Shuishu, called Leisui in Shui, is transmitted through handwritten volumes and oral instruction by Shuishu specialists. The national heritage record names recitation and applied volumes, including books for reckoning time and the twenty-eight lodges. Their subjects include calendrical choices, ritual and practical affairs. The manuscript works with specialist teaching: knowledge of how to read and use it is passed on with the written signs. Shuishu customs was declared by Qiannan Buyi and Miao Autonomous Prefecture.
From the journal
Shuishu and Duanjie: Written Knowledge, Calendar and Festival
Shuishu specialist manuscripts and the staggered Duanjie festival show two distinct ways Shui knowledge is used and shared.
In the same city · Qiannan Buyei and Miao Autonomous Prefecture ↗
A specialist tradition of books and teaching
Duanjie follows a staggered calendar
Duanjie is held as grain ripens according to the Shui calendar. The Sandu heritage record describes seven turns of celebration over about fifty days, centered on Hai days. This means the festival unfolds across a season rather than on one shared date. Its registration is separate from Shuishu customs: the Duanjie item was declared by Sandu Shui Autonomous County.
Family observances and the duanpo
Duanjie includes ancestral offerings and family visits as well as gatherings at a duanpo, the designated horse-racing ground. The Sandu account describes jima, a race in which riders press toward the hilltop after an offering rite. National accounts also record fish, including fish wrapped with chives, among Shui ritual foods. These elements place the festival within both household observance and public gathering, while local customs and foods vary.