Origin of Hmong or Miao, facts and historical docs where Miao come from.... Options

[Hmongman2]

Writers: Wu, Rong Zheng Yang, Zheng Cu Translator: Li, Hai Xia

China is an ancient country with long history and splendid civilization. There were popular legends of Sui Ren, Fu Xi, Shen Nong, Huang Di, Chi You, Yao, Shun and Yu in remote antiquity. Although not all the legends are exact basis of history, they reflect more or less how China’s ancestors had lived and labored then. And there are lots of such records in the ancient books, so they are valuable materials for our study of China’s ancient society. However, these legends are possibly mixed with some subjective thinking and bias of different race. For example, in orthodox words of Chinese history Yan Di and Huang Di were mostly highly praised as the ancestors of the Han nationality while Chi You was belittled as enemy. But the Miao people always respect Chi You as their ancestor and hero. It is thus clear that we should take a just and prudent attitude to appraise this figure; otherwise it is bad for nationality unity. Of course, it is historical materialist to make an overall and concrete analysis of historical figures under given and special conditions.

Chi You was the first to unify the valleys along the Changjiang River and the Huaihe River of China, which played an key pole in the course of forming of the ancient Three-Miao State from blood relationship to region relationship. He made a great contribution to develop China’s territory.

In remote antiquity the people living in the valleys along the Huanghe River and Changjiang River had their life in the form of clans and tribes. In the fortieth century B.C. or so, conflicts for land and territorial rights broke out among them. As a result, three groups of Chi You, Yan Di and Huang Di came to grow stronger. Developing themselves, each of them made preparations to seize the middle areas of China and become the supreme ruler. Huang Di always conguered those small clans by force that wouldn’t like to obey him. Chi You develop Three Big Inventions of politics, economy and culture and managed to make his own group prospering. So he impressively demonstrated his courage and power under heaven. In the end, having united eighty-one clans living separately along the Changjiang, the Huanghe or the Huaihe, he set up the first nation named the Nine-Li State with nine tribes including eighty-one clans in Chinese history.

Shortly after the Nine-Li State was founded, Chi You’s descendants changed it to the Three-Miao State. So both the names were called for generations afterwards. The relation between the Nine-Li State and Chi You was referred to in the incantation used for the primitive religion of the Miao nationality. For example, there was such a phrase as Jiao E Ke You (Only pronunciation of the Miao language) in the words for worshiping gods and ancestors. Here Jiao means nine, and E means buffalo and Ke You means belonging to Chi You. If this Miao phrase is translated, that is, Chi You unified nine tribes using buffaloes to plow fields. The nine in the Nine-Lis and the three-Miaos are imaginary in numbers, which means a great many. And the Lis refers to tribes and races taking up agriculture. The ancient Miao nationality included not only the Miao nowadays, but also the Yao and many other minority nationalities in the south.

It is proved from the above that the ancient Miao nationality was made up of a great many country clans or tribes. It was Chi You who united them into one state. So there existed the saying that Chi You was ancestor of the Miao people. He had eighty-one brothers who maybe were leaders of eighty-one clans of nine tribes. Mr. Fan Wenlan decided in his The General History of China that the Nine-Li State, which was the first to enter the middle areas of China, must have been the alliance of nine tribes, each of which includes nine clans. Chieftain of the Nine-Li State was Chi You, and eighty-one brothers of his were leaders of those clans each. These words show the relation between eighty-one brothers and the Nine-Li State and Chi You. Yet the number eighty-one was perhaps an imaginary one. Nine times nine means the most in numbers in the Chinese Language. No matter whether this number is real or imaginary, it is the fact that Chi You united these clans and formed a strong alliance of tribes. He was the highest leader, of course.

According to C14 (a chemistry element) on the Da-Dong-Zi relics in Pi county, Jiangsu Province, it was determined that the time of the Da-Wen-Kou culture which has something close to do with the Three-Miao culture was about 5785 years ago. And Chi You set up the Nine-Li State in some year much earlier than his offspring did the same with/set up the Three-Miao State. It was enough to prove that Chi You, ancestor of the Miao people, finished the great cause of unifying eighty-one clans living in the middle reaches of the Huanghe, the Changjiang and in the valley of the Huaihe at least 5000 years ago.

That Chi You founded the Nine-Li State had important and long significance as follows.

First, it played a key pole in the course of forming of the ancient Three-Miao State from blood relationship to region relationship. In the pass, their older generations had scattered in the middle and the east of our country in eight-one clans. The bounds between blood relations had hindered the development of social economy and culture. After unification, these clans formed a tribe alliance. It was the first time for them to break the bounds of blood relationship and to divide the people according to living areas, not to relation groups.

Second, it not only made a great contribution to develop China’s territory, but also offered the experience and laid a foundation to the country with many different dukes, later the establishment of a centralized feudal society and at last the unification of the Chinese nation as well. Mr. Fan Wenlan’s textual research showed that Huang Di’s tribes were living an unsteady nomadic life in Zhuolu area when Chi You realized the unification of agricultural tribes and founded the Nine-Li State. By the basic law of the development of human society, the steady agricultural life is much advanced than the former one/the unsteady nomadic one. It’s obviously that the Miao race whose ancestor was Chi You had even longer and advanced history than Huang Di’s tribes had. It was said in the words of the primitive religion of the Miao nationality that Miao and Han had been brothers. Miao was elder and Han, younger. Mr. Wang Tongling said that some foreigners in the west called the Miao nationality master of China. Therefore, it was the Miao people who first entered the center and the south areas of the country and also first took up agricultural economy. The fact that the Miao nationality was vast in territory and advanced in economy and culture couldn’t be separate from Chi You’s credit of uniting those tribes. The early union of the Miao tribes and development of economy as well as culture laid a foundation to that of the Han nationality and even the unification of the whole of Chinese notion. It can also be said that later the Han people developed their economy on the basis of the Miao’s after defeating them.

Chi You was the first to create weapons, penal laws and a religion, which not just played an important pole in the development of Chinese culture and technology, but ushered in a new epoch for the Chinese nation to enter a civilized era.

That Chi You was the first to create weapon, penal laws and religion can be read in many historic records. Scholar of history generally recognized this fact. Wang Tongling wrote in the history of the Chinese Nation “The Miao nationality was developed in culture then. First they invented penal laws, second weapons and third a religion. The five chief forms of punishment, weapons and armors that the Han people used later and the spirit religion that they believed in were mostly first created by the Miao people”. Mr. Song Binwen wrote the same viewpoint in his works, “the Miao culture seems nothing to say now, but really advanced in remote antiquity, which had great effect on the Han culture. It included three parts, such as penal laws, weapons and a religion. Weapons were used for defending themselves. The other two were necessary to keep social security.”

A number of history materials showed that Chi You, ancestor of the Miao people, was a great inventor indeed. A few of the viewpoints in these materials might be mistaken, but they were some valuable to study history. Chi You’s Three Inventions could help to infer the following questions.

First, did the Miao people invent technology of smelting and create the ancient Miao written words in Chi You’s time? Once invention of Five Weapons is spoken of, smelting would certainly be mentioned. Five weapons are five kinds of weapons cast of metal and it was said in ancient books that Chi You had a copper head with iron forehead. It showed that the Miao people at that time had had a good grasp of smelting technology. From the fact that Chi You invented weapons, it could be inferred that smelting technology of copper and iron perhaps started in the ancient Miao times. Because when Chi You fought against Huang Di, the former used metal weapons but the later still used wooden sticks. Analyzed from the above, smelting had possibly been invented before Chi You did the same with weapons. Besides, such inventions as penal laws, a religion, smelting and weapons could not be made without written words. Especially strong wind and heavy rain mentioned in Chi You’s Five Weapons showed that he had learned some knowledge of astronomy, meteorology and geography to resist Huang Di. If there had been no written words the, these couldn’t have been calculated. There existed a popular legend about this. The two brothers of Miao and Han went together to ask a teacher for written words, and both/either got a kind of words of his own. At time, when elder brother Miao crossed a river, with younger Han on his back, he held his written words in his mouth. In the middle of the river, he slipped under his feet. As a result, the words were swallowed into his stomach. So the ancient Miao nationality had no written words kept in books, only in heart. Moreover, the Miao religion kept using a kind of symbols similar to words, which people could not recognize. It is possible for such symbols to have a relation with the ancient Miao language. Therefore, it might be decided that the Miao people had written language of their own in Chi You’s times. For some reason, they were missing afterwards. So far it is unknown whether some of the inscriptions on bones or tortoise shells of the Shang Dynasty (c. 16th- - 11th century B.C.) discovered in modern times were the ancient Miao words.

Second, was the Nine-Li State or later the Three-Miao State a country or a tribe alliance? This question is difficult to decide, for lack of enough proofs.

In the book Family, Private Ownership And the Origin of a country Engels divided the early human history into three periods, which were/are Ignorant Times, Savage Times and Civilized Times; the first was/is a period when people live on collecting natural materials. In the second times people started to learn some ways to increase production of those materials. The main sign of civilized times is that people learned to process natural materials they had got. Chi You created penal laws and a religion, grasped the smelting technology of copper and iron before inventing weapons, and perhaps had written words of their own. All these show that the elder generation of the Miao people learned the technology of processing natural materials and entered civilized times. Thus it can be seen that Chi You’s Three Inventions not only played an important pole in the development of the Chinese culture and technology, but also ushered in a new epoch for the Chinese nation to enter a civilized era.

That people have respect for Chi You shows that Chi You made a great contribution to human civilization and social improvement.

Chi You’s achievements decided his position in history. After Chi You’s death, his people continued to fight for centuries. Huang Di declared war upon Chi You, but he suffered defeat in each of nine fights because of backward weapons. Later, the Nine-Li State being hit a severe drought, Chi You was defeated and killed. Before long the rest of his state set up a new power of the Three-Miao State in the middle valley of the Changjiang River. They kept on fighting for a few hundred years till the Yu (another head the Han people) Times when they made a concession. According to some historical records, in remote antiquity conflict between the Han people and the Miao were started by Huang Di and lasted hundreds of years.

Rulers afterwards called Chi You Fight God in order to consolidate their power and position by his high prestige. It was said in historical records that there occurred great disorder again under heaven after Chi You died. So Huang Di had Chi You’s portrait drawn everywhere. The people thought him alive and obeyed Huang Di. Besides, temples were built for Chi You in many places. As time passed, worship of Chi You came to be a Chinese custom. After the First Emperor of the qin Dynasty unified China, he went to the coast of the East Sea to worship Chi You for three days, followed by his ministers. Before the Han Dynasty was founded, there existed two kingdoms of Han and Chu. For the sake of defeating Xiang Yu (head of Chu Kingdom), Liu Bang (head of Han kingdom) came to Pei County, prepared a lot of oblations and worshiped Chi You God solemnly. Moreover, they imitated the Miao people to dance around a big wooden drum. From then on, rulers were used to worshiping Chi You God before they set out to fight against their enemy, not because they thought highly praise of Chi You himself, but they wanted to use people’s respect for him to reassure the public,

People always respect Chi You. Of rulers in history, some regarded Chi You as Fight God while most considered him a brutal bandit. However, Chi You is/was remembered among people for generations. In the places where Chi You used to live or fight, people often perform a kind of Chi You Drama, in which two or three actors attack each other, with horn on head. And Chi You Temple was built in many areas. These folk customs show Chi You is/was deeply respected by people all over the country, especially the Miao nationality. They call/called him ancestor of their race, and worship him at every festival. Chi You’s achievements were written in the words of primitive religion, such as Jiao E Ke You mentioned above, which means nine tribes using buffaloes to plow fields were unified by Chi You. Also, they were written in the Miao songs and poems.

In a word, the Miao people still respect Chi You nowadays. It is advantageous to human civilization and social development that Chi You unified the valleys along the Changjiang, the Huaihe and the Huanghe River and that he created weapons, penal laws and a religion. He ought to be appraised justly.

Note: In the thesis some original words in historical records/books from which the viewpoints came are omitted.

On Chi You’s Status in Chinese History

Writer: Pan Zhengcai Translator: Li Haixia

Marx said in French Class Struggle in 1848-1850, “There would be great figures in every times. If not, such ones would be created”. Such a figure was Chi You, who was called Fight God in ancient times. His achievement and contribution were of important influence in Chinese history, just like thunder in night air. But for some reason, his image and status in history was misrepresented and belittled, which not only trampled on historical science but also had ill effect on unity of nationalities. Therefore, we reveal history in its true colors/side and affirm Chi You’s position in history. In this article I will, according to historical documents, legends, and background of that time, make a practical and realistic analysis, and a fair and overall evaluation of Chi You’s status and effect in history.

Chi You was One of the Three Great Ancestors of the Chinese Nation.

As there were no written records in primitive society, Chinese history before the spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period (770B.C. - -221B.C.) could be, according to legends, traced back to Huang Di’s times in the New Stone Age during the period of patriarchal clan commune 5000 years ago. However, there lived then three great Chinese ancestors. They were Huang Di, Yan Di and Chi You. But Huang Di was always regarded as an ancestor of the Chinese nation in Chinese official orthodox history, and so was Yan Di later. Only Chi You’s position among ancestors hasn’t affirmed yet. So we mainly talk about this question here.

First of all, it should be pointed out that Chi You was ancestor of the Miao nationality. There are close original relations between the present Miao nationality in China ant the Nine Li, the Three Miao and the South Man (an ancient name of southern nationalities) in remote antiquity. In the late primitive society, there lived many primitive people in the middle and low reaches of the Changjiang River as well as in the low reach of the Huanghe River. After generations of laboring, living and multiplying, they gradually formed the tribe alliance over 5000 years ago. This alliance was named the Nine Li, Chi You as chieftain. They, with favorable geographical conditions, labored hard and promoted the growth of the productive forces and social economy, so that they made the alliance the strongest and the largest one in the east, which was the earliest to enter the Center Plains. Fan Wenlan, a famous historian, wrote in his book, “ Of Chinese antique residents in legends, all those living in the south were called the Man nationality/ the South Man people, the Nine Li of whom entered the middle regions of China earliest. The Nine Li must be the alliance of nine tribes, and every tribe included nine brotherly clans, which meant eighty-one clans in all. Chi You was chieftain of the Nine Li, head of eighty-one clans. This was a strong tribe alliance with a beast of prey as their totem”. After the Nine Li entered the Central Plains, Yan Di’s hordes came there from the west Conflict broke out between them. The Nine Li drove out Yan Di’s hordes up to Zhuolu area. Then, Yan Di, allied with Huang Di, launched a large-scale war against the Nine Li. This was called Zhuolu War. In the beginning, Huang Di failed in each of nine battles, without enough forces and knowledge of terrain and climate. Later, he made a vehicle (with a wooden figure always pointing to the south) to tell directions and increased forces, which made him pull through. In the end the Nine Li was defeated in the decisive battle and Chi You was killed.

After failure, the Nine Li was declining in force. But they still occupied vast regions in the middle and low reaches of Changjiang River besides in the low reach of Huanghe River. To times of Yao, Shun and Yu, they formed a new alliance of tribes, which was the Three Miao in historical records. Fan Wenlan wrote, “The Miao people withdrew from the Huanghe valley after defeated by Yu. It was said in the Warring States (475- - 221B.C.) Records that the Three Miao people used to set up a large state in the middle and low reaches of the Changjiang River. This was an alliance of many tribes, of which the Ji Chu was a bigger one.” Therefore, to the Shang (c. 16th- - 11th century B.C.) and the Zhou (c. 11th century- - 256 B.C.) Dynasties, the Three Miao was also called the Ji Chu, and the South Man sometimes, and the Ji Man afterwards. In the following years, it was getting stronger to become the Chu State during of the spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.

It is thus obvious that the Nine Li, the Three Miao, the south Man, the Ji Man and the Miao nationality could all be traced to the same origin, and the latters should be descendants of the formers. Therefore, we can see clearly threads of the Miao nationality. That is the Nine Li-the Three Miao-the South Man/the Ji Man-the Miao nationality. That means the forefather of the Miao people was the Nine Li, head of which was Chi You. So the Miao people now regard Chi You as their ancestor.

Second, Chi You was ancestor of many Chinese minority nationalities in the south. It was recorded that the Nine Li tribe alliance in the same times as Huang Di’s 5000 years ago included the Li, the Yao, the She and other minority races besides the Miao. If all the southerners in remote antiquity were called the South Man or the Ji Man according to historical records, it means, many minority nations in the south were included. In other words, the Nine Li, the Three Miao and the South Man were forefathers of not only the Miao people but also the Li (living in Guangdong), the Yao (distributed over Fujiang, Zhejiang, Jiangxi and Guangdong) many other minority nationalities. Now that Chi You was head of the Nine Li, he should be ancestor of these southern minority nations, of course. Meanwhile, we should see that after several times of migration in ancient times, for example, to the south and to the west, the Miao people were developed into a lot of nationalities. And only the Miao of them remains the name now. This shows that these evolved races were descendants of the Nine Li by nature, and Chi You was ancestor of them.

Third, Chi You was ancestor of the Qiang/Chiang nationality (living in Sichuan). The west Qiang/Chiang or Xiqiang, according to The Late Han Records, originated from the Three Miao and was a branch of Jiang clan. It means the Qiang people were/are descendants of the Three Miao. It was recorded that the Jiang nationality in the northwest and later was called the Qiang, which moved to the south and to the west. So there are the Qiang people living in such regions as Qinghai now to the north, Xizang/Tibet to the west, Sichuan, Guizhou and Yunnan to the south. Those moving to Xizang/Tibet called themselves the Wus Zang People. Wus means Wu clan, while Zang means Qiang. They also called themselves the Xizang people. In fact, Xizang was Xiqiang or the west Qiang. This can prove that the Zang/Tibetan nationality now (distributed over the Xizang Autonomous Region, Qinghai, Sichuan, Gansu and Yunnan) is made up of the Qiang/Chiang and the Wu races, and the Miao race is included of course. Those of the Qiang people moving to the south and mixed with the local Qing people in Sichuan were called the Qing-Qiang people. A part of them migrated from Sichuan to Guizhou and Yunnan. The Qiang people in the west of Guizhou now are called the Qiang in public, but they call themselves the Miao in the same race. So are with those in Yunnan. It can be seen that the Qiang people were/are offspring of the Nine Li and the Three Miao, and Chi You as head of the Nine Li should be ancestor of the Qiang nationality.

Fourth, Chi You was an ancestor of the Han nationality as well. Fan Wenlan wrote, “ In remote antiquity, there lived a lot of different ancestor’s tribes and clans on Chinese land. Some of them came to be mixed together each other and got developed after long period of mutual influence and fight. Huang Di’s and Yan Di’s Hua Xia group was mixed with a part of the Yi (a name for ancient tribes in the east), the Li and the Miao tribes. They became for numbers of the Han nationality during the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476B.C.)”. It is clear that there are some later generations of the Miao race among the Han people. In the meantime, the prisoners of war of both sides in the battles between the Hua Group and the Miao race were gradually mixed with each other, and were getting inseparable state of affairs. For example, in Huang Di times, “some people of the Nine Li had to return to the south after years of struggle, and others remained in the north to set up the Li state later, while others else were captured by Huang Di’s and Yan Di’s group/the Hua Xia Group, becoming a part of this Group in the following years, but they still kept the name of the Li people to the Zhou Dynasty (c.11th century- - 256 B.C.)”. Fan Wenlan said in his book “ To the Spring and Autumn Period the Hua Xia nationality often fought with other races because of different culture. As the Hua Xia culture was developed greatly. At the end of the Zhou Dynasty, all the races accepting this culture were absorbed into the Hua Xia nationality on the whole”. Obviously, part of the Miao nationality was included in the nation mixture naturally. Since some of the people became part of the foundation of the Han nationality, and some Miao people joined the Han step by afterwards, the Nine Li should be said to be forefather of the Han race, and Chi You should be regarded as an ancestor of the Han nationality, just like Huang Di and Yan Di.

From all the above, we can draw the conclusion that Chi You was not only ancestor of the Miao and other minority nationalities, but also a forefather of the Han nationality. So, he was one ancestor of the Chinese nation. Huang Di, Yan Di and Chi You were three greatest figures in the same times, Huang Di’s times. That is to say, they were chieftains of three biggest alliances of tribes in the primitive society. Therefore, they were three greatest ancestors of the Chinese nation.

Chi You Was One of the Great Founders of Ancient Chinese Civilization. History is the base and premise of reality while the latter is the starting point of future. Originating from the past, Chinese modern civilization is the result of extension and development of ancient civilization. Chi You made an important contribution to Chinese ancient civilization as Huang Di and Yan Di.

Chi You made an important contribution to material civilization. At that time, Chi You’s Nine Li alliance of tribes lived in the middle and low reaches of the Huanghe River and the Changjiang River and developed greatly in material civilization, being the strongest in the three biggest alliances of tribes. With superior conditions of geography, climate and water resource, they began the cultivation of corn and went to agriculture from gathering, fishing and hunting. This was great prospers for history and civilization. Young plants needed rising and removing for growing corn and the Chinese pronunciation of plants is Miao. For this reason, people afterwards use the Miao nationality for the name of Chi You’s descendants. Meanwhile, they could make pretty pottery, and handicraft industry was developing, which was a contribution to Chinese civilization.

Chi You invented technology of smelting and manufacture of metal weapons. It was recorded that Chi You made weapons of metal, and he was the earliest inventor of smelting metal. And in Chronicle of Five Emperor in the Historical Records, there are such words as “in Huang Di’s time Chi You had eighty-one brothers, with copper head and iron forehead. He made knife, spear, sword, halberd and other kinds of weapons and he was known far and wide for it”. These show that Chi You was not only the first to invent smelting but also the earliest to make metal weapons. Invention of smelting technology had been/was of epoch-making significance, which meant a new leap in the developing process of social productive forces. From then on, times for man to use metal tools began.

Chi You was the first to institute laws and regulations and to perform legal system. In ancient China, Chi You created laws and regulations and carried out penal codes in order to enforce Miao’s discipline. The sentence “Chi You governed the Miao’s people with penal laws” in Penal laws in the Zhou Dynasty is/was a proof. It was also recorded that the world was in a turbulence after Chi You died. So Huang Di had Chi You’s portrait drawn to threaten rebels. They considered him alive and obeyed Huang Di. This shows that Chi You set his prestige among the people for performing legal system. It was also said in some historical books that weapons and penal laws were made by Chi You, and were later followed by Huang Di’s tribe group. Evidently, Chi You was the founder of ancient legal system of China.

All the above showed that Chi You was a founder of ancient Chinese civilization indeed.

Chi You Was One of Great Historical Figures Whom the Chinese People Remember Long.

Historical materialists think that history was made by people. Mao Zedong, The former chairman of China, said, “The people, and the people alone, are the creatures of history”. Some outstanding figures would appear in certain historical conditions. There were quantities of great figures in the history of China, the three earliest of whom should be Huang Di, Yan Di and Chi You, according to historical records and legends. The words referring to the fact that the people cherish the memory of Huang Di and Yan Di can be seen in many historical and present works, while there are much less of this case about Chi You. So here we’ll mostly talk about the latter.

First, Huang Di and the following monarchs respected Chi You as respected Chi You as Fight God after his death. As mentioned above, Huang Di used Chi You’s image to threaten those who wouldn’t obey him. Thus Huang Di and his people took Chi You for a god to protecting themselves and had respect for him.

Second, the Miao people regard Chi You as ancestor of their own, and worship him. The Miao people in the west of Hunan and in the northeast of Guizhou would kill pigs as oblations when they worship Pao You. The word Pao in the Miao language there means Grandpa. So Pao You here refers to Grandpa You. You is Chi You, of course. The people in Chengbu Miao Autonomous County in Hunan Province keep the custom of worshiping Maple God to drive out unknown diseases for patients. The man disguised as Maple God is usually dressed quite powerfully. The revered Maple God stands for the embodiment of Chi You. And this, accords with the words that Chi You’s shackles changed into Maple trees in Mountains And Sees. The meaning of the words in the Remote Miao Song is that the Miao people regarded Chi You as their ancestor. There are some Chi You Temples in the South of Sichuan and in the northwest of Guizhou, which are always consecrated.

Third, some of the Han people remember Chi You more or less. It was recorded that the Jizhou (old name of Zhuolu County) people called Chi You as a God and there was a folk drama with the name of Chi You’s drama. In the Han Dynasty (206B.C- -A.D.220), temples were built for Chi You. Now there stand such historical relics as Chi You Grave, Chi You Stele, Chi You Temple and so on in Zhuolu, Hebei.

In addition, some minority nationalities in the south such as the Yao, the Li, the Qiang and the She people long remember Chi You.

It is seen that Chi You was a great historical figure that was long remembered by the Chinese people. We can clearly see, from all the above, that Chi You certainly was a great historical figure in the same times as Huang Di’s, and he exerted tremendous influence in Chinese history. However, for several thousand years, Chi You’s image was badly played down. As historical materialists, we should resume the truth of history and confirm Chi You’s historical status so as to build up the scientific content of Chinese history and strengthen unity of all the nationalities of China.

Back upon the Battles of Yao, Shun And Yu with the South Man

Writer: Hu, Chao Ying Translator: Li, Hai Xia

In remote antiquity there lived, in the valleys of the Huanghe River and the Changjiang River, the two biggest origin places of ancient Chinese culture, the early ancestors of the Chinese nation. They were Yao, Shun, Yu and the Miao Man/the South Man (an ancient name of southern nationalities). After years of fight, migration, exchange and mixture, new distribution formed, which was helpful to perfect the early state machinery of slavery. In this article the writer will look back upon the period of history far from the modern/long long ago, and make simple study of it.

Pre-war Situation

Early in Huang Di times, Central Plains (comprising the middle and lower reaches of the Huanghe River) were in a turbulent situation. Yan Di’s hordes living in some tributary valleys of the Huanghe River had cultural relations with Huang Di’s to the north. Yan Di and Huang Di were two branches of the same ancestor. Huang Di’s hordes moved to the south while Yan Di’s to the east. They, early and late, made conflicts with Chi You’s alliance of tribes from the east. In Zhuolu War between Yan Di and Chi You, Yan Di got into trouble and was going to fail. It was because Huang Di joined him that turned the tide. After Banquan (old name of Fanshan, Zhuolu) War between Huang Di and Yan Di, a larger tribe alliance of the two branches together with a part of Chi You’s tribes came into being, in which the Hua Xia Horde (the name of hordes of Huang Di and Yan Di) as main force and Huang Di became the leader of course. In order to strengthen his alliance, Huang Di went to put down his enemy wherever there was a rebellion. In this course, he encountered the South Man Group many times. Meanwhile, their culture got to mix with each other. To Yao times, he began to assimilate the South Man Group in form of battle so as to unify the Chiangjiang River valley.

Let’s come to the South Man Group. They developed themselves on the base of ancient South Man, which was one of the three big cultural tribes forming in the Changjiang River valley in the late primitive society. The three tribes referred to ancient Ba (old name of Sichuan) people, ancient South Man people and ancient Wuyue (old name of Guangdong) people. The ancient South Man later became a strong South Man Group/the Miao Man Group of tribes.

To Yao times, there were two tribes as cores in the Miao Man Group. One was Huandou tribe and the other was the Three Miao tribe. The former, taking the Guan bird for their totem, living in the Sun Maintain areas (in Henan Province), used to be one of the northern tribes in the beginning. After they were defeated in battles between tribes, they marched to the South and joined the Miao Man Group at last. The Three Miao tribe, according to “Chronicle of Five Emperor” in the Historical Records, had been an independent tribe.

In a word, the Miao Man Group had developed greatly during this period and became a strong alliance with many tribes. They marched to the north step by step, and just formed a face-to-face situation with the Hua Xia Group in the north. So conflicts and fights were hard to avoid.

The Course And Result of Fights

To Yao times, the contradiction between the North and the South became more acute and a large-scale battle broke out. The North was much stronger in force. It was recorded that Yao defeated the South Man on the side of Dan water (another name of the Dan River, which lies to the north, a branch of the Changjiang River). Being the sphere of influence of the Miao Man, and a hub of communication from the north to the south, the Dan River valley became the focus of contention between the both groups. Marching down the river, Yao’s force took the offensive while the Miao Man could do nothing but to defend them in tenable position. Finally they made a decisive battle in the area at mouth of the Dan River. As a result, Yao won and captured the valley. The battle made the both sides split up and aligns again. There were new common benefits in some ways. On the other hand, new conflicts came into being.

The Shun times, relations between the North and the South were strained again, and Shun went to the front himself to supervise operations. The Three Miao, for the sake of national vengeance, started this battle. Shun had full preparations made in the beginning. When the opportunity arose, he launched a counterattack at once and sent a punitive expedition against the Three Miao. The North all the time gained the upper hand before the end. But later Shun entered the hinterland of the Miao Man and he was killed in the end. There are similar records in many historical books.

After Shun died, Yu replaced the commander of the North alliance, and he went on with the war. He launched an all-out attack. Before starting out, he held a religion rite in the Heaven Palace where he received God’s arrow-shaped token (a symbol of authority used in the army in ancient China) to conquer the Miao Man. It was a most fierce battle, with countless men wounded or dead. The chief general of the Miao Man was shot. Without a leader, the South was collapsed and defeated totally.

The North was advanced in equipment when Yu attacked the South, with many weapons made of metal; this war helpful for Yu to gain decisive victory. After this crushing defeat, the Miao Man could not match with the North any more. Yu and his men entered the conquered areas. The long-drawn-out war between the North and the South experienced three periods, which included Yao’s attack, Shun’s statement and Yu’s victory. The South Man Group failed in this war for two reasons. One was the fact that the North alliance was even stronger, equipped with advanced weapons as well as rich human and material resources. The other lied in internal strife. The war occurring on China’s land in remote antiquity was ended in this way.

Post-war Evaluation

After the war was ended, theThree Mao, Huandou and some other tribes disappeared in history. The war brought about the following effects. First, it led the earliest and the largest migration of nationality in China’s history. In Yao times, some of Huang Di’s branches entered the Jianghan areas (the valley of the Changjiang River) and then the ancient Miao Man areas, who later developed into a great and proud state, and created splendid culture of Chu (a state of the ancient China, covering Hunan and Hubei). Dan Zhu (one of Yao’s sons), direct descendant of the Hua Xia Group, was assimilated by the Miao Man, and later became head of one minority nationality. As fleeing from battles, some of the Miao people moved farther to the south. They developed vast southern regions. With the migration and turbulence, old groups based on blood relationship were disintegrated while new ones on regionship came into being and were aligned again and again, and were included in the Xia Dynasty in the end. Meanwhile, the national culture was mixed with each other and the society developed greatly. The Hua Xia Group assimilated the Miao aboriginal with their own culture and religion. However, the ancestor of the Miao Man Group was arranged among the monarches of the Hua Xia Group and the five chief forms of punishment invented by the Miao Man had great effects on the Hua Xia culture. On the eve of Chinese civilization, every group of tribes was approached to each other in society, politics, culture, economy and other ways. They made up the background of China’s three big civilizations, with the Hua Xia Group as core, mixed together with the East Group and the Miao Man Group.

Second, the style of leadership of tribe alliances changed essentially after the war. Leaders of alliances took plundering war as important means to enlarge their own forces and to solidify the positions. Yu captured the world/China just for the sake of defeating the Three Miao. The power of the chief-commander was strengthened with war chosen in the same family or clan. Thus, the patriarchy system/authority of the father came into existence, and it changed into the hereditary system gradually. In the meantime, both the hereditary power and the hereditary nobles appeared. Form the Xia Dynasty; the system of family ruling the world (that is, China was ruled by the same family or clan.) began in the history of China.

Third, prisoners of war were made slaves after the war. It made the newly founded society based on slave owning and slave-exploiting. Prisoners of war were not killed any more, but made slaves. They didn’t have freedom of person in all their lives, and their descendants remained so. It supplied the society with exploited and enslaved persons for generations.

Fourth, slavery state machines formed preliminarily through the war. As a result of every battle, a great many tribes of other nationalities had to present tribute to the central court. It was said that Yu would go to conquer those by force who didn’t do that and made them slaves. In order to keep leadership, rulers needed a standing army of large number. Battles also made all contradiction of class, nation and those among rulers intensifying, which led the earliest penalties and laws. And they had prisons in Shun and Yu times each. All these show that main factors of state machines were provided at that time.

From all the above, this war stood for conflicts between brothers/branches of the Chinese nation in remote antiquity. Though being defeated, the ancestor of the Miao Man Group was arranged among the monarchies of the Hua Xia Group. Both of the Miao culture and her people were absorbed. And part of the Hua Xia culture and the people entered the Miao Man as well. The battles made not only all the nationalities mixed each other, but also the state machines form preliminary, which were progressive in sense. On the other hand, during the war a great number of people were wounded or killed and a lot of things were destroyed, which were of negative influence of course. However, there is double character in everything. We should look upon the course of our ancestors with the viewpoint of historical development and affirm the active significance.

Note: About the writer

Hu, Chao Yin/Hu Chaoyin is a scholar in the Southern National Administrational School of Guizhou.

Zhuolu, Hebei Is the Place Where the Three Ancestors of Huang Di, Yan Di and Chi You Got Together.

Writer: Qin Jingwu Translator: Li Haixia

The other year (in 1995) the First National Delibrating Meeting of China’s Three Ancestors of Huang Di, Yan Di and Chi You was held in Zhuolu, Hebei. Forty-eight scholars from both the Mainland and Taiwan of China attended the meeting, at which twenty-eight these were read. Besides, the people paid a visit to Huang Di Spring, the Bridge Mountain, Three Chi You Villages, Chi You Spring, Chi You Grave, the Pot Mountain/the Fushan (the pronunciation of the word Pot) Mountain, Yan Di Camp and many other ruins kept there. They all thought these remains accorded with the events recorded in the historical books that Huang Di and Yan Di defeated Chi You in Zhuolu, and Huang Di in Banquan later, that Huang Di and the chieftains of all the other tribes converged on the Pot Mountain/the Fushan Mountain and made Zhuolu the capital, and that Huang Di died and his body was buried at the foot of the Bridge Mountain. The experts agreed Zhuolu in which Huang Di Tomb lied was the right place where Yan Di, Huang Di and Chi You once fought and mixed with each other, as was written in many historical records. And Chi You should be one of the ancestors of the Chinese nation, just like Yan Di and Huang Di.

The Bridge Mountain in Zhuolu is the place where the real Huang Di Tomb lied.

A scholar in Taiwan once noticed there were such words as Banguan and Zhuolu carved on one piece of tortoise’s shells (a kind of Chinese words in ancient times), so he searched in all over China to find out the both place names existed only in Zhuolu, Hebei nowadays. Another two scholars Xi Yu from Taiwan and Qu Chen from the Mainland wrote an article together to make special investigation and research about the fact that the Bridge Mountain in Zhuolu was where the real Huang Di Tomb lied. According to general knowledge in history, there was not the word of qiao at all (the Chinese pronunciation of bridge) among the Chinese words before the Warring States (475- 221B.C.). The mountain where Huang Di Tomb lied had been called the Qiong Mountain, which stood 10 kilometers to the northwest of the ruins of Huang Di City in Zhuolu. Qiong means arch in Chinese. There was/is a large arch hole in the top of the mountain, and it looked/looks like an arch bridge, so the mountain was named after it. This is why the words the Qiong Mountain appeared on the tortoise’s shells. Till the Han Dynasty (206 B.C. - A.D. 220), the word Qiao came into being, the Chinese meaning of which is bridge. When Si Maqian, a great historian in the Han Dynasty, came to Zhuolu, he changed Qiong into Qiao after some on-the-spot investigation, and makes notes of the Qiao/Bridge Mountain in his works The Historical Records. There was only one Bridge Mountain before the Han Dynasty, which just stood/stands in Zhuolu, and that is the ancient Qiong Mountain. In A.D. 936 Emperor Shi Jintang in the late Jin Dynasty gave sixteen counties in the north to Qidan Kingdom, and the Bridge Mountain in Zhuolu was included. After Qidan become Liao later, Emperor Shang Zong had Huang Di temple built for worship in A.D. 995. This made the emperor of the North Song Dynasty (A.D.960- - 1279) angry, for considering only they themselves were very descendants of Huang Di. Therefore, he ordered to build another Huang Di temple in Shanxi thousands of Li away form the Bridge Mountain. Huang Di City is situated on a hill to the north of Snafu Village, Fanshan Town, Zhuolu County. Seen from the remained wall of 5-10 meters tall, the city is irregularly square. It is 500 meters wide from east to west and 540 meters from south to north. Among the stoneware and potsherds picked out, some stone knives, chisels and spinning wheels were found to be produced in the Yangshao and Longshan Culture Age, that is, the New Stone Age. Yan Di Camp, with stoneware and other unearthed, is not far away from Huang Di City. To southeast, Chi You City is in the Lingshan Valley, with 1.5 times the area of Huang Di City. There are the ruins of Chi You Village nearby, and also some stoneware and potsherds were found.

There exist some customs handed down from Chi You’s Nine Li tribes.

It is most surprising that some scholars found, after a lot of investigation, that there lived nearly ten thousand families; fifty thousand people near Chi You City, Zhuolu. Though the forefathers had been mixed with the Hua Xia/the Han nationality long before, they still kept same customs as the Miao and the Yao nationalities in the south, for example, dress, medicine, marriage and so on. This is in keeping with the words in The Historical Records that Huang Di fought with Chi You in Zhuolu area and afterwards their people were left there. After Chi You’s tribes were defeated in Zhuolu War, some of his people were mixed together with Yan Di and Huang Di’s tribes, other moved to the south and became the old generations of the Miao, the Yao and other minority nationalities nowadays. The forefathers of some resident near Chi You City were those left of the main tribes at that time, including the Nine Li tribes of course. And the Miao people look on Chi You as their ancestor. Therefore, Zhuolu, Hebei is just the place where Yan, Huang and Chi got together. Chi You should be regarded as one of the three great ancestors of the Chinese nation.

Chi You should have been appraised fairly.

At this Delibrating Meeting, some scholars raised that Chi You was an outstanding figure in the history of the Chinese civilization. His Three Miao and Nine Li tribes lived in vast regions including the Jiangzhe Plain (Jiangsu and Zhejiang) to the south, the Jiyu Plain (Hebei and Henan) to the north, from the coast of the East China Sea, the Bohai Sea and the Huanghai Sea/the Yellow Sea (to the east) to the Taihang Mountains and Dabie Mountains (to the West), where did originate the Liangzhu Culture which was the most advanced and civilized in ancient China. They were then in the lead in the technology of smelting and manufacture of weapons. Moreover, the Three Miao and the Nine Li were the first to plough fields with cows and grow grain such as rice and millet, from which came the Chinese idiom Liminbaixin (the pronunciation of the common people, especially in agriculture). Thus there are enough reasons for Chi You to be one of China’s ancestors. Also, the people in Jizhou (the old name of Zhulu, Hebei) called Chi You a god, and some temples were built for him in Taiyuan, Shanxi in the Han Dynasty. Obviously, the influences form Chi You and the Nine Li was very far-reaching. So we shouldn’t distinguish forefathers only by victory or defeat, but ought to appraise Chi You fairly.

Zhoulu County and its encircling area lie in a basin between the Taihang Mountains and the Yanshan Mountains. There the remains and relics related to the Yangshao-Longshan Culture and the Shang-Zhou (c.16th- - 256 B.C.) Culture was found. There are different viewpoints about the birthplace of the three races of Huang Di, Yan Di and Chi You. Some scholars thought, according to the records in The Outstanding Figures’ Works during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period (770B.C.- - 221 B.C.) that the both races of Yan and Huang originated in the Weihe River Valley in Shanxi, and their political centers used to be in the middle reaches of the Huanghe River, then moved into the low reaches before or after Zhuolu War. Others considered that these three races marched to Zhuolu area together in order to counter the Xiongnu tribes (an ancient nationality in China) in the north. After they defeated the enemy, internal conflicts led the Zhuolu War and Banguan War.

However, other else rose a different point. They said the Shang-Zhou Culture was not found in the Weihe River Valley in Shanxi. In almost all history records are such words as Huang Di’s tribes lived and moved about in Jizhou. That is Zhuolu area in Hebei nowadays. Also, there are a lot of orient cultures in legends about Huang Di. For instance, “Huang’s offspring were given Jizhou to reside in”, at the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty (c.11th - - 256 B.C.). They showed/shows Huang’s descendants lived in Jizhou area. Though the above paints are different, there is a common idea. That is, Yan Di’s tribes originated in the west districts, Chi You’s resided in Shandong and its neighboring area and Huang Di’s moved about mainly in Zhuolu area. Zhuolu was where Yan Huang alliance of tribes and Chi You’s east tribes got together and realized the fusion in the end. There they laid the base of the Chinese nation. Zhuolu is the holy shrine for the Chinese to get at the root and worship ancestors. All the scholars at the meeting agreed that Zhuolu is the only place where the remains and relies of Huang. Yan and Chi were kept. So it is the earliest and most important birthplace of the Chinese nation.

To Approach the Subject That Chi You’s Troops Moved to the South and Later Turned into the Miao Nationality as well as the Han Nationality

Writer: Li Bingze Translator: Li Haixia

After Chi You was defeated in Zhuolu, his troops crossed the Huanghe River to the south. At last they entered the middle and lower valleys of the Changjiang River. Afterwards some of the descendants became the Miao people while others turned into the Han or other nationality. In this article the writer will approach the subject from the people’s attitude towards maple trees who are separately from the Han nationality living on the both sides of the Changjiang’s middle reaches and from the Miao nationality in Hunan and Guizhou. It was recorded that there were close relations between Chi You and maples. And that people in some southern areas worship this kind of trees might have something to do with the fact that Chi You’s troops moved to the south. The descendant’s worship of maples expressed their memory of Chi You and his achievements.

The record about the relations between Chi You and maples was read first in Mountains and seas as following. “There was a mountain named The Sun Mountain on which grew a kind of trees named maples. The trees were changed into from Chi You’s shackles thrown onto the mountain”. And there were similar words in Biography of Xuan Yuan (another name of Huang Di) as “Huang Di killed Chi You on the Li Mountain and then threw his shackles onto the Sun Mountain, which turned onto maples trees”. The main reason why the shackles made of maple wood could change into maple trees was that Chi You was respected by his later generations. Although he was dead, head separated from body, he could change into strange appearance of phenomenon.

We don’t know where the Sun Mountain was located, yet the wonders coming from Chi You’s leavings are often seen in present Shanxi, Shandong and other provinces. And such mythology of maples exists in the legends of the Han and the Miao people, both of whom live in the middle valley of the Changjiang River.

Liu Xun in the Tang Dynasty wrote in his book “There were many maple trees on the Maple Mountain. When the trees grew very old, tumors came out. On a stormy night, the trees were struck to death. But the tumors grew several feet tall secretly, which were called maple figures by the southerners”.

Another author Chang made such records in his words, as “There was a lot of maple figures in the mountains in Jiangxi Province Born under the maple trees, they looked like persons, and were three to four feet tall. Whenever thunderstorm came in the evening, the figures would grow as tall as trees. If seeing people, they shrank bask as usual. Once a person put bamboo hats over their heads. But the hats were seen on the tops of the trees the next day. When a rain was desired on drought days, bamboo twigs were bound round the figures heads, and wooden nails were driven into their bodies”.

It should be noted that most of these legends and stories about maple trees exist in Jiangxi and Hunan in the middle valley of the Chiangjiang River and Guizhou in the upper. Now, the Han people and the Miao race in these areas still retain the worship of maple trees and related customs in varying degrees.

In addition, maples are looked upon as god trees in some villages of Daye, Hubei. After Japanese occupied Wuhan in the years of Resistance Against Japan, large numbers of enemy entered Daye to plunder the mineral resources. They wanted to cut down trees and use them as mine timber. When they began to cut the maples in Jinshandian Village, the villagers gathered before the trees to offer sacrifices to them on purpose and attracted the people in the neighboring villages to do the same thing so that the maples were saved.

In some areas in Chenxi, Hunan, maple trees around villages, especially those tall ones with luxuriant foliage, are treated as a sign of vigor and prosperity as well as beautiful scenery. There are some tall old maples around almost all of the villages with long history.

There are more vestiges about worship of maples than the above in the Han areas and they remain to be collected.

In the Miao areas in the south of Guizhou, such a myth is handed down as the following. A tall maple tree was cut doown. Its leaves and branches changed into swallows and other birds, its roots into many fishes, while its trunk turned into a female with the name of Bangx Lief (The Miao language). She didn’t bear any children like ordinary women, but she laid twelve eggs, which later hatched human, thunder, tiger, dragon and so on. Now maples acting as Defending Trees/det fangb vangl (the Miao language) can be seen standing around some villages in the southeast of Guizhou. These trees don’t defend the surrounded villages, but certain one nearby. Meanwhile, the maples round other village defend this village. It is said the maple trees were the best materials for pillars of houses in old times, because they used to be high and strong, and Thunder God in the heaven would feed the leaves to horses. People hoped to make their families prosper and happy with the highness.

However, the worship of maple trees is found mostly in the southeast of Guizhou Province, not all in the Miao areas. In another words, if the way of treating maples of the Han and the Miao people in some southern places is related to Chi You, the remaining phenomenon in the few areas can show the problem better that Chi You’s people were mixed with other local races after they moved down to the south, and these people later changed to part of the Han, the Miao or other nationality. That is to say, Chi You’s descendants are not merely among the Miao people now.

The Miao nationality is a race in the south on the whole, and its culture is based upon the southern key. The component of the northern races in the Miao culture was formed more or less after the northerners moved down to the south and then were mixed with the Miao people.

Note: About the writer; Li, Bing Ze is an expert in the Miao Cultural Research Institute, the Central National University.

[orangeman21]

dude we seriously need a summary...nobody is going to read all that on the comp..maybe if it was on paper

[Lubpajdaisiab]

Wow... looks interesting. I'm going to print it out and read it when I have more time. Thanks.

[djvichai]

Dude, too much reading…it’s interesting but you need to summary what is needed.

[lilasiankid]

So a Yang, Vue, and Lee wrote this right? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/icon_smile.gif)

[variety]

There are so many informations out there. Don't just take one and use it. I have seen many out there. Many have different views.