The Yao people mainly live in Guangxi, Guangdong, Hunan, Guizhou, Yunnan and other regions, with a population of about 2 million. Historically, due to differences in specific conditions such as production methods, living environment, and clothing customs, different regions have There are dozens of aliases for the Yao people, such as Blue Indigo Yao, Beihu Yao, Guoshan Yao, Baiku Yao, Bapai Yao, Xishan Yao, Pingdi Yao, etc. Even the languages ????are not consistent, and the naming customs are also different. . But what is surprising is that they not only always use Yao as the national name, but also mostly use Pan, Bao (one means blue), Fang, Li, Deng, Zhou, Zhao, Hu, Tang, Lei, Feng, Shen is a common surname and is known as Panyao's twelve surnames. According to the records of the Yao people's document "Ping Huang Qian Ji", the origin of these twelve surnames is consistent with the formation of the Yao people in time and logic: Legend has it that in ancient times, the Gaoxin Palace kept a dog with twenty-four stripes. A dragon dog, alert and brave, King Gao Xin loved him like two princesses. Later, King Fan raised an army and the people were in panic. King Gaoxin posted a notice: Who can defeat King Fan? Five princesses will be chosen by him! Unexpectedly, the civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty did not dare to answer the call. Dragon Dog tore off the notice and was willing to fight for it. Serve the country. King Gaoxin was overjoyed and summoned the queen, princess and ministers to bid farewell to the dragon dog for the expedition. Fourteen days later, the dragon dog returned triumphantly with King Fan's head in its mouth, and the people lived and worked in peace and contentment again.
After the dragon dog had made great achievements, King Gaoxin asked the three princesses to come to him one after another for him to choose. After the dragon dog selected the fairy-like third princess, he told her that you would steam me in a steamer for seven days and seven nights. Then I can take off the hair on my body and become a human being. The second princess did as she was told, and the dragon dog turned into a beautiful man. King Gao Xin immediately named him King Panhu of the Ten Treasures Palace. King Panhu and the third princess gave birth to six boys and six girls in the Ten Treasures Hall. King Gaoxin gave each of them a surname and a roll of ultimatum: Any mountainous area where Panhu's children and grandchildren live, as they please. For cultivation and cultivation, all grain, taxes and labor are exempted. This is the heirloom "Guoshan Bang" that has been passed down from generation to generation by the Yao family.
With the "Mountain Crossing List", Panhutu returned to the mountains and forests with his wife and children, and began to live a mountain life of farming, weaving and hunting. When the sons and daughters grew up, they started their own families and reproduced their descendants, forming a prosperous Yao tribe. The Yao people generally do not intermarry with foreigners, and the custom of recruiting wives is relatively common, so the twelve eldest children are passed down from generation to generation. Many years later, the government was determined to occupy the fertile mountain fields cultivated by the twelve surnames of the Yao family. They ignored the provisions of the "Guoshan List" and sent many soldiers to attack the Yao village. The Yao people were outnumbered. Finally, under the leadership of Pan Weng, they abandoned their homes and crossed the sea by boat to make a living in other places. After forty-nine days and nights of wandering, the Yao family finally crossed the sea and landed. Pan Weng broke the golden incense burner dedicated to King Panhu into twelve pieces, and each member of the surname took one piece. He also sawed the ox horn that gave orders into twelve pieces, and each member of the surname took one piece. Then he drank chicken blood wine and swore: three and a half kilograms of copper for the incense burner, four liang and five qian of gold, each of the Yao family would take one piece and cross the sea to escape. The horns were cut into twelve pieces, and each section flew separately. The horns of the incense burner were closed together. The next day, Sun Sun came back to kill. From then on, everyone went their separate ways, entering Guangxi, Hunan, Guizhou, Guangdong and other places to open up wasteland again. , build homes.
Both the Yao and She people have the custom of worshiping Panhu, and both have Chinese documents recording the Panhu legend (the Yao people call it "Guoshan Bang", and the She people call it "Kaishan Gongzhi"). The contents of the two are similar. The surnames of both tribes include Pan, Lan and Lei, so it is speculated that the historical relationship between them should be very close.
The Yao people are divided into several different branches. The following takes Panyao and Bapaiyao as examples to illustrate the custom of naming:
1. Panyao
Panyao usually has three names in his life, namely, his baby name, his book name, and his dharma name. ①Miscellaneous name. Taken at birth. Panyao's nickname is generally expressed in the order of birth, with boys adding "te" before the order word, and girls adding "mei" before the order word. ②Book title. Panyao's book title is equivalent to a Han Chinese name, which is usually given by a child or other literate people after they go to school. The titles of Panyao's books are also the same as the names of the Han people, often embedding a character to indicate seniority. There are also rules for generation characters. For example, the generation sequence of the Yao people surnamed Zhao in Xing'an County, Guangxi is wealth, glory, prosperity, family and friends forever in Changchun, and ten characters are used cyclically. ③Dharma name. The most distinctive of Panyao's name customs is his legal name. Panyao's Dharma name is different from the monk's Dharma name. It has nothing to do with Buddhism, but is related to the primitive religion of the Yao people. When a Panyao man reaches the age of fifteen, he can invite his master, a wizard, to come to his home to perform rituals and give him the precepts. The men after the precepts will be qualified to be masters.
A man who has taken the precepts must take a Dharma name, and the method of choosing a Dharma name depends on the number of lamps hung when he takes the precepts. However, the legal name can generally only be used after the death of the person. Panyao also records the genealogy of the surviving members of the family over the past dynasties, which is called the family genealogy. The names of the people in the family genealogy are registered with their legal names.
2. Badai Yao
Badai Yao is a branch of the Yao ethnic group living in Liannan Yao Autonomous County, Guangdong Province. Babaiyao's names are particularly complex, and their name system constitutes an extremely complete social symbol system. A person's social status can be clearly reflected in his name. A complete Bapaiyao name should include six parts: surname, family name, father's name, personal name, personal name, marital status and children's status. The name can reflect one's bloodline, clan, family, rank, gender, descendants and one's physical characteristics, etc.
① Surname. It is a sign of family lineage.
②Fang family name. It is the symbol of the Fang clan. Bapaiyao is divided into different Fang clans under the same surname. The Fang clan is divided by the ancestor's compatriot Shi Di, that is, the division of the same surname. Different Fang clans often have disputes and even fights due to conflicts of interests. Therefore, , in Babaiyao's name, the family name should be suffixed with the surname.
③Father’s name. That is the father's name. Embedding the father's name in the name is obviously a product of the father-son naming system.
④My name. It is a name unique to the person, that is, a private name. It is often taken from the person's physical characteristics or the names of animals and plants.
⑤Ranking name. Indicates the person's birth order, usually expressed by numbers such as one, two, and three.
⑥My marital status and children’s status. This part varies with the person's gender and age. Before a man gets married, he uses the word "gui". After he gets married and has a child, if the child is a son, he changes it to "a kettle" (if the child is a son, "the father is on the bottom", the word cannot be typed out, so use "kettle" instead). , then it is changed to Sha Fu? If there is a grandson or granddaughter, this part will be changed again, that is, the word "Fu" will be changed to the character "Gong"; if there is a great-grandson, the word "Gong" will be changed to "Huang Gong" again. The last part of a woman's name is different from that of a man. Before marriage, she uses the word "mei"; after marriage, it is changed to the word "sha"; after giving birth to children, it is changed to the word "mother" or "er"; after having grandchildren, it is changed to the word "po"; Great-grandmother, I have to change her name to Huang Po. In addition, after giving birth to a child, a Badaiyao woman must change the first five parts of her name to her husband's name. Babaiyao also has the custom of using Dharma names after death.
To sum up, the name of Babaiyao can reflect its bloodline, family, family, ranking, gender, descendants and physical characteristics of the person. It can be said that the name system of Babaiyao constitutes a An extremely perfect social symbol system, a person's social status can be clearly reflected in his or her name.