Zhuang

ETHNONYMS: Buban, Budai, Budong, Bulong, Buman, Bumin, Buna, Bunong, Bupian, Bushuang, Butu, Buyang, Buyue, Gaolan Nongan, Tulao

Orientation

Identification. The Zhuang are the largest of China's minority peoples. Their autonomous region covers the entire province of Guangxi. They are a highly Sinicized agricultural people and are closely related culturally and linguistically to the Bouyei, Maonan, and Mulam, who are recognized by the state as separate ethnicities.

Location. Most Zhuang live in Guangxi, where they constitute about 33 percent of the population. They are concentrated in the western two-thirds of the province and neighboring regions of Guizhou and Yunnan, with a smaller group in Lianshan in northern Guangdong. For the most part, villages are in the mountainous areas of Guangxi. Numerous streams and rivers provide irrigation, transportation, and more recently, hydroelectric power. Much of the province is subtropical, with temperatures averaging 20° C, reaching 24 to 28° C in July and lows between 8 and 12° C in January. During the rainy season, from May to November, annual rainfall averages 150 centimeters.

Demography. According to the 1982 census, the Zhuang population was 13,378,000. The 1990 census reports 15,489,000. According to 1982 figures, 12.3 million Zhuang lived in the Guangxi Autonomous Region, with another 900,000 in adjacent areas of Yunnan (mainly in the Wenshan Zhuang-Miao Autonomous Prefecture), 333,000 in Guangdong, and a small number in Hunan. At least 10 percent of the Zhuang are urban. Elsewhere, population density ranges from 100 to 161 persons per square kilometer. The reported birth rate in recent years is 2.1, which is in line with China's family-planning policies.

linguistic Affiliation. The Zhuang language belongs to the Zhuang Dai Branch of the Tai (Zhuang-Dong) Language Family, which includes Bouyei and Dai and is closely related to the standard Thai language of Thailand and the Standard Lao of Laos. The eight-tone system resembles that of the Yue (Cantonese) dialects of the Guangdong-Guangxi area. There are also many loanwords from Chinese. Zhuang consists of two closely related "dialects," which are termed "northern" and "southern": the geographical dividing line is the Xiang River in southern Guangxi. Northern Zhuang is more widely used and is the base for the standard Zhuang encouraged by the Chinese government since the 1950s. A romanized script was introduced in 1957 for newspapers, magazines, books, and other publications. Prior to that, literate Zhuang used Chinese characters and wrote in Chinese. There was also Zhuang writing that used Chinese characters for their sound value only, or in compound forms that indicated sound and meaning, or created new ideographs by adding or deleting strokes from standard ones. These were used by shamans, Daoist priests, and merchants, but were not widely known.

History and Cultural Relations

The Sinicization of the Tai-speaking peoples of the Lingnan (Guangdong and Guangxi) has been a long process. Chinese forces first penetrated the area in 211 b.c., sparking local resistance and the creation of the Nan-Yue Kingdom, which expanded its rule to what is now northern Vietnam. In 111 b.c., Nan-Yue was integrated into the Han dynasty domain but not until the Tang (c. 600 a.d.) was state control established. Military farm colonies opened the way for further Han Chinese settlement. The indigenous Tai peoples either assimilated or were pushed westward or into the uplands, whereas the newcomers settled in the lowlands and interior river valleys. The crushing of a major Zhuang uprising in Guangdong during the Song led to further assimilation or dispersement of the ancestors of the current-day Zhuang. From the incoming Han settlers, the Zhuang adopted new agricultural techniques, where applicable, such as the iron plow, application of manure fertilizer, triple-cropping of rice, and more sophisticated irrigation systems. In the western part of Guangxi, the Zhuang remained in control of much of the area suitable for wet-field rice agriculture, as well as holding sway in the uplands where the introduction of Chinese technology was less feasible. From Tang onward, successive dynasties, landlord officials, and state-appointed local landlords ruled a large part of the Zhuang area, with most of the population reduced to tenancy and owing feudal service. This system continued into the nineteenth century, despite a number of major peasant uprisings. In the 1850s Guangxi was the origin point for the Taiping Rebellion, and Zhuang played an active role in the Taiping army and leadership. In 1927, the predominantly Zhuang area near Pai-se (Bose) was one of the earliest soviets. In 1949, the Zhuang of western Guangxi, who regarded themselves as oppressed by former Chinese governments, were warmly receptive to the Liberation army and new government. In 1952, a Zhuang autonomous region was organized in western Guangxi: By 1958, all of Guangxi became a Zhuang autonomous region, shared with the Han and with other ethnicities such as Yao, Miao, Maonan, Dong, Mulam, Jing, and Hui (Chinese Muslims). Soon after, the government organized the Zhuang-Miao Autonomous Prefecture in southeastern Yunnan and the Lianshan Zhuang-Yao Autonomous County in Guangdong. In 1984, Zhuang together with other minority people accounted for about one-third of the cadres (government employees and officials) in these areas.

Settlements

Some Zhuang areas in Guangxi are relatively homogenous, while elsewhere Zhuang villages are scattered between villages of other nationalities. Zhuang villages range in size from 20 to 2,000 persons, with a few larger communities that are traditional marketing centers located along riverways or a crossroad. Often, a village or cluster of villages traces its descent from a common male ancestor. In multilineal villages, houses tend to group according to surname (patrilineage). Newcomers to the area live on the outskirts, often at a considerable distance. Typical villages are located on a mountain slope facing a river. Under Han influence, most Zhuang have adopted the one-story brick house, but some retain the wooden-pile house common to other ethnic groups in the area: a two-story structure, with living quarters upstairs, and the lower floor serving as stables and storage rooms. Both styles nowadays have tiled roofs.

Economy

Subsistence and Commercial Activities . Paddy rice, dry-field uplands rice, glutinous rice, yams, and maize are staples, with double- or triple-cropping in most areas. Many tropical fruits (pineapple, banana, orange, sugarcane, litchi, mango) are grown, as well as a number of vegetables. River fisheries add protein to the diet, and most households raise pigs and chickens. Oxen and water buffalo serve as draft animals but are also eaten. Hunting and trapping are a very minor part of the economy, and gathering activities focus on mushrooms, medicinal plants, and fodder for the livestock. There is additional income in some areas from tung oil, tea and tea oil, cinnamon and anise, and a variety of ginseng. During the agricultural slack seasons, there are now increased opportunities to find construction work or other kinds of temporary jobs in the towns.

Industrial Arts. Most villages have always had some craft specialists skilled in carpentry, masonry, house building, tailoring, and the weaving of bamboo mats. Brocades, embroidered works, and batiks made by Zhuang women are famous throughout China and were mentioned as early as the Tang dynasty. Ordinarily, the Zhuang tend to dress like their Han neighbors, but ethnic dress has reemerged and is now encouraged by the state.

Trade. Households are heavily dependent on local markets for obtaining daily necessities and luxury goods and for selling their own products such as vegetables, fruits, fish, poultry, furniture, herbs, and spices. Participation in the market is also a social pastime. Both sexes participate in market trading. These periodic markets, held every three, five, or ten days, are now the site of township, district, and county governments. A small number of Zhuang are shopkeepers in a village or market town, and with the recent reforms some now are long-distance traders, bringing clothing from Guangdong Province for resale on the local markets.

Division of Labor. Men are responsible for plowing and management of the draft animals, while women are primarily responsible for transplanting rice in the flooded fields, weeding, and harvesting. Young men are more likely to be educated and are encouraged to learn an artisan skill or seek an urban job. The development of forestry and industries in the area makes some wage labor available. With adult women engaged in agriculture, the tasks of child care, feeding of domestic animals, and some of the housework is taken on by the elderly members of the family.

Land Tenure. From the Tang through much of the Qing dynasty, a feudal landownership system was prevalent, in which households received land-use rights for their own subsistance in return for labor on the landowner's estates and other labor services. A more commercialized landlord system developed from the eighteenth century on into the twentieth, creating a large number of poor peasants. Under the current reforms, land is allocated on contract to households, according to the number of people registered as rural residents. A village administrative committee (formerly a production brigade or team under the socialist economy) oversees the allotments of arable land, particularly irrigated fields. The contract is usually for five years. All land now belongs to the state, but use rights and redistribution rest with the village. Conflicts over land boundaries between households, villages, or even townships and counties are not uncommon. Population density is now high relative to available land.

Kinship

Kin Groups and Descent. Beyond the three-generation household, the significant group is the localized patrilineage, which shares a common surname and traces descent from a common ancestor. There is an elder recognized as the head, and households participate together at ancestral worship ceremonies, weddings, and funerals, with the lineage branch head directing. There are no reliable data on local variations of kinship terminology. The mother's brother plays an important role for his nieces and nephews, from choosing their name and participating in their marriage arrangements to playing a role in their parents' funerals.

Marriage and Family

Marriage. Marriages are surname exogamous, and usually village exogamous as well. There is some preference for a boy to marry his mother's brother's daughter, whereas marriage with parallel cousins is forbidden. In the past there was also a preference for early engagements and for a girl to be five or six years older than her prospective groom. Perhaps because of the age difference, there was delayed transfer of the bride: after the marriage ceremony she remained with her parents, making frequent visits to her in-laws to assist with planting and harvest, but maintaining her social freedoms and natal residence until the birth of her first child. Only then did she move to her husband's village. Sinicized Zhuang utilize go-betweens, matching of horoscopes, sending of gifts to the girl's family, sending of a dowry, and the general patterns of Han marriage practice. However, older patterns or borrowings from neighboring ethnic groups also continue. Groups of unmarried boys visit to serenade eligible girls at their homes; there are singing parties for groups of unmarried youth (and those not yet living with their spouses); and there are other opportunities for young people to choose a spouse for themselves. In the past, there were "elopement" marriages, accepted by the family and community. Divorce is frowned upon, and if it occurs, fathers retain custody of their sons. Remarriage is permitted.

Domestic Unit. The domestic unit is monogamous and nuclear except for youngest sons, who are obliged to live with their parents. Residence is generally patrilocal: about 20 percent of marriages bring the groom to the wife's village.

Inheritance. The youngest son inherits a larger share of the parental property. Both sons and daughters inherit movables, and also parental debts. In the absence of surviving offspring, other lineage members inherit.

Sociopolitical Organization

Social Organization. Prior to 1949, village organization was based on the patrilineage and on villagewide religious activities focused on gods and spirits who protected the community and assured the success of the crops and livestock. Ceremonies were led by recognized village elders.

Political Organization. Since 1949, various government-designated forms of organization have appeared. At present, villages are administered by a committee; and the next-highest level is the township government, which is responsible for a number of villages and which manages agriculture, local industry, and collection of taxes and required quota sales to the state. Within the village and township there are branches or groups of the Communist party, the Women's Federation, and the Youth League, all of which seek to ensure that party policy is carried out. While some problems are handled informally by family or community, some matters go through government courts at the township, district, or county level. About one-third of government employees in Guangxi are Zhuang.

Religion and Expressive Culture

Religious Beliefs. Ancestral worship differs from that of the Han in that it includes "kings" and mythic or historical heroes and heroines as well as actual ancestors in the patriline. The names of the ancestors, written on strips of red paper, are displayed on home altars together with the names of other spirits to be honored and receive special offerings at Spring Festival and at the Festival of the Dead in the seventh lunar month. In addition, there are a variety of local gods drawn from precontact religion or fused with gods from the Chinese folk tradition. These include Tudigong, who protects the village boundaries from his crossroads temple; She Shen, who is the village tutelary spirit; the Mountain Spirit (some mountains are sacred and should not be opened to farming); the Dragon King (Long Wang), who also protects the villages; and a number of spirits drawn from the pantheon of natural forces. Both Daoism and Buddhism or a fusion of the two are important in community life, particularly at the time of funerals. Catholic and Protestant missionaries came to the area in the late nineteenth century, but the number of followers is small and mostly limited to the urban areas.

Religious Practitioners. Female divination specialists treat sickness and in trance can communicate with spirits and ghosts. A second kind of local shaman, who is male, differs in that he serves at an altar and is skilled in either the Zhuang writing system or a Zhuang reading of Chinese characters. His texts, which serve as a basis for performance (songs, chants), include myths, history and geography, astronomy, and tales. He performs at funerals, local festivals, and at times of crisis. The sacrifices of oxen, chickens, and other livestock are in part used to pay him for his service. Daoist priests, who are also part-time practitioners, perform at many of the same events as the shaman. They chant in Chinese and use Han texts. Buddhism in the Zhuang areas has been strongly influenced by Daoism and earlier traditional religion. The priests can marry and are semivegetarian. They cast horoscopes, serve as geomancers, and exorcise ghosts, as well as chanting sutras at life-crisis times.

Ceremonies. Honoring ancestors at home altars and in ancestral halls is of key importance. The Chinese Qingming Festival for sweeping ancestral graves (third lunar month) is often combined with an Ox Birthday Festival and ceremonies for the goddess who protects at birth and during infancy.

Arts. There is a rich repertoire of songs, dances, local opera, oral literature, and music. Hundreds of decorated bronze drums have been found in archaeological sites in the region, and there are frescoes dating back some 2,000 years at sites along the Zuo River.

Medicine. Divination, shamanistic healing, and herbal medicines from an older tradition are augmented by borrowings from Chinese traditional medicine (cupping, acupuncture) and the more recent introduction of clinics and health stations using both Chinese and Western medicine.

Death and Afterlife. Souls of the dead enter a netherworld but can continue to assist the living. Corpses are wrapped in white cloth and buried after three days, together with some of their favorite items of daily use. Daoist priests preside over the funeral: in some areas, two special singers are called upon to sing traditional mourning songs. The corpse is disinterred after three years and the bones are cleaned and placed in a pottery urn that is deposited in a cave or grotto. Those who died violent or untimely deaths are potentially evil spirits. Their bones are burned and a Daoist priest is called to transform the ashes into proper ancestors. Families arrange "spirit marriages" to appease the souls of those who died unmarried.

Bibliography

Gu Youzhi, and Lu Julie (1985). "Zhuangzu yuanshi zongjiao de fengjianhua" (The feudal transformation of early Zhuang religion). In Zhongguo shaoshu minzu zongjiao (Religions of China's national minorities), edited by Song Enchang, 301-315. Kunming: Yunnan Peoples Press.

Liang Tingwang (1986). Zhuangzu fengsu ji (Customs of the Zhuang). Beijing: Central Minorities Institute.

Ma Yin, ed. (1989). Chinas Minority Nationalities, 371-379. Beijing: Foreign Languages Press.

Song Enchang, ed. (1980). Yunnan shaoshu minzu shehui diaocha yanjiu (Social researches on Yunnan's minorities). Vol. 2. Kunming: Yunnan Peoples Press.

LIN YUEH-HWA AND NORMA DIAMOND