Yi (彝族)

Geography and Language of Yi (彝族)

Sichuan, Yunnan and Guizhou provinces and the Guangxi Autonomous Region are home to the Yi ethnic minority group. Over a million live in Sichuan and the same number in Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, China’s largest Yi community.

Their language belongs to the Tibetan-Burmese family and has six dialects. Many Yi people speak Mandarin and they formerly had a syllabic written script, created in the thirteenth century. Old Yi had an estimated 10,000 words and a thousand are still in use. Many works of literature, history and medicine as well as stone steles with carved script remain in the Yi script. It was reformed after 1949 for newspaper and book use.

• Population: 7,762,286
• Distribution:  Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou and Guangxi
• Language: Yi
• Religion: Polytheism

Climate of Yi (彝族)

Most Yi people live in mountainous areas, with just a few living in valleys or on flat land. This has led to differences in the Yi way of life in different areas as the climate varies so dramatically from area to area.

Water power is produced by the Jinsha River, running through Yunnan and Sichuan; iron and coal, metals and minerals, timber, tea and camphor are some of the rich natural resources.

History of Yi (彝族)

The Yi people are descended from the ancient Di and Qiang people. After the third century AD, inhabitants of areas in Yunnan, Guizhou and Guangxi were known as ‘Yi’ which shared a character with ‘barbarian.’ The name Luoluo was the name for Yis by the Yis from the Ming and Qing dynasties until the middle of the 20th century.

Traditions of Yi (彝族)

Records and legends in the old Yi script show a matriarchal society in ancient times; people knew mothers (not fathers) and women ruled for several generations. Only around two thousand years ago did a patriarchal society emerge.

Prefectures were established early in the Han dynasty in Yunnan and Nanzhou was created in around the eighth century. Dali replaced Nanzhou in 937 AD and the Yi slave system slowly broke down.

Dali and Luodian were conquered by the Yuan dynasty and the feudal economy was well developed at the end; the manorial economy was disintegrated and replaced by a feudal landlord economy by the Qing dynasty.

The Yis have a long tradition of struggle and were influenced by the Taiping Rebellion to fight against the Qing government. The Long March, in the first half of the 20th century, passed through Yi areas.

Agriculture and animal husbandry were the main occupations of the Yi people in Guangxi, Yunnan and Guizhou and they lived under feudal rule. Between sixty and eighty per cent of people were farmhands and poor peasants, with landlords making up only five per cent and owning around ten times as much land. In the Liangshan Mountain areas of Yunnan and Sichuan, production was kept low due to slavery. This endured until 1949.

Staples of most Yi areas were potatoes, maize, oats and buckwheat, with rice production being quite low. Cooking utensils are highly decorated in black, red and yellow and made from leather or wood.

Houses were windowless buildings of wood and mud with a fireplace made of three stones. Slave-owners in the Liangshan Mountains lived in relative luxury, while their slaves lived with the livestock and had little shelter from the elements.

Families are monogamous in Yi society and marriages before 1949 were mainly arranged by parents, with betrothal gifts being asked by the bride’s family. Many women stayed at their parents’ homes until the first child
was born. In the Liangshan Mountains, society was patriarchal and part of the groom’s parents’ property went towards his own new family. Younger sons who stayed at home would inherit more. Legacies were shared unequally between sons of wives and concubines. The last syllable or two of the father’s name would be added to the name of a new son. Yi daughters could not inherit property.

Culture of Yi (彝族)

Poems, proverbs and folk tales are part of the Yis’ rich cultural history, many of which have recently been published. They also have a long-established tradition of sining and dancing.

Religion of Yi (彝族)

Liangshan Mountain Yis practised would cremate the dead in the mountains and either bury the ashes or put them in a cave. Before 1949, the Yis either practised polytheism or believed in idolatry, depending on their clans and the earliest calendar divided the year into ten months; later Han influence changed this to twelve. The Torch Festival is held around the 24th of the sixth lunar month and they also celebrate Spring Festival.

Modern Times of Yi (彝族)

After the PRC was founded, many autonomous prefectures and counties were created and the slave system was abolished. Privileges formerly enjoyed by slave-owners were removed. Transport links were created, improving the economy; schools were built and now children have access to education. Hospitals and clinics have brought many diseases under control.