A Study On The Shui’s Plant Classification

The outer world is always objective and exists for itself, while people see different sights as they watch it from their own angles of culture. As plants are one of the most basic tangible objects in human life, culture research on them always shows us new findings. This study is on the theme of plant classification. Referring to previous studies, we have collected firsthand information on plant nomenclature, utilization and classification of the Shui nationality by field work and analyzed their plant names by linguistic method in order to present the framework and content of the Shui’s traditional plant classification and discuss reasons for that further. According to the material gathered in the field, there’re usually 5 levels in the Shui’s plant classification system. Level 1 consists of 9 taxa, viz. grain(Au), bamboo(Fan), two kinds of grass(Kang & Ja), ligneous vines(Jau), vegetables(Ma), trees(Mai), mushrooms(Ra) and undefined plants(N i). Level 2 includes medicine(Ha), two kinds of melons(Kwa & Pu), fruit(Lam), thorns(Ndun), flowers(N uk), bulbs(Qa), legumes(To), berries(Tum) and plants featuring foliage(Wa), 10 taxa altogether. More subgroups based on upper division are contained in Level 3, 4 and 5. Different from our common knowledge, what the Shui call “vegetables” has a wider range, which includes food for both human and animals, and people scarcely care about whether these plants are cultivated or wild. Meanwhile they separate grass into two more types depending on their different usage. The former results from the fact that vegetable cultivation was lack of development during the Shui’s history and people were unfamiliar with vegetable planting, having the custom of gathering and eating wild herbs. The latter can be put down to cattle’s plentifulness and the animal’s special status as sacrifices. Nowadays, as the Shui society is involved in the course of national modernization, foreign concepts and lifestyles have impacted on the local culture. This has weakened the knowledge base of traditional pla nt classification, homogenized its system and caused the cr iteria it adopted getting more similar to the Han’s. It’s believed that this situation will last for a time in the future. Finally, the Shui’s plant classification system reflects people’s rich and precise recognition about nature, which itself is a great proof of the principle that classification patterns are decided by modes of life, and its change shows a kind of alienation of man from nature.