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Ke Xiaojie
Hubei Folklole assoliation,china
Melon,Pot,Offspringcake:Symbols of Reproduction Worship An Initial Study on the Traces Left from the Ancient Custom of Reproduction Worship in Southeastern Hubei
Abstract
In Southeastern Hubei Province,China,country folks revers piously things like melon,pot and bamboo by means of special rituals or taboos as well as in their everyday life.With close observation and an extended and in depth survey into relevant folk songs,customs,proverbs and early literature,the following article unvailed the bomogeneity and substance,seldom noticed before,of these traditional practices.What is more,the author pinpoints the connection between existing customs and Chu楚Culture,an ancient civilization built up on the very land.
Key words:queer practices —“ordinary”symbols—reproduction worship
The term “totemism” originated from the dialect of ojibways in North America.Totemism emerged during the interim between primitive group—marriage system and matri—clan system,and prevailed in the Matrilineal Commune Period.Reproduction worship was one of the early totemisms.The primitive people could not explain scientifically the growth of plants,the multiplication of animals or the reproduction of human beings.Or in other words,they knew little about the structure and function of human reproductive systems,so they thought that all these were controlled by a supernatural power,and believed that all objects and beings in the universe had soule and irresistable magic power.Therefore they mystified the reproductive power,with no exception of human genitals,to which ancients paid homage by performing special rituale.
Nowadays,reproduction worship seems remote to us,or no longer existion.But in fact,it is still right around us though we seldom notice it.For instace,in the mounti\ain ares in Southeastern Hubei,people still worship gourd,melon and bamboo,the Deng family in maopu毛铺（a muntainous district in Southesstern Hubei）offers Zhi sun ba子孙粑(offspringcake)-the curious sacrifice-to their ancestors in the memorial ceremony.There are traces left from ancients reproduction worship.
The reproduction worship of ancients in Hubei was mainly composed pudendum worship,penis worship,ancestror spirit worship and mother worship,most of which were symbolized with corresponding objects and accompanied with customary activites.
Ancient pudendum worship can be illustrated with the existing folk custom in Southeastern Hubei.
At Midautumn Night,villagers still practise a traditional activity-mo qiu摸秋（stealing melone）.When the moon rises,a person would slip into a neighbour’s vegetable gardon,pick a waxgourd or pumpkin(fan gua 饭瓜[grain-melon,melon that can be eaten as staple-food],as is called by the local people)and is deliberately loud in his action so as to stir the gardon owner to curse,the fiercer,the better.The stolen melonis then carved into a baby-shaped toy with a hole at the bottom,in which a red chile is inserted.Beating drums and striking gongs,the “thief”then takess,the melon to a childless family and wishes the family an immediate son.At night,the sterile woman would sleep with the “baby”,which is placed on the inner side of the bed.Melon thieves are mostly close friends or relatives to the childless family.Sometimes,the thieves are the sterile women themselves or their husbands.
This custom is actually a menifestation of pudendum worship.Because of belief in witchcraft,ancient people had long since viewed melon and reproduction as the same thing,thus symbolizing fertility with melon. Waxgourds and pumpkins are chozen because of their big gize,abundance of seeds and a resemblance to women's abdomen in pregnancy.The gardon owner is hoped to curse,as the saying goes that" the more one is cursed, the more prosperous he will be".Mentality of reproduction worship is revealed here n the one hand ,the owner has his melon stolen,which implies that his offsprings become fewer,so he must curse;on the other hand, worshiped as they are,genitals are regarded filthy.therefore it is mixed with curses and this results in the odd thinking that"the more one is cursed,the more prosperous he will be".According to another local custom,women's first sexual intercourse is phrased as"the breaking of the melon",which also mirrors primitive people's melon worship,due to their misunderstanding of melon.
Gourd worship is especially popular in Southern minority regions. It can also be found in Han region in Southeastern Hubei.One of the specimens is the"F1ood Myth",which claims that human beings were pr琽duced from gourds(or pumpkrns),For example,the legend of Meng jiangnu 孟姜女(Lady Meng Jiang)says that she was born by the gourd growing between the yard walls of Meng family and Jiang family.Clearly the gourd is identified with pudendum,female and wombs.In everyday life,it is chiefly sawed into two parts to make ladles.What is miraculous is its capability of curing diseases.In rural areas, water decoted with gourd is prescribed,when a boy catches hernia. Children infl-icted parotitis are treated with it,too.Usually,people heat gourd by a fire,then rub it against the swollen part,chanting at the same time "parotitis,parotitis,gourd rubs parotitis;the longer it rubs, the smaller the parotitis".These remedies took the form of witchcraft,thus mystified by the magic cofer.In fact,gourds themselves have indeed healing efficacy.Its shell, tranquil in nature and sweet in taste,is often applied in dealing with illnesses such as dropsy and abdominal distension.
In mao zhuan 毛传(an ancient book explaining terms used in earlier works),it is stated that"pot 壶"reffered to"hu瓠".As time passes by, pots took the place of gourds, which is shown in the specific conventional practice in Southeastern Hubei.When a baby is born,winepots made of gourds play a unique part in reporting good news to the maternal grandmother.Put in a gift basket,the winepot tells whether the newborn is male or female, by the direction of its mouth.If the mouth points inside,the infant is a boy;if outwards,a girl,symbolizing the old saying"nu sheng wai xiang 女生外向(daughtere will be others,since she will be married out sooner or later)"At the completion of a new house or a moving,friends and rela瑃ives would present sweet tea in a pot to the family in its new residence. Again teapot is used as a symbol of the womb,denoting prosperity.
The primitive people's worship to reproductive organs started from pudendum worship,as is already proved by the above-mentioned conventi-onal practices.It shed light on women's dominance in the primitive social Iife,as well as the then limited knowledge of reproduction.In the matr琲archal society,people had not the vaguest idea about how infants were conceived,so they made these similar objects:pudendum,melon,gourd,pot and the like as their totems.
Yet along with the establishment of patriarchy,man's status was enh-anced and concept of reproduction experienced significant change: people began to realize the part men play in reproduction,though they still did not know the actual process of reproduction.Consequently,peni8 worship came into being and supplanted gradually that of pudendum.Presently in maopu 毛铺,a district in Southeastern Hubei,a certain Deng family still
practise a ritual where their principal sacrifice offspringcake is
precisely a totem of penis worship.This ancestor —memorial ceremony is held duning Spring Festival and on the Clear—and—Bright Day to commemorate their common forefathers in primitive time.Though a form inherited form Zhang Yuan 中原 (the Central Plains) Culture,ancestral spirit worship in Southeastern Hubei differs essentially from the former,in possessing a feature of Chu楚 Culture—mystified with witchcraft.The offered sa— crifice —offspringcake,also called Tai Gong Luan 太公卵(the forefather's testes),is made of powered rice and glutinous rice,kneaded with pure > sweet muntain spring water and molded into three or nine thin,rounded bars,13 —16 cm in length,2 —3 cm in diametre,like human fingers.One end of each bar is slightly flattened and painted red at the tip,imitating the orifice of the urethra.Apart from that,a flat round cake,3.5 —6cm in diametre,is also made.Then,all these are steamed.In order to ovoid the slips of tongue,children are kept off during the procedures.
If the ritual is held on Clear —and—Bright Day,people would contain in a bowl the flat cake with rice —bars on it in a line,toward the tomb, if the number of bars is 3.If it is 9,the bars are stacked in 3 layers, 3 bars each layer and the ones in the middle layer are right angle to those in the other layers.Durmg Spring Festival,the cakes are laid be琭ore the memorial tablet of ancestors in the Family Commemoration Hall, arranged as above.
But dose the theory hold water that the offspringcake is the trace of primodial phallism?
We can see that the arrangement of the offspringcakes represents the body positions in sexual intercourse — man on top of woman.The number of the bars,3 or 9,indicates the abundance of peruses and the only flat cake stands for pudendum/The number seems to suggest a matriarchal society —people knew their mothers,not their fathers.In fact,however, it is penis worship —hoping to have more male desoendants(with penis as an indication),which can be furthur affirmed by the word"offspringcake "that implies propogation of heirs.The other term tai gang luan"(for-efather's testes),is more explicit,reffering directly to male reprod-uctive organ.As to the shape,the bars are vivid portait of erected penises,and it unmistakenly hints the nature of the worship.The saying "forefather's testes,everyone has a share"is also a reflection of penis worship.With these proofs.it is reasonable to conclude that offspringcake is the totem of penis worship and a typical mark of ancient phallism.
When primitive people got knowledge little by little of man's role in reproduction and realized that no offspring would be born without the mating of man and woman,it is inevitable that anciets changed from pudendum worship to pballism.This transition is an important charactor of phallism in ancient Chu Culture,which is proved by the existing folk custom and practices.In the countryside,the pillowslip on the wedding bed is usually embroidered with the auspicious designs of peony, morn-ingglory,and Chinese characters like fu福(blessings),lu禄(affluence), shou 寿（longevity),xi禧(happiness) .But among the many embroidered pil琹owslip patterns,in Southeastern Hubei,this is a quite different one, which includes,instead of flowers,a teapot admist ratterns and vines and a cup beneath its raouth.Obviously,the teapot is no longer the token of pudendum,but has become the symbol of penis.Here,some enlightening clues are given which will help us to better understand the gender me-tamophosis of guan yin 观音(Avalokitesvara).
All that has been discussed above is the imprint of ancient rep-roductive organ worship,one form of reproduction worship;and mother worship,another form of reproduction worship,can also be traced in Southeast Hubei.
Mother worship mainly refers to the reverence of momen in partun-ritaon.At this event,grand praying ceremonies are performed.In the juncture of Yangxin 阳新 and Daye大冶(two places in Southeastern Hubei), this custom remains in the form of "crying the Blood Hall",an unusual wedding,which takes place at the departure of the bride,in her birth room-the Blood Hall.Usually the bride must chant some traditional songs,and her mother and seven concomitant sisters chant with her.The bride would tread the etepboard in front of the bed,barefooted,while singing and sobbing.It is said that the purpose is to thank wang mu niang niang 王母娘娘(Mother Empress Dowager)for her grace of bringing the child,and to draw luck from the birth room to have more chances of pregnacy and smooth deliveries later.The content of the chanted songs is mere often than not the Kai Tou Ge 开头歌 (Song of Opening): To the sun are all the flowers blooming; stepping the Blood Hall we are chanting. The Blood Hall is set up by the god, and the child is given by Mother Empress Dowager, A little girl as pretty as an angel she sent us; how she arrived and left the stepboard only knows. The Shi Yue Hum Tai Ge 十月怀胎歌(Song of Pregnancy)tells of women's pain throughout their ordeal which lasts as long as ten months.The latter is also chanted during parturition to show respect to the suffering woman. Another strange phenomenon worth mentioning in kujia 哭嫁(departure chanting)is the custom of Ku Bai Hua 哭百花(crying the flowers).In songs of this type,flowers are reffered to repeatedly and the bride is compared to flowers.These songs are chanted to express the affection betw琫en mother and daughter,to advise the daughter how to conduct in her hus琤and's home and to bless the bride's awaiting life.Usmg flowers as the token of women is by no means accidental,because flower is the reproduc-tive organ of plants and pudendum women the connection between is self —evi — dent. One of the reasons why ancients perform ceremonies to worship women in parturition is probably that they were ignorant of the mechanism of reproduction,and were awed by the sight of women delivering babies.An-other reason why women's parturition was regarded so important is that the number of population and the state of its constitution could determine the rise and decline of a tribe in the primitive society,which had very low — levelled productive forces.
Besides the major forms of reproduction worsbip,as has so far been , studied,an interesting convention —bamboo worship,which looks like plant worsbip.is also related delicately to reproduction worship.In rural areas, there are large number of courtyards with bamboo groves shielding houses. The belief that"family sheltered by bamboo has its progeneration succeed in every field"enables us to have a glimpse of the bamboo —worship psychd- olodge.Peopie ascribe divinity to bamboo and take its exuberance as a sign of the prosperity of the family and an omen of humgn fate.If a bamboo in the yard dies,it is canaidered oinencus and must be eradicated or substi-tuted with a new one,otherwise disasters will be on the way.If the bamboo blooms,it is a premonition of famine and catastrophy;there are proverbs as"baraboo blooms,and people move","bamboo blooms,the family collap-ses and people die".However,if bamboo thrives ,it betokens boom of the family and safety of the house.Why are there so many sayings linking human doom and the conditions of bamboo's growth together.The main reason is that ''such pious wcrahip,as that paid to bamboo is undoubtedly a mark left by totemism in the primitive society"(Custom Annals of the Southwest Nati-onal Minority,P75,by China's Folk Art Publishing House,1982)
Obvioufily,bamboo is one of the totems of reproduction worship.In ancient times,bamboo leaves were viewed as the couterpart of pudendum. According to Sui Shu 隋书（a histong book of Sui Dynasty).Protocal II, to the west of the inner passage to the northgate of Liang Tai Miao 梁太庙(the Ancestral Commemoration Temple of the Liang Family),there was a stone with patrerns of bamboo leaves.The "stone" refers to the Jiao Mei 郊 |
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发表于 2008-5-31 19:52:21
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