Yi

From Free net encyclopedia

For other uses, see Yi (disambiguation).

The Yi people (own name in the Cool Mountain dialect: ꆈꌠ, official transcription: Nuosu, IPA: [nɔ̄sū]; Chinese: 彝族, Pinyin: Yìzú; the older name "Lolo" is now considered derogatory in China, though used officially in Vietnam as Lô Lô) are a modern ethnic group in China and Vietnam. Numbering 6.6 million, they are the seventh largest of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China. They live primarily in rural areas of Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, and Guangxi, usually in mountainous regions. There are 3300 Lô Lô peoples (1999 statistics) live in Hà Giang, Cao Bằng and Lào Cai provinces in Vietnam.

The Yi speak Yi, a Tibeto-Burman language closely related to Burmese, and have their own syllabic script.

1 History
2 Present and Future
3 See also
4 References
- 4.1 Present and Future
5 External link

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History

Legend has it that the Yi are descended from the ancient Qiang people of Western China, who are also said to be the ancestors of the Tibetan, Naxi and Qiang peoples. They migrated from Southeastern Tibet through Sichuan and into Yunnan Province, where their largest populations can be found today.

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Present and Future

The people are living better lives today than three decades ago. Their voice can now be heard in the Chinese People's Annual Conference. There have been several well-known Yis. Including Jun Youb Yi, a rock artist; and Hu Yi, a qualifier of Math Olympiad Summer Program is 2005.

They practice a form of animism, led by a shaman priest known as the Bimaw. They still retain a few ancient religious texts written in their unique pictographic script. Their religion also contains many elements of Daoism and Buddhism.

Many of the Yi in northwestern Yunnan practiced a complicated form of slavery. People were split into the Black Yi (nobles) and White Yi (commoners). White Yi and other ethnic groups were held as slaves, but the higher slaves were allowed to farm their own land, hold their own slaves and eventually buy their freedom.

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References

Cheng, Xiamin. A Survey of the Demographic Problems of the Yi Nationality in the Greater and Lesser Liang Mountains. Social Sciences in China. 3: Autumn 1984, 207-231.
Dessaint, Alain Y. Minorities of Southwest China: An Introduction to the Yi (Lolo) and Related Peoples. (New Haven: HRAF Press, 1980).
Du, Ruofu and Vincent F. Vip. Ethnic Groups in China. (Beijing: Science Press, 1993).
Harrell, Stevan, ed. Cultural Encounters on China's Ethnic Frontiers. The History of the History of the Yi. (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1995).
Harrell, Stevan, ed. Perspectives on the Yi of Southwest China. (Berkeley / Los Angeles / London: University of California Press, 2001), ISBN 0-520-21988-0.
Ma, Yin, ed. China's Minority Nationalities. (Beijing: Foreign Language Press, 1994).
Zhang, Weiwen and Qingnan Zeng. In Search of China's Minorities. (Beijing: New World Press).