Chapter 4 Part I Shaman Cultural Memory of the Oroqen Nationality-1

A large forest in the high Xing'an Mountains In the forest lives the brave Oroqen One ah a fiery horse one ah a gun Roe roe and wild deer are all over the mountains and forests ... This Oroqen ditty has spread throughout China, and it conveys the following message to people: the Oroqen people live on the Daxing’an Mountains in the northern border of the motherland. They are hunting people with magical marksmanship and brave character. All kinds of raw animals... The Oroqen ditty sings about the past life of the Oroqen people. The main way of life of the Oroqen people now is farming and forest protection. Although the Oroqen people are still brave, the era of a strong horse and a gun has passed. They often sing jokingly: "Roe roe and wild deer are all over the mountains and forests, and they can't be beaten."In fact, it's not that the mountains and forests are full of wild beasts, but that the wild beasts are no longer full of mountains and forests.Due to the scarcity of wild animals, in order to protect them, hunting restrictions are implemented everywhere, and some townships only have 2 prey quotas a year.Even for these two indicators, the township leaders must carefully calculate how to use them.For example, if the indicator is given to people who come to travel or visit, it may be able to use it to create some economic benefits.

Shaman culture originated in the hunting era, and the Oroqen people kept hunting until the middle of the 20th century.However, like the transition from hunting life to farming, the ancient tradition of shamanism has gradually entered people's memory.Even if there are still a few remaining shamans, just like the few hunting indicators, they can no longer be used as a typical symbol of a nation's contemporary cultural life. At the beginning of liberation, there were more than 300 Oroqen households living in the Heihe area, scattered in 51 places, each separated by tens or even hundreds of miles. "Xianrenzhu" is their simple residence. "Xierenzhu" is commonly known as Cuoluozi. (1) It is a conical skeleton built on 30 wooden poles with a length of 5 or 6 meters interlocking with each other and surrounded by birch bark (summer) or roe deer skin (winter). Covered room.After they settled down, they lived in a house with brick and wood structure. Generally, each family has three or four rooms and a spacious yard.Now they are mainly engaged in agriculture, growing food and vegetables.

There are more than 1,000 people in Xinsheng Oroqen Ethnic Township in Heihe City, Heilongjiang Province, including 170 Oroqen people. The 1,700-square-kilometer mountains and plains belong to the township. The main economic activity of the township is agricultural production. (2) There are no more shamans in this village. The guide in the village listed seven insiders and asked them to provide some information and related memories they knew.But what they provided was incomplete, which shows that even the shamanic culture preserved in people's memory has gradually declined in this place.

Those who provided information were more familiar with the activities of shamans when they lived on the mountain.In their view, recalling shamanism is part of recalling past lives.The hunting life in the past is the natural background of shamanistic memories. Wu Fuhong, female, 55 years old.She said: Oroqen people used to live on the mountain, and moved here to settle here in 1953. "Bai Nacha" is the hunting god and mountain god believed by Oroqen hunters.All the birds and beasts in the mountains are under the control of "Bai Nacha", and all the prey obtained by the hunters are bestowed by him.People find a thick tree on the mountain, cut out a person's face with a knife and ax at the root, this is the "Bai Nacha" god, and then place wine and smoke in front of it, kneel down and kowtow to pray.Anyone who passes by this tree must also dismount and offer cigarettes and kowtow.When living on the mountain, people should pray to the mountain god "Bai Nacha" before going out.Before hunting, hunters have to kowtow to "Bai Nacha".During hunting in the mountains, before drinking and eating, one must dip his finger in the wine and flick it up three times, and he must say a few words of prayer "Bai Nacha" before drinking and eating.Especially when hunting and harvesting, "Bai Nacha" should be sacrificed.The deep caves or strange rocks and strange trees in the mountains are the places where "Bai Nacha" lives. When they pass by here, they must dismount and kowtow, and they are not allowed to shout or speak nonsense.Otherwise "Bai Nacha" will get angry and punish people.

When they lived on the mountain, the Oroqen people lived in Cuoluozi, and Maru Bulkan was the shrine of the Oroqen people, and its location was facing the gate of Cuoluozi.That position is sacred and women cannot sit there.The hunting Oroqen people believe in many gods, among which Geerheer is a long-legged god who is the nemesis of pythons.The python is a demon with nine heads.Mo Zhigen is the most capable person among the hunters, and his marksmanship and arrow skills are superb.He can cure fools and ordinary devils among devils. Wu Jiming, male, 58 years old.He remembered that before he settled down, the Oroqen shaman danced frequently.Shamans at that time had god clothes, skirts, waist bells and bronze mirrors.The great god (shaman) sings the song of inviting the gods. After the gods are invited, the shaman who dances the gods often falls to the ground.I remember that there was a female shaman in her 50s at that time, and her shaman clothes weighed about 100 catties.She hung a bronze mirror on her front, as well as waist bells and small bells.There are humanoid gods painted by birch bark in her home, all of which are ancestor gods.He also said that if the Oroqen people can't catch any prey when they hunt, they still offer sacrifices to their ancestors, mainly by singing prayers.

Mo Guizhi, female, 41 years old.She also mentioned that when they were on the mountain, people often looked at which tree was old, and would respect it every year, offer incense, and offer some wine, rice and vegetables.She still remembers some situations after she settled down.She said that there used to be statues of ancestor gods at home facing the door.Women are not allowed to sit on the Western Kang.During the New Year, some meat and fish, as well as roe deer heads, are offered to the ancestor gods.The gods offered include woodcut birds, dogs, and horses.When offering offerings, the parents mutter some prayers, but the girls are not allowed to listen.Kowtow to ancestors when sick.Now that the child is sick, he kowtows in front of the stove.The situation she introduced is also similar to the situation of Manchu Shamanism.Obviously she is not as familiar with life on the mountain as the previous generation.But she is more familiar with the situation of shamanism after she settled down.

Ge Shuzhi, female, 63 years old, originally lived in Xunke County.She said that there is a family shaman in her family, and her grandfather is a family shaman.Her elder brother was ill, and once made a wish that if the gods cured his illness, he would become a shaman.Her elder brother made a wish to learn shamanism. He was 17 years old at the time.There are three Toro poles (divine poles used for sacrifices) in her home, the ones on both sides are small, and the one in the middle is thin and tall.Learning shaman is called learning "black cloud", and the participants are all children aged 7 or 8.Study for more than 10 days.The children in the whole family (referring to the same family) were all taught by their grandfather to learn shaman, and they sang Manchu tunes.During family sacrifices, a black cloth the size of the wall is hung on the west wall of the main room, and an altar is placed under it for burning incense.

Judging from people's introduction, after the Oroqen people settled in this area, they were greatly influenced by Manchu shamanism.Moreover, it can be found that there is a clear cultural boundary between hunting in the mountains and settled farming in the mountains. The situation on the "mountain" is traditional and complete, and shamanism involves all aspects of people's traditional life.The memory about it belongs to those old hunters who used to live in the Oroqen area; the situation of "under the mountain" is mainly influenced by the Manchu shaman's family sacrifice, and it is also the memory of the Oroqen people after they settled down. "On the mountain" and "under the mountain" maintain the same shamanism activities. In the introduction of these two types of people, only shamans cure diseases.Ge Shuzhi remembers that one year, her 9-month-old younger brother got enteritis and had diarrhea. At that time, Shaman Cai was treating Tiaoshen. He stood at the door with a spoon in his hand and called out the name of the child.But the child died the next day.

After the settlement, the change and decline of shamanism happened at the same time.At the beginning of settlement, the shamanism of the Oroqen people still maintained a strong vitality.In Xin'e Township, we investigated Meng Xiuzhen and other elderly people.These old people talked about recalling the situation of some shamans.They said that when they settled down in 1953, there were 300 people in this township, and shamanism was still very popular at that time.When the shaman dances to the gods, it is necessary to place a toruo (a sacrificial altar arranged with trees), and between the three trunks with leaves, the shaman crosses flowers (between the intervals of each trunk) to dance to the gods.While the shaman is playing the drum, someone shoots a gun, and the bullet falls on the shaman drum, and the shaman takes the bullet back.Sometimes the shaman climbed the tree, and there was a female shaman who climbed the tree wearing a shaman costume.

Not only shamans, but every household at that time also had gods carved in wood, such as the god "Meme Tie", with a group of six; there were also gods painted on white cloth one and a half feet wide and one foot long. "Meme Tie" is mainly Anzhai, bless the children.When the child is sick, blood should be smeared on the mouth of "Momo Tie" and incense should be burned for him.Usually, the small wooden figure "Meme Tie" is wrapped with a white cloth, put in a birch bark box, and hung behind the house or behind the luozi.When making an offering, put the "Meme Iron" on the ground, hang the cloth painting on it, and offer blood and animal meat. There are Banla people in "Meme Tie", as well as eyes, stars, moon, turtles, birds, snakes and so on carved in wood.

Shamans at that time used roe deer skins as drums and roe deer paws as drumsticks.When the shaman treats a disease, he plays the drum in front of the patient. The drum can find the root cause of the patient's disease and know what's wrong with the patient.In the past, there was a shaman named Mo Yuhua. When she danced the gods, the second god who assisted her was her father. She didn't have a shaman costume or a drum.During the dance, she fell down while singing.She later suffered from insanity and died in her 30s. There is a five-guarantee household in the village. Everyone calls him Grandpa Shaman, and his shaman clothes are the best.The shaman's suit has a large bronze mirror with a diameter of one foot on the front and back; his shoulder pads tied around his neck are embroidered with flowers and decorated with round beads.The shaman suit is made of roe deer skin, and there are three rows of copper bells on the legs, which jingle when they jump up. The changes in the traditional hunting life have fundamentally shaken the faith motivation of the Oroqen people. After they settled down, they once insisted on shamanism activities and made adjustments in the form of shamanism, such as absorbing Manchu factors.But due to the overall deconstruction of traditional culture, this kind of persistence or adjustment is not long-term. There are 387 households with 1426 people in Xinxing Oroqen Ethnic Township.Including Mongolian, Manchu, Xibe, Han and other ethnic groups, Oroqen has a population of 229 people and a total of 83 households.Oroqen people under the age of 40 in this township generally marry foreigners, and there are only three couples in which both parties are from their own ethnicity.Among the Oroqen people in this township, there are very few older people, and the memory of Shamanism is already very vague.The older Meng Tiekui, who is 60 years old, still remembers that he used to ask the shaman to see him when he was sick. The shaman had god clothes, bronze mirrors and waist bells.There used to be a shaman in the village who was Ge Yanbao's wife. She mainly treated various households in the village and never left the village to travel around.