Listen to this articleHezhe nationality is a minority nationality with a long history in Northeast China. Its language is the Hezhe language. It belongs to the Manchu branch of the Altaic Manchu Tungusic language family (it is also believed that it should be included in the Nanai sub-branch). There is no script of its own nationality, so it uses the Cyrillic alphabet to record the language. Because it has lived together with Han nationality for a long time, it is common in Chinese.
Because of the vast living area, Hezhe people call themselves more, such as “Nabei”, “Nanai”, “nano”, “Hezhe” as a family name first appeared in March of 1663, the second year of Kangxi. After the publication of Ling Chunsheng’s “Hezhe people in the lower reaches of Songhua River” in 1934, “Hezhe” as a family name began to spread widely.
Here people are mainly distributed in the Sanjiang Plain and Wandashan Yumai formed by the confluence of Heilongjiang, Songhua River, and Wusuli River. They mainly live in three townships and two villages, namely Jiejinkou Hezhe Township, bacha Hezhe Township, Sipai Hezhe Township, Raohe County, Shuangyashan City, Aoqi Hezhe village, Aoqi Town, Jiamusi City and Zhuoji Hezhe village, Zhuoji Town, Fuyuan County.
Faith
Before the founding of new China, there were totem worship, nature worship, spirit worship, ghost worship, ancestor worship, and other primitive worship and Shamanism belief in Hezhen people. Animism constitutes the basis of Hezhen’s primitive worship and religious belief.
“Totem” means “his kin”. It is consanguineous to regard an animal or plant as the protector and taboo of one’s clan. In the past, Hezhe people had traces of the worship of bear totem and tiger totem. After hunting and eating bear and tiger meat, Hezhe people all have rituals or acts of apology.
Hezhen believes that all things in nature have gods, such as tree god, Mountain God, water god, fire god, Tiger God, bear God, wolf God, Eagle God, lightning God and so on.
Hezhen people believe that if an object is a divine object, it can drive away evil and avoid evil. The worship of strange mountains, strange rocks, sacred trees, and amulets belongs to the worship of spiritual things. The custom of hanging the teeth of bears, tigers, wolves, and other animals besides the baby’s cradle means that the above objects can drive away evil spirits and protect the baby.
Hezhen people believe that all things have spirit and the soul is immortal, so they also believe that the soul of their ancestors is immortal and worship their ancestors. They call the three generations of ancestors “Beobenmafa”. During the Spring Festival, they should offer their ancestors on the west wall of the house, and use pig heads as offerings to burn incense.
Festival
Spring Festival is the most important festival for Hezhen people. Some people make “spit up a party” pasta, thick plum cake, and congee to their neighbors. On New Year’s Eve, a series of sacrificial activities should be carried out. For the dead, “burn yellow money paper and baggage”. The west wall of the house was served by the ancestors for three generations, and the kitchen god was served above the cooker, and then the southwest wall of the house was for heaven and earth God.
Influenced by the Manchu and Han nationalities, Hezhe people also held Lantern Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Mid Autumn Festival, February 2 Festival, Qingming Festival, and “the 23rd month of the month of the lunar month” to sacrifice the kitchen god. Here people in Hezhe inhabited areas also celebrated the festival of “Uziguong” in the form of sports and activities, dated May 15 of the lunar calendar.
Diet
Hezhen people’s diet is mainly fish, animal meat, and wild vegetables, millet is a non-staple food. Hezhen people’s diet is divided into raw and cooked. Raw food includes fresh fish and dried fish and animal meat; cooked food includes fish floss, stewed fish, fried fish, fried fish, grilled fish, dried animal meat, stewed meat, fried meat, fish porridge, etc. Fish floss is a must for every meal. Raw fish are sturgeon, anchovy, carp, white fish, grass-roots fish, silver carp, and so on.
The Hezhe people often eat raw fish with vegetables. After the fish is bled, the fish meat is cut into shreds, mixed with wild “Jiangcong” and wild pepper, and added with the appropriate amount of vinegar and salt. In spring, summer and autumn, it is called “buka” to cut off the live fish and fresh fish meat, cut them into thin slices, dip them in vinegar and salt; it is called “Dalgeche” to cut off the fresh fish meat, cut them into thin slices connected to the skin of the fish, string them with sharp fresh willow sticks, burn them in high fire, and then cook them in medium or high temperature, dip them in vinegar and salt; The peeled frozen fish is cut into very thin frozen fish fillets (similar to shavings) and dipped in vinegar, saltwater and chili oil for consumption, which is called “surface”. This is a delicious dish with wine.
Clothes & Accessories
In history, Hezhe people’s clothing, bedding, and other use fish, animal skin.
Here people living along the Pudong River and from Qindeli to the lower Songhua River mainly use roe deerskin and deerskin as clothing materials, only the skin of the fish for the jacket and the μ Zhen. The Hezhe people from Qindeli to the lower reaches of the Pudong River and the Wusuli River mostly make clothes from fish skin.
Although cloth was introduced to the Hezhen area for a long time, it was really popular in the late Qing Dynasty. “Men take leather as their hat, while in winter, mink hats are fur. Women’s hats are like chasing, and their clothes are mostly fishskin, while the edge is colored cloth and the edge is decorated with bronze bells. “That is to say, the dress condition of Hezhen people at that time.
