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Story 145: Legend of Shilin Yi Torch Festival

Legend of Shilin Yi Torch Festival

Author: Anonymous

The 24th day of the sixth lunar month every year is the traditional festival of the Yi people – the Torch Festival.

When night falls, from the Stone Forest to the cascading water, from Guishan to Changhu Lake, countless torches illuminate the night sky and people’s smiling faces. Passionate singing and the majestic sound of the big sanxian are intertwined, and the village is immersed in festive joy…

There is a magical and moving legend about the “Torch Festival”.

In ancient times, there was a castle on a high mountain. In the castle lived a chieftain. He had a pair of rat eyes, broom eyebrows, a silver carp mouth, a pointed chin, and a skinny face covered with black pockmarks. People nicknamed him “Black Evil God”. This Black Evil God committed all kinds of evils. He had a large group of servants and thugs under his command, and brutally ruled and oppressed the Yi people. He made up all kinds of pretexts and imposed heavy taxes.

People had to pay a population tax for having children, a mountain hunting rent for hunting in the mountains, and a fishing donation for fishing in the river… All kinds of heavy taxes made the people really breathless. In order to resist the cruel rule of this Black Evil God, they had held uprisings many times, but the strong castle of the chieftain was difficult to capture, and many people were captured and executed alive.

There was a clever and capable shepherd named Zhaka who came up with a way to capture the Tusi castle. He secretly contacted the poor people in Jiujiu Village and decided to lock up the sheep of each household in the stable from June 17th, feed them only water every day, and starve them for seven days and nights. The rebels made spears, cut bamboo sticks, sharpened machetes and axes at night, and tied torches to the horns of each goat. They agreed to start the uprising on the night of June 24th. On that night, when the moon had not yet appeared and the breeze in the mountain forests was blowing gently, a long cry of horns was heard. The first “torch mother” was used as a signal. At this time, the rebels immediately opened the door of the sheep stable, lit thousands of torches tied to the sheep’s horns, and drove the sheep to attack the Tusi Heisha God’s castle.

The countless sheep had already been hungry, so they rushed up the mountain to eat leaves and grass by the light of the fire. Zhaka led the people in the uprising and rushed to fight bravely. When they were about to reach the castle, the drums and shouts shook the earth. The Black Evil God hurriedly climbed up the castle and saw that the whole mountain and the plain had become a sea of ​​fire. The people who surrounded the castle from all sides had begun to attack the city gate.

The Black Evil God ordered the servants and thugs to defend the city gate, but he quietly went into the cave and prepared to escape. At this time, the various rebel armies had broken through the castle and swarmed in. They searched everywhere, but they couldn’t find the chieftain Black Evil God. Later, Zhaka arrested the butler for interrogation. The fearful butler knelt on the ground and kowtowed to beg for mercy, and immediately led Zhaka and others to the cave where the chieftain was hiding.

Zhaka asked the butler to go down the cave first and ask the Black Evil God to come out and surrender. The butler, who usually acted arrogantly, was so frightened that he dared not go down the cave. He collapsed to the ground and could not get up. Everyone was looking around, and suddenly, a dagger flew out of the cave. A flash of cold light struck the dagger to the ground. It turned out that Zhaka had been prepared. He expected that the Black Evil God would not surrender easily and would make a dying struggle. So when the dagger flew out of the cave, Zhaka was quick-witted and swung a machete to knock the dagger down!

Seeing that Heisha would not come out, Zhaka and the others decided to burn him to death with torches. With one order, thousands of torches immediately piled up around the hole into a small hill. The raging fire burned even more vigorously. In a moment, the ground was burned red. The evil chieftain Heisha was buried in the torches. In order to commemorate the victory of the struggle against the tyrannical rule, June 24 was designated as the “Torch Festival”.