloth shoes at home.

In addition to the commonly used silver bracelets, earrings, and silver collars, the silver ornaments of Maonan Nationality include silver unicorn, silver ring, silver hairpin, hat ornament, silver trembling flower, silver hairpin, and silver comb.

Maonan, Zhuang, and Han people have the same spring festival, Qingming Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Zhongyuan Festival, Chongyang Festival, and their own unique Temple Festival, feeling Festival. Even though they share the same festival with Zhuang and Han people, they also have their own unique customs with distinct national colors.

Maonan mountain is rich in bamboo. Maonan people are good at weaving bamboo hats and mats.

Bamboo wares woven by Maonan people are exquisite and durable. The most famous is the bamboo hat made of local bamboo and ink bamboo. Commonly known as “Maonan hat”, also known as “top cover flower”, which means “flower under the hat”. This kind of hat is very beautiful and practical. The production method is: cut the bamboo into bamboo strips as thin as half a match stem and weave them into fine and beautiful patterns.

Bamboo mats made by Maonan people are also very famous. Maonan mat is mainly made of local rich “Paozhu”. It is first to cut into thin strips with a knife and hand-made. It has strong toughness, smooth and cool.