The She people are an ethnic minority distributed in the mountainous areas of southeastern my country. They have a population of about 400,000, and most of them live in Fujian and Zhejiang.
The origin of the names of the She people
Pan, Lan, Lei and Zhong are the four traditional surnames of the Lu people. It is said that they are from the same Longqi vein. It comes from the well-known legend of Panzhuo among the She people.
According to legend, in ancient times, the Gao Xin family (ie Emperor Ku) governed the world. Gao Xin's wife had an earache for a year. Later, she took out a gold insect shaped like a silkworm from her ear and placed it on a plate. It suddenly turned into a brilliant golden dragon. The Gao Xin family was overjoyed and named the golden dragon Longqi (period), also known as Panhu. Soon, the Quanrong tribe was in rebellion, and the Gaoxin clan issued an order that whoever could hunt the head of the leader of the Quanrong tribe would marry his daughter to him. Pandu stepped forward, sneaked to Da Rong, bit off the leader's neck while he was drunk, took his head back and presented it to Gao Xin, and the Quan Rong rebellion also subsided.
It was difficult for Gao Xin to break his promise, but he looked embarrassed because Panhu was a golden dragon. Panhu suddenly said: "Put me in the golden bell. After seven days and seven nights, I will turn into a human form." Gao Xin did as he was told, and Pan Min transformed into a human form and got to marry Gao Xin's third princess. The third princess gave birth to Panhu's four children, two boys and one girl. When the eldest was born and placed in a dish, Gao Xin named him Pan. When the second eldest was born and placed in a basket, Gao Xin named him Pan. A year after Lan and Lao San were born, Panhu went to ask Gao Xin for a surname. There was a thunder in the sky, so Gao Xin gave him the surname Lei. When his daughter grew up, she found a son-in-law, and the child took his father's surname Zhong. Later, Panhu did not want to be an official under the Gao Xin family, so he and his wife led the eldest brother Pan Zineng, the second son Lan Guanghui, the third son Lei Juyou and his son-in-law Zhong Zhishen to open up wasteland and farm in Fenghuang Mountain in Chaozhou, Guangdong, eventually forming a mountain residence for generations. The She people regard Panyou as their common ancestor.
The She people revere their ancestors very much. Every February 15th, July 15th and August 15th of the lunar calendar, they hold grand ancestor worship activities. Panhu's great achievements and the history of the nation are passed down from generation to generation in the form of ancestral pictures and long narrative poems such as "Gaohuang Song" (also known as "Panhu Song") or "Long Qi Gong Song". The process of obtaining the surnames Pan, Lan, Lei and Zhong is sung like this in "The Song of Emperor Gao":
The three biological sons were well behaved and went to the emperor's palace to ask for their surnames.
The eldest son's surname is Panzhuang, and the second son's surname is Lanzhuang.
The third boy was just one year old when he came to the emperor's palace to ask for his name.
Lei Gongyun’s head sounded so good that his surname was Lei as soon as he put his pen to paper.
When he first went to court in Guangdong, he gave birth to three children in one palace.
The soldiers were recruited as a couple, and the son-in-law's name was Zhong.
Three men and one woman are very upright, and they are in charge of the people with the emperor.
Living in Chaozhou has a great reputation, and it is passed down to future generations to mark his name.
Both the Yao and She people have the custom of worshiping Panhu, and both have Chinese documents recording the legend of Panhu (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 the two tribes include Pan, Lan, and Lei. Therefore, it is speculated that the historical relationship between them should be very close.
Naming customs of the She people
Men of the She people have multiple names. There are nicknames (nicknames), worldly names, taboo names, Dharma names, etc. Not everyone has a Dharma name, but a man has at least three names: a breast name, a world name, and a secret name. Women generally have only two names: their real name and their nickname. Why does one person have so many names? The origin of the world name is related to the typesetting world items prescribed in the ancestral hall.
As for whether a person can have a Dharma name, it depends on whether he has performed sacrifices to his ancestors. Anyone who worships their ancestors is eligible to obtain a Dharma name.
The taboo names are named according to the ranking. In order to unify the generations within the She ethnic group and distinguish whether they are of the same clan or surname and whether they are close to each other by blood, therefore, each ancestral hall holds a memorial ceremony every few years (some say twenty years). In Dongshe Village, Jingning, Zhejiang, every year on February 15th or August On the 15th (after worshiping ancestors), one should perform a row.
According to custom, She people who have not held a Jiao name (adult ceremony) ceremony do not have a ranking title and cannot be recorded. When ranking, first register the year, month, day, and hour of the men and women born in the ancestral hall within a certain number of years. The clan leader and several elders in the clan will rank the registered people according to their generation and around the time of birth, and write them down after death. Genealogy. The difference in generation in the ranking is determined by the six characters "big", "little", "hundred", "thousand", "ten thousand" and "nian" in the surname Lan.
There is a popular saying among the She people that the surname Lei is Wu Nian and the surname Zhong is Wu Qian. These two surnames only have five characters, that is, the surname Lei is ranked according to big, small, hundred, and thousand. , ten thousand, and the surname Zhong is ranked according to the five characters big, small, hundred, thousand, ten thousand, and read, while only the surname Lan is ranked according to the six characters.