**7. House Cleaning**

With the announcement of intent, an ox is sacrificed according to the badaizha tradition. The badaixiong tradition sacrifices a sheep and a cock (Yang). The ox sacrifice must happen before the house cleaning and is a "payment" to the gods to protect the sponsoring family. "Once you begin the ritual process, the spirits, both good and bad, are awakened (C. Shi 2018a; Yang 2018b).

Water buffalos were traditionally (as is the case today) expensive, requiring the hiring of guards to travel a long distance and carrying money for the purchase. The sacrifice of the ox is also necessary to feed those who will, in traditional times, travel to purchase a water buffalo. Once purchased, the water buffalo was brought back to be fed and groomed until the fall sacrifice. As part of the house cleaning ritual, which occurs in the family's home, the god of the treasury is called upon to protect the family, the guards (which include family members), and those who travel with money to purchase the water buffalo.

It is important to remind the reader that the circumstances and requirements for the zhuiniu ritual were shaped in an earlier era. It was a time when travel beyond one's village was fraught with danger, when highwaymen, robbery, and death were real threats, and when evil and hungry spirits played on the imagination of the isolated and poorly educated. The zhuiniu was encoded as a ritual during this era.

The ox sacrifice and house cleaning serves several functions: (1) it announces to the community and the spirits the onset of the zhuiniu and the family's intent; (2) it is a house cleaning, cleansing the home of evil spirits and preparing for the events to come; (3) it calls upon the god of the treasury to protect the family financially and to assure their ability to fulfill the complete ritual financially and to protect the money sent to purchase the water buffalo; and (4) it calls upon the gods with spirit armies to protect those who will be traveling (Hong 2018b).

The zhuiniu begins, as do all house-located rituals, with the "house cleaning," a ritual used for various purposes (Peng 2018a).

Agreeing on the house cleaning details, Badai Yang was charged with enactment.

For each segment, a leading master decides what is to be done. It is the one who has the most knowledge of that part. They ask for our experiences, and they determine everything, all the details, including props and movements. They are the master and determine the process and the ritual (C. Shi 2018b).

Badai Yang was the master of the house cleaning ritual, which was required to clear out the evil spirits. Evil spirits are especially fond of doors, corners, windows, and beds to influence those sleeping. Essential to the house cleaning was the liu jin 绺 巾 (Figure 3), a ritual device adopted from the Han and "used to sweep ghost and any disaster or weirdness away" (S. Shi 2016). It is a stick (made from the commonly found Chinese fir tree) hung with strips (24, 33, or 36 strips) of richly varied cloth, often embroidered, to represent the various branches of Miao clans. Each strip of cloth is made and contributed by the village households and given to the village Badai to symbolically affirm that he is empowered and protector of the families and village. The badai repays each family with wine or sugar when given the cloth strip. "It is also called the cloth of the dragon or phoenix. It represents the coming of the Han from the north, where dragons from the time of the ancestors. Using it honors the influence of the Han, but when the people see it, they know it is Miao" (S. Shi 2016).

If a badai sees an evil form or group of bad spirits walking around the house, a rooster will be sacrificed by a procedure that entails going behind the house cleaning altar with his back to the people. Then he bites the rooster on the neck, killing the rooster, flinging its body over the altar and the heads of the family. This "crossing over the people" is to protect them from evil and bad spirits because the blood of the rooster has magical power" (Yang 2018c). Yang told me he could see the spirits, but not always. When conducting a house cleansing ritual the previous year, an evil spirit reached to take an altar sacrifice. Using his *shidao* 司 刀—a ritual knife used historically as a battle weapon—he fought to take the sacrifice back. Shi recounted that he returned home after a ritual to find a ghost sitting at his feet. The ghost was lonely and had followed him, remaining at his house for several days. During that time, the family living next to him died in a car accident (C. Shi 2018c). Badai Tian related, "When I see them, they are just a shape you cannot see. Clearly, they do not look like a person. I do not tell other people, because they might take it as a curse" (Tian 2018c).

A xianniang, when in a state of trance, is often asked by the badai to identify and locate the evil spirits affecting the family. The xianniang, channeling the family ancestors, names all the evil things present in the house, where they are hiding, and words to attract and kill the demons.

Because we will do the ritual, it is necessary for this cleaning to be done. It is a necessary part of the ritual. The cleaning of the house is required for all the major rituals. It is to prepare the house for all that follows, and the host family

must clean all the persons, animals, take baths, and change the mattress's clothes. Everything must be clean (Yang 2018a).

**Figure 3.** A liu jin used by badai to sweep away evil spirits. Each cloth was embroidered by families from the village and given to the badai to protect the village. (Photo: Thomas Riccio).

Badai Yang Guangquan, 56 years old and from Tang Jia village in the adjacent county, was, like the others, a farmer. He descended from four generations of badai and was taught by his father (a badaixiong and badaizha)13. Beginning at 12 to be a badai and healer, not all Badai can heal.

During the day, I studied at school and at night, I learned to be a Badai and began to practice at the age of twenty-five. I have traveled to many places in this province and the next province. I am not a fortuneteller, but I can help villagers choose the dates and the place for marriages and help with funerals. The busiest time of the year is the fourth month of the lunar system. This time of the year, the summer, there is not much to do. If you come other times, you will not find me (Yang 2018a).

Badai Yang had conducted the house cleaning ritual many times that year for several families. The ritual is not specific to the zhuiniu and is often conducted independently with variations by both badaixiong and badaizha. "There is no limitation. The ritual can be done anytime of the year and for many reasons if the family needs it" (Yang 2018a). Generally, pigs or other meat (chicken, goat) are sacrificed to satisfy the spirits. However, the sacrifice of the ox is specific to the zhuiniu "because it is special and more expensive than pigs, sheep or roosters, but the ritual is the same. Usually, house cleanings are one hour, for the zhuiniu, it is much longer, depending on the gods and spirits, they must be made happy" (Yang 2018a).

Yang had never participated in a zhuiniu ritual before. Using his knowledge of housecleaning under the guidance of the badai Shi and Tian, he shaped his experience to the requirements of the zhuiniu. The physical demands of the house cleaning required a younger man to perform it. When asked why the ox sacrifice for the zhuiniu house cleaning, he replied, "It is more treasured that is why the spirits want it. The meat is practical and necessary for their travel to ge<sup>t</sup> the water buffalo" (C. Shi 2018b).

The house cleaning ritual made the house into a sacred space to perform the ritual, and strict adherence to detail had to be followed. Form and sequence adherence was

essential for efficacy, with patterns, words, and actions considered sacred and necessary for communication with the spirit world.<sup>14</sup> The house cleaning that prepares for the zhuiniu moves beyond cleaning and into the calling of the spirits of the five heavens to prepare for the most elaborate and spiritually intensive Miao ritual.
