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 There are
in China 286,500 Shuis, the majority of whom dwell on the upper
reaches of the Longjiang and Duliu rivers that meander across
plains and rolling land interspersed with vast expanses of forests
in southern Guizhou Province. They live in compact communities
in the Sandu Shui Autonomous County and in Libo, Dushan and other
counties. Some Shuis have their homes in the northwestern part
of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
The areas in which the Shuis live are a land
of plenty, abounding in fish and rice. Wheat, rape, ramie are
also grown besides a great variety of citrus and other fruits.
The forests are a ource of timber and medicinal herbs. The Duliu
and other rivers teem with fish.
The Shui language
belongs to the Zhuang-Dong branch of the Chinese-Tibetan language
family. The Shuis used to have an archaic writing script. Some
of their words were pictographs, while others resembled Chinese
characters written upside down. Except for scores of these ancient
words that are still used for religious purposes, the Shuis
use Chinese in their daily lives.
The Shuis boast
a treasure house of colorful oral literature and art. Their
literature includes poetry, legends, fairy tales and fables.
Among the various forms, poetry, which consists of long narrative
poems and extemporaneous ballads, are generally considered the
most prominent.
Stories and
fables in prose style praise the diligence, bravery, wisdom
and love of the Shui ethnic group and satirize the stupidity
of feudal rulers. With rich content and vivid plots Shui tales
are usually highly romantic.
Their songs,
which are usually sung without the accompaniment of musical
instruments, fall into two categories. The "grand songs"
are sung while they work, whereas the "wine songs"
are meant for wedding feasts or funerals.
The Shui people
are good dancers. "Lusheng Dance" and "Copper
Drum Dance" are the most popular  dances enjoyed by all
on festive occasions. Traditional musical instruments include
gongs, drums, lusheng, huqin and suona horns. The Shui people
make beautiful handicrafts -- embroideries, batiks, paper cuts
and woodcarvings.
Life Style
The Shuis usually dress in black and blue.
Men have long gowns and black turbans, and women wear collarless
blue blouses, black trousers and aprons, all of which are embroidered.
On festival occasions, the females put on skirts and a variety
of silver earrings, necklaces and bracelets. They usually wear
their hair in buns.
Shui diets consist of rice and fish, supplemented
with corn, barley, wheat and sweet potatoes. A kind of liquor
made of rice goes to entertain guests or is offered to dead
ancestors at sacrificial ceremonies.
A Shui house is either a one-storied affair
or a two-storied building. Dwellers of two-storied houses usually
live upstairs and reserve the ground floor for livestock, dogs
and chickens.
Monogamy is practiced. Young people had the
freedom to choose their spouses three centuries ago. Such freedom
came to an end with the growth of the feudal economy, and children
of rich landed families could only marry those of wealthy ones,
and marriage was arranged by parents.
On wedding day, the groom's family sent some
unmarried men to escort the bride home. The bride walked all
the way to her husband's home under an umbrella and returned
to her parent's home on the same day or the day after. The bride,
as a rule, did not live very often with her husband until six
months after marriage.
Shui funerals
used to be extremely elaborate. Livestock were killed as sacrificial
offerings to the dead. Singing, dancing and performance of local
operas went on and on until an auspicious day was found to bury
the dead. Such wasteful funerals have been simplified in the
post-1949 years.
The Shuis are
believers of polytheism. In former days a shaman would be employed
to say prayers and animals slaughtered to be offered to evil
spirits when someone fell ill or died or when something bad
happened. Catholicism that came to the area in the late Qing
Dynasty (1644-1911) won very few converts.
The Shuis have
a calendar of their own which takes the ninth lunar month as
the beginning of a new year, and their biggest festival is the
"duan" holiday which is celebrated with great pomp
after the autumn harvest at the beginning of the 11th lunar
month every year. Garbed in their colorful costumes, the Shuis
gather in their village to watch horse races and plays, and
to feast for days on end.
History
The Shuis are probably the descendants of
the Luoyues, one of the early tribes that lived along China's
southeastern coast before the Han Dynasty (206 B.C.-A.D. 24).
They adopted their present name at the end of the Ming Dynasty
(1368-1644).
In the Song
Dynasty (960-1279) villages were formed and rice growing began.
By the end of the Song, the Shuis had entered the early stage
of feudalism. The nobles bearing the surname of Meng initiated
in the upper reaches of the Longjiang River a feudal system
which bore the distinctive vestiges of the communal village.
The Yuan rulers (1271-1368) established local governments at
the prefectural level in an attempt to appease the  ethnic groups.
The Ming period witnessed a marked economic growth in Shui communities.
The introduction of improved farm tools made it possible for
farmers to open up paddy fields on flatland and terraced fields
on mountain slopes. The primitive "slash and burn"
farming gave way to more advanced agriculture characterized
by the use of irrigation and draught animals. As a result, grain
output increased remarkably.
The Ming imperial
court followed the preceding dynasty's practice of appointing
hereditary Shui headmen. Under this system, the Shuis had to
pay taxes to and do corvee for these court-appointed headmen
as well as for the imperial court.
During the two
centuries between 1640 and 1840 the Shui economy continued to
develop. Farm production registered a marked increase, with
per hectare yield of rice on flatland reaching 2,250 kilograms.
Some quit farming and became handicraftsmen.
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