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The Qiongli Customs Album
琼黎风俗图

The Qiongli Customs Album is a collection of paintings depicting the daily life and production activities of the Li people in Hainan. It is now housed in the Hainan Museum. The album consists of 15 illustrated pages, with an image on the right and a written description on the left. It covers scenes of homes, courtship through singing, betrothal and marriage, communal feasts, hunting and fishing, farming, agarwood collecting, timber transport, rattan gathering, weaving, trading, river crossing, chicken sacrifice rituals, arrow passing, and fighting. It is generally believed to have been created during the middle to late Qing Dynasty and is an important visual record for the study of Li society, folk culture, and ways of life in Hainan during the Ming and Qing dynasties.

《琼黎风俗图》是描绘海南黎族生产生活场景的风俗画册,现藏于海南省博物馆。画册共15幅册页,采用右图左题的形式,内容涵盖黎族居处、对歌择偶、纳聘迎娶、聚会饮食、渔猎、耕、采香、运木、采藤、纺织、交易、渡、割鸡跳鬼、传箭、战斗等生产生活场景。学界普遍认为其绘制于清代中晚期,是研究明清时期海南黎族社会生活、民俗文化和生产方式的重要图像史料。

居住
Homes
居住
对歌
Courtship through singing
对歌择偶
纳聘迎娶
Betrothal and marriage
纳聘迎娶
聚会饮食
Communal feasts
聚会饮食
渔猎
Hunting and fishing
渔猎
耕
Farming
采香
Agarwood collecting
采香
运木
Timber transport
运木
采藤
Rattan gathering
采藤
纺织
Weaving
纺织
交易
Trading
交易
渡
River crossing
割鸡跳鬼
Chicken sacrifice rituals
割鸡跳鬼
传箭
Arrow passing
传箭
战斗
Fighting
战斗

The Agarwood Collecting Scene is one of the most important pages in the Qiongli Customs Album. It depicts Li agarwood collectors, known as "Xiangzai," gathering agarwood in the mountains. The painting shows different stages of the process, including climbing trees to collect agarwood, tapping the trees to locate it, and resting. The accompanying text describes how the collectors prayed to the mountain spirits, identified agarwood, and gathered it. It also states, "They tapped the roots with an axe to listen where the agarwood had formed, then cut open the tree to remove it." Together, the image and text reflect the traditional knowledge and beliefs associated with agarwood collecting in Hainan during the Qing Dynasty, providing valuable historical visual material for the study of Hainan's agarwood culture and traditional collecting practices.

《采香图》是《琼黎风俗图》中的一幅重要册页,描绘了黎族香客(又称“香仔”)进山采集沉香的场景。画中可见香客攀树采香、敲树听香及休憩等不同活动,左侧题文则详细记载了香客祈祷山神、辨识沉香、采集沉香的过程,并提到“以斧敲其根而听之,即知其结于何处,破树而取焉”,反映了清代海南传统采香的经验和相关信仰观念。图文相互印证,为研究海南沉香文化及传统采香技艺提供了珍贵的历史图像资料。

采香图
The Agarwood Collecting Scene
采香图
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