The Yi People

The Yi live throughout the mountains of Yunnan and even into southwestern Sichuan and western Guizhou. They also have kin who live in Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and Burma. The Yi, or Lolo, are not a homogenous group but are made up of individuals from different racial stocks but united by a common culture and heritage. Unity results from a shared way of life and a shared worldview.

The origin of the Yi is a mystery with clues that lead in several different directions. Their language points to Tibetan roots while their generally Caucasoid features point further West. They have several cultural traits in common with the Mongols in the north including their use of felt, their vocation as herdsmen and their lack of pottery; some older features, such as their use of poison arrows, links them to people in the south.

Around the turn of the century, fascinated Western travelers wrote that the Yi were a "blood-proud caste of nobility...who fought, rode, herded horses and ruled...a stratum of underlings and slaves." This traditional social structure of hereditary nobles, serfs and slaves has almost completely broken down since the 1950s.

The Yi have long been known as fierce warriors. Although defeated by Chinese forces in 226 A.D., they continued to reject domination by the Chinese. In 594, the Yi again revolted from the Chinese and repelled their counterattacks. In 712 the area that revolted increased further and remained independent for four hundred years, even during the extremely powerful T'ang Dynasty.

In 1727, under pressure from the Manchus, they assumed a more narrow and defensible region in the Daliang Shan. This area expanded somewhat over the next two hundred years. From 1920 until the 1940s the Yi burned cities, captured government officials and terrorized Chinese people who invaded what they considered to be their territory.

Most Yi work in agriculture and animal husbandry and receive income from the sale of such products. However, they tend to have very low incomes (about 1/2 the average of China), subsequently, they have very little cash. They probably trade and barter with neighbors for most of their needs. Some who grow tung trees, tobacco, apples and walnuts may sell these as cash crops. Unfortunately, modern tractors and equipment are scarce, and horse or ox-drawn carts are still in use. Yi grow corn, rice, potatoes, yams, maize and buckwheat; they raise cattle, sheep and goats. In the highland, apples, walnuts and chestnuts are grown. Statistics show the Yi are unable to produce enough food for their population, so government subsidy is available to accessible regions.

Yi homes are mostly one and two story earthen structures with tin or thatched grass roofs. In mountainous regions, wood and bamboo huts are more common. In one government publication it was stated that wooden houses with tile roofs are now being built.

Both men and women wear pants with a tunic type shirt. Women's tunics have brightly colored bands of embroidered cloth on the lower sleeve. Women also wear large hats banded in brightly colored ribbon-like patterns. Special occasion dress, worn by upper class Yi, is decorated with bright patterns of embroidered bands and aprons. Hats also include black and white lace bonnets while shoes are sandals or Chinese type black slippers.

Traditionally, Yi families were divided into castes and family clans. Clan leaders governed strictly and forbade inter-caste marriages. Before 1957, Yi were divided into four distinct caste systems: the Heiyi, 7%; Qunuo, 55%; Wajia, 30%; and Xiaxi, 8%. Among the four castes, which had developed from ancient blood relationships, there were rigid distinctions and relations of person-ownership. The Heiyi (Black Yi) caste were the masters and owned, to varying degrees, the persons of the Qunuo, Wajia and Xiaxi castes. According to statistics in 1956, slave owners amounted to 5% of the population, laborers 30% and slaves 65%.

Within each caste considerable mobility either upward or downward was possible. This could occur through financial success or failure or through armed combat. One could be taken captive or take others captive (Yi or Han). This naturally led to a high level of violence in society. Slaves could buy their freedom and become serfs. Serfs could fail to pay their debts and become slaves. Slaves could move from the lower status field-workers to the higher status house-workers or vice versa. However, after Chinese liberation in the late 50s, minority people groups were divided into work groups similar to the rest of China.

Generally, a woman marries and lives with the husband's family. Occasionally, if family members agree, the husband will live with the wife's family. Traditionally, young people were not allowed to marry outside their own caste, for to do so meant their children were placed into a lower caste. More recently, the young have freedom to love and marry anyone they like. However, the Black Yi have been more resistant to change and retain much of their strictness concerning marriage outside their own caste.

The Yi love music. Women often sing while working and greet one another in song. A three-stringed fiddle with a handle about one meter long and a large sound box about a foot in diameter is played at social gatherings. Almost all men play this instrument. A flute is also played.

The Torch Festival, the major festival for the Yi, is a harvest celebration and falls on the 24th day of the sixth lunar month. Chinese New Year is also an important holiday for them. During festivals there are bullfights, goat fights, wrestling and horse racing in the major towns. Other recreational games include spinning tops, pitching seeds into a hole, "tiger protecting stones," seesaws and dancing.

This people group appreciates music, dance and poetry about love. The most famous poem is Ashima produced by the Sani branch of the Yi nationality. It concerns the beautiful Ashima abducted and forced into marriage with the son of the local rich man. Her brother rescues her from this fate, but she is accidentally drowned as they return home following the victory.

The Yi people also have a famous folk dance called Leaping Palace about a great battle fought successfully in Yunnan by one branch of the Yi. It depicts their struggle against the oppression and cruelties inflicted by soldiers of the ailing Chinese Tang dynasty (618-907 A.D.) toward the end of its rule.

The Yi are animists. In addition to worshipping ancestors, they also worship the spirits of the hills, trees, water, earth, sky, wind and forests. They have a partially developed system of totemism. Magic plays a major role in their daily life such as in medicine, exorcism, conducting ceremonies of transition, causing rain, cursing enemies, blessing, divination and analysis of one's relationship with the spirits. They believe dragons protect villages from evil spirits. Demons cause sickness in their minds, so, after someone's death, Yi sacrifice a pig or a sheep at the doorway to maintain a relationship with the deceased.

Their derogatory nickname, "Lolo," by which they have long been known, is the word for a sacred basket. This basket contains short bamboo tubes that they believe contain their ancestral spirits. "Lolo" baskets are made by each generation and burned in the third generation when the ancestors' spirits no longer need them.

The Yi have no temples, only shamans called Peh-mo who are are sorcerers and priests for traditional Yi religion and central figures in Yi life. Peh-mo are always White Yi and only men. Their office is inherited from an uncle, though on some occasions from a father. They keep accurate records of all living males within their area of jurisdiction and have servants who carry out menial religious tasks. For centuries, the Peh-mo were the only ones able to read the pictographic script in which the sacred writings were set down.

Shi-niang shamans, who gain their office by being possessed by the soul of a deceased Shi-niang, may be men or women. They are not as powerful or qualified as the Peh-mo. Male and female shamans work through ancestral spirits to deal with evil spirits. Ceremonies are held in the third, seventh and tenth months to drive away evil spirits from villages or homes. Each year, in the fourth month, the local shaman determines propitious days for the worship of ancestors and hill spirits. A rock and tree-trunk altar is erected and worship is performed. Personal sacrifices are made in the spring and fall and family sacrifices at the New Year and in the eighth moon. A village sacrifice is offered at the eleventh moon (made to Midje, the protector spirit), on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth moon and at the Torch Festival.

Sacred writings are a major part of the Yi religious system. One of these is the flood story of Pu-m'vu-vu. Pu-m'vu-vu was the second of three sons of a certain man. He showed kindness to the messengers of God and, because of this, he was told how to save himself from the impending doom of a cataclysmic flood. As a result, he was able to ride out the storm in a wooden box into which he had gathered many animals. He was also given one of God's daughters for a wife and by her had three sons.

The Yi recognize two chief spirits. Mu-p'u-mo is the high god, the creator and spirit of heaven. Ie-su is the lord of life and happiness (Ie-su is the Chinese name for Jesus). The festival for Ie-su is the Torch Festival which is the largest festival of the Yi. Legend says the Torch Festival is held as a sacrificial payment to heaven for taking the life of its rent collector-the identity of the rent collector, however, is unknown.

The Yi believe that a person has three souls. One stays in the tomb, one roams in the world for three generations and the third is reborn into a person or animal after going through the otherworld (heaven or hell). At death, there are dances, songs and mourning. Rice is placed in the mouth of the deceased. Ancestor worship is practiced but stops at the great-grandfather. Those who practice cremation do so three days after death. Memorial services may be accompanied by horse racing and bridge building among the wealthy.