Yi zu
Yi ethnic minority group
Population is 7762286.
Ethnic profile
The Yi are one of the ethnic groups with a long history and ancient culture in China, with different self-proclaimed names such as Nosu, Nasu, Luowu, Misapu, Sani and Asi. Mainly distributed in Yunnan, Sichuan, Guizhou provinces and the northwest of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Their distribution is in the form of large scattering and small gathering, with the main gathering areas being Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan, Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture in Yunnan, Honghe Hani Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Bijie area in Guizhou and Liupanshui area. According to the statistics of the fifth national census in 2000, the population of Yi is 7,762,286. The Yi language belongs to the Yi branch of the Tibeto-Burman language family of the Sino-Tibetan language family and is divided into six dialects. Originally an ideographic script, known as the saccharine script, which is also considered to be a syllabic script; in 1975, the Sichuan "Yi standardization pilot program" was formulated, identifying 819 standardized Yi characters, and began to promote the use of the Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan.
The Yi are an ethnic group formed by the continuous integration of the ancient Qiang people who traveled southward and the indigenous tribes of Southwest China in the course of long-term development. Six or seven thousand years ago, the ancient Qiang people, who lived in the Huangshui region in the northwest of China, began to develop in all directions, with one of them cruising toward the southwest of the motherland. To more than 3,000 years ago, the southwest of this cruise to the ancient Qiang people to ethnic tribes as a unit, in the southwest of the motherland to form a "six barbarians", "seven Qiang", "nine 氐"，i.e.. the history book The so-called "Yue Song Yi", "Qing Qiang", ''insult", "Kunming", "Lauming", and "Liao Ming" often appeared in the history books. ", "Laobu", "Muomo" and other tribes. When the ancient Qiang people cruised to the southwest, the southwest region already had two ancient ethnic groups that arrived there successively - the Baipu ethnic group and the Baiyue ethnic group. After the ancient qiang people to the southwest, they had a hundred pu, hundred yue long time get along with each other, mutual integration, and absorbed and hundred pu, hundred yue of the southern culture. After the Wei and Jin dynasties, the integration of Kunming people and burning (Pu) developed into the integration of the bureaucratic people. Han to the Six Dynasties, the Chinese historical records of the main residents of eastern Yunnan, western Guizhou, southern Sichuan called the Chaosuo people, and sometimes to Chaosuo, Pu side by side.
Since the Sui and Tang dynasties, there has been a division between the Wu and White barbarians in the Yi ancestor region, with the Wu barbarians developing from the Kunming tribes and the White barbarians taking the Chaoso and Pu as the mainstay and integrating with other ethnic groups.
Yi ancestors in the long-term formation and development, the scope of activities throughout the present Yunnan, Sichuan, Guizhou three provinces in the heart of the zone and part of Guangxi, the core area should be three provinces adjacent to the vast area.
An important feature in the history of the Yi people is the long period of time to maintain the slave possession system. In the 2nd century B.C., during the Western Han Dynasty and before, the society of the Yi ancestors was already divided between nomadic tribes and sedentary agricultural tribes. During the period from the Eastern Han Dynasty to the Wei and Jin Dynasties, various Yi prehistoric regions continued to differentiate a number of Chaosu Shuai and Yi Wang, indicating that on the basis of conquering the Pu people and other tribes, the Kunming Tribe had basically completed the transition from primitive tribes to the slave-possession system.
8 century 30 s, mongshe dao unified six dao, yunnan yi, white ancestors united the upper echelons of the various ethnic groups set up the south dao slavery regime, the ruling center in the present western yunnan dali bai autonomous prefecture area, the scope of domination reaches the present day eastern yunnan, guizhou west and sichuan south, basically control the yi ancestors of the main distribution area.
The Nanzhao dynasty of slavery had ruled the region of the Yi ancestors for a long time, and could not but have far-reaching influence on the existence and development of local slavery. In the second year of the Tang Dynasty (902), the destruction of the Nanzhao slavery dynasty did not mean that slavery in the Yi Prefecture died out. In the two Song Dynasty for more than 300 years, Rong (Yibin), Lu (Lu County), Li (Han Yuan) 3 states of the Yi ancestors, in the Song Dynasty and the Dali regime in the fight for each other, the emergence of slavery economy relatively prosperous situation. In conjunction with this, the slave system production relations appeared the powerful tribes enslaved the small tribes.
Mongolian Mongol Khan three years (1253), the Mongol cavalry from Sichuan in three attacks on Yunnan, through the Yi region, prompted in the state of division in the Yi region of the loose anti-Mongolian coalition, began to unify under the Luo Luo claim. Correspondingly, the Mongolian aristocracy strengthened the fight for the Yi Zimo that is, the head of the soil, and developed a hereditary official position of the chiefs of the various ethnic groups in the part of the border ethnic areas in order to rule over the local people of the land tribal system. Since 1263 ~ 1287, successively in today's Yuexi, Xichang, Pingshan, Dafang, Zhaotong, Weining and other places to set up the Yi tribesmen.
During the 276 years of the Ming Dynasty, the land spanning the three provinces of Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan, Shuixi (Dangfang), Wuhu (Weining), Umeng (Zhaotong), Mangdian (Zhenxiong), Dongchuan (Huize), Yongning (Xuyong), Mahe (Pingshan), and Jianchang (Xichang) were linked up and mutually supportive, maintaining basically the same slavery system, which was in keeping with the low social productivity, and the various Yi areas can basically be divided into 3 classes of Toji and black bones, white bones and domestic slaves. On the basis of the above hierarchical relationship, the tusi system of the Yi in the Ming Dynasty, such as Shuixi, Jianchang and Wumeng, was still the superstructure of slavery.
Kangxi, Yongzheng years, the Qing dynasty in the Yi region to implement the "return to the stream", to the land Secretary, the land eye, the power of the slave owners to a heavy blow. With the development of social productive forces, part of the region relatively quickly from slavery to feudalism.
Social Economy
Before the founding of New China, the feudal landlord economy based on individual private ownership of land had long been absolutely dominant in most parts of Yunnan, some parts of Guizhou, and all of the Yi areas in Guangxi, with land rent in kind being the most important form of exploitation by landlords of their sharecroppers. In addition, sharecroppers were generally exploited with extra labor, and the exploitation of hired labor and usury was also very common. In some areas, due to some historical reasons, the Tusi were still preserved, or a large number of Tumu and small and medium-sized slave owners were preserved during the "reorganization of the land and return to the stream", and thus the transition to feudalism took a longer period of time. Such as in the early years of Qianlong, Guizhou Weining area of the Yi people are still "half for the Yi family slaves". Until the founding of the state, the people to whom they belonged still retained some of the characteristics of serfdom, and although the exploitation of the slave masters was dominated by rent in kind, traces of slavery still remained to varying degrees. Yunnan Wuding, Luquan and the south bank of the Red River and other places at that time also preserved a lot of the size of the Yi Tusi, but with the improvement of social productivity, the landlord's economy has replaced the development trend of the lord's economy.
Agriculture is the main economic sector of the majority of the Yi region, the main crops are corn, buckwheat, potatoes, wheat, rice, barley, oats, roots and so on. Agricultural tools are mainly plows, harrows, hoes and board hoes. In the plateau region, sparsely populated, rich pasture, suitable for the development of animal husbandry, mainly raising cattle, horses, pigs, sheep and so on. Mountain forest resources, mountain goods resources are very rich. There are various kinds of fish and aquatic products in rivers and lakes. Hunting, collecting medicinal herbs, fungus, fishing and so on have become an important part of the masses' economic income. The handicraft industry basically exists as a family sideline, mainly in the form of regular fairs for the exchange of goods.
The social productive forces of the Yi people have been in a backward state for a long time, and the economy of self-sufficiency is dominant. The commodity economy is extremely underdeveloped, especially in the settlement area has maintained the "barter'' form of exchange, only a small amount of livestock, food, mountain goods to exchange for needles, thread, salt and other necessities of life. The concept of "shame in doing business'' has always ruled people's thoughts. In the Yi people's concept, cattle and sheep are the most valuable things, which is the standard for measuring the rich and poor, and also the standard for measuring whether a person (or a family) is capable or incapable, and whether it is strong or weak. Owning a hundred heads of cattle and sheep is the goal of the Yi people in general.
After the founding of New China, the Yi people have experienced great socio-economic development after more than 40 years of development and construction. Light and heavy industrial sectors such as steel, pig iron, coal and carbon, mining, power generation, logging, fertilizers, agricultural machinery, food processing and so on have been built, forming a team of industries for this ethnic group. The Yunnan Tin Company in Wuxu, Yunnan, has become an important enterprise in China's non-ferrous metal industry; the Liupanshui Special Zone in western Guizhou has developed into a famous coal industry base; and Fukou, Sichuan, has also become a famous city for the emerging iron and steel industry. Transportation has also been greatly improved, with highways commonly built in various places, and the main line of the Chengkun and Guikun railroads also passing through the Yi area. The government also set up a number of trade organizations and bazaars in various places, which led to a greater development of the commodity economy. Especially after the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the implementation of the policy of economic revitalization, the Yi urban and rural commodity economy has developed by leaps and bounds, the Yi people in the construction of enterprises, businessmen increased year by year, the backward natural economy is being seriously impacted.
Culture and Art
The Yi people have created a long and colorful national culture in the process of long-term historical development. The Yi people have circulated many records of the long history and culture of the Yi manuscripts, has found thousands of species, has been translated, organized and published, the content involves philosophy, history, literature, religion and other aspects. There are also some Yi cast bronze, inscriptions and colorful folk oral literature. In the field of medicine, Yi writings have also preserved rich information. The Yi generally adopt the summer calendar. In recent years, it is also believed that the ancient Yi ancestors used the October calendar.
The Yi people can sing and dance well. The Yi people have a variety of traditional tunes, such as climbing the mountain, entering the door, welcoming guests, eating wine, marrying, crying and mourning, etc. Some tunes have fixed words. Some tunes have fixed words, while others do not, and are improvised. Mountain songs are divided into male and female voices, and each region has its own unique style of mountain songs. Yi musical instruments include the gourd sheng, mabu, bawu, mouth string, moon zither, flute, three strings, chimes, copper drums, big flat drums and so on. The Yi dances are also quite distinctive, divided into two categories: group dances and solo dances, most of which are group dances, such as "Jumping Songs", "Jumping Music", "Jumping Moon", "Playing Songs and Dances" and "Songs and Dances". There are two types of dances, most of which are group dances, such as "Jumping Song", "Jumping Music", "Jumping Moon", "Playing Song and Dance" and "Pot Zhuang Dance". They are characterized by cheerful movements and a strong sense of rhythm, and are usually accompanied by the flute, moon zither, and three strings.
The traditional arts and crafts of the Yi people include lacquer painting, embroidery, silver jewelry, carving and painting. Lacquer painting is mainly applied to bowls, plates, pots, cups, armor, wrist guards, shields, quivers, saddles, bridle heads, moon zithers, and mouth strings, with black, red, and yellow as the main colors. Embroidery for the Yi women are good at, often embroidered in the head of the handkerchief, wipe the erwa, sleeves, clothes lapel, pants, lanyard, smoke purse, belt and so on.
Customs and Habits
Yi clothing varies from place to place. Liangshan, Qianxi area, men usually wear black narrow-sleeved right oblique lapel top and multi-fold wide leg pants, some areas wear small leg pants, and in the front of the head in the middle of a small lock of long hair head, the right side of a pincer-shaped knot. Women to retain more national characteristics, usually wrapped around the head of the head, there are waist and belt; some parts of the women have the habit of wearing long skirts. Men and women go out clad in rubbers. Jewelry has earrings, bracelets, rings, collar row flowers, etc., mostly made of gold, silver and jade.
The main food in the life of the Yi people is corn in most areas, followed by buckwheat, rice, potatoes, wheat and oats. Meat mainly beef, pork, mutton, chicken, etc., like to cut into large chunks of large pieces (fist size) to cook, the Han Chinese called "steely meat". The big and small Liangshan and most of the Yi people forbid eating dog meat, do not eat horse meat and frogs and snakes and other meat. The Yi are fond of sour and spicy food, and are addicted to wine, and have the etiquette of treating guests with wine. Wine is indispensable for solving all kinds of disputes, making friends, weddings, funerals and other occasions.
The structure of Yi houses is the same in some areas as that of the surrounding Han people, and the Yi residents in Liangshan Mountain mostly use board roofs and earth walls; there are houses in the Yi areas in Guangxi and eastern Yunnan that resemble "dry bars".
The Yi people around the prevalence of patriarchal small family system, young children often live with their parents. The status of women is low. Inheritance is divided equally among the sons, and the estate is generally owned by the next of kin. In the history of the Yi people, the father and son of the name, this custom in Liangshan Yi residents have continued until the founding of the country. Monogamy is the basic system of marriage among the Yi, and a high bride price is required to marry a daughter-in-law. Staggered marriages from the table are more popular, and the death of the husband is practiced in the transfer of the house. Before the founding of the People's Republic of China, some of the Yi areas in Yunnan Province still maintained the public housing system, and the Liangshan Yi maintained a strict hierarchical endogamous marriage. Historically, the Yi people practiced cremation, and before the founding of the People's Republic of China, residents of Liangshan and Yunnan along the Jinsha River still practiced this burial custom. Other areas have gradually changed to upper burials since the Ming and Qing dynasties.
Religion and Important Festivals
The religion of the Yi people has a strong color of primitive religion, and worships many gods, mainly the nature worship and ancestor worship of all things. In nature worship, the most important is the belief in elves and ghosts. People believe that many inanimate things in nature are attached to the elves, a family where all the ancestors left everything such as clothes, jewelry, silver, utensils, can be attached to the elves "Gil", that it has the magic power to protect the family. Due to the long history of ethnic and cultural exchanges, Buddhism has a long history of being introduced into the Yi minority area. In the early years of the Qing Dynasty, Taoism was prevalent in some Yi areas. With the invasion of imperialist forces, Catholicism and Christianity were also introduced to the Yi region in the late 19th century.
The festivals of the Yi people include the "Torch Festival", the "Year of the Yi People", the "Worship of the Lord", the "Mizhi Festival", and the "Jumping Festival". The main festivals are "Torch Festival", "Year of the Yi", "Worship of the Lord", "Mizhi Festival", "Song-jumping Festival", etc. The "Torch Festival" is the most common and grandest traditional festival in the Yi area, usually held on the 24th or 25th day of the 6th month of the summer calendar. Every Torch Festival, Yi men, women and children, dressed in festive costumes, play animals to offer spirit cards, dancing and singing, horse racing and wrestling. At night, they carry torches around their homes and fields, and then gather together to burn bonfires and dance.
Tiger Totem Worship of the Yi People
During the matriarchal period of primitive society, people, out of a special closeness to plants and animals, took certain animals or plants as objects of worship. They took the totem they believed in as the symbol of their clan, and even took it as the ancestor of their nation. The Yi people of China's Yunnan Province, the worship of the tiger is derived from this ancient totem belief.
According to the Yi folk epic Meigu, the God of Heaven, at the beginning of the creation of the world, sent his five sons to make the sky. After the sky was made, they used thunder and lightning to test the sky, which resulted in the sky cracking open, so what was used to mend it? The gods of heaven thought that the tiger was the most powerful thing in the world, so the gods of heaven sent five more sons to subdue the tiger, and then they used one of the tiger's big bones to make a pillar to support the sky, so that the sky was stabilized. They also use the tiger head to do the head of the sky, the tiger tail to do the tail of the earth, the tiger nose to do the nose of the sky, the tiger ear to do the ear of the sky, the left eye to do the sun, the right eye to do the moon, the tiger beard to do the sunshine, the tiger teeth to do the stars, the tiger oil to do the clouds, the tiger gas to do the fog, the tiger heart to do the heart of the sky and the earth gall bladder, the tiger belly to do the sea, the tiger blood to do the sea water, the large intestine to do into the river, the small intestine to do into the river, the tiger's ribs to do the road, the tiger's skin to do the skin of the earth, the hard fur to do the woods, the soft fur to do the grass, the fine fur to do the order of seedlings ...... And so there are all things in the world today.
The Black Tiger Clan is the ancient ancestors of the Yi people, whose greatest characteristic is the reverence for the black Shang tiger, that is, the black tiger as a totem, and has been maintained until now. The Yi people call the tiger Luo, and in many places, the Yi people still call themselves Luo Luo, which means tiger tribe. They consider themselves to be a tiger nation, and every year they have to celebrate the Tiger Festival, the date from the first eight days of the first month of the lunar calendar to pick up the tiger ancestor, to the end of the first fifteenth day of the first month to send the tiger ancestor. During the Tiger Festival, the whole clan *** with joy, jumping tiger sheng, sacrificing tiger ancestor, in order to pray for blessings and eliminate disasters. They use gourd dippers with tiger heads painted on them to symbolize their ancestors during the ancestor worship ceremony.
Many Yi people believe they are tiger people. In some villages, there is still a saying, "If a man dies with a tiger, the tiger dies with a flower". In their family name, the common Luo means they are the descendants of the tiger. Men call themselves Luo Luo Pu or Luo Pu, meaning male tiger; women call themselves Luo Luo Mo, meaning female tiger. The Yi used to be cremated, and they believed that the cremated remains could be returned to their ancestors as tigers. In the places where the Yi people live, there are still many hillocks, water streams and villages called by the name of tiger, because the place where the tiger people live and live should be named by the tiger.
The tiger is regarded by the Chinese as the king of all beasts. It is a symbol of strength and majesty, and was worshipped as a primitive totem by the ancestors of the Yi people, becoming a symbol of good luck and happiness. As the tiger is worshipped as their ancestor, the tiger-shaped ancestral spirit is enshrined in the shrines of some Yi people's homes, the tiger-shaped evil spirits are hung on the gates, the tiger totem wall hangings are hung on the walls, and there is a stone tiger god shaped like a tiger at the intersections of the villages. The Yi people call the tiger god Roni, which is the most spiritual and noble god in their hearts. The tiger god can eliminate disasters and drive away evils for them, and can bless them with good luck and peace. They put themselves, their families and their clan's happiness under the protection of the Tiger God.
(From "The Complete Book of Ethnic Work", edited by Chihara)
National People's Committee website
Pumi Ethnic Group
Population is 33,600.
Ethnic Profile
The Pumi in China are mainly found in Lamping, Lijiang, Wisi, Yongsheng counties and the Ninglang Yi Autonomous County in Yunnan Province, while a part of them reside in the Muzheyuan Autonomous County and the Yanyuan County in Sichuan Province. According to the fifth national census in 2000, the Pumi population was 33,600, and they speak the Pumi language, which belongs to the Tibetan-Burmese group of the Sino-Tibetan language family. The Pumi in Muli and Nyingchi used to use a script spelled in Tibetan, but it was not widely used. Chinese is now commonly used.
The Pumi have different names for themselves in different places, including "Puyinmi" for those in Lamping, Lijiang, Weixi, and Yongsheng in Yunnan Province, and "Puzhimi" or "Peimi" for those in Nyingchi, all of which mean white people. Both mean white people. In Han historical documents, the Pumi are called "Xifan" or "Ba Tho". According to the legends and historical records of this ethnic group, the Pumi originally lived on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, and were nomadic tribes along the borders of Qinghai, Gansu, and Sichuan, and then gradually migrated from the high alpine zone along the Hengduan Mountain Range to warmer and well-watered areas. Before about the seventh century AD, they were already living in Yuexi, Coronation, Hanyuan, Jiulong and Asbestos in Sichuan, and were one of the major ethnic groups in Xichang at that time. History of Song" records that at that time, some people "into the Xi Fan to seek a good horse to the city", indicating that the Pumi ancestors and the Han and other brotherly peoples have close contact. To the Yuan Dynasty, Sichuan Qiong Department of State (Yuexi) area, there are "six" living. When Mongolia marched into Dali, the original Xichang area of the Pumi tribe led by its tribal leaders to join the Mongolian army, into the Yunnan Province, Ninglang, Lijiang, Weixi, Lamping, Yongsheng settled down. During the Yuan Dynasty, the Pumi living in the Yunnan area were under the rule of the governor (or governor) of the Lijiang Road Military and Civilian General Administration Office (which was later dismissed and replaced by the Xuanfu Division). Ming dynasty belongs to lijiang, yongning province native governor rule. Qing Yongzheng years, Lijiang hereditary soil Zhifu changed to flow official Zhifu, hereditary soil Zhifu changed to soil Tongjian. The Pumi in Sichuan are ruled by the Tusi of Yanyuan Muli and the headman of their own ethnic group.
Culture and Art
The Pumi are a people who can sing and dance well. Every wedding and funeral festivals, are held "song", the form of the narrative song, another short tune, the content of the youth love life. Pumi people usually also love to sing Naxi, white and Han songs. There are many legends and stories in folklore. Dance mostly reflects farming, hunting, weaving and other production labor, with gourd sheng, flute and other accompaniment, dance step robust and bright.
Customs
Pumi people's clothing, men around the same, on a short linen coat, wearing wide pants, draped in white sheepskin shoulders. The more generous people, wearing serge and tweed overcoat, with woolen cloth wrapped legs, wearing a knife at the waist. Women's clothing varies from region to region. The Pumi women in Yongsheng and Ninglang love to wear big headkerchiefs, big-breasted clothes, long pleated skirts, and wide and dyed red, green, blue and yellow colored ribbons around their waists, and their backs are clad in sheepskin. Lanping, Wisi area of women, love to wear green, blue, white lapel short clothes, outside the shoulders, wearing pants, waist tie embroidered with lace girdle cloth, earrings, silver rings, bracelet ring hand jewelry and other things. The Pumi people's staple food is corn, supplemented by rice, wheat, barley, oats, tares, tares and so on. Like to eat pork made of "pipa meat", but also often eat cattle, sheep and animal meat, like to drink tea, addicted to alcohol and tobacco. Pumi houses for the wooden structure, the walls with logs overlap stacked, with wooden boards to cover the top, the four corners of the vertical columns, the center of a large square column, the Pumi people called "Prime Minister", that is, "the gods" where the place. The general housing for the two-story, upstairs people, downstairs off the livestock. Inside the house, there is a fire pit (potlatch), in the support of the iron tripod, the back of the shrine. The fire is the center of family activities. Outdoor hanging cattle, sheep head, to show wealth.
The Pumi people in the Nyingchi and Yongsheng areas practiced the extended family system, with several generations living under the same roof. The Pumi families in Lanping and Wisi are divided into two or three generations. They practiced the system of inheritance of men's property, with the sons sharing equally, and the custom of transferring houses and passing on young children was prevalent. Relatives are referred to as the eldest family member, i.e., children of uncles are called brothers and sisters regardless of their age, and children of uncles are called younger siblings. The few Pumi people in the Ninglang area who have retained the remnants of the matriarchal system take the housewife as the head of the family, and women not only have the right to inherit property, but also have a higher status in society. Marriages are mostly monogamous, with parents taking the lead in choosing spouses, and the prevalence of preferential marriage between aunts and uncles. Early marriage. After marriage, women have the custom of "not falling into the husband's family" and the custom of being widowed when a brother dies and a brother's wife is widowed. In terms of burial customs, the Pumi people in the Nyingchi region practise cremation; those in the Lanping and Yongsheng regions practise earth burial; and those in the Vixi region practise both cremation and earth burial.
Religious Beliefs and Important Festivals
The Pumi people worship many gods and ancestors. In Lanping, they call shamans "Shibi", and in Nyingchi, they call them "Tibi". In various places, there are religious ceremonies in which sorcerers are invited to sacrifice to mountain gods, dragon pools and potlatch shrines. There are also those who believe in Lama and Taoism.
The festivals of the Pumi people include the New Year's Day, the Fifteenth Festival, and the New Year's Day, and in some places there are also festivals such as the Ching Ming Festival and the Dragon Boat Festival. In the New Year, the Spring Festival is celebrated, when all the families of the same clan offer "pots and pans". On that occasion, families of the same clan would offer "pots and pans", eat New Year's dinner, and hold various amusement activities such as horse races and target shooting. The Pumi people in Nyingchi celebrate the 15th day of the Lunar New Year on the 14th day of the Lunar New Year in the old calendar, when people wear new clothes, go camping in the mountains, and hold bonfire parties. At the Tasting of the New Festival, which is held during the spring harvest season, people use new grains to brew wine and cook rice to worship their ancestors, feast their relatives and friends, and celebrate a good harvest.
(Excerpted from "The Complete Book of Ethnic Work", edited by Qianli Yuan)
Website of the State Council for Nationalities