Personal, Family, Social,

This paper studies the behaviors and art manifested and social network constructed through the birth celebration Ta Hsi practiced by the Tujia people in the Qing River basin. Taking the personhood as its foothold, this paper tries to explore the concept of life and the mechanism of social network construction conceived in the ritual by putting the ritual back into the folk life;enquire the artistic meaning expressed by the ritual and its particular function among the whole life rituals and its organic connection with other life rituals of the Tujia people in the Qing River basin, as well as its inherent cultural grammar.The unique value of Ta Hsi rests in its status as an activity and artistic behavior practiced and enjoyed by the Tujia people in the Qing River basin, as an exhibition of local knowledge carried and inherited by the Tujia people. The ritual of Ta Hsi shows the mind unity of mankind, the unity of life and spirit of Tujia ethnic group. Although this kind of knowledge sets in the local environment, and is not universal to the whole Tujia ethnic group and all the human beings, its particularity contributes to the cultural diversity.This paper consists of six parts, with an introduction and a conclusion.In the introduction, the reason and value of the choice of Ta Hsi as the subject, a review on its study history, the methods and thoughts adopted, and the material sources are given.As the ritual of Ta Hsi is formed and developed in the culture environment and with a distinctive characteristic of local culture, first of all, this paper gives a brief account of the relevant natural and cultural environment of Ta Hsi, and a description of the life of Tujia women in the Qing River basin after delivering a baby, which is highly connected with the ritual Ta Hsi. Taking Ta Hsi performed in Qin Liang's house, Shuanglong Village, Yuxiakou Town, Changyang Tujia Autonomous County, and Wu Shuguang's house, Heshuiping Village, Sanli Country, JianShi County in Hubei province as two cases, this paper focuses on a description of the ritual process of Ta Hsi, in order to show the expression of life view and the construction of order, as well as analyze the cultural attribute of time and space of the ritual.This paper holds that Ta Hsi is an ordered ritual process by which social network is reconstructed, and it is participated and celebrated by all the villagers. This paper analyses the relationship between presents and social order and emotional communication, as well as the identification of the new-born baby in the family and the construction of social order.The Drum-beating activity is an important artistic presentation of Ta Hsi, and the artistry of its lyrics, music and dancing carry on and express the artistic nature of the ritual. This paper analyses the lyrics and dancing poses of Drum-beating activity, and discusses the pattern and casualty of the performance.By comparing with other life rituals, this paper gives a nature of the ritual; analyses the common rules that people are invited to happy events while come unasked to funerals, and social network beneath the interaction; decodes the function and value of the blue ballads song in the drum-beating activity; extracts the conformity and particularity in the expression of life view through birth celebration, wedding ceremony and funeral, and find the unique personhood of the Tujia people in the Qing River basin.In order to better understand the birth celebration Ta Hsi, its formation mechanism is explored historically and in reality. It tries to track the evolution of Ta Hsi in about one century through oral memory.The personhood with an essence of life view is ubiquitous in the whole ritual process of Ta Hsi. Ta Hsi is such a ritual that through which the new-born baby and his other family members are identified or re-identified, social network is re-established and social order is reconstructed. This ritual shows how an individual is integrated into the family and society, as well as the idea of Tujia people that individual, family and society are closely related. By the local parole, behaviors and material culture, the Tujia people in the Qing River basin learn, experience and establish their notion of person. As social changes, they are also creating new forms and granting new meanings to the ritual of Ta Hsi, and reshaping their personhood.