Fish play a pivotal role in the life of the Dong family, so much so that in Dong society, there are sayings that "no fish is no ceremony", "no fish is not a sacrifice", and "fish is recognized to recognize the clan".
Every New Year's Festival or red and white celebration, the first dish of the Dong family to entertain guests is sour fish or stewed fish. After the meal, the host pays tribute to the guests' first round of dishes, which are also fish products, and the guests are allowed to taste them slowly to show respect for the guests. In exchange of human affection and gifts, fish is regarded as the most decent. For example, for children to make full moon wine, among the many gifts sent by the grandmother's family, fresh fish and sour fish are necessary; young men and women are engaged, and the man must entrust a middle-aged woman to bring pickled sour fish and chicken and duck to the woman's house to give a dowry; to do wedding wine, in addition to fish products at the banquet, on the day when the bride returns to the door, the groom will also send a large piece of pickled sour fish and large balls of glutinous rice to the bride's family and her family; to run old life wine, the son-in-law should send a few pickled sour fish and a number of sticky rice wine to his father-in-law or mother-in-law; build a house and eat wine in a new house. Relatives and friends should bring pickled fish to congratulate.
The opening feast of young men and women should also have sour fish, such as the Large-scale Dating of the Dong People, such as the Tuwang Festival Slope Meeting and the April Eight Slope Meeting; small dates have the first month, February up the mountain to cut the yarn and fine bamboo, march to pick tea bubbles, May to pick bayberry, June to eat plums, July to eat pears, October to eat chestnuts, as well as digging "the land" and other activities, these activities are young men and women go up the mountain to talk about love. Usually, the man sends out an invitation, and the woman prepares a full lunch. On this occasion, the "dragon liver and phoenix meat" in the rice bag is not as decent as the pickled taste, and the pickled taste is the most decent sour grass carp, which is the sign of the Industriousness, wealth and skill of the Dong people.
The Dong family, from babies who fell to the ground to old people who had passed away in ancient times, all made fish as first-class sacrifices. On the day the baby turns 6 months old, the baby's mother will place a pot of clean water with a few live fish cubes and a ball of sticky rice to worship the "grandmother" (the Dong goddess) who bless the child, and then pour a spoonful of fish soup into the baby to open the meat, in order to wish the baby a lively and cute child in the future.
If the child dies prematurely, the family must also give the deceased a piece of sticky rice wrapped in sour fish in his hand or mouth, so as not to be a hungry ghost or to tease the family. The requirements for funerals for the elderly are more stringent and more exquisite. During the funeral, relatives of the deceased can eat fish, but other meats are forbidden; children and grandchildren must offer sour grass carp or fresh fish, pork, and glutinous rice balls in front of the deceased's spiritual plaque to comfort the dead; when sending the funeral, the children, grandchildren, and son-in-law should put sour fish, sour meat, and glutinous rice in front of the coffin as offerings to bid farewell to the dead. Ancestral worship activities such as sass, deity, and wish-making are also indispensable to fish.
On the morning of the first day of the Chinese New Year, every household must eat fish, which indicates that the mysterious Dong fish culture Dong marriage customs sour fish and rice dumplings in the new year are festive, grains are abundant, and fish is fat. Eating fish on the first day of the New Year must first be tasted by the elders of the family, and then eaten one by one according to the age and age, and the last time the young people eat, everyone must be able to eat it. If any naughty child doesn't eat fish, the whole family will be upset about it.
When the Dong people recognize their relatives or recognize the clan, they must first ask the other party whether they know "one foot on the three carps". If you answer correctly, you are considered a relative of the same race; if you cannot answer, you are considered to be deceitful. So what is "stepping on three carps with one foot"? This has to start from the totem of the three carp common head of the ancestors of the Dong people in the late Tang and early Song dynasties, which is the totem of the Dong ancestors who do not forget the nurturing grace of the fish and the respect for the fish god and the totem that symbolizes national unity. Dong villagers carved this totem on the drum tower, wind and rain bridge, gate tower, housing and other buildings; some people embroidered it on pillows, sheets or straps; especially carved on the bluestone slab paved at the head of each bridge, pedestrians stepping on the stone slab to cross the bridge into the village, they have to "step on the three carps with one foot". If you don't know the mystery, you won't recognize you as a loved one. It can be seen that fish have a certain deep internal connection with the ancestors of the Dong people.
In the eyes of the Dong family, fish is not different from fish in the general sense, it has acquired and has a more mysterious meaning in Dong society. It is precisely because the Dong people have a deep affection for fish that in the "Dong Money" of the Dong folk "autonomous regulations", the punishment for fish stealers is often heavier than that of other crimes.
On the rafters in the middle of the drum tower and the wind and rain bridge in the Dong village, there is a "Taiji Diagram". However, the Taiji diagram here is not the Taoist understanding of black and white, yin and yang, but the intersection of two fish, the reproduction of life, symbolizing the emergence of all things, so the Dong family painted it on the rafters of the sacred drum tower and the wind and rain bridge for posterity to see and worship from time to time.
Linguistically, Dong villagers refer to the grandmother and the fish as "Sa", the same name. In addition to the meaning of grandmother and fish, Sa is also used to refer to married women, such as "grandmother", "mother-in-law", "wife" and so on. The association of fish with married women in Dong society gives fish a deeper symbolic meaning. The fish, or "sa", is a symbol of women and reproduction.
Wen Yiduo has a brilliant discussion of fish metaphors for sex, couples, marriages, and reproductions in "Talking about Fish": "Why use fish to symbolize spouses? There seems to be no better explanation for this except for its reproductive function, and everyone knows that in the concept of primitive human beings, marriage is the first major event in life, and seed transmission is the only purpose of marriage, which is very clear in the ancient customs of our country and does not need to be repeated. Racial reproduction is so valued, and fish are a more fertile creature, so in ancient times comparing a person to a fish is, in a sense, almost complimenting him as the best person. "
The Dong family is good at raising fish, each family has one or more fish ponds, and a fish nest should be built in the fish pond for fish reproduction, aggregation and protection against natural enemies. This kind of fish nest enables the fish to live and reproduce, and the Dong family must be able to live and reproduce, and also build their own "nest", so in the Dong society, there is a custom of "building a village first to build a drum tower". The shape of the drum tower is quite similar to the fish nest in the fish pond, in a sense, it is a "nest" of the Dong family collective, and it is a place where the Dong family gathers. This is clearly explained in the Dong "Ancient Song": "Carp should find a nest in the middle of the pond, and people should find a good place to stay; our ancestors opened up the 'road tuan village' and built the drum tower like a big fish nest." "The Drum Tower is also used for people's holiday gatherings, usual naps and entertainment. The elderly sit here and play in the past, and young people gather here to learn songs and sing, and listen to the elderly spread various knowledge. The drum tower gathers the Dong family like a fish nest bringing together the fish, just as the Dong song sings: "The fish are reunited in the fish nest, and our Dong family is reunited in the drum tower." "
Fish is one of the first foods to feed the Ancestors of the Dong People, before the development of rice, the Ancestors of the Dong People mainly ate fish, and many legends of the Dong People have also been explained to varying degrees. At first, fish was only a basic means of life and was loved and worshipped by the ancestors of the Dong people, in the long history, the Dong people have a deeper understanding and understanding of the characteristics of fish, and gradually imported the concept and cultural connotation of fertility worship and totem worship. To this day, the various concepts and cultural symbols that people give to fish are reflected in different degrees and in different ways in Dong society.