The magical "Sarebo" and the noble "Jiusi Zheer"

In the middle of Lushan Scenic Area in Xichang, the capital of Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, there is a building in Yi style, which is the Liangshan Yi Slave Society Museum. The museum was completed and opened on August 4, 1985. It is the first ethnic museum in my country and the only special museum in the world that reflects the form of slave society (Figure 1). It is backed by Lushan Mountain and faces Qionghai Lake. The cultural relics in the museum tell the world about the tortuous social development history and splendid national cultural history of the Yi people. The most distinctive of them is the Liangshan Yi lacquerware.

Figure 1. Liangshan Yi Slave Society Museum located in Lushan Scenic Area, Xichang City. Image source: Reference 1

Among the lacquer art cultures of China's ethnic minorities, Liangshan Yi lacquerware is unique, with three unique features: 1. The base of the lacquerware is diverse, generally based on wood, but also including animal-derived bases such as leather and horn; 2. The lacquer craftsmanship that has been passed down for thousands of years. Lacquerware is a traditional handicraft in ancient China. It mainly collects lacquer from natural lacquer trees. The production process is complicated and the techniques are diverse. The lacquer craftsmanship of the Yi people is said to have been created by the skilled craftsman Di Yihuofu and has been passed down for more than 1,700 years; 3. The three-color aesthetics of black, red and yellow. The base color of Yi lacquerware is mostly black, and then red and yellow are interwoven to form various patterns, forming an aesthetic taste with unique national artistic characteristics. Yi lacquerware is an ancient national cultural treasure, and its craftsmanship is also a national intangible cultural heritage (Figure 2).

Figure 2. The rich and diverse shapes of Yi lacquerware. Image source: Reference 2

Among these lacquerwares, the most breathtaking ones are the Yi wine pot (called "Salebo" in Yi language) and the eagle claw cup (called "Jiuxizhera" in Yi language).

When making wine jugs, wood is generally used as the base. The Liangshan area of ​​Sichuan is rich in wood. The Yi people usually cut down trees in the ninth and tenth months of the lunar calendar every year and select wood of appropriate size as the base. In order to allow the wooden base to absorb moisture and not to crack or deform during processing, they bury the wooden base in farmyard manure or soil for a short period of one year or a long period of three years before taking it out for production. The wine jug is divided into three parts: the head, the abdomen and the base. The abdomen is mostly spherical and oblate, and is composed of two halves of a mother-child buckle, which means that all things are "male and female in pairs". Interestingly, no matter what shape the abdomen is, there will be a tube inserted diagonally into it, all the way to the bottom of the abdomen, which looks like a straw for drinking milk tea (Figure 3). Why do Yi wine jugs have such a design? It turns out that the early Yi people were nomads on horseback, and later they turned to farming. Wooden base lacquerware is easy to carry and not easy to break. Such a wine jug with a "sucking" tube is not easy to spill the wine, and it will not evaporate, making it easy to drink during migration.

Figure 3. Yi ethnic group lacquerware wine pot "Sa Le Bo" Image source: Reference 3

Unlike traditional Han lacquerware, which only uses wood as the base, Yi lacquerware also uses animal skin, horns, and hoofs to make the base. Among the Yi wine cups, there are ox horn cups, ox hoof cups, pig hoof cups, and eagle claw cups, among which the eagle claw cup is the most precious. The Yi people are martial and worship the eagle flying in the sky. In the old Yi society with strict hierarchy, the eagle claw cup was also a symbol of status, and only the nobles could own it. The eagle claw cup usually uses the eagle claw as the cup foot, and the eagle claw is either wrapped with a layer of lacquer ash and then painted, or not painted at all. The cup body is made of wood, and there is a protruding vertebra at the bottom that is tied to the cup foot. The whole wine cup looks simple, noble and majestic (Figure 4).

Figure 4. Yi ethnic group eagle claw cup lacquerware "Jiuxi Zheer" Image source: Reference 1

The unique three-color aesthetic of Yi lacquerware has rich connotations and advantages in real materials. The Yi people believe that black is the color of mountains and land, symbolizing nobility and solemnity. The nobles in the old days were called "Black Yi" and the common people were called "White Yi". Black is generally used as the base color of lacquerware, which is a mixture of pig blood, soybean flour and pot bottom soot. Red represents blood, flame, and sun, and symbolizes bravery, enthusiasm, warmth, and vitality. The red pigment is taken from minerals such as red stone and cinnabar in Liangshan area. Yellow represents harvest and brightness, and also symbolizes reproduction, prosperity, and beauty. The pigment is taken from orpiment. Yi lacquerware uses three colors at the same time, with black as the base color, red and yellow interwoven, combined with the pictographic symbols of the Yi people, to outline the breathtaking patterns of mountains, rivers, sun, moon, flowers, birds, fish, insects, birds and beasts.

References:

Liangshan Yi Slave Society Museum, website: www.sctyzx.gov.cn/jyjd/201606/54249710.html

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