The Dai area has a long history. So far, a number of Neolithic cultural sites have been discovered in the Dai settlement area, and hundreds of relics have been unearthed. Xishuangbanna in Jinghong Lancang River along the terrace, has found Man Bengnang, Man Yun, Man Jinglan, Man Hall and other Neolithic sites, cleaned out stone axes, stone adzes, stone knives, fish net pendants and other stone tools, as well as ceramics, bone and shells and other relics. In Dehong, on two Neolithic sites of Mangyao and Longchuan Mangdian along the Ruili River, relics such as Sandwich Red Pottery, Sandwich Black Pottery, Indus Pottery Flakes and Stone Axe were found. Neolithic sites have also been found in Lianghe Mengyang and Luxi Wuquanlu in the Longchuan River basin. A large number of beaten double-shouldered stone axes have been unearthed at the Bushuai site in Yunxian in the middle reaches of the Lancang River. On the bank of Nanbian River next to Menglian Nayun Ancient City, five Neolithic sites have been found successively, and precious historical relics such as beaten stone tools, handmade pottery and animal fossils have been unearthed.
According to Dai historical records, there were accounts of Dai tribal wars in the second year of King Weili of Zhou (424 BC).
In 109 B.C., Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty developed the southwest region and established Yizhou County. In 69 AD, Yongchang County was added. At that time, the leader of the Dai people had sent many emissaries with musicians and magicians to Luoyang, the capital of the Eastern Han Dynasty, to dedicate music and perform novel techniques, which won the appreciation and welcome of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and was given a gold seal and purple ribbons, and its leader was also named "Han Dudu. During the Shu Han Dynasty, it belonged to Yongchang County, which was one of the seven counties in the south under the jurisdiction of the Governor of the Surrender. In the Southern Dynasties of the Jin Dynasty and the Southern Dynasties of the Han Dynasty, it belonged to Yongchang County of Ningzhou.
In the 9th century, Chinese historical records show that the Dai used oxen and elephants to plough their fields in agricultural production, planted large quantities of rice, and had a sizable water conservancy and irrigation system. Crafts have also had a certain degree of development, weaving cloth with wooden sheep, digging brine mine cooking salt, metal production of weapons, and gold and silver pounded into a thin set of teeth as a decorative item, so since the Tang Dynasty on the Dai have "gold teeth", "silver teeth" and other names.
With the development of production, Xishuangbanna Dai leader Ba Zhen (i.e., Paya Zhen) unified the ministries, in the Southern Song Dynasty Chunxi seven years (1180) to Jinglong (now Jinghong) as the center of the establishment of the "Menght Dance" local authority, called "Jinglong Golden Palace State". "Jinglong had a population of millions and a large number of white elephants and horses. "Jinglong" took the "Emperor of the Heavenly Kingdom" as the "Lord of ****". When Ba Zhen took the throne, he was also honored by the Southern Song Dynasty with the title of "Golden Seal with Tiger's Head", and was "appointed as the Lord of one side". BaZhen son after his father for "jinglong" when the country, also by the southern song dynasty given as "jiujiang (lancangjiang) king". "Jinglong" has always maintained a subordinate relationship with the mainland.
Yuan dynasty in the south of yunnan dai area set up the car military and civilian governor, jurisdiction over xishuangbanna and other places; western dai area set up gold teeth xuanfushenji, jurisdiction over dehong and other places dai. The Ming Dynasty in the Yuan Dynasty on the basis of consolidation, set up in the western Lu Chuan Ping Myanmar Xuanfu Division; set up in the south of the car military and civilian Xuanfu Division, and set up a smaller Tusi District, the full implementation of the Tusi system. In the majority of Dai areas appointed hereditary Secretary of the soil, the soil official, greatly strengthened the Yuan, Ming Dynasty on the Dai area of the rule. During this period, Han, Dai people folk economic and cultural exchanges, but also more closely, especially a large number of Han people migrated to the frontier, the mainland advanced production technology, culture and science in the Dai area widely spread, and rapidly promote the development of Dai socio-economic.
At the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty, records show that the Dai people in the Dehong area were still using slaves to engage in labor. At the time of Yuan and Ming Dai areas have entered the feudal lordship society, social production has further development. The use of iron has been quite common. Crops also added new varieties, cotton has been widely planted. Handicrafts also had new development, appeared the precious "dry cliff brocade", "silk mantle" and other beautiful handicrafts. Commercial activity, appeared in the car and other large commercial towns. 1570 in the car Xuanwuzhu the jurisdiction is divided into "twelve Banna" (Dai said twelve for "Xishuang", "Banna"). (the Dai language called twelve "Xishuang", "Banna" means a thousand fields, each thousand fields as an administrative unit to collect feudal burdens), since then there is the name "Xishuangbanna".
The western Dai had to today's Dehong Ruili River Valley as the center of the establishment of the Meng Mao local authority, that is, the Meng Mao Guo Zhambi Kingdom, 11 to 15 centuries once dominant in the world. Northern Song Dynasty (about the 11th century AD), Meng Mao and Meng Sheng Wei, Meng Xing Gu, Meng Xing color, the establishment of the "Meng Mao Guo Zhambi" Kingdom. Yuan dynasty to Yuan thirteen years (1276) in today's Dehong area set up the system of the Tusi, the Dai people's leader Si Hanfa divided into Luchuan road military and civilian general management of the governor, and later gave the Luchuan road Pingmeng Xuanwuzhi and other official titles. Yuan to the big three years (1310), Fang Han's second son mixed Yi Han Han succeeded to the throne, and to the tiger had jumped over the top of the head and the self-named "Si Han method", built the capital sister Lan. In the sixth year of the Yuan Dynasty (1340), Si Kho Phat succeeded to the throne as the "King of Mong Mau", and had his capitals at Sai Lan and Quang Ha Han. He continuously conquered the neighboring territories and established the powerful "Luchuan Kingdom" (still called "Mengmao Guozhampi" in Dai language). Its jurisdiction extended from Chiang Mai in Thailand in the east to Assam in India in the west, Mandalay in the south and most of the Lancang River in the north. From the beginning of Ming Xuande (1426-1435), the Luchuan king Sirenfa continued to expand to the four borders, the stability of the Yunnan border and the rule of the Ming dynasty was once threatened. 1441 to 1448, the Ming dynasty sent troops to conquer the Luchuan three times, the destruction of the kingdom of the Gojambe. In the 24th year of the Wanli reign (1596), the city of Luchuan was used as the basis for the construction of the city of Pinglu (present-day Mengmao City), which was heavily fortified and guarded by generals. Si was defeated and retired to Mengmao. Until Wanli thirty-two years (1604), the Burmese army invaded, Si Boom in the resistance to the war of aggression in the defeat and death, his descendants put Si Zu fled into the interior, feeding on dry cliffs, thus, up to nearly five hundred years of history of Mengmao Guozhambi Kingdom power completely end.
The Qing Dynasty, basically inherited the old system of Yuan and Ming, but in the more socio-economically advanced inland Dai areas to implement the policy of "return to the flow", assigned to the flow of officials for direct rule. To the Republic of China period, Yunnan remote Dai area also basically maintains the Yuan Dynasty since the land division system. There is a car Xuanwuzhi Division, jurisdiction equivalent to today's Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture. There is a comfort ambassador (Dai language called call piece of leadership), all cage eight ministers (call Jingha, all cage告, all cage Sa Pao, all cage corridor ManKong, all cage corridor barbaric Wang, all cage corridor ZhuangZhuangHui, all cage NaHua, all cage NaShuang) and other officials. Division Gallery also known as the "Council of the Court", is the highest administrative body, set up the Council of the President of a person, i.e., called Jingha, under the dim bei, Zhanghan. Car Xuanfu Division of the administrative unit under the Meng, fire West, through three levels. In addition, there are also Nandian Xuandao, Ganya Xuandao, Longchuan Xuandao, Mengmao Xuandao, Mangshi Xuandao, Chiafang deputy Xuandao, Janda deputy Xuandao, Lujiang Xuandao, Gengma Xuandao, Menglian Xuandao. Nationalist government rule, in the border Dai area set up counties and set up the Bureau, the implementation of national oppression policy, deepening the suffering of the Dai people. 1949 years ago, the Dai people in Dehong has entered the feudal lordship society, subject to the Nandian (now Lianghe), GanYa (now YingJiang), ZhanDa (now YingJiang), LongChuan, MengMao (now Ruili), ChaiFang, MangShi seven landlord rule.
The Dai region is located in the frontier, in the imperialist invasion bore the brunt. Imperialism not only economic aggression, massive looting of resources, dumping commodities, but also political, military and cultural aggression, sending spies, agents, in the name of exploration, inspection, travel, missionary, etc., deep into my border areas, collecting intelligence, mapping, drawing in the upper echelons of the ethnic groups, and destroying the ethnic relations, and even carry out the naked armed aggression, so that the Dai people are further plunged into the abyss of misery. In order to defend the sacred territory of the motherland, the Dai, Han, Jingpo, Wa and other ethnic groups launched many armed struggles against the invasion of British and French imperialism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. These struggles complemented the anti-imperialist movement of the whole country and dealt a powerful blow to the invaders, thwarting the imperialists' plot to invade our border areas and then annex Yunnan.
During the War of Resistance against Japan, the Dai people, together with the whole nation, joined the armed struggle against Japanese fascism, and contributed to the defense of the sacred territory of the motherland's frontier. 1938, the construction of the Yunnan-Burma Railway, Gengma Tusi Han Futing and Mengding Tusi Han Wanxian, led the Dai, Wa and other large and small ethnic leaders under their jurisdiction, and personally commanded the miners to take part in the construction of the railroad's Mao Road. 1942 May 3, the Japanese invaders took the lead in building the railroad within seven days. From May 3, 1942, the Japanese invaders occupied about 30,000 square kilometers of land west of the Nujiang River, including Wanmachi, Mangshi, Longling, and Tengchong, within 7 days. As a result, Yunnan was transformed from a backwater into a frontline of anti-Japanese resistance. After the Japanese occupation of western Yunnan, the anti-Japanese guerrillas of various nationalities fought tenaciously with the enemy, including the Dai and Han Youth Salvation League headed by Yang Bingnan, the Western Yunnan Border Region Self-Defense Army led by Dai Tusi Knife Jingpan, and the Gengcang Detachment formed by Gengma Tusi Hanyuqing, etc. In the Anti-Japanese War, the Yunnan-Burma border area was transformed into a frontier of anti-Japanese resistance. In the war of resistance against Japan, Yunnan-Burma Highway was the most important channel for China to receive foreign aid materials, which was called "the main artery of China's war of resistance against Japan", and the Dai people participated in repairing Yunnan-Burma Highway many times and ensured the smoothness of the road.In 1944, the war of resistance in western Yunnan was turned into a great counteroffensive, and the Japanese invaders were finally expelled from the country on January 20, 1945! Vannes, and finally captured the victory of the Western Yunnan Resistance War. The Western Yunnan War of Resistance has been hailed as "a model of total annihilation of the enemy and a precedent for the recovery of the national territory", laying an important foundation for the victory of the National War of Resistance.
From the frontier to the interior of the Dai ethnic minority areas, the historical conditions are not the same, social development is uneven, social organization and political form are also different from each other. In Jingdong, Xinping, Yuanjiang and other areas, the Dai and Han intermingled, absorbed the Han more advanced production tools and technology, productivity development is faster, earlier into the feudal landlord economy. Xishuangbanna, Dehong and other border areas of the Dai society is relatively slow, especially in Xishuangbanna area, to the establishment of New China, still retains a relatively complete feudal lord economy.
Xishuangbanna since the Yuan, Ming and Qing feudal dynasties set up the Tusi system, was the central dynasty as "car Xuanwu Envoy" of the "call piece of leadership" (meaning "the Lord of the vast land"), for many generations. "), has become the highest lord and ruler of Xishuangbanna for generations. Here, all the land, mountains, forests, water sources, etc., all belong to the Zhaopan Leader. The leader of the Called Piece also sealed his clan and cronies as the ruler of a region, called "Called Meng" (meaning "Lord of a place"), and hereditary territory of the land and the people. Under the feudal lord's large land ownership system, part of the land was directly occupied by the lord and became private farms and salary fields given to his retainers, while the other part was part of the serf's land. The land was held collectively by villages, and the land was allocated to serfs through the village chiefs in the form of land distribution by rural communes, which survived from the history of the feudal system. The serfs must bear all kinds of feudal burdens in order to cultivate their share of land, and such feudal burdens are the main means by which the lord exploits the serfs.
Prior to the founding of New China, the lords at all levels, from the chiefs of the village and community to the chiefs of the village and community, constituted a group of lords, which accounted for about 7% of the total population, including the chiefs of the village and community, the chiefs of the village and community. In addition to the "free peasants" - "zhaozhuang", which accounted for 5.7% of the total number of peasant households in the countryside and were separated from the lord group, the lords divided the serfs into the following categories The lord divided the serfs into two classes: "Dai Meng" and "Rolling Very Sho". The Dai Meng (meaning "natives" or "the earliest people who built the fortress") accounted for about 55% of the total number of households and were the earliest inhabitants, whose status was higher than that of the other classes of serfs, and who possessed more land - "Zhai Gongtian" ("fortress communal land"). "Zhai Gongtian" (寨公田). Rolling very call (meaning "official people" or "master of the family") accounted for about 39% of the total number of households, this is a variety of social reasons for the loss of land and personal freedom and subordinate to the lord of the serf collective, the lowest social status, the exploitation is also the most serious. Serfs in addition to the burden of heavy official rent and unpaid cultivation of the lord's private farms and salary fields, Dai Menghuang grade serfs also have to bear a variety of unpaid public services such as road construction, bridge building, water conservancy. Roll very call grade serfs are forced to undertake the lord's various domestic servitude, such as horse, elephant, cooking, sedan chair, rowing to cut poop stick, mourning, etc., the name of more than a hundred kinds, the Zhai dry, generations.
In order to suppress the resistance of the serfs, the lord has a set of political institutions to maintain feudal rule. In the call piece of leadership under the "Council Court", is the authority and deliberative body, responsible for dealing with all day-to-day affairs. Each Meng had its own "Council Court". Below the Meng is the "Huo Xi", which manages a number of villages and communities, and its chief is called "Ba Huo Xi". Below the "Huo Sai" are the village communities with leaders at the levels of "Ba", "Preserved" and "Xian". In addition, there is an army, courts and prisons.
Beyond Xishuangbanna, Dehong, Menglian, Gengma and other border Dai areas and Xishuangbanna is basically the same, basically belong to the feudal lord economy, but these areas of the social and economic changes have occurred in these areas of the share of the land of the peasants gradually stabilized, and even hereditary possession, in kind, rent is also common. In Mangshi, Yingjiang and other places, due to more contact with the Han Chinese, the influence was greater, the landlord economy developed faster, and the rich peasant economy also developed. The development of the landlord, rich peasant economy, prompted the large land ownership system tends to disintegrate, the village community organization has been disintegrated, its socio-economic form than the Xishuangbanna a step forward.
The oppression and exploitation of the feudal system aroused the continuous resistance of the Dai people. The Dai people cursed the feudal system with incomparable hatred: "You are the water, we don't drink; you are the road, we don't walk; you are the sun, we don't sun the grain; you are the Buddha, we don't worship!" In the middle of the 19th century, the Dai and Jingpo people of Xuangangba in Dehong, under the leadership of "Buxing Ermen", held a joint uprising against the brutal rule of the Tusi in Mangshi. Struggle persisted for 3 years, and finally suppressed by the Toji and the Qing Dynasty rulers, but the people's flame of resistance has not been extinguished. Soon after, there was a joint uprising of various ethnic groups in the area of Mangshi, led by the famous singer "Mixed Ihaihan". He sang to expose the crimes of the feudal lords, inspired the class hatred of the peasants, and called on everyone to rise up in revolt, and the peasants around him heard his song and joined the uprising, refusing to pay the official rent. After the failure of the uprising, the Tois killed "Mixed Yi Hai Han". But the Dai people will always miss this heroic singer, and worship him as the "God of Song". Over the past hundred years, the Dai people and the feudal landlord, the head of the struggle is not uncommon.