Thousands of Miao villages, from the boldness of "high mountains and flowing water" to the sadness of "displaced"

1. Getting to know Qianhu Miao Village for the first time

"Many nights overlap, quietly forming a dark night, the rose absorbs the light, the earth suppresses the fragrance, in order to find you, I move into the eyes of a bird, and often stare at the passing wind." - Bi Gan "Picnic on the Roadside"

I have never had a deep understanding of Qiandongnan. Until I saw the "Roadside Picnic" released in 2016 by Bi Gan, which was filmed in Southeast Guizhou.

Those magical and poetic scenes, those rolling and verdant hills, those Guizhou dialects with a strong sense of rhythm, those stilted buildings in the mist, and the soul-stirring history of the migration of the Miao people all aroused my deep yearning.

Finally, there is a chance to reach the pure land of Qiandongnan. It is also the first stop of my trip to Guizhou - Qianhu Miao Village in Xijiang. This is also the starting point for many people to get to know Guizhou for the first time.

Standing on the heights of the village, you can see the Xijiang River in the depths of the mountains, a meandering white water river, and there are nearly a thousand stilted buildings of the Miao nationality on both sides, built on the cliffs, layered on top of each other. The valley is often shrouded in mist, which adds to the indifferent artistic conception of ink painting for this village where the Miao people have lived for generations.

Photography/Liu Jie

Here are more than a dozen natural villages of Miao nationality built on the mountain, with a population of about 6,000 people. When I approached it, sitting on the Fengyu Bridge and looking at its appearance, I saw a different scene.

The green hills surrounded on all sides are like an embrace, which makes people feel at ease; the terraced fields are also like houses, which are dug along the hills, and people's life and farming are intertwined, harmonious and pleasant; in the low-lying areas, the Baishui River meanders through the village. , bringing vigorous vitality to the village; the wooden stilted buildings are stacked high and low, and they are built along the mountain in a meandering order.

The tiled roofs representing the last century constitute the background color of this picture scroll, and the thick moss tells their long-standing stories; they are gray and black under the stain of time, and they look a little lonely.

Photography/Qiu Lei

Photography/Qiu Lei

2. Long Table Banquet, Banmen Wine and Lusheng

The Miao people have a special way of entertaining guests. The long table banquet is the highest etiquette and the most solemn ceremony for the Miao people to entertain guests. It has a history of thousands of years. This lively and extraordinary ceremony started before serving the table. In front of the gate of the Miao Village, the welcome wine had already been set up, and the dancing and majestic reeds could be heard from far away.

In "Roadside Picnic", the lusheng is the turning point of the whole film, and the director's introduction to this instrument is also mysterious and cryptic. The protagonist, Chen Sheng, failed to find the Miao people who played the lusheng, but stayed in the dreamlike place of "Dangmai".

And the reed sheng does give people a sense of mystery of magical reality. It is not only a musical instrument, but also has a long history. The Lusheng song is composed of six tones based on the six tones of the local Miao language, each of which expresses a meaning. Therefore, only by knowing the local Helusheng words in Miao language can we truly understand the meaning it expresses.

In addition, Lusheng is surprisingly difficult in terms of tuning and fingering, followed by the breath of playing. A guy from the Miao nationality told me that he had studied for 5 years before he was considered an entry-level student. People can't help but be amazed that the Lusheng is a musical instrument that carries the culture, customs and history of this nation. The Miao people have deep feelings for it. Regardless of the big or small things during the festivals, the Lusheng is the most frequently photographed musical instrument. So it is not difficult to understand why this complex instrument has been handed down to this day.

After listening to Lu Sheng's compliments and drinking this bowl of Miao's door-stopping wine, it is considered a formal seat. The long-table feast of the Miao nationality is laid out in a row. The longest long-table banquet is usually during the Spring Festival. In order to welcome the folks who rush home for the New Year from other places, the old villagers in the local village will move out the tables and chairs from their homes and walk along the ancient road. Long tables of two to three hundred meters were placed on the street, and the scene was very lively.

The long-table banquet for the store to entertain guests will also change according to the venue and the number of people. The festive atmosphere; cured meat and ancient Tibetan meat have unique flavors; although the ingredients such as king fish, white-cut chicken, and wild meat are common, they have strong regional characteristics; the taste of Qingyan tofu and leek root is unique and memorable ...the table is full of traditional delicacies of the Miao nationality, delicious and fragrant, intoxicating.

3. Miao rice wine "High Mountain and Flowing Water"

However, the atmosphere of the long table banquet at this time did not reach its climax. After drinking for three rounds and tasting the five flavors of the dishes, the flickering reeds came from the corner of the corridor, and everyone knew that the main event was coming.

The long table banquet of the Miao family is delicious, but the rice wine of the Miao family is not so easy to drink. Accompanied by Lusheng and loud toast songs, the Miao girls in food and drink brought the wine glasses to the guests. While taking the first sip, several girls lined up, with the wine pots in their hands stacked high. Putting on a posture of "high mountains and flowing water", unknowingly, the guests drank a glass of the rice wine in the fragrance.

But the Miao girl’s toast is not over yet. After a round of high mountains and flowing water, she will tease the guests with a piece of Miao’s secret bacon, making people want to eat it. After several games, drink a glass of rice wine and eat the bacon. The toast is over. The drinker is slightly drunk, the persuasion is full of fun, and the spectators are happy. This is the unique wine culture of the Miao nationality.

So in the open windows of the ancient street, mixed with the rhythmic playing of Lusheng, the loud singing of Miao girls and the eager conversation of people, there are bursts of tempting aromas of wine and meat.

After drinking and eating, it is a good choice to take a walk on Fengyu Bridge to see the night view. As the sky darkened, thousands of households lit up the lights, and the ocean of lights made the village even more dreamy. In order to allow tourists to better enjoy the night view of Qianhu Miao Village in Xijiang, the scenic spot built a viewing platform on the roadside high on the hillside, and also opened sightseeing cars.

Photography/Qiu Lei

4. "Beautiful Xijiang" tells the story of the birth and migration of the Miao people

Also worth visiting, there is another very good place to go, which is the large-scale theatrical performance of "Beautiful Xijiang", which is a place to learn about the history of the Miao nationality. The whole play is divided into four scenes: Maple Tree Turning into Butterfly, Migration, Xijiang Customs, and Miao Township Splendid. It takes the myth of Mother Butterfly, the ancestor of the Miao people as the main line, and tells the process of the Miao people from birth, migration, settlement and life.

What I am most interested in is the great migration of the Miao people. Regarding this period of history, there is such a sentence in the book "Mountain Peoples": "There are two disaster-ridden, tenacious and unyielding peoples in the world. They are the Miao people and the Miao people in China." Jews scattered all over the world."

In China more than 4,000 years ago, Yandi, Huangdi, and Chiyou, the "three ancestors of China", experienced successive years of wars. Chiyou defeated Yandi, Yandi surrendered to Huangdi, Yanhuang defeated Chiyou, and Huangdi defeated Yandi. In the end, there was the first great ethnic fusion in the history of the Chinese nation, and a small number of Chi You's descendants did not merge in, and finally multiplied into various ethnic groups of the Miao-Yao language family.

The Miao nationality is an important part of it. Since then, the Miao people have started five major migrations from east to west that lasted for thousands of years, and it was not until the 19th century that they gradually settled down. This has also caused the Miao people to have their own language, but they have never had their own writing.

Centuries of ups and downs have put this nation under too much burden, but because of this heavy history, the Miao people are more united and friendly, and every symbol in the Miao culture has warmth. Fortunately, their descendants are now able to thrive safely and will never be displaced again, and Qianhu Miao Village will be a mark of them and will last forever in people's memory.