Explore the ancestors of the Yi people

 

Explore the ancestors of the Yi people

 

Under the guidance of a middle-aged Yi couple, Zhu Ke and Naide, Agudengba came to the Yi village and met the retired teacher who opened an inn.

The retired old teacher was very warm and hospitable after seeing Agudengba. He told Agudengba that his Yi name was Guoji and his Chinese name was Luowen.

Luo Wen's inn is called "Laku Academy".

Agudemba walked into Laku Academy. The room was not big, but there were many books neatly placed on the bookshelves.

Outside the academy is a small garden with many flowers and plants planted.

Teacher Luo Wen speaks fluent standard Mandarin. He told Agudemba that after retirement, he likes to read, give lectures and tell stories to children, and he also likes to plant flowers and grass.

Teacher Luo Wen took Agudengba to a grain drying field outside Laku Academy, where you can see the surrounding cottage buildings.

Teacher Luo Wen pointed to the residential buildings not far away and said to Agudengba:

The cottage is not big, but the residential buildings here are diverse. It can be said to be an ancient Yi residential building museum.

Teacher Luo Wen said:

There are "tile houses" of the Yi people in Liangshan; there are also "Tuzhang houses", "square watchtowers", "stacked wooden houses" and "Xiapian houses" in Guizhou and northern and central Yunnan; those houses in the west are "Ganlan style" houses in Guangxi and eastern Yunnan.

Yi villages generally live in clusters, and are mostly located on hillsides close to mountains and rivers, facing the sun and sheltered from the wind, with lush trees, fertile land, and open terrain, which are conducive to farming, animal husbandry, and military defense. They live scattered in the mountains and live in clusters in the mid-mountains and valleys. A blood-related family branch often lives together to form a natural village, ranging from a few families to dozens of families. Branches with close blood relationships are scattered and adjacent to each other.

Teacher Luo Wen said again:

According to the custom of the Yi people, a son needs to build a separate house to live in after getting married, and the parents live with the youngest son. The building materials of "tile houses" are very simple, mostly grass, bamboo, wood, sand, stones, etc., with very few bricks and tiles.

River valleys are slightly different from mountain areas. Most of the houses in the river valleys are made of earth, with earth as the walls and wood as the tiles. The internal partitions are all made of wooden boards, and the beams, columns and rafters are all connected with wooden tenons. Bamboo walls and tiles are often used in high mountain areas, and bamboo walls are also used for internal partitions. Beams, columns, and rafters are mostly made of bamboo or a mixture of bamboo and wood. Bamboo strips and mountain rattan are often used for binding. The tiles are compacted with stones, and the floors are generally rammed earth.

Nowadays, brick houses are commonly built in Yi areas, and in some places, buildings with ethnic characteristics in appearance and very modern interior decoration have been built.

Agudengba has been walking alone for many days and has not communicated with anyone for a long time. The retired teacher in front of him now seems to be an old friend he has not seen for a long time.

Teacher Luo Wen said to Agudengba:

I am not a local Yi, I am a descendant of the ancient Qiang people.

There are different opinions on the origin of the Yi people, mainly including the northern speaking people, the southern speaking people, the eastern speaking people and the indigenous people of Yunnan, etc. The consensus among academic circles is that the northern people speaking people come from the north. According to historical records in Chinese and Yi languages, the ancestors of the Yi people have a close relationship with the ancient Qiang people distributed in the west. In fact, the Yi people are mainly derived from the ancient Qiang people.

From the 2nd century BC to the early AD, the centers of activities of the Yi ancestors were probably Dianchi Lake and Qiongdu, which are two areas southeast of Xichang, Sichuan today. In these areas live agricultural or nomadic tribes called "Qiondu", "Kunming", "Laojin", "Mimo" and "Dian". According to the historical legends of the Yi people, their ancestors lived in "Qiong Zhilun" in ancient times, and later moved south to the banks of the "Nuoyi" and "Quyi" rivers, namely the Jinsha River and the Anning River basin.

Teacher Luo Wen said to Agudengba again:

After about the 3rd century AD, the ancestors of the Yi people have gradually expanded from the Anning River Basin, both sides of the Jinsha River, Yunnan Dianchi Lake, Ailao Mountain and other places to northeastern Yunnan, southern Yunnan, northwest Guizhou and northwest Guangxi.

Since the ancestors of the Yi people settled in the southwest, they have continuously integrated with other ethnic groups. For example, many descendants of the Pu people in the ancient south have become today's Yi people.

There are many records about "Pu Bian Yi" in Guizhou's ancient Yi classic "Southwestern Yi Chronicles". At the same time, many other tribes of the Yi language branch were distributed in the areas where the Yi people lived in ancient times. Therefore, the names of the Yi people in history are very complicated.

Teacher Luo Wen invited Agudengba to drink Pu'er tea and said:

About 2,000 years ago, the ancestors of the Yi people had transitioned to a patriarchal clan society. According to records in Yi classics, the ancestor of the Yi people "Zhong Mouyou" had 6 sons, and these 6 sons are the "Sixth Ancestor" as the Yi people honorably call them. The "Sixth Patriarch" is the ancestor of the six branches of Wu, Zha, Bu, Mo, Nuo and Heng.

According to the father-son pedigree of the Shuixi chieftain An of the Yi nationality in Guizhou, there have been 85 generations from Zhongmuyou to Ankun, the Shuixi chieftain in the third year of Kangxi's reign in the Qing Dynasty (1664). From this, "Zhongmuyou" is about He was a native of the early Warring States period. The Sixth Ancestor branch marks the stage of the Yi ancestors' transition from clans and tribes to tribal alliances.

Around the second and third centuries BC, the ancestors of the Yi people living around Dianchi Lake in Yunnan began to enter a class society.

In the early Han Dynasty, Yizhou County was established in the Dianchi Lake area, which was the territory of the original "Dian Kingdom". The ancestors of the Yi people were ruled by the "King of Dian".

In the 8th century AD, six local governments emerged in the northern Ailao Mountains and Erhai area of Yunnan, known as the "Liu Zhao" in history, also known as the "Six Kings". Among them, Piroge, the leader of the "Mengshe Zhao", unified the "Six Zhaos" in 783 and established the "Nanzhao" slavery regime with the Yi people as the main body and including the Bai, Naxi and other ethnic groups, and was canonized by the Tang Dynasty He was the "King of Yunnan". During the same period, regimes such as "Luodian" also appeared in the Yi area of Guizhou, collectively known as the "Luo Ghost Lord".

In 937 AD, the feudal "Dali Regime" replaced the "Nanzhao" that collapsed due to slave and peasant uprisings. From then on, the Yi area of Yunnan began to move toward feudalism.

Agudengba drank Pu'er tea while listening to Teacher Luo Wen's narration:

After the 13th century, "Dali" and "Luodian" were successively conquered by the Yuan Dynasty, and roads, prefectures, prefectures, counties and Xuanwei departments were set up in these areas. At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the feudal landlord economy developed rapidly in many Yi areas of Yunnan, but in some areas the feudal landlord economy and the remnants of slavery still existed to varying degrees.

In the Ming Dynasty, three official positions were established in the Yi areas: Liuguan, Tuliu Jianzhi and Tuguan, which played a very significant role in promoting the economic development of the Yi area.

The Qing Dynasty implemented the "return of land and return to local rule", which strengthened the direct rule over the Yi areas, thus disintegrating the lord economy in most Yi areas and further developing the feudal landlord economy.

After the Opium War in 1840, China gradually became a semi-feudal and semi-colonial society. The majority of the Yi people also suffered greatly, and opium was rampant in the Yi areas. Liangshan Yi slave owners used opium in exchange for large quantities of guns and silver. With the guns, they further expanded their power to the surrounding areas and robbed people of all ethnic groups as slaves. Due to the availability of guns, conflicts between enemies within the Yi people have become increasingly frequent, which has plunged the majority of the Yi people into dire straits. Many Yi people have been forced to leave their homes and migrate to the west of the Anning River and to Lijiang.

In order to resist exploitation and oppression, the Yi people have carried out many heroic struggles in history. Especially in modern times, the resistance struggle of the Yi people merged into the anti-imperialist and anti-feudal struggle of people of all ethnic groups across the country.

During the Xianfeng period of the Qing Dynasty, the uprising led by Li Wenxue of the Yi ethnic group in Ailao Mountain was massive and had far-reaching influence, and the struggle lasted for 23 years.

At the end of the 19th century, the Yi and Hani people in Jinping, Yuanyang and other places jointly resisted the French invaders who invaded China's border areas on many occasions. The Yi and Han people of southern Yunnan have repeatedly opposed the construction of the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway by the French invaders. In the 25th year of Guangxu's reign, an incident broke out in Mengzi, where Yang Ziyuan, a Yi citizen, took the lead in burning down the French "Customs".

During the Revolution of 1911 and the National Defense Movement, many Yi people participated in the struggle to overthrow the imperial system. From 1913 to 1916, a major uprising of the Yi people against the slave system broke out in the Mianning and Yueyong areas of Liangshan Prefecture. Since the climax of the uprising was in 1914, this year was the Year of the Tiger in the Yi calendar.

Teacher Luo Wen smiled and said to Agudengba:

In Yi language, the tiger is called "La" and the year is called "Ku", so it is called "Laku Uprising" in history. The small inn I founded is called "Laku Academy" to commemorate the "Laku Uprising". Both my grandfather and father participated in the Laku Uprising.

That night, Teacher Luo Wen chatted with Agudengba again about the religious beliefs of the Yi people.

Teacher Luo Wen said:

The religious beliefs of the Yi people are basically still in the stage of primitive religion. The concepts of nature worship, totem worship, ancestor worship and animism are prevalent in society. The priests "Bimo" and the wizards "Suni" of this ethnic group have a certain influence in the Yi area. This situation is more prominent in the Daliangshan and Xiaoliangshan mountains adjacent to Sichuan and Yunnan.

Bimo is a priest in the traditional religion of the Yi people. In the Yi language, "Bi" means blessings and chanting sutras during religious activities, and "Mo" means elder or teacher.

Suni is a wizard in Yi society. "Su" means "person" in Yi language, and "Ni" means the scene when doing magic. The Suni is usually held by a member of the Qunuo or Aga caste. Suni is not hereditary and can be held by both men and women. The main instruments are sheepskin drums and wooden mallets. Suni does not understand scriptures and does not recite scriptures or host major sacrificial activities. His main social function is to perform witchcraft, exorcise ghosts and cure diseases. Suni's status in Yi society is not as good as Bimo's, and his income from religious activities is also lower than Bimo's.

In the Yunnan, Guizhou, Guizhou and Yi areas, in addition to retaining the inherent original religious beliefs of their own ethnic groups, Taoism and Buddhism are also popular in some areas. In modern times, Christianity and Catholicism have also been introduced into minority Yi areas.

The Yi people's worship of nature comes from the concept of animism. Due to the low productivity in the Yi area in the past, people lacked the ability to control nature, so they regarded everything as spiritual beings, with the same life and will as humans. This nature worship developed at the same time as the worship of human souls.

The Yi people believe that the soul is attached to the body when a person is born and leaves the body after death. From this concept of the soul, it is inferred that everything in the world has a soul, and their activities or natural phenomena are regarded as the result of the soul's control, thus forming the worship of nature. It is prevalent in Yi society in the form of folk beliefs. There are mainly heaven worship, earth worship, water worship, stone worship, fire worship, mountain worship, etc.

According to records in Yi classics, the Yi people had totem worship in primitive times and believed that humans have a blood relationship with animals and plants.

At present, there are still a large number of totem worship relics in Yi society, including bamboo worship, gourd worship, pine tree worship, millet tree worship, animal worship, etc. For example, the Yi people in the Songziyuan area of Chengjiang County, Yunnan regard "Golden Bamboo" as their ancestral god. The Yi people in the Ailao Mountains of Yunnan have always had the custom of worshiping the "ancestral spirit gourd". Many villages in the Yi areas of Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan have their own "sacred trees" and "sacred forests". A Yi ethnic group in Ailao Mountain, Yunnan, who calls themselves "Luo Luo", regards tiger as their ancestor. "Luo Luo" means "tiger" in their language. Each family enshrines a portrait of their ancestor, called "Nirāma", which means "Tiger Ancestor".

Teacher Luo Wen said to Agudengba:

Some people believe in the existence of souls, but the Yi people not only believe that the souls of their ancestors still exist after their death and can bring blessings and misfortunes to the living, so they must worship them and pray that they will bring blessings to their descendants. The Yi people also believe that there are three souls after death, one of which guards the crematorium and tomb, one of which returns to the ancestral realm to reunite with the souls of ancestors, and the other of which enshrines ancestors’ spiritual tablets at home.

But no matter which soul, its well-being is related to the prosperity or misfortune of future generations, so it is necessary to pray for the protection of ancestors. The ceremony of reassuring spirits and sending spirits are two important ancestor worship activities popular among the Yi people. The funeral ceremony is held on an auspicious day several days or months after the funeral and is presided over by Bimo. The ceremony includes several procedures: selecting spiritual bamboos, attracting spirits and attaching bamboos, making spiritual tablets, offering medicine to cure diseases, and offering sacrifices to spirits. After the soul-calming ceremony, the spiritual tablets are enshrined at home. To send spirits is to send the ancestral spirit tablets enshrined at home to the ancestral Lingqing Cave of the same clan in the wild. The funeral ceremony is the most solemn. After the time for sending the spirit is determined, relatives and friends should be notified. After hearing the news, relatives and friends should dress up and attend with gifts such as cattle, sheep, pigs, and wine. The most important activity in sending souls is a series of religious ceremonies held under the auspices of priest Bimo. Each ceremony has a certain meaning.

Teacher Luo Wen impromptu sang a song "Where the Soul Goes":

 

Where will my soul go when I leave this world?

The crematorium burned my body

My soul resides in the grave

The river dried up due to hot winds

The grave grass was burned by the scorching sun and dry land

Only when relatives and friends come to visit me

Build my grave and offer flowers and sacrifices to me

My soul is no longer lonely and alone

 

When I leave the cemetery, where will my soul go?

My soul will return to the ancestral world

I reunite with the souls of my ancestors

I can still meet my deceased friends and reminisce about the past together

The long dark night has no end

But we can laugh and talk about our past lives

Life is short and there are no regrets

Come and leave naked.

 

Where will my soul go when I leave the underworld?

My wandering soul will wander everywhere

I will get on the return ship to find my relatives

My soul flies back to my old home

My spiritual tablet is enshrined at home

Gathering with ancestors’ tablets

Candlelight shines brightly on the altar

Light up the life journey of relatives and friends