Ethnic customs in Changping Yao Township

According to historical records, mengshan county has been the settlement of Zhuang, Yao and Han nationalities since ancient times, and there is a saying that "there are three houses, and Yao and Zhuang live in seven places". Yao and Zhuang people were killed by a large number of people and took refuge in the mountains in the brutal struggle against feudal rule and chieftain in Ming Dynasty. Until the early Qing dynasty, it was still a land of "barren land and poor people, few people and many stones". During the years of Qing Qianlong, Jiaqing and Daoguang, a large number of foreign immigrants poured in. Among them are Han, Zhuang and Yao. Over time, they merged with the local Yao people, forming Yao branches such as Pan Yao, Yao Min and Shanziyao. Huang, Chen, Li, Deng and other ethnic surnames of Yao people all say that their ancestors came from Guangdong, Hunan and Jinxiu Yao Autonomous County and have lived here for more than 100 years. Mengshan vernacular and Guiliu dialect are the common expressions of people of all ethnic groups in Changping Yao Township. Because of different branches, Yao people have different languages. Pan Yao speaks Burmese, while Yao Min speaks standard Manchu. In economic life, the local Yao people mainly cultivate paddy fields and mountains, and also engage in forestry. Three meals a day, with rice as the staple food. In the past, because of the low yield of rice, corn and sweet potato were often used instead, and Chinese cabbage, mustard and pork were used as side dishes. Chicken, duck, fish, etc. Mainly used for festivals, sacrifices or entertaining guests. Religion mainly worships nature, offering sacrifices to King Pan, ancestors, land gods and social gods. The master is a Taoist believer, belonging to Maoshan School and Wangxiao School.

August 16th of the lunar calendar is the "Road-building Festival". The "Road-building Festival" is also a song meeting of the Yao people in Changping Yao Township. During Ge Wei Festival, Pan Yao held a grand celebration and commemoration. Men and women dressed up and went to the Gewei in the wilderness outside the village, where they sang "Song of King Pan" and deeply missed the history of their ancestors. Young men and women make friends in the form of duets, pour out their love, ask questions and answers, and give each other tokens of love when singing. Dances include Pan Wang Dance, Encouragement Dance, Palace Master Dance, Zhao He Dance, and Tortoise Catch Dance. People in Changping Yao Township are more accustomed to dancing "master dance" and singing "Mahalie".

August 15th is a traditional festival in Yao Min. During the festival, the whole village scraped together enough money to buy live pigs and jiaozi, and went to the temple near the village to worship the gods and pray for their blessing, so that the weather was good and the crops were bumper.

Beautiful mountains and lakes are one of the eight natural landscapes in mengshan county. 1975 A dam was built at the Chashan estuary near Yaoxiang, Changping, which turned the Chashan estuary into a high gorge and a flat lake. The lake area has lush vegetation, birds and flowers, sparkling water, shallow fish and beautiful scenery, which is a good place for tourism and summer vacation.

The legend of Sanmei Village is similar to the story of Sanjie Liu in Yi Mountain. According to legend, in ancient times there was a Yao girl named Liu Sanmei, who was clever and good at singing folk songs. She is famous for winning the songs of three scholars, Tao, Li and Luo. Under her influence, the singing craze of the masses is in full swing. At that time, the state government banned singing on the grounds that it was immoral. Liu Sanmei's brother was afraid that his sister's singing would offend the government and implicate the whole family, so he stopped Third Sister from singing. Seeing that Third Sister was unmoved, he set a trick to trick Third Sister into going down the cliff and trying to kill her. Liu Sanmei sang folk songs for seven days and seven nights under the cliff, and escaped from the cracks in the stone wall and gained eternal life. From then on, people called the mountain where Liu Sanmei became immortal Sanmei Mountain, and her village was named after it.