1. The Origin of Yi Nationality's History and Culture and the Inheritance of the "Nimu Cuobi" Ceremony of Cremation The Yi Nationality is a nation formed by the Diqiang people in the ancient northwest who migrated south to the Jinsha River Basin and continuously merged with the indigenous tribes in the southwest during the long-term historical development process. The Yi culture is in the same vein as the ancient Diqiang culture. Its cultural characteristics are also reflected in the following aspects: witchcraft and ghost worship, the system of father-son joint names, clan naming methods, clothing customs, and the concept of tiger worship. These cultural traditions have been inherited by the Yi people from generation to generation. The Yi custom of cremation has been the same since ancient times. The ancient books in the pre-Qin and Han dynasties recorded that the ancient Qiang people cremated "burned and scattered their ashes", which is very similar to the cremation of the Yi people from the Tang and Song Dynasties to the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The Wuman of the Nanzhao royal family in the Tang Dynasty also practiced cremation, and after the cremation, the remains of the deceased were picked up and placed in an urn, and then buried underground, and a stone ball column with the shape of "three platforms and eight directions" was pressed on it. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, cremation was still popular in Yi areas. The ritual activities of resting the spirit and sending the spirit that were associated with cremation were also frequently seen in Chinese historical records. Cremation of the Yi people in Yunnan and Guizhou continued until the end of the 19th century. Cremation is still practiced in Liangshan, Sichuan and Yunnan. Especially in the heartland of the Yi people, such as Meigu, the cultural tradition of cremation and sending the spirit back to the ancestors has been strictly adhered to by the local Yi people, passed down from generation to generation, maintaining the vitality of life, and becoming a cultural symbol of national cohesion. The reason why the institutionalized inheritance of cremation and sending the spirit has been prevalent in the Yi area of Liangshan for a long time is also related to the fact that the Yi people's belief in ancestral spirits and the concepts of life and death shaped by them and the three major rituals of facing death, namely, the laying of spirits, the resting of spirits, and the sending of spirits, have been completely preserved in this homeland. It also shows that in the social norms of the Liangshan Yi people who follow ancient rituals and abide by ancestral systems, there is a very long-standing and profound cultural complex of returning to one's ancestors after death and the national mentality of returning to one's roots. Today, Meigu, Liangshan has become a place of living water for studying the "Nimu Cuobi", an important part of the Yi ethnic group's life rituals, and its cultural space. The Yi ethnic group's "Nimu Cuobi" sacrificial ceremony has a long history. According to the records of the epic "Le'e", the educational classic "Ma Mu", and the historical classics "Gong Shi Zhuan" and "Mu Shi Zhuan" and other ancient Yi books, the Yi ancestors' society transitioned from the matriarchal era of "only knowing the mother but not the father" to the patriarchal era of "marrying a wife and forming a couple, and the son can see the father", and then established the religious and cultural system of ancestor worship and sending spirits: After nine generations of history of "giving birth to a son without seeing the father", Shi'er'ot, a descendant of Wuzhe Shila, the son of the Snow Tribe, went through twists and turns and finally married the smart woman Zini Shise. After that, "giving birth to a son and seeing the father", thus establishing a complete set of religious systems for ancestor worship and sending spirits. Among the riddles that Znishis asked Shier'ete, there was the phrase "What is the firewood that is not burned during the three festivals?" The answer to the riddle is "the ancestral spirits worshipped at home." Znishis also told Shier'ete that he should "hang the ancestral spirits on the wall, offer them on the altar after the ritual, and send them to the cave after the salvation." Therefore, the establishment of the gender system, the rise of marriage rituals, and the activities of worshipping ancestors and sending spirits all originated in the Shier'ete era. This period is also regarded as a historical turning point when the Yi ancestors' society entered the patriarchal stage from the matriarchal stage. [Distribution area] The largest sacrificial activity of the Yi people, "Nimu Cuobi", was once widely circulated in the folk life traditions of the Yi people in Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, and Guangxi. However, due to various factors, it was only preserved relatively intact in the northern dialect area of the Yi people, especially in Meigu, Liangshan, where it has been passed down for a long time and has maintained cultural vitality to this day. Therefore, Meigu enjoys the reputation of "the hometown of Bimo culture." Meigu is located in the northeast of Liangshan Prefecture, on the west foot of Huangmaogeng, the main peak of Daliang Mountain, and is the heart of Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture. Before the democratic reform (1956), the residents of Meigu mainly relied on mountain roads to travel with each other. After liberation, the provincial roads in the territory included Hemu Highway and Chengmei Highway. Today, the "Nimu Cuobi" of Meigu is mainly inherited in the Yi mountain villages and villages in Lama Ajue Township, Hegu Luo Township, Suluo Township, Houguomo Township, Saku Township, Longmen Township, Erqi Township, Luooyigan Township, Yiguojue Township, Nongzuo Township, and Bapu Township in the county. [Basic Content] 1. Basic Situation In the life etiquette and ritual life of the Liangshan Yi people, "Nimu Cuobi" is still the most solemn and most valued community public affair among the people. Generally, families or clans are the units. Within one to several years after the cremation, the traditional ritual paradigm of sending off one generation or several generations is followed. During the winter farming off-season, the family or clan collectively invites the ancestor worship Bimo to hold the ceremony. Usually, it must be held on an auspicious day between the Yi New Year and the Han Spring Festival. In the past, the ceremony of worshipping ancestors and sending off the spirits in Yinuo area lasted for 7 to 9 days, but now it is mostly simplified to 3 days. The whole activity consists of dozens of ritual procedures, and several or even more than ten "Nimu Bimo" (ancestor worship Bimo) must be invited to jointly preside over it. The scale of the ceremony depends on the number of spirit tablets sent to the dead, especially the collective ceremony of sending off the spirits held by the clan, which involves several or more than ten ancestors from several generations of the dead. Then people who have blood and kinship ties with these ancestors will participate in the ceremony, ranging from a few hundred to thousands of people. Therefore, the ritual of sending off the spirits has a relatively fixed cultural expression cycle and a folk life foundation passed down from generation to generation. 2. Cultural Expressions The "Nimucuobi" ceremony is a concentrated expression of the traditional social practice and folk life of the Yi people. It is the product of the development of Yi society and history to a certain stage. It is closely related to the deep national cultural and psychological structure of the Yi people, such as their living environment, religious beliefs, psychological state, thoughts and feelings. From concepts to behaviors, from rituals to symbols, it has become an important part of the folk life tradition of mountain society. The concept of the soul that the body is annihilated but the soul is immortal is the cornerstone of the Yi funeral rituals and native religious system. It is also the origin of the Yi people's ancestral spirit belief and the ritual of sending the soul back to the ancestors and the premise for its long-term maintenance and development. Its concept and belief are mainly reflected in the "three souls view" and "ancestral realm view". "When a person dies, there are three souls, and one soul returns to the ancestors." The Yi people generally believe that the soul is immortal and that there are three souls after death, that is, there are three souls after the physical death of a person, and they have different destinations and forms of existence. One soul guards the crematorium or grave, one soul returns to the ancestral realm to reunite with the ancestors, and one soul guards the ancestral spirit seat enshrined in the home. Among the three souls, whether any one of them is comfortable, clean, or worshipped will affect and determine the fortune, prosperity, and decline of future generations. This is reflected in the Bimo scripture "Zhilu Jing": "Mourner! There are three souls after death, one soul guards the spirit tablet, one soul guards the grave, and one soul sees the ancestors." It can be seen that the ideal destination of the soul of the Yi people is the ancestral world, that is, one of the three souls must reach the ancestral world after death to live with the ancestors and achieve "eternal life". The religious rituals derived from the concept of "returning to the ancestors after death" include laying the spirit, settling the spirit, and sending the spirit. The ritual cultural phenomena derived from this are concentrated in these three rituals, with the sending spirit ritual as the center. "Laying the spirit" is the cremation ceremony, in which many links must be presided over by the Bimo; "Settling the spirit" is a religious ceremony in which the Bimo is invited to make a spirit tablet for the deceased and worship it in the shrine at home; and "Sending the spirit" is a grand ceremony for the Yi people to recommend the deceased's soul to return to the ancestors. If the soul is not sent, the deceased cannot smoothly reach the ancestral world. The ancient Yi ancestors’ conception of the soul’s destination is the ancestral realm in their beliefs. The Yi ancestral spirit belief was formed in the conception of the life in the ancestral realm. The Yi people’s belief in the afterlife is the belief in the existence of another world opposite to the real world, the ancestral realm “Enmu Pugu”. As the highest realm of the soul’s destination, the ancestral realm in the concepts of the Yi people in Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, and Guangxi all points to the birthplace of the “Six Ancestors”. At the same time, they also firmly believe that it is the place where the souls of the ancestors of the rebirth of the nation after the flood period and the ancestors of later generations gather. This concept is the internal basis and ideological foundation for the Yi ancestors to carry out various ritual activities. Therefore, the basic theme of "Nimu Cuobi" has always been the eulogy of human life and the hope for the ideal life of the ethnic group. Therefore, it is also a precious material for studying the cultural history and ideological history of the Yi nationality. 3. Ritual process The ritual procedure of "Nimu Cuobi" is very complicated, rich in content and profound in meaning. It is a ritual activity of the highest level, the most stringent requirements and the largest scale in the Bimo culture. The actual operation of the ritual activity is to send the materialized ancestral tablets and ancestral tubes into the ancestral caves of the same clan in the wild. Among them, the soul-settling, soul-purifying and soul-guiding are the main ritual links that the people attach great importance to. 1. Soul-settling The soul-settling, called "Maduguo" in Yi language, refers to the placement of the souls of deceased ancestors. "Three souls of a dead person", one of which is attached to the ancestral tablet after being summoned by the Bimo and enshrined in the home. This soul is in a wandering state with no support before clinging to the tablet after the person dies, and is hungry and miserable. At the same time, They often haunt the descendants, causing them to suffer and feel uneasy. They must go through the soul-settling ceremony to attract them to the spirit tablet. The purpose of the soul-settling ceremony is to be able to offer sacrifices to the ancestral spirits in time and to be able to better enjoy the protection of the ancestors. Before the soul-settling ceremony, a ghost-cursing ceremony must be performed first. It can be performed according to the scale of the ceremony. The ceremony must be chosen on an odd night. Its purpose is to drive out all kinds of ghosts and "clean" the host's house to make it clean. The Yi people believe that ghosts like to hide during the day and come out at night, so they perform it at night. The procedure is to set off fireworks, scald stones, find the ancestral temple, report the population, invite gods, eliminate karma, circumambulate, kill animals, etc., and then cut and kill the ghost doll, and use the god's fortune in the fortune tube to predict good and bad luck. Then the Bimo shakes the god bell and curses, and the Bi disciples recite 1 all night long. The chanting is magnificent and the scene is touching. The whole soul-settling ceremony includes selecting spirits, summoning spirits, making spirit tablets, offering medicine to eliminate diseases, and offering sacrifices to spirits. 2. Purification of the spirits After the "Madu" is completed, there is a process of purifying the ancestral spirits, namely the purification ceremony. First, the Bimo sprinkles the ash on the ancestral tomb to wake up the soul of the deceased, and then traces the cause of death and disease, offers wine and water, invites the ancestral spirit to attach to the bamboo root, and blocks the evil spirits in the tomb. After the ancestral spirit attaches to the bamboo root, a grain the size of a grain is cut from the bamboo root as the ancestral spirit, and is placed in a spirit stake made of peach or Yunnan poplar. After the spirit stake is made, a certain ceremony is performed to cut off the burden, rags, dregs and other karma that haunts the ancestor mother, and to sweep away the dust on the ancestor mother. The main ceremonies include removing the karma, changing the spirit stake, and redeeming and purifying the ancestor mother. 3. Pointing the way is to send the purified ancestor spirit back to the ancestral realm. The procedures mainly include entertaining the ancestor mother at the white house, changing the ancestor mother, pointing the way, marriage, ending, and sending the spirit coffin into the cave. 4. The enhanced ceremony in "Nimu Cobi" is to remove the evil karma, change the spirit stake, redeem the ancestor mother ... In addition to the above, various procedures are inserted into the "Nimocuobi" sacrifice according to the occupation, good and evil, good and bad, cause of death, and manner of death of the ancestor. If the deceased committed suicide, was murdered, or died unexpectedly, the "Xiilimu" ceremony should be performed. If the deceased died of leprosy, the "Lailimu" ceremony should be performed. If the deceased died of dysentery, the "Dysentery Elimination and Burial" ceremony should be inserted. If the deceased was a Bimo family of more than nine generations, the "Dysentery Elimination" ceremony should be inserted. If the owner was a "Degu" family of more than nine consecutive generations, the "Dysentery Elimination" ceremony should be inserted. If the deceased was a warrior and killed many people, the "Dysentery Elimination" ceremony should be inserted. If the owner was the only heir of more than nine generations, the "Repaying Foolish Debt" ceremony should be inserted. If the owner's ancestors had a tradition of long-term illness, the "Zhujiabu" ceremony should be inserted. If the owner had a disability or abnormal development for generations, the "Blessing" ceremony should be inserted, etc., in order to help the deceased return to the ancestral world smoothly. 【Basic Characteristics】"Nimu Cuobi" is not only the process of inheriting and promoting the traditional knowledge and culture of the Yi people, but also the living form of folk traditions. Therefore, it has the basic characteristics of procedurality, symbolism, inheritance from generation to generation, oral transmission, cultural entertainment and group participation. The first is procedurality. "Nimu Cuobi" is generally performed on an auspicious day in winter. Once the presiding family chooses an auspicious year and an auspicious day, they will prepare the relevant supplies on their own and notify the Bimo in advance, inform relatives and friends and family members. The ceremony can last three days, seven days, nine days, etc., and most of the ceremonies that can be seen in the folk are three days. "Nimu Cuobi" is a very sacred thing in the minds of the Yi people, representing whether the ancestors can return to the ancestral world smoothly, whether they can bless their descendants to be safe and auspicious, and live a beautiful and happy life. Therefore, every procedure from inviting Bimo to settling the spirit, purifying the spirit, and sending the spirit has extremely strict procedural specifications, which must be carried out one by one in order and must not be exceeded. The second is symbolic. As a traditional life ritual accumulated over a long period of history, "Nimucuobi" uses a large number of symbolic images to express life cognition and survival morality throughout the ritual process. It is permeated with the symbolic thinking of the Yi people on the relationship between physical life, spiritual life and the natural universe. Its ritual process is extremely symbolic. Through concrete ritual behavior, the symbol of the ancestral soul "Madu" is sent back to the imagined ancestral world, praying that the ancestral spirit will bless the descendants for life, bless the descendants, and let the descendants have a large population, prosperous livestock, abundant crops, harmonious and peaceful, healthy and happy life for thousands of generations. In particular, reproduction and reproduction are extremely important symbolic subjects and value demands in the whole ritual process. Most of the rituals are carried out around reproduction. Therefore, the whole ritual process is always based on sending the soul back to the ancestors and blessing the descendants. It is a concentrated embodiment of the historical symbolic connotation and cultural metaphor form of the Yi people. Therefore, through the inheritance of ritual life, a series of important cultural concepts and traditional symbols have been extracted, completing the civilization and creation with huge cultural information hidden. The third is the inheritance from generation to generation. The Yi people are a nation that values the concept of roots and blood ties. This concept has played a very good role in the preservation of traditional culture and the adherence to the national spirit. As a spiritual and cultural heritage, the inheritance of "Nimu Cuobi" also has typical characteristics of generational inheritance. The behavior of the descendants of one or several Yi families with a common ancestor is also the behavior of other members of the family branch; at the same time, it is also a common behavior of relatives and neighbors with in-laws. Fourth, oral transmission. To this day, in the Yi mountain society, writing practice has not yet been separated from the communication context of its oral culture. Ritual is a way for national memory, cultural tradition, and local knowledge to be accumulated, spread, and circulated. The Yi local society can be described as a face-to-face "oral text community". Oral transmission and oral communication constitute the basic social interaction. As intellectuals, Bimo always has a tacit understanding and communication with the people. This tacit understanding and communication is based on some local knowledge, folk wisdom, and a common concern for certain public affairs of the village. In today's traditional Yi communities, the "Nimu Cuobi" ceremony still integrates moral education, knowledge dissemination and literary and artistic entertainment. Through complex ritual procedures and symbolic ritual behaviors, it explores the value of human survival, digs into the dimension of human life, and elevates the spiritual height of human beings. It is a kind of social consciousness structure, ethnic survival ethics and individual moral cultivation. The "Nimu Cuobi" ceremony involves dozens of ritual procedures and nearly 100 Bimo documents, covering the entire Yi people's politics, economy, philosophy, history, culture and art, medicine and health, astronomy and calendar. The ritual process of sending souls back to the ancestors is not only an important way for Bimos to learn from each other and exchange their skills, but also an important place for ritual participants to learn traditional cultural knowledge. Therefore, the oral performance in the ceremony has the characteristics of activating ethnic memory, dynamically disseminating knowledge, activating social flow, and strengthening cultural identity. The fifth is cultural entertainment. In the hearts of the Yi people, "Nimu Cuobi" is not only a sacred place, but also a big stage for folk heritage performances, and an important place for cultural entertainment. Whether it is the costumed circling around the green shed, horse racing, beauty pageant, wrestling, bullfighting, or hunting, imitation of war actions, all show a positive national spirit, combining education with entertainment, and practicing the optimistic and open-minded attitude towards life of "the ancestors die and the children and grandchildren enjoy". Sixth, group participation. The "Nimu Cuobi" ceremony of sending souls back to the ancestors has a long history and profound heritage. It is highly recognized in the traditional society of the Yi people and has the participation of the entire ethnic group. The rituals of comforting the soul, purifying the soul, and sending the soul are not only the sacred obligations of every family of the Yi nationality, but also the folk activities of life in which blood relatives and friends fulfill their obligations, enhance friendship, and widely communicate and participate. The long-standing "Nimu Cuobi" ceremony, as an important inheritance of the folk life and life etiquette of the traditional community of the Liangshan Yi people, involves the life process of every member of the group. Therefore, it has become a collective life matter that the mountain community generally pays attention to and attaches great importance to, and has extremely wide group participation. 【Basic Value】In the historical and cultural development of the Yi nationality, as a cultural community, the Yi nationality has a common ethnic origin, ethnic history, common migration experience, common human and geographical environment, common cultural background and cultural atmosphere, etc., which constitute the Yi nationality and are also the common "ethnic memory" of all branches of the Yi people. "Nyimu Cuobi" is the eternal "spiritual schema" of the Yi nationality, and is the common ethnic memory and historical accumulation of the Yi nationality. It has a certain protection value. 1. Historical value. The Yi nationality's belief in ancestral spirits is based on the belief that all things have spirits, and then it rises to the worship of nature, totem worship, and ancestor worship, which is derived from the attitude of the Yi people towards life and ancestors. This attitude is transformed into real behavior, which is the "Nyimu Cuobi" that can be seen in the life history of the Yi nationality today. "Nimu Cuobi" is the sum of Yi culture and its vitality. Its ritual form constructs and interprets the specific cultural time and space of the Yi people, which is connected by blood and passed down from generation to generation, thus constructing an encyclopedic treasure house of knowledge such as Yi philosophy, history and geography, literature and art, astronomy and calendar, and human ethics. Its deep cultural connotations include the Yi people's original understanding of the world of life, highlighting the Yi people's emotional attitude towards life and death, historical expression, and cognitive attitude towards the natural world. It interprets the transition between life and death through ritual symbols, and repeats the ancestors' simple cognition about the origin of life and death. It provides us with the key to the spiritual world of the Yi people. At the same time, through the complex ritual process and cultural context, it activates the Yi people's long-standing ethnic memory and migration history. It is a vivid witness to the ancient cultural heritage of various "sending spirits" rituals that were once widely practiced by many ethnic minorities in my country. 2. Cultural value. The Yi Bimo culture, which is dominated by the "Nimucuobi" ritual, has always maintained an independent development path in the process of development, and is rarely influenced by foreign cultures. It has strong national and local characteristics. If it is said that since the Yuan Dynasty, the Yi Bimo culture in Yunnan, Guizhou, and Guangxi has been deformed by the influence of Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism due to the influence of the Tusi system and foreign cultures, then the Liangshan Yi Bimo culture has always maintained an independent development path in this regard. At the same time, Bimo culture originated from the folk, and is the development and re-creation of the collection of various folk cognitive achievements collected and sorted by the Bimos. Bimo culture has a strong popular nature. Many folk oral traditions are completely preserved in Bimo documents, and are spread to folk communities and taught to the younger generation through ritual performances; on the contrary, the ritual scriptures in Bimo culture have also absorbed the nutrients of folk literature and integrated into the oral art form of the people; folk human ethics, legal systems, medical and health, astronomical and historical knowledge are also in a state of adhesion and integration with Bimo culture. Bimo culture and folk culture coexist and learn from each other, forming a brilliant national cultural landscape. 3. The inheritance value of skills and techniques. The Bimo occupation requires that Bimo must have certain knowledge of gods and ghosts, knowledge of scriptures, knowledge of family genealogy, knowledge of history and geography, knowledge of calendar and astrology, knowledge of medicine, knowledge of plastic arts, knowledge of folk literature, knowledge of traditional music, and knowledge of rituals and ceremonies. He must be able to fluently copy ancient Yi books, be familiar with ancient language grammar, memorize dozens of different ritual singing and chanting tunes, set up hundreds of different god branch ritual fields, be able to mold various clay dolls, cut various ritual paper banners, tie various straw dolls, perform various divination techniques, and at least be proficient in reciting hundreds of thousands of words of oral scriptures and memorizing more than two million words of texts; in addition to mastering the above knowledge and skills and ritual procedures, highly skilled Bimos must be proficient in the meaning of text interpretation and be able to skillfully preside over complex rituals such as sending spirits back to their ancestors, pig scapula divination, and steaming patients. In addition, many Bimos also have unique skills such as fishing out of boiling water, holding red-hot iron chains, licking red-hot iron plows with tongues, and scalding the body with boiling water. These superb skills and techniques are still well protected and passed down, thus continuing the unique cognitive mode, value judgment and cultural wisdom of an ancient nation. 4. Social value. On the one hand, for the cultural complex and spiritual paradigm of the Yi people, the issue of life and death is a turning point. "Nimucuobi" can be said to be a symbolic system of living towards death. In the Yi folk, death also has a mysterious, confusing and sad side for the Yi people, but the Yi people often see the scenery of life from the shadow of death and see auspiciousness from the unfortunate side. The Yi people's optimistic attitude towards death is also the attitude towards life advocated by Bimo as a priest among the people, thus giving death a unique meaning, that is, for a better life. Over time, this spirit of living towards death and seeing death as home has forged a national character and cultural mentality of Nuosu. Today, the Yi people in Liangshan still use the ritual traditions passed down from ancient times to uniquely interpret and understand their own concept of life and death and philosophy of life in the life process and important joints of each person. In the meantime, they also integrate the folk traditions themselves into the interpretation of life rituals. These interpretations express the Yi people's open-minded and optimistic attitude towards life and life and death. It is with a positive attitude towards life that the Yi people find their spiritual final destination at the critical moment of the end of their individual life process. Through the fire, the body is the same as the world, and the soul returns to the ancestral home to achieve eternal life. On the other hand, "Nimu Cuobi" as a vivid embodiment and important witness of the ultimate humanistic care of the Yi people has important implications for deeply appreciating and grasping the relationship between man and nature, building contemporary culture, and building a harmonious society. At the same time, "Nimu Cuobi" is of great significance in connecting and strengthening the blood identity and psychological identity among Yi family members, improving national self-confidence, strengthening national unity, etc.