**3. Six Badai**

Each of the six badai gathered in La Yi village had varying knowledge of the zhuiniu ritual, the narrative sequence of events, and the spiritual process of altar settings, objects, meaning, and mythology. The zhuiniu was traditionally practiced by badaixiong (Miao tradition), but through the years, many badaizha (Chinese tradition) elements were interpolated into the ritual.<sup>5</sup> This is partly due to the dwindling and aging number of badaixiong and the appropriation and exchange between practices that were once distinct.

The La Yi reenactment project also served as a skill and knowledge exchange with badai learning from one another and with younger badai benefiting from elders. Only two of the six badai were badaixiong; they were 72 and 85 years old. Given the vagaries of orally transmitted ritual traditions, each knew parts of the ritual with variations. There was never a definitive ritual but rather a composite derived through collaborative agreemen<sup>t</sup> (Ma 2018a). The objective of the unprecedented gathering was to produce a written record of the zhuiniu ritual and a documentary film. This essay is offered in tribute to the life and efforts of the participating badai and Miao people.

The zhuiniu ritual varies from region to region and is in a constant state of transformation.<sup>6</sup> This is so for a few reasons: (1) it is orally transmitted and subject to the vagaries of memory and transference; (2) being sacred knowledge, it must be kept secret; (3) government suppression and persecution of Miao "superstitious" practices during the Cultural Revolution disrupted generational transmission and disrupted practice; (4) modernization and economic migrations have upended traditional village life, profoundly altering Miao society and cultural transmission; (5) many badai are willfully illiterate, preferring to remain closer to the immediacy of the world unfiltered by written words; (6) it has been increasingly difficult for the ritual to obtain community effort and interest; (7) the ritual is cost- and time-intensive; and (8) when combined with the distractions and economic pressures of modernization, it is challenging to organize. The world has evolved beyond the need and ability to enact the ritual (Ma 2018b; X. Wu 1990, p. 104)

The badai and zhuiniu ritual traditions are dying. "Few people practice these rituals because people believe more and more in modern medicine and technology. If they have problems, they go to the hospital, and some people may not know their traditional healing practices" (Tian 2018c).

The last time badai Tian, at eighty-five years old, the eldest of the gathering, conducted the ritual was in 2012. As a badai, he has only conducted two and assisted in three zhuiniu rituals. For intricate rituals such as the zhuiniu, it is not uncommon to have several badai facilitating, a master and two to four assistants. The Huan Nuoyuan thanksgiving rituals I documented (in 2015 and 2016) (Riccio 2019, p. 85) had three and seven badai, respectively. Some badai never reach master status and remain assistants; others are in training and participate under the tutelage of a master badai.

Badai are broadly categorized as either badaizha 巴 代 扎 or badaixiong 巴 代 雄. Badaizha, the most practiced tradition, is the "mixed" or "Chinese style" because it is performed in Mandarin and borrows heavily from the Han, Buddhist, and Daoist ritual traditions. All sacred badaizha books and writings, including letters written to the spirits, are in Mandarin (Z. Wu 2015). Red robes distinguish badaizha and their crown-like headpieces, made of leather and called the *san qing fa guan* 三 清 法 冠 (Figure 2), that depict Daoist and Buddhist deities; the performances use "both local dialect and standard Han Chinese" (Katz 2017, p. 158). "In Miao culture, almost all gods and ghosts do not have facial design or detail, so they have been borrowed from Buddhism and Taoism" (Yang 2018a).

In the earliest times the Chinese and the Miao were one family. The Miao was the older, the more powerful, and the more respected brother, and the Chinese was the younger [ ... ] But in the centuries that followed the decedents of the two brothers grew apart and forgot their common ancestry, and so the Chinese have forgotten it all together. Moreover, the Chinese descendants have grown more and more powerful and numerous, so that the Miao are now the younger and weaker brothers, the Chinese are the older and stronger brothers. (Graham 1955, p. 27).

The practice and regalia worn by badaizha bear many similarities with those of other Chinese ethnic groups such as the Tujia, Dong, Yao, and Jingpo. All of these are similarly borrowed from the Confucian, Daoist, and Buddhist traditions.<sup>7</sup> They were

[ ... ] quite routine on the eighteenth-century frontier, where many locals had taken to the Manchu-style queue or Han Chinese-style clothing as a mark of status [ ... ] much later these Miao were to adopt religious practices that they

called gues<sup>t</sup> rituals and practice them alongside their 'Miao' ritual (Sutton 2003, p. 125).

**Figure 2.** Badai Shi Shougui, wearing a san qing fa guan with twelve Daoist and Buddhist gods depicted, marking his status as a master badai. (Photo: Thomas Riccio).

In addition to their spiritual practice, it is essential to recognize the badaizha as a multi-disciplinary artist. Their training and work required the making of props and settings, singing and chanting, storytelling, drama, dancing, performance, musicianship, and drawing (writing notes, calligraphy, and images to the spirits).

The other Miao badai tradition is badaixiong, distinguished by white, blue, or black robes and a traditional cloth head wrap. Badaixiong is referred to as the "Miao tradition." Unlike the Zha School, badaixiong use the Miao language only to tell the stories of the Miao ancestors. Although Miao, most badaizha either do not know the Miao language or have an imperfect knowledge of it.

Those ancient stories cannot be told because they do not know the Miao language. Each story holds a ritual. The difference between badaizha and badaixiong is language. Badaixiong uses the Miao language, and badaizha uses the Chinese language. Badaixiong is for language. Badaizha for military things, the generals and soldiers. Badaixiong are officials and storytellers (Tian 2018b).

The badaizha and badaixiong traditions both recognize thirty-six houses of gods. The badaixiong conduct rituals for sixteen houses of god, the Zha for twenty houses of god. Each house represents a god, which constitutes a unit that is in turn divided into thirty-six different categories of different gods. There are many thousands of categories of gods (Tian 2018c). "Gods" for the badaizha and badaixiong are legendary, mythological, or spiritual figures associated with an archetypal role, task, or need. "Spirits" are more vaguely defined as ancestral (familial, community, or cultural) or as beings that are a form created by a feeling or emotion and are generally negative or evil. If, for instance, a neighbor harbors ill will, it is manifested as a harmful spirit that may inhabit a family's house and instigate harm or mischief. Like other animist traditions, a thought, feeling, or word has agency, can become a presence, and can accumulate power to affect the physical, mental, or emotional

health and well-being of a person or family. "Ghost" refers to lost spirits, often of an unknown origin.

Within the broadly defined badaizha and badaixiong traditions are several practice variations defined by linage lines or regions. The overwhelming majority of badai are Zha; however, those initiated and recognized as practitioners are of both the Zha and Xiong schools. With fewer men interested in becoming badai, both schools are challenged and are aging into obsolescence. Many generational inheritors have opted not to continue their hereditary lines. Badaixiong are critically endangered because of the reliance on the Miao language, which has declined among those 40 years old and younger.

Of the six badai attending the zhuiniu ritual, four were exclusively badaizha: Hong Shuyang, Yang Guangquan, Wu Zhengnian, and Yan Zaiwen. One badai practiced both Zha and Xiong: Shi Changwu. One badai exclusively practiced Xiong: Tian Zhanliang.

Badai Shi Changwu was the only badai trained in both traditions; he was most familiar with the zhuiniu ritual and grew into the role of ritual organizer. The respected seventytwo-year-old was trained in both traditions by his father and grandfather beginning at the age of five and became recognized as a badai in his teens. He is articulate and personable and from a long line of badai extending back many generations. "During the Cultural Revolution, I continued to practice in secret because there was much sickness" (C. Shi 2018b).
