The total population of the Shui people is 406,902, of which 90.86% live in Sandu County, Libo, Duyun and Dushan in Qiannan Buyi and Miao Autonomous Prefecture of Guizhou Province and Kaili, Liping, Rongjiang and Congjiang in Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture. A few are scattered in the western part of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, and also distributed in Fuyuan and Yiliang counties of Yunnan Province, with Sandu County being the most concentrated.
Second, language and writing.
Shui nationality is a single nationality developed from Luoyue, a branch of ancient Baiyue nationality in southern China. It has its own language, belonging to the Shuiyu branch of Zhuang-Dong language family of Sino-Tibetan language family, and can communicate with each other. The ancestors of the Shui nationality once created their own characters, which were called "Shui Shu", and their forms were similar to those of Oracle Bone Inscriptions and Jin Wen. However, there are only more than 500 words, which can not be used as a tool for people to exchange ideas in daily life, but mainly used to record good and bad luck, pray for gods to exorcise ghosts, and timely dates and places. At the same time, it also has the function of expressing, transmitting and storing some information. Shuishu (Hydrology) is one of the few ancient Chinese characters in the big family of the Chinese nation. This shows that the Shui nationality is a nation with a long history and developed culture.
Three. Housing and clothing
Most of the Shui people live in villages near mountains and rivers, surrounded by bamboo forests, criss-crossing houses, winding roads, fish ponds and paddy fields everywhere, with the same blood, and few surnames live together. Aquarium rooms are generally six rows and five buildings made of wood, with overhangs and water poured at both ends. They are "dry railing" buildings. First, the wooden frame was built as the ground floor, then the superstructure, with cloisters and dry railings. The architectural form is unique, beautiful and three-dimensional. Livestock and poultry are raised on the ground floor, farm tools are piled up, rice and stones are loaded, and people live upstairs. There is little difference between men's wear of Shui nationality and other nationalities. On the top, they wear blue jackets. On the bottom, they wear blue straight slacks and blue and white cloth as their heads. Some elderly people still keep the habit of wearing robes, jackets and short handkerchiefs on solemn occasions. Women, on the other hand, have the unique characteristics of the Shui nationality, which are characterized by regions, and there are roughly five kinds. The most common clothing is to wear a blue coat, indigo pants and lace underwear; It is embroidered with a long waist, and the upper end of the waist is hung around the neck with silver training. There are jacquard ribbons on both sides of the waist to tie the waist, and the ribbons are tied behind and dragged; Wear embroidered shoes with pointed hooks or embroidered shoes with gold leaf covers, comb the long hair to the right, sweep the left forehead, insert the wooden comb obliquely in the hairline on the right side, and wrap a white headband about six feet long, with the wooden comb and forehead exposed outside the headband; Wear all kinds of earrings, collars, bracelets and other silver ornaments at major festivals or banquets.
Fourth, religious belief.
Shui people belong to polytheistic belief, which is more manifested in the category of primitive religion. Ghost worship is the core of primitive religious belief of Shui people. Ghosts are emphasized to an unusual position. Until today, in the superstitious consciousness of Shui people, there are more than 300 ghosts with famous purposes, and as many as 700 or 800 ghosts have existed and lost their names. In the concept of Shui people, ghosts and gods coexist, regardless of ghosts and gods. Ghosts can be divided into good ghosts and evil ghosts, and people become ghosts after death. Ancestor worship is the extension and development of ghost worship. The concept of ghosts and kinship makes people believe that the souls of ancestors will bless their descendants, so ancestors will be worshipped as kind spirits after death. The consciousness of nature worship of the Shui people has been passed down to this day, and many aspects have faded or disappeared. However, we can still find that there are still strong relics of rock worship, ancient tree worship and ancient well worship in the Shui society. In the Shui nationality area, you can always see a slightly humanoid stone standing at the entrance of the village, surrounded by paper money and incense sticks; The same worship phenomenon can be seen under the tall and vigorous "Feng Shui Tree" near the village. Totem worship is the deepening of nature worship, and fish totem and dragon totem may have appeared in the Shui society.
Verb (abbreviation for verb) life and eating habits
The diet is mainly rice, especially glutinous food. Usually there is a habit of being neither sour nor light nor spicy. Generally speaking, the diet is not particular, but guests must be rich in food, including glutinous rice, meat, fish, wine, chickens and ducks or at least tofu. During the dinner, the host will propose a toast, guess boxing, sing a toast, clink glasses and drink a round of wine. Until the guests are drunk, the host will feel satisfied and happy, and this feeling will be passed down from generation to generation. Shui people have the habit of "wine is more important than meat, and smoke is more important than tea". Guests can come and go without meat, but not without wine and cigarettes. Alcohol and cigarettes are courtesy to others. There are rice wine, glutinous rice wine, miscellaneous grains wine and sweet wine brewed by the aquarium. Among them, "9000 glutinous rice wine" in Sandu 9000 area is the most famous. This wine is brownish yellow in color, sweet and refreshing, and was given a state banquet in 1957.
Sixth, traditional festivals.
There is no unified festival in China, but the Shui people have their own traditional festivals and customs according to their living areas. There are mainly Duanjie, Mao Jie, Suning Happy Festival, Commendation Festival and Xia Jing Festival. The biggest festival is Duanjie. Duanjie Festival is a grand traditional festival in Shui nationality areas to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new, celebrate the bumper harvest, offer sacrifices to ancestors and wish happiness in the coming year (equivalent to the Spring Festival of Han nationality). It is also the same festival for most Shui nationality in Sandu County, Duyun, Dushan and Libo. However, there is no unified holiday time. Instead, it takes turns to have a holiday on different days according to regional stages and batches, which is very complicated and is mainly divided into seven batches. The time is roughly between February and February in the water calendar, that is, between August and June in the lunar calendar. The two meals connected with "New Year's Eve" and "First Day" should be vegetarian, but not fish and shrimp; The main activities are sacrifice and horse racing.
Seven, traditional sports
The traditional sports culture of Shui nationality is rich in content, diverse in forms and outstanding in personality. There are nearly 20 kinds of boxing methods in traditional Wushu, such as Shuijia Boxing, Shuijia Monkey Boxing, Eight Steps Chasing Boxing, Shuijia Tai Ji Chuan, Bench Boxing and so on. There is a unique "end festival" horse racing. The venue for horse racing is a hillside with a height of 40-50 degrees. Only two horses can run side by side on the narrow road. The competition is fierce and thrilling. Those with weak horses, weak riders and poor riding skills are often defeated in one or two rounds, and some fall behind halfway; Those who have strong horses, good endurance and excellent riding skills will always finish the race many times, even on a narrow track, they can crush their opponents and go straight to the finish line. There are the most representative folk dances such as "Bronze Drum Dance" and "Doujiao Dance" (once participated in the National Games and won prizes); There are water chess games with infinite philosophy and charm, such as tile chess, arch chess, three or three chess, receiving chess and official chess. There are also various games and dozens of unique traditional sports.