Sui people


The Sui people, also spelled as Shui people, are an ethnic group living mostly in Guizhou Province, China. They are counted as one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China.

History and demographics

The Sui are descended from the ancient Baiyue peoples, who had inhabited southern China before the Han dynasty. The name "Sui," which means "water" in Chinese, was adopted during the Ming Dynasty.
Today, 93% of all Sui people reside in Guizhou, China, with about half of them living in Sandu Shui Autonomous County. To the south, 10,000 Sui live around Yingdong village in Rongshui County, Guangxi. Small pockets of Sui people also live in Fuyang and Yiliang Counties, Yunnan. Additionally, there are 120 Sui living in Hồng Quang District, Tuyên Quang Province, northern Vietnam who are the descendants of Sui people who had left Sandu County 8 generations ago.

Language

The Sui speak a Kra–Dai language, part of the Kam–Sui languages.

Society

The Sui are organized around family clans. Villages usually have a few hundred inhabitants, most of whom have the same family name.
Traditional Sui houses are usually made of fir or pine, although today the houses are increasingly made with bricks. There are three main types of traditional Sui housing :
  1. ɣaan2 faaŋ1 - The ganlan stilted house, which has two or three stories. The second floor is used for the living quarters whereas the first floor is used primarily as a stable and storage area.
  2. ɣaan2 hum5 - The ground house, which has one story.
  3. The split level house - a "hanging foot" building called diaojiaolou in Chinese. These houses are built on hillsides, with longer pillars supporting the downhill-facing side of the house, and are called "hanging house" since the pillars supporting the house are sometimes located outside the walls.
If a woman is widowed, she covers her hair with a fabric of white color for three years. The Sui possess a lunar calendar that is initiated in the ninth lunar month. Their funeral services are elaborate and long ceremonies where animal sacrifices are carried out in honor of the dead. Except for fish, Sui villagers usually refrain from eating meat after the death of a person.

Cuisine

The staple food of the Sui people is glutinous rice. Supplementary grains and tubers include corn, wheat, barley, millet, and sweet potatoes. Rice is either steamed in a bamboo steamer or cooked in a covered pot over a low fire. Popular rice-based dishes include ʔjut7 and cooked glutinous rice with chrysanthemum and puffed rice. Sui women also give glutinous rice to relatives when visiting them.
Fish is one of the most important sources of food. Like the Dong people, many Sui raise carp in village fishponds. A popular dish consumed during the summer is a kind of sour broth called lu5 hum3. Sui families also regularly hold communal hot pots. Kippered fish, kippered meat, and the meat of suckling pigs are also popular. Rice spirits are popular among the Sui, and are also consumed during marriages, funerals, festivals, and building raising events. The Sui are also famed for their jiuqian wine.

Festivals

Festivals include :
  1. Wangsi in Duyun City
  2. Malian, Layou, Miaocao, Shuidong in Sandu County
  3. Tingpai, Hengfeng, Heyong, Tianxing in Sandu, Libo, Dushan Counties
  4. Zhonghe, Dixiang, Jiuqian in Sandu County
  5. Sandong, Shuinian, Xingxiang in Sandu County.
The bronze drum is often played during festivals, and singing, dancing, slaughtering livestock for food, and giving thanks to family ancestors are typical of these festivals.

Religion

The Sui are mainly polytheists and practice ancestor worship as well. Shamans were traditionally hired to carry out prayers and sacrifices in the houses of those that were sick or close to death. The Sui religion has more than 900 ghosts and gods that can cause both good fortune or misfortune. Some deities and legendary figures are also borrowed from Chinese folk religion.
The Sui people have a wide array of taboos and superstitions, such as :

Provincial level

;Distribution by province
RegionSuiPercentage
Guizhou Province369,72390.86%
Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Province15,4763.80%
Yunnan Province12,5333.08%
Jiangsu Province2,7750.68%
Guangdong Province1,9480.48%
Zhejiang Province1,4210.38%
Elsewhere3,0260.74%

By county

;County-level distribution of the Sui
ProvincePrefectureCountySui Population% of China's Sui Population
GuizhouQiannan Buyei and Miao Autonomous PrefectureSandu Shui Autonomous County189.12846,48 %
GuizhouQiannan Buyei and Miao Autonomous PrefectureLibo35.4078,70 %
GuizhouQiannan Buyei and Miao Autonomous PrefectureRongjiang33.6788,28 %
GuizhouQiannan Buyei and Miao Autonomous PrefectureDuyun32.7028,04 %
GuizhouQiannan Buyei and Miao Autonomous PrefectureDushan26.2996,46 %
YunnanQujingFuyuan10.5672,6 %
GuizhouQiannan Buyei and Miao Autonomous PrefectureDanzhai10.5012,58 %
GuizhouQiannan Buyei and Miao Autonomous PrefectureLeishan5.2271,28 %
GuizhouLiupanshuiPan5.1641,27 %
GuizhouQiannan Buyei and Miao Autonomous PrefectureLiping4.7101,16 %
GuizhouLiupanshuiShuicheng3.8750,95 %
GuizhouQiannan Buyei and Miao Autonomous PrefectureCongjiang3.3000,81 %
GuizhouQiannan Buyei and Miao Autonomous PrefectureJianhe3.2930,81 %
Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous RegionLiuzhouRongshui Miao Autonomous County3.1830,78 %
Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous RegionHechiNandan3.0830,76 %
Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous RegionHechiYizhou2.1600,53 %
GuizhouBijieQianxi2.1020,52 %
Others32.5237,99 %

Literature

Sui oral literature is rich in myths, songs, and folk tales. The list below is from Wei.
Excerpts of Sui songs can also be found in Fang-Kuei Li's 1977 book Shuihua yanjiu.